"As long as you can find yourself, yOU Will..." The bedroom was engulfed in sudden silence as the CD player went quiet, as early morning broke, sunrays were filtering through the shattered window onto the walls, filling the room with a warm orange hue. In the centre of the room was a creature fast asleep, its rough textured body contasting the soft pile of pillows and blankets it lay on.
The creature's head was slightly splayed open, the segments relaxed, while sitting infront of its face was the small silver-plastic CD player that had just stopped.
The plate closest to the CD player twitched, before they all shifted slightly. The razor sharp mouth hung ajar, before closing as the creature became concious once more. It lay there for several minutes, its mind was still foggy from its rest, only realising that it was the first time it had slept in over a week. In its haze, it tried to recall what relaxed it so much so it dropped its guard and fell asleep. Sleeping in a human occupied area, foolish. It jided itself, looking on at the very much open door to its bedroom. Fool!
It sat upright while the plates encased the vulnerable flesh inside. The creature was making its way off the pile when a sudden clack rang from the floor a metre away. The creature nearly leapt with fright, expecting an intruder having snuck through the doorway while it was exposed. The creature carefully extended its hand, being completely blind as it didnt want to risk opening its plates enough to 'see' what made the sound.
It relaxed once its fingers pressed against a familer plastic object. The human voice maker. The creature picked it up and held it, studying it aimlessly as it thought over the events of what it assumed to be yesterday.
Human tricked me with device, I kept it and even fell asleep to the sounds it made... This could of all been the humans plan, and I would have been killed in my sleep... The creature felt shame and guilt, grabbing the device in a tighter hold, getting ready to smash the device, but it hesitated, its hands not wanting to form the grip strong enough to cause it damage.
Why do I hesitate?! Why do I feel conflicted?! Why?..
The creature sat there as the moments passed by, holding the device and staring at it, fidgeting with the buttons. I feel enraged by this device, but something inside me doesn't want to see it destroyed. Something within me...Wants to keep listening.
It sighed and stopped fidgetting. Why did it stop talking to me? Is it waiting for me to say something? The creature tapped the device, but nothing happened. Or did it truly die?
The last thought lingered in its mind as it rested against the wooden frame of the bed, flinching as it made a slight creak, but relaxing. Maybe the other device kept this one alive? It had a heart beat afterall.
The creature leant to the right, and felt around before finding the loose wires and chess clock, before placing it infront of it, carefully inspecting it.
It traced its finger around the top and edges, feeling the hollow plastic, as it brushed over first button ontop. A clunk sounded, adding to the creature's curiosity as it found another button on the otherside, pressing it resulted in another clunk.
Fascinating.
A while passed as the creature finally placed both devices to its left and stretched, having been bent over for quite some time. The creature felt its chest, noticing it is sinking in more then usual. I have not eaten in over three week, even after slowing my metabolism, I need to find something. The creature began to walk down stairs as it thought of its options. Humans were a plentiful supply to my brethren, so much so they wasted them, leaving nothing for me but rotting moresels. My senses are limited, but I can taste the acrid air just walking by them.
The creature let out a sound of disgust before shaking the thought away, not wanting to upset his hunger.
The wildlife will make a formidable meal for today, I can either go quiet and find a suitable creature, or see if I can out run one. Unlike humans, they aren't fumbling and noisy, rather they suspect they are always being hunted and will be a real challenge of my abilities. However as the creature reached the ground floor, it paused.
Well, not all humans are noisy and chaotic, one has subverted expectations. Somehow staying just out of my reach...
With that, the creature stepped outside via the front door and began its journey towards the forrest where it hoped to get a suitable meal and clear its head.
John was resting against the wall of his room back in the cafe, mindlessly flipping through a novel that he didnt possess the right frame of mind to read. He was wincing slightly as his back throbbed with sharp pain as his pile of clothes he had been using for the past week or so, has nearly been fully deminished. He had searched the first aid kit earlier for some asparin or any form of pain killer, but found nothing suitable.
"I am nearing breaking point, I need a real fucking bed, not the concrete floor. I am almost inclined to just go out there right now, grab a mattress from a house, and take it back. Wether that fucking alien likes it or not." John bitterly spat out as he tried laying down on his stomach in hopes of allieviating the pressure. "Sciatica pains at 22, this is unberable. Also a fucking death machine that is just waiting outside to get a taste of me, ugh."
John stopped himself from continuing further and instead started taking breaths to calm his thoughts down, before resting his head in his hands. "I might of seen Ibuprofen at the fuel station, just grab that when I can, then get a proper bed. I can't even stand, let alone carry a mattress all the way here. Actually, fuck hygene for tonight."
John slowly crawled to the door, opened it, fishing for the dank and musty clothing pile, before reeling them in and throwing them in the corner of the room. He jumbled them all together, and layed on it, immidietly feeling some level of relief.
"Thank fuck, for that." He sighed, resting his head on the pillow. "Ok enough swearing John, no cowboy stuff. I need to grab painkillers and get a mattress before this incapacitates me in the future, I am all but survivng with a wrecked back."
He was feeling somewhat glad that the pain distracted him from the anxiety of yesterday. He didn't want to risk unecassary travel that could result in an encounter with the creature, but parts of him also reassured how long he managed to keep his pressence a secret.
"First was 2 weeks, then a slip of the tongue in the wrong area led it here. Second was when I played a CD on medium volume, I can't hear it from here of course. But it is certainly above normal conversation level. Given that, as long as I don't reel of quotes from a book, crack a joke or step on glass. I am fine. Maybe" However the former reminded John of his foot, he grabbed it and angled it towards him so he could inspect it.
His right foot had a wad of cotton taped in, dark red soaked the cotton, but was mostly dried up. He tore off the tape and frowned, the puncture in the arch of his foot was leaking fluids and was looking much more red then he was comfortable with. "Shit... Not good...I need to clean this ASAP." He said, completely forgetting his back pains as this was much more important
John grabbed the first aid kit, filtered through bandaids and bandages, before grabbing a new cotton pad, alcohol wipes, a small tube of antiseptic cream and more tape.
Tearing open the alcohol wipe, he brought to his foot and clenched his jaw. He let out a ragged breath as it touched, quickly and thoroughly wiping the wound clean of the muck that surrounded it, groaning with the immense pain. He then put a dollop of cream on his finger and gently rubbed it around the now clean wound before having to stop and take a breather. "Oww. Fuck..." Is all he could say through gritted teeth, doing his best to control his volume, trying his best to control his breathing as the waited for the pain to die down. He was thankful that is the puncture didn't start bleeding again, but he jided himself for not taking good enough care of the injury.
Everything settled after a few moments, however a subtle sting still remained present. "John, you are really not taking good enough care of yourself man. Dammit..." He settled again, putting some of the supplies back into the first aid kit and zipped it up, placing it back over to the arrangement of canned goods. "This is really getting out of hand..."
"I need to clean myself twice a day, same with teeth, maybe even after each meal if I can. I have to remember I have no safety nets here, there is no pharmacutical companies pumping out drugs, no hospital to go to, no GP to see when I have a strange cough. Nothing. If I am not more careful, I could get myself killed, not from the monster either. Surviving is not to be taken lightly..." John laid back down and stared at the ceiling. "This isn't just survivng against the monster, this is surviving against the world. It took man, how many thousands of years to get to where we are now. It will take a hell of a lot less to return back to then... I can't ignore that. I need to take things seriously, I need plans in place, and find sustainability somehow."
John looked over to the pile of two dozen water bottles, he had already used several dozen, which those laid outside the room in a cardboard box. "For example, that is going to run out, especially the canned food. I am being foolish eating that, what the hell am I going to eat when it is winter? Snow? Fuck this is bad." John brought his hands over his face and let out a long and drawn out sigh, rubbing his eyes and centering himself once more.
"I need to tackle things in order of highest to lowest priority, determined by how impactful it is to me. Boredom is lowest, highest is this infection and my back. Second is water, third is food, forth is clothing and proper self hygene, so on. Before I think of anything else, tomorrow I shall search fuel station for pain killers, find a proper bed so I can actually sleep and scout out, then deal with the rest."
John spent the rest of the afternoon writing down ideas for the rest of the stuff, and potential hiccups. He made note of places he should find, and scavange, potential books to read in the library, and perishables that are essential.
"Pharmacy, Department store, grocery store, camping store, workwear supplier, and flourist. Those are my targets, that will offer me almost everything I need to work with." John looked up from his notebook scribbles to the door. "I need sound proofing, for this room, kitchen and front of cafe. The stuff I need to make is going to generate noise, through building it or operation. If I have dense layers of foam, fabric and whatever else, in each section, I can consider it 'zones of saftey level'. Cafe front being only a single mattress from outside, only for quiet stuff. Kitchen will have that, combined with its own padding, medium sound. Here, with have all three combined levels, so hopefully high volume tolerance."
John closed his notebook and nodded to himself, feeling happy he at least was figuring out a direction to take, he needed goals so he could keep himself going on the right path to survival. The torch he had been using to illuminate his notebook started to dim suddenly and flicker, before restoring back to its original output.
"Ah. Add that to the list, more Double A's. Live it up while you can John, after a few months to a year, you will certainly be on candle light." He sighed and shook his head. "The literal dark ages once power is gone , I just hope I have things running smooth enough to avoid that. If, I live that long that is..."
John bit his lip at that last comment of his, this could all really be for nothing if he gets himself killed in the near future. "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. As they say."