Life as We Knew It

The sun shone bright overhead on the beautiful summer morning. Lilly's face, now red, ached with the presence of a sunburn as she rapidly washed clothes in the river, along with some other women. One older woman, Diana, who she particularly liked, had made her feel welcome among the group of women and broke the awkward silence.
"A lovely day, isn't it, dear?" said Diana, looking over at Lily with a smile as the other women continued their work. "Yeah," Lily answered, looking at her son, Jack, splash and play with a girl around his age named Corinne, and a boy named Aidan. Jack was back to good health, thanks to an African-American man named Austin, who had been a doctor before the apocalypse. It had been almost a week since they had first arrived, but they were already considered members of the group. Everyone had something to do: Sam was on guard-duty, Lily did laundry and other "house-keeping" chores, Rebecca helped gather berries and water, sometimes along with Jack, and Amber, Liam, and Bailey were currently on a supply run.

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"No way! No damn way!" Bailey said, backing away from the rooftop, "I am not doing that crazy shit!"
"It's safe, trust me!" said a man of Gareth's group, Ethan, a kid in his late teens, "We've done this loads of times!"
Bailey studied the rope. The plan was to swing from the building's balcony to the next building's balcony. On the bright side, if you were to fall, the height would surely kill you, not the roamers below. Though Liam and Amber were scared, they weren't nearly as frightened as Bailey. She had a tremendous fear of heights. The other supply runners laughed.
"Well, I am not going first, that's for sure!" she said. Ethan shrugged, grabbed hold of the rope. Elizabeth gave him a small push, and then he jumped off the building.

He swung to the other side, then quickly gripped the balcony with his feet and hands, then tossed the rope back to Elizabeth. Dan went next. "One of you has to go next. I'm in charge of the rope," she said, and pointed to Amber. "Dammit," Amber mumbled, shakily grabbing hold of the rope. "Just breathe. On the count of 3.....," Elizabeth said, giving her an encouraging look. "1," Amber bent back, "2," she prepared to jump, "3!" Elizabeth shouted, giving Amber a quick shove. Amber dove off the building, let out a small yell, and surprisingly to her, made a safe landing on the building. Ethan offered her a hand and she took it, then looked back to the other side where her friends were.

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Liam was the next to go, leaving only Bailey and Elizabeth. Bailey tugged onto the rope. It felt like something was stabbing her gut, over and over again. She had never been so scared in her life. This wasn't like a roller coaster, where you were tightly strapped in. This was between life and death. She took a huge breath and stared at the rope for a minute. "Hurry up, we don't have all day!" Dan said, clearly getting impatient. She gripped the rope. Then she jumped. "WAIT, BAILEY!" Elizabeth screamed. She didn't give her a shove. The boost.

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Bailey screamed in terror as she neared the roamers, only a couple feet above them. She could hear the others scream for her to hold on from above. And that's when she dropped. Luckily, she dropped into a public recycle bin, the smell of garbage filling her nose and leftovers of food splattered her clothes. A pain seared in her arm, which was twisted at an awkward angle. She cried out. Then she heard the moans. Still trembling, she took out her gun, killing several roamers nearing her. Only receiving a couple lessons on gun training at Gareth's camp, she knew she couldn't shoot farther out. She crawled out of the garbage, the others' voices still calling for her. Without thinking, she continued to run, killing several roamers getting too close for comfort. Then, she spotted a nearby store, and quickly threw open the door.

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"Now, put it in your hands, just like I told you," Sam said, helping Rebecca readjust the gun in her hands. "Shoot again," he said, and Rebecca did. Once again, she missed. It seemed that as she was getting worse at aiming, Jack and Corinne were getting better. They easily shot their target, a tree, again, receiving praise from Sam. She would never get it. Why couldn't she do it? She shot again. And again. It missed the target every time.

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"What the hell just happened?" Dan yelled, still processing what had happened. Liam was already tugging on the rope, preparing to jump, Amber behind him, when Dan took a hold of his arm. "Liam! Don't! There's too many!" he pointed to the many roamers crowding around where Bailey was trapped in, hungrily clawing at the door. Liam swatted him away and raised his gun to shoot them all. "No! It'll attract even more! We can get to that store through this building, okay? Trust me," Dan said, finally convincing Liam to listen to him. He nodded hesitantly. "I'll keep a look out!," Elizabeth yelled out to them, raising her gun, along with Ethan. Liam, Amber, and Dan speeded down the stairs and went into the entrance of the store Bailey was in. "Bailey!" Liam shouted, when she appeared into view. He hugged her tightly and kissed her, Amber hugging her, too. The roamers continued to pound on the glass, causing cracks to form. "Shit! We need to leave now!" Amber said, and the rest of them nodded in agreement. But, as they twisted the handle of the entrance of the metal door, it didn't budge.