Not A Dream

Nothing but blackness spills into the area, within sightless windows and breathless wind. A slight rustle shutters below, but nothing of which to take note. Silence again, ended by a sudden snap and a whirr of two tiny cogs moving in motion. Electrical hum and static gathers. 

“My name is Heidi Corriveau.” 

She pauses, as if distracted momentarily. 

“I’m taping my exploits as a record and maybe as a tool for any survivors who find this. I know this is cliché, but if you are hearing this… I’m probably dead.” 

A degrading chuckle escapes her chest as you can hear the sound of her sleeve moving across her face, masking her breath for a moment. 

“I don’t know how it started, or even when for that matter. My farthest memory begins running down the street looking for people and not finding any. I knocked on doors, broke into stores, I did everything but it seems like the area had gotten some memo that I missed. 

I suppose it was morning… the skies were purple. 

Not that it matters now. 

My crew and I are now hiding in mines in the far north, hopefully a long way from any of those “things”. I can only hope that this is sufficient coverage. As it is, I’m above ground. I volunteered to look for fuel of some sort.  

It is night time. I can hear crickets in the distance, and the odd specimen of wildlife. That’s a good thing. Where there are animals, there aren’t… well… zombies. I guess that’s what I like to call them. Too much Resident Evil I suppose, but these things were once people. Dr. James simply calls them possessed but I’m not buying it.”

She takes a deep breath and rummages some more. 

“I’m still looking for more batteries to power this small stereo. Too bad there aren’t any cassettes lying around, even though I haven’t seen one intact for a long time.

The crew is probably waiting for me down below, I can hear them tapping at the pipes. We communicate in Morse code. Strange. I live in the pinnacle of technology and here we’re using Morse code. Lenny was once in the navy, and he taught us. Poor guy. I miss him.

I got side tracked? Didn’t I?

Like I said, I remember running down the streets, no one was there…”

“Yoo hoo!”

Heidi’s loud, echoing voice disturbed nothing but herself the louder she cried. The sun was hiding behind clouds, shadowing a good portion of the neighbourhood. Sensing the worst, she clutched her jacket closer to her body and make her way through town, slowly, but scrutinizingly looking for any human form… living or dead.

A radio emitting a static buzz lay piled on top of a trash can. It was interrupted briefly by what sounded like music, however music like she’s never heard before. In fact she couldn’t really tell if it was indeed music… but it had a rhythm and carried a melody of sorts. She grabbed it and played with its knobs, hoping for a sign of life.

The batteries died quickly.

Before the sun was setting, the largest house in the small rural town stood out like a beacon in contrast to the darkening streets. Her feet weary from walking, and her back was sore from carrying foods of all sorts which were tucked into pockets and flimsy plastic bags.

Not bothering to knock on the door, feeling it rather futile to do so, she broke through the glass patio door at the rear of the home fisting a baseball bat tightly. It shattered easily, but the security alarm began to blare, causing the girl to cover her ears and kick the remainder of the door open to find the alarm box which wasn’t very far.

Predictably, the pass code was the residents’ phone number which was scribbled on a piece of masking tape stuck to the key rack, and the alarm desisted, leaving the girl a frazzled mess. She was sure if there were anyone around, they could have heard that, she figured that was an air-raid siren… and not just a burglar alarm.

Dropping her supplies on the floor, the sheer size of the rear foyer was enough to take her breath away. To the right was the kitchen, the left held the living area, the stairs led to the bedrooms. Easy enough. There was a bathroom down the hall.

“I don’t know what possessed me, but I wanted to take a shower. It’s not like I was filthy or anything…It was probably that time when I finally realized the severity of the situation. No water. Not a drop. The light switches weren’t working. The fridge was still slightly cool inside, however.

I’m guessing “it” happened within a day of my last memories. Dr. James says I suffer from amnesia. I still don’t remember where my house is, or who my family is. Chances are that they don’t exist anymore, so it doesn’t matter.

What did matter is that, well, the alarm. It was loud.”

Puttering around the kitchen, allowing her fingers to feel the cold marble cutting board, it sounded like there was someone in the house after all. She could hear the sound of a person walking upstairs, as if just woken up from sleep.

Curious, but frightened, the girl hollered a loud “hello!”, as she hopped around on the filthy porcelain tiles.

“HELLO!”

She shouted again, even louder. The person didn’t answer but the footsteps sped up their pace, and deepened their impact on the floor.

Fighting the urge to simply run up the stairs and greet the first person she’s seen in who knows how long, she stayed protected behind the large marble island in the center of the kitchen, taking deep breaths of anxiety.

The person reached the stairway and tumbled head over heels to the bottom, unable to coordinate himself.

Heidi’s eyes squinted with the impact, and felt guilty… a little. There she was, trespassing into this person’s home and the most she could do was sit there and watch the poor person tumble down the stairs in possible fright. What if he was an old man or something and now lays there with a couple of broken hips, thanks to her?

It would be hard to explain that to the cops… she figured, but didn’t dwell on the thought considering she hadn’t seen a single person for the whole day, let alone a police officer.