My Nightmare?

A Chapter by Lupus

“You’re crazy” She sounded astonished, almost appalled.

“Maybe, but you’d be dead if I wasn’t.” I am no longer normal, I may have never been. Normal is dead.

“You killed him”

“I did him a favor, and a damn good one at that.”

“He still had time, he wasn’t showing signs.”

“You know he had to die”

We both fell silent, and it pained me to do so. Outside of our small haven echoed screams and moans that made my spine crawl. We sat a bit of a distance from each other; maybe the outside wasn’t the only thing she was afraid of. She stared coldly at the ground and I did the same save for the few glances I took at her. We dared not look up or fear looking into the carnage that surrounded us. Neither of us moved from our crouched like position or even spoke until the screams began to fade into moans. As a man, during that time I should have consoled her. I may have, if I wasn’t in need of consoling myself.

“Emily” I whispered. “I think…no…it’s time we leave.”

“Where?” Her voice was low, almost devoid of hope. “How would we even leave?” I was speechless, mostly because I had no idea where to go. How would we leave? Was there no hope, no way out of this hell?

“Staying here, we will die.”

“How do you know? How are we not going to die out there?” Now she sounded skeptical.

“Eventually they will find us here. When they do, there will be too many to run from.”

“Eventually they will find us regardless of where we go.”

“Listen! If you want any chance at staying alive, how about you stop arguing and help me figure out how to get out of here, not how to die.” This conversation was not helping. Emily and I always argue, but now is not the time for that. She may not have any desire to live but at least when I die I can say I at least thought about how to survive.

“Ok.” It was faint, almost too low for me to hear, but I heard it.

“Ok?” In my anger I almost began to get angry again even though she said what I wanted to hear. “Well…um… good.”

“So…what’s the plan?” She asked innocently, at least I think she did.

“Well…” I cleared my throat, buying time. Nothing came to mind, “I actually don’t have one yet.” Her eyes opened fully, and at first with astonishment, then fury.

“You…you..” Stuttering with short small breaths was not a sign of nervousness in this case. “You yell at me when…when.. you don’t even have a plan yourself.” Another set of stuttering. Something awful was in store for me. It sucks to be right sometimes.

Her eyes went wide, her face drained of all color, and everything went black.

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