The world around Iris was one that she feared and wished to change every waking moment. The smell of fresh apple pie and future rain filling the air. Children's laughter and music filled her ears. Her mother’s smile and the beautiful sunlight streaming through the kitchen overrule Her vision. Iris wished to pause time to keep it like this forever. The memories of her mother and sisters cloud Iris’s mind. Love fills her heart.
This beautiful memory becomes sour in a matter of seconds. It started with the sounds of Her sisters’ panic. The sounds of screams challenge Iris’s other senses. She witnesses her sisters, Jodie and Amy, running–running–through the yard, and she–just–freezes. Iris’s body overcomes her mind. It doesn’t allow her to move. It makes her become a bystander.
The beasts just appeared. They came from nowhere, turning the bright world into dull and dark. The beasts are ravenous, like they haven’t eaten anything for years. Iris watches as they perch and scavenge through the neighborhood. They enforce carnage and anguish as they go. She glances back to her sisters as they run for their lives.
‘Please, make it stop! I cannot watch! I cannot stand here and just watch!’
Iris stares as her sisters run. They run and run as fast as they can from the beast who welcomed them. The beast that is seething with hunger. Amy doesn’t look back as she runs from the nightmare behind her, but Jodie cannot stop looking back, ultimately slowing her down. Her slower speed is what allows the beast to catch up and take her. Jodie wails, screams, and cries. She cries out to whoever can or can’t hear her.
Iris’s mother comes out next, running off the deck towards her daughter that is getting ripped right out of her fingertips, her daughter that deserves to live a long and fulfilling life. She’s only ten. Jodie is ten. She has lived barely a tenth of the life she could have lived.
‘I should be the one, not her. I have been standing here watching all that has unfolded. I have allowed my body to stay on the sidelines as my sisters and mother fight for their lives like it’s just a game. Why can’t it be me?’
Amy runs past the screen door and shuts it. She closes the curtains for the screen door and faces Iris. She starts yelling things at her, but Iris cannot decipher what’s coming out of her mouth. All Iris can hear is a rhythmic pounding against the world, and she can feel myself be pulled out with a shove.
---
Iris shoots up out of her bed and frantically looks around the black abyss of her bedroom. Iris’s heartbeat in her ears. Iris’s heart feels like it is trying to escape the chambers. Her chest heaves rapidly, up and down.
Iris attempts to steady her breath as she lays back down on messed up sheets from thrashing around. All of the memories coming back to Iris. Recollections she wishes weren't true. The memories that taunt her day by day. Iris looks up at her ceiling and tries to recall the happier memories that had not been tainted. The remembrance that had started to blur as time goes on like there’s a hazy film over them. With the blur, Iris cannot fully reminisce on the beautiful memories of her sister and mother. A pained feeling appears in her chest, and a lump in her throat forms. The lump catches her shallow breaths. Iris’s eyes start to water, clouding her vision. She rolls over in the fetal position and just cries. Cry about her forthcomings; cry about Jodie and her mother. Iris cries until she can not cry anymore when she slips back into a still sleep.
Everything happens for a reason, and the reason is unclear on why the world is the way it is. This is something Iris thinks about often. Growing up, Iris was always told that everything happens for a reason and sometimes you will never know what that reason may be. She was told that you cannot be upset when something goes on that she does not like because it will bring greatness to her one day. But where is that greatness now? Where is it? It is three years after the start of the devastation, and there is no signs of anything great happening. Just trying to survive with your surroundings is all there is left.
Why does it have to be like this for Iris? Why does it have to be like this for Amy? Iris sometimes wishes she did not take as many things for granted as she did.; that she cherished the little things a little more than she ever did. Chocolate cake from the store, television, her mom, and her friends are a part of a number things that she could have help closer to herself. The smell of the premade chocolate cake, the buzz of the television, the touch of her mother's hands, and the laughter from her friends are now things Iris can only dream about.
As she finally gets up to start her day, Iris still thinks about the thoughts that plague her mind. The thoughts that have followed her day by day, and now they follow behind her like shadows in the darkness. They are what now follows Iris as she gets ready for her daily routine: wake up, get ready, tend to the chickens, make breakfast, eat with Amy, rinse and repeat. This is what keep the shadows smaller and at bay.
As Iris walks through the gates of the chicken coop she can see the disdain in their beady little eyes. She senses the discomfort and the horror all because of the shadows that lurk behind her. The chickens only crowd around her due to the food in her basket. Each chicken has their own fun little name that she and Amy chose.
“Good morning Kelsey, Kim, Korbin, Kaleb, and Kaylee. It’s a beautiful day today isn’t it," Iris greets them like she does every morning. There is never an actual response, but Iris takes their chirps and clucks as one. This, to her, is an indicator to start giving them the food so she can quickly collect the eggs.
Iris drags her feet as she takes the path back to the door of the estate. Today is not a day that she wants to be cooking or cleaning. Iris just wants to be able laze around sometimes, like she did before the devastation, but in today's world, she can never properly laze and relax.
Iris enters the kitchen to start breakfast and take fresh vegetables from the fridge. She prepares the vegetables and the eggs and starts frying. She smiles as the aroma of eggs and vegetables circle around her in the air. The sound of rough footsteps running down the stairs catches Iris’s attention. Her heartbeat picks up in her ears next. Iris's body freezes. She was only outside for ten minutes, there is no way something could have gotten in if this is not Amy.
a pair of feet stomp on the ground like the thing that was running skipped the last few steps, and Iris swears that she can feel the world around her slow. The steps slowly comes closer and closer to the archway of the kitchen; Iris still is not able to move her body, just like before. This all stops once Iris sees a big mop of blonde curly hair. Iris lets go of a breath she didn’t know she was holding. You never know what can happen these days.
"Breakfast should be done soon," Iris breathes out.
"Good 'cause I am starving."
Iris smiles to herself as she continues cooking. Amy walks in through the kitchen. The two sisters share a friendly look, wanting to leave the other to their own devices. Amy finds her way to the living room. She groans animatedly and throws herself on to the couch. They have always spent their mornings like this. One is cooking, and the other acts sluggish because they just woke up.
Iris lets out a breathy chuckle. Her eyes move to where her sister lies. Amy’s feet dangle off the edge; her arms are splayed across the couch. She groans once again, and she sits up and throws herself back down on the couch. Iris knows what Amy’s doing; she wants attention without verbally asking for it. Iris smiles, slowly shakes her head, and asks, “Yes, Amy?”
“I’m hungry,” Amy states.
“Really? I have not noticed. Why don't you relax while I finish breakfast.”
Amy huffs and turns her body around on the couch. Amy has always been the dramatic one out of the three sisters. Iris promptly finishes breakfast as she can hear Amy’s stomach growl from where she stands in the kitchen. Amy smiles whenever a meal is ready, and these smiles makes Iris carry on with her days.
Iris and Amy had taken to sitting at the dinning table together to have routine and normality. They spend the thirty minutes it takes to eat a meal, to forget about all of the carnage and tragedy within their lives. They fill the void between them with small talk and talk of memories that they shared together. From time to time Iris will share her wise stories of her great past to Amy. It really wasn’t all that great, but it was greater than the sick reality they live in. There was a lot of repeated stories. There are many stories that people can tell that they experienced in fifteen years, but Amy loves them nonetheless.
And Iris loves telling them.
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