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     The Dawn
    

     Death...Herder dreamt of death. Of the inevitable, of the most anticipated event in a man’s life and also the most feared. It is what defines men like him to decide what to do with their lives that lead to contentment when it is all said and done. He dreamt of loss...not a foreign concept to Herder. He sees those that would never leave him, float off into the void. And he sees those that came so close to that dark world, the one with no escape. Herder sees himself...he sees the end.
“Dad! Wake up, hurry!” Herder’s eyes flashed open and he was immediately blinded by the sun. He rolled to the side some and winced in pain as he laid on broken glass. His eyes drifted to the side and he realized what was going on. Jean was fighting off a masked man who tried to reach for her gun but as they both fell, her rifle fired, causing a splash of insides to cover the young woman. A little boy screamed as he backed away, petrified by what he witnessed. Jean threw the body off of her and rushed to help Herder up.
“John! Help me with Dad!” The boy was still frozen with shock and as Jean struggled to pull her father up, she noticed his reluctance. Letting go of Herder’s hand, she walked up to him and grasped his shoulders.
“Look, I had to, okay? That man would’ve killed us too but he wouldn’t have made it as quick as we did.”

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Herder finally ignored his degrading body as he flung himself up. Shards of glass were stuck in his back and humorously, his long ruggish beard. He trudged over to hug them both but collapsed halfway, causing Jean to rush towards her dad, catching him whilst yelling his name.
“Jeanie, let go,” He said while gritting his teeth from the pain, “Grab whatever you can from him.” She nodded her head and motioned for John to follow her. It was only now that Herder started to notice where they were. His boots sunk in gravel flooring, crunching with every little pebble. The sun beamed past the rusty train carts, causing Herder to flinch once again. He shook his head and walked towards the fresh body alongside his children.
This wasn’t the first time Jean had to scavenge through a dead man’s body and her experience showed. She rummaged through all the big pockets, those that would most likely carry anything useful. Pulling out a few ration packs and a can of chewing tobacco, she flung them to the side for John to grab the ones they would need and stuff them into his bag. Herder merely watched as plucked shards of glass off of his skin. John glanced at his father after the third or fourth gasp he made.
“Don’t mess with it, Dad. Jean and I can get it out for ya.” Herder only ignored his son, either out of his own pride or out of the pure jest of needing to prove his masculinity to even his children.
Finally finishing the search, Jean pulled the mask off the assailant, which was almost completely unscathed by blood. Herder tisked as they viewed the man. Half of him was completely pale and his left eye was nowhere to be seen. Almost all of his mouth was morphed, with his teeth taking a very sharp edge. His entire nose was gone, replaced with only two holes. The rest of him was covered by a hood and loose brown clothing.

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Herder looked down at the ground with much empathy, “He was beginning to Dawn.”
Jean smiled in her happy little way as she cracked a joke that would normally be too morbid for any other crowd, “Well I suppose it was good I killed him then.” Herder couldn’t help but smirk, while as John frowned at the insensitive antic.
    “Oh calm down you baby, it’s not like he’s going to stand up for himself.” John crossed his arms, truly showing his age.
“You two knock it off. It’s amazing that we haven’t Dawned yet.” Herder looked around until he viewed his automatic firearm. It was buried in gravel but was still noticeable in the broad environment.
“Oh yeah Dad, don’t forget your girlfriend.”
Even through the pain, Herder bent over to retrieve his gun. He smirked as he wiped off gravel and dirt from his love and checked the drum magazine for anything unneeded.
“Dad, stop worrying about your gun and start worrying about yourself, you’re bleeding everywhere.” Herder only nodded as he lifted the gun towards the sky to see if there was any dirt in it.
  The sun began to set and the small family traveled carefully through a deteriorating highway. Through the cracks, dead grass and other overgrowth dominated, leaving only the survivors of the old world to even recognize the cement road. Herder sighed with relief as he could finally look at the sky without cowering in pain. John followed his father closely and held one hand on his belt that occupied a holstered hunting knife. Jean’s rifle swirled around her shoulder as she struggled to keep up with her family.
  

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     As night slowly approached Herder raised his finger towards a building that had half of the top wall missing, with overgrowth once again taking over any mistakes in man’s creations.
“Hurry and get inside.” Herder looked over to John before he ran off, “John,” The little boy looked straight up at his father, “I need you to hand me your knife, just in case.”
“Aw, but Dad! I can do it myself!” Herder chuckled a little and grabbed the blade from his son.
“I’m sure you could, but I need to make sure you save your energy for something more dangerous.” John smiled, obviously aware that his father was just trying to indirectly distract him from arguing, but he still ran off with Jean, chest out.
Even though Herder commanded that the two ran towards the building, he made sure to walk inside first, knife unsheathed. The entrance had wooden boards, which creaked with every little step that he made. With every little amount of motion Herder made, something on that floor shrieked with anger. He motioned towards John to close the door and the child did quietly. Next to the stairs, a wooden door creaked open slowly, causing Jean to cringe. Without even hesitation, she fired wildly at the entrance, leaving the house to be completely silent until a sudden jerk of motion from Herder, taking the firearm away from her.
“Jean! We’ll be lucky if the whole damned city didn’t hear that. We’ll have them crawling towards us in seconds.” He said in a loud whisper, something only he could really pull off. A painful screech penetrated the family’s ears, causing them to wince and cover their heads. Herder recovered first, just in time to witness a monster the size of him leaping towards them. With one swipe of his knife, the belly of the creature bursts open, causing it to twitch as it painfully died.

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They all stared at it for awhile, its eyeless face biting at what wasn’t there. Its pale skin allowed them to see whatever insides that remained to show.
“Dad...just do it.” John only shivered as Herder jammed the hunting knife into its skull, causing the beast to whimper one last time until falling towards the void of true end.
After reaching the top of the collapsing building with no interruption, Jean pulled out a small circuit box and plugged it into an empty outlet. Herder came to a stop and tried to object,
“Let’s go inside a room before you do that.” Jean sighed as she unplugged the circuit,
“No use, there’s no power here either.” Herder nodded and understood the little failure that meant so much to her.
“I’m sure there’s some kind of generator around here, don’t worry.” She only nodded as the three carried on.
Herder made up makeshift beds for his children and then half of one for himself. Herder slowly yet painfully removed his large coat and overshirt, finally able to lay on the trash. A painfully loud screech pierced the block as all three of them awoke.
“D-dad?” John’s father only motioned for him to be quiet as he put out all the candles and peaked out the looming window. Down below, a large group of people screamed in a scary matter as if they were in danger but they were quite the opposite, they were the danger. Many of the members wore masks that resembled that of the one man they found beforehand. They drove around in a pickup truck with torches on each side, firing automatic weapons at the horde of Dawned that followed them. They didn’t do so because they had no other choice but rather because they wanted to.

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“You two stay away from the window and go to sleep. We’ll avoid them in the morning.” Jean nodded and immediately passed out again but John was still worried.
“But what if--”
“Don’t you worry about that, okay?” Herder held the boy’s shoulders in an affectionate manner. “I’ll never let anything happen to you.” John smiled a little before going to bed but Herder merely faked his slumber as he watched the broken door, ready for anything.

Morning approached quickly, and Herder forgot what had occurred only a few hours before. Jean yawned as she reached for her rifle in a calm manner, as if it was a daily routine, though that wouldn’t be so far from the truth. John rose from his bed in a hasty manner, with no time wasted on morning slowness. Herder took example as he flung his clothes back on and grasped his gun.
“We should get going kids.” His children nodded as they followed their father closely through the ghastly building. Making their way down the stairs, John pointed at the outlet box they had seen last night.
“Dad, were there scratch marks on that box when we last saw it.”
Herder’s eyes popped open as he grabbed John and pulled him away from the area,
“We need to leave now.” Jean didn’t show any sign of agreement as she obeyed her father, flinging herself around the stairs in hope of escaping faster. The same scream from the last night was heard again as a masked individual tackled Jean. Herder yelled as he set John down and threw the man off of her.
         

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He repeatedly struck the individual until he stopped flinching at the hits until he wouldn’t move at all. Blood stained Herder’s fist and clothes as he breathed heavily with primal rage.
“D-dad?” Jean said as he backed away from the wild creature that stood before her.
“Let’s. Go.” Herder took no time to reconcile with his children, only to make sure no harm came to them. More screams swarmed the area as the family juked around different rooms in hopes of finding an exit. Only one voice made itself understandable as its voice echoed to every single addition to the building.
“I don’t like it when I lose men. I especially don’t like it when I lose two.”
Herder tried his best to ignore him but on occasion, John or Jean would stop to listen to him, as if mesmerized by his voice.
“I get it, you’re just trying to survive. So are we! You think that makes us the bad guys, makes us worth murder?” Herder only pushed the voice out of his head as he jerked the children forward. Getting to a fire escape, they quickly began climbing down. Above them, several masked assailants began firing their guns at the family. They clung closely to the rails as Herder pulled his gun from his back, firing wildly into the air. A man gasped as he falls past them, limp like a ragdoll.
“Move!” Jean holds John close as she maneuvers the escape with ease, Herder following slowly behind, providing cover. Jean reached the end as she jumped into an open dumpster, her father close behind.
        “Take John and go. I’ll meet you two someplace when it’s safe. Until then, I’ll fend them off.”
Jean shook her head violently as John began to cry,

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“We’re not leaving you Dad!” Herder held both of their faces in his hands as he pulled them close, foreheads against foreheads.
“I’ll find you...I promise.” John still wept as Jean leaped with her brother in arms from the metal bin, running towards another building door. Herder followed their lead until hearing several of the men shouting and pointing towards him. He fired at them in hopes of thinning the herd but fell back into some cover. Herder had no idea how many people there were yet he still fought with much valiance, taking several men with him.

Hours passed and only a few noises remained. There was the wind as it blew dead leaves around Herder, there was the sound of moaning from several wounded men, and there was the sound of silence as no one attempted to fire at one another. Herder made not attempts at peaking past his cover to see how many still remained but he made a decision to rise and take his death with an open heart. Upon surrender, not a single noise changed as no men remained to fight back. He smiled as he jogged towards the building that his children occupied but stopped dead in his tracks.
Behind a deli counter, Jean laid out cold as John was being grasped by his neck with one arm and a gun pointed towards his temple. The hostage-taker was bald with his left eye scarred with what could only be thought of as a Dawned attack, leaving the eye there to be a hazy gray. His head was completely bald, showcasing the light of the sun. John cried as the barrel of the gun pressed against his skull.

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“N-now now. There’s no need for that! He’s just a child!” The man merely smirked as he spat out tobacco.
“We both know that in this world, there’s no such thing as innocence.” The gun edged closer, causing John to wince in pain.
“What do you want!?”
“Vengeance!” Spit and tobacco poured out of his mouth as his face turned red.
“If I let you all live, everyone else will think me soft. I have an empire to run!” Herder’s hands shook in the air in a sign of peace.
“Your empire? I’m sorry to tell you, but there’s no one else alive. You’re the last of your gang.”

Nearly a minute passed with silence as the man transitioned from anger to calmness quickly, “You just damned yourself.” Bang. The man shrieked in pain as he dropped the boy and squeezed the wound on his knee. Jean stood up with her rifle in hand, proud of her accomplishment.
“S-stupid b--” Herder cut off his sentence with a heavy strike to the face, causing the man to fight back. As they tumbled around the room, Herder tried to land finishing blows. They both fought over the gun, with shots being fired around the room. Finally, through the chaos, Herder grabbed hold of the firearm and jammed it up the assailant's neck, firing one fatal shot. He slumped to the ground, sliding down the wall they leaned against.

10
“John! John!” Herder looked over his shoulder to see Jean holding the limp body of her brother with blood flowing down his jacket.
Herder grabbed his son and shook him, and then embraced him.
“John, don’t do this, please. Please!” Tears flooded Herder’s face, flowing down the cheeks of John.
As Herder held him, his mind wandered off towards the void. He dreamt of death...something so familiar. He dreamt of loss, one factor that would never leave Herder be. Finally, he dreamt of failure...a failure to save those he loves in an unforgiving world as it moves on without them. This was the curse of survival, the end of life with no happiness. This was the story of man.