What Kept Me Going

'Keep.... Going.... You have to keep going!' My mother’s voice ringing in my ears, as each step gets heavier and heavier. My arms and legs feel like lead, swinging automatically from their respective sockets. My chest burns with the intensity of a rocket fuel fire, but I cannot stop now. It has been one year, three months, and eleven days since my mother and I separated near the border.

The trucks were supposed to take us to a safe zone in California, but somewhere in the west end of Ohio we were ambushed by a small horde of the undead, and the children’s vehicle was overturned. Some of the parents jumped out immediately to save their kids, but my mom was held back by two soldiers. As I look back now my image of her was always so frail and dainty, but in that moment, she seemed like a lioness trying to break free. It has been me and her since dad died three years prior and we promised to always stick together. That day we were forced to break that promise.

As the undead descended left and right eating everyone within reach, I crawled from under the truck, carefully avoiding all the decomposing limbs. One of the fathers, who was trying to get his two little girls out, pushed me into an oncoming walker. I thought that it was the end for me but as fate would have it, I fell at the undead’s feet, tripping it up and sending it forward teeth first into the father. My own dad would have called that karma, but I just looked sadly at the two girls who were still trapped underneath the truck and were being pulled out from both ways by the undead. I turned around and ran as fast as I could to the remaining trucks which were already picking up speed.

I could hear several growls which sounded close behind me but did not look back in fear of falling. Instead, I reached my arms forward for the truck, my mom at the edge reaching for me, but the truck now out of the clearing only sped up. My mom was flung backward by the two soldiers as she said “I will find you, just keep going! You have to keep going!” Those were the last words I heard from her as the distance grew between us. I still see her tears streaming in the summer twilight, only outshone by the twinkle from her gold heart-shaped locket.

Dad helped me get it for her on Mother’s Day, it was the only thing she took from the house before the evacuation. Now it is the only thing she has left of us, but not for long. It has taken me over a year, but I finally made it to the state of California. It would take me a week to get to where the safe zone is supposed to be if I could only outrun this meta- walker. It has been fixated on me since Wyoming, every time I think I have lost it the unrelenting undead finds its way back to me, with each time increasing in difficulty to shake it.

This time I have been running for three days straight; I tried crossing a river, cutting through the woods at night, even going through a mountain pass but to no avail. I only have one bullet left from a gun I found in Nevada, but I cannot get far enough to get a clean shot and if I don’t do something quick, I might have to use it on myself before I turn. No, I cannot think like that, my mom is waiting for me, she is looking for me. We are probably so close now and don’t even realize it, this next hill may be the hill where we finally meet again. With all that is left in me, I push up the hill.

I can almost envision the top, her silhouette surrounded by the same twilight we left each other in. As I reach the crest of the hill I am flooded with hope in my heart and the sunset in my eyes. I lose caution for just a moment, but it seems a moment is all it takes. My foot slips on a rock and I tumble forward, unable to catch myself. What have I done? My mother, she is looking for me, how will she find me now? My unrelenting and undead pursuer is over me before I hit the ground, and with just enough time for me to turn around, we land with my arms extended out upon its chest.

With all the running I barely have the strength to keep it up, but I push with all my might and just when my arms are about to give out, I open my eyes and there it is. Twinkling in the twilight just like the last time I saw it was my mother’s gold heart-shaped locket. Tears fell from my eyes as she fell into my embrace, how did I not see? I held her head against mine and as my warm blood gushed from her lips, I could not help but feel a sense of relief. I pulled the gun from my side pocket, pressed it to the side of my head that was not against my mothers and whispered to her “you finally found me!” Bang!