The sunlight peered through the windows, shining right into my eyes. I groggily sat up on the makeshift cardboard I made on the ground. Slowly standing up, I tried stepping on my damaged leg. It stung slightly, but nothing too much. I took a look at my professionally made bandage, which consisted of my sock and some loose bits of duct tape I found. It’s not ideal, but what am I gonna do? I’m not a doctor. Luckily, my sock was thick enough to absorb most of the blood. After meticulously tearing off every bit of duck tape, I tossed the now bloody sock off to the side.

My wound was still a deep mess. I hoped I didn’t need any stitches. I took off my other sock, pouring some cold water on it and ringing it out. While carefully putting the tape back on, I peered outside of the windows. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect but the usual desolate and quiet city. Those things disappeared as they usually do during the daytime.

***************************

The walk back to my house was quick enough. The main problem was trying to ignore the sight and smell of the half-eaten and decaying corpses left to rot on the ground. Every day, I have to walk past these bodies scattered on the ground. Their faces mutilated and chewed up beyond recognition, but I swear I could still see some sense of fear on their faces. I tried my best not to look at any of them. I know I won’t be able to stomach it.

I made a beeline towards my garage. Inside sat my dusty car that hasn’t been used since this whole apocalypse started. It was about time to finally fire this old guy up. There was nothing left for me in this town except memories of what once was.

“Hey there big guy,” I softly said to the car, placing my hand on the hood. “Ready to get out of here..? I finally got enough supplies to leave this place for-” I stopped, realizing the futility of talking to an old dusty car.

“Nice car ya got there.”

I let out a high pitch yelp, jumping back and nearly falling butt-first on the cold cement. I turned around, reaching for my gun.

“Woah woah, I’m not going to hurt ya.”

It was a woman. Instead of going to the hunting rifle strapped to her back, she raised her hands to me to show no harm.

“Thought I saw some smoke while coming into town. The place is pretty empty, I’m surprised to see anyone here.” From her voice, I swear I could hear a slight Scottish accent.

She slowly paced forward to the car. “How’d you manage to get your hands on it?”

I stood still in silence for a solid ten seconds before I realized she was talking right to me. “Oh, I found it a few years ago at a used car dealership. Right in my price range too.”

She walked down the side of the car, wiping some of the dust away in the process. When she got to the trunk, she turned back to me. “Name’s Cleo.”

“Markus. Do you want to come inside?”

***************************

Now looking back, I don’t know what I was doing allowing some stranger into my house. For all I knew, she could be one of the countless raiders or scavengers ready to kill me and take my stuff. I leaned against my kitchen counter, watching as she examined the map hanging up on my wall.

“So why are you here?” I asked, finally breaking the silence. “Travelling out here during the day is dangerous enough with the raiders and all. But a night with all those things…”

“Things?”

“Yeah, you know, those tall bony guys. Comes out at night. Disappears during the day.”

“You mean the ghouls?”

“Yeah - wait, ghouls? Why ghouls?”

“Why do you call them -” she stopped before saying anything else. “Nevermind. Used to live in Olympia. Decided there was nothing left for me there.” She shook her head, wiping away some of the short black strands of hair from her face. “Nothing but raiders there now.”

She turned back to the map strapped to my wall. “From the looks of it, you’re planning to leave too.”

“Yeah. Just like you.” I got up from the counter, walking to the map. “I plan on going to Pennsylvania. I used to have some family there myself, so at least I have some sense of familiarity there.” I gestured to the pins on the map, “I’ve been planning for weeks, marking down some gas stations and malls along the way. I was planning on leaving today, and well, forget everything.”

“Seems like you got a journey ahead of you. Seems like suicide.” She said those last three words bluntly. “You said it yourself, day is dangerous in itself. But at night…”

“You have a point. But... I just can’t stay here. Not anymore. I’ve seen too many die in this town.”

She sighed. “You have a good point there. Listen, I don’t want to take any more of your time. I guess I should leave you to your own business.”

“Wait, where exactly are you going?”

She shook her head, “I don’t know. Anywhere, I guess. As long as it's far away from this cold.”

I watched as she went to the front door without another word. I knew I would regret all of this later, but I couldn’t just let someone go out there all alone.

“Do you wanna come with me…?”

“What?” she asked, twisting around, hand still on the nobble.

“We’re in the same boat here. Traveling somewhere, anywhere. I just think it’ll be smarter as a pair. And, when we decide to split ways, then so be it.”

What were you thinking? I thought to myself. Who in their right mind -

“Sure.”

I stood stiff in shock. Somehow, someway, I managed to stammer out a meek, “Y-you will?”

“Yeah. If anything, it’ll be less dangerous out there with the two of us.”

Giving her a slight nod, I said “Let’s not waste any time, then.”

With her help, I packed up only the bare essentials. Some pillows, blankets, extra food, some gas canisters, all that. As we packed up, I took one last stroll around my house. It was about time for me to leave this place, but I couldn’t help but shake off some strange feeling of sorrow leaving this house for good. I stepped out to the garage, seeing Cleo waiting in front of the car.

“You ready?” she asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

With those words, I stepped inside the driver’s seat. “Here goes nothing…” I muttered, sticking the keys into the ignition. With a low and guttural grumble, the car sprung to life. I lightly pushed my foot on the gas pedal, my car slowly pulling out of the driveway. I pulled out my sawed-off that was holstered to my side, placing it on the seat behind me.

“Gun like that won’t do anything to those ghouls,” Cleo said matter-of-factly.

“Neither will yours, but I guess it’s to just hold them back long enough to escape.”

I looked through the windows at the rundown town around me. Everything I once knew is now gone. The town which I once called home was no more. The only things left now are now moss-covered buildings, destroyed cars, and shattered windows. As we reached the town limits, I looked through the car-side mirror, getting one last glimpse of my home.