In the distance, a lightning rod blazed down followed by the blissful sound of exploding light. The dark sky bathed us with small drops of rain before we served ourselves below the roof.

The backdoor was apparently unlocked so it was easier to get in than I would’ve expected. It was unexpectedly convenient for us that the owner didn’t bother locking the door at all.

I’m really bad at describing places, trust me, but this house was just grandeur. It was dark when we came in, I mean duh, but Chase packed a flashlight with him. He said he never used it so the battery should last pretty long.

We were in the kitchen and I must tell you, everything was white and clean. For the first time in almost two years, I finally could get out of the stinking scent of death.

The brandished countertops and furnished cabinets presented themselves in front of our eyes, giving us a cozy feeling of warmth and comfort. A beautiful chandelier hung high above our heads, swinging ever slightly to the left and to the right. 

The kitchen was open-concept and it shared the same, giant area with the common room and the living room, thus the feeling of space really sank to all our minds. 

We decided to check every room to make sure that the place was really clean from danger. The living room and guest room were polished that they seemed like a new house. The only bedroom on the first floor was also empty but clean. I saw two separate single beds inside there and a table, with an LED TV and a small fridge. It almost seemed like a hotel room.

“Let’s check upstairs,” Chase decided. He looked excited to explore the place.

But the second floor tasted different. I started to smell the same odor of death again, and the grim sensation of horror haunted me when I stepped on the last stair. The first hallway in front of me had a really weird flavor to it.

“I don’t like this smell, Ti.”

“Same. Stay close!”

We checked the first bedroom, which apparently was a kid’s bedroom with space-themed wallpapers and a bunk bed designed for two. This must’ve belonged to Gobbles’ twins. The Gobbles were popular in my city. They were like the largest investor around here. His family was the foundation of gossip’s rotation around the city, proven by their success at appearing in local newspapers every day.

Anyway, the twins were supposedly around ten or eleven years old. I really hoped they were okay. They were such sweet children from what I knew, though they were those types of kids who got followed by reporters every day and made it to the television every time they caught colds. Yeah, they were Nashville’s Kardashians. Thankfully, I never exposed my life to anyone and the information of Tiany Valley living in Nashville was certainly tittle-tattle.

Back to the house tour.

The room next to it was also a child’s room with pink wallpaper this time. A bit messed up, but still considerably clean and tidy.

Gobbles’ oldest kid was Maria Gobbles, age fifteen (two years ago). I actually met her once in a café and she took a picture with me, but it was awkward since I recognized her and she was one of my biggest fans. She was the only decent person in the family and did a lot for charity. 

She had her own internal bathroom with the size of my apartment room.

The bathroom didn’t smell right, and someone forgot to flush. I almost puked after seeing the rotten poop, but Chase just fled the place immediately.

The last room was the master bedroom. The smell got tenser and tenser each step we took. I had an uneasy face on me, knowing exactly what I would find inside. 

I pressed my ear on the door, but I heard no predator whatsoever. Still, the blood inside my veins boiled with extreme heat. I knew I wouldn’t like whatever was behind the door.

“Get ready, Chase.”

I burst inside the room, door swinging violently inward, hitting the white wall behind it. 

A dead dog lying with its stomach opened was the first sight we saw when the door swung. The smell became bearable after living in the apocalypse for a few months, but the image was still really disturbing.

“T− Ti. You− I− There’s…”

I turned my neck to the left. 

Five bodies dangled from the ceiling with ropes tied to each their necks. Their skin thinned for it meant that they died for some time.

The Gobbles.

They hung themselves.

Next to those dangling bodies, a dead woman with all black slumped dead on the floor. She must’ve been infected. I suspected she was one of the many assistances still living in the house when the outbreak happened.

What the fuck?

I led Chase out of the room before he puked completely. 

I shut the door and left it before anything scary happened. There was no use of making a pit-stop on the second floor, so we frantically jogged downstairs with pale faces of disgust and sorrow. We’d seen dead people before, but I never would’ve thought that somewhere in one point of my life I would see a happy family hanging together on the roof with their kids next to them.

We cuddled ourselves in the first-floor bedroom. Chase tried to sleep, but supposedly the haunting images prevented him from doing so, and though he felt he want to vomit again, his stomach screamed with the intention of eating. 

Canned beans smiled when I opened one of the cabinets in the kitchen, and the satisfying crank when the metal lid cracked alarmed Chase that dinner was ready.

“There’re candles here. I supposed we can make them handy,” Chase said.

I lit five of them in fire with a pack of matches and posed them in the kitchen. The yellow flickering light hugged us tightly, and for one second I felt somewhat safe within the range of their lights. The rest we saddled in the bedroom, the living room, and the common room. I tried to work on lighting the hearth, but even twelve-hours of work wouldn’t end up in it burning, so I gave up and relied completely on those small candles.

Outside, the rain started pouring harder along with flashes from the distant thunders occurring more frequently.

And the splashes turned into a lullaby, and my drowsy eyes began to doze off into a dreamy world unknown to mankind.

−

“Ti!”

I rose from the most comforting sofa ever since Ellen’s talk show and walked straight toward Chase. He was standing in front of a dresser with many photographs above it. The weather outside still wasn’t very delightful. Thunder seemed unstoppable at this point for no reason, and they worsen my lightheaded head by three thousand times.

My wound stung every time my muscle contracted.

“What’d you got there?”

No need for explanation, I already saw what he was looking at, a small pocket map in the form of a tiny book. Chase was seeking for the familiar name in the state of Missouri at page 16.

“There!” He shouted while his finger pointed a really small area in the middle of the state. “Three Rivers! It’s so small.”

“Yeah… I guess we should head there.” My voice was reluctant but we did have no choice. 

“Really?”

“What choice do we have?”

Chase gaze back at the map. “It’s further than I thought.”

I only sighed at his words. 

The imaginary safe shelter from the radio better be true.

“Oh, I just remembered,” Chase shook me up in the most cheering way plausible. “I found something behind the guest room when you were still snoring like a walrus.”

“I don’t sleep like that.”

“Sadly, Ti, there’s no phone for me to prove it to you. But you did snore like a drunk mermaid, though I’m not complaining.”

“Yeah, like you don’t. You sleep like a… like a…”

“What?”

“I can’t think of a joke right now.”

Chase laughed. 

“Anyway, I did find you this thing. Follow me!”

Chase led me to the guest room where a cabinet was located. We hadn’t checked it the day before somehow, but Chase got that covered.

Inside, a dark blue hoodie was hung next to skinny jeans.

I tried them on, and somehow, they were great fits.

I wondered. It was a great coincidence that Chase found it there. I didn’t want to ask no more. Everything had been freezing and I desperately needed something to cover my skin. Chase just saved me from possible hypothermia. I am not exaggerating. The temperature was really low at that point, trust me.

“This is wonderful, Chase. Thank you.”

“Finally I can give my idol something. It’s an overwhelming honor to present you the most utilizable item I can find in this house.”

“Wow, look at you, splintering words like a poet.”

So we joked around for some hours and decided to move on when the sky turned clear. It was already 11 and the sun shined brightly right about our heads. Some clouds still covered most of the blue sky, but birds chirped signed that the day had finally awaken.

“What’s the plan, Master?”

“Well,” I breathed out. “I think firstly we need a vehicle.”

I found a car key lying ominously on the garage next to a Mercedes with tinted windshields. Before I said jackpot, I noticed a giant hole on one of the tires. Like no joke, it was huge as if a lightsaber ripped it or something.

“Can’t use this. Shit.”

“What do we do now?” Chase sounded frantic, but there was nothing I couldn’t handle.

“We have to find a car, then.

“Where can we find such a thing?”

“There’s this Walmart not far away. It has a really big parking lot and last time I was there, literally a dozen cars were parked there, like abandoned. Hopefully there are some working ones left for us to steal. We also need some few supplies if we want to hop on a long journey.”

“Wait. Did you say you were there?”

“Yeah, looting, same as everybody.”

“Well that’s interesting.”

“I didn’t have parents preparing me for a doomsday bunker below our house, okay? We needed to loot.”

I stepped outside, and the first thing I smell was rotting bodies. I saw many of them flooding the main road, and some upturned vehicles decorating the panorama. The road itself was a mess, as I believe that the government tore that place almost apart, sending rounds of missiles into predators.

I could see the Walmart’s high sign on the west.

“There’s where we’re goin’.”

“Okay.”

I checked the road once again, but still, neither predator nor any sound was present. We paced slowly but steadily, hiding behind cars and trucks before proceeding a few feet at a time. The quiet atmosphere made me more cautious. Those creatures could just appear from nowhere and tore our skin like lions.

But overall, there was really no danger. 

We were finally there, safe and sound, standing right on the parking lot of the supermarket. I counted six parked cars and two dead bodies. One of them was the one which I saw tumbled down from the third floor when I came here to loot. Suddenly, I remembered the night when it happened. Everyone would die for packs of foods. What a mad world I’m living in, and that night was the start of that world.

I also remembered getting smacked by a metal staff right at the road nearby which connected my apartment’s road and this one.

“Soooo? We should just get in there, scavenge the area, look for a car key, search the car, and get away from here?”

“Yeah. Should’ve been easy.” The lie on my voice was so clear.

It wouldn’t be easy. 

It would be deadly, but neither Chase nor I knew how dangerous it was in the free-world.

Our journey wouldn’t be easy from here on out.

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Art by : HanaS from Flickr