Alone at Winter

Lucas

Alex drifted off before he had known it, Champion slept by his side, Alex dreamt of being with his mother in the boiling sun of Hawaii. His shivering didn't affect his sleep, nor did the redness of his hands beneath the gloves once owned by his husband. Champion's head shot up at a noise from the rooms above them, the dog whimpered and nudged Alex's arm in an attempt to wake him up. The soft fur brushed against the thick black coat Alex was wearing, but soon enough it woke him up. He looked toward Champion with confusion and tiredness.

He petted the dog and brought him close to rub on the dog's stomach, despite this Champion continued to whimper; Alex was too tired to pick up on the quiet noises coming from up the stairs but Champion picked them up perfectly. He stood and shook, his coat releasing a mixture of hair and dandruff on the wooden floor before Champion slowly made his way up the stairs. Alex followed closely behind him calling his name to try and get him back to the bottom floor of the building. Alex saw beams and the slightly collapsed roof on the staircase.

The noises began to become more apparent to Alex as he travelled further and further up the stairs, passing by more debris the higher he got. Once he got to the top of the stair case he noticed that one massive part of the building's roof had completely collapsed due to a fallen tree. He heard another noise come from a room that the tree had landed on, he entered the room he noticed a man sitting upright on the ground with a wooden beam trapping his legs. He sat in a pool of his own blood and he breathed.

He came closer to the deeply damaged man and gasped at the sight of blood smothering the man. He looked up at Alex with a look of pain in his eyes and gestured to Alex to sit beside him. Alex sat with the man, the only person he had seen in days. The man was bald, seemed short and had a medium size build. He looked over at Alex and spoke with a raspy tone.

"So I wasn't the only one left behind. Who would've fuckin' thought." The man said struggling to get out his words. Alex looked towards him.

"Well I've only met you and another person, they were already gone by the time I came across them." Alex said with sadness, the man looked back at Alex with blood dripping from his forehead.

"What's your name, kid?" The man asked as he kept squinting his eyes in pain.

"I'm Alex, and the dog is Champion. If it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't have found you up here." Alex said with a grin stretched across his face as he rubbed his hands together.

"It's good to have some company out there, Alex. It'll keep you sane. Anyway, I'm Lucas. As you can see I'm not going anywhere soon." Lucas said as he gestured to the bones of his legs sticking out, snapped and still dripping with blood.

"How long have you been like this?" Alex asked as he sympathised with Lucas.

"Hasn't been long enough to kill me, been long enough for it to hurt like a fuckin' bitch." Lucas grimaced and let out a yell as he shuffled his body. "How long have you been out there?" Lucas said as he looked at Alex's red face.

"Since the first blizzard hit, a few days after that I found Champion and he helped me from dying." Alex said as he looked over at Champion, who was curled on the ground beside him.

"That's one hell of a fuckin' dog." Lucas laughed before he began coughing blood, Alex simply looked towards Lucas as the red substance leaked from his mouth. "I've been slowly rotting away here, a slow fuckin' painful death 'cause God fuckin' despises me, well fuck you right back you fuckin' dick!" Lucas yelled in agony and sadness as he cried to the demolished ceiling. Alex sat beside him attempting to give Lucas the comforting he deserved.

"I'm here if you need anything, while you're still around I'll stay here." Alex said with a reassuring look on his face. Lucas looked at the floor and without even a glance up he spoke.

"In the room next to this there's a drawer with a pistol in it, I kept it for emergencies. And this seems like the right time. Bring it back here, you don't know what's gonna be out there." Lucas said as he continued to stare at the ground with tears rolling down his face. Alex stood up and went straight to the room next to the one Lucas was in; he found a set of drawers and opened all of them to find the pistol in the third one. He opened the chamber to find that it had four bullets remaining. He stalked around the room but couldn't find anymore ammo so he went back to the room Lucas was in.

"You find it?" Alex nodded faintly. "How much is left?" Lucas asked with a stern look in his eye.

"Four more. I looked around but there wasn't anymore." Alex said as he held the gun in his hand, he shook viciously with the firearm.

"That's fine, you'll be fine and you'll be able to keep yourself safe. Now come here." Lucas said with more tears in his eyes. He looked directly at Alex.

"I want you to shoot me." Lucas swallowed loudly after saying the sentence. Alex ammediately started shaking and covering his mouth as he began crying.

"I-I can't fucking do that. I f-fucking can't." Alex shook with anxiety as he stepped away from Lucas.

"Alex please, I can't deal with the fuckin' pain of this. Just put me out of my fuckin' misery, please!" Lucas shouted at Alex with terror in his voice and a mixture of saliva, tears and blood dripped on the ground. Alex shook as he stepped forward slowly and pointed the gun upward with both hands on the grip of the gun. He held it up to Lucas' head before crying and throwing it to the floor.

"Alex, please! Pick up the fucking gun and kill me! Fucking kill me! Do it! Please!" Lucas shouted to the point of straining his vocal chords. Alex picked the gun back up and held it against Lucas' head, he whispered to himself.

"I'm sorry." He flinched when the barrel of the gun shot back after the bullet's release. The sound was deafening, the entry and the exist sounds were clear to Alex. He heard the cracking of the skull and suddenly the piercing of the wood. He dropped to his knees and planted his face into his hands, he yelled and screamed at himself. He yelled and cried and tortured himself mentally as Lucas' body laid still. The dripping of blood became another sound that surrounded Alex. The sound of the shot replayed in his head, Champion was frightened by the blast but at least he would be able to sleep.