Floor 31

Chapter 6

Everyone tried to make this apartment feel like home. Although trying wasn't enough. The room reeked of smoke and rotten flesh. They had cleaned the zombie up but the lifeless monster lied still on the ground next to them. It was a reminder of what the real world was like.

Clara and Alexa were able to get the stoves up and running, even the water worked. People took turns taking showers but Alex was the only one that had taken a shower, most people were scared of the bathroom. It was connected to too many drains and pipes. Zayd sat in the corner reflecting on the events that had happened. His fear was shining through everything. Kai was looking for supplies, collecting any food and clothes. Filling up bottles of water and searched for anything that could be useful in the future. Dream was sitting quietly on the floor, cleaning and creating weapons.

"You good?" Kai asked Dream.

Dream looked up at Kai. She had been so focused on her weapons she didn't notice that Kai had been staring at her the whole time. Kai handed her a cup of water.

"You look... dead."

Dream chuckled. "Yeah, not exactly feeling very alive. Thanks for the water."

Kai sits next Dream and leans on the wall. "Crazy isn't it. What the world had become."

"Yeah. So quickly, too. It's like the whole world is ending."

Kai sighed. "Sometimes I think about it and wonder. What if we're the last humans on Earth? What if this is the last standing building? What if the world really is ending? But there are people coming to save us, so we should be fine."

"Do you really believe that?" Dream asked him. "Do you really believe that we'll get out of here alive?"

"Maybe I don't believe it, maybe I do. But it's better to hope, yeah? Someone sent Alexa a message, that means someone else is out there."

"I don't believe it." Dream replied bluntly.

"Why not?" Zayd asked from the other side of the room. "I mean, it has to be real."

"Would I be crazy to say that I think someone's trying to kill us? Would I be crazy to say that I think someone made this virus to kill us?"

"Yes." Zayd replied. "Are you listening to yourself? Do you really think this virus wasn't airborne?"

"Then let me ask you something. If it was airborne, why are sea creatures affected?"

This question troubled the teenagers. No one wanted to answer it because they already knew the answer. They had all wondered the exact same question but were too scared to answer it.

"Maybe a sea creature was bitten or something." Zayd stuttered, searching for an excuse.

"So now the whole ocean is infected now because they were bitten. We all know that isn't right. Something isn't adding up here, I just think you all don't want to admit to it."

"What are you suggesting happened, then?"

Dream sighed. "Honestly I don't know what happened but I do have a theory. I think that some scientist made this virus to kill us."

"What?!" Everyone said in unison.

"I think that some crazy scientist out there wanted humanity dead to protect the Earth. I mean it'd probably have made more sense in his head. Think about it, humans are the Earth's main destroyer. Pollution was made by humans, deforestation was made by humans, all of these things that are killing the Earth were made by humans. It isn't completely crazy to want everyone dead."

No could deny the fact that Dream had a point. No one exactly believed her theory but she did have a point.

"Let's not focus on this, let's just focus on surviving. Everyone, go to bed now." Alex ordered.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Only Dream didn't move, she sat still on the floor. Everyone found this strange but Kai told them to not worry about her. Despite meeting her not so long ago, he felt like he had a responsibility over Dream. He had to make sure no one would ever hurt the poor girl.

...

"Kai, are you awake?" someone asked.

Kai jostled awake. He was a light sleeper, anything could wake him up. Kai rubbed his eyes before opening them to see Dream sitting in front of him. Her shining diamond eyes staring straight into his.

"What?" Kai asked, slightly surprised to see Dream.

"Look."

Dream pointed outside the window to the broken and collapsed buildings that covered the streets with dust. Zombies and monsters roam the lands, unable to detect the presence of 6 teenagers. Kai stared at the streets for a second. He was always sort of scared to see what has become of the world in just a few months. Vines are growing on buildings, dust is collecting in every corner and the world seems so... empty.

There was no life or atmosphere in the scenery. Nothing to call beautiful, nothing to call pretty, nothing to call even annoying. The world has become something that humans fear. Humans fear Earth now because they're no longer the strongest species of life. Before, humans had so much control over what happened. Some humans more control than others but everything that ever happened to Earth was mainly because of humans. But now they had competition, they had something that everyone fears. They no longer had control of the world, they are just prey to the new predator. They are peasants to the new royals. Life was no longer a game of living, it's a game of survival.

At first, Kai didn't know why Dream had woken him up. He didn't see anything special about the scenery through the window. But then it hit him like a bomb. He tried to hold his shock for just a second, he tried to contain himself. He stared at it, gazing into the depths of the night. Dream's eyes followed him, she knew he had seen what she was supposed to show him.

A body. A dead body. Fresh but lifeless. Pools of blood surrounded it, attracting more and more zombies.

"It's a child." Dream commented.

"I know. That's so sad."

"She must have been less than 10 years old. How did she even survive?"

"Maybe she had a family that just died so she went outside or something."

"Maybe."

Dream and Kai didn't say anything more than that. Both of them didn't exactly know how to start a conversation. They just stayed silent, staring at the remains of the child's corpse as it was ripped apart my zombies.

"Go to sleep, Dream. Get some rest, you'll need it."