48 Days

Chapter 1 - My Dead Friend

  Sun rays bleach the city with a fiery glisten as I walk down the streets of this once great society.  Wolf, my dog, follows.  He happily trots beside me, totally oblivious to what has happened over the past year.  Global warming arriving, turning everything into either a massive ocean, dryland, or in my case just a overgrown wonderland.  Diseases such as The Heat Wave were born, a vicious mix of Influenza and a regular fever.  My little bro died from it, I couldn't look at my parents for a week.  They'd talk me into eating but I wouldn't, I would just sit there, thinking about how life would be different now.  A few months prior to me arriving here we were "rescued" by a group of survivors who weren't able to get into Safe Haven.  We trusted them at first, well I never trusted them.  But my parents were too stupid to understand what they were.  Two nights later I wake up to the people eating the last of my family, feeding their flesh to Wolf.  Wolf was misunderstood and never knew what he was eating was his owners flesh.  I still give him haunted looks, I escaped with Wolf before they could eat me.  And now I'm here, what was formally New York, looking for a possibly dead friend of mine.

  My dead friend is Phora, a dark skinned, short, thin girl who was the closest thing I had to a friend.  We were in touch for a short time during The Warming happened but then the connection to the Internet was cut off.  She said the last place she would be and stay would be here in New York.  So that is why I'm here, trying to find someone I know is either at Safe Haven or dead.  She told me the street and apartment number and said the door would be open.  I walk down the deserted, partially flooded street.  Vines climb up the building that I'm supposed to enter, giving me the weary feeling that Something will go wrong.  I walk in, my hunting knife out.  Wolf's ears dart back and forth with awareness, he sniffs the floor.  I take out my trusty flashlight, the vines travel across the ceiling.  Wolf growls to a dark corner of the lobby, I follow where he is creeping to.
Three rats scurry out, scaring the crap out of me.  Wolf yelps in fear at the sight of them, he has a strange fear of small animals.  I roll my eyes, " Wolf, their just rats," I mutter to him.  " Besides, we are here for Phora, not for you to get scared by small things!".  He whines, I give him a angry glare.  He then stops, backing away for a second.  We arrive at an elevator, we press the button.  It doesn't light up nor do we hear an elevator coming down to get us.  " I guess we have to take the stairs....." I sigh.  We enter the stairwell beside the one elevator. 

  Did I say this place was in really bad shape?

  Luckily, Phora lives in an apartment on the fifth floor, so it isn't that much flights of stairs.  As we climb up we encounter a dead body, I jump at the sight of it.  I slip and fall down three steps back down to the previous floor.  I know who that is, it's Phora's father.  I drag myself to the walk and lean on it for a minute, I hold in my vomit at the sight of the rotting corpse.  I shake in horror, I get nauseous when I see dead bodies.  Because I've seen too many of them. Wolf barks in confusion, I stroke his face.  I then get up, passing the dead body of Phora's father.  I open the door into the fifth floor, I walk slowly, weary of dead bodies behind the next corner,  that's when I find the apartment.  The door is slightly open.  I creep in, trying not to make a noise.  When I encounter another dead body.  Phora's little sister, who was dying of The Heat Wave the last time I heard from Phora.  A large red dot is evident on her head, she was shot.  I then have my knife raised, I pass a bedroom where another corpse lays.  Phora's mother, once again, shot in the head.  I then look in another bedroom, and there she is.

She sits in the corner, shaking, her gun pointed at me.  Her eyes wild with panic.
" Phora, put the gun down, it's me!" I say.  The gun shakes in her hand as she lowers it.
" You came," Phora's voice shakes, " All the way from Buffalo,".
" My family was killed, I needed some company besides a dog, so I wanted to come find you!" I say happily, I then notice the blood on her hands.  The blood........
" Phora, you didn't, did you?" She begins to sob and tremble.  I sit beside her, holding her.  " My Dad told me to put them out of their misery, since he couldn't do it, he asked me to, he then said we had to go but I didn't want to, so I shot him as well!"  She yowls.
" Shhhhhhh, it's ok, it's ok," Wolf tilts his head in confusion, I the gesture him to come over.  He trots over and nuzzles up against Phora.

 
We are fourteen, we are broken, lost, we will never be the same......