Her foot jutted out and slammed into my stomach. I doubled over and her other leg snapped violently, catching me square in the face.
Stars erupted in my eyes and blood gushed from my nose. I staggered backward and hit the wall, reopening the tender gash in my head, before sliding to the floor.
“Shit, Cindy,” I groaned.
“Max? Oh, my God.”
Cindy leapt off of the bed then stopped.
“Max…where are you? I can’t see a damn thing.”
“Just stay where you are,” I grumbled through my hands that cupped the flow of blood. “There’s no power. I’ll come to you.”
“What the hell were you doing? I thought you were a burglar or something.”
“I was trying to wake you up.”
I pinched my nose and wiped the blood away with my shirt. I still couldn’t see a damn thing, but I could feel the flow start to lessen.
“I’ll get the candles,” Cindy said.
“No, no stay in bed. I’ll get them.”
I stood up and leaned my back against the wall to steady myself. I felt a bit lightheaded, but the sensation passed quickly. Reaching my hands out, I slowly started to walk forward, blindly feeling the air in front of my face.
With a thud, I slammed into the dresser and let out an umph, intermixed with garbled swears. My knee bore the brunt of the impact and now I couldn’t tell if that or my face or the back of my head hurt more.
“You okay?” Cindy asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I replied and started to feel across the dresser for the candles Cindy liked to keep out.
She giggled at me, but I was on a mission. Ignoring her, I continued looking for the next five minutes with no success.
“You gonna ask for help or just keep looking?” Cindy griped.
“Well if you know where they are why don’t you just tell me?”
“I moved them. They’re in my top drawer with the lighter.”
“Really?” I gasped.
Now was not the time for jokes and with everything that had gone on in the last few hours I wasn’t sure why she was acting the way she was. I was concerned, but not as much as I was about the apparent loss of all power.
As I flicked the lighter a warm orange glow grew and I immediately felt safer. I lit three candles and placed two around the room and kept the other one in my hand. It was one of those scented ones, lavender, seated in a glass jar that Cindy had painted with her nail polish on a boring Sunday morning.
“Let me look at you,” Cindy demanded.
I walked to her and she grabbed the sides of my face. The light flickered against her skin, exposing dried tears and puffy eyes. I reached out and swept her hair away then gave her an encouraging smile.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Am I okay? Jesus, I really did a number on your face,” she replied. “I was probably a ninja in another life. Why don’t you crawl into bed and let me show you how sorry I am.”
“Be serious, Cindy,” I said with a frown. “How are you feeling today.”
“Be serious, Cindy,” she mocked me. “Geez Mr. Mood Killer. Since when did you start turning down sex?”
With a deep breath, I swallowed my next words then ground my teeth. I leaned forward and kissed her forehead then stood back up.
“What the hell is going on?” Jake blurted out from the doorway.
Cindy jumped, then snatched her hands away. I turned around and glared at him then shrugged.
“Power is off apparently,” I replied.
“There’s no lights anywhere.”
“Yeah, I just said the power is out.”
“In the whole world?”
“What the hell, Jake?” I growled. “Don’t be stupid…not today.”
“Max,” he started.
And I heard something in his voice that I’d missed. It was fear, he was scared, terrified, and his voice trembled with every word he said.
“There…there’s no light anywhere. No street lights, no moon, I can’t see anything out of that window. It’s like someone through a blanket over it.”
I swallowed and clenched my jaw. He had to be confused. A building outage…sure, with whatever went on last night a city-wide outage wouldn’t shock me. But there had to be light out there, somewhere…even in the distance there had to be light.
Cindy followed me and we walked into the living room. Brent was still asleep and Jake kicked him as we passed over him.
“What!” he shouted.
“Get up, dude,” Jake replied curtly.
It must have been the seriousness in his voice, but Brent didn’t argue. He slung the blanket off and jumped up with wide, bloodshot eyes.
With Cindy squeezing my free hand, I walked across the room toward the wall to wall windows that normally gave a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree view of the city below. Jake had already pulled back the curtains and at that moment I wished he hadn’t.
“No…no, no,” Cindy started to whisper.
Her hand shook in mine and I tightened my grip. Not out of reassurance, but out of my own fear. The closer I got to the window the heavier my feet felt, the more I wanted to look away and ignore the grim reality.
I struggled for words and my brain tried to make sense of everything. What I was seeing and what I should’ve been seeing or what I expected didn’t match.
Eventually, I was face to face with the glass and only the reflection of me holding the candle was visible. It was so dark outside it was like I was staring at a black wall. It was unreal, a day ago, even at night I could’ve seen for miles. Now the world was blank, cast into shadows hidden from view.
“I…I need something to drink,” Cindy stuttered.
She uncoiled her fingers from my hand and turned toward the kitchen. With a faint smile, she grabbed the candle from me then walked off. I watched her go for a moment then looked back to the window.
“What do you think?” Brent asked once Cindy was out of earshot.
“I don’t know, man, I really don’t know. This is crazy,” I replied as I soaked in the darkness outside.
“The news said it was nothing.”
“I told you…I told you it was bullshit. Fuck!” Jake said angrily.
“Okay…so what do we do now?” I asked.
“It’s gotta be around five in the morning,” he replied. “The sun will start coming up soon and we’ll know something then.”
“You want to sit in here and wait for the sun to come up?” Brent asked.
“Hell yeah! I don’t wanna go wandering around down there in that dark city.”
“Oh, my God!” Cindy suddenly shouted.
Whipping around, I rushed toward the glow of her candle. I sped into the kitchen and found her staring into the dark with a glass of water in her hands. Broken glass was all over the floor. Dishes were spewing out of the cabinets and the light fixtures from the ceiling had fallen.
“Cindy?” I called. “Cindy!”
She slowly turned around and set her cup onto the counter. Her face was pale and she looked even more terrified than earlier.
“What is it” I asked as I reached out and pulled her close.
She pointed back toward the front door and I gasped. The thick, wood was cracked down the middle and had fallen inside of the apartment. Under the faint light, it looked like something out of a horror movie. I felt a chill run up my legs and I knew at that moment we’d slept through another earthquake.
“What the hell could’ve done all this?” Brent grumbled.
“Earthquake,” I whispered.
“What?”
“It had to be an earthquake…a big one.”
“No way! No way! You saw that shit at the club. You’re saying we slept through that?” Jake retorted.
“That’s the only thing that could explain this. Shit, unless aliens are invading and breaking down people’s doors.”
“Okay, okay so an earthquake? What do you do for that…what’s the protocol?” Brent asked. “We�
��we need to get the hell out of here, right?”
Everyone was looking at me and I didn’t know what to do. I was as clueless as they were and probably even more scared. I had no phone, no internet, and for the first time in my life I felt helpless.
“We…we, flashlights…flashlights. We need to get flashlights and, and those camping bags.”
“Camping bags?” Jake echoed. “Why the hell do we need camping bags?
“In the closet,” Cindy said. “The hallway.”
“I’ll be right back,” I called out, ignoring Jake.
I grabbed the candle from the counter and ran to the hallway closet. There were two empty camping bags on the floor and several flashlights on the shelf above it. I tossed the flashlights into the bag then rushed back to the kitchen.
“Look, I think we need to get out of here as soon as possible,” I said.
“Out of the apartment?” Brent asked.
“Out of the city.”
“What!” Jake exclaimed. “And go where?”
“I don’t know, but do you want to be here if something else happens?”
“I got a feeling we’re the only people still here anyway,” Brent replied.
“It’s about time we find out.”
No one replied, everyone sat in silence for a few minutes. It was eerie, the candle flickered, casting shadows against the broken door. Nothingness waited outside, the hallway was an empty hole that I knew would be hell to navigate. But we couldn’t stay and something told me that the window to get out was closing.
“We need to pack, we have to get out of here,” I finally said, breaking the silence. “And before you ask again, Jake, I don’t know where. We can figure it out once we get down on the street. But we’re not gonna get any answers hiding in here and I don’t want to be on the tenth floor if this starts up again.”
With that, I grabbed a flashlight and walked off. I headed into my bedroom and opened the closet. On the top shelf, there was a safe where I kept my handgun, a forty-five caliber Glock. I bought it a couple of years ago, and had gone shooting religiously for the first six months. After that it became more of a novelty and I realized I’d probably never need it.
As I opened the safe and pulled it out I felt a sense of safety that I thought had been lost forever. The world might be ending, but I could shoot my way out of anything. That was the way I felt at least.
When I returned to the kitchen Jake and Cindy were talking in the corner and Brent had gone back to the living room. As I approached they both looked up then Jake stepped forward and nodded toward Brent.
I followed him into the living room, my mind racing like a stampede of wild horses. I knew they’d want to talk and “figure” things out. But I needed to move. It was time for action, not time to second guess and plot five steps ahead.
Brent was staring out of the window and turned around as he heard us getting closer. “We’re gonna need things, things like food water…you know?” he said.
“She’s scared man,” Jake blurted out.
“I know she is…hell we all are,” I retorted.
“I’m just saying, maybe it’s best if we stay here. It’s safe here for now and I’m sure someone will be coming to check on this place.”
I groaned and ran my fingers through my hair. “We’re leaving, Jake. You can stay, but we are leaving.”
“I don’t know what you have here,” Brent continued like Jake had never spoke. “But I’ve got a few camping supplies in my apartment. A tent that we can pack, canteens, rope, things like that.”
“Whoa man…slow down, just, just think about this for a second,” Jake said and waved his hands between us. “This is nuts. We’re gonna camp, we’re gonna live out in the woods. It’s a fucking earthquake…maybe. This isn’t the end of the world. Damn guys, you’re going all over board.”
“Overboard, overboard!” I shouted. “Look out of that damn window Jake. That’s the city out there. That’s the rest of the world and I don’t see one bit of it. Something is wrong and I’m telling you, if you want to stay alive, we need to get the hell out of here now! Not to mention you were losing your shit five minutes ago and now we’re the ones going overboard.”
Jake took a few steps back and twisted his face like he couldn’t believe what I was saying. Brent turned to me with a look of shock then sighed and sat back onto the couch. He clenched his jaw and shook his head from side to side.
“What the hell is going on, Max?” Brent asked.
“What do you mean? You said it yourself, we need to go.”
“No…you’re not telling us something. What the hell do you know? What is this?”
“I don’t know what this is okay. I just know this place isn’t safe.”
“Bullshit!” Jake roared. “Spill it!”
Cindy had walked out of the kitchen and was standing behind me. I turned and looked at her as she glared and cocked her head to the side.
“It’s just something I think I overheard at work,” I lied.
“What?” Cindy replied fiercely.
“Just about the weather…about weather patterns and a warming trend, but it was years…decades off. I just don’t think it could be related to this, but I’m worried, that’s all.”
“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Brent asked.
“Say what? That I think maybe this might be related to something someone might have said and they were probably wrong about.”
“So, what does all of this mean? That’s the real question,” Jake snapped.
“Look, like I said, I don’t really know anything. So, I can’t tell you what all of this means. I just don’t want to be stuck on the tenth floor if this gets worse. Okay?”
They all looked at one another with skeptical glances. It was like they were considering if they could trust anything I said anymore. I could only imagine what their response would’ve been if I’d told them what I really thought was happening.
Cindy grunted. “I’m going to pack some clothes,” she said then grabbed a flashlight and headed back to our room.
I groaned and dropped my head into my hands then sat down. No one understood my position and I could never tell them. I’d just grit and push on, hoping Cindy would get over it.
“Nice,” Jake said then headed back to the kitchen. “Real nice.”
“Don’t mind him. He’s been an asshole a lot lately,” Brent said and patted me on the shoulder. “Just…just let us know if you figure anything else out.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “I guess we need to get back to your place, huh?”
Brent frowned and looked back toward the door. I followed his eyes and felt the hairs on my arms shoot toward the ceiling. An electric sensation rolled down my chest and I shivered.
It was out there, waiting, lurking in the halls just around the corner. Whenever it was quiet, whenever the bickering and small talk stopped I could hear it. It was the sound of nothing. The terrible noise that lived in the shadows, the discord of abysmal darkness and eternal dusk. And like a child, I was afraid.
“Yeah, yeah I guess we have to,” Brent finally said.
“I’m ready,” Cindy snapped as she walked up behind me.
I slowly stood up and turned around. She had her stuffed camping bag slung over her shoulder and a flashlight clutched in her hand. Even under the dim candlelight I could see her rolling her eyes at me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I should’ve told you. I, I just didn’t want to scare you anymore.”
Cindy sighed and turned her head toward the kitchen. “Jake, we’re ready to go when you are.”
“Give it time,” Brent whispered.
Taking his advice, I grabbed my camping bag and went back to the room. I loaded up as much ammo as I could find, two packs of matches, a water bottle and some extra clothes. Aside from that, I was banking on Brent.
“Everybody ready?” I asked as I made my way back to the living room.
Cindy didn’t look at me, but Brent and Jake
nodded. I clenched my jaw, clicked on my flashlight and started toward the front door.
CHAPTER 7
BEFORE THE END BEGINS
Somehow the hallway was darker than inside of the apartment. Even with our flashlights it felt like we were falling deeper and deeper into a hole. Every step was painstakingly slow, every word a muffled whisper that sounded like a siren echoing in the empty halls.
“You sure we’re going the right way?” Jake asked.
“Yes, you idiot,” Brent snapped back. “You live here too.”
We’d been creeping down the hall for ten minutes. The floor was covered in plaster and chunks from the wall or ceiling. It looked like a tornado had swept through or there’d been some kind of riot, the place was a mess.
It was absolutely silent out there, our footsteps even seemed to vanish in the dark. Jake was right though, it was hard to tell which way we were moving. There was so much rubble to navigate and with the darkness it was easy to get turned around.
“I think this is it,” Brent announced.
“Oh so now you don’t know,” Jake snapped.
Brent had moved a little ahead of the rest of us like he was a scout. I resigned to hanging back with Cindy, trying to mend our strained relationship even though I wasn’t sure why she was so mad.
“Jake’s got a point, how don’t you know?” I asked.
“The door’s missing,” Brent replied.
Brent vanished inside of the apartment and we slowly followed. The inside looked mostly the same as mine. Picture frames and paintings knocked off of the wall. Broken glass and toppled over furniture. All the signs that said something bad had occurred.
“It’s in the spare bedroom,” Jake said and headed toward the back.
“Damn it!” Brent groaned as he bent down and picked up a blue and white vase.
“What?”
“I got that in Italy.”
“I’m sure you can get another one.”
“That’s just it…I can’t.”
Before I could reply, Cindy brushed by me without a word. She headed toward the back with Jake, leaving me and Brent alone up front.
“Silent treatment, huh?” Brent asked.
“Yeah, I don’t’ get it.”
Deconstruction Series Omnibus [Books 1-6] Page 20