Nathaniel looked somberly at the cloudy skies above as he sat down and leaned his back against the trunk of the tree that stood behind him. This wasn’t the most comfortable of places to take a rest, but it was the best spot he could find that gave him a perfect view of Missing People Plaza.
Despite Nathan thinking that the name that was given to the place was of poor taste, it very rapidly caught on.
‘It is an apt name though… maybe that’s why it caught on so easily…’ Nathaniel thought distractedly as he examined the shapes of the clouds that passed by. It looked like it would rain soon.
Immediately after, Nathaniel lowered his eyes from the skies and directed them to the plaza, sweeping his gaze across as he examined the individuals that wandered around the area. He didn’t spend more than a couple of seconds checking any individual though, as there were no surprises to be had there.
‘It’s always the same usual suspects, huh?’ Nathaniel concluded predictably. As of now, he already knew all of those people’s faces.
For over a week, Nathaniel had been coming back to this same exact place at the same exact time. He didn’t really think that anything would come out of it, but in the off chance that he could find his daughter here, he had been coming to this place daily and spending hours sitting there… watching.
Besides, it wasn’t as if he had much else to do for now. He was stuck there, and doing anything was better than doing nothing at all.
Quite frankly, he had already ran out of ideas on how to get himself out of this mess…
It had been over two weeks since he had left his farm with his brother John to look for his brother’s wife and kid. And oh, how he regretted the choices he had made since then.
He regretted it with every fiber of his being. Every waking hour, every minute and every second. Not a single moment passed without him chastising himself.
Not that he regretted having lent a helping hand to his brother, mind you, or that he was sorry for leaving the farm. He would do it again in a heartbeat if someone questioned him about it.
Even so, if he knew how things would turn out, he would never have told his daughter to stay behind. Ever.
At the time, it seemed the most sensible choice to protect her. They had no idea what was going on and what they were going to face after leaving his place, so Nathaniel felt that leaving Lara at home - where he felt she would be the safest - was the prudent choice to make.
In a sense, he was right, as the trip to Clear Water Village was not without its dangers.
The ‘zombies’ – as people had decided to call those walking corpses – were a threat to anyone who got too close to them. They were very difficult to put down when compared to any ordinary animal or human, even if not the smartest of creatures.
They were particularly dangerous when put together, as Nathaniel came to learn. While you were trying to finish one off, another always got in your way, which could rapidly drain you of your stamina and snowball into a disaster if you were not careful.
The fact that they could take a beating as if it was nothing only worsened the problem. Nathaniel had never seen so much resilience in any living thing, if they could at all be called that.
That said something coming from an experienced farmer such as himself! Someone who, during his lifetime, had dealt with some of the hardiest vegetables anyone could find.
The only reason that both he and his brother managed to reach their destination unscathed was because they had his brother’s pickup truck to rely on. With it, they were able to beat a hasty retreat whenever they encountered those things.
If they had been on foot, Nathaniel doubted they could have achieved the same level of success. Whether they would even be able to escape with their lives was up to debate, much less reach their goal in one piece.
There was just no way they would survive making such a trip without a vehicle.
‘And that’s why we are stuck here…’ Nathaniel sighed for the thousandth time that day, thinking about the sad state of affairs. Recalling past events that led him here.
Despite a couple of hair-raising close calls, the brothers managed to conclude their nerve-racking trip without a scratch fortunately.
Once they reached their destination, Nathaniel and John immediately found the remaining survivors of the town, who against all odds had persevered against the undead uprising and the calamitous earthquakes of the prior day.
Following that, John frantically started looking for his missing family among the crowd, praying that neither his wife or son had been one of the tragic casualties of the Town struggle against the rising corpses.
Thankfully, his prayers had been answered this time, as John located his missing family alive and well shortly after.
Luckily enough, both his wife and kid had breezed through the commotion without any harm befalling them. They had locked themselves up in their house at the first sign of unrest and waited it out until everything ended and the undead menace was dealt with.
Although John’s story ended up being one of heartwarming reunion, the town was not without its fair share of tragedy and misfortune.
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The number of casualties sustained was not insignificant.
During the time it took for Nathaniel and John to arrive, a lot of good men, women and even children had lost their lives. All of that, in less than 24 hours…
Many were not as fortunate as John’s wife and kid to have a place to hide in and weather the storm until it passed. In fact, it was the opposite that was true, as a good percentage of the buildings inside the cozy little village had collapsed once the earthquakes hit, trapping, wounding and even killing many in the process.
Not all had a builder for a husband, who could ensure that their home was built up to standard and solidly enough, after all.
Even if John was responsible for constructing and repairing many of the buildings around the town, and could, consequently, attest to their quality, the same could not be said about the vast majority of constructions there.
John was an ethical man that never cut corners when doing his job. Sadly, that was not true for everyone.
Anyway, after the immediate threat was dealt with, all that was left of the town was a group of disgruntled and frightened people who did not know what to do going forward. Himself and his brother included.
After reuniting with his relatives, Nathaniel and his brother should have left immediately to rejoin his daughter, but they chose to remain behind instead.
They feared that, now that communications were down, if they left right away, they might miss some critical piece of information that might prove essential for their family survival.
Would there be any kind of evacuation procedure? Was there any government help coming their way? Nathaniel and his brother feared that if they just left, they might lose the opportunity of learning about those things, harming themselves in their haste.
That was their first mistake.
To be fair, it was not as if they were wrong to think like that. No one is privy about the future. Sometimes, smart choices can lead you to a path of no return while seemingly idiotic decisions might save your life later on.
Humans can only make assumptions about the future and plan ahead to the best of their abilities, hoping that they will get their intended outcome. However, no one can ever know the true consequences of one’s actions before committing to them.
Once again, when facing a crossroad, Nathaniel opted for the path ahead that appeared to be the most sensible and rational one to him. At least, that was how he felt.
After all, Lara was not in any immediate danger nor would she be going anywhere, right?
Nathaniel was very confident that, for the moment, his daughter was as safe as she could be, even if she was by herself.
She had a gun to defend herself with if there was ever a need to and, at the same time, the farm was in a fairly secluded place, meaning that she wouldn’t be facing many zombies in the near future, if any at all.
But most important of all, he had raised a capable and strong woman. Something he was most proud of. Nathaniel knew that she could take care of herself.
Therefore, there was no real point in him rushing back there… other than calming his frayed nerves that is.
On the other hand, staying behind would serve a purpose.
Clear Water Village had a bigger chance of hearing anything about what was going on and of drawing government attention as well, given that it was a far more populated area - even if it was still just a small settlement in the middle of nowhere. Not much of an upgrade from the rural area his farm house was at, really.
Even so, it was still an upgrade all the same.
Also, a significant chunk of the town’s populace had survived the initial chaos, so, if there was anyone out there looking for groups of survivors to rescue or establish contact with, there was a decent chance that the survivors from Clear Water Village would attract their attention.
In other words, anything could happen and nothing was certain. Basically, a Russian roulette.
A pretty chaotic situation all things said and done.
However, if Nathaniel wanted to learn more about what was going on, his best chance was still to stay together with the rest of the survivors for the moment and hope for the best.
It was worth noting that Nathaniel wasn’t just thinking for himself. On the contrary, he wanted to find out more about what was going on in order to better protect his daughter and the rest of his family when they finally got back. He wanted to prepare them for whatever lied ahead of them as best as he could.
In a sense, isn’t this what all parents want? To prepare their children for the future however best they can? To give their kids their very best shot at succeeding in life?
Even if said future has been twisted beyond recognition, the core idea remained the same.
Under that reasoning, Nathaniel and John decided to accompany the rest of the survivors for a little longer at the very least. Just a couple more days at most, or so they thought.
However, it did not take long that for it to be decided that the whole town would be evacuating to a more defensible location.
At the end of the day, they simply could not afford to remain in place, simply waiting for an eventual government rescue or intervention to come save their skins.
It was just too risky.
All it took was one mistake, one slip up, and everything would go to shit. Just a single zombie getting into their settlement unnoticed was all that was necessary for all hell to break loose once more and doom them all.
That could happen at any time, so they decided not to take any more chances and flee with as much as they could carry while they had the chance.
Nathaniel thought that, in hindsight, that was probably the smart move, considering that no one representing the government has been seen until now. At least, that was the case as far as Nathaniel knew.
Anyway, after having a clear direction pointed to them, the residents of Clear Water Village started making their preparations for their evacuation, packing anything useful they could find and carry.
Even though their small group of four had no intention to join the rest of the survivors at their destination, and had plans to go their own separate way soon enough to reunite with Lara, they still stuck around to help out with the evacuation.
How could they not?
One had to understand that those survivors were not just some random strangers that you met every other day for John and Nathaniel. They were his friends and acquaintances. People that they had known for years. People that went to their birthday parties, that shared a car ride, that helped them pick their kids at school…
If they were in a position to lend a hand to those very same people now, in their time of need, why shouldn’t they?
There was nothing preventing them from doing so, as they had more than enough gas to make the trip and back to the farm, with even some to spare.
Granted, the journey could be potentially dangerous, and probably would be to be fair, but Nathaniel and his group would be placed at the center of the convoy if they chose to help - the safest spot in the whole formation - and could always beat a hasty retreat if things got out of hand.
Besides, the large cargo space in John’s pickup truck could help carry a lot of goods to those people’s destination - especially considering that the four of them could fit at the front seats of the vehicle with their own stuff, even if it was a little bit of a tight fit -, so they had the opportunity to make a meaningful, tangible, difference in those people’s lives.
Who knows? Their help might be the difference between life and death to a few out there. Thus, being the good people that they were, Nathaniel and the rest of them unanimously decided to help out.
…and that was their second mistake.