When All is Lost

Chapter 1

I never understood true boredom until the apocalypse.

Grimacing at the jumbled pile of yarn in front of me, I attempted to settle farther down into my couch to work on my latest project – baby booties.

Ugly baby booties.

As I held the peach-colored sock up to the light, I could spot at least three places where the yarn had snagged. I regretted that I'd ever offered up that I could knit. So much of my time was now spent on altering clothing and knitting winter outerwear that I was dreaming about it.

It wasn't like I had anything else to break up the monotony. My entire life revolved around the small projects that I was assigned each week. They were my only source of entertainment.

And the bane of my existence.

I let out a long sigh when I managed to snag the fabric yet again. Stretching, I made the executive decision to take a break for the day. I had been at it almost non-stop since Chris had left for his guard shift early that morning.

He was the one shining light in all of this, and after two months of not being allowed to leave our assigned apartment, his return home each evening was the highlight of my days. He was not just my companion and husband, but also my only real connection to the outside world.

Malinda came once a week to pick up my work and give me my newest projects, but she wasn't what I would have called a friend. Unfortunately, being deemed a non-essential worker meant that I couldn't even go out into the hall and meet our neighbors. Chris even got to be the one to pick up our food each week on his single day off.

With little else to pass the time, I started walking laps. The apartment was old and cheap. Whoever had lived in it before had put up few decorations. Our main room held a dull-grey couch, a coffee table, a TV that was now useless, and a lamp. Closer to the apartment door, there was a small table with two chairs and a hideous painting portraying a vase full of daisies. There were a few windows that gave us a small view from the third floor, but it was mostly of the parking lot.

I hummed as I walked down the hall to where the single bedroom and bathroom doors sat open. Wanting to prolong the walk, I went into each room, maneuvering around the furniture in an attempt to touch all four corners. I then went back down the hall to the kitchenette where I did ten jumping jacks before repeating the entire process.

My mind drifted off as I kept doing laps. I missed my house in Utah, but my thoughts were with my family back east. We'd tried so hard to get to them only to be wrangled up by the military when our journey had taken us too far north. They had stuck us in Milwaukee and gave us a home and jobs, telling us it was our duty to help keep society going.

What they would have liked us to forget was that zombies had all but destroyed both the East and West coasts. We were sandwiched in and disaster was slowly encroaching closer and closer to us. The collapse of our government left us declaring a Senator from California as President. Evidently, he was leading the different pockets of society all over the United States via some military radio.

Not that I would know anything about that.

All of my information came from Chris. A lot of which he supposedly got from our neighbor Ian, who served as a guard right alongside him. I tried not to be jealous of him having a friend, but I craved human interaction like a fish craved water.

I would have made friends with a paper plate if I thought it would talk back.

Bored with walking, I checked the time.

7:06

I smiled.

Less than thirty minutes to go.