Exile

Chapter 4 - I Almost Died

Work went as usual. Some of the kids are almost ready to leave. They only have stay for three years. Their parents can visit whenever they want to of course as long as a staff member stays with them. I was 14 when the first flare hit and I remember those three years in the hospital. When you got used to the air that was in the room you were moved to a room with worse air and it just kept repeating. Thankfully, you get to leave the hospital to finish the last stage of conditioning.

On my way home I look around. This used to be Chicago. The Windy City. You couldn't go a day without being asked where the Sears (Willis) Tower is by a tourist. I'm surprised the tower is still standing. I thought one of the flares for sure would have knocked it down.

The world ended a while ago and it's complete anarchy. Everything went to hell so fast because the flare knocked out the satellites out of orbit; which meant no cell service (which as you know a lot of people rely on). The Navy was probably more useless then the people on the news. All they did was attempt to take over small towns to gain numbers. The people quickly rebelled. Along with all the protection we thought we had, the flare destroyed all the trees which made our oxygen terrible, the rivers are all polluted. And there were always more coming. We didn't know when but there was at least one every month. After the third one people just went 'fuck it'.

The stores were raided quickly. The medicine cabinets locked tightly. Any weapon that could be used was. Honestly, with all the news people covering the whole thing via cable TV, you could've thought zombies were making use of the brains they were eating and were taking over the world. Eventually everything subsided and people began to accept the world as it was. Earth was dead. Or... nearly so.

Coming back to reality, I realize I walked past my door. I turned around and in doing so accidentally made eye contact with some guy. Shit. Wide eyed, I quickly look back down and turn around to jog back home. I hear his foot steps thudding behind me. I speed up, quickly going over if I had anything of value on my person. Nope. I hadn't received my pay check, I had no jewelry of any sort, and my clothes may as well be from a lost and found box. Out of the corner of my eye I see my door coming up. Since it's an apartment, only the door to the actual room is locked not the front one. I speed up a little more bringing myself to an almost run. I felt a massive hand clamp onto my shoulder and spin me around. I was face to face with the guy. He had at least a foot and a half on me. He looked like he could be a professional wrestler. I was screwed. I never thought I'd die because of eye contact of all things. Without thinking I step on his foot. In the split second between doing it and his reaction I thought; 'That was either really brave, or really really stupid.' To my surprise the attack was a success. He let go of me and I bolted straight for the door. I ran up the stairs faster then you could say 'I almost died' and shut the door with considerable force.

Somewhat safe in my apartment, I relaxed. I scoured around the place looking for something to eat. I was running short but I get my pay check in a few days. It was about 6 so I had time to do nothing. I remembered my camera. A Cannon 100. Very expensive but I raided it so you could say it was free. I opened my window to enjoy the only thing that I liked these days. Photography. I took a few pictures before retreating back behind the window. I looked at the pictures I took and picked my favorites. I only had 2 memory chips. I kept 2 pictures every time. If we ever get out of this at least there's something to go into the history books.

With a sudden realization I remember that I have a date with Belle tomorrow. I brush my teeth to make the job easier in the morning and I 'shower'. I find leftovers from last night's dinner and eat that. Even though it doesn't seem like it should be, it's 9 o'clock. I change into something more airy because it's summer and go to sleep.

What's Belle going to gain from me?