“I doubt some people will need whatever they left behind at this point.” Matt spoke to himself at a normal voice since being outside offered him a sort of freedom.
“First, I need food.” Matt’s rumbling stomach agreed with him.
He slowly walked down the creaking fire escape, again, taking a last look into his apartment.
He gathered his courage and tiptoed down the metal structure. To his surprise, a few of the windows were boarded up with small viewing slots. He highly doubted that the people inside would help him in, let alone take down their defenses. Some of the boarded windows, the few that were there, had boards crudely torn off of them, some had half a board taken off and blood smeared on them. Matt heard loud shuffling and items behind dropped.
“No way, how would the monsters get in?” Matt realized that for some of the boarded windows, the people inside had unknowingly trapped themselves with an infected family member or neighbor.
He closed his eyes and lowered his head, trying to imagine their final moments.
Matt thought it was best to not even go near the boarded windows, shuffling or not, surely the people inside would be a little paranoid and rightfully so. Last thing he needed was some sort of sharp object or well intentioned bullet to hit him.
There were just a few floors left to look through. The lower ones didn’t seem to be boarded up for some reason.
Looking through the first clean window, he saw a neat living room everything in place and looking spotless. This made Matt scared. Gathering more of his courage, which he was surprised he had, Matt knocked the window with his hockey stick. The closed window offered protection against any beast that would pop out.
Tap, Tap, Tap.
He waited.
Nothing.
Tap, Tap…
Nothing.
Matt tried to open the window, and with no surprise, it was locked. His stomach rumbled. He needed to take a chance. Matt smashed the hockey stick into the window. It only cracked. The loud noise rattled his skull, but he closed his eyes and clenched his teeth and hit it again.
It cracked.
Again.
A small gap.
Again.
A large enough hole to go through.
Matt cleared the glass by running the hockey stick along all the corners, making it much safer for him to pass through. He didn’t hear any shuffling and didn’t see any of the ghouls on the street taking much notice of him. He took a deep breath and went inside.
The living room was immaculate to say the very least. All the couches were perfectly arrange, the place was still decorated and nothing seemed to be out of place. There was a spot of dust here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary. Matt walked through the place very carefully. Who knows what could be inside?
The door was chained shut, so no one left and he remembered that the window was still locked.
“No one came in from the outside. But the lock… does that mean no one left?”, He whispered to himself.
“What if they were infected and stood behind?” Matt began to enjoy talking to himself.
He checked every corner, being sure to look behind himself every few seconds. He found nothing. He looked under the couches, behind the TV, and even poked the hockey stick through the closet.
Now for the bathroom.
“Which one of these is the bathroom?”, he whispered.
He carefully knocked on the first door that he walked by.
Silence.
Carefully turning the knob, Matt ventured in slowly. The toilet was clean, the sinks were dry, and the shower curtain was partially drawn. It offered him enough room to see that it was empty.
Matt breathed a sigh of relief. So far, so good.
Only one more room to check…
Walking to the last door in the apartment felt like an eternity. Matt’s heart was racing. He kept reassuring himself that the apartment was quiet, so there would probably be an empty room behind that door.
His palms were sweaty, his knees grew weak, and his arms turned to limp noodles. He could barely hold onto the hockey stick.
He let his hand rest on the door knob for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and turning the knob.
He pushed the door open. It creaked ever so slightly. Inside there was a bed with a netted drape hanging over it. Matt squinted his eyes and barely noticed two figures under the drape.
A breeze that tickled his face startled him. He gasped and picked up the hockey stick.
“Wind. Only the wind.” He muttered to himself.
The figures under the drape were motionless; the wind was the loudest thing in the room.
Matt, never showing his back to the figures, crept over the window and closed it. It shut hard, too hard.
Matt locked up and started at the figures, expecting them to rise.
Nothing.
He went over to them and pushed the drape aside with the hockey stick.
His fear quickly changed, he lowered the stick and moved the drape back with his hands.
“Aw, shit.” He felt a tear welling up in his eye. For a moment, he finally forgot about his hunger.
He fell to his knees and wept for a few minutes.
Under the drape was an older couple, forever asleep and holding hands. Both were dressed in their absolute best. The husband was in a suit and tie. He even had wilted flower in his breast pocket. One hand was laid on his chest and the other held his wife’s hand. She had a small smile on her face and a dried tear on her cheek. She wore a beautiful white dress that was flawless. There was barely any light in the room, yet the dress shone brighter than the sun.
Matt looked at the table. There were two large, empty glasses and a bottle of old wine. Beside the bottle were a prescription bottle of sleeping pills. It was completely empty.
“Couldn’t save any for me, huh?”, Matt said to the old man. His eternal expression was enough for Matt.
“Fine, I’ll let it slide”, Matt said to the corpse.
“You guys got off easy, you know. I don’t have anyone. I gotta deal with this on my own.”
Matt took a last look at the couple and choked back the emotions. His hunger slowly returned and if he didn’t do something about it, he would surely share their fate, albeit, a bit more painful.
Matt closed the drapes and closed the door.
He wiped the last of his tears from his eyes.
“I gotta get out of here before it gets dark.” Matt paused
He heard a cough.
“What was that?” He brought the hockey stick up to his chest.
“These things don’t cough…”
The noise came from directly below him. It went from the single cough to full on crying.
Matt didn’t know what to do.
“Am I going crazy? Aren’t I the only person left?”
It had been a long, long time since Matt heard another voice that wasn’t calling for help.
“Hello, HELLO? Is there anyone up there?!” It was a muffled female voice. Matt knew the sound of desperation when he heard it.
Matt stood there in awe. What should he do? Should he go to her? The sound of her voice would surely attract unwanted attention. He couldn’t hold himself back. He needed human contact. It had been too long.
He left the apartment through the fire escape.
Road Trip
Jason and Dave were still a bit shaken up about what happened in the house. Dave, clutching the bat, looked at what was left of their hometown. The sky seemed to be permanently gray. The sun was out, but it wasn’t there. Maybe it, too, gave up on humanity.