The Last Day
It was Sunday, October 3rd 2010 in downtown Washington D.C. Up on the twelfth floor of the Woodburn Apartments, light filtered in through blinds in a dark bedroom. Chris Worthing woke up at 11am, and stared up at the ceiling. What a night he thought. He had spent the night out clubbing and after several shots of whiskey, beers, and various drugs, he apparently managed to lure a girl home to party some more and pass out. At least that was the best explanation for the girl asleep next to him. He didn't even remember if they had had sex or not. No matter, it's not like he hadn't gotten his share of women in the past. He was in his early thirties, and had almost grown bored of sex by this point in his life. He didn't know whether or not this was a sad thing, but deep down he was just tired of the meaningless one night stands. Even though he was constantly surrounded by friends, he felt alone.
He looked over at the girl, and began to study what he could see of her. She was pretty. She didn't resemble most of the party girls he had brought home in the past. She looked…nice. Like maybe she had some depth and a soul to speak of. She had dark brown hair, and fair, flawless skin. It didn't appear that drugs and alcohol had taken their toll yet. She also appeared a bit younger than Chris, maybe 26 or so.
He rolled out of bed, went to the bathroom and urinated, and then went to the kitchen to grab some milk and cereal. He took the cereal to the couch and began to count last night's earnings. He came home with about 1200 dollars, which was a decent night for him. All of the cokeheads were out last night so there was plenty of cash to be made. He thought about the money he had saved thus far; over 200 grand. If he kept it up for another two years he could retire. Then what? Maybe buy a house and try to find a wife. Who knows, maybe Sleeping Beauty over there would fit the bill.
He turned on the TV. Only static. Did he forget to pay the stupid cable bill again? He opened his laptop. No internet connection. Makes sense since his internet and cable were provided by the same company. He grabbed his phone…and then realized shit, they're closed on Sunday. Oh well, I guess no NFL football today. Maybe he'd just head to a bar to watch the game.
He heard the girl wake up and walk to the bathroom in her underwear and a tshirt that appeared to be one of his. Not bad he mused. Maybe this one could stick around for a while. First he had to get her name. While finishing his cereal, she came out and sat next to him.
"Hey." Said mystery girl.
"Hey." Chris replied. "So, that was some night huh?" He really didn't remember a thing, but didn't want to be too embarrassed about that fact.
"Yeah, that was some after-hours party."
After-hours? Man how much of this night did Chris forget? Note to self, no more whiskey. Whiskey makes Chris black out. "Yeah, about last night…So, I really hate to say this, but I don't remember much, did we?"
"Nothing happened. We both passed out the second we got to your place. I think we were both exhausted from all the partying."
"Right. So, I'm Chris." He thought this would be a good way to re-introduce himself because who knows how much she remembered either.
"I remember, Chris with the bright green eyes. I think that's how you got me to start talking to you. You do have some incredible eyes. Anyway, I'm Alex. It's short for Alexandra."
"It's a pleasure. Sorry, I don't have much to eat; just some cereal and maybe a few hot pockets."
"Oh that's okay, I was probably going to head out and grab coffee somewhere before heading home."
"Mind if I join you? I could use some coffee after last night."
"Sure, I'd like that."
Chris looked at the floor and saw a skirt, blouse, and high heels. This was hardly Sunday daytime attire. "If you'd like, you can shower here and we can buy you a new outfit on the way."
"Uhm…wow okay, you don't have to do that."
"It's fine, I have the money. It'll be nice to see you freshened up. That way we can get a new start on the day together. Why don't you go ahead; there are spare towels in the closet. Make yourself at home." Chris prided himself on being a gentleman, even though his lifestyle didn't always permit it.
"That's really nice of you. I won't take long. Thanks."
"Again, my pleasure."
Alex smiled and trotted off to go shower. Chris looked at his phone again. No text messages? Okay, this was odd. Being a very successful dealer meant one thing if nothing else: Endless text messages. He looked back through old ones, and some were from friends about where to meet up for the party after the club, and others were just late night customers that he may or may not have serviced. Either way, this was starting to get weird. For the first time of the morning Chris had an uneasy feeling about things.
He went back to the kitchen and rinsed out the cereal bowl and put it in the dishwasher. Then he headed to the window, and opened the blinds. It was then that he saw it. The strangest sight he had ever seen. There were cars parked all in the middle of 16th street, just haphazardly, as if people had gotten out in the event of an emergency. What the fuck was going on? He looked down at the street, and saw an old man who looked like he was stumbling his way up the street. Then he took a closer look and the man appeared to have really bad skin and he looked frail. He was just hobbling, sort of aimlessly. He strained to look further down 16th street. He saw a crowd of people off in the distance. Something was definitely wrong. Had there been some kind of attack? Either way, this was obviously some serious shit.
He went to the front door and opened it quietly and looked left, and saw nothing. He looked right and his jaw dropped. There were people just ambling around…But they looked terrible, like they were sick or something. This is fucked up. There is definitely something going on. He wanted to yell to these people to see if they needed help, but by this point he was scared. What if whatever happened to these people is contagious.
We gotta get out of here, he thought. Mild panic started to set in, and it took him a second to collect his thoughts as he gently closed the door. He grabbed his backpack and immediately started loading it up with supplies. He opened his safe and pulled out the money. He would take 50 grand with him. That would be enough to live off of for quite a while until shit settled down. He would leave the rest in the safe in case something happened to the cash. He grabbed both of his guns, his knife. Uhm…the blow. Okay, I think I can go a while without drugs at this point, he reasoned. This is obviously an emergency, there will be time to party later. It wasn't really so much the need to have the drug, it was just that he was just so used to having it, and people needing it. If things were as bad as they seemed, no one would need this stuff for quite a while.
He closed and locked the safe, and through some bottled water into the backpack. DC water had never been good, and Chris drank bottled water religiously. In fact, he was so paranoid about it that he always got his drinks with no ice. Alex walked out of the bathroom in a towel and saw the guns and backpack on the floor.
"Do you always carry a gun to grab coffee on Sunday?" She mused.
"Okay, I don't know how to say this. We're in trouble. Wait, that came out wrong. I don't mean the cops are after me or anything, I mean the whole city is in trouble. There's been an emergency." Alex looked concerned.
"Really? What kind of emergency?"
"I don't know, there are a bunch of sick, aimless people walking around in my hallway, and they don't even look coherent. I feel like I'm still dreaming or something. But it's real, they're out there."
"We have to do something." Alex replied. She went to her purse and grabbed her phone and speed-dialed a friend. We're sorry, all circuits are busy. Please try your call again later. "The phone lines are busy."
"Figures. Look, we may have to postpone that coffee date and try to make it to the nearest police station. There's one about 6 blocks from here." They both looked at each other. Alex looked worried. "Look, I don't know what's going on, and I know you just met me, and I'm a gun-carrying drug dealer. But right now, you have to trust me. If we're going to get out of this we have to work together. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
"You…just met me."
"I don't care, there's something going on and we need each other right now. I know you're probably worried about your family, and so am I, but…"
"Actually both of my parents died in a car accident when I was young. I was raised by my grandparents, and they died last year. So, I don't really have a family."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be, I'm fine. You're right, we need to work together to find out what's going on and get to safety."
Chris handed her the glock. "You ever use one of these?"
"No." Alex replied nervously. "I have never even held one in my hand."
"Okay, well you gotta use all of your strength to keep the gun level, and aim for your target. Sometimes it helps to close one eye so you can get a sharper viewpoint. Either way, aim for the chest. That thing will knock anyone down, and most likely kill them. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, but we have to be prepared for the worst. Whatever that is."
Alex nodded, and put the gun in her purse. Chris tucked his into his pants. He was now regretting never having gotten a holster. He never needed one. The gun was in case of intruders. He didn't walk around the city carrying a gun.
"Okay, now get dressed and let's go. Oh, and hand me your shoes, so I can break off those heels. Here ya go." He handed her back the shoes and she put them on.
"I'm sorry, I must look like a wreck." Alex said embarrassingly.
"You look beautiful. Some girls don't look good without makeup but you look really nice."
"Thank you, that's really sweet. I knew you weren't a bad guy. That's why I felt safe going home with you. I mean, I know what you do, but it's not who you are. I could sense that in your words."
"Thanks. Well, time to go I guess. When we get out there, we don't talk, we don't make a sound. I don't want these people coming after us if they're contagious"
"Right."
Chris opened the door and peered into the hallway. It looked like most of the people headed down to the end of the hallway and they appeared to be surrounding something. Most of them were crouched down around whatever it was. It was then that he noticed the stench of death in the hallway. People are dying? Okay, keep it together Worthing. For the girl at least. You don't want her panicking as well. So just keep calm.
Alex gagged a little, and Chris saw that she had noticed the smell too. He grabbed her hand and led her around the corner and there were more of those people in the far corner. The stairwell was right on his left, and they went into it, and began the decent. The stairs were empty. They made it all the way down to the first floor, out of the stairwell, and into the hallway. More sickos. Yeah, this was beginning to feel really fucked up. Luckily, the exit to the building was close by, and the people…things, whatever they were, were off down the hall, pre-occupied with something.
They made it to the exit, and walked outside. The noonday sun blinded them for a bit so they had to stop and refocus. They both stared at the crowd of people that were ambling around. Chris was horrified. It looked as if some of them had limbs missing.
"What are these things?" Alex whispered. But she knew the answer; she just didn't want to admit it.
"I don't know, but let's just move quietly." Chris looked towards where his car was parked. There was no way to get to the car without attracting those things. "Well, there's my car. It doesn't look like we're going to be able to use it. Let's go this way, we'll walk to the station. It's pretty close."
Chris and Alex headed out of the parking lot, and crossed the desolate street. Even for a Sunday, 16th street was always busy with at least some traffic. Chris was beginning to wonder if he and Alex were the last people that weren't sick. Here, we gotta turn down this street.
About halfway up the block, someone jumped out and grabbed Chris. "Aghh!" Chris exclaimed and shoved the thing off of him. It made a hissing-gasping type noise and lunged forward again. Chris moved out of the way and it stumbled passed him. It almost ran into Alex, who also lept out of the way. It fell forward and hit the car parked on the street. When it turned around, Chris shot it in the chest. It was knocked back a bit, but then it kept coming. W.T.F. Chris took another shot, this time right between the eyes, and the thing fell to the ground, silent. Chris just stood there, trembling a bit. Alex looked shaken up too.
"I think I know what these things are. I've seen them in the movies, and on TV. They're…zombies."
"You're kidding right?" Chris replied.
"I know it's crazy, but what other explanation is there? These things walk and act like zombies, and that one looked like it was going to try to bite you or something."
"Okay that's fucked up." Chris had to hold it together. He was in the Apocalypse apparently. And he'd just killed his first zombie. He'd never killed anything in his life. What the hell was going on? No matter, he had to keep pressing on and find out. He gathered himself together. "Come on, the station's only a few blocks away. We'll find out what's going on soon enough."
Chris and Alex continued down the side street.