My name is Chris, Ive lost track of time. It feels like years since I first started running, but I think its only been a few months. Days turn to weeks, and the weeks drags on, such is the new way of life. And yet, despite the violence and chaos, I dont really miss the old world...

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Recap

        Her face fades away, the darkness closing in around me.  I try to call out to her, but I hear nothing.  Suddenly, my entire body becomes heavy, my head throbbing.  A slight crack of light at first, but the longer I lay there, the light becomes more intense.  Slowly, I open my eyes, vision fuzzy and unfocused.  Taking in the poorly focused room in, I see its the second floor of the warehouse. Rubbing my eyes, the room slowly comes into focus, I find myself in the office, the door had been shut and the only light was coming from a nearly burnt out candle on the desk.  I manage to sit up, my head pulsing, the pain makes it hard to stay up.  Taking my hand, I run it along the back of my hand, until I find the source of the pain.  Retracting my hand quickly, I yelp out in pain.  What happened?  I remember going out to the Rec center, but after that it gets hazy.  Nobody in sight, I slowly rise on unsure legs, but before I manage to make it to the door, it swings open.  The shadow is large, and by the sound of the voice, he was glad to see me standing.  "Holy shit, don't scare me like that again!  Sit down, you need to rest."  Still confused, all I could do was slur out a yes as I slid down the wall, taking extra care to make sure my head didn't touch anything on my way down.  Looking up with hazy and unfocused eyes I ask him what happened.  "W-what happened?  I rememmer...remmemer goin out looking for some one, and well... It gets hazy from there."  My speech is heavily slurred, not a good sign.  Handing me a bottle of water, he reminds me of what had happened.  "The Rec center was a hive, fulla' those things.  We managed to get away, but I felt like... I wanted to make sure they wouldn't follow us back.  So I asked you to shoot the gas tank of a nearby car.  You took care of the undead, but... You had a chunk of metal crash into you.  You were out for almost a week, I was afraid you weren't going to make it."  His lower lip quivers, I can see he feels partially to blame.  "Well, I'm alive, so were all good."  I slowly make a thumbs up gesture to brighten his mood.  "Now, if you will 'scuse me, I'm feeling sleepy, I need to take a nap.  Before he has a chance to object, I lay back down and instantly fall asleep.
     I awaken to find the candle extinguished, but the room is well lit. Before I can get up I have a flash of a dream, I remember my sisters voice.  I continue to lay there and try to remember as much as I can before getting up.  It was a weird dream, It seemed like it was a few days long, but from what I can remember dreams are usually only a few seconds to a couple of minutes long.  The more I think about the dream, the more depressed I got.  It seemed so real, except for the fact that I was walking with my sister.  Who has been dead for some time now, and for a split second, I wished I had never awoken.  To be in a place where the dead never walked, where everybody I knew was still alive.  Where things were normal.  "I miss you Allie.  I really do."  I whisper to nobody in particular, wishing she would answer me like in my dream.  I sit up and peer out of the window, the streets were still covered in snow, but the sun was shining.  So peaceful I thought, until I saw a body slowly staggering in no real direction.  Getting up, I head for the door, I begin my search for Brock.  They have to know they're back out and roaming.  
     As I head for the stairs leading to the main floor, a child I hadn't met before comes up the stairs and stop when she sees me.  A minute passes before she finally speaks to me.  "Was that you in the room crying?"  I don't really know how to answer her.  I didn't know if I did or not.  "Uhh, maybe?  I don't know, but I haven't felt good this past week so it might have been.  How long have you been here?"  Unusually chipper for a child in this situation, she responds, "About three days.  Me and my mommy were led here, and guess what!  We found my daddy!"  Taking in that last sentence, I have a flashback to the Rec center.  The picture.  "A-are you , Brock's daughter?"  After dropping his name, her eyes light up.  "Have you met him?"   Perfect, maybe she know where he is.  "Can you take me to him?"  I kneel down to her level, feeling dizzier the longer I was down there.  Taking me by the hand, she drags me down the stairs to Brock.  I have trouble keeping up with her even though she is literally dragging me by the hand.  "Hey, I need to rest for a second.  Have your dad meet me here, okay?"  I ask her as I sit on the stairs, trying to keep myself from getting sick.  She nods her head as she runs through the crowd.  Watching her dart and weave through the crowd of adults made me realize why she survived.  She may be young, but shes fast. Within minutes, she reappears, dragging her father through the crowd.  Brock's face suddenly changes from happy to worried upon seeing me out of bed.  "Are you alright?  You don't look too good."  I wave his worries away as I stand up, still fighting off nausea.  "Ill be fine as long as I take it slow and easy
        "I want to go to the roof, I feel like fresh air will help me a great deal."  He nods as we head up to the rooftop.  "Well, after you were knocked out, I took you to a nearby building.  There were still too many of those things wandering the streets.  Not only did I want to keep them from our hideout, I didn't want to just leave you sitting alone while I went about cracking skulls.  I managed to find an unoccupied building just up the road, and after making sure you were safe, I went out looking for supplies.  I came back here to get a first aid kit and let them know what happened and to make sure they were all alive as well.  On the way back, I stopped by the wreckage of that car and noticed an extra set of footprints.  Seems somebody had noticed your handiwork."  I laughed at the way he phrased that.  Handiwork, makes blowing up cars seem like an art form.  He hands me some food he brought from the main area, and continues.  "I didn't find anyone nearby, but I did manage to find a source of the footprints.  So I came back to watch over you and make sure you didn't keel over while I was gone.  I had almost given up on you on the third night, but you started talking in your sleep.  You do not know how happy I was to hear that.  So for another day I fed you and cleaned you up."  Cleaned me up?  Awkward.  I suddenly find myself blushing.  "Its alright, nothing to get embarrassed about.  Not like you had the capability to get up.  Every day, after the sun rose, I would head out and try to find both supplies and whoever had made the other set of footprints.  As I entered the building that they had come from, I heard a noise on the second floor.  I slowly creep up the stairs and who should have a rifle trained between my eyes?  None other than my wife.  After a tearful reunion I explained what had happened and brought them back to where I was keeping you.  Now shes a lot better at taking care of others.  she managed to bring your fever down and turn that giant knot in the back of your head into a barely noticeable lump."   I feel the back of my head, its still sore as hell, but not very big.  "Remind me to thank her when I meet her."  I say as I take a deep breath of the cold, crisp air.  "The next day we set off for home, She covered me and our daughter as I carried you back.  along the way you kept muttering in your sleep.  It was a sign that you were recovering.  But what you were saying, it was hard to understand at first.  You must have lost someone close.  You kept saying  'Dont go, don't leave me alone again.'"  I knew what he was talking about.  Usually I don't remember my dreams, but this one was memorable.  "I remember my dream actually.  I saw my sister again.  But enough about me, I want to meet my other caretaker."  Laughing as I got up, the nausea had passed.  Heading towards the stairs, I prepare myself to meet the other person who had 'cleaned' me.  This could get awkward...

1 comment: