New Tomorrow/Part 1

This is Part 1 of New Tomorrow, entitled Mornings.

Part 1 - Mornings
Liam couldn’t help but leave her alone. The way she slept so quietly, so peacefully, as if nothing was going to bother her. He had to make this quick, for her sake. So she can at least wake up to something good.

They’ve found a quiet haven in an abandoned duplex, just a tad smaller than where he used to live. The things in there, though slightly dusty, were untouched. Liam figured this was a good spot as any, since it was at a busy area. He looks to Elaine one last time, and stands up. He walks over to the round, wooden dining table, where his backpack sat.

He grabs it and notices its lightness, something he didn’t want to be reminded of. He swings it sideways to his shoulder, carrying it on one strap. He looks at the faded-green sofa one last time, then quietly slips through the front door.

 ////////////////

It was too early for any biter activity. As he descends from the small, cement stairs, he taps the back of his waist just to make sure. He looks to his left, then to his right, and sees none of them present. A sign of a slow morning. A perfectly slow morning, like in the normal days.

He turns to his right direction, slowly walking at first, then gradually jogging as he passes by more buildings. He stretches his arms, then his back, taking a whiff of the fresh, morning air. The skies were still a dark-blue hue; to his far-left direction was a bit of bright orange. He finishes walking this block, skipping over through the street then hopping over to the next block’s sidewalk.

The buildings to his left were quiet as always. He’s been calling them the “three businesses” since he first saw them. It consisted of a butchery, a Mexican restaurant, and a flower shop, all in order from left to right. To the end of it was an apartment building he always seems to ignore.

He turns to look at his front, and sees the building just a few feet away. “Thank god for Walgreens branching out,” he mutters to himself, as he sees its bright red sign displayed above the set of glass entrance doors. He absent-mindedly looks at the fallen sidewalk board to his left, noticing the speck of dried blood spattered on it. He would have wanted to put the sign back up for the sake of normality, but this just wasn’t the day.

He faces the front door and carefully pushes it open. As he steps foot on the mat, he remembers his new ritual, already going on for four days; praying that nobody scavenged it while he was gone. Today was an especially important day, since he had to come back with more items than usual.

He looks past the small rack of rubber balls that always greeted him upon entering, scanning around for anything conspicuous. The far end of the store was especially hard to see, since it was shrouded by darkness. He sighs, braces himself, then turns to his right direction.

He keeps a lookout to his left as he passes by the aisles. It’s too early for him to be defending himself. “Too damn early,” he mutters.

He walks past a rack full of houseware and reaches the most important one of them all; the food section. He anxiously scans it first, to see if there was any difference; save for a few small sections in the racks, it was completely empty. It was frustrating to see, especially since he had such high hopes. If he walks right through it, maybe he’ll be able to find something of worth.

Some of them were just a gathering of empty cans. One was a set of spice shakers. To the right side of it was a small display of words written with a black marker, written on the rack:

[i] “How to make a meal with these: 1)Pour them all on a bowl 2)put watter 3)mix 4)Eat & cry for ur misrable life”

Just right next to it were the slightly larger words “Dont listen to him hes illiterate”, written with a green marker. Liam shakes his head, its message already adding to his annoyance.

He turns away from it and continues toward the end of the aisle, noticing a lone can sitting to his left. The poor lighting made him squint at it as he approaches it. He grabs the can, then walks back toward the beginning of the aisle, where there was decent lighting. “Well…” It was an unopened can of Stagg’s chili. Even though it was layered with a bit of dust, it was the best food he’s ever come across in a while. They can probably share this today for lunch—

He shoots a look to his left upon hearing a distant sound of crumpling plastic hitting the floor. He firmly holds the can with his left, while he slowly reaches for the hilt behind his waist.

He lightly treads past one aisle, looking at it just in case; there was nothing but yet another reminder of emptiness. He moves on to where the aisles ended, where the frozen items were once stored behind clear-glass display doors.

“Hello?”

He starts noticing some movement from behind the darkness-shrouded section, at the end of the hall. He knew he was going to have to start moving actively pretty soon.

“Hello—”

The figure in question started to become more visible. He hears a dragging sound as it slowly revealed its appearance.

He was relieved, upon seeing its upper half; it wasn’t a person. Just a biter, wearing a heavy jacket and a cap. The way it languidly inched toward him showed how weak it was.

“C’mon, now... this early?” He was afraid he was going to this. As if waking up early was bad enough.

He starts to limber up, rotating his shoulders. He exchanges a few kicks with his feet, to stretch his legs. He reaches behind his waist and pulls the hilt, revealing a somewhat worn-out blade that shined against the dim lighting behind him.

He sighs, then assumes his stance. If only the biter can move faster, so that this can be done already.

 ////////////////

By the time Liam was going back to the apartment, the sky was still a dim blue. What he thought was going to be a bad start turned out to be the best supply run he’s had.

The biter he had just killed apparently turned, probably not too long ago. It left a backpack full of supplies for him to take. As he stood in front of the entrance to the duplex, he tried not to think about that man’s past.

He felt good about this. About saying “good morning” to Elaine. Because it was a good morning. He finally decided to visit the flower shop today, after putting it off for days.

He excitedly turns the knob of the door and pushes it open. He tries to enter quietly, but the polyester of the bags he carried made too much sound.

“Elaine—” Upon turning to look at the pale-green sofa, he could see the back of her head, her hair tied up on a knot he was familiar of.

“Elaine…” He drops his bags, and rushes to her side.

“Hey—hey, I’m here—” No matter how often he’s been seeing her like this, he couldn’t stop his insides from dropping.

Elaine looked blankly at the coffee table in front of her, her skin slightly pale, the moisture of sweat visible in her forehead. “It’s okay—it’s all over—”

Liam makes her face him and pulls her toward him, wrapping his arms tightly around her. “It’s all over…”

She starts to whimper on his chest, silently at first. “Shhh…” Her cries start to grow louder; loud enough for its anguish to pierce through him.

He felt powerless, like always. She didn’t deserve it.