AnnouncementThis is the end of what I have pre-written. As a result, uploads from here will be a bit more sporadic. I'll be aiming for one a week but no guarantees on such. I had hoped to have a bigger backlog but with it being exam season that's not been possible. I hope you've enjoyed reading what i've written so far and as always criticism is appreciated.As I had thought, there was *quite* the argument about me going on the expedition. Both Mum and Dad argued that I didn't need to go and that I shouldn't go. Meanwhile I argued that I needed to go, that it would be good for us all. Getting them to see it my way though was proving to be impossible.

  "If I go with them then I can finally get my foot in the door with the scavenging teams! We'd get access to a permanent source of meds for Dad and I'd *finally* be able to scavenge more than just the scraps left behind by the actual scavenging teams!" My voice was raised as I argued with them, I felt completely exasperated with this argument so far. Whilst I'd been passionately arguing my case, it left me incredibly frustrated because I knew that all of my points would just be ignored by them yet again.

  They always made the same predictable arguments, as such, I knew immediately upon seeing Dad start to speak what he would argue, 'It's too-' I started in my mind, successfully predicting what he'd say as Dad continued for me: "-dangerous for you to go that deep into zombie territory! When you're that deep in the middle of Ranton, you're lucky if you can go into a house and not see 3 undead per room!"

  Mum, Dad and even Oliver, my brother, had historically disagreed with both me going out with Lichenbury's scavenging teams as they typically went extremely deep into Ranton, which was the town it resided within. It was here, deep within Ranton where it was the most dangerous. As such, I knew that me telling them that I was going to be joining the scavengers in going back to the house tomorrow would more than likely upset them. However, being as I'd been there once already and it also wasn't very deep into the town, I felt I could possibly alleviate their concerns.

  How wrong I had been. My arguments were swiftly either ignored or dismantled with a series of What If's. "What if the zombies come back? Or the horde returns? What if the creature is still there?"

  Every single one of these 'arguments' annoyed me. Because they were all: What If, What If, What if. I was sick of it, this coddling of any kind of risk. I had almost snapped at them numerous times throughout the argument and yet here I was, continuing to argue over it.

  After a few moments of silent seething, I sighed as I spoke back "And you don't think that there are tricks and techniques to explore those houses and workshops safely? I've spoke to Sal plenty of times, they have tricks to empty houses without a horde following them and they'd teach me them before I go out with them. Going with them back to the *already safe* house will help me get my foot in the door to join them for real."

  Mum spoke up now, looking at me calmly as she said "We're worried for you, this is a big risk that you don't need to be taking. You need to think about what happens if you get bit or killed. You know how that would destroy us all. Not to mention we'd be worse off without you here to help, it's better for you not to take this risk and just py things safe from here."

  I stood up at that, at my wits end as I was about to either walk out of the room in frustration or raise my voice louder. Before I could do so, a voice sounded from the doorway.

  "I disagree Mum."

  I looked over and saw as Oliver walked into the edge of the room. I looked at him, I'd heard him wake up but I was shocked that he came out to defend me. Oliver had rough bedhead on his brown hair from where he'd obviously just got out of bed and slung on some clothes before coming here. He looked towards me as he entered, putting his hands to his side as he then rested his back against the door frame.

  "Jade is right. She found a rge supply of meds, along with the many other things they'll likely find in such a well stocked house. With that in mind, they'd almost certainly be looking at her favourably when they leave. She'd be almost guaranteed a permanent pce in the scavenging teams if she does well here." He paused for a second to let the weight of that sink in. "You two may think it's too risky and I would agree with you normally, in fact you know full well I have in the past." At this point my Dad began to speak, saying "Then you agre-" before getting cut off by Oliver raising his hand, "I'm not done yet." Dad stared at him funnily for a second or two but soon nodded towards Oliver to continue.

  With that settled, he continued "As you know, what me and Jade scavenge is typically the leftovers of whatever Lichenbury and other, more organised scavengers have left behind. That has worked in the past but the situation is different now. Even compared to what it was a few weeks ago. The easily lootable houses have been scavenged dry by us or others, even heading to our usual scavenging locations has been getting riskier as we've had to move those deeper into town. As such I believe that we can't sustainably acquire meds and other supplies safely with just me and Jade going forwards anymore." He gazed down towards his hands for a few seconds, counting something out on them.

  Once he'd finished he sighed as he said to us all, looking us in the eyes as he did. "We'll be lucky if by the time that supply Jade just got us runs out if we have enough meds and things to trade off to st..." His eyes stared Dad specifically in the eyes as he sighed, saying with reluctance "Maybe another week at most and that's being optimistic. Realistically, we'll end up having to go deeper into town for better chances of leftover loot and marginally bigger hauls. We all know that not getting you the meds you need isn't really an option here so Jade joining Lichenbury's scavenging teams would be the best outcome for us here. Especially if they allow her to keep a portion of whatever painkillers she loots, although that would be a stretch."

  Dad stared Oliver back in the eyes and I too looked him in the eyes as I saw Oliver's unrelenting gaze. Dad soon backed down underneath it, his expression filled with guilt for a few seconds as he gazed towards me before turning and now staring Mum down and asking her "What do you think Cra? I'm not a fan of it but... He has a point."

  Mum looked towards Oliver for a few seconds, staring him down for a while before sighing and turning to gre at me "We'll see how things are when she comes back from this one. By the sounds of things, she had already arranged to leave anyway. If things change after the return trip to the house then we'll look things over then."

  I cracked a small smirk in response which was quickly picked up on by her, as she stared at me instead "We're going to have a long conversation about things when you get back from this and I hope you've got answers for us. Such as 'Why did you go above us and arrange this without consulting us?' because to me, that's honestly the worst part about this."

  I frowned for a few seconds as I began thinking over what Mum had just said. She was right that I shouldn't have done what I had, but what was done was done and we'd have to discuss this ter on.

  My thoughts were however interrupted when Oliver yawned, he took a quick gnce at his watch whilst he was yawning, his eyes widening slightly as he soon after pointed out the time "It's about 8 o'clock. We all need to start getting ready to work." He quickly turned around as he went to go get ready to do his work for the day. Mum and Dad both soon stood up and began to both make their way into the kitchen in order to make breakfast.

  I stood up myself and went to do the same when Dad turned around and said "You need to sleep. You've been out all night and the scavenging teams won't be leaving till nightfall. By then, we'll know if you're in or not." I nodded to him as I stifled a yawn. Although I had slept after the creature attacked me, it clearly wasn't a restful sleep as I did feel tired. I waved them off as I headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed, wishing them a good day as I walked off.

  In terms of work, Mum was a carpenter and helped out with fixing our tools as well as assembling any woodwork and repairs. One of the things she'd been mostly focusing on nowadays was getting our crop fields made and ready. Since the zombies only appeared here in the UK a few months ago, we hadn't actually got any long term food sources currently functioning. Our scavenging has been keeping us stocked up on the food we need to live for the past few months but that's been getting more and more scarce as we finished looting the easy to access areas. As a result, we'd been setting up farming as a long term solution that we obviously needed to engage in, alongside trading for supplies.

  Oliver actually worked on the fields and did the pnting, harvesting as well as helping with any maintenance. He often came back with calloused hands and retively tired from the hard bour, he had been training for a career as an stock broker but with the end of the world, he had needed to find another way to contribute. Hence assisting with the farming and learning how to farm. Me and him also did some scavenging together of the houses that had already been mostly cleared and were along safer paths. Whilst nowhere outside the walls was truly safe, we did try to stick to lower danger areas.

  Dad on the other hand helped with fixing up clothes as well as with cooking dinners. He wasn't the best at mending clothes as he'd only been taught the basics but he'd been getting better under the tutege of one of the other people in Lichenbury who was a professional tailor. He seemed to enjoy the tailoring between cooking food. He had always been a chef by trade and had a passion for cooking. As such, cooking food was something he was good at and enjoyed. Hence why he was the dedicated cook for Lichenbury.

  Pushing those thoughts aside, I made my way into the bathroom, turning on and then off the tap as I wet my toothbrush and began to clean my teeth. Toothpaste and other hygiene essentials were still avaible but due to the fact that they would eventually run out, we'd begun rationing them a while ago. People were allowed only enough toothpaste and soap to allow them to brush once a day and wash their hands three times a day. Whilst there had been minor protest at these measures, it was understood that it helped us preserve our resources for the long term.

  The same rationing of course happened with food, drink, clothing, pretty much everything. Dad for one always compined about the ck of spices and fvourings he could use thanks to the rationing. He was used to working as a professional chef and both making and using plenty of food and fvourings. However, he was forced to make do as the food situation in Lichenbury had been getting worse whilst we waited for the first harvest of crops.

  Lichenbury's cul-de-sac was on the outskirts of the town, as such we had some nearby fields that could be used for farming. It took us a couple of weeks to properly clear them out and then recim the fields but we soon enough had them fortified and ready to be used for farming. Unfortunately, none of us were proper farmers even if a few of us were talented gardeners. We also cked the tools to properly till the fields.

  Luckily, we been trading with the military and other settlements for knowledge and tools.

  The military was particurly helpful with this, they had all the knowledge and expertise we needed and sold us some books on how to farm sustainably without access to modern day farming equipment. They even sold us some non-mechanical farming equipment and seeds that we could use for the growing. Generally speaking, the military had been surprisingly competent and helpful to us. Contrary to what movies would have told you, the military was very much active and openly helpful to survivor communities. This wasn't just their interactions with us too as there seemed to be a recurring sentiment amongst some of the other nearby settlements we'd been in contact with too.

  Furthermore, the military often sent teams by checking up on the different settlements. They came about once a fortnight but we'd been told that with the fuel situation slowly getting worse, they were looking at decreasing the amount to once every month or two. They had st came about a week ago so weren't likely to arrive for at least another week or so.

  I sighed as I squeezed the tube, it was nearly empty of paste but I managed to get enough on. One of the things that helped was that whilst there was a limit to the paste, we could obviously still brush multiple times a day without it. I usually used the toothpaste after dinner or before bed. As such, since I was heading bed I'd used the paste. I simply brushed my teeth with the wet brush before taking a sip of water from the tap, rinsing the minty paste out of my mouth and heading to bed. The taps were still functioning thanks to us fortunately having a plumber early on who had rigged our systems to work on our own water supply, rather than relying on the mains which had shut off. That plumber had unfortunately sucuumbed to the virus a few weeks or so ter.

  Putting that grim thought out of my head, I got out of my clothes and into my bed as I tried to fall asleep. I closed my eyes but despite how tired I felt, it was quite difficult to fall asleep. I tried everything I could to get myself to fall asleep, from counting sheep to imagining something nice and peaceful. I thought about our dog Sheba, the adorable little staffie that they were and how much I loved getting into bed and cuddling up to her with her soft fur. Usually people frown at dogs sleeping in bed with you but I loved to let her sleep with us from time to time. I couldn't help but smile slightly at the thought of her.

  However, these memories of better times soon turned bittersweet as I remembered what happened to her. Bitten and killed by a zombie that she had no idea was hostile. She just ran up to it with her typical friendly expression only for it to scratch and bite her. The bittersweet memories of her soon had me sitting up crying in my bed. I missed that dog so much. She was such a silly sausage.

  The worst part about her death was that it was us who had to put her down afterwards. Whilst pets and animals couldn't turn into the undead like us, the infection would still painfully kill them over a few days. So to save her that pain, combined with the bleeding she was already suffering, we got one of the neighbours, specifically Raynor, to put her down.

  A bought of nausea brought me out of my reminiscing as my vision began to swim and my head spun. Soon it was complimented by sharp chest pains, nothing like heartburn, this was like sharp and jagged spikes going through my chest. These pains went on for a few minutes, slowly dissipating over time whilst they left me rolling around in my bed in agony, eventually though they passed and whether it was because of the pains distracting me or something else, I was able to fall asleep.

  Suddenly I felt as though I was trapped somewhere. I was in something hot and sticky, I couldn't see anything and worse yet, I was unable to feel my arms and legs. I even tried to open my eyes but it was as though I had none. Soon I realised that there was nothing that I could see or feel past my skin in contact with this sticky and hot thing around me. I writhed around as best as I could but no matter what I did, all that happened was I felt more of this stickiness around me. As for hearing, all I could hear was a rhythmic thumping noise nearby. It was like clockwork, constant and in the background. Soon after I started writhing around though I felt it speeding up, as if in response. I tried once more to open my eyes but despite how easy it should be, they just wouldn't open, nor could I feel them.

  To make things worse, soon I began to hear a hissing in my head, it was sharp and feral, like nothing I'd ever heard. Except I realised something. I didn't *hear* it. It was just in my head, the noise straight inside of my skull as if beamed there by magic. Worse yet, the gutteral hissing was like cws being dragged along a chalkboard in my mind and mentally hurt to 'hear'. The complete sensory deprivation I was in; the absolute and impenetrable darkness around me, along with no sense of my limbs or my eyes, all whilst being trapped in something hot sticky and wet resulted in something simple. Panic.

  Soon enough I began desparately writhing around in the stickiness surrounding me, achieving nothing but digging me deeper into that fear and panic. Whilst I knew that this was a dream of some kind, I just hoped that I would soon wake up from this horrid nightmare. However, almost as soon as I thought about how I hated this nightmare, the noise in my head abruptly stopped.

  Instead I began to feel some kind of raw emotions flowing over me. Sadness, Frustration and anger.

  In my panic though, I quickly begun to believe that these emotions were directed at me. So I began to writhe around even more, desperation cwing at me as I desired nothing more than to escape this hot and sticky thing that contained me. After only a few seconds of this need to escape of mine, the hissing noise in my mind suddenly showed me new emotions, panic and worry. These emotions I quickly understood were directed at myself. Whatever the source of this voice was, it was worried and panicing *for* me.

  I slowed my writhing slightly as I began to focus on this voice as I felt something coming from it, not so much a word but a desire, aimed at myself. It was a simple desire, it wanted me to *stop*. Nothing more came from it but a command to stop. A command I quickly heeded as I began to focus on the voice, using it as a focus to keep myself from falling ever further into despair.

  As if sensing this need, shortly afterwards, the hissing started again but this time it was softer and more soothing. I slowly began calming down as I felt a new stream of emotions flowing over me. Positive emotions of compassion and love. Once more directed at me.

  I finally managed to begin to calm down from my panic as I curled up into a ball. I spent what felt like an eternity sitting there, curled up in that cramped sticky space, I tried to imagine closing my eyes, despite seemingly cking eyes to close, trying nonetheless in order to bring myself to fall back to sleep. Initially it didn't worked but eventually the noise slowly started getting quieter and quieter and before I knew it, I had begun to slip into darkness once again.

  I was instantly up and standing on the floor next to my bed, I checked the time whilst looking out the window and saw that I'd slept until about 5pm. I clutched my hand to my chest as I felt a dull aching pain there. I didn't know what that dream was about, nor what the source of my recent chestpains and nausea were but it wasn't like anything I'd ever experienced before.