The End

Story of a young couple going through the apocalypse. (work in progress)

I sit up and rub my eyes. It’s really quiet. It’s Monday, usually packed with noise. Odd. I turn the faucet to start the shower. But the water is freezing cold. Even after I wait a few moments, It’s still extremely cold. Too cold to shower in. No shower then. II walk out into the kitchen and start making myself cereal. But the fridge isn’t working. The food inside is all spoiled. What is this? I run to my room. He isn’t there. Where is he?! I run to the front door but I stop before I get too close. The whole door is boarded up. There is a table in front of it. The table is covered with guns, water bottles, canned food, knives, an ax, car keys, and a note. The note was extremely messy. But I was able to make out: “School library. Good luck. Be safe. I love you.” What the hell is going on??? My heart is pounding. I look out the crack in our door. The whole street is gray. Everything is trashed. As I look around, I see a group of people standing by a house. Maybe they can tell me what’s going on. I go to my room and change clothes. I have to leave the house using the attic because the doors were all blocked. I start climbing down the roof. A few heads turn from the group of people. More and more. The whole group was facing me. “Hey!” I yelled and waved at them. They began walking towards my house. I noticed something strange about them. I couldn't really point it out. They were acting weird. They walked funny. As they got closer, I could see more. Their skin was disgusting. Ripped and rotten looking. It started to scare me. Their walking became faster and clumsier. Some fell, and others just walked right over them. That’s when I started to turn back. But then they yelled. It sounded like nothing I’ve ever heard. It sounded like screaming from a thousand voices. This isn’t right. I jump back into the attic and race to the front door. The door is pounding. They must be on the other side. I grab a backpack and throw everything into it. I grab the guns, ax and the car keys. The table is now completely bare except for the note. School library??? I stuff the note into my pocket and Dash up to the attic. The people are all by the front door. My truck is right in the driveway. I’m beginning to panic when suddenly I hear a scream. A normal scream.

The sound echoes off the ground and into all directions. A woman stands outside of her house. She looks normal. But one of those odd people is lurching towards her. The people from my house all make U-turns and charge straight at hers, straight across the street. I take this chance to jump off the roof into the grass and get into my car. I hear a bark? My dog! Locked in a kennel in the garage. I rip through the cheap door with my ax and lift up the kennel. I grab the bag of dog food on my way back to get more supplies. I set the kennel on the floor of the seat next to me and start the truck. I back out of the driveway and pull up by the woman's house. The weird people are tackling her. She stands there, looking completely hopeless, not even trying to defend herself. Her neck is ripped apart by the creatures. They sink their teeth into her arms and rip off her flesh. Blood spews everywhere. Her scream becomes muffled by a gurgling sound as blood fills her throat. The people rip her body apart. I rolled past quietly and speechless. As soon as I hit the main road, I sped away as fast as I could. The whole street was completely empty. Everything was deserted. Thank god my phone is in here. I pick it up and dial 911.  No answer. Are you f*****g kidding me?  I rolled down the window and threw it away. Useless. Then I slow down as I get onto the freeway, Which is also completely empty. After a few seconds, I feel extremely nauseous from the scene of that woman’s death. I pull over to the side and jump out. I vomit all over the ground. The image of the woman being shredded to bits by those horrible people crushed me. There is no one here! Who can I go to??? “@ School library.” Someone is waiting for me.

I get back in the car and turn around. I drive straight to my high school. I drive my truck onto campus. No cops to stop me. On the side of the library, I see spray paint written sloppily on the side. “Not safe here. Get out.  Water tank.”.  I drove to the only “water tank” I knew. A big water supply somewhat close to my old house, “ Go fishing.”. It must be him. He loves fishing. I’ll have to check out the lake then. I make my way across the town to the lake.  I turn on the radio out of habit, expecting to hear the music. I was startled to hear, instead, a loud BEEP. “Hello, this is a pre-recorded message. There has been a chemical gas leak. The situation will be dealt with as soon as possible. In the meantime, please stay inside of your home's, cover mouths with any fabric to prevent inhaling the spores. All emergency phone numbers have been disabled. Electricity may stop functioning in some homes. Do not be alarmed. Thank you. Stated April 20th, 2015.”. Tears rolled down my cheeks and my breath quickened. My mind raced. BEEP “Hello this is a pre-recorded message. There has been-” I turned the radio off. I just stared at the winding road. I don’t want to think about anything. I can’t focus on thinking right now.Eventually, there were no more houses or sharp turns, just an open road where I let my truck rocket down the street. I let my dog out of the kennel. He curled in a ball right next to me. I looked at him. He’s not afraid. Doesn’t even understand what is going on I bet. Just completely relaxed. I wish I could feel the same. I had the occasional gagging from seeing the image of that woman being torn apart. I see the dock. Half expecting another sign telling me to go somewhere else again. Instead, I see an arrow pointing to the dam. I drive to the dam. I see a person standing at the edge of it as if waiting to jump over the edge into the rocks below. I drive slowly at first, trying to identify if they are a human or not. Could be my last hope. The person turns their head, and I recognize him instantly.

I floor it straight down the road across the dam. My truck picked up speed, but I slammed on the brakes as soon as I got close enough. Everything fell forward. He had gotten off of the edge and was now running in my direction. I get out of the truck and run. We embrace each other without a word. His breathing is shaky. After a long time of hugging, I took a little step back and looked at him. He looked ill. His eyes looked exhausted, and tears streamed down his face. I wiped them away with my hand and hugged him again. He buried his face into my shoulder. We stood there for several minutes. I couldn’t believe I found him. I walked him to the truck and closed the door for him. When I went to my side, He was petting our dog as it sat in his lap. “Ok, where do we go?” I broke the silence. He thought for a moment. “The beach?” he finally said. I smiled a bit, thinking he was being sarcastic. But when I looked at him, I could see he was being serious. “Really?”, I asked. “Sure.”, He said. “It is more rural there, so there is much more space. The shores go for miles, so if anything happens, we can just run. Plus there might be other people there.” So I drove to the freeway without thinking. I have no other ideas of where to go. I press the gas pedal as far as it will go. There were no cars. No police. No monitoring. No sharp turns. I was free to drive as fast as I wanted to.

We didn’t come across any other cars. We stopped a few times to break into some stores to get some supplies. There were no people around. No alarms went off. We were finally nearby the coast. I drove down some trails that took us to the shore and I just drove to the right. He kept a lookout for any decent houses above the rocks. Then we saw the lighthouse. It stood over the rocks as wave after wave crashed onto them. There is a house looking section under the tower, perhaps we could live in there. I find a driveway that leads close to the lighthouse. There appears to be what looks like a garage, but it has to be opened from the inside. I park and unbuckle my seatbelt, but he stops me. “We have to make sure it is safe,” He says to me. “If there are people living there, we can join them, if not, then we have it all to ourselves.”, I explain. He shakes his head. “And what if those bad people are in there?”, He reasons. I hadn’t thought of that. I learn towards him and wrap my arms around him. “You will be careful. I can’t lose you.”, I told him, getting choked up at the thought. “Don’t worry. Everything will be ok. I just want you to stay here. ok?” He said. I let go of him. “Alright.”, I give in. He then leaves, taking the ax out of the backpack. He heads over to the door, which apparently was unlocked. He disappeared into the shadows. I lay my head on the window and stare at the door, praying that he would reappear in the doorway. Some time passes, but the only sound I hear are the waves on the rocks and the occasional movement from my dog. Suddenly I notice some movement.. It is the garage door on the right side of the building, shaking slightly. I start the truck, preparing to retreat. I see hands at the bottom of the door. I hold my breath and put the truck into reverse. The garage door is moving more as if being pushed open. I hear wood cracking and metal snapping until the door flies open and I see what stands on the other side.

 A cloud of dust hovers between the garage and my truck. To my relief, he steps out from the shadows. I get out of my truck and approach him. I tried to ask what he had found and if he was ok, but I discovered I couldn’t speak. “There isn’t a single living thing in there, it’s perfect.”, He said. He takes my hand and leads me inside. It is only one room. There are beds by the ceiling that is accessed by a ladder. The kitchen was to the side with super old fashioned items. There was a group of couches and chairs surrounding a fireplace. In the far left corner, There sat a tiny, old tv. An old fashioned radio stood right by the ladder to the beds. Everything seemed to be small and old fashioned. On the side of the kitchen, to the far left, pressing on the wall, there was a small door, most likely the pantry. An open doorway led to the tower of the lighthouse. He disappeared for a moment while I was looking throughout the home. He returned carrying our dog, who was squirming to explore the new home. He sniffed and wandered around as soon as his feet touched the floor. I walked back out to the truck and gathered all of my things. He started the fire while I went to put everything away. When I go into the kitchen, I see a pile of canned food stacked on the counter. I pick up one and try to read through the dirt and scratches the only word I can see is “Peaches”, and that’s the only word I need to see. I search the kitchen for a can opener. Instead, I end up stabbing a fork through the lid. I listen to his footsteps walk to the tiny door. I grab as many cans as I could and prepared to place them on shelves in the small room. But I can tell something isn’t right as soon as I turn around. He stands in front of the doorway, looking forwards with an unsure expression on his face. “Everything ok?”, I said, finding my voice. “Look at this,” He said. I walk over to him and look into the doorway. This is definitely not a pantry.

What I saw was a huge storage room with concrete walls. Five hospital beds were stationed around the room. Several cages hung from the ceiling. Hanging on the walls were weapons and stick-leashes. In the center of the whole room, there was a huge pit with a net over it. Someone seemed to have been prepared for this. I turn to face him. “How long has this been going on?”, I asked him. “Five days.”, He answered after thinking for a moment. “No one could have built this in five days. Not this much… Right?”

“I have no idea.”

“Why else would they build this? This room seems perfect for what is going on.”

I walked back into the “house” part. I sat on the couch. Our dog jumped up too and rested his small head on my knee. He looked up at me, just begging to be pet. I stroked his short, soft fur. His eyes closed and his ears moved back out of the way whenever  my hand went up to pet him. The little house was nice and warm. I wanted to stay there. He came over and sat close to me. His arm went around my shoulders and my head rested by his neck. I closed my eyes. At that moment, I was relaxed. I felt happy. I actually felt safe. At that moment, everything was perfect. But the moment ended. I heard a sound. Very faint. Somewhat familiar. It sounded like a large group of people screaming. The sound was terrible, but still very faint. I sit up, disturbing the peace. I take a pistol and go outside, the dog begins barking. I open the door slightly and listen. The horrible yelling came from closer to the water. Reminds me of the bad people I saw ripping the woman in half. I got tears in my eyes and it felt hard to breathe. They weren’t people. They were monsters. What could make someone destroy another being so carelessly? The sound got louder. They were here. The sound is much louder. I open the door. I hear my name, but I ignore it. I see them. Their limbs hanging off just by strings. Their skin rotting off, lost of human color. Their eyes had a light film over them. They tumbled towards me, faster and faster. I pointed my gun and shot. The creature’s head exploded, spraying black, dead blood. I gagged in disgust at the sight of it I shot three more. One more. I take aim and then realized what I am doing, what I have done. It is getting so close. One more shot and it’s over. I close my eyes and pull the trigger. Click. I rapidly searched my pockets, even though I already knew I had no bullets with me. I had walked backward and put quite some distance between me and the house. I tried to yell out to him, but he was already a few yards away and running closer. I dodged around it and sprinted for the house. Only to find there was another one. They herded me by my truck. I stood up onto the bed of the truck, and suddenly there was silence. All I could hear was my heart beating. Everything slowed down. I turned my head and looked out at the ocean. This is it. There are so many people that have died. Who said I would survive? I was meant to go down with everyone else. I am not going to change anything. Although...  I slept during the beginning. There must be a reason why I made it this far. We just found a house with a room with everything we could ever need. I can’t die now. I looked back to see him, panicking for a path to get to me without getting hurt. He saw there was no completely safe way to do this. He dashed forward and smashed the creature's head with an ax. But not before it sinks its teeth into my arm.

I don’t remember making any sound. From then on, I just watched him. He pulls the creature away from me and blood starts leaking out of my arm. A perfect mold of teeth was carved into my skin, right below my wrist. I close my eyes, my arm hurts so bad. He had killed the other monster, I heard it fall to the ground. He rushes over to me. There is blood everywhere. “I’m ok. I’m fine. It just really hurt, that’s all.”, I said, trying to calm him down. But we both knew I was not ok. He helped me off the bed of the truck and carried me into the house. It became harder to see, I felt like I was going to faint. He set me down on the couch. He got a towel and cleaned the bite. I just closed my eyes and tried to ignore the pain. When he was finished, he sat back and covered his face with his hands. I tried to sit forward with him, but I got so dizzy. “I’m ok.”, I said. “Everything is ok. It was just a bite. You took care of it, everything is fine now.” He raises his head a little,”Do you know what happens when they bite?” I shook my head. I didn’t bother staying to watch what happened to the woman if she even survived that. “You become one of them. That’s how this whole thing happened.” He hides his tears in his hands. I don’t want to become like that. I want to survive. “How long do you think it will take?” I asked. “I don't know”, he hesitated. “It seems to be different for everyone.” My arm hurts so badly. I look at it. I see black lines coming out from underneath the towel. My veins are turning black. My blood is changing. He wraps his arms around me and holds me. I knew he was still crying. “I can’t lose you,” He said. We both lie on the couch together for a while. I fell asleep at one point, but he woke me up. It was dark outside. The little house had lamps all around, giving the room a golden glow. “Time to go to bed”, He said, avoiding eye contact. I examined my arm. There were black lines from my shoulder to my fingers, all emitting from under the towel where the bite hid. “If I really do become one of those things… Then I can’t go to bed with you.” He stood and stared at my arm. “The only safe way is to keep you outside or kill you. But I can’t do that to you.” I thought for a moment. “What about the pit in the big room?” I begin to rise from the couch. “I don’t know what that does, it could be dangerous.”, He replied. I bit my lip and shrugged a bit. “I’m dying anyway.” He winced as the words came out of my mouth. “Alright.”, he gave in.

I raise the net and slide under. I hold onto the corner, hoping that my landing doesn’t hurt too much. He closes it behind me. I let go suddenly and slam into the ground. The impact shoots pain up my shins through my ankles. I look back up at him. I felt like an animal, being held behind this net. “I’ll get you some things,” He said, and disappeared for a moment. .I look at my arm. It is almost fascinating the way it looks. He returns with some pillows and some blankets. He tosses them down at me. I pick them up and begin arranging a bed for myself. He says my name, stopping me. I turned around. He was sitting at the very edge of the pit, looking through the net. “I’m so sorry.”, He said, tears streaming down his face. “Why?”, I asked. This isn’t his fault. “I am supposed to keep you safe!!! Keep you alive!!!”, He snapped at me. I hit my head on the wall of the pit in frustration. I didn’t feel anything. I do it again, harder this time. Still nothing. I don’t investigate any further because he tells me to stop. I go to my “bed” and prepare to go to sleep. “You should rest.”,  say to him. He shook his head, refusing to move. I persisted. “You are tired. I am tired. I’ll be here tomorrow morning.”

“You won’t be here. Not you.”

“I will stay here. Just please get some rest. Everything will be fine.”

“I don’t want to say goodbye.”

“We aren’t saying goodbye. We are saying goodnight.”

I didn’t want this to be sad. He wipes his face and gets up. “Goodnight”, he says. “I love you.” I close my eyes and listen to his footsteps leaving the room and closing the door behind him. I get out of bed and hit my head on the wall again. There was no pain at all. I slam my hands into the wall. It was solid concrete, but it didn’t bother me. I walk to one side of the room and sprint full speed at the other side and jump at it. I got quite a bit of air before slamming into it and falling to the ground. I laid there and closed my eyes. Suddenly I was back outside with my gun, shooting the creatures, their black blood splattering all over the place. I could still hear their horrible screams. I killed them. What once was a human being and now a monster, I killed it. I saw the whole fight all over again, played slowly in my mind. I killed it.

I open my eyes to see the gray ceiling behind the net. It’s probably morning now. I sit up and stretch. That’s when I notice the bite on my arm. It’s just a faint scar now. It seemed to have healed last night. The black veins all along my arm have faded to a light gray, and they have spread all over my body. It’s probably morning. That means I haven’t changed. I stand up and yell his name. Perhaps he is awake. He runs in, out of breath. He looks down at me in astonishment. “I’m going to let you up… But I have a gun… Control yourself, ok?” I nodded and he proceeded to lift the net and toss the end of a stick leash down. I get a running start before pushing off the ground and landing my hands on the edge of the pit. That must have been at least 15 feet and I cleared it. I pulled myself up and got out, meanwhile he backed away with the gun pointed in my direction. “Prove to me that you are safe. You should have changed by now. So I don’t know what to think.”, He said. His hands were shaking badly. “Calm down.”, I said, “What do you want me to do?” He tosses the stick leash at my feet. “Put that on. We will walk around with you on that so nothing bad happens. We’ll just go for a little walk.”, He said. I pick up the leash and fit the wire circle over my head and tighten it onto my neck, feeling very ridiculous. I rolled my eyes and passed the stick to him. He takes it, looking ashamed. “I’m sorry… I just trying to do this as safe as possible.” I nodded. “I understand. Let’s go.” I was anxious to get outside finally. When we passed through the living room, my dog sat on the chair and watched me walk across. We went outside and I took a deep breath of air. It felt so weird. I kept taking deep breaths of air, every one of them felt refreshing yet boring. It occurred to be that I haven’t been breathing at all this whole time. As we walk onto the sand, I place my fingers on my neck looking for a pulse, but I find nothing.

Continued...

Author's Note

This is a work in progress, I have not yet finished the story. I will be adding a paragraph every couple of days or so. If anyone has any tips to avoid cliche parts, please help me. I usually have trouble with that. I haven't finished editing hence any spelling mistakes. I also need help on the begining. I feel like it is too quick, any advice is much appreciated. Thank you!