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Responsibilities

SETH

I wanted to go home. This life, out on the road, stuck inside enclosed spaces and shimmying among the outskirts of abandoned homes and cities was not the life I’d been hoping to lead. There is peace in the fresh, open air. Now all there was, was death. The smell of death. The sounds of death. The actions … the need to cause death.

From animals. From zombies. From people.

That was what took the largest toll. I wasn’t built for this. Losing James had nearly stolen my own life. Having to take more in order to ensure Reina and I were safe was an action I don’t think I’d ever like to get used to. People were sick. They’d lost their values, their morals, and their way long before we’d ever had to flee the ranch. Godless savages. Life had become kill or be killed. I don’t think that was ever going to change again. Not in my lifetime.

When the weather cleared and the storms slowed down, we could finally make our way back north. Reina’s reluctance to head home made me hesitant. Something wasn’t right. I did my best not to push her, she’d never done well under pressure. Since she was a kid she’d talked about walking away and leaving the ranch, but this was different. She’d changed. It seemed less about what up north had to offer and more about running away from her life’s problems. Her problems were my problems now, she was my responsibility. I just wished she’d trust I was capable of taking care of us both.

Instead she was full of opinions and constantly putting her foot down on any sort of guidance I offered. I would follow my sister anywhere—that was indisputable. She was all I had left. So I bode my time, stopped fighting her and waited for the right moment to try to steer us in the right direction. My sister was stubborn, but she was also smart. She was right, we didn’t have the proper resources we needed to make the journey. Not in the current climate.

If there was one thing our father had instilled in us, it was to always be prepared. Without proper preparation, you were as good as dead. That’s how I knew Hunter was okay. He was out there, somewhere, probably doing his best to make his way to us as planned.

So I’d wait. One day the opportunity would present itself for a safe journey to be made. I’d get us there. Together, that was where what was left of my family belonged. There was no place to call home without them.