Hanish raised his gun high over his head, waiting for something to come out of the shadows. He felt a knot form in his throat as he rounded a corner. He was just waiting for anything. He began to sweat, his heart raced. He almost felt like he might have a heart attack, but he couldn’t give up. He had to stay strong for Aleaha. She was out there somewhere, waiting for him. He kept that hope in his heart.
Bam! Hanish looked over to his right to see a can fall off a shelf. He quickened his pace over to it, running from it was a small rat. He crouched down to pick it up when he saw a door in the distance with a light beaming from under it. Was it possible that he truly wasn’t alone? He slowly approached the door, grabbing the handle. He jerked it back, causing it to click. He looked and noticed the door was locked. He needed a key, but he didn’t know where to begin to look. He saw a crowbar against a box full of tools. He reached to grab it when he saw a figure of a creature underneath the table next to the window. He bent down to see what looked like an old man whose head was half caved in and was gnawing on some food. The man jumped up and shot at Hanish.
Pop! Hanish held his hand firmly on his gun, drawing it to the man. His hand now hot, realizing that he had shot it off at the man. The man fell back, and out of his hand was a foot, with a half-broken bone. “Harrison’s leg,” the man lay there. Hanish stood over him, and he drew his gun again, this time firing it directly into the temple of the old man. He noticed the man was decaying, and his eyes were sunken in and bloodshot. Blue veins were popping out of his face. The man was just as gone as Harrison, but he was still moving around. It was a risk that Hanish had come to understand with the state of the world now. The first case was the day of the presidential address. 3,000 cases in 48 hours.
Hanish felt lucky being on his farm because he was so far from it, so he figured it would take a while before they reached them. It wasn’t long enough, he thought. But Aleaha, she thought it was too long.
Aleaha, in the first few months in the bunker, began to feel weary. She was up and down all night. He tried to draw her close to him, but she pulled away. The cold metal frame of their bed was too rough on her. Hanish woke up to the sounds of her vomiting. He touched her back to comfort her, which brought on the sounds of her crying. He held her close. He didn’t know what else he was supposed to do. He just wanted them to be safe. Aleaha turned to him, her eyes swollen from tears. She gripped his arms as he held her. “I can’t believe this is all happening now,” she spoke into his chest.
“I know, but at least we have each other,” he stroked her cheek with his hand.
He opened his eyes to an empty room, noticing she was gone. The bunker door was swinging open. The house was in shambles. There was dust everywhere; the front door was busted. Glass covered the floor. The television screen was busted. “Aleaha!” he shouted, searching for her. He placed his hand on the couch, and it sunk in. He then opened the door to see her car was gone. He dropped to his knees. She had abandoned him. He felt his heart twist as his head spun. He ran to the room and grabbed his gun from the nightstand. He raced to his trunk, jumping in. He went to start it. He drove down the road screaming for her. He noticed some of his neighbors’ houses looked abandoned. He saw bodies in some yards. He saw doors open. He got out of his car and approached one of the houses.
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“Aleaha?” He called out. The house was covered in blood. He saw the body of his neighbor hunched over the staircase. He noticed a trail of bloody footprints leading to the kitchen.
He slowly approached to find a man hunched over a kitchen table. Flies swarmed around a setup of a family dinner. It was obvious that something had interrupted it. He grabbed the shoulder of the man, pulling him back. The man’s eyes were gone. A knife stuck in his throat, blood pooled on the floor. Hanish felt sick to his stomach. He dropped the man to the floor. Turning to the trash can in the kitchen, he grabbed it, emptying the contents of his stomach into it. The smell of human decay washed over him. Hanish realized he had never felt more sick in his entire life.
He felt something hit his leg. Hanish looked down to see the body of a woman gasping against the oven. He leaned toward her. “Miss, what happened?” Hanish spoke softly to her. She moaned, and her head went limp. She pointed to the door that led to their backyard. “Is it out there?” She nodded and then closed her eyes. He watched as her breathing labored. He could tell she probably didn’t have much longer. She was bloody, but he couldn’t make out her injuries to try to help her. He stood up, proceeding out the door. He kept himself low, drawing his gun from his back pocket. He noticed that the people who lived here’s back fences were knocked down. Blood trails died in the grass.
“Damn it,” Hanish shouted. Then, from behind him, he heard a sound, a buzzing noise. He turned to see the woman from the kitchen standing up. She raced forward, jumping on him. She snarled and tried biting at him. He managed to try to fight her off. He was confused as to why this woman suddenly had the strength of a tiger when moments ago she was hanging onto death’s door. He started firing his gun at her. He lost about 3 bullets into her head, and then she finally stopped. He leaned down, checking her pulse on her neck. She was cold and stiff. She was gone. His heart began to race in his chest.
He opened his eyes to find himself back in that room. The man’s dead body lay before him. He had begun to understand that something had happened to cause all this. There was a calm in the air, but he was afraid of it all. He felt alone, but still, he had hopes that Aleaha was out there, waiting for him. Maybe she was back home. He was optimistic with the thought that she had calmed down from all this.
He took a deep breath and noticed a key card covered in blood. He picked it up and used his shirt to clean it off. He was covered in blood, not his own. He had developed a sort of immunity to the smell. He could deal with the animals on his farm quite easily, but humans were something different. He shook his head as he staggered to the door, placing the key card in its slot. The door opened to a long, open area, and bodies lay everywhere. There had to be at least 100 people in here. Some were not even in uniform. He assumed they were civilians. Blood painted the walls and tables. He gagged, and his eyes teared up. These bodies reminded him of his brother. Some of these were younger than his brother. He choked as he walked past them. He could tell that some had tried to fight. Some just gave up. Hanish could only imagine what had taken place.
A normal day of drills turned into chaos when the creatures attacked. He noticed that things were broken, and a door was off its hinges. He went around collecting items from each man. Hanish wondered if they could stop them. How could he? One man versus… “Well, he didn’t know how many there were. He turned to see another door in the far corner. It was wide open.
