Mickey, Please Come Outside

Part 2: Not Alone

Mickey's parents had told him they were coming for him after everything first started. Shortly after the news began broadcasting the nationwide infections, his parents called him and told him they loved him repeatedly. They promised that they were on their way to take him safely back home. 

It would take the devil himself to stop them.  That's what Mickey's father had told him over the phone. Apparently, the devil had come with vengeance, because Mickey hadn't heard from his parents ever since that last phone call. The text message on his phone brought him momentary hope that they were still alive.  After he saw it was from Suzie, Mickey had finally accepted that his parents were almost certainly dead.

As the word dead echoed through his mind, Mickey looked down at his glowing phone.  It was a comforting glow, one which told him he wasn't alone. The notification was indeed from his girlfriend Suzie, and that's all her contact name said.  The previous contact name "baby" had been removed, and the three hearts which preceded the nickname had been stripped away. Nevertheless, Mickey was beyond grateful to not be alone and he immediately called her, not even bothering to read her message. Suzie answered him on the first ring.

"Suzie?" Mickey asked, fearing he was only addressing the void.

"Mickey. My god, I'm so sorry. My phone was dead, and I left my charger in a friends' room. I was too scared to leave my room and go get it. I just now finally got my roommates lockbox open, it's taken me days. I didn't think I ever would, but I knew she had an extra charger in there."

"I thought you were dead," Mickey said trembling as he looked outside his window.  Some of the undead were staggering about below him.  

"I'm so sorry Mickey, I thought you were dead too," After she said this there was a brief silence.  

"What are we going to do?"  She asked him.  

Mickey paused, it was the same question he had been asking himself since he locked his door, and sealed himself from the outside world.  Mickey had watched everything unfold from behind the safety of his window.  He had seen student's run around trying to escape, and sometimes - if he was unlucky enough to witness it, Mickey would see them be overtaken and devoured by the dead.  Through it all, Mickey has asked himself: What am I going to do?   

"I don't know," Mickey eventually confessed. "Come to the window Suzie, I have to make sure I'm not just going crazy."

Suzie lived on the first floor of Lewis Hall, and so he could easily see her whenever she came to the window. Mickey had seen her ever since the fall semester had begun.  He saw her when she opened or closed her window. He didn't stalk her, even though it did feel like that was what he was doing at first.  Mickey just liked to read in front of his window.

"I'm opening my blinds now Mouse," Suzie said, reminding him of the embarrassing nickname.

Mickey remembered the day when he was at one of the dining halls, and the cute blonde who he had seen open and close her windows on so many nights before came over to sit with him.  He didn't even know her name at the time.  She asked him what class he was reading Pride and Prejudice for. She smiled at him, with what felt like genuine love in her eyes, when he said it wasn't for a class - it was just because he loved to read.  

"Be careful," Mickey cautioned, scanning across the campus, tracking the dead with his eyes.

Suzie opened the blinds and looked up at him from across the courtyard. Mickey waved to her silently, and she returned the gesture, smiling a bit. It wasn't the same smile Mickey had seen when they first met in the dining hall.  He doubted he would ever see that smile again.

There was a loud popping sound above as the overhead light went out, and Mickey looked down at his phone to see that it was no longer charging.  Fortunately, Mickey's phone was fully charged, but he doubted Suzie's had a considerable battery life.

"What percent is your phone on?" Mickey asked her.

"It's on six percent.  I called you as soon as it turned on," Suzie informed him.

There was another popping sound from across the courtyard, and Mickey looked down into Suzie's room to see that her power had also gone out. Staring at her from within the darkness of his room, Mickey knew they were running out of time, and he feared that this would be the last conversation they would ever have.