Restoration

Chapter 1 : Judas Kiss

October 17th, 2015

"Get out of my house or I'll shoot your brains out bitch!" The rifle trembled in my hands as I pointed it at my neighbor's face. All those memories of camping, drinking, and partying together were quickly swallowed by the abrupt forced entry of my neighbor. His once friendly smile had melted into a mug of fear and desperation whilst he held my food and supplies in his arms.

"C'mon man! You have more than enough to go around. Don't be selfish," his shaky voice settled. Slowly he made his way towards me, still holding my essentials. "You're not gonna shoot me Hayden, so get that shit out of my face."

"I'm warning you dude," I said at the same time as I released the safety on my weapon. "I have a family to take care of, and I'm not going to let a coward like you jeopardize that."

"One brother isn't a family, think about my family!" With that he dropped everything and attempted to reach for his holster, but before he could pistol whip me, I pulled the trigger.

The gunshot echoed and rang in my ears. Blood now filled the hallway while brain matter decorated the walls. Kneeling over his hollow face from which sounds of friendship once emitted, I checked my neighbor's body for anything that would be useful. I took his pistol of course. A closet door creaked behind me and instinctively I aimed.

"No!" My sibling shut his eyes with his arms up as if to block the bullet.

"Sorry bro, forgot you were hiding there for a second." I put down my M16 as the adrenaline drained from the situation.

"I thought you were going to shoot me man," he nervously stated.

The house was silent but not peaceful. Dirty clothing that never finished washing wreaked of mildew. Once refrigerated food, now rotting, leaked its putrid stench throughout the house. We kept the windows open for ventilation, but that didn't stop the smell of our dead friends and neighbors from the once quiet community fill the streets. Opened packages of dry food and empty cans littered the kitchen. We still had running water but who knows how much longer that will last.

I ordered my sibling to gather the remaining of his belongings so that we could head out. Only two weeks had past since we had to start fending for ourselves. Our parents had left a week ago in search of food and a new place to hide. However, they never returned. Whether they abandoned us out of fear and crisis, or if they had died, still remained a mystery to us. None of that mattered now though. Now it was just my sibling Adrian and I.

"I'm ready," said Adrian. I nodded and handed him the pistol that I had taken from the fresh corpse in the hallway.

"This isn't a toy, okay? Only use it if you feel that you're in danger. Real danger." Nervously gripping it, he said nothing but I could tell from the dreadful look in his eyes that he understood what was ahead of us. I opened the front door with hesitation, then headed out.

We ran out into the boulevard ignoring the gunshots in the distance, the screams of families in their once peaceful households, and the broken down cars now windowless. At least this generic cookie-cutter modeled neighborhood had some character now.

Once we reached a wooden fence on the edge of the community I gave my brother a boost to jump it as I followed after him.

"Stop!" we heard a menacing voice call out from the other side from which we had just came from. Thunder like sounds roared from the man's handheld weapon which left holes in the fence. We jolted together into the woods and lost the maniac. Not only did we leave behind our childhood, but our innocence.