101 Things To Do During The Apocalypse ✓ (BxB)

i. The List

Aug. 3, 2236.

Ringing. Bright lights. That's all I can remember.

    The sounds of explosions still echo through my mind.

     It takes my eyes a little while to fully open.

     I'm laying in an awkward, uncomfortable position.

     I take in air. I swallow. It tastes like ash. It takes acidic. Finally, I'm able to push myself up into a sitting position.

     My ears are ringing.

     "Mom," I begin to call. "What happened?"

     I stand. I almost stumble when I do. "Mom?"

     I grunt in pain.

     There's this piercing pain in my abdomen.

      I look down.

       Well, that's why you hurt, I think to myself. You got impaled by a piece of your own bed frame. You really got fucked over there, Bradley.

       I groan. "Great," I rasp. "Just what I fucking need." I exhale. "Mom!" I call again. I stumble to the door way. "I think I need to go to the hospital!"

       I still get no response.

       Strange, I think to myself.

      I continue on through the house, biting my tongue to drown out the pain.

      Finally, I can't take it… and I get ballsy.

     I grip my fingers around the metal that's protruding from my abdomen and rip it out of my body.

      I scream loudly—-louder than I ever have before.

      I let the piece of metal bed frame clatter to the ground.

       And strangely, my mom doesn't run up to me to see what's wrong—-she doesn't even yell to me from the living room and tell me to be quieter.

     "Mom?" I call, clamping my hand to my bleeding wound. "Mom!" I begin to sound concerned.

     I race to the living room.

    There's my mom on the couch. She's got her headphones on.

     I breathe a sigh of relief, which hurts. "Mom…" I begin, softer now. "I was concerned something had happened…. You didn't answer me." I wince. "It's good to know you're okay… but, I uhh… think I need to go to the hospital…" I trail off. I notice a fly buzz by. "Mom?" I place my hand on her shoulder and shake.

     She doesn't respond.

      I walk over, so I'm in front of her now.

     Her eyes are sunken in.

     I place two fingers on her neck. "Come on, come on," I begin. "You gotta have a pulse. You just gotta."

      After a few minutes have passed and I still have found nothing, I collapse, my head on her lap and just bawl my eyes out.

      ─┉─¡! • !¡─┉─

      After a few days pass and I still don't hear any cars on the street and there's no sign of help, I realize what's going on.

       It's the apocalypse, I think to myself. I exhale.

       The apocalypse… It sounds fun to a kid who's just watched a dystopian movie, but to a seventeen year old boy who's been trying to put out his applications to colleges? Not so much.

     I sit in silence on my bed for a moment before I let my gaze drift toward the window.

     Smoke is still drifting through the roads.

     The city is still quiet.

     My gaze drifts toward the figures on my shelf—-seeing those reminds me of something.

      I get off the bet quickly, sending pained signals throughout my body.

     I reach under the bed, digging through a fuckton of items before I grab a folded up piece of paper; I unfold it, neatly.

     "Bradley Fujioka's list of 101 things to do during the apocalypse," I read. I wrote the list when I was in sixth grade—-in the height of my zombie obsession. I look through the list and sure as shit, there's exactly 101 things.

     "Guess I'll have time to do these." I stand, grabbing my jacket and sliding it on. I head to the door. "It is the apocalypse, after all."