To Suffer Without Dying

Ch: 5 All Is Silence

Mikhail

We fell. Down. To the ground. It was longer than I expected. I hit the ground first and tumbled down the snowy slope. I couldn't see. I came to a hard stop into an abandoned car. The alarm went off. Standing up with a groan, I tried to look for the others with no avail. I had nothing. My bag fell off when I fell. The bag with the gun in it. The sky was dark and ominous, filled with unseen danger. I had to move. Taking a step forward, I felt a sharp pain in my leg. New blood gushed out of the bullet hole. I gritted my teeth and continued forward. The side road I was on was empty and void of life. Occasionally I would call out for Louis and the others, but I only heard my voice. The trees bordering the road dropped their dead leaves. Dark grey snow fell on top of them, hiding them from view. Smoke slowly billowed from a town a few miles ahead. The wind blew snow off the road and down the hill to the right. I looked down through the grey bushes and saw a partially frozen stream. It was filled with bodies. A sign further down read:

*****CAUTION*****

PLAGUE VICTIMS HERE
DO NOT CROSS

*****CAUTION*****

I turned away and continued forward. There was nothing ahead. The smell of smoke grew stronger. Around a bend in the road, I saw a house in flames. People ran about in chaos. I kept walking and found myself in the town square. People held guns and walked around the pavement. Their expressions were grim. A few jets flew over. The shot a few missiles out behind the town. Suddenly people began to surge into the woods. Men in dark green uniforms ran into the square. The shot a few people down. I ran into a pawn shop and shut the door. Gun fire filled the air. I smashed a glass case and pulled out a sword. It had a brown hilt that was leather wrapped. A soldier broke down the door and tried to grab me. I ran him through with the blade. He collapsed on the ground and I dropped the sword. I ran out into the square. It was chaos. Bodies were strewn around the square. People were screaming. I ran into the woods and didn't turn back.

I came across a neighborhood with many houses that didn't look like they have been broken in to. I walked down the street to the farthest house back. It was single story with a back porch, a brown roof, and tan siding. A series of three gun shots rang out. I walked off the street and attempted to circle around the back of the house to avoid whoever was shooting. There was a body on the back porch soaked with blood. It was a man who appeared no more than 20 years old. The porch had a sliding glass door that was shattered. I stepped cautiously inside. A large piece of glass broke beneath my red converse. A voice called out and I snatched a pistol that was on the ground next to me. An old woman came around the hallway corner leaning on a cane. The gun was shaking in my hands. "Where is Joseph?" She asked me. I quickly moved to block her view of the body behind me which I assumed was Joseph. "He left." I responded. "When is he coming back?" she asked. "I don't know." I said. She reached out and grabbed my hand and said "Don't leave me please." I led her to a couch and sat her down. "Okay." I said. She sat down and read a book while I explored the house. I don't know what I need to do. Do I leave? Do I stay? I'd have to decide soon. "Kid? Where are you?" she called out. Before I left, I glanced at a photo album. A name was on it. Rose. I turned around and walked towards Miss Rose. "Yes?" I asked. " Can you please make me some tea?" I nodded and went to the kitchen. There was a copper kettle on a wire rack above a Bunsen burner that was connected to a propane tank. There was a water well outside so I filled up the kettle and lit the flame. Once it boiled, I put the bag of tea leaves into the water and let it steep.

I gave her her medication until she was out of them. Her condition got worse over the course of the year.

She died on February 15, 2015, my birthday. I buried her in the yard. Returning inside, I gathered my things and left without closing the door.

February 19, 2015

Days had passed. I don't know how many; everything blurred together. I had been walking along a deserted and cracked highway. Empty cars created a wall along the edges of the of the black street. There wasn't any snow or ice on this road for some reason. There might be tunnels underneath that supplied warmth or something. A few hours passed. I came across a few bodies in rebel garb (grey helmet with a scarf attached that covered the face, a grey bomber jacket with a high collar, grey cargo pants and black combat boots). The outfit is nearly invisible if the wearer was in the snow. I dragged the body behind a bus and began to take off the clothes. I took off mine and put the other ones on. Surprisingly, they fit perfectly. I took the pistol holster and attached to my leg, just above the knee, and slid the gun into it. There was a long rifle laying under the bus, just out of reach. I slid under and grabbed it. That's when I heard the static of a radio. I inched forward so I could see where the radio was coming from. A dark green tank like thing moved slowly down the empty street, flanked by Loyalist guards in dark olive clothes. There was a faint click. Massive fireball erupted from the ground with a thunderous blast. The searing heat scorched the front of the bus I was under. My ears rang. When I opened my eyes, the bus has shifted a few feet back from a massive crater that spanned the four lane highway. I slid out from under the bus and fell face first into a pool of blood. I jumped up and fell back into the torso of a Loyalist. I suppressed a frightened scream. My hand landed on the rifle I was getting. I grabbed it and got up and ran away. I found myself out of breath at the mouth of a small neighborhood. The rifle I collected was one of those where you fire one shot and you have to re-cock it. It was fairly inefficient, but it was powerful. I cautiously walked along the empty road. The broken facades of deserted houses glared down at me like stone angels deciding my fate on judgment day. The subdivisions name was Enlightenment Forest...how ironic. The very back of the neighborhood seemed the safest since it bordered a forest. An imposing two story house greeted me. The door was wide open. There was a blood red cross smeared across it as if someone wrote it in their own blood. I waltzed inside and made myself at home. It was kinda chilly inside. Luckily there was a brick fire place with some wood inside. It looked like someone was about to light a fire. As I neared the hearth, a blur of grey flew at me with something bright silver clutched in it's hand. A raised my gun just in time as a bloodied meat cleaver bit into the wooden stock of my rifle. I saw the woman's face.. or what's left of it. Her skin was grey and brittle; she had the disease. Half of her face dangling off in a chunk of rotten flesh. Thin wisps of hair briefly hid her eyes, which were red and crazed. She let out a screech and slammed the cleaver down again. I threw the gun at her and slid backwards across the wood floor. The woman, or zombie, or demon, climbed over the red couch and crashed into the glass coffee table. I reached back behind me for anything I could use. The cleaver flew into the air a she flailed about. I barely rolled out of the way. It cut the leather strap that held my knife to my side. My hand grabbed a heavy bronze candelabra. The woman crawled towards me. I slammed the candelabra into her head. It landed with a sickening crack. I slid backwards against a wall and breathed. Now I had to clear the body. Gross. I dragged it across the street and put it in a trash can.

February 20, 2015

I went on my first voyage into the forest today to gather wood and to try to hunt. It was successful. I caught a rabbit and gathered plenty of wood. it turns out that there is a small college near by with some food and books so I can still get an education in this destroyed world. Most of the buildings had been broken into, but the bookstore was still intact. I smashed a window and walked inside. I grabbed pretty much every text book that was there and loaded into a red wagon that I found. I hauled it wall home and cooked up the rabbit and began to read a book about infectious diseases. I mean, what else am I gonna do?