Grim Realities: Stories for the Faint at Heart

A Rooftop Serenade

clang, clang, clang!

the sound of my boots against steel, the soles giving leverage. bring my leg up, fall, catch myself, repeat. I've done this for over twenty years, yet I feel like a newborn learning how to. I can feel it all, every muscle tensing to pull myself onwards, one step after another. These stairs seem to go on for a while.

after a few more minutes of climbing, I start feeling the chill of a breeze go through my jacket. I was originally planning to practice beforehand at the top of the stairs but a certain clutz left the door to the rooftop ajar. it surprises me how anyone could survive this long doing stuff like this. nonetheless, however, I continue onwards.

"you need to switch out those boots," she says, "they're loud". her voice seemed to echo across the roof, onto the pavement below, and throughout the city itself. the sound makes me stop in my tracks.

"yeah, well at least it's better than leaving the door wide open—begging for infected."

She scoffs, her teeth glistening in the morning light, "Sure soldier, something that can barely breathe is way quieter than those clunky-ass boots. I will keep this information in mind."

I sigh, my breath visible in the air as it dissipates in front of my eyes. this isn't exactly how I thought it would go, but it's better than her telling me to go fuck myself, "steel-toed boots are very much in style, might I remind you. at the very least they'll last a hell of a lot longer than your sneakers."

she chuckles, "here, take a seat," she says. if it weren't for her laughter, I'd never have listened.

my feet carry me toward her without me having to think, and I sit myself down on the ledge beside her. I didn't realize it at first, but we were both sitting inside an enormous hole in a chain link fence. originally its purpose was to stop accidental falls, but presumably, that's exactly what happened. we sat in silence for a few minutes, surveying the parking lot below.

"how do you think this happened?" I hear her ask, breaking the tension.

"Woah, loaded question there. Russian bioweapon, radioactive mutations-"

she interrupts me smiling, "No, ya big dummy! the hole in the fence."

"Well, considering the bolt cutters on the ground over there," I gesture to the ground below, towards a pair of cutters sitting on a dead hedge, "and the corpses, I can only presume some kids ended it all a few weeks after the third wave started. "

"geez, and that doesn't faze you?"

"What?"

"the kids! I mean, the bodies are definitely degraded beyond recognition, but they must've only been teenagers," she says, eyes widening. it was only then, as I looked at her at this moment, that I truly realized how disheveled she looked. hair flying in all directions, face cut and bruised, the dried sweat on her skin. 3 months in and I only now noticed the state of things.

after a few moments of silence, I quietly spoke. "I don't know. I mean, I killed my mother trying to escape from my house. my dad died in a car accident trying to get to the freeway, and since then... god knows the amount of terror I've held witness to."

"well then, let's practice."

"practice what, imagination?"

"why not? it's not like we got anything better to do. here, start with me."

I thought for a moment before speaking, "lemme guess, you were in the mall with some friends before it all went down and you somehow ran away, before being picked up by some strong guy and crying over his eventual demise-"

SLAP!

"let's get one thing straight. I am not some damsel in distress, nor am I some trashy bimbo hanging out in malls all day. this girl right here single-handedly fought her way out of her workplace on the twenty-third floor, eventually getting to the roof and boarding a helicopter before that went to shit, crawled out of the rubble, and walked 4 miles before sitting down with a fractured leg," she said before looking me dead in the eyes, "so sorry if I'm overreacting, but after and couple dozen or so men try and swoon all over you, it gets a little tiring dealing with rich punks like you."

"... I'm not that rich"

She scoffs and looks back to the parking lot. The wind is picking up a little bit, as they cling to their jacket. I'd give her mine if it weren't for the fact I would be cold. What am I doing? Why am I giving it to her, why do I want her to happy after she just flat-out rejected me without me even confessing, why is she accepting it? What is any of this?

"Ok." I start, "Let me try again, on someone else. That zombie over there," I gesture towards a rotting woman in a pantsuit, "she was in a meeting with some parents at the school, and she heard groaning and slamming outside her door. She didn't believe it was zombies and thought some kids were playing a joke on her when all of a sudden she was bitten in the throat."

She remains silent, but she still looks less stiff.

"Uh, ok that fat piece of lard over there. He was in line for school lunch despite him being forty, when he was grappled from behind. The reason his guts are hanging out? Zombies knew he had meat on him."

She smiles slightly, turning into a grin. She smiles wider and wider before laughing hard, so hard she was clutching me for support. After a few seconds of her laughter, I start laughing too, and if it weren't for me knowing better I probably would have fallen from laughter, down to my death. Minutes passed before we finally calmed down, the first time I had laughed in the apocalypse.

"Wow, ok. I don't even know why I laughed, that wasn't even that funny! But, phew, that was the hardest I've laughed in years, last alone during the apocalypse," she says, looking towards the dissipating stars as the sun rises. The golden rays hit her face in all of the right places, making her glow radiantly like an angel.

We sit like this for a while, drinking in the view as the sun rises. The infected below seem to look towards the sun as well, marveling at its beauty.

Time seemed to wiz by, because before I knew it, the sun was high in the sky. The signal of noon above me. I looked next to me, towards the space. She had left, and I hadn't even noticed.

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