A Girl's Guide To Surviving The Apocalypse

Waiting on Cliff

"Cliff, I made you breakfast, tell me the antidote is coming along well?" I needed to know, the suspense was killing me.

"If it keeps going like this it will be ready in forty minutes." I trusted Cliff on this. He said it so confidently without looking up from his work.

I left the room. I didn't know what I was supposed to do while I waited. I didn't want to tell Tommy. I couldn't get his hopes up just incase the antidote wouldn't work. I needed Cliff to tell me how to make it and for him to make more for everyone else. I had everything planned out. I just had to wait for Cliff.

I played cards with Tommy. We played crazy eights, to fish, and slap jack. I let Tommy win, just like dad used to, before he went crazy. How ironic, he went crazy playing crazy eights. I hated my father, but I loved him.

Time seemed to fly by. I heard Cliff call my name. I entered his room and saw him holding three shot glasses filled with a light blue liquid. Tommy ran into the room and locked the door.

"It's out there." He was huffing and puffing, yes the hallways was very short, but Tommy played read comics all day. He was the one of those naturally skinny people and I envied that.

"Quick drink up." Cliff barely finished his sentence and the bottom of his glass was facing the roof.

"Ava?" Tommy looked at me before drinking his.

I nodded my head and together we took a drink. Cliff started to pack up. We heard something crash into the door. The lock almost popped off. Cliff noticed and grabbed something from under his bed. A gun.

How long has he had that thing? Questions raced through my mind but I silenced them. I was going to get out of there. I repeated that same sentence over and over again in my head until I knew it was true.

The lock broke, the large creature rushed in. Cliff shot him multiple times. It did him no good. I shut my eyes and held Tommy and waited for it to be over. Soon enough it was.

The sound of Cliff screaming picked at my brain for days. I don't know why that thing didn't kill Tommy or myself. We haven't seen it for days. It saved my life, I was going to give up, but it save me. Maybe it wasn't so bad, maybe Cliff was the bad one. Maybe just maybe.

I woke up, I was on the floor. I couldn't move. Something was on top of me. It wasn't Tommy, Tommy wasn't that heavy. It was the thing! It was asleep. I panicked and struggled to break free. It was no use, I had to hope the thing was still full on Cliff. I decided I couldn't take the weight of it anymore. I woke the beast.

That thing wasn't so bad, it gently nudged me then left my room, maybe it was good. I couldn't think anymore. I had to get Tommy and get out of here. We reached for the hatch, spun it 5 times and we could see the sky, but it was only through glass. We were in a dark room and the only source of light was the skylight. It was the first source of natural light I saw in weeks. It was beautiful. It meant I was one step closer to being out of this place.

I found another hatch, this time it had a combination lock on it. Was Cliff trying to keep the zombies out of us in? I wasn't worried about the zombies, I didn't see anything through the skylight. Tommy and I were in complete silence, until I cracked the cover combination.

"Yes!" I celebrated quietly, I didn't get a high five from Tommy or any show of appreciation but I didn't let that stop me.

There was one more hatch, I twisted it several times. I couldn't count how many twists, I was panicking. That thing was trying to get to us. To,my closed the other hatch and I opened the next one. I finally saw the ground again.