The Flares

Run. Like. Hell.

I had four fifths of those five years left to live. To be alive. Four years to fill my lungs with oxygen. For my eyes to be burned by the scorching sun as it drew to a close. E.T, if you're out there, the time for invasion has come to a close, not that there's much left to invade.

My parents are the only people I truly miss. Mainly due to the fact that I never got closure. I never saw my dad after he tried to attack me, nor my mother. I never truly got to say goodbye. Though, judging by my dad's state, I question whether he would have understood me regardless. I guess the closure is more for my guilty conscience than for the fact that I actually wanted to say goodbye. Aside from them, I had nobody else close enough to warrant any emotional distress. The only immediate family that I ever saw was my grandma on my dad's side that we travelled twice a year to visit for the course of a three day weekend. She always smothered me with her constant stories and her many baked confectioneries. I loved her dearly, but it was like eating too much candy and feeling like you need to throw up your entire digestive system.

Aside from my family, I had a small clique at school. Nobody that I really cared much for. They just happened to be a circle of people that were there for me to pass the time until I left for college. I probably seem inconsiderate, and I definitely am, but I was a very antisocial person. Never talking too much, never sticking around one person too often. I wish I could have cared for these people now, to wonder what has become of them and cry over them, but I'd be crying empty tears.

What I do care about is finding water, and not being torn to death like a scrap piece of paper by the . I'm constantly on the move, and constantly afraid of living with the Infected, but I'm more afraid of dying alone. Ironic, given the fact that I know exactly how long I get to live. I guess I'd rather be incinerated by the most destructive force in the universe than broken apart like the doll of a two year old girl.

It just seems like a more honourable way to go.

I look at the watch on my hand, frozen in place after the battery had fried when the flares hit earth, and told myself that it was probably time to unload and refuel the tank. My concept of time had flown out the window. The only constant is night and day, and whichever you chose to be awake for was your prerogative.

I stepped to the side of a building facing away from the sun, its shade barely sheltering me from the atrocious beating of sunlight that penetrated the earth. I let out a deep breath, and managed to drain an entire bottle of water in about four gulps before crumpling and tossing the empty plastic bottle aside.

If you're going to kill me, Earth, I'm going to pollute the hell out of you until I meet my end. Choke on it.

I rest my back against the brick wall, leaning my head back and staring at the clear sky, as blue as its been for the past year. I've seen as many clouds as Ive seen people in the past few months, which is a lot sadder than it sounds. Have mercy on any other person unlucky enough to still be alive in the wake of this chaos, but I wish I had some reassurance that there was another person out there that wasn't hell bent on taking me apart like a human Lego.

Wishful thinking is wasteful thinking, I remind myself. If I travel far enough, I might come across someone else that is as lost and frightened as I am, and if I don't, then there's one less person for the monsters to break apart.

My rest is short lived, and I close up my backack, slinging it over my shoulder. I keep my hand around the base of the baseball bat, ready for combat. As far as weapons skills go, I'm fairly useless with all. I've already proven how hopeless I am with a gun, and even more so with sharp objects. I've got a few self inflicted scars to remind me of that. A baseball bat is perfect for me. I swing left, I swing right. No self inflicted injury or ear piercing noise that will bring the entire city of infected sprinting towards me. And if my bat fails, I still have a backup plan;