Forgetting the Apocalypse

14. Fredi's Journey

Fredi's pov*

*Flashback to nine months ago

I don't know what makes me feel older. The ache in my feet, the one in my back or the fact that I'm the only one over thirty working here. Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I've been working here since I was actually thirty years old. But these kids here, man can they get pretty loud. It's like you guys still have all of your hearing, shockingly, so why you gotta scream? But that's just the only old man complaint I have for them. They're not bad though. They all call me pops, and on occasion they invite me when they go have drinks.

Lately however, we haven't gone out for anything.

Everything was closing down. Bars, restaurants, malls and other stores, all of it basically gone. Our restaurant was one of the few that was still open. Only thing was no dinning inside and it was all done with online orders. Slowly but surely, they had to start letting people go. Not enough money to go around to keep everyone staffed. I was one of the last ones to go before we officially got shut down. My last paycheck was only $276. That's all I made these three weeks.

Oh well. Nothing that I can do about it now, except enjoy a few moments of early retirement before I look for another job. Any job that is hiring right now. Otherwise it's filing for unemployment.

First week was a blast. All I did was play video games all day, specifically Madden, like when I was a kid. It was fun for a while. Second week I was bored out of mind. I had updated my resume and sent it out to almost everything. Literally no one was hiring. So reluctantly, I began my process for unemployment.

Third week was pure anxiety. I did my grocery run, worked out to try and ease my stress so it wouldn't turn inward but it wasn't working much. I still hadn't gotten a reply from those people and now my rent was coming up. All at the same time news reports were coming about people all over the world attacking each other.

"We are now getting reported incidents coming in from Seattle where another thirty cases have just popped up that people are getting viciously attacked by their neighbors and being eaten..."

I stopped what I was doing in the kitchen to turn around and look at the tv. Did... did she just say that they were being eaten?

".... This unprovoked wave of aggression is only rising. We have now received word that Houston, Boston and New York are experiencing several hundred cases in the past two days. Family members, friends and neighbors are attacking and eating one another. We understand that is hard to believe and grasp. Those who are showing these signs cannot be reasoned with. The CDC haas been contacted and are now conducting tests and research to determine the cause."

I stopped hearing after a while because there was no way that any of that was correct. It's not possible. It couldn't be. I mean cannibalism is sick in its own right, but it's not like it's a disease that can be transmitted or contagious. Right?

It just means that you eat people. It doesn't mean you get all violent and psycho on others. Granted you're a psycho if you eat another human being. It isn't something that you just start doing, especially to your family and friends. Even The hills have eyes and Wrong turn there was time period where it it gradually happened not just something out of the blue. None of it was making any sense until my friend Adrian from work came over that I realized that it wasn't exactly cannibalism.

I heard the knock at the door sometime at around nine o'clock. Opening the door, I see him. "Hey man, haven't seen you since we got let go. How you been? You don't look so well."

After letting him in, I go to the kitchen and offer him a glass of water. I'd offer him a beer but he looks like he's seriously dehydrated.

"Uh, well I've been better that's for sure. I thought being let go sucked. But a week later, I got mugged by this crackhead and this crazy son of bitch bit me." I looked at him in shock. "I'm sorry, he bit you? Like with his teeth?" Well no shit Fredi how else do you bite somebody.