Last Hope

I awoke with a jolt and realized I’d accidently fallen asleep. Feeling guilty I staggered out of my room and into the main living area. I glanced around and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw a makeshift door blocking our entrance to and from this area. I also spotted Jess and Ivana sitting at the dining room table that was placed in the centre of the area. I approached them and gave an apologetic smile.
“Hey,” Jess waves me over and I shuffle my feet slowly. “Everyone else is asleep, we pretty much just followed your lead and called it a night” She explains and I nod.
“I didn’t mean too” I mumble, keeping my voice low. “Would you like me to take over for you both?” I offer, sitting down next to her.
“It’s okay. We’ve only been up for guard duty for a couple of hours.” Jess replies, she had her ammo out and scattered across the table and was leaning on the table. “You can go have a shower and freshen up if you want” She indicates toward the staffroom and I nod.
“That sounds really good actually” I look down at myself. I still had the clothes I’d worn coming into the mall on and if that clock on the wall, next to our entrance was right I’d been wearing them since yesterday. “6’oclock in the morning” I sigh and retreat to go get my toiletries, when I come back out of m room I spot Sophie. She notices my toiletry bag and reveals her one in her hand and laughs
“Great minds think alike” She tells me as we make a beeline for the girl’s bathroom.

An hour later I sat with Sophie at the table. My long dark hair was damp and I smelled like fresh strawberries “I hadn’t thought to go get body lotion or nice shampoo” I voiced as I finished cleaning my sniper rifle and placed it on the table.
Sophie grins “I forgot to bring some and I didn’t stress because it would be easy enough to get anything we liked here” She shrugs and continues to draw in her art book. Soph was crazy talented at drawing, her art was simply amazing.
“Did you make a list of things you wanted from the mall?” I asked curiously and fiddled with my own list
“Yeah, I mean I’ve run out of all my art supplies and I need new clothes and household items” Sophie responds and interrupts her drawing to flip to the first page of her art book to show me her long list.
I nod in understanding “When everyone is up we have to head over to the supermarket, it’s in the middle of the mall. We have to meet up with everyone and plan our food supply, get the groceries then we can go exploring after” I hold up the team guidelines manual and wave it slightly to show that I was referring from reading this.
We lapse back into silence, momentarily pulled into our own thoughts but Sophie breaks the silence again. She looked sad, emotionally tired and fighting tears “Do you miss your family?” She asks
I think carefully for a moment then nod “I miss dad a lot and my uncle”
Something Sophie and I had in common was that we had both lost our dads before the Omegas had taken over so I understood how she was feeling. My dad was a Navy Seal; he was on a mission when he had been killed. I was 10 when I found out, my mum lost it. She died inside and I watched her lose her will to live, my aunty moved in and started looking after her. I was her only child and she pretended like I didn’t exist. My uncle; dad’s brother had been the only one that remembered I existed. I went up to stay with him on his farm most weekends and he use to teach me how to use my dad’s sniper rifle. The very same one I held in my hands now.

-Flashback-

“Uncle?!” I held the home phone to my ear and focused on hearing the voice on the other end
“Jords, are you safe? Make sure the house is locked up, be there soon” I could barely hear him above the crackling noise but I managed to hear those sentences/ I put the phone back in the cradle and then followed his instructions.
Hours earlier I’d witnessed strange people in grey clothing stab people I had known.
How did I escape unharmed?
How had I gotten home unseen?
I couldn’t remember anything, everything was a big blur. I felt sick; I had come home to an empty house and a note on the table saying:
‘Darly if you get this I’m so sorry, your aunty was in a panic. I tried to calm her down and get her to wait for you but she took off and I got worried and went after her. I won’t be back but we’re staying with family in Wairoa, if you’re able too, come down to us.’ With love, Mum.
They left me all alone, how could she?! How could my own mother pack up and leave her only child here when so many people are being killed by those bad people?
Hours after my uncle had called me he found me crying in my closet
“Hush now, if you keep crying like that those people will find you”
He explains to me what’s going on. How the bad people are called Omega and they think that by killing everyone that they’re cleansing the world from evil. He goes on to tell me that he’d stay with me here and we’d fortify this place and we’d be safe.

~Months later~
I watched him take my dad’s sniper rifle out of the back of his station wagon.
“You bought it down with you?” I had asked as he places it carefully into my arms
“You weren’t meant to have it until you turned 18” He pauses and looks thoughtfully into the distance before continuing “But I think my brother wouldn’t mind me giving it to you now, under these circumstances” He goes on to tell me that my dad had written in his will that when I turned 18 he wanted his two most cherished things in the world to be united, me and his sniper. I had asked why mum wasn’t included in my dads will as being cherished but my uncle said that my mother was his soul mate so he thought of her in a different kind of cherished. I got confused but didn’t want him to try explaining it again so instead I asked “Why di mum abandon me?” He replied with a sullen look “Your mother has been through a lot, it’s not easy losing your soul mate kiddo. Maybe one day you’ll find one and realize how hard it is too picture losing someone you hold so close to your heart. Anyway my point is, chaos causes people to do stupid things, remember that Jords”

-Flashback Ends-

My uncle’s words still ran through my mind as clearly as if he was just telling me that. At first I believed that she really hadn’t wanted to leave me but I was older now and I knew better. I hadn’t heard from her since that day she left me and I’d long given up on the thought of her calling me or coming back. I hated my mother and one thing was certain. I didn’t miss her at all.