When the Sun Fell

Chapter 4 - Alone

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IMPORTANT!!!
Please read the author's note at the end of the chapter.

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Joel

I killed something. It hadn't hit me until then, but that... Infected... It was dead because of me. It was the first one I killed. I knew I had killed a man a few months back, but he had almost killed me first, and I had suffered through all kinds of guilt for at least a month afterwards. I could have run from the Shade, though. It had a family somewhere... I wondered if they were off somewhere, waiting for him to return. A wife? Kids? Abandoned entirely, because of me. Sure, something else had bitten him... and I needed the practice anyways, but I could have just run away. And I didn't.

Tears began to flood my eyes as I stood, a half-open can of dog food for Shiska in my hand, and sobs began wracking through my body. Lauren had taken Shiska out to scavenge, so I was left to face this horrible truth alone. It hurt, but I really had to toughen up if I was going to make it through this. I mentally scolded myself, wiping the tears from my face and looking up only to see that they weren't just tears, but it had begun to rain, matching my mood perfectly. But I still needed to focus. The Shades weren't people anymore, they were deadly creatures with a taste for blood. I sighed as the truth hit me. It was a dog-eat-dog world out there. Kill or be killed.

Doing what I had learned to do so well from my past, both pre and post apocalyptic, I bottled up everything I felt for the dead Shade, pushed it to the back of my mind, and let more helpful and practical thoughts settle in my mind. It had been about a day since we were enveloped in darkness, though gauging time was becoming increasingly difficult. Me and Lauren both had dealt with the fact that we would never see the yellow light of the sun again, and were coping well, although our movements and instincts were slow and cautious, as if we were trying to keep ourselves sane.

Well, I thought, if Lauren's going to scavenge, I may as well put myself to good use as well. I took the tattered leather jacket my father had given me for my 15th birthday and slung it over my shoulders. The darkness engulfing the world had eliminated any and all heat from the air. I knew it wouldn't be long before the earth began to freeze. Not to mention the absence of the gravitational pull of the sun. For now, and probably for many Earth years, the planet would be suspended in space drifting slowly towards the black hole created by the death of a great star. I had always thought people would be the death of the world, but with or without us, it was being drawn towards it's utter demise.

The walk down the avenues and streets was frigid and dark, but it would be worth it if I could find what I was looking for. And sure enough, right where I'd last seen it more than a year ago, Anderson's Drug Mart stood firm beside the mass of broken and crashed cars that had accumulated on the corner of 16th ave and Park street. The windows, surprisingly, were intact and glints of the green-grey light just barely produced by the infected sky escaped from their surfaces. The door also seemed to be in good condition, but the chilled metal handle proved to be locked. I sighed, knowing my next action would cause quite a loud noise.

Using my elbow like the end of a baseball bat, I shattered the glass door. Bits and pieces of broken glass fell to the floor like translucent snowflakes, tinkling when they hit the tiled floor of Anderson's. I had closed my eyes and cringed from the noise, but the need to protect my eyes was finished and I opened them again, surveying my elbow for damage. My leather jacket had come in handy, as only the surface of the hide was scratched, the skin underneath completely untouched. I closed my eyes and honed my sense of hearing. No movement anywhere nearby. I was alone.