What Remains of Us

A year ago, a virus spread through the world. Towns transformed into chaos, people doing whatever it took to survive. Hospitals were burnt down, buildings were destroyed, and once enjoyable places were overrun by zombies. Everything was gone.

However, some people managed to survive; they created the safe zone. A small camp on the outskirts of town with high fences and armed guards at the main gate. A place for safety, a place for peace, a place for Milo and Vida.

Milo and Vida have been working together for a month now. Milo was cold and ruthless; you had to be aggressive in a time like this. That’s why he couldn’t stand how optimistic and clumsy Vida was all the time. Even so, he couldn’t seem to get rid of her. He just couldn’t let her go, no matter how much she angered him.

Milo glanced at Vida from across their makeshift camp. She was humming while mending a tear in her sweater. Clumsy, annoying, and way too cheerful for someone in such a dreadful world. He should’ve left her to die when they first crossed paths.

“You’re doing it wrong,” he said.

“Oh? And why do you think that?”

He gestured sharply at the sweater in her hands, his patience wearing thin. “Because that stitch will snap the second you put any weight on it.” With that, he stood up abruptly, grabbed the sweater and fixed it himself, “You’re too clumsy.”

“And you’re too uptight.” She responded, “When is this brooding mood going to end?”

“When everyone else stops being a liability.” He snaps, “When the dead stay dead. When you stop tripping over your own feet every day!”

Finally, he looks back up at her, “It doesn’t end. So get used to it.”

Vida rolls her eyes and walks away, “Whatever, can the brooding at least come to a pause? We need to go scavenging before it gets dark, and maybe move closer to the safe zone?”

He shakes his head but catches up to her.

They reach the entrance of an old grocery store. The door was partially blocked by debris, but they managed to squeeze through. He watches her hop over unnecessary items and shelves. It’s almost graceful until she lands, her boot skidding slightly on the decaying floor.

“Watch your feet,” he whispered harshly. “I’m not carrying you if you twist an ankle.”

Dust hangs thick in the air inside. Shelves are mostly stripped bare, but Milo knows a few hidden spots.

“Stick to the list.”

“Ugh, I hate lists.” Vida groaned.

His hand tightened around the gun handle he was keeping for safety, “Too bad. We need antibiotics and painkillers.”

“Hopefully, we have a nice, easy scavenging this time.”

“Hopefully,” he echoes sarcastically, moving past her to check the aisles. “Now stop daydreaming and help me search.”

“Jeez, Milo, you nag too much.”

“I nag because I am trying to keep us alive,” he says as he tosses a box over his shoulders. “And you’re still alive because I have to watch you every second.” He turns to look at her, “Now, are you going to actually find something useful or just complain?”

Vida throws a can of soup at him, “Useful enough?”

The can hits him square in the chest with a metallic thunk, making him grunt in surprise. “Real mature.”

Vida rolls her eyes before returning to her assigned shelf, “Whatever, are you done? I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, I'm done.” He pauses, “I’m also done listening to your tantrums.”

“Excuse me?” She glares before walking toward him, “I didn’t ask you to help me last month, you know. I would’ve been perfectly fine if you had left me.”

His expression hardens as he leans in even closer, “And I didn’t ask for your smart comments every five seconds.”

“Well, maybe I wouldn’t if you stopped being negative or critical for once!”

“How can I when everything you do is either reckless or annoying!”

Vida pushes him away abruptly before grabbing an old bottle of medicine and throwing it at him. The bottle hits Milo in the shoulder and bounces off, clattering to the floor. He stares at her retreating form as she storms out of the store.

He follows her outside, grabbing her arms and spinning her around before she can take another step. “Are you crazy? There are-” He stops. He hears it. Groaning. Multiple of them. Zombie sounds are approaching fast. “Move. Now.”

“Why do you care, huh?” Vida shouts, “I bet you wish they ate me!”

Milo pulled her closer by her necklace, fury overriding his usual detachment. “Don’t put words in my mouth,” he says before shoving her toward the rusted car. “If I wanted you dead, I would’ve left you on the highway a month ago.”

Vida rolls her eyes before shooting one of the zombies approaching, “You are the most egotistical man I have ever met.”

“Just get in the car, Vida…please.”

Vida looked at him before lowering her gun and getting in the old, worn-down vehicle.

Milo slammed his door. Without a word, he started the engine, quickly moving out of the now zombie-infested area. He doesn’t say anything as he drives, his hands tight on the wheel and his expression stony.

“Why are you mad at me?” Vida mumbled, “I mean, you’re always mad, but you seem angrier than usual.”

He stared at her for a long moment. The engine idles softly, the only sound in the thick silence between them. “I’m fine.”

“Don’t lie to me, Milo.” She placed her hand on his, “You know you can talk-”

“Because you make me insane!” He shouted, removing his hand from hers. “Is that what you wanted to hear? Do you know how tiring it is to keep someone like you safe all the time-”

“Someone like me?”

He took a deep breath, realizing what he said, “I’m just asking you to be more careful.”

“You always treat me like I’m some liability.”

“Because you are! One mistake gets you killed, and it gets me killed trying to save you!”

“Then stop trying to save me!”

His eyes flashed with anger and frustration, “Fine! Next time, I’ll let the zombies have you. See if I care.”

Vida looked at him for a while. “Maybe we should just separate.”

He froze, his face suddenly unreadable. The anger drained out of his expression, leaving him cold and detached once more.

Milo’s hands slowly dropped from the steering wheel. “Yeah, maybe we should.”

Vida attempted to look into his eyes once more, but he turned away. With one final deep breath, she got out of the car, slamming the door. She walked a few steps before turning back to look at Milo, “No matter what, I hope you make it out of this alive.”

Milo kept his eyes fixed downward, refusing to look at her. There’s a long, heavy silence.

“Yeah. You too.”

As Vida walked away, Milo watched her in the rearview mirror until she disappeared from sight. He slammed his fist against the steering wheel, a harsh breath escaping him. He sat there for a long moment before starting the car and driving off in the opposite direction.

Days turned into weeks. Milo managed to find shelter, food, and weapons on his own. However, it was clear his mood had drastically changed.

One day, while scavenging an abandoned house, Milo found a familiar sweater lying on the ground. It was the same one she tried to fix a few weeks ago.

His heart ached strangely as he picked it up, remembering how much she loved the sweater despite its poor job of keeping her warm. He froze before dropping it onto the pavement. He clenched his fist as he realized he drove away the only thing he actually cared about.

No matter how hard he searched, Vida was nowhere to be found. No signs. No bodies. No screams. Nothing.

Finally, after days of driving, he made it to the safe zone. He raised his hands as one of the guards approached him with a rifle. “I’m not bitten,” he said flatly.

“And you are?” The guard asked, approaching Milo slowly.

“Milo. Have you seen a woman here recently? Blonde hair… about yay tall… named Vida-”

The guard shook his head, “No one matching that description has come through here.”

The guard motioned him to enter the safe zone, but Milo’s feet didn’t move. “What if she isn’t there?” He thought to himself. The idea of the person who had been keeping him going this whole time not being safe with him was tearing him apart more than he wanted to admit. His usual stoic mask was cracking around the edges.

He looked over his shoulder, the once familiar town lying in ruins. Smoke was rising from distant fires, walkers were roaming the streets, and gunshots were occasionally echoing. It was a death trap. Everyone knew it.

“You coming in or not, buddy?” The guard asked impatiently.

Milo turned back to the gate, his eyes exhausted and terrified. He hadn’t slept properly since she left. Every shadow was beginning to look like her. Every scream sounded like her. But he knew deep down, safe zone or not, there was no safety without her.

Suddenly, he turned around and headed straight to the demolished town. The guard tried to warn him, but Milo didn't care.

He skillfully moved around the buildings, looking for some sign of her.

A group of zombies cornered him, drawn by the loud noise. He dodged the first one easily before grabbing a broken pipe to destroy the next. He used the weapon to get rid of the rest of the zombies, not even thinking twice, as they fell one by one.

All of a sudden, Milo froze. His gaze locked onto a walker approaching. It was slow, dragging its foot, but glinting around its rotting neck was a delicate silver necklace - the one she never took off. The air left his lungs in a sickening rush.

“No,” he choked out, the pipe slipping from his grip.

He stared at the zombie, his heart stopping dead in his chest. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. The world seemed to turn upside-down. Milo stumbled back, his legs refusing to hold him up. “Please…” he whispered pleadingly, his voice shattering completely. “

Please, no…” he said, as the zombie, or Vida, reached for him.

He raised the gun he kept in his pocket, his hand shaking. Tears welled up in his eyes as he pressed the barrel against the walker’s temple. His fingers hovered over the trigger. He knew he had to do it; he had to live. But every time he looked back at her, a sharp pain ran through his heart.

“I’m so… so sorry.”

He closed his eyes as the shot echoed through the empty streets. He caught the necklace as the body crumbled, the silver chain and pendant resting in his bloody palm.

Milo collapsed to his knees, the necklace clutched in his fist. He broke down: something he hadn’t done since before the apocalypse. Sobbing uncontrollably, he pressed the cold metal to his lips, kissing it desperately like it was her skin.

“Forgive me, Vida.”

He stayed there for a long time, the world silent around him. Finally, he stood. Milo slipped the necklace into his pocket, gripping it tightly.

For the first time since the world ended, he allowed himself to feel everything.

And for the first time, he knew… survival meant nothing if there was no one to live for.