Everything was dark. Chase snuggled his hand to mine, seeking for a familiar place to nest. Outside, chaos erupted, death and hunger mingled on every inch of the street.

“Well, we’re not going out through here.” The girl’s voice seemed heavy. I hadn’t had a chance to look at her completely as everything felt so rushed and fast. I didn’t like the presence of someone else besides Chase, and in this pitch black of a situation, my mind kept searching for a way to defend myself if I had to.

But for the time being, it wouldn’t be necessary.

She turned on her flashlight, so we did too.

“Where are we?” Chase’s voice displayed how terrified he was.

“Some office building… belonged to a newspaper agency or something.” She pointed her flashlight to a hallway. “This way!”

We passed another set of doors and she locked it too with a crowbar. We proceeded through the entirely dark hallway which gave me horrendous vibe of my apartment. We could see almost nothing, just the trails of our flashlights.

We took some several turns and entered what looked like an office lounge. It was pretty big with some items I don’t really remember, but there were sofas and four candles lighting the room.

A younger male sat on the sofa, drinking something which seemed to be coffee. The first impression to this good looking guy was how tall he was. His blue hair appeared bright in the otherwise grim room. His round glasses didn’t tell me about him. His pale-featured skin looked almost zombie-like, but his physical appearance was just a start to his ‘weirdness’.

He looked at us also strangely when we came in.

“I’m Berta and this is Jon. He’s my brother.”

“Adopted,” he continued with a distinct voice. He strangely smiled to me which was very sweet. If you wonder what did he look like, just imagine young Jon Snow combined with Noah Schnapp but just very weird and quiet and with blue hair. Weird was probably an understatement for the dude.

“Nice to meet you. This is Chase. I’m Tiany.”

“Yes, I know who you are. I enjoy your music and I think your songwriting talent is over the top. Amazing to meet you in person.”

He sounded robotic. Almost too polite. I hoped he was just like this because we just met.

“Thank you so much.”

“No way, you’re Tiany Valley?” Berta’s face brightened up. “I knew it was you from the voice. I didn’t see you super clearly before. This is amazing. You have no idea how big of a fan I am to you. I went to your concert once in Atlanta. Super amazing.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“You can find your face in her room, basically,” Jon said with no expression. I guess he was being sarcastic, but he looked so serious.

“I do, I’m not denying it right now.”

“That’s amazing. Thank you for saving us by the way.” I was glad and bothered at the same time. My face had become like a walking brand or like a mascot or something. It got annoying to be recognized by everyone after sometimes, though in the apocalypse, it could be both destructive and mutual. I liked it when Chase first recognized me, making me realize I wasn’t alone in this world. But this time, it felt just different.

“You’re super welcome.” Berta looked behind me. “He’s your brother?”

I noticed Chase was standing beside me, probably gagging at the thought that we would be spending time with these freaks.

“Something like that.”

“Wow, I didn’t know you have a brother. Anyway, rest, rest, you two must be tired.” Her deep voice sounded more polite this time.

“Whoa, thanks.”

I dropped my bag and just shattered my body completely to one of the sofas. Chase sat with me, still not talking. I thought he was an extrovert. Guess I was wrong.

Hours passed by us chatting about our trip from Nashville to here. The two of them were great listeners, never interrupting and always so excited to find out what happened next, well, at least Berta was. Chase started to talk when he began feeling more and more comfortable, which was nice. 

“How did you guys get here anyway?” I finally asked.

Berta sighed. 

“Okay…. We lived some couple of blocks away from here in our house. There were my mom, dad, Jessica, and Jon, and me of course. The breakout happened quite some time ago before the viral virus actually hit America, and when watching the news, Jon said that this would be a super deadly thing where it could destroy humanity. Trust me, we all doubted it to be as lethal as it seemed, but Jon was always super smart, and he did predict things rightly most of the times.”

“You did, huh? How could you know it was going to be a viral epidemic?” My question was thrown at Jon.

“Usually, I deduce things or analyze things, but seeing those reports, I was sure a zombie apocalypse would happen. I mean, I read a lot of apocalyptic horror novels and watched thousands of shows.”

So he was a genius and a nerd… with blue hair… and a basketball player-like height… and spoke robotically.

Berta smiled. “Trust me, when he explained how a zombie apocalypse would occur, my parents thought of him being playful and didn’t know what he was talking about. We always trusted his instinct or his deduction, but this time, it was based on pop culture. But my father was convinced by him one day and started panicking. He hired people to build a hidden, safe, secret room at our attic. It was reinforced with steel and we could even have electricity inside, well, that is before it cut off. He also packed it with so many canned foods and other useful materials. Mom even had a pretty big fight with dad regarding this. She thought it was ridiculous, I thought too. But when the pandemic actually happened, she was thankful.”

“So you hid yourselves up there, in the attic, for how long?”

“Thirteen months, more or less than long. But of course we were out of supplies after that and we had to go out.”

The story seemed ridiculously alike to what Chase had experienced. I could see Chase’s eyes glimmering in familiarity, experiencing his most dreadful memory once again. He snuggled behind me the entire time.

“Long story short, the same punks that you told us about apparently already claimed our house. They occupied our homes, so dad tried to get rid of them, but they got guns. Dad died almost immediately, followed by mom and Jessica. I got the chance to grab Jon’s arm and ran away.”

Berta’s voice displayed grief and anger. She had a pretty bad history with these punks, which I had too.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” And I meant it.

“Yeah. Anyway, we started running. They didn’t even chase us. They mocked us, shouting to us nasty words like chicken or coward, which both I awfully hate. But at least we survived. We moved door to door since then, almost losing our lives six times, but we found this building like three days ago. So yeah, here we are now.”

“Damn. That must be rough for the two of you. This pandemic is just straight turning our lives upside down.”

“I agree.”

You know the world was no longer normal when you talk about death daily like it’s a normal thing. Trust me, before the breakout, it wasn’t. Some of you might never experience the world before the breakout since it happened so long ago, but trust me, it was heaven compare to now.

That night, I did a small concert to entertain three watchers. Berta found an acoustic guitar while securing the building days ago.

“That was the most unearthly thing I have ever experienced in my whole life.” Berta was shrieking in the inside. “I forgot I’m actually sitting and talking to Tiany Valley. Like, even you knowing my existence is already the best thing that can happen. I really hope this happens when the world’s not on chaos.”

So we slept rather lately and woke up energized. Jon sat near the chimney in the next room, eating his breakfast while contemplating his life probably. I was the second one to wake so I got a chance to talk with him for a bit. I didn’t quite know him yet, but I was very interested. In my life, I had never met anyone like him before.

“What’re you doin’ there?” I walked slowly and sat next to him. 

“Just having breakfast, you want?”

“I’ll wait for Chase to wake up.”

“Alright.” He continued sipping the instant soup.

I tried to start a conversation with him. “I didn’t ask to your sister yesterday, but did you have somewhere to go, like, a destination or something?”

“I’m not sure telling you is the best option ever, no offense. We got to get really careful during this hard time. Also, I’m not sure if Berta will agree.”

“Just tell her,” she suddenly said from behind us, freaking both of us with her silence.

“I don’t think−”

“Just tell her, Jon, and no one else.”

“Okay…” Jon was a bit hesitating. He learned the way I moved for a bit, maybe studying my genuinity. He was a great human reader. After he smiled, he continued his talk. “The first thing I did when we escaped from those punks was to find a purpose, obviously. We can’t just be nomads for the rest of our lives, straggling, struggling forever without end, so I tried to seek for one. I finally came up with the idea of a radio, since it was the only object in this world that couldn’t be stopped by failing electricity. You can also find batteries easily.”

I knew where this was going. He had the same plan with us. When I told them our story yesterday, we didn’t give them a single clue about our plan in going to Three Rivers up north. We only said that we were escaping those two freaks.

“There’s this daily broadcast about a safe shelter north from here. It’s called Three Rivers. The broadcaster said that the place contains hundreds of survivors from all over North America, but of course doubts came to our minds. We didn’t know that it was genuine or not, so I listened to the broadcast every day, trying to find the truth from his voice.” I tried to find like a selfish tone to Jon’s voice, but I failed. 

And he just said that they were going to Three Rivers. I was surprised, but I had to learn about this place from them first, then decided if I should tell them or not.

“Oh yeah, he can do that,” Berta said, smiling.

“Did you find the truth in his voice?” I asked, to him and to myself

“Yes, I did. I can be wrong, but I’m seventy percent sure that he did tell the truth. I also now figured that you are going there also.”

I was shocked. This dude could do some freaky psychic stuff.

“How−”

“Yeah, he can do that too,” Berta said, smiling and holding his laugh. “He can do anything. The only thing he doesn’t do is probably swear.”

Jon explained, “The way you asked the question was very interesting. I also realized how so not surprised you are when I mentioned a safe shelter. You’re also from Nashville, heading north conveniently instead of just staying near your city. Your story made perfect sense except the part that you ran here after being frightened by two men.”

I laughed of how crazy being read was. The teen was utterly magical. He was a seventeen year old wonder, just craving up his genius brain for the world.

Chase woke up twenty minutes after that so we did our breakfast. After that, Berta took us for a dark tour through the entire building.

The four of us climbed stairs in the dark while entertained by Berta’s constant voice. 

“In order to head where we’re heading, we have to get across the river by any means necessary.”

She led us to the skywalk bridge on the second floor. The bridge’s other end was shielded, probably by Berta and Jon as it connected this building with the building across, which probably filled by predators.

The skywalk was well lit, brightened by the mortal sun, splashing its candid light. Well below us, thousands of predators jingled to each other, pushing and tumbling like they had no course for their lives. From there, we could see the entire avenue and even the towering Clark Memorial Bridge.

“We have to get across,” Berta spoke. “There are bridges that connect this side of the city and that side, at least three which still stands. The first one being the Clark Bridge, the second being Big Four Bridge, and the third being Lewis and Clark Bridge too far to even be a consideration. The highway also had its own bridge, the John F. Kennedy and the Abraham Lincoln, but both were bombed out. The good news is, we already have a plan on crossing, but the bad news is it doesn’t involve bridges.”

Chase freaked out. “What, you mean swimming?”

“What? No, silly, who would do that? I’m talking about the Louisville Riverwalk just a few feet away from Clark Bridge. They docked some small boats there usually, so we can possibly ‘borrow’ one of them to get across. The first problem is that we’re not sure that there would even be boats after all that did happen. The second problem is that we don’t know if the place is surrounded by deads or not. The third being that we don’t know how to ride boats, but I think that’s manageable.”

Jon started interrupting. “I think there will be boats, but as for predators I can’t tell.”

“Why can’t we use the bridge?” Chase asked, fearing deep water more than ever.

“The bridge is the most unsafe place on this earth and we’re doing our best to avoid one. Also, the street that heads there is blocked by countless predators. Some were even brought by you to here. But no worries, we already have a plan in getting out of this building. Also, thanks for reinforcing our numbers. We’ll have a bigger chance of surviving this with both of you. Hearing your journey here, we can most definitely use a kickass celebrity and her awesome sidekick.”

Chase was so happy to be called my awesome sidekick. Most people wouldn’t be happy to be called that, but he was an exception.

We went upstairs after that, to the balcony on the third floor. We were there to catch the fresh air and to also get a 360 degrees view. The wind plowed onto my face like a wave, breezing me freshly and giving me life. But the once putrid air now stained with death and slumber, taking that life away alongside the disastrous scenery of a destroyed world.

I saw it clearly with my eyes how this world had been reshaped for only a year. Once, it was this imperfect paradise, full of people communicating and socializing. No more that after the breakout. Everything was gloomy and dark, painful and horrible, and there was nothing we can do to change or escape it. We were trapped in this endless mindless prison full of monsters. We were doomed to die, and we were never alive.

Jon brought us down again back into the first floor where he showed us his discoveries. Only illuminated by three flashlights, we scoured a dark hallway leading somewhere clustered. The hallway was smaller and narrower than every hallway else in the building, so I had a terrible feeling of what would come.

The end of the hallway was a small metal door which was unbolted by the two. We went in and saw stairs heading down towards the basement.

“I hate basements, or everything underground really,” Chase said, probably traumatized by staying too long below his house.

Hard to see as it seemed, the basement was pretty huge, but the lack of air made me almost choke every time I breathed. At the end of the empty basement (though full of pipes, diesels, and other complex stuffs I couldn’t really see), there was a metal barred gate, big enough to fit eight people when walking altogether side by side. I saw mice already, too big to even fit your mouth.

“Please tell me this isn’t your escape route,” I said, murmuring quietly in the echo-ey chamber.

“Well, either this or the front door full of predators. I suggest this one.” Berta was satisfied by our disgusted reactions. 

Chase didn’t even comment. He looked at those angry rats and he trembled. 

I tried to be positive. “Well, at least there will be no predator inside, right? Right? Right?”

Jon didn’t answer for quite a while. “If you’re basing your theory from season one of the Walking Dead, then there might be zombies below, but to be honest I think there’re hardly any in reality.”

His words calmed me down a bit. Fighting predators in a dark sewer would be anyone’s worst nightmare, the worst of the worst. Also, I hate jump scares.

“Where does this lead?” I asked.

“Well.” Jon rubbed his Chin, his glassed shone after the flashlight. “Supposedly everywhere if there’s no barricade or something blocking our way.”

“So this might get us to the Riverwalk directly?”

“I mean, possibly.”

“Alright then.”

We walked back up, leaving almost hurriedly in an essence that we would travel through there.

“Tomorrow should not be a very fun day, but at least we’ll be making progress,” Berta said. “We’ll be out of this shithole in no time.”

That day, we were just preparing our supplies. I checked how many foods I brought, how many gears. I had six more shotgun shells inside the gun, and of course my lovely axe was still with me.

I found a perfect weapon for Chase to use inside the director’s office: a golf stick. Berta used her favorite weapon as she always did before meeting us, a machete.

“The hell did you get that machete from?”

“Oh, this? From a small house near our home. It was our first stop since we ran away. I killed four predators with this already.”

“And the hell did you get that pistol from?”

She peered her eyes to the direction of my finger: a holster with a gun in it. “Oh this? Stole it from a dead policeman. Got several ammos on the back.”

“You know how to use it?”

“Ti, this is America. Everybody must’ve shot at least one time before their age of twenty.”

And she found a pretty big crowbar down in the basement for Jon. He wasn’t the violent type of guy, but he managed. He also had his hunting knife his dad gave him (well, adopted dad). I mean, this is America and our dads always give us strange shits. Quite useful in an apocalypse I should tell you.

Before bed, we tuned in using Jon’s pocket radio to check Three Rivers again. After the daily invitation broadcast, a person’s voice came to speak about what happened today. Usually it was this man that you knew already, but this time, it was female. 

“Daily broadcast: 12 April 2022. It has been raining quite a lot lately. Jonas didn’t make it, so did Joel and Vanessa. But beside all of the gloomy news, we are rising and rising in number all the time. We’re reclaiming the whole town of Three Rivers, making more and more fences to protect ourselves from the outside world, but you can still join us. I promise you, it is completely safe. We’re here to help you as the government can’t. There’re children, elderlies, everyone. We’re currently having 390 settlers, two just came from Detroit. Aydan and Margot. Well, that’s about it. Thank you.”

We all went inside the lounge at nine. We all tried to sleep, but none succeeded. But before we knew it, the world had darkened, and we entered the mindless void of dreams and hopes.

And the nightmare started.

And it would last.

Forever.

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Art : Atlas Obscura from Pinterest