Survive (Completed)

Survive

I jerked awake, my hand already on my Beretta, as I listened intently, waiting to hear what had woken me. The house stood in stony silence around me but I was so sure I had been roused by something, a soft thump or gentle swish of the kitchen door gliding open. I checked my watch. 5:30 a.m. One hour till daybreak and I berated myself for falling asleep so soon. I usually didn't go to bed till 8:00 at the earliest. I knew better than to fall asleep at night.

I eased out of my crouch slowly making no sound, slipping my small rucksack onto my back. My legs screamed in protest after sitting in the same position for who knows how long, but I bit my bottom lip to keep from whimpering at the pain. Sliding my Beretta out of her cradle on my hip,  I felt the familiar cool metal rest against my palm where she belonged and I smiled. Normal people probably didn't get this attached to a gun, but I wasn't normal, and given the state of things in the world, that was a good thing because normal would get you killed.

Carefully, I glided across the floor boards, choosing the right spots to place my feet and passing up the ones that I knew would creak beneath my weight. That was one reason I had lasted this long when others hadn't; I analyzed with precision every situation and every outcome, and I had mastered the art of survival. I was soundless as I crept down the hallway glancing up the stairs, just in case one of them lay in wait for me there. 

Empty. Good.

I stopped and held my breath to hear better, my gut clenching with the fear that I had been discovered. The hairs on the back on my neck stood on end and I knew that I was no longer alone in this house. I let out the air slowly, preparing to turn to the back door, when I heard a soft creak from the kitchen. As if my body knew what my mind did not, it crouched down in the shadows of the hall and froze there, gripping my gun as if my life depended on it. Now I knew without a doubt that someone or something was in the house.

I knew that I had to run. As of this moment, I was still undiscovered but that could all change in the blink of an eye. As my body tensed for the sprint, my mind slowly caught up, nagging at me to think it through. It was too quiet for it to be a corpse; they cared nothing for stealth or caution, instead opting to ravage anything and everything in their path in hope of fresh meat. The small creak came again and I recognized it as the cupboard doors being opened. What would the dead want with the cupboards? There was only a small amount of canned foods that I had acquired and brought here for safe keeping, and there was no way that would be even remotely appealing to one of them. 

With all my instincts fighting against me, I stole up to the kitchen doorway. I knew that it was lunacy to think that something else awaited me in that room except filthy, stinking death, but I had to look. Even the slightest hint that there was another form full of life in there was too much to pass up. I heard several more scrapes of cans being dragged along the counter top and I swear I even heard the slightest sound of breath being expelled from lungs. I felt my heart pounding and sweat snaking down the back of my neck as I took one breath, two breaths, and then stole the most fleeting glance I could around the archway into that kitchen.

I felt shock shoot through my veins so furiously it was as if a jolt of electricity had stung my body. There stood a man in the middle of my kitchen filling two big bags full of my food. I covered my mouth with my hand to cover the sound of the air rushing into my lungs too quickly and, as I started to feel faint, I realized I was going to hyperventilate. I shoved my head between my knees and forced my lungs to calm and my blood to stop boiling.

There was someone else. 

I wasn't alone. 

The two thoughts whirled through my head again and again. I had always known I couldn't be the only one left, and yet I had been alone for years. I hadn't spoken to another living human for over three years, and yet here was proof in the flesh that there were others. It took me thirty seconds to get my body under control and I was terrified that I would look back and the man would be gone.