Hailey

I loved to watch the sunrise every single morning.

After a little over a year and a half of sharing the world with the dead, it started to get quite difficult to find naturally beautiful things
out there and being stuck inside this town with nowhere else that was safe enough to go you really had to start looking hard.

At first it wasn’t too difficult to spot a deer and watch it doing its own thing for a while – but soon enough someone in the group
would kill it so that we could all eat. Now that we were in the town, animals weren’t exactly in anyone’s field of vision but if you had
the time to walk to all the way to the edge of town that was closes to the forest, and you were really lucky, then you might be able
to spot something out there.

Sunsets are the only consistent, natural, beautiful thing in the world anymore. They can’t be turned, they can’t be killed, they can’t
kill and they certainly can’t feast on the flesh of the living. They’re soft, kind and gentle and every time the sun sets in the late
evening it’s almost as though it whispers a promise of returning in the morning – when it’s time.

I’d gotten out of bed in time to watch the sunrise just like every other morning before taking the world’s quickest shower. After I’d
dried myself off for the most part – I tied my damp hair up into a ponytail and dressed myself in my green scrub bottoms and a
loose fitting tank top before pulling my matching green scrub tee over my head and tugging it so that it sat on my body properly.

Once dressed for the day, I rushed down the stairs and through the house until I reached the kitchen and was greeted by my four
housemates who were already finishing up their breakfast and getting ready to leave the house,

“Whoa,” I chuckled, ducking under Steve’s arm so that I could get to the fridge “Where’s the fire?” I asked.

It took a moment before someone answered me; they were all busy muttering things to one another as they rushed around the
kitchen and the rest of the lower level of the house.

“We got a pretty big build-up last night,” Jo answered me after a moment “Nobody knows what drew them all so close, but they’re
too close for comfort now and there’s a lot of them,”

“The ones that are building up at the fences are already pushing them down and they’re drawing the attention of others and they’re
only making the build-up worse,” Mia added “We have to take them out before they break through and take us out,”

I stayed silent, and just pressed my lips tightly together and nodded at them.

“Are you heading out to work soon?” Steve asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded “Just after I have something to eat,”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I ate breakfast alone because by the time I made something for myself to eat everyone else was already gone for the day.

After I finished breakfast, I tossed my used dishes in the sink and rushed out the front door, not bothering to lock it behind me
since it wasn’t something that people did around here these days. I jogged down the front steps outside the house before taking off
in a sprint – I’d taken longer than usual to eat breakfast and if I strolled to work like on most mornings then I was sure to be late.

On my way across town I passed some of the other residents who were rushing around at the last minute, like me. I also passed
the group of cops who were leaving their house to do their rounds and make sure that everyone was where they should be for the
day.

As soon as I reached the medical centre I sighed with relief, realising that I was just on time. I made my way inside seeing as the
door was unlocked and that meant that Hannah was already here. I walked through the abandoned reception area and into the
waiting room and through it into the corridor that lead to the office Hannah and I shared and further down was the examination
rooms and a small ward where we would keep patients if they needed to be watched overnight.

As I started to walk down the corridor I heard a loud grunt and a crash simultaneously and stopped dead in my tracks and strained
to listen. I could hear some sort of a struggle, and it sounded like it was coming from inside the office so I hurried down to the office
door and tried to barge inside but just walked right into the door because it was locked from the inside. All of the noise stopped and
everything was silent until I spoke.

“Hannah?” I asked “Are you in there?”

“Y-Yeah,” She stuttered.

“Is everything alright?” I asked, concern lacing my tone and a frown on my face.

“Y-Yeah,” She stuttered again “Everything is fine, j-just give me a s-second,”

I stepped back from the door and leaned against the opposite wall and waited. I could hear some whispering and muttering from
behind the closed door but I couldn’t make out what was being said or who was in there with Hannah, but the whispering and
muttering sounded frustrated and angry, that was for sure.

After a few more moments, the office door opened and officer Briggs – one of the toughest, roughest and strictest cops in the town
– stepped out into the corridor with a disgusting smirk on his face while he slipped his gun back into the holster on his belt.

“Hailey,” He nodded as he walked past me.

“Officer,” I nodded back a little uneasily. Something didn’t look or feel right here.

I stepped into the office and closed the door behind me before looking around the room to get an idea of what had just been going
on, and my feeling of unease only grew when I saw Hannah’s scrub t-shirt on the floor just at my feet with a tear right up the
middle. I looked across the room to the desk and saw Hannah on her knees on the floor, her candy jar was smashed to pieces on
the wooden floor and she was trying to pick up the pieces of glad with shaking hands.

“Hannah?” I asked softly, watching her closely while I bent down to pick up the shirt.

She didn’t say anything, she didn’t even look at me, and she just sniffed and continued to clean up the mess on the floor.

“Hey,” I whispered, moving in front of her and getting onto my knees. I reached my hands out and took hold of hers – stopping her
from continuing “What happened?” I asked.

“Nothing,” She answered, a little too quickly “Briggs just wanted to talk about something,”

“If he just wanted to talk then why is there smashed glass and candy on the floor?” I asked, looking down at her hands and
realising that her right palm was bleeding “We need to stitch this up,” I told her “Wrap it and make sure that it doesn’t get infected,”

She let out a breathy laugh and sniffed again.

“I’ve taught you well,” She smiled weakly.

“Hannah, please,” I sighed, standing up and taking her with me “Tell me what happened,”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hannah

The shrill sound of my alarm woke me from my restless sleep with a jump. I sat upright in bed and quickly reached out to shut the
alarm off where it sat on the bedside table.

Silence filled the room and I rubbed my hands over my face for a few seconds while a yawn tore from my throat, before dropping
them into my lap and looking around the room. The whole room was soaked with a light orange hue. A small smile spread across
my face as I remember Hailey telling me how much she loved to watch the run rise every single morning because it reminded her
of how beautiful the world used to be.

With that thought still in my head, I slipped carefully out of bed so as not to make the metal frame squeal too much and padded
across the room until I was standing by the window. I didn’t have any shades to open so I could just stand there and look out
across the town and watch the sunrise for the first time in a long time. This morning’s sunrise was a breath taking display of radiant
colours. Bright streaks of red, pink and orange carefully overcame the dark blue and purple of the twilight sky. All of the colours
blended perfectly into one another and the sun itself was just peeking out of the horizon, and its brilliant rays of already shined
brightly and began to warm the air. I could only marvel at the glistening reflection of the sun on the town as a thrilling feeling of awe
swept over me.

Eventually I heard the shower turning on down the corridor and knew that Erin was awake and that meant that it was time to get
ready for the day. I stripped out of my sleepwear while walking over to the drawers in the corner of the room where I pulled out a
clean pair of underwear and a bra. I quickly put them on and opened the next drawer down and pulled out my only clean tank top,
grey and figure hugging, and my dark red scrub top. I pulled the tank top on over my head and then reached into the bottom drawer
and grabbed a pair of matching dark red scrub bottoms.

I walked over to my mirror and looked at my reflection, taking in my appearance. I hadn’t slept much last night, and whenever I had
managed to fall asleep I had been plagued with nightmares of losing Jamie or Erin to the dead, or I’d have a horrible nightmare that
recalled some of the things we went through before we were found and brought to town… It was a rare thing to get a good night
sleep anymore. After staring at myself for a couple of minutes and taking a mental note of all of the changes that had happened to
my body since the world started to fall, I pulled my hair up into a messy bun using the hair tie on my wrist and then pulled my scrub
shirt over my head and tugged it into place. I looked back into the mirror at my reflection and sighed, deciding that this was as good
as it was going to get and made my way out of my bedroom.

The shower was still running, so Erin was taking the time to wash her hair this morning. I smiled and shook my head, continuing
down the corridor, passed the bathroom until I stopped outside Jamie’s bedroom door. I rattled my knuckles against the wooden
door a few times and leaned against the frame, waiting for a response, but got nothing.

“Jamie!” I called out, knocking on the door again “Jamie, wake up you’ve got class in less than an hour!”

I heard him groan from inside the room followed by the squeaking of his wooden bed frame.

“I’m up!” He called out “I’ll be down in five!”

“Alright,” I chuckled, turning and walking away from his door and down the stairs.

Once I was in the kitchen, I grabbed eggs, milk and bread so that I could make the three of us some breakfast and got to work.

Just as I was serving up the eggs and toast onto plates and about to shout for Erin and Jamie to come down, they both came
rushing into the kitchen. Erin was pulling her hair back and Jamie was running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to brush it.

“You know we own hairbrushes, right?” Erin asked, shoving him playfully out of her way.

“This is easier,” He whined, sticking his tongue out at her.

“That’s enough, children.” I laughed, turning from the counter with two plates of breakfast and setting them down in front of them
“Eat,”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I had been through the back of the centre in one of the practice rooms so that I could set some stuff up for the first patient of the
day, but I was headed back through the building to my office when I noticed him.

Officer Briggs was standing at the end of the corridor with a smug smirk on his face and a mischievous glint in his eyes. Luckily, I
had noticed him before he noticed me so I had a couple of seconds to regain my composure and add my bounce back into my
step and offer him the best smile that I could. Once he noticed me, he started walking towards me.

“Officer!” I greeted as I continued to stride up the corridor “To what do I owe the pleasure?” I asked, both of us reaching the door to
my office at the same time.

“I just thought that I would drop by and make sure everything is alright here,” He told me “I wanted to make sure that you’re little…
student, was behaving herself and really helping out around here,”

“I report to the bosses every month,” I reminded him “Hailey is always included in my reports so they know how well she’s doing,”

I knew that Briggs was the one who suggested to the bosses that they throw Hailey out because she wasn’t of any help to
anyone, and he was bitter over the fact that I had convinced them to give me a chance to prove that Hailey could do a lot of good
for the town.

“Well, I wanted to come over here and check for myself,” He grunted, pacing the office while I rounded my desk and sat down in
my chair.

“She’s doing perfectly,” I told him honestly “Actually…” I trailed off, getting back out of my seat and walking to the filing cabinet
behind me. I pulled open the bottom drawer and found a file that I had been keeping on Hailey and pulled it out “She’s doing better
than I could have imagined,” I said, handing him the file “Take a look for yourself,”

I stood there with my hands on my hips, watching him as he flicked through the file for a few minutes.

“Alright,” He sighed, tossing the file down onto the desk “It looks like you’ve proven me wrong,”

“I guess so,” I chuckled.

I was cut off by his large hand wrapping around my throat and tugging me to the front of the desk where he used his body to keep
me there. I was losing oxygen fast, but I knew that he wasn’t going to kill me because then he would have to deal with the
aftermath. He just wanted to scare me.

“I don’t like to be proven wrong,” He growled “I have more power here than you do, and it won’t take very much effort for me to
have you and your little bitch thrown out on your asses with the stiffs,”

He was ignoring my desperate gasps for air and my nails digging into the skin of his hands and wrists as I tried to break his hold.
My vision was blurring and my knees felt weak as I started to lose consciousness.

“You’re going to give me a little something to keep me happy,” He grunted, moving one of his hands to my right breast “You’ll give
me it whenever I want it, and you won’t scream while it happens and you won’t tell anyone after I’m finished,”

He let go of my throat and took advantage of my moment of weakness while I gasped desperately for the air that I had been
deprived of, and he grabbed the hem of my scrub shirt and pulled it up over my head while I couldn’t fight to keep it on.

I felt my knees start to give out beneath me and Officer Briggs grabbed me, turned me around and bent me over my desk,
smacking my head against the wood, hard, in the process. My vision had barely had a chance to clear from oxygen deprivation,
and now it was blurring even more from the knock to my head.

“You-“ He grunted, and I could hear him unbuckling his belt “You’re just a stupid bitch who’s gonna get what’s coming to her,”

I braced myself and took a deep breath, and the second I felt his fingers slipping into the waistband of my pants I turned myself
around quickly, kicking him in the groin as I went and then I used his brief moment of weakness to grab my candy jar off of the
desk and slam it into the side of his head. I almost knocked him off balance, but he caught himself and lunged back at me again,
knocking me backwards onto the desk, fisting his hand into my hair and slamming the back of my head against the desk, almost
knocking me unconscious once again.

He lifted my head and was about to whack me off the desk again when someone tried to open the door from the outside. He froze
and removed his fingers from my hair and stepped back from me.

“Hannah?” I heard Hailey’s voice ask from outside the door “Are you in there?”

“Y-yeah,” I stuttered, then silently cursed myself for not keeping my voice calm.

“Is everything alright?” She asked with a concerned tone in her voice.

“Y-yeah,” I stuttered again “Everything’s fine, j-just give me a s-second,”

Briggs zipped his pants back up and buckles his belt again, straightened himself out and left the office while I got onto the floor and
started cleaning up the smashed glass of my candy jar.

Briggs left and Hailey came in.

“Hannah?” She asked softly, bending down to pick up my shirt from the floor. I could see her out of the corner of my eye and I
knew that she was watching me closely.

I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t look at her. I just sniffed back some tears that were threatening to spill over, but I jumped a little
when her hand reached out and took mine, stopping me from picking up more glass.

“What happened?” She asked.

“Nothing,” I lied “Briggs just wanted to talk about something,”

“If he just wanted to talk then why is there smashed glass and candy on the floor?” She looked down at my hand and I followed her
eyes and noticed that some of the glass had torn my palm open “We need to stitch this up,” She said “Wrap it and make sure that it
doesn’t get infected,”

“I’ve taught you well,” I smiled weakly, offering a breathy laugh and s sniff.

“Hannah, please,”

_________________________________________________________

Lilly had come over to the centre for her appointment and I could tell just by looking at her that she was more than ready to have
her baby. She looked sore, exhausted and her waddling was worse than it was when I saw her yesterday.

I’d taken he blood pressure, weighed her, poked and prodded around her stomach to feel what position the baby was in and then I
fired up the ultrasound machine so that I could take some measurements of the baby. Once all of that was done, Lilly started to
complain about pain in her lower back that was radiating around to her lower abdomen.

“Can you explain the pain?” I asked, slipping my hands into a fresh pair of latex gloves.

“It sort of feels like period cramps,” She winced, shifting on the bed slightly.

“Alright,” I nodded, moving back over to the foot of the bed “I’m just going to have a little feel and see what’s going on down here,
alright?”

She nodded nervously and laid back on the bed, shifted her hips a little further down and dropped her legs open so that she was in
the position that she had been in a few times before.

I slipped off her underwear for her and gently slid my hand up her dress while keeping my left hand rested on her knee
reassuringly to keep her calm. After only a few moments, I removed my hand, slipped off the gloves and smiled widely at Lilly.

“You’ve started,” I told her confidently and she swallowed hard “You’re in the very, very early stages of labour, but we should have
a new member in town some time tomorrow,”

“Tomorrow?” She asked nervously.

“Yeah,” I confirmed “I’m all finished up here for the day so I’ll walk you back home and fill everyone else in on what’s going on and
I’ll check on you every couple of hours until curfew,”

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Third Person

Hannah did exactly what she said she was going to do, and Lilly hung around for an extra ten minutes while Hannah and Hailey
closed up the medical centre for the night.

Hannah walked Lilly home and Hailey split from them about halfway to Lilly’s house. Once they got there, Lilly climbed the stairs to
go and take a bath while Hannah explained to Lewis, Lilly’s husband, that his wife was in early labour and she told him how to keep
her calm and relieve pain when she progressed enough to be severely uncomfortable.

“What if things move faster than you think?” Lewis asked Hannah as he walked her to the front door.

“I’ll be back in a couple of hours to check on her, and again a couple of hours after that and that should help me figure out how fast
she’s progressing with the labour, but I highly doubt that things will have gotten much further by that point,” Hannah opened the
door and stepped outside into the small yard “If things are moving fast enough to convince me that the baby will be here tonight
then we can move her to the centre and stay there through curfew, but I don’t see that happening.”

Once Hannah left their house, she went home to Erin and Jamie and found Erin making them some dinner and Jamie was lounging
in the living room.

“Hey!” Hannah greeted them both, grabbing herself a bottle of water “How was your day?”

“Fine,” Erin laughed “Class was pretty hectic seeing as every single one of the kids was more interested in watching the Stiffs on
the fences being taken out,”

“Eugh,” Hannah cringed “Kids are so much more morbid these days,”

“Alright, old lady MacDonald,” Erin laughed, making Hannah smile “It wasn’t all that bad, I bribed them with candy and then gave
them extra homework,”

Jamie groaned loudly from the next room at Erin’s remark and the two of them couldn’t help but laugh. A moment later, Jamie
stalked into the kitchen and sat across the table from his sister with a textbook and his homework notebook.

“One of the things that I hoped would disappear with the rest of the world once the apocalypse started was homework, and yet,
here I am, slaving over the stuff when I should be watching TV,”

“Well there is no TV anymore,” Hannah teased, sticking her tongue out at him “So you have to do your homework, and you live
with the teacher,”

“Plus your sister is the boss at biology, being the town doctor and all,”

Jamie was looking at Hannah closely, she could feel his eyes basically burning right through her and she didn’t know why, but it
clicked when he looked down to her bandaged up hand.

“What happened to you?” He asked, a frown tugging at his features.

“Stupid accident,” She lied smoothly “I knocked my jar off of my desk this morning and I wasn’t careful when I was clearing it up,
sliced the palm of my hand open,”

Erin had moved to stand behind him and she was looking at Hannah’s face closely and she pointed out towards her.

“You’ve got bruises on your face,” She said, making Hannah close my eyes and sigh. She had totally forgotten about the shiner on
her forehead from being smacked against the table “Your eye looks a little bruised, too.”

“Hannah, what really happened?” Jamie asked.

“It was nothing,” She lied again “Officer Briggs wasn’t happy about something I said to him when he dropped in to ask me how
Hailey was working out for me and we got into a bit of a fight over it,”

“Briggs,” Jamie scoffed, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

“Was that all?” Erin asked.

Hannah just looked at her, silently telling her that no, that wasn’t all, but she didn’t want to talk about it in front of Jamie.

“Jamie, go to your room,” Erin ordered.

“But-“

“Go to your room,” She repeated, looking down at him as she spoke this time “I’ll help you finish your homework after dinner, just
go,”

With a huff, he got out of his seat and stormed up the stairs. Erin stayed standing until they heard his bedroom door close and then
she sat in the seat that he had occupied just a few moments ago.

“What really happened?” Erin asked gently.

“He really did come in to find out how Hailey is doing,” Hannah told her “He wasn’t happy about the fact that she’s doing perfectly
and actually better than I had expected, so he wanted to take it out on me.”

“What does that mean?” She asked.

“He choked me a little to weaken me, then he bent me over the table and almost knocked me out in the process,” She answered,
reaching up to carefully touch the bruise on her forehead close to her hairline “He’d managed to get my shirt off of me and then
moved to my bottoms but I got turned back around and smashed my candy jar into the side of his head,” Erin looked proud of
Hannah at that comment “He came back at me though, knocked the back of my head off of the desk that time, but Hailey turned
up,”

“She walked in?” She asked.

“No, he had locked the door but she was trying to open it,”

“And that’s when he stopped?”

Hannah only nodded in response and Erin got back out of the seat and rounded the table so that she could wrap her arms around
Hannah and hold her close from an awkward angle and press a kiss into her hair before finishing off cooking dinner.

“Lilly went into labour today,” Hannah said.

“Really?!” She gasped excitedly.

“Yeah, she’s still in the early stages,” She continued “I promised her and Lewis that I would check on her every couple of hours
until curfew just to see how quickly things are moving but I don’t think the baby will make an appearance until tomorrow,”

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The first time Hannah had gone back across town to examine Lilly, she realised that things were moving along much faster than
she had assumed.

The baby wasn’t ready to be born yet, but Hannah wanted Lewis to be able to get in touch with her if things moved even faster and
she was needed before she went back over in two more hours, so Lewis borrowed a spare pair of two-way radios from the bosses
and tuned them into each other so that Hannah could be contacted quickly – also she would be able to ask questions over the line,
and nobody else would be bothered by them talking to one another.

Hannah was sitting on her bedroom floor, looking through the things that she had taken from the safe back at home – family
possessions, and she was twiddling her father’s wedding band between her fingers when Lilly’s voice came through the radio.

“Hannah?” She asked, sleep lacing her voice.

“I’m here,” Hannah smiled into the radio “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” She told her honestly “Lewis was called down to the fences and I just needed someone to talk to,”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Hannah chuckled, putting the wedding band back into the bag with all of their other things “How are you
feeling?” She asked.

“My contractions seem to be stronger but they’re not getting any closer together,” Lilly yawned “I’m just…”

“What is it?”

“I’m scared,” She admitted with a small laugh, and Hannah could tell that Lilly was crying “I’m so scared that this is either all going
to go wrong, or I’m not going to be able to protect my baby from the world anymore,”

“Lilly,” Hannah breathed “Those are completely normal concerns for every first time mother,”

“In the old world, sure, but now… with what’s out there I just don’t know if I can do it,” She took a breath “I mean, how long can this
place really hold up?”

“You can’t think like that,” Hannah told her “Your baby is going to be in your arms so soon, and you’re going to be the perfect
mother and I just know that you will do whatever it takes to make sure that your child is safe… no matter what,”

“Can you promise me something?”

“Anything,”

“You’ll take care of them if anything happens to me,” Hannah stayed silent “If something happens to me during this, I need you to
promise me that you’ll look after them both,”

Notes

So, this has been a long time coming but I was distracted with some of my other stories.
Forgive me!!

There shall be more to come over the next few days, enjoy!!

- LMV