Surviving, Not Living/Issue 9

This is Issue 9 of Surviving, Not Living, titled Suicide.

Issue 9:
After falling back to sleep, Bobby awoke and looked at his watch - 8:25, time to get up. He opened his door a small bit, peering through the crack to see Amelia standing in the living room, watching the few wondering infected on the back garden. Bobby quickly got changed and walked into the lounge.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Amelia smiled as she hugged him. “By the time Sarah and I got back, you were asleep.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling too good.” Bobby fibbed.

“See, good job I told you not to come with us.” Amelia told him.

“I s-saw something yesterday...” He began to explain. “In Sarah’s room.”

“Bobby!” She hit him lightly on the stomach. “You’re not meant to be going in there!”

Bobby raised an eyebrow, “Do you not want to know what I found?”

“Go on then.” Amelia smirked. “Tell me.”

“Where is Sarah?” He asked. “I’ll show you.”

“She’s picking the infected off from the roof, she won’t be down anytime soon.” She explained.

“Come on, then.” Bobby grabbed his half-sister’s hand her to Sarah’s room.

On the roof, Sarah reloaded her shotgun and picked off three more infected. There seemed to be more and more approaching the house lately.

Meanwhile, Amelia had just opened the trunk under Sarah’s bed.

“A photo album!” She excitedly squealed.

“Keep your voice down.” Bobby harshly whispered. Amelia rolled her eyes before flipping over to the first page.

“It’s her family.” She told him.

“I would never of guessed.” He sarcastically commented. Amelia sighed and flipped over to the next page. She whimpered quietly when she saw the next picture, running her fingers over her dad’s face.

“Mhmm.” Bobby murmured. “I can’t believe she’s never told us about this!”

Amelia took a deep breath, composing herself and turned the page over. Instantly, she bursted into laughter.

“What?” Bobby immediately asked.

“It’s the picture that I was telling you about!” Amelia told him. “The one where we dressed you up as Snow White!” She took it out of it’s casing and passed it to him.

“Oh my god.” Bobby shook his head, smirking.

Suddenly, Sarah appeared at the door. Amelia immediately stopped laughing and kicked the trunk under the bed, lowering the top slowly with her foot. Bobby quickly hid the photo behind his back.

“We were just looking for the axe.” Bobby blurted.

“Yeah, we were gonna come and help you clear the infected.” Amelia agreed. Sarah walking into view, carrying the axe in her left arm. She walked past Bobby and gave it to Amelia.

“Thanks.” She half-smiled.

Later, Bobby and Amelia helped with the clearing of the ever-growing infected population.

“Amelia?” Bobby called as he slammed the axe into one of the infected.

“Yeah?” She replied, shooting another one down.

“It’s a bit personal...” He began. “But have you ever thought about... Like... Suicide?”

Amelia sent a bullet through another infected’s brain, “Nope, never. When our parents died, I was too young to think about it. And now I can easily take down the infected and survive, there’s not really any point.”

From inside her bedroom, Sarah looked and listened onto them. She opened a small book at her desk and began to write inside it.

''Dear Diary, I believe it’s November 17th... But then again, I’m never really sure what date it is. Amelia and Bobby are standing outside taking out the infected. There seem to be more and more of them lately, maybe there was a survivor camp nearby that got overridden. We should really go and check it out, maybe they had supplies. Anyway, Bobby just asked Amelia if she ever though about commiting suicide. Obviously, I know different. When she was 16, we met our second herd since the accident. She was crying and sobbing and I had no idea why. Amelia ran straight into the infected, I ditched the three year old screaming Bobby to save her. I don’t know why she did it, and I doubt I ever will. That’s all the news for today.''

Sarah shut the book and tucked it underneath her mattress. Then, she walked into the kitchen and began to prepare the group’s lunch - pumpkin soup.

End of Issue 9