Alone

Chapter 2

When we stepped outside I discovered that Jack wasn't joking around when he said they "chopped 'em up good." Having to live with this disaster for almost two years has calloused everyone to the horrors of this post-apocalyptic time. Killing the sick was the only way to survive, and cutting all emotional ties that you had with the past completely off. At first it was hard. It was hard to have to kill your own family when they tried killing you. It was hard leaving your house when the fumes from your dead family had grown too strong. People with and without the disease started going crazy. Every convenience store, pharmacy, and grocery store was looted when people started realizing that this wasn't going away anytime soon, and that it was out of control.

There were bodies and body parts strew everywhere on the street. You realize after cutting open a few people that we have a lot more blood in our bodies than one could imagine. Brain matter splattered the sides of the buildings and smeared across the road. Some intestines lay precariously out of a woman's stomach. I felt the need to be sick but held it down to show no weakness. These kids were ruthless killers. Jack must have spotted me examining the aftermath and spoke up.

"We do what we gotta do to survive."

I guess I could understand why this was such a massacre. Some people dealt with the pain differently than others. All that anger built up had to come out some way, and I guess brutally slaughtering a pack of sickies was just the way to do it. But I wasn't going to question the people who have just turned several sick ones inside-out. I had many things to ask these three people, but I tried to hold my tongue, after all, it had been about six months since I last had contact with another comprehending human being who didn't want to rip my throat out and drink the blood that drained from it.

I continued to look at the scene, and the more I looked, the more I saw. I couldn't bare to look at this anymore so I fixed my gaze straight ahead while trying to ignore the putrid scent that wafted from each body I had to step over and around. Luke kicked a body and the skin seemed to pull away from where his boot scraped. As the skin peeled away, the underlying muscles seemed to twitch and bubble as if ready to explode at any moment. No matter how much I liked explosions, that's one I did not want to see. I looked away, and we trudged on to God knows where, but I wasn't about to ask.

We seemed to walk for hours, passing burned buildings, dead sick ones, and even live ones that were brave enough to come out during the day. They liked the night, it was when they came out from holes and buildings to hunt. Maybe they felt like they had the upper hand coming out at night, or they just didn't like the sun and what it did to the disease under their skin. Then I realized that more and more sick were around the longer the day drew on, and I noticed that it was growing darker. Soon there would be more than a hundred sickies wandering the streets looking for their next meal, and I for sure didn't want to be that.

I was starting to really worry when all of a sudden I ran into Luke. He didn't say anything (he hasn't this whole time, and I was wondering if he could even talk), he just gave me this look of utter disgust, as if I was the most horrendous thing he has ever laid eyes on. I didn't apologize, I just stopped and looked at what everyone else was looking at.

"What do you think?" Jack asked Stacey.

"I don't know, but it could be our only bet and chance at surviving the night," she replied.

They had been analyzing a house. It seemed in fair condition compared to the one next to it, which was burned down to the point where nothing was identifiable. The other house only had a couple broken windows on the top floor and looked like it hadn't been inhabited for a few months...but looks are deceiving. I felt something was not right about the house, it screamed danger in my face, and I wondered if anyone else could feel it too. My heart sped up in my chest. I didn't like this place, but I didn't want to tell these people that, they were after all, complete strangers that had rescued me.

Luke finally spoke up, "I don't like the looks of it. It's almost a little too perfect."

"Well, we can't stay on the streets, so what do you suggest Mr. Genius?" Jack sneered at him.

Luke didn't say anything, and just looked at the ground. We had to make a decision quick because the evening sunlight was quickly diminishing under the horizon. Stacy also looked toward the setting sun and I could see a shift in her whole demeanor and she became fidgety.

"That's what I thought, let's go in," and as he said this, he began marching towards the house.

The front door opened with some effort but opened nonetheless. The house had been looted already and looked the same inside as it did outside...too perfect. Our senses were all on high alert, but the home was silent. I couldn't believe this was real, in the world as it was now, no place was safe. No one wanted to search the rest of the house. It was as if this place was stuck in another time and place, but that time and place no longer existed, this house was fictional in this new world.

"C'mon, we have no other options..." Stacy's statement was cut short by a movement upstairs. "What was that?" She added quickly and quietly as she lowered her stance and unsheathed her weapon, and everyone else followed suit.

We crept with caution through the main room to the stairs. They led to a cavernous looking area. The stairs were dusty with not even a footprint in them. Maybe the house was empty and we hadn't really heard anything at all. But that wasn't right, everyone had heard it simultaneously. My attempts at alleviating my fears were weak. As we stood there waiting for an executive decision, I let my mind travel back in time where, as a child, I would play on the steps in my house, running up and down them and sliding down on my rear. I had no intentions of running up those particular stairs today.