Chris Motionless Imagines

Apocalypse

You almost hope the apocalypse does come and just ends all this. 

Your stomach rumbles, but you ignore it, slowly reaching for your worn purse and dragging it to you. You need to calculate your bills, figure out how you can wiggle your money around to cover everything. You might have to skimp on food again, but that's alright, you can make it.

Your eyes rise as the lights flicker, and you grimace, hoping the power doesn't go out again. The electric good isn't stable, too many people trying to draw off of it at once, which is why you have a stock of candles. You only use one, and you try to recycle it as much as possible, wax is too expensive to be wasteful. 

You stand, heading over to your bedside table where you keep the candles, grabbing it and the small box of matches out. Your bed is pushed against the wall for optimal space, with the single table and lamp beside it with the burned-out bulb. You have two overhead lights, one in the kitchen and one in the closet that's called a bathroom with just a shower and toilet beside each other. The kitchen is small, a refrigerator and stove beside the other with a counter beside it, and then just your table and two chairs. You have a sofa shoved against the wall, and a bookshelf with different books you've found and collected, but that's it.

You doubt anyone, except maybe sketchy drug dealer guy, has a TV, let alone the hookup for it to actually get channels. You figure you're lucky you even have a refrigerator here, this is actually one of the better places to live.  You can't imagine how difficult it would be if you had a child you had to feed, or any other family that relied on you.

You hear sirens again, this time closer, as if they're right outside your window. You hold your breath before you creep over to it, brushing the dingy, thin curtain out of the way so you can peep outside. There are at least three cars parked hazardly in the parking lot six stories below, and you wonder what's going on. 

Drug bust maybe? No, more than likely someone has been murdered, that seems more likely than the police caring about drugs. People never call them unless there's a dead body involved, and sometimes not even then. It's too much of a hassle. 

The cops don't usually visit this side of town anymore, not since the riots a few years ago. Most of the gray buildings outside are damaged, crumbling ruins of their former selves, pieces of them in the street blocking the road. You're not sure how this one made it out so well, considering the destruction all around it, but at least it's stable enough that you can call it home.

Hmph.

Oh well.

You let go of the curtain, returning to your table and setting your candles and matches down beside each other, just in case you need them. You sit down and reluctantly reach for the stack of bills you're going to have to look through, wondering what you're going to give up this month to pay them.

~~~~~~~~

Okay, just dash to the mailbox and back, you can do it. You hesitate in front of your door, knowing all you have to do is make it down to the end of the hallway, drop your bills off, and come back. It's just... well, sketchy drug dealer guy's door is closed, and there's not been any traffic through in a few minutes, so now might be a good opportunity. You don't want to run into anyone, it's too... it scares you.

You hold tightly to the paper in your hands, slowly reaching forward to twist the lock on your door. You usually keep a chair propped beneath it every night, just for extra safety, but you wish there was more you could do to defend yourself. Guns are outlawed, so other then a dull kitchen knife, you have no other way to defend yourself. 

It's currently in your coat pocket.

Okay, one, two... three!

You open your door before you can think anymore on it, nervously peering out into the hallway before you close the door behind you and scurry down the scuffed floor. You keep your eyes on the floor, not looking at any of the doors that you pass, hoping no one is looking out. You avoid your neighbors, keep to yourself and don't bother anyone, so they leave you alone as well.