Chapter 3

Dawn, Mary leaves the record store and wanders alone through the deserted streets was already leaving the city. He looked in a market for something to eat...there was still some canned foods leftover from the many looting that all the establishments suffered when it all started, he also filled some bags with personal hygiene products and left. He walked a few kilometers and saw an old abandoned gas station and a junk car lying there.

She decided to sleep a little inside it, curled up tight so they wouldn't see her. She soon fell asleep because she was exhausted, woke up hearing a woman's screams, very carefully she looks through a crack ripped from the car. She was a lady who looked more than 60 years old, she was trying to escape from two strong men who grabbed her tightly and ripped her clothes...they would rape her.

Mary - What humanity is left in these men, my God?

Mary could not bear to see that, she had already witnessed many rapes that the world was too cruel with the female sex. She bent down and covered her ears, there was nothing she could do to intervene, or she herself would fall victim to the evil of those monsters.

The two men raped the woman and threw her into a car, put fuel there from the abandoned gas station, and left speeding up and celebrating after all that cowardice. Mary was more and more afraid of being who she was and of being seen by any of these animals, both those that roam at night... and those that can also walk in the daylight. Perhaps he feared the living far more than the dead.

far away...

Jason wakes up and follows his old routine, walking through the cornfield, feeding the chickens, getting water from the river, and checking the traps he used to hunt, after, all he needed was protein, and a different food was always welcome. Hunting in that place was not easy, most of the animals had been killed by the creatures and the few that remained were always on alert.

After that scare and that deplorable scene Mary left, always covered and attentive to anyone who approached she was walking in the middle of the road she was reaching the end of the asphalt, she was already close to the farms, she heard the sound of a car approaching and ran to get hide in the woods next door. The car was being chased by a man on a motorcycle, he shoots the driver the bullet goes through his head breaking the entire windshield and smearing it with blood, the car crashes into tree meters in front.

From inside the car comes out a woman with a child on her lap, she was disoriented and looked injured, the child of about 2 years was crying from the fright. The man gets off the bike and pulls her by the hair putting the gun to her head, Mary wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying, but the woman leaves the little one on the hot asphalt and gets on the bike in tears and he accelerates with everything took her far away from there.

The boy cried watching them walk away, without a doubt that was his mother. Mary runs to the car but the man behind the wheel was already dead, she goes to the desperate little one. He takes him in his arms and takes him to where the trees could hide them from anyone passing on the road, he gets under a tree, takes a bottle of water in his backpack, and gives it to the boy who was still crying and trembling.

Mary - Please stay calm, it's safe now.

She says hugging him tight and for the first time revealing her face to someone. he needed to calm that baby down and all he needed was a female figure to give him some peace after what he had witnessed.

He was a strong boy and seemed healthy, he was apparently 2 years old and didn't speak much, he was slowly calming down but one of the few words he could understand the one he repeated the most was Mom and he pointed to the road. Mary left with him on her lap, now in addition to carrying that huge suitcase full of essential things for her, she still had that child, but she kept going, she wouldn't be able to leave that child behind even knowing the risk it was to be with him.

He thought of what would become of her if she could barely take care of herself and now with such a small child it would be even more difficult…but what human would she be if she just kept leaving him behind? He couldn't...he was going to take him and they would live as long as God wanted.

They arrived at the river, she baths the little one, it was a wonderful sun. She washes his clothes and leaves him to play with the plants on the bank, it was already calmer she entered the river in her cape and everything relaxed a little and continues with the small hold in her hand.

Jason was trying to signal with his old radio, but like the day before, still nothing. It was lunchtime and he would sit at the table, he always put the three seats...for his two children and his wife. It kept him less depressed, so he could at least talk even if alone. He had been without anyone for so long, that he always imagined they were there with him and saw them smiling as if he were trapped on that day when everything happened.

Mary and her new little partner find an abandoned trailer on the way up the river and she climbs a tree and manages to see a farm with a big fence around it and a beautiful cornfield. They'd stay here in that trailer overnight, and after the groceries were scarce, she'd go over to that farm and get what they needed, she thought.