Blue Through the Grey

The Lonely

PART 2: THE FOREST WE ONCE KNOWN

Noah. That name doesn't even sound like mine anymore. When I look in the mirror, the face that looks back isn't mine. That face isn't the one I remember. Sunken in eyes, pale face, blue lips. Like the oxygen was cut from me. This farmhouse won't do for long, I'm starting to get cramped and the walls are closing in like a booby trap in a temple. Except, the temple is my soul. I pack up my shit, walk out the front door and take one last look at my house, the house I was raised in, the house I made memories in. Mom cooked, dad mowed, sis played with barbies. Now there's nothing. Mom died, dad died and sis...she died. I gulp, memories are too much to handle now that they're obsolete. They need to be drowned out. The wheat is dying in the autumn air. It's fairly chilly outside, kinda cold for this time of the year. God, what I'd give to be at school right now, finishing out my last year of high school. Jock, football player, ladies man. You name it, I was it. But being cocky isn't going to get me anywhere anymore since I'm probably the last human on this Earth.

"Addie, get away from the window," Mom says softly.
Dad finishes boarding up the last window and says "Hopefully that keeps those alien douchebags out"
"Dad," I say. "They're a race twenty thousand years ahead of our own. Boards are the least of their worries"
He plops down on the couch beside me. "I know, Noah. Just trying to keep hope alive"
My dad did keep hope alive for the first two weeks and then things went downhill from there. Drones would occasionally fly over and sis would pucker out her bottom lip but no tears would fall, she was way too dehydrated. We all were. When the coast was clear, I would quickly run to the well beside the barn and get some water. Good water too. God, it was excellent water. My mom would sing a love song before bed and stroke sis's hair. "It's okay" She'd tell her. "It'll be over soon"
But she lied, it wouldn't be over soon, anywhere near fucking soon. We were far from Cincinnati but the smell of dead bodies rotting in the boiling sun still made it's way to us. That smell drove us mad, made us sick. Mom was the first to go. She got sick. Up in her bedroom, she'd puke blood and ramble off something that sounded like a prayer but I wasn't too sure. Dad tried to keep it together but he just couldn't. Shotgun in the mouth and bam. Just like that, it was over. Sis and I kept hope alive for as long as possible. She knew what happened to mom and dad, she knew there was nothing we could've done. It was over. We played cards and had a good time until she too came down with whatever mom had. I told her she'd be fine, I told her that there was nothing to worry about, I'd sing that sappy love song to her and stroke her hair. Finally, after an agonizing two weeks of puking blood, she died. I covered her with a clean sheet and buried her in the backyard, next to mom, next to dad. I went back up into her room after burying her and kneeled at her bedside and let all my emotions free. FUCK YOU, ALIENS, FUCK YOUR DISEASE, FUCK YOUR EXISTENCE. FUCK FUCK FUCK. Now I'm the lonely. This was it, this is what life had become.

The wheat crunched underneath my boots, the frost glistened in the sunlight. Yeah, I'm just walking out in the open, I have literally nothing left to lose. I sling the rifle back over my shoulder as it starts sliding down. Maybe I should've packed lighter. Maybe I should just shut the fuck up. If the aliens wanted to kill me, they'd kill me already. I'm sure that huge mothership of theirs can see the tiniest insect on this planet. SHOOT A LASER AT ME, I DARE YOU. I get to the edge of the forest, the leaves on the branches are MIA. Ah, they're covering the ground, making it extra crunchy. The whole damn world could hear me stepping on these leaves. CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH. Each crunch another invitation to come and murder me. But like I said, I don't really care at the moment. I lean against a tree and slide down until my ass hits the ground. I sling my back off and pull out a few cookies and a bottle of water. I dig around some more and pull out a picture. Sis, Dad, Mom, Me. We're all together, smiling our fake smiles, happy to be together. My eyes fill with tears but I don't let them drop. I can't be weak now. I have to live, for sis, for mom, for dad, for the seven fucking billion people that were vaporized. It would be selfish of me to just die. I pack everything back into my bag and head out. The stench of Cincinnati roars through my nose, making me puke up breakfast. There goes my important meal of the day. Shit. I tie a cloth around my face, it helps a bit, but the smell is still in my nose. I have to get away from the city, I have to get as far as possible. Maybe once winter rolls around, the smell won't be too horrible. That's if I even make it past today. I walk the highway, looking up at the mothership, I just know I'm gonna look up at it once and it's gonna be falling out of the sky and fighter jets are going to fly over my head and their gonna fist bump the air like; HELL YEAH, WE GOT THOSE ALIEN BASTARDS. That's if there's any military left. I hope to god there is. Parked car, SUV, bedtime. I don't know how long I've been walking but it must have been a long time because it's dark now and I left the house when there was frost on the grass. I pull out some clothes and drape them over the window's then grab my picture and press it against my chest. This night will be the hardest, it's the first time I've slept anywhere else since this shit storm started.
Goodnight sis, goodnight mom, goodnight dad. I press the picture to my lips and close my eyes.