Page 12 of Cora

“You don’t have time to care for her right now?” Daddy asked incredulously. “Are you fucking kidding me? Caring for your child isn’t something you decide whether you have time for or not. Were you even planning to say goodbye to her? Or were you going to just leave me with the task of telling our ten-year-old that her mother left her for some pencil dick number cruncher with money?”

“There is no reason to be vile,” Mommy scolded him. “Act like an adult. And I’m sure whatever you come up with will be far better than anything I would say.”

“Is that all, ma’am?” the stranger asked as he collected the last of the bags by the door.

“Yes, that’s everything. I’ll be right out,” Mommy replied.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Daddy said quietly.

“Well, believe it.” Mommy turned toward the door, and I sprung into action.

“Mommy!” I yelled, running down the stairs in my pink princess footie pajamas. “Don’t leave!” I wrapped my arms around her waist tightly, refusing to let go no matter how much she tried to pry me off of her.

“Now, Cora. Be reasonable. Is this any way for a little lady like yourself to behave?”

“I don’t want you to go,” I cried.

“Sometimes things happen in life that we don’t like, but there isn’t anything we can do to stop them. This is one of those times, Cora. I will need you to be a big girl and let go of Mommy. Don’t make this any harder than it has to be. Dammit, Cora! John, you could help.”

“You seem to have it under control,” Daddy replied. “Why the hell should I make it easier on you?” Even as he said the words, I felt him bend beside me and scoop me into his arms. “Come on, Buttercup. We’re going to be ok, I promise.”

I struggled against his hold as Mommy walked out of the house and closed the door. “No! Mommy!” I yelled after her. As soon as the door shut, Daddy set me back down, and I ran for the door. I tried to open in and chase after her, but Daddy held it shut.

He sat against the door and held his arms out to me. “Come here, baby.” I crawled into his lap and sobbed into his chest. “I’m so, so sorry, Cora. I know it hurts now, but I promise I will always be here to care for you. I won’t ever leave you. You’re my favorite girl, and I love you so much.” Daddy continued to make promises and murmur comforting words until I had settled down, and then he carried me back to bed and sat with me until I had fallen back asleep.

That was the last time I had seen my mother. Over the years before the apocalypse started, I wondered what she was doing and if she ever thought of me. After the apocalypse, I thought of her only one other time before today, and that was after Daddy died.

I hoped that wherever she was, she didn’t survive because she didn’t deserve to live in a world where Daddy no longer existed.

Chapter six

Trent

Iwipe the sweat from my brow as I pause in my work. Cutting logs in half wasn’t easy, but I was grateful for the table saw. I wouldn’t have been nearly as productive or bored if it weren’t for that. I looked around and saw a ladder sitting against the wall. One thing that’s been bothering me about this house was how we were getting power. It was time to try to solve that puzzle once and for all.

I took the ladder and leaned it against the side of the house near the carport. I climbed up the ladder, onto the carport, and then onto the roof. What do you know, it was covered in solar panels.

“I figured out why we have power,” I called out to the others. “The roof is covered in solar panels.”

“How do they look?” Remi asked.

“They look like they’re in pretty decent shape, but I don’t know anything about solar panels,” I replied.

I looked at the rest of the property and saw something odd. It was almost like there was a depression in the earth shaped like a giant square. It was something you wouldn’t notice from theground, but from the roof, I could easily see the difference in the terrain. Maybe that’s what the trap door under the truck leads to—some sort of secret bunker or the basement?

“Hey, does the house have a basement?” I shouted.

“No, it’s on a slab,” Derrick replied, “why?”

“It almost looks like something is under the ground,” I replied. “We should move that truck and see if we can get down through that door.”

“It could just be the sewer tank,” Isaac said.

Well, shit. That made a lot more sense than secret underground bunkers. I continued to look around and appreciate the beauty of the mountains surrounding us. It would have been rather peaceful if you ignored the fact that they could have been crawling with the undead and trying to eat you. I noticed a fire-lookout tower not too far up the mountain. We should go check that out soon. A place like that could be helpful if we got overrun and needed a quick, safe place to hide. I climbed back down and brought the ladder back to the workshop. Call me paranoid, but the last thing we needed was for these fuckers to learn how to climb a ladder and come crashing through the ceiling while we slept.

“Oh, good,” Isaac said as he dragged another log over, “you’ve decided to help again.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Nothing wrong with taking a break now and then,” I replied.

---