Week 35: A Period of Celebration and Mourning

That first hug from Matthew must have lasted a decade. I just couldn’t believe it was actually him. We had both been through so much to reach that point in time.

Unfortunately the initial celebratory mood of getting Matthew back was quickly doused when Matthew asked how his mom was.  Somehow when I imagined this day, I never thought about having to tell him what happened to his mom. I have been through some tough times, but breaking that news to Matthew ranks up there. And although I have had time to deal with Maria’s death telling Matthew about it was like going through the whole thing over again.

On top of that, there is Brad’s death, still fresh and new. Brenda is taking it a bit hard. She was locked up in the rig the whole time and feels particularly helpless.

We have enjoyed our last few days of zombie free life however. After Jonas ran off, the carriers immediately wanted to go after him. Most of them left right away, but a few including Sarah stayed behind to give us a reprieve until we get back on our feet.

There are some other positive points as well. We inherited a pretty sweet rig from Mike. Figure he won’t need it anymore. This new one seems even more tricked out than the one I blew up. I’ll run down the list of upgrades later, but for now let’s just say it will come in handy.

Mike may have done us one last favor before his demise. Brenda was in pretty bad shape when we got her out of the rig due to the forced methadone withdrawal Mike had subjected her to. I offered to go back to our wrecked U-haul and see if I could retrieve our supply, but Brenda declined.

Seems like she may have made it through the worst of withdrawals while in Mike’s custody and Brenda thinks she can make it without anything else. She is a strong woman and if anyone can, she can.

Matthew has also been through some difficult times and I am so proud of how strong he has been as well. He has filled me in on some of it but it is tough for him to talk about right now. I’m sure as time goes on I’ll understand more of his story. For now, I am just happy to have him back.

Well, starting tomorrow it is just going to be Brenda, Matthew and me so I guess we better start planning out next move.