Dave retreated, climbed down the ladder, picked up the ladder and carried it to the next balcony. There were three balconies on the front face of the apartment and this was the middle one. Dave climbed the ladder and paused at the top of the balcony wall. The curtains were open and he had a clear view inside. And if he had a clear view in then anything inside would have a clear view out. Yet Dave didn't see a thing.
Deciding that the room was clear, Dave climbed onto the balcony and tried the door. It was open. Careful to make as little noise as possible, Dave slid the door all the way open. Now came the dangerous part of his plan. Dave entered what was a combined lounge-kitchen room. He immediately began looking around for doors. To one side was a hallway with two closed doors, at the far end of which was a what appeared to be the front door.
Sneaking as slowly as possible, Dave walked towards the kitchen area. He looked behind the counters before walking into the hall. Near the front door on the kitchen side of the hall was an open door. Dave carefully approached and peeked in. It was an empty bathroom. At the far end of the bathroom was a closed door. Slowly, Dave turned the door knob and opened the door a crack. Looking though the crack Dave could see that it was a laundry. He opened the door fully and checked the room completely. Closing the laundry door, Dave left the bathroom and checked the front door. A few cautious tugs and he was convinced that the door was fully locked. Now came the two closed doors in the hallway.
Approaching the first door, Dave again opened the door slowly onto what was a bedroom. Seeing nothing, Dave opened the door further and stepped into the bedroom. Although there was a bed, there was no other furniture. There was no sign of anyone having slept in this room. There was a wardrobe built into a wall and Dave slid its door open. Emptiness. Dave closed the wardrobe, left the bedroom and closed the door to the room behind him. Now there was only one closed door to deal with. Dave looked the door that lead out onto the balcony as if to double check his escape route.
Slowly Dave opened the final door and peered into the shadowy room. Although he hadn't seen any shapes resembling a human, Dave was still cautious as he opened the door fully and looked around. This was a bedroom and it was clearly in use by a woman of youthful tastes. Dave walked to the wardrobe and opened it. Women's clothes hung from the hanger - smaller clothing items were neatly folded and placed on shelves. Feminine shoes could be seen at the bottom of the cupboard.
As Dave looked about the room, he assured himself that there were no threats here, and yet he felt a certain discomfort being in this room. This was obviously the room of a young woman and yet that young woman wasn't here. And after all that Dave had seen he had his doubts that the woman would ever return here. It was with a darkness of heart that Dave left the room and closed the door behind him.
Dave walked out onto the balcony and looked about. Feeling like he wouldn't get a better place than this, Dave climbed down the ladder, picked up his bags and climbed back up the ladder, He cast the bags onto the balcony before getting himself onto the balcony. Regathering his bags he took them indoors and plopped them onto the coffee table in front of the couch.
Dave felt a strange surge of relief and went back out onto the balcony. He started to stretch and froze. On the road, a few buildings down, were a few human shapes. Their clothes torn and yet free of any signs of blood. Their bodies were mostly a slate grey skin colour with odd, hand-sized yellow patches. How had Dave not noticed them before? His lack of awareness caused Dave to feel a chill to slither down his spine.
He stepped back and slowly closed the door to the balcony. Feeling exposed Dave pulled the curtains across the door and windows leading to the balcony. He slipped a finger between the curtains and made a little gap that he could look through. There were now more dead on the street. Had they become aware of Dave? They weren't looking his way and mostly just seemed to be standing still.
With the curtains pulled shut, the lounge room was dark. There was a little lamp on a small table next to the couch. Dave turned its meek light on and looked back at the curtains. He doubted that this weak light would be noticeable through the curtains.
Dave sat on the couch and sighed. What other reaction could one have after such a day.
Dissatisfied, Dave reached into the shopping bags and pulled out the notepads and pens. He opened one of the notepads and began to think. He drew a vertical line dividing the page in half. On one side he wrote "Threat" and on the other he wrote "Solution". Under "Threat" he wrote "shitters", "dead people" and "infected???". Under "Solution" he wrote "SURVIVE" and drew a thick box around the word.
He tapped his pen on the word "shitters". He hadn't known Josh for long but couldn't help but miss the guy. However Josh's term "shitters" was a bit harsh and Dave used his pen to cross out the word. Below he wrote "walkers". Dead people shouldn't walk, so the ability to stand up and walk was their most notable characteristic. It had the feel of being a good label.
Dave sat back in the couch and looked at what he had written. It didn't really add up to much. Dave had seen so much this day and yet couldn't figure anything out from it. Even writing "Threat" and "Solution" now felt like some sort of cruel joke. Dave had written a few words down but he was left with the belief that he had achieved nothing. Maybe there was a way of making sense of everything that he had seen, but Dave couldn't think of it.
But the "Solution" column bothered him the most. What did it mean to have a solution? If he couldn't understand the problem how could he come up with a solution? Dave felt himself frustrated by a lack of terminology. It was a lack that denied him the chance to even organise his thoughts.
Dave looked at his bags of supplies and remembered what a pain they had been to carry. He wrote down "back pack" in the "Solution" column and wrote above it "camping store". The first thing that he needed to do tomorrow was to look for a camping store where he could find a number of things that might help. Dave tapped his pen on the phrase "camping store" and realised that he wasn't likely to generate a list from the top of his head right at this moment. He was never one to go camping so his knowledge was woeful. He could only hope to go to a camping store and look about and hope that he would recognise what was useful and what wasn't. Dave was aware of a nagging frustration caused by his ignorance.
Noticing that he was hungry, Dave pulled a tin of food out of one of his shopping bags. He had nothing to eat it with. Getting up Dave walked to the kitchen and looked about for a spoon. He had also found a saucepan and was thinking that it would be nice to heat up his can of soup when the lights went out in the room, canceling any further cooking plans.
Dave walked over to the curtains hiding the balcony and peeked through a gap. He nearly gasped out loud to see a few dozen walkers were now on the streets. Dave noticed something weird: these walkers were rather agitated for some reason and he hoped that it wasn't because they sensed him. The sun was trying to set and night was about to settle on the dying city. Looking away from the shambling walkers Dave noticed that there were no lights anywhere. There was not a single hint of electricity anywhere outside.
The power seemed to have failed over all the area that Dave could see and so Dave doubted that the power was on anywhere in the city. There was a small TV near the wall across from the couch and Dave looked at it wistfully. Without power it would be impossible to live in the city. Dave wondered if there was anywhere that one could successfully live.
Straightening up, Dave looked towards the curtains that covered up the balcony. The power failure had come at a terrible time. With night falling darkly upon the mostly dead city, those few poor souls left alive would now have to face the terrors of the night without any way to even see what would attack them. Dave didn't want to think about this for long.
Dave returned to the kitchen where he had left his can of soup. Without electricity there was no way that he could cook the soup. It was getting dark fast as the last of the twilight faded. The pulled curtains accelerating the coming darkness. Knowing that he didn't have much l
ight left, Dave pulled on the top of the soup can and opened it. He then found a drawer in the kitchen that had utensils and dug out a spoon.
He paused for a moment, took out some more spoons, a cooking knife and a can opener. Dave took these items back to the coffee table. He placed the spare utensils in a shopping bag and sat down on the couch. He picked up the soup can and a spoon and grimaced as he ate his soup. It was a rough meal but at least it was a meal.
Taking care to not cut his lips on the can's edge, Dave drank the last of the soup juice. He stood up. Not too sure what to do, Dave walked back to the kitchen. He tossed the empty soup can into a plastic bag lined bin with a foot operated popup lid. He took the spoon to the sink and found that there was still running water. He squirted a bit of washing detergent onto the palm of his hand and quickly rubbed his hands all over the spoon that he had eaten with before rinsing it under the tap. Dave dried his hand on a tea towel hanging from a towel rack.
After searching about the cupboards, Dave found a glass tumbler that he filled from the tap. There was no real reason to doubt the water quality, and without electricity there was no way to really boil it, so Dave drank down the entire glass of water. He refilled the glass from the tap and went back to the couch to rest. There were some bottles of water in his bags, but Dave was of the mind that it would be best to save these bottles for a truly desperate time.
While sipping his glass of water, he heard a metallic clanking noise that an empty can would make when kicked. Curious, Dave put down his glass of water, stood up and went to the curtains that covered the door to the balcony. He opened a small crack in the curtain and peeked through that.
There were now several dozen walkers on the street. Dave figured that one of those walkers had kicked the can that Dave had just heard. But then Dave saw something unexpected. So far Dave had only seen the walkers moving as fast as a shambling walk. Usually the walkers just stood there as if without purpose. Sometimes they would stumble around. But in the rapidly fading light, Dave could see the occasional walker sprint a short distance.
And as the dark grew into full night, Dave could see more and more walkers dashing about. There seemed to be no reason or purpose to the dashing. They just seemed to pick a direction and sprint about ten meters. It was completely incomprehensible. Although there had been initially a few walkers with yellow coloured blemishes on their skin, at this time Dave could only see walkers that had fully grey skin. Dave struggled with making a pattern to what he was seeing.
And as the night fully settled in, Dave noticed a change come over the expression of the walkers. Previously they were blanked face and appeared to lack any sign of intelligence. Now they displayed signs of rough intelligence. They were rapidly looking about them. For example, staring at a car before spinning about and dashing to a garbage bin and then staring at that, before dashing to the next thing that caught their attention. No longer were the walkers staring mindlessly into empty space but were, with great agitation, aware of the objects around them and appeared to study everything in turn.
A loud crashing sound came from within the building where Dave was hiding, and a number of walkers looked in Dave's direction. Dave quickly stepped to the side in order to break line of sight. Hidden in the dark gloom Dave turned for a moment and stared deeper into the building. It was a useless gesture. Obviously he couldn't see through walls, but equally obvious was that he had been lucky and found an apartment that was empty. It would have been a disaster had he entered a room with a once human occupant. Especially if they were somehow faster at night.
Impatient and curious, Dave returned to looking through the gap in the curtain. The walkers appeared to have lost interest in Dave's position. Maybe they understood the noise had been made from one of their own.
It had been a night of revelations. As it got darker the slow walkers were completely replaced by a faster breed that were more mobile and appeared more intelligent. Dave pondered if there was more to this than mere a correlation with the coming of night. Was it significant that the faster dead even appeared different with a lack of the yellow patches of sickness? Dave could do nothing more than speculate wildly.
It was then the Dave noticed it. At first Dave thought that it was just another walker. But the clothes on this one were undamaged, and it strode with a confident swagger. It leapt onto a car hood with a noisy crash. It stood there as all the walkers turned to look at it. Dave was locked in place. Was this a fellow human? How could a human just stand among the dead so calmly?
Dave had seen this new character walking with firm conviction. He could see the arrogance in its gestures. The wicked confidence. And none of this prepared Dave for when it spoke. The closed balcony door should have muffled the sound but the words, though whispered, came clear and dripping with hellish intent.
"Come my chosen ones. Come and gather around me."
Dave tried to not scream as he saw the walkers approach the car on which this new character stood.
"Come. There is much for us to do. Can you not sense that there are still others that need to be converted to the cause?"
At this the walkers began to look about them, clearly scanning the buildings for some sort of sign.
"Yes. Oh yes. There is one near. One that needs to be brought to us."
Dave could handle no more. He snuck away from the window and sat quietly on the floor where he curled himself into a small a ball as possible.
There were more than just walkers outside. There were those that talked. It wasn't an original name, but Dave labeled them as "talkers". The idea that there was something out there that talked to the walkers and that the walkers would actually listen and understand terrified Dave to the core.
It took a few hours, but eventually Dave would sleep. A fractured and messy sleep that was broken up with imagined terrors. He was lucky in that with the balcony door closed it wasn't too cold to sleep on the carpeted floor. It wasn't a full, restive sleep. It was a sleep filled with torments and nightmares. Dave would get little real rest but his night would be a better night than others experienced.
* * *
Dave woke up sore and uncomfortable. He had spent the night sleeping on a floor and felt regretful for it. Groaning, Dave sat up and looked towards the crack in the curtains that most hid the balcony. A faint beam of light was visible. It was probably a sign of the incoming day.
Although a little unsteady, Dave stood up and walked over to the curtains and peeked through. It was the twilight before day time and Dave could count about a handful of walkers on the street. The numbers were greatly reduced when compared to last night and Dave hoped that they'd be even fewer when the sun came up. Dave could survive a few days trapped in this apartment but he'd prefer it if he could get out on the streets and moving west again.
Before anything else Dave needed to have something to eat. He dug out another can of soup from within his shopping bags, and then went over to the kitchen to pick up the spoon that he had used yesterday and which he had left on the dryer after cleaning it. He pulled the top off the soup can and tossed the lid into the small garbage bin that was in the kitchen. Dave looked into the bin - he was hoping to leave soon as he wasn't looking forward to the contents of this bin stinking.
Dave sat down at the couch and looked over his notes from yesterday. Lugging around some shopping bags was too inconvenient. He ate his soup as he thought about what sort of backpack he would need. There were a bunch of conflicting pressures. If he got a backpack that was too small then he could get into trouble by not having the means to carry something important. A back pack that was too big would slow him down and Dave was still uncertain just how alone he would be on the streets - there was safety in being fast. Dave decided that he should get the biggest backpack that he could still jog with - even if he left it empty to keep the weight down, having the extra space could be the difference that would help him to survive.
With his thoughts and breakfast done, Dave looked at his shopping bags. If he was effect
ively the only person on the streets then finding more food wouldn't be an issue. So Dave decided to just take one shopping bag, take his notepads and pens, a bit of food and some bottles of water. He also tossed in some utensils like a can opener, a few knives and some spoons. He'd pick up more food after he got a backpack. The rest he could just abandon.
He stood up and walked into the kitchen to toss his empty soup can into the garbage. By force of habit Dave tried to wash the spoon under the kitchen tap. Water and air spluttered from the tap. Dave frowned. For some reason he had thought the water would last longer than it did. Didn't they pump water into a tower so that gravity would provide water pressure to the users? Dave suspected that the water tower should have had a full day's water in it when used by the normal population, but if there were only a few living humans around then the demands on the water should have been less. It surprised Dave that the water had dried up as quickly as it did.
Dave placed his used spoon in the sink and walked over to the balcony curtains. Looking through the crack, Dave couldn't see any walkers. The few that had been there previously were no where to be seen. Dave slowly pulled the curtains apart enough to fully exposed the balcony door. Dave could still see nothing moving on the streets. Finally Dave quietly opened the balcony door, walked out onto the balcony, and leaned over the edge to have a good look around. The sun was up and the streets were empty - Dave wondered if there was a connection.
There was not going to be a better opportunity than now, so Dave went back into the apartment to retrieve his supplies. He came back out onto the balcony and climbed over the balcony wall and onto the ladder that he had left leaning against the wall. Dave really appreciated having lightened his shopping bags.
Useless Bastard Page 4