Previously – “Dal went home with Amber that afternoon and the two of them spent the rest of the day in the garage flat with Solaris, debating how they could survive in a world without adults.
If the worst case scenario panned out as feared they would soon find themselves directly affected by the events that were unfolding at a rapid and terrifying rate around the globe.”
A lot can happen in a month and Amber learnt this all too well.
Solaris had gone north to help out as a nursing assistant where the virus had struck down most of the adult populace already. Nobody had heard from her since.
Communications were practically nonexistent. The lines that were still up and running being held open for the use of the government and other officials as well as emergency forces.
Bellevue Heights was no longer such an exclusive area. Many homes had been broken in to and vandalized. Families had moved away to the fresh air surrounding their summer homes outside of the city in the hope that this would be enough to protect them from the grip of death that was taking hold of the world.
Amber and Dal spent a lot more time together. Dal’s parents had perished quickly after they inevitably caught the virus from working with so many sick people and Dal needed all the support he could get.
Amber’s parents had decided that the time had now come for them to get on their boat and try to find a safe place to moor. Life around these parts wasn’t easy and they lived in the constant fear of being robbed or hurt. There were ever increasing groups of street kids that were roaming around the suburbs looking for food, shelter … and anything else that they happened upon.
Jim and Lucy started to load up their boat with supplies and in a few days they would be ready to set off for the welcoming waters off the coast.
Lucy started to feel pretty sick but put her illness down to the fact that she had been lugging supplies back and forth in the heat.
She was really just denying the inevitable – she was going to die.
Jim stepped up the pace and loaded the rest of the supplies himself while Lucy rested at home. He too was starting to feel rough but he wouldn’t give up and pursued his dream of escape with a passion.
The day for the departure came and at sunrise it was clear and bright. But Lucy wasn’t destined to see the dawn of this new day. She had slipped away into unconsciousness during the still of the night and had passed to the other side before the birds started to sing.
Jim was devastated. To him this meant more than losing a wife and companion. It signaled to him that his own time was drawing to an end. He couldn’t run, he couldn’t hide. He had to face his own mortality and prepare himself for the worst.
But before he could just give in and die he had to prepare his daughter. He had to make sure that she would be okay. That she would survive.
Amber surprised her father. He had always known that she had a strong personality but her calmness and strength really shone through in his darkest hour. As he was burying his second wife, as Amber was supporting him physically and mentally, Jim realized that his daughter had grown up. She would be okay.
Like many parents who had gone before him, Jim had no desire for his daughter to watch him fade away to nothing and die. He convinced Amber to say good-bye to him while he could still manage to hug her and hear her words and he watched her go one evening. She disappeared into the sunset with her friend Dal and neither of them looked back, just as they had promised him.