While flipping through the calendar earlier today I counted the days since it happened and realized that more time than I thought have passed. It's been 21 days or exactly three weeks since something went wrong in the world. Based on this fact I'm glad Eric persuaded me into spending some money to install those solar panels on the roof. He always cared so much for the environment. Thanks to the solar panels I still have electricity otherwise I would be sitting in darkness right now, just like the street outside with the faded billboards and signs.
Speaking of Eric, I still try to talk to him every day to see if he reacts. To this day he hasn't but I won't stop trying, I owe him that much. He would do the same for me, if I was the one who became like that. This disease or whatever it is still confuses me every time I observe it under a microscope. The cells I took from the woman aren't behaving like normal cells do. Just to be sure I keep a vial of my own skin to study my cells from time to time just to compare. Her cells isn't duplicating and they hardly move at all. It's like they are frozen in place. This far I haven't managed to figure out a thing but as with talking to Eric, I won't give up.
The woman, she's been getting weirder and weirder. She lost all of her hair a long time ago and she continues to become even paler. It feels like I should be able to see through her but of course I don't. Her mouth is still bleeding all day long and probably all night as well. But for some reason the blood is gone from the floor every day I wake up. It's gone, just like magic. I have yet to schedule a night when I will stay up the entire night without any sleep to see where it goes. Does she eat it? Or does it just vanish?
At the moment it feels like my notes are all over the place, I write about one thing just to switch to something else the next moment. I still haven't come to term if this is just for me, to keep my sanity intact or if I'm preparing myself to die down here and write these notes for someone to find in the future. Some days I'm sure these notes are just for me and others I'm sure I will die down here, rot away without a single trace of who I was except for this book with notes. If that's the case, that I die down here and someone finds these notes I am sorry for the mess and confusion. I can write a long scientific essay about the properties of Uranium that could easily rival that of highly esteemed professors it seems like I can't write a diary properly. I have too many thoughts and I don't know what should be put down and what should stay in my head to die with me.
There I go again, talking like I will die down here. Guess it's one of those days. Death won't come quick at least. I have food left for several months without having to ransom a thing. If I do start rationing I think my stash of food would last up to a year, maybe one and half. Once again I can thank Eric for something. He forced me to stash food down here for when we worked for days without leaving the lab. He didn't want to interrupt our work by leaving just to come back later and pick up where we left off. If I squint and look at his face now, it looks like he's smiling at me. A grotesque smile with his now pointy rust coloured teeth and blood dripping from his mouth but a smile indeed. And besides, a grotesque smile is better than no smile. Right?
Since I didn't write anything yesterday when something happened, something I'm ashamed of, I felt the need to write it down today. I hate myself for it, don't you think anything else. It was a horrible deed. I don't know who I'm trying to convince, myself or you, the potential reader. I really do hope I survive this so no one have to read this. I don't want to be known as the man who saved humanity from every disease that fell to the bottom and made some cruel decisions.
Yesterday when I woke up I followed my now normal morning routine. I ate a five pack of crackers with cheese. After that I spent 20 minutes speaking to Eric. He actually stared at me like he was listening for a few minutes before he started clawing at the glass separating us. It's disturbingly easy to picture him like he used to look, clawing at the glass to get to me. Anyways, enough about that, for now. I can't promise anything, as you probably have noticed my mind seems to wander to him.
After my chat with Eric I went over to the small window in the southern wall. As usual I climbed the desk to get a better view of the outside world. At first I didn't see anything special, just the ordinary dead walking around. At first it's hard to see that they are the walking dead but the unmistakable blood dripping is at a second glance easy to spot. But after the first glance over the risen I saw something that really woke me up from my non coffee morning. I don't have any coffee left and I really miss the taste. I thought I had more and drank way too much during the first two weeks and drank it all. Getting off topic again, I'm so sorry. What really woke me up that day, yesterday that is, was a younger woman or she might've been older than me by a few years, a man who ran with vitality and light footed. In the arms of the man was a young girl. A beautiful girl who actually reminded me of my niece, both in age and hair colour.
As they got closer the resemblance between the girl and my niece disappeared. While my niece had a soft plump nose this girl's nose was more hawkish. Still pretty but not my niece. They were chased by a smaller horde of risen and I could see the girl crying in the man's arms. As they ran by more risen they gathered a bigger following behind them.
The woman went down first. A risen got hold of her yellow shirt stained by dirt beyond fixing and slowed her down. Within seconds the hungry crowd were over her and shielded me from seeing what was going on. Even though I was shielded I have no trouble picturing what was going on behind the wall of bodies. I could see her being torn to pieces by dirty, thin fingers digging down into soft flesh. I could see the bites appearing all over her body, while the risen munched on her. Luckily at first the woman didn't die in vain. Her death helped what I assume was her husband and daughter to escape further away before the risen took up the chase. It was when the chase after the man and daughter started my horrible decision got closer. I still didn't know about it, if I had I would've left the window.
My window was in the shadow and thus the man saw me standing there, watching them run. He started screaming and waving at me with his hand that didn't hold his daughter. I couldn't look away, as he got closer he started waving even more frantic as I didn't respond in any way or show any sign that I had seen them. In reality I saw and heard them. As they entered the shadow beneath the tall building the first risen grabbed the man. He stopped in his tracks and put down his daughter and shooed her towards me and the window. He prepared to fight the risen off to let his daughter escape in to safety, safety with me. He trusted a stranger to help him out, to help his daughter survive. It was a act of last hope. He knew he wouldn't survive but maybe, just maybe his daughter would.
The man didn't last long but long enough for his daughter to reach my window with tears streaming down her face. A small hand was placed against the cold glass, reaching for me. I didn't react, didn't do a thing. I just stared at her and her tears. She really did remind me of my niece, maybe that's why I didn't do anything. I didn't want to be remembered of someone that might be dead. Her palm left a small print on the window as she was jerked back. Two risen feasted on her, ripped and tore. Bite down in to the soft flesh, leaving open wounds. She died with a scream and I didn't look away. I saw it happen and I could've prevented it but I didn't. When they left her what was left of her reminded me of when my dad ran over my sister's stuffed animal with the lawnmower, spreading stuffing over the grass. Just that this time it wasn't stuffing, it was blood, flesh and entrails.
Thank you so much for reading and waiting for it to be published. Sorry it took so lomg. Please do vote and comment if you liked it!
Todays question: Should Sebastian feel bad for leaving the girl? Why? Why not?
YOU ARE READING
Days of Survival
Science FictionThe miracle medicine that the world had been waiting for was finally found in a Swedish lab. Without much thought, the elixir was globally distributed - as a cure for every disease known to men. However, like all good things, the reign of the medici...
