• Alex walked into his parent’s house. The silence that had permeated the neighborhood had become worse as he entered. Terror had crept its way into Alex’s mind as he made his way home through the empty town. The empty, wrecked cars; the numerous piles of ash had sent waves of fear through him.

    He slowly entered the house and glanced around. He could hear his breathing and his heart pounding in his chest. Alex swallowed hard as he made his way through the living room into the kitchen. Like the living room, the kitchen was empty.

    As Alex walked around the island in the middle of the kitchen he jumped when he heard a drip from the faucet. He turned quickly and stared at the faucet. He waited for a few moments for the faucet to drip again. He finally gave up and reached out and tried to turn the faucet controls again. The handles refused to turn anymore.

    Alex turned back and walked across the adjoining den towards the hall. His feet caught on the thick carpet and sent him crashing to the floor. He landed in a pile of ash. He jumped to his feet and in a panic brushed his face and his shirt off. When he finally had brushed himself off, Alex saw that his landing had uncovered a wallet.

    Alex knelt down and, with his hand shaking, picked it up opening it. He almost dropped the wallet when he saw the name on the license. It was his father’s. He rushed down the hall and threw open the master bedroom door. No one was there; nothing was out of place, except another pile of ash in front of his mother’s make-up table.

    Alex’s entire body had begun to shake as he walked backwards out of the room. He turned around, startled, when he backed up against his sister’s bedroom door. His hands still shaking, Alex reached out and slowly turned the doorknob. He pushed open the door expecting to see another pile of ash that would be the remains of his sister.

    Alex sighed, relieved when there was no pile of ash in the room. He walked in the room and glanced around, hoping, praying for a sign that someone in his family was still alive, somewhere. Posters of his sister’s favorite band hung on the walls, her stack of CDs stood on her desk next to the stereo.

    When Alex looked at her bed his heart sank. His sister was a neat freak. She had never in her life left her bed unmade; the bed looked as if she had gotten up and left it the way it was. Alex reached out to the top edge of the blanket and sheet on her bed. He pulled the covers back and a cloud of ash billowed out. His sister had been reduced to ash along with the rest of his family.

    Alex dropped to the floor and placed his head in his hands. He had seen no one in his trek from his destroyed car to his home, and nothing but ashes welcomed him there. He turned and sat at the side of his sister’s bed with his legs folded up; he wrapped his arms around them. He closed his eyes and tried his best not to weep; nothing was as it should be, and no one remained.

    Alex didn’t know how long he remained on the floor; he had lost track of time. When he finally stood, he wiped his hand across his face, but his tears had dried. With his head hung down, he made his way out of his sister’s room and down the hall to the ash that had been his father. He sifted the ash through until he found the keys to his father’s car.

    * * * *


    Alex sat in the driver’s seat of the car and sighed. For the four years since he had gotten his driver’s license, he had begged his father to let him drive the car. His father had never let him because he thought Alex was too young and hadn’t showed enough maturity to drive it safely. He was about to start the car when he realized, what was the point? The gas mileage was very small, but his mother’s car was a hybrid; it ran on a combination of electricity and normal gasoline, and who knew what he would need.

    Alex switched cars and slowly drove out of the carport. He didn’t know where he would go, but he knew he couldn’t stay there. The memories and the loneliness would eventually get to him. As he made his way out of the neighborhood, he began to wonder if any of his friends had somehow survived whatever had killed everyone else. He knew that it was virtually impossible considering that he hadn’t seen anyone else yet. He then came to realize that if one person had survived, there could be someone else out there.

    Alex had to drive slowly through town to get to his friend’s house. Cars clogged the street, debris from destroyed vehicles made driving even harder. As Alex made his way to his friend’s house, Alex began to see damaged buildings. Alex began to shake again as he saw more and more piles of ash. He came to a skidding stop when he thought he saw someone behind a car on the side of the road.

    Alex jumped out and ran to the car. The car sat tilted from being partially on the sidewalk. Alex ran around it and stopped dead in his tracks, the person he though he saw lying on the ground behind the car trapped underneath it. The person looked like the car had hit him from behind and run him over. His legs looked as if they had been sanded down to the muscle. The man had survived the accident but had died slowly as he bled out. A large pool of blood remained around his feet.

    Alex shook his head and slowly made his way back to the car. It took him a few moments, but after he started driving to his friend’s Alex realized that if that man had survived, perhaps his friend, or someone else actually survived the aftermath of whatever happened.

    * * * *


    As Alex made his way towards his friend’s place, the damage increased. Cars that hadn’t been destroyed in whatever killed their occupants had crashed into buildings. He didn’t see any more bodies, but he didn’t give up the hope of finding someone. He slammed on the brakes and almost hit a car that had exploded in the middle of the road. He was looking at the damage when he glanced back forward and had to brake to miss the debris.

    Alex made his way around the debris to his friend’s home. He thought that he would miss his friend’s neighborhood for all the damage, but he couldn’t; he noticed the smoke coming from it. Many of the homes in the neighborhood were either in flames or smoldering ruins. He drove slowly down the roads, turning corners where he needed to.

    When Alex finally pulled into his friend’s driveway, he got out of the car and rushed to the front of the house where a car was had crashed through the front into the living room. Flames leapt from the side windows of the car making it impossible for him to go in that way so he made his way to the front door.

    Seeing the door was ajar, Alex pushed it open and called out for his friend. “Sean!” Not hearing an answer, he walked in and made his way around the car to the den. In the den everything was in shambles. The couch looked as if it had exploded, and the big screen television had fallen into the doorway to the hall. He called out again for his friend as he carefully made his way to the fallen television.

    When Alex reached the demolished television set, he saw some blood was on the set. He tried to pick the set up, but it was far too bulky and too heavy for him to lift by himself. He began to pull at the set to get it off of whomever it had landed on.

    After Alex had succeeded in pulling the set off the body, he saw his friend’s sister. Her arms were covering her head, and slivers of plastic from the television set back had exposed her blood covered back. He was about to check her pulse when he thought he heard movement from a bedroom. He carefully stepped across his friend’s sister and slowly made his way down the hall.

    Alex tried every door in the hall, but all but one had been completely closed and blocked from debris on the other side of them. The one door he was able to open was the master bedroom, but he was only able to push it open a little way before it stopped. He peered in through the crack and was able to see his friend’s parents’ bed. The ceiling had collapsed and had crushed the bed.

    Alex pressed his shoulder to the door and pushed as hard as he could. When it had finally opened enough, he slipped through the crack and into the bedroom. He looked up through the gapping hole in the ceiling at the exposed sky. Clouds of smoke had begun to block out the sun and the blue sky. A glow from nearby fires lit the clouds of smoke giving them the appearance of clouds at sunset though it was early afternoon.

    He looked across the room at the bed. The collapsed ceiling obscured most of the bodies, but could make out the arms of Sean’s father. Sean’s mother had tried to jump from the bed but the ceiling debris had crushed most of her body.

    As he turned back to the door, he found that what had blocked the door was Sean. Sean had heard the ceiling collapse and rushed to his parent’s room. Sean had been devastated by his parents’ deaths and back peddled to the wall. Backing into his father’s gun case, he knocked one off. The gun was loaded and fired when it hit the ground. The shot was one in a million; it hit Sean at such an angle to go through his head just above the ear. Sean collapsed to the floor never feeling the shot, or anything else.

    He slipped back through the crack in the bedroom door and made his way slowly towards the den and living room. As he stepped over Sean’s sister he heard her moan. Alex jumped; it was the first human sound he had heard in hours. He dropped to the ground and whispered the young woman’s name, “Heather?”

    He heard her moan again and saw her move to try to turn over. He reached out and helped her. As she turned, she cried out in pain. Alex stopped when he heard the cry and said, “Heather, what hurts?”

    Alex didn’t expect her to answer, but she did. “My side hurts, but just a little.” Alex knelt down and helped her roll over. Before she turned all the way over, he took off his jacket and put it over her back to try to keep her injuries from becoming infected.

    When Heather had finally rolled over to her back, she tried to sit up. “Stay there, don’t get up yet, we need to be sure you won’t hurt anything else more.” Alex said pushing her back down. When he stood up he glanced around the den. “I’ll be right back I’m going to find something to clean your back.” When he saw the worried look in her eyes, he added, “I’ll still be here, I just need to get something to clean your wounds.”

    Heather nodded and her breathing slowed. Alex turned back towards the hall and reentered the master bedroom. He made his way over the debris, into the bathroom, and opened the medicine cabinet. When the door had opened, a bottle of hydrogen peroxide dropped out and into the sink making a loud noise. Hearing it, Heather screamed out, calling for Alex. “I’m here Heather; it was just a bottle dropping.”

    Alex took a bath towel and made his way out into the bedroom. As he walked by the dresser be picked up a shirt and carried it out with him. When he slipped through the crack in the doorway, he saw that Heather had sat up. She was sitting just as Alex had in his sister’s room. She was shaking and rocking back and forth.

    He knelt in front of her and took her hand. At his touch she snatched it away. “Heather, I need to clean your back. You had bled a lot there and I don’t want it to get infected.” After a few seconds she was able to move. She turned around and pulled Alex’s jacket off. “This may hurt a little,” he said as he poured some alcohol onto the bath towel. Heather stiffened at the cold touch of the peroxide

    Alex wiped the towel across Heather’s back. The blood came off easily and the cuts had already stopped bleeding. With the blood wiped off and the cuts cleaned, Alex placed his jacket back across her shoulders. “Does it hurt to move?” he asked.

    Heather shook her head and said, “Not much.” Through a shaky voice, she added, “Other than a little pain in my side, I feel okay.”

    “Can you move, you…I mean we can’t stay here long, I don’t know if the house will stay standing too much longer.”

    Heather tried to stand, but she began to fall back to the floor after a few seconds. Alex reached out and was able to catch her before she fell too far. He pulled her all the way up and she wrapped her arms around him. Alex put his arms around her as she leaned into him. “I heard a crash,” Heather paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts, “from my parents’ bedroom. It was really loud, what was it?” she asked.

    Alex shook his head to answer her, and she buried her face in his shoulder. As she began to shake he said, “It’s alright. You’re safe now.” She began to cry into his shoulder.

    Alex didn’t move for almost ten minutes as Heather let loose with a stream of tears soaking his shirt. She turned her head and stared out the window in the den, her eyes still in tears. Alex began rubbing her back.

    Alex soon realized she had fallen asleep. As he picked her up into his arms he slowly, carefully made his way out of the house to the car. He cautiously opened the back door and laid her down across the back seat letting her sleep as he got in the driver seat and pulled out of the drive way.

    * * * *


    Alex drove the deafeningly quiet car out of his friend’s neighborhood, moving around empty cars and piles of burning metal. He thought of taking the same route out of town that he had walked but decided that the view of the town that he and Heather would be driving through would be too much for her. Instead he took a much longer way through the industrial part of town.

    As with every other part of town, there was no one there. Large trucks loaded with materials sat running in some loading areas, while others had stopped on the road or had crashed in ditches on the sides. Like their smaller counterparts, some of the trucks had exploded leaving burning wreckage strewn across the parking lots and roadway.

    Alex looked up at the sky. With the smoke from the burning buildings and vehicles, he had been unable to notice the darkening sky. In the shock and fear caused by the death and destruction that had occurred, Alex hadn’t felt time pass. The sky outside of town had become a dark red, a match for much of the blood he had seen on the few bodies that still existed.

    After ten minutes of driving along the small two-lane road, Alex turned on to an onramp and onto a four-lane divided hi-way. The high way, unlike the most of the other roads Alex had seen, had virtually no cars. The few that were still there had crushed into guardrails or had crashed into each other. With so few cars on the highway, Alex had a considerably clear road considering how many there usually were.

    Driving along the high way at 70 miles an hour, the car had a very smooth ride even when Alex had to swerve around empty cars. At a bridge over a small river, the car jumped, waking Heather in the back. Her cry made Alex jump and pull the car over to the median quickly. He jumped out and pulled open the back door.

    Heather climbed out and started yelling at Alex. “What am I doing here? What’s going on? Why did you kidnap me?”

    Alex laughed. “Kidnap you? You must have either completely forgotten what happened or just be nuts.” Alex stretched his arms out and spun around. “Look around you, Heather. Do you think people just crashed their cars, got up and walked away?” He stopped and let it sink in for a moment. “No. Most of these people are just piles of ash now. Very few, an extreme few, survived, just to die from fires, or crashes, or, like I almost did, from their cars exploding.”

    Heather looked around at the cars on the side of the road, some burning, others just sitting empty. Her eyes went wide as she began to understand and remember what had happened. Once it had set in she sat down on the back seat and rested her arms in her lap, breathing hard. “Why did we leave, why couldn’t we have just stayed there?”

    Alex turned and leaned against the side of the car. “Shortly after I pulled out of the drive way, the rest of the ceiling collapsed. They are buried now; there would be no way for us to get them out.”

    “What about your place?” she asked. “I can’t believe there was no place for us to stay in town.”

    Alex looked down at the road and shook his head. “There’s nothing left at my place either; no one to bury, nothing for me or you.” Alex stood and walked to the driver side door and opened it. “I figured we would find some place to stay for the night and just continue north for awhile.” He motioned Heather to sit in the front. She got up to the front passenger side and got in. “We survived, and others in town at least survived before they were hit by cars or caught in explosions.”

    Alex and Heather sat in their seats and Alex started driving, heading for the edge of town. After another twenty minutes of driving he pulled off and onto a small road with a motel. As he pulled in, Alex drove around the parking lot around the rooms to see if there was anyone, or if there was fire damage, or something else that would make the place unsuitable to stay in.

    Seeing none, Alex stopped in front of the office. Alex stepped out and started around the car to go in the office. Heather opened her door and started to get out. Seeing the fear in her eyes, Alex said, “I’m going to get a set of keys. You should stay in the car, but, if you need to you can come along.” Heather shook her head slowly and sat back down, her eyes following Alex as he continued to the office.

    Alex opened the office door slowly, chimes ringing to announce his entry. After waiting a few moments to see if anyone would come out, Alex stepped around the front counter. In a seat behind the counter lay a pile of ash, the remains of the attendant.

    Alex looked up and out the front window at Heather. He smiled and waved. Alex glanced at the back wall, at a pegboard holding various door keys. “I guess we get our choice of rooms.” The pegboard listed which rooms had single beds and which had double beds. Alex pulled a key from a peg numbered for a double bed room at the back of the motel and left.

    Once back in the car, Alex drove around to the back. Once in a parking spot, Alex got out and opened the door. When he turned back, Heather remained in her seat fear still in her eyes. Alex walked over and pulled her door open. “I doubt you want to stay in the car. It will get very cold tonight and the heater will drain the battery.”

    Heather slowly got out. She walked on unsteady legs towards the motel room with her arm around Alex helping to keep her standing. Once in the room, with the door closed, Alex helped Heather over to a bed and set her down. He sat across from her on the other bed and stared at the floor. He closed his eyes and lay down across the bed. As Alex lay on the bed he could hear Heather as she herself lay back on the other bed the springs creaking as she rolled over turning her back to him.

    It didn’t take long for Alex to fall asleep. His dreams began as memories both joyful and sad of his family and friends. His dreams were of his sister coming home from her first date; his parents scolding him for taking the car out at midnight to go cruising with Sean and other friends.

    Alex’s dreams soon turned to nightmares. Scenes of his walk from his destroyed car, the nightmare feeling far louder than the silence that had permeated the actual walk. Alex ran along the side of the road with the image of the dead cop who had stopped him for speeding and died from the Alex’s exploding car. The cars he saw on the road weren’t empty; their occupants were now grotesque dead people; their voices silent, and yet causing him great pain as if they screamed at him. He continued running, his speed slower than a snail, and yet Alex ran as fast as he could.

    Alex never reached his goal. Before he could finish running home, the scenes shifted to the devastated corpse of a house that was Heather’s. The car remained lodged in the front of the house. Now flames leapt from not only the car, but the windows of the bedrooms and garage. Fearing for Sean and his family, Alex burst through the front door. As he did the true memories of the day force their way forward, not changing the nightmare, and yet Alex remembered them.

    The floor of the house burned bright orange, yet no heat touched him; Alex felt cold. As Alex made his way through the house to where Heather was, the flames that had filled the front room followed him. Alex knelt at the fallen television and tried with the strength the nightmare lent him to lift it. The television wouldn’t move. As Alex pulled at the television set, he could hear Heather moan from underneath it. Her voice, the only sound he heard in the nightmare, came softly pleading for help. The flames that had filled the living room began creeping towards Alex, the cold he had been feeling sending chills over him.

    Alex awoke to the freezing, fright filled reality. The motel room was pitch black allowing the images of Alex’s dream to come back almost sending him under the covers of the bed. As his eyes began to adjust o the dark, Alex could hear Heather from the other bed having her own nightmares. Alex stood and walked over to the sink by the bathroom and turned on a small light. When he looked over at Heather, she lay on the sheets; the warm blanket cover had been thrown to the bottom of the bed letting in the cold air. Alex walked over and pulled the blanket cover back over Heather. She quieted down once the cover was back on her, and she pulled it tight under her chin.

    Alex walked over to the heater under the window. When he turned the heater on, the fan began to turn beating against the sides of its case for a moment until it settled into place. As heat began to fill the room, Alex returned to the middle of the room between the beds. Sitting down on his own, he looked over at Heather as she slept quietly under the covers. Alex sighed and lay down on his back staring at the ceiling. A few minutes later he fell into nightmare filled dreams. Recounting of the day, or painful memories of the good times he had before then.

    * * * *


    The next morning Alex woke before Heather, she had grown quiet during the night and seemed to have begun sleeping better, if not peacefully. She was quiet enough for Alex to wonder if she was all right. As Alex approached her, stepping silently along the bed, Heather rolled over sighing.

    Seeing that she at least seemed all right, Alex walked back and sat at the foot of his bed. As with many of his generation, Alex had grown up watching more television than reading or just sitting and trying to be quiet. Alex picked up a remote that sat at the edge of the dresser against the wall. Alex pressed the power button followed by the mute button when the screen flashed.

    Alex wasn’t expecting much, but when the newsroom of a cable news channel appeared, he immediately began turning the volume up to where he could hear it a little. An anchorwoman was the only thing on the screen. The camera had focused close to her revealing wide eyes and shaking hands on the desk. “I have been manning this desk alone for the past 2 hours,” the anchorwoman started with a shaking voice. “In that time I have received no calls and no messages. If someone has survived whatever has happened,” her voice changed from shaking to a plea, “please contact me here.” She began writing on a piece of paper and held it up to the camera. “This is the number to the phone here on the desk.”

    Alex turned and reached quickly for the phone between the beds. He dialed the number for the newsroom and heard it ring over the TV. Hearing the anchorwoman answer, he said, “Hello, this is Alex.”

    Alex heard the woman through both the TV and the receiver on the phone. “Hello Alex, you’re the first person I’ve heard in awhile. How did you survive, do you know?”

    “A friend of mine and I both survived. My car exploded killing another survivor. My family is nothing but a pile of ash, and my friend’s family was killed at their home.”

    “Alex, have you or your friend seen anyone or heard anyone since yesterday?” the woman asked.

    As he answered her, Heather awoke. She sat up quickly in the bed, making her head swim. She was surprised to hear Alex talking to someone, and she asked, “Was it all just a bad dream, why am I here?”

    The anchorwoman on the screen asked, “Alex is that your friend I hear?”

    “Yes,” he answered.

    Alex handed Heather the phone. Her hand shook as she placed the receiver against her ear. “Hello?” she asked.

    “Hello, this is Sarah,” The woman started. “I am so very glad to hear someone’s voice. I am sorry if I sound too happy, but there is no one here and I haven’t seen anyone for hours.”

    Heather looked at the television screen as she listened to the voice in her ear. After the anchorwoman finished Heather said. “I haven’t seen anyone except Alex since the other day.” Heather became silent as she remembered the other day. She began to tear up as the sight of her destroyed home surged forward in her mind.

    When the anchorwoman heard Heather begin to tear up she said, “I am sorry Heather. I understand that it is a sore subject to bring up so soon after it happened.” As she spoke, another light on the phone began to flash. “Heather, Alex, I have another caller on the phone. I will put it so that all of us will be heard.” She pushed a few buttons on the phone and said, “Hello caller”

    The voice that came over the line shook as much as Heather’s had. “Hello. I’m Mark McCullough from Georgia.”

    “Hello Mark,” Sarah and Heather said in unison.

    Mark, Sarah, Heather, and Alex spoke for thirty minutes. As Alex and Mark continued to talk, Sarah heard a noise from outside the studio. “I hear something from another room. I’m going to see what it is.” Sarah had become more at ease after talking with other survivors. She got up from behind the desk and went out of the camera view. Mark and Alex became silent as they listened to her footsteps. Alex turned up the volume on the TV set so he could hear her as she walked from the studio. The sound of the steps ended after a few seconds.

    * * * *


    The thirty minutes of talking with others after having been alone, fearing that she was the only person left, had made Sarah more at ease with being so alone, the noise she had heard from the next room had spooked her. She walked through a set of doors the led out into a hallway that led to offices and an engineering booth.

    The silence that had permeated her ride to work, and the two hours of being on the air with nothing to do but talk to the camera, had ended when she began talking with Alex and Heather. Once she put down the phone, the silence returned. The fear returned. As she walked down the hall towards the engineering booth her hair began to stand on end. When she opened the door, she jumped with fright.

    * * * *


    Alex, Heather, and Mark waited patiently for Sarah to return. Ten minutes went by as they waited. “What happened to her, Alex, any idea?” Mark asked.

    “I don’t know?” Alex said quietly through the phone. Alex stared at the screen. As Alex watched, the screen shook. “Hey, Mark, did you see that?”

    Mark was silent for a second. “Ya, she may be back.”

    The screen shook again. As the three watched a form streaked across the camera lens leaving a dark red trail behind it. Heather gasped and turned away. Alex wrapped his arms around her as she leaned into him, his eyes never leaving the screen. Sarah’s voice, rasping from something that none of the three could tell came through the speakers. “Help…me…” she said. “Please…”

    Sarah appeared on the screen climbing up in front of the desk. Her shirt had been shredded; her back bloodied. She slowly pulled herself up and turned to the screen. She looked into the camera, her eyes pleading for mercy as she spoke. “Help me, please,” she said quietly, barely able to be heard. She looked off to the side at something behind the camera. She closed her eyes and screamed loudly as a large form swung down and hit her in the face sending blood and gore across the lens of the camera, making it impossible to see.

    “Where are you, Mark?” Alex asked almost yelling into the phone receiver. When Mark didn’t answer, Alex yelled again into the phone. “Mark, are you there!”

    When Mark answered his voice was shaking again. “I’m here, Alex. I’m in Georgia.”

    “But where in Georgia, Mark, what city, what town are you in?”

    Mark answered, “I’m in Bruns…” The screen had cleared enough to make out a few objects. The phone still sat on the desk. Before Mark could finish his answer, a large object came down on the phone breaking it sending a short, high-pitched whine into Alex’s phone before it ended in the familiar dial-tone.

    Alex shut off the TV and got up heading for the door. “We have to leave, Heather, now,” He said.

    Heather didn’t bother asking where they were going. She followed Alex out of the motel room and got into the car. Heather shook as she buckled her seat belt. Alex turned the car on and backed out of the parking slot and drove around the building. “Where did he say he was?” Heather asked.

    “Brunswick,” Alex answered. Alex pulled onto the road, then onto the four-lane highway.

    As Alex sped down the highway, south towards Georgia, Heather reached over and took his hand. Heather could feel his hand shaking. When she looked at his face she saw nothing, no emotion. Heather watched Alex for a few moments hoping to see something in him. “Alex, what are you thinking?” she asked.

    Alex jumped when he heard Heather’s voice. “What? I’m sorry Heather I was thinking about what happened to Sarah. Who did it and why?”

    “You want to go and find out, don’t you?”

    Alex was silent for a minute. “Yes and no,” he answered. “I want to know what it was, but I am afraid to find out.”

    Heather asked, “We are going to go find Mark, then go back north to find what happened to Sarah?”

    Alex shook his head. “I don’t know, Heather. It will depend.”

    “On what?” she asked.

    Alex laughed. “I don’t know yet.”