Myriad Nothings

Kris walked a couple blocks until he heard grunting somewhere to his left. On instinct, his muscles tightened and he was ready to sprint. His weapon was up and his arms were retracted and ready to swing. It was during these times that he wished for a gun or some machine that could protect him without the need for him to be so physically close to the creatures.

“Come to daddy,” Kris said confidently. He shook the bat and stood in a batter’s stance, ready to attack and staring at the dark alleyway in which the noise protruded. Clatter sounded from the dim narrow space and then the grunting began again. Kris’s back straightened as he looked more intently at the darkness.

“Usually they come out by now,” he muttered quietly, lowering the bat. He was ready to swing the bat, but the monster had not come out for him. Now he waited patiently in the middle of the street, the sun burning his skin in the meantime. Tapping his foot up and down, Kris was ready to leave when he heard another grunt and then a strange angry voice echoing inside of the gap. He turned his head and saw a girl emerge from the black alley, shaking off the gooey mess that was on her tattered shorts. She was looking down, still wiping off the muck until he signaled his presence.

“Ahem.”

“Uh, hi?” the girl asked nervously when she looked up at Kris. She tried to block the sun in her eyes with her hands, but she still squinted up at Kris. The girl donned a simple top, tennis shoes, and mucked up shorts. Her brown bouncy curls were tied in a high ponytail and her frame was much tiny, especially when placed next to Kris. She shook like a tree when she breathed, yet there was a fierce fire that burned in her eyes.

“You must be a figment of my imagination,” Kris responded, widening his eyes and looking around him. “Eh, this is a sign that I’m going crazy.” Kris then began to walk in the opposite direction, back to Jolt Mart, but the girl followed. It took him a couple of seconds to respond.

“Wait.....wait!” the girl yelped. Frantically she shuffled in front if his figure and walked backwards as he continued strolling to his safe zone, bat in hand. “Why are you running from me? Why aren’t you acknowledging me? I’m the first person you have seen probably and you don’t say one real word?” she questioned, surprised and upset.

“Of course,” Kris looked into the stranger’s bright blue eyes,”you would say something like that, conscience. Hm, I also wouldn’t imagine you to be a girl, but okay.” He looked back at the ground and then began to sprint. He ran faster and faster until he reached the end of the long block that would lead him to Jolt Mart if he followed it. Kris was numb. He thought he was standing on the line that separated dementia from sanity since the time that this apocalypse-like period began and that he had just took a step to the left.

“Stop! Stop, please!” the girl pleaded, but Kris just walked on. He stopped a couple times to look at the girl, sighed in disappointment and kept walking. “You must stop, you have to try to listen to me!” The girl would yell statements such as this to his face and he would continue to walk quickly, the words of the girl flying through his ears but never stopping to enter his brain.

It was when he finally made it to the Jolt Mart when he hesitated to confirm her verisimilitude.