Previous Chapter: "By the way, my name's Laurel but, my friends call me Lau. It's a long story." Lau half-heartedly smiled before she walked towards the others.

"Well, nice to meet you, Lau," Ariel smiled as she walked with the rest of her group.

"Well, they're a nice addition to an already expanding group," Mikael whistled.

"Yea, they are. When we are traveling, they won't see us as a threat at first sight. Understandably more so since we have children with us now,"

"That is right," Mikael said, thinking about what that may mean for them now.

Mikael’s Farm, Georgia

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Afternoon - Apocalypse Week 1

"Looks like this is our new home," Tonya gasped. In front of them stood an old, worn-out baby blue, two-story, Victorian house. White archways and big windows encompassed the front as a grand entrance to the giant pastures and farmland. Sadly the farmland was barren and hadn’t seemed to be tilled for years.

"Jesus Christ. Who’s the rich one here?" Lincoln asked.

"We’re not rich," Mikael chuckled. “Just a family home that we’ve had for five or six generations.”

Tonya clicked her tongue, “Mhm, alright, Richie Rich.”

“I thought your family kept up with this farm? You said you guys had cattle and onions, but nothing is planted, and I see no cattle,” Ariel questioned.

“Well, no one has lived here for a while. It’s been five years since my parents died and about five more since they worked the land,” Mikael said.

“Well, that would’ve been nice to lead up with!” Tonya groaned.

“Tonya!” Ariel yelled.

“What? We were all thinking about it!”

“Where’s the storage room, Mikael?” Lincoln asked.

“In the back, why?”

“Carlos, take the children inside and figure out where everyone will be sleeping for now. We’re going to go check the storage room.”

Carlos nodded and brought the children into their new home. Inside was a beautiful old-style interior. Mahogany wood lined the floors and paneled the bottom half of the wall—open doors allowed for a spacious entrance with a long red rug coating throughout the halls. Various paintings of old people scoured the walls with a fireplace inside of what seemed to be a living room. A beautiful chandelier hung from the ceiling; its bulbs faded of what once could glow in the night sky. Carlos whistled, “This is a nice home.”

Ariel, Tonya, Mikael, Lincoln walked to the back of the house and were greeted to a brown storage building, and right next to it was a clear greenhouse. Mikael opened the doors to the storage building, causing dust to fly. Inside were about a dozen crates covered in dust and the usual farming equipment.

Ariel coughed through the dust, waving her hand to get out of her face, “Okay, so now we know for sure that no one has been here for a while. I can already feel my allergies acting up.”

“Haha, funny joke.” Mikael grumbled, “Come look at these boxes.”

Tonya walked up to one of the boxes and dusted off where black letters were, “It looks like this box holds carrot seeds… carrots have seeds?!”

Mikael laughed, “Not the carrot itself, but yes. Anything else?”

“Looks like there's a cabbage box here too,” Lincoln said as he finished dusting the box.

“I thought you said it was mainly onions?” Ariel asked.

“Well, we did, but I’m guessing the carrots and cabbages were just for storage and sometimes for the greenhouse right next to us,” Mikael explained.

“So your parents also did farming for themselves?” Ariel asked.

“Yea, they were smart people and preferred to eat locally rather than out. Something about self-sustainability.”

“Your parents were smart people,” Lincoln said, looking around. ‘Most people these days don’t even think twice about necessities, but here we are with seeds that could save us after the winter.”

Somewhere in Northeast, Georgia

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Afternoon - Apocalypse Week 1

The autumn leaves in the Valley & Ridge Mountains of Georgia began to fall, layering the ground with brownish-orange leaves, crunching as creatures grazed. The skies were clear, and the birds chirped, small animals scurried, and big ones shuffled. "Upfront," Sara mumbled, crouched. She gripped the two axes in her hand tightly. In front of her was a herd of deer grazing in an opening of the surrounding forests.

Luis nodded and shifted his body towards the herd of deer. He was trying to find a spot for a perfect ambush. He trod lightly, breathing so light he could barely hear the exhale that came out, though due to the interaction between the heat of his breath and bitterness of the weather, he saw the vapor leave from his mouth. He brought out his ax with his shield still on his back, his other hand open and ready for anything that came his way. "Seems to be a medium-sized herd. I see three big ones. They could last us 4-5 days. Maybe seven if we're lucky," Luis grinned at the thought of eating like kings. They haven't been able to do that for a while now, especially with so many mouths to feed and so little food to be found. "So, how are we going to do this?"

Sara moved closer to the deer, "I should be able to hit those two deer pretty quickly, but the last one will run. I need you to get the last one."

Luis nodded and shuffled closer to the dear furthest away from Sara. He readied his ax and giving it a little twirl. He looked back at Sara and gave her the count... three... two... one. The air whistled as the two axes were sent flying across the sky. One of the axes was able to pierce its head, killing it instantly, but the other only hit the leg, causing it to stumble as it ran. The deer realizing they were in danger, started running in the direction of Luis. He ran towards the buck that he locked onto his sights and jumped onto its back. Securing the buck in a headlock with the ax, he rode the dear. "Yeeeeeehaaawwwwwww!" Luis yelled. The giant buck bucked violently trying to sway the trespasser off its back, but to no avail, Luis was still there. So, it ran off with Luis on him.

"Luis! God, I hope he's okay!" Sara yelled, sprinting after him, jumping over fallen branches. 

"I'm fine. I'm fine!" Luis said as he was lying next to the buck with its neck sliced open, blood spilling out onto the ground in copious amounts. "After I let it run for a while, I decided to stop the fun."

"Don't scare me like that ever again!" Sara groaned. The smell of blood radiated from the deer a little too strong to her liking causing her to rear back. Sara decided to take a walk to clear her head, but before she could do so, a reflection of light caught her eye, almost blinding her, "Woah."

"What?"

"Well, there was a reflection."

"What about it? It's just a flash of light. Oooh, so scary," Luis mocked.

"No, dumbass. We traveled this far out into the forest so that we could find some big game. Why would there be a reflection?"

Luis contemplated about that, his face turning serious the more he thought about it.

"Let's go check it out," Sara suggested trying to find where the beam of bright light came from.

"I don't have a choice, do I?" Luis said, following her.

After a few minutes, they found what they were looking for; ahead of them was none other than a castle, an incomplete one at that. Its walls were finished with a type of metal, but the stone didn't finish covering the skeleton. It stood tall, almost as tall as the surrounding trees of the castle. 

"Is that what I think it is?" Sara asked in amazement.

"Yep... I think we found our new home," Luis said merrily.

"Let's go back to the chief with the food and tell him what we found," Sara grinned.

After a few hours, the two finally arrived back at the makeshift camp they've been living in for the last four days. The camp was lively in a sense; ever since they had gotten a handle of swordsmanship, the morale has only been going up. The police officers also learned other things like how to dry the meats, stitching up clothes, performing live music out of boredom, etc.

"Hey, Dad!" Sara smiled and ran up to hug him.

"Sara!" George laughed.

"Where's mom?" Sara asked. 

"She's out helping people with sewing some of the torn clothes. She sure does love teaching people how to sew," George joked, knowing full well she didn’t.

"Dad, we found something way better than the game we just killed," Luis cut in. "We found a castle."

"A castle?" George said, astonished. "Like the fantasy story ones?"

Luis nodded, "It's big too! Real big! It could probably fit all of us into it and then some. It'd be a good investment."

George looked to Sara as she nodded, "You know, dad. It was crazy that we found that. I think this is going to give us a head start."

George raised an eyebrow, "A headstart to what?"

"Dad, it's the end of days, which means that something has to rise. It might as well be us because if it's not, we're pretty much fucked," Sara stated.

Erik jogged up to them, "Luis, Sara, I'm glad you could make it back on time! How was the hunt?" 

"We already gave the deer we killed to the people who do whatever they do," Luis dismissed. "But, we have to tell you something."

"What's up," Erik asked with concerned eyes.

Sara shook her head, "No, inside. It's something big."

They walked to the chief’s tent in the camp and sat down in a conference-like manner.

"Okay, now tell me," Erik worried.

"Well, it's nothing to worry about, big man," Sara giggled, "You'll be happy about this. So, it turns out this forest isn't just fully empty."

Erik raised an eyebrow.

"We found a castle," Sara smiled, "It's a few hours from here, but it can hold all of us and probably more. That’ll give us an advantage."

Erik laughed, "A castle? At the border of Georgia? Stop playing with me; what's the actual good news."

Sara and Luis had the straightest faces that Erik had ever seen.

"Oh... so you're not joking. There's an actual castle," Erik paused.

"I know it doesn't make sense, but there is. Probably from some rich guy who didn't know what to do with the extra money he had," Luis laughed. "We can use it. It'll give us a base of operations."

"Hm, we might have a plan on our hands," Erik grinned.