It's been twelve years. Twelve long years of this. Running around in the dark, being scared of everything that moves at the edge of our lights. To those of you reading this, I hope the world is in a much better state. I am Alexander Sheffield, an explorer, warrior, coward, and now I suppose I'm a writer. I'll be honest, I doubt I'm going to get out of my current situation, so I'm going to use the time I have to jot down everything I can recall. Call it a strange mood if you will. Anyway, the first thing I want to tell you about; is Zion. There used to be a bunch of cities around but Zion really took the cake. She had big spotlights that kept the dwellers off of us, plenty of food, farm land, water, power, everything the modern human would be accustomed to. The walls added an extra layer of protection and peace of mind for everyone inside. Eight story tall, half mile thick walls of concrete will do that. To be honest, when I asked about how the walls even got there, no one knew. It seemed like the kind of project that would take a long time, but apparently the walls had always been around Zion. I guess I know why now, but we'll get to that later. I'd been traveling with my friends in a sort of caravan for a few months by the time we saw her. We crested the hills and saw the city of light. The surrounding area was bathed in lights and color, they had trees growing, grass thriving, I even saw some animals wandering around from the distance. For the past month we'd been following the light and it finally paid off. Just a few more hours, and we'd be safe. It might sound strange, if you're reading this from somewhere you feel safe but that was rare for us. We felt safer when we where all together but safe, safe was rare. I'll admit, I stood there, ogling at the sight for far longer than necessary. That was painfully obvious when Lila swatted the back of my head.
"Lex, wake up hun," She chuckled, "just a little longer, then you can ogle."
"Y-yeah. Sorry, I'm just-"
"I am too hun. We're all tired. Let's go." Lila cut me off amd smiled that smile.
You guys out there know the one, the one that'll melt your heart and make everything fall away. Lila, Lilac to everyone other than me, was the closest thing I had to a wife. It wasn't legal since priests don't really exist anymore and the paperwork is completely pointless, all things considered. That didn't stop me though. She and I talked about getting it legal when everything ended, I'm pretty sure she was just joking since we knew this wouldn't end but that didn't stop me. I grabbed every legal book we came across to figure out what I needed. At the time we found Zion, she still didn't know about my little collection. I collected myself and followed after Lila, her black hair whipping behind her as the wind pushed past us. My own hair had gotten a bit long from time, I use a hat to keep it mostly under control. The walk towards Zion seemed to take longer now, those last few miles felt longer than the whole trip.
"Lila, what'd you wanna do when we get there?" I asked as I caught up, reaching up to straighten the hat atop my platinum blonde hair.
"Oh hun, you know I'm goin' to the bar." She smiled at me as she spoke, her freckled face forming every word.
I laughed and brushed a bit of her hair back behind her ear as Rendel caught up to us.
"Can you guys flirt when we get inside? You walk slower when you're flirting." Rendel was a bit younger than us, we picked him up along the way to Zion and he's been a great addition.
"I'll flirt with my wife when I want to." I sternly but playfully stated.
"He's right hun, let's save it till we get inside, I'll make it worth the wait." Lila winked as she grabbed my hand and kissed one of my knuckles.
"Ew." Amy chimed in from a few feet back.
Amy was older than Rendel but younger than us, a real punky gal, very much a tomboy. Since you know everyone elses name, there's two more in our group. Neither of them said much, you'll learn why soon. Emma walked in the center of the group, where she normally did. She's mute so we keep her in the middle so if something happens the others can give a warning. Emma was an old friend of Lila's and so she stuck around us most of the time, but she has a real soft spot for Ralph. Speaking of whom, Ralph was walking right beside me, as always. Ralph was my German Shepherd, never left my side. Had the little runt since his mama left him at birth. He's been all mine. A dog is a massive moral boost, I'll tell ya that much. Since you know everyone's names, I'll tell you how old we were. I'm twenty eight at the time of us finding Zion, Lila is thirty, Rendel is just hitting twenty, Amy is twenty five, Emma is thirty two, and little Ralph is six. I'll give you more details about how we all look later. The hours leading up to Zion eventually came to an end, we had finally reached the gates, and for the first time in a long time; we turned out own lights off. The light from the city was more than enough to keep us safe here. Lila sighed that sigh of relief we all had, and we came closer.
"Hold. You all together?" One of the two guards held a hand out to stop us, his rifle held firm in his other hand.
"Yes sir, been on our way for a few months now." Lila answered, she had a habit of being the talker.
"What's your business here in Zion?" The guard visibly relaxed as he spoke.
"Well, I'm sure you can relate to how tiring life can be, we're lookin' for a good place to lay our heads." Lila threw on her signature smirk.
"Alright ma'am, you and your group may step through, there's a processing office just inside." The man leaned over and pointed out the office for us before leaning back.
"Thanks-a-million." Lila sauntered past the guards and motioned for us to follow along.
Follow we did. It wasn't long until we got to the line in the processing building. The chairs certainly helped, although I had to constantly check on Rendel and Amy to make sure they stayed awake. The road was hard on us, I don't blame them. I was surprised when Lila ended up shaking me awake.
"Get up sleepyhead. we're next." She kissed my forehead and helped me up as I wiped my eyes.
"When did I fall asleep?" I asked groggily.
"Eh, maybe fifteen, twenty minutes ago. Didn't have the heart to wake ya." She pressed herself against me and giggled before pulling away and sighing.
"Next." The woman at the desk said plainly.
we all stepped up and filled out a few forms and had our pictures taken, they even gave Ralph a few shots and treated us all to a free meal as a welcome. Once we finally got out we had a slip for a month of free stay at an inn near thr entrance.
"We've got a place to rest until we find work. Now, let's have some first day fun!" Lila chuckled as we all made our way towards the inn.
It wasn't anything special. It was decent, a good quality for it being free. Turned out Zion paid for the inn to house people who just came to the city long enough for them to find a job and start paying on their own. For the next thirty days, we could rest easy. True to her word, right after we got everything unpacked, Lila moved for the door.
"I'm heading to the bar, Em, Lex, y'all wanna come supervise my oor decisions?" Lila could hardly contain a giggle as she finished.
"Can I be a poor decision?" I responded, to the dismay of Amy and amusement of Emma.
"Maybe if I'm drunk enough." Lila laughs.
Emma signed a few words that Lila smiled at. Thankfully, Lila taught me a bit of sign language so I caught her signing for her not to get too drunk.
"Em, you'll make me tape your hands together." I playfully teased.
Emma rolled her eyes and signed that she would love to some along.
"I'm coming to. Might luck out and score the prettiest girl at the bar." I pulled Lila by her waist toward me as I spoke.
"Oh, you think you've got enough game?" She smirked as she pulled the collar of my shirt.
"Nope, but I can get her drunk." We both laughed at my joke and the three of us made our way out of the door.
"Ralph, you're in charge while we're gone." I added just before I closed the door.
The trek to the bar wasn't very long but we did have a good talk about whiskey and how the bar better have good whiskey. Lila immediately sat at the bar amd asked for the finest whiskey they had available. I took my seat beside her and Emma sat to my right. Emma ended up ordering a fruity drink as her tolerance left something to be desired, I ordered a water as I was now the designated walker. If bothe Lila and I got drunk, ma would have her hands full getting us home but I opted to be nice. Maybe an hour later, Lila leaned over onto me and smiled.
"Hey hun." Her voice indicated she was pretty tipsy but mot really drunk.
"Hey baby. What's up?" I kissed her head and chuckled.
"You know, everyone has a reason to hate these last twelve years, but I got a reason to love em!" She sits up in a moment of clarity, "I got you out of these years. If it means walking through hell to meet you, I'd do it again." She downs her drink and motions for another.
I simply smile as she looks back to me and tells me she loves me, "I love you too Lila. I love you so much." Life in Zion seemed like it was going to be so much better, and it was. For a year. That year was much needed, we got to rest and relax; but all good things must come to an end, right? After a year, the power started failing. It was just a small short here and there but over a month it got worse. Eventually the lights would cut off long enough for Dwellers to grab someone near the entrance, then that fateful day came.