WHEN DUSK TURNS TO DAWN
BY Nayus
Jack woke up by the sound of the beeping of his alarm clock; he slowly opened his eyes and looked about his room. With a sigh Jack sat up and stretched and yawned then went to his dresser and pulled out an old worn out pair of dark blue jeans and a black shirt. He went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror and stared at his reflection. Jack looked older than his age and his maturity matched how he looked, he had medium length jet black hair with a few strands of golden brown hair peppering it. The mustache and beard he had shaved off about a week ago had grown back already and needed to be shaved off. Jack picked up the shaving cream and smeared it across his face where it needed to be shaved. He then turned on the water and took the razor to his face and pressed it against his skin and pulled the razor down cutting the little hair stubble.
After he finished shaving he looked back into the mirror and felt along his jaw to make sure he got everything. Jack left the bathroom and headed down the stairs to the kitchen where he opened the fridge and let his eyes wonder around in it. He reached in and grabbed a beer at down at the table only a few feet away. Reaching for a large book jack he noticed an empty seed packet on the table and remembered that he had a garden and he stood up and walked over to the window and peeked through the tightly shut curtains and saw the sun slowly rising above the empty apartment buildings towering across the street from him. Jack took down his black hoodie jacket and threw it over his shoulders and went out the back door to his garden, he strides over to the little patch and rummaged around till he saw the beginnings of some squash and cucumbers. He then stood up and walked over to the two little grave stones at the edge of the woods; jack knelt down and sat between the two head stones. One read "Emilia Lee Rockwell, 2011- 2036" and the other "Annabel Rose Rockwell 2031- 2036"; he sighed and drank his beer letting the memories of his ex-fiancé and his little girl.
Jack sat there till he finished his beer and went inside to grab a gun from its case. He walked to the roof and sat down near the ledge of the roof and looked out toward the woods through his scope "you know what I hate the most" he said to himself "is not having anyone to talk to". At that moment he saw a flash of white through his scope, he thought that it might have been an infected but there was something different about it...."ITS A GIRL!" jack yelled realizing she wasn’t infected and leaped from his chair took his gun and ran downstairs into the forest where he had saw the girl. He looked frantically around and saw the small pale lump of a girl lying in the grass, jack walked to her and realized she was very skinny and completely nood. He through his coat over her and picked her up and took her back to his place, when he got home he examined her to make sure she wasn’t injured or.....bitten...."she’s fine"....he said to himself and went up stairs to his old fiancés/his room and got some clothes "she looks about this size...hope she likes it. He took them over to his daughter’s room where her had put the girl and was surprised to see her up already looking around the room. "Oh im sorry!" he quickly closed the door. Through the door he heard the girl sorta giggling "no its okay. Here im decent now". Behind the door the girl had wrapped a towel around her so she'd be covered up. Jack slowly opened the door and walked in with a handful of clothes "here I brought these for you I think they'll fit, what would you like for dinner?” the girl took the clothes and looked at him a bit funny. "Do you have any meat?" she finally said. he looked back at her and then turned and walked out "dinner will be done in an hour, there’s a shower with hot running water just down the hall." he went down the stairs soundlessly and heard the pounding feet of someone in a hurry to get somewhere then he heard the shower water going and smiled a bit to himself.
Jack started on dinner and whipped up a couple of steaks some potatoes and Mac 'n' cheese he looked behind him and saw the girl drying her hair with a towel and he noticed that she looked a lot healthier after the shower. "Hope you don’t mind steak and stuff" he said trying to be a little funny, jack picked up the two plates and set them on the table. The girl sat down in front of one and began to chow into it. Jack didn’t blame her she looked very hungry when he found her "so uhm.....do u have a family or something" he asked softly. She took a drink of soda and said "no they were all bitten". They sat there in silence for a great deal of time and ate there food with out saying another word the rest of the night. In the morning jack woke up and walked into the kitchen and smelled an over whelming smell of burnt smoke and wasted resources. "What happened"? the girl flew open the windows and turned on some fans "im so sorry I was trying to make you breakfast and have it be a surprise, since you were so nice and made me food and saved me out there" she rubbed that back of her head "but it didn’t work out to well...I blacked out and woke up to it burning...im so sorry".
"ha-ha its okay lets just get this smoke cleared out" Jack opened the windows on the ceiling with a push of a button and the smoke cleared out "smoke always rises up" he said to her "I didn’t even know thoughs were up there" she said sort of amazed. 'Its okay but that was the last of the meat so im gunna have to go out and hunt, ill be back before the sun sets. So uhm I have movies you can wat-" she cut him off "I want to go with you! My papa taught me how to shoot and gut animals before....you know". jack sighed and nodded his head "alright if you do good on this round ill take u hunting every time we run low, we need to shoot a least two deer or a deer and a moose" the girl nodded her head. Jack handed her a rifle and took one up him self, they loaded rounds in and brought a few extra in a bag and jack picked up a small hand gun for extra needed protection. They got on the four wheeler and drove off into the woods, after a while driving they stopped at the edge of and open meadow in the middle of the woods. Jack turned to the girl and studied her for a while as she got off the back of the quad and got her gun ready and loaded, he shut off the ride and hopped off too and as the girl did got his guns ready for the hunt. "So...if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?" Jack said as he slung the rifle over his shoulder. "Uhm ill be twenty-two this Saturday," she turned to him "since you asked me imma ask you."
Jack smiled and scratched the back of his head well im twenty-three will be twenty-four about a month from today". She friendly punched his arm "no shit, were like the same age almost two years difference" they both laughed a little and went though the woods on foot to a tree stand. There they climbed up in it and hunkered down and waited for a deer or moose to walk by. About three hours past and jack was about to doze off when a loud rifle shot rang out from beside him and he jerked around to see what on earth the girl was shooting at, and when he did she was already on the ground making her way to a moose cow she had just shot. Jack hulled down the ladder and ran over to the girl "wow u waste no time on getting that thing gutted do you". She was quickly gutting the moose and throwing its inside off to the side far away from there hiding spot "they like the smell of death so I have to be fast". Once she was done they tied the moose to a rope and hung it far up in the tree where nothing could get it and they settled back in for another kill. This time it was jacks turn to shoot, he took aim and right through one and into another he got a doe and a buck. Jack and the girl climbed down the stand again and each took a carcass to gut. A little after they got done jack ran to the quad and the girl and jack started to load up the back trailer with the kills and drove off for the house.
