Warning: This story does not follow the plot of the novel. It follows the plot of the movie I Am Legend starring Will Smith. Because FanFiction does not have I Am Legend (Film) listed, I am instead posting it in this catergory. No flames, please.
001
07/02/12
5:08AM
Don't worry,
About a thing,
'Cause every little thing
Is gonna be alright.
His dark eyes were trained on the smooth ceramic of his bathtub, as though if he were to look away his world might crumble. But perhaps that was because it would. His heart was hammering in his chest, fear coursing through him like electricity. In his arms, he cradled his only friend - Samantha. He smoothed down her fur gently with his coarse hand; he willed himself to calm down, because if he wasn't calm then she wasn't calm. Pressing into his side was his rifle, the handle stained with the blood of a deer.
It was this time, every night, that he dreaded. It was this time, every night, that he wished more than anything to rewind time. It was this time, every night, when the monsters came out to play.
He shushed his dog soothingly, her whimpers making his heart ache. He remembered when she would whimper for table food. Now her cries were pleads for Robert to protect her from what the world now inflicted on them.
She was all he had left. She was his only family. Not even his artifical peers satisfied his need for social interaction. He'd only created them and placed them around town in an attempt to keep a firm grip on his sanity. Surely if he hadn't done so, he would have lost his wits long ago.
He missed his lovely wife, and his even lovlier daughter. He still wandered into her room at times, adjusting pillows that were already perfectly straightened just to occupy his mind. Because, usually, addressing his nostalgia only tore away another chunk of his hope.
But it was always at this time that nostalgia whirled around inside of him, doing spectacular acrobats in his stomach. Nausea tended to stab at his insides every time his ears caught the distant sound of famished screams. Only because he knew what was coming. They would search, and search, and search. And he would stay huddled in his bathtub with his best friend, quaking with terror. He always feared that one day they might find him. That one day, he may lose his life in this barren hellhole he called Earth.
If that happened, all hope of restoring humanity would be erased. And he couldn't bear to imagine that.
He clenched his eyes shut, loathing the sound of their snarls. He could hear them tearing through the streets, wailing with starvation. Even above the pounding of his heart in his ears, he could still hear them.
And hearing them was enough to traumatize him.
Devastation threatened to crash through him, crush him, choke him. He dared it to. In fact, he urged it to. He had reason to cry, to break down. And who ever heard of man's best friend judging man for crying?
A tear leaked from his eye and sped down to splash into Samantha's fur. He dragged his palm along her back once again, singing quietly, as if it could drown out the boisterous wreck outside. "Don't worry," he croaked, tears easily fleeing from his eyes.
What seemed to be a million fists and claws slammed into his front door. The racket intensified. His heart slid into his stomach horribly. "About a thing," his voice cracked, his hands trembled.
Never before had he willed something to go away so badly. He didn't know how to defeat them, he didn't know how to cure them. All he knew was that they wanted to tear the flesh from his limbs and shovel his mangled body into their mouths.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Screech, snarl, growl. Thump. Thump. Thump. It seemed endless. As if time itself had halted just to watch the petrifying scene. Time had never been his friend. Every time he wanted to savor it, it leaped away from him as quickly as it could. Every time he wanted to kick it into overdrive, it hardly moved. It always mocked him; it stole the precious moments he held so dearly and refused stubbornly to return them. Because that was how time worked. It never went backward. It always continuously moved on. And right now the route it was taking was lined with horror. Just like Robert's veins were.
The noise suddenly ceased. A ray of sunshine leaked through the pane of his boarded window. Robert was finally able to breathe.
A relieved grin tugged at his lips and he peered down at Sam. She wagged her tail hopefully, as if she wanted nothing more in the world than to see his smile. And so he gave her what she wanted. The corners of his lips pulled up into his cheeks to reveal his teeth. He scratched his faithful companion behind the ears.
"'Cause every little thing... is gonna be alright."
Though he sang it repetitively, almost religiously, in the furthest crevice of his mind, Robert knew that he was only trying to convince himself of its validity. Deep down, he knew that as the day progressed it would steadily diminish. Deep down, he knew that every little thing was not going to be alright. Ignorance was bliss. Three little birds would never land on his doorstep.
A/N: This was extremely negative, I know. But I really wanted to capture just how Robert must have been feeling during this time period. Sorry to say, I have never read the I Am Legend novel.