White Noise

I generally don’t care about anything. Some people would say it’s because I’m a dick…which I am, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not the point. I care more now than I did before the Zoms came around. Granted, everything changed after those rotten stink-bags showed up.

Before the sickness that caused these ugly creatures to roam the earth, I was a college student. An art major, at that. How predictable; the small town sad-boy planned to balance his apathy with art. Well, before you make assumptions about me, shut up. You’re probably right.

I was lucky, that day. My roommate, Ryan, decided that we were too hungover to go to class that day. I didn’t put up much of a fight, because let’s be honest, who wants to go to class at 8:30 on a Monday morning? So we stayed home, cozy in our safe apartment 15 minutes off campus.

It wasn’t until about 3:30, when Ryan’s annoying but incredibly attractive girlfriend Lila shook me awake.

“Holland, get up!”

“Leave me alone, Lila,” I groaned into my pillow.

“It’s an emergency!”

That caught my attention. Lila, although annoying, never exaggerated. I leaned up, taking note of her frantic eyes and how poor her shirt was at covering her cleavage. “What’s going on?”

She grabbed my arm, urging me out of the bed and into the hallway. I could hear Ryan talking quickly but quietly in his room. I could hear the heavy rain slapping the window. I could hear the blonde reporter from Channel 6, but didn’t believe what I was hearing until I made it into the living room and saw the TV.

“Oh god,” I muttered. “We have to go.”

----

I’ve managed to keep Ryan and Lila alive for about a year. At least, I think it’s been a year. It’s hard to tell time when you’re always running from human garbage. After we left the apartment, we crashed at the house that belonged to an ex-Marine, one who was always paranoid about the end of the world. He was well prepared for everything. We really had it made. A nice ranch style home, a little secluded but still close enough to the city that we could scavenge for supplies if needed.

Most of our days were spent by the radio, waiting to hear something other than static. With no electricity it’s really hard to expect anything else. In reality, we were bored. The end of the world, and we were bored to tears.

Lila spent most of her days raiding nearby homes, searching for old tshirts and fabrics. She’d picked up on sewing by hand, making bags, quilts, clothes…anything to help time go by. It was good for her, I think. Helped keep her stable in an environment where she was surrounded by guys.

Ryan liked to hunt. That was his guilty pleasure. In the south, it isn’t unusual for people to enjoy going out and killing for sport. I mean, I guess he was really doing it for survival, too, but I think it was a stress reliever for him. He always seemed to have cabin fever.

I myself had a knack for making plans. I was always taking inventory of what we had, making escape routes, backup plans. The goal was to stay prepared, at any cost, and I did a pretty good job at that.

“Hey, Holl,” Lila chimed from her place on the old couch.

“What’s up?” I responded from the pantry, pencil in hand.

“It’s starting to get cold outside…” she paused. “Maybe we should start preparing for the winter.”

“It would probably help to be a little bit more prepared than last year…” I thought, tongue in cheek. Last winter had been rough, cold, and seemingly endless.

“I was thinking, if we could kind of barricade ourselves to the middle of the hall, we wouldn’t have so many issues with the Zoms…” The sun shone in through the window onto her lap, the purple shirt in her fingertips. “There are more showing up closer every day.”

It was true. Our little safe house, overlooking a subdivision below its resting point at the top of a hill, was becoming more susceptible to visits from the rotting flesh-bugs. If it weren’t for Ryan, there’s no way our safe haven would have lasted against those things.

“Or – ouch – maybe we should relocate completely,” she mused, sticking her pricked finger in her mouth. “I mean, there’s no real reason for us to stay here. Other than having our supplies here…but…”

“I dunno, Lila,” I sighed.

“I just think – “

There was a crash from outside of the house, and she froze, eyes wide. We knew for a fact that wasn’t Ryan, he was never that reckless, stealth in his movements. I moved to the kitchen window, peeking out through the blinds. “Shit,” I whispered, turning to look at Lila. “Do you know where Ryan left the – “

A bang on the front door caused Lila to drop to the floor, crawling quietly to where I stood by the window. I crouched down next to her, and led her to the pantry. “Be quiet…” I murmured. Like she needed me to tell her.

Behind a few cans of chicken noodle soup was a 2x4, supposedly something Marine Tim never bothered to put in to place. I grabbed it, getting a splinter in the process. Standing, I carefully advanced toward the door; the scratching sound and the stench told me what I already knew. It was really bewildering; normally if they banged into the trashcan or fence by accident, they just kept moving along. But this one, it was like it knew we were here.

I knew for a fact if we didn’t get it to stop making noise, it would attract more.

I grabbed for the doorknob, knowing that I would have to move quickly. With a swift movement, the door swung open, bringing the stench of the living dead with it. With a quick movement of my arm, and bile rising in the back of my throat, I swung the corner of the board right into the temple of the sludgeball. Blood splattered onto my shirt and pants, onto the floor and the wall. It fell quickly, though not quite quietly, releasing a gurgling blood bubble from his mouth.

“That’s fucking gross,” I muttered.