The Chronicles of Antoine Dosier/Issue 1

This is the firs issue of The Chronicles of Antoine Dosier.

Issue 1
The music was blasting in the little earpiece he had in his righ ear, keeping his left ear clear to stay aware of his surroudings. He used to think that with those Beats by Dr. Dre you were just paying for the brand name, but he had actually gotten impressed by the quality, two years in and they still worked like new. He had amassed a great collection of music on the Huawei in his pocket. The slowly setting sun shone an orange glow over the streets. Further on in the long avenue a few infected were roaming around, aware of Antoine's presence, but Antoine knew they would leave him be, the infected knew Antoine was not worth messing with, and weren't hungry, judging by the carcass next to them. This sometimes made Antoine think he may be the bad guy to them, killing them because they were diffrent, like in that old novel I'm Legend which also inspired a bad movie with Will Smith. And like in that movie, nature sure didn't wait reclaiming the city, moss and vines were everywhere, and wildlife had been wandering in as well. As he walked he finally spotted the ladder he had clumb nearly every day for 2 years.

His music stopped, and when he looked at his phone he noticed the battery was drained. "Great..." He sighed. Before walking into the alleyway, he peaked around the corner, and spotted a small shirtless man, growling in a corner. Antoine approached carefully with his knife drawn. "Carefull... Carefull..." He whispered as he walked closer, waiting for the cornered creature to jump at him. The creature gave itself away, as it showed his teeth, right before it lunged at him, but Antoine didn't flinch and drove his Bowie staight through the neck, splattering some blood, which he wiped off with his sleeves, as he was used to. He looked down on the grey-skinned man, with a army-like haircut, he still hadn't figured out why their hair stopped growning, and watched the dark red puddle form around him. "Rest in Peace." He softly said before heading up the ladder.

He knew he had to hurry, scavengers would be there soon to eat the body, but he had to check on his crops first. He had set up a small farm on the roof, growing maize, tomatoes, beans, hemp, tobacco and more. His crops looked good, and didn't look like they needed any more watering. Content with his day's work Antoine quickly headed home to cafe Du Monde, where he had been living for a great while now.

Once back he, felt the urge to put on the record player, and play some old school jazz music, but he decide not to do so, and started the laptop with the music on it, to play some rap music, as he used to listen before the outbreak. He put his phone on the charger, never worrying about electricity, he knew the solar panels provide more than enough. Sometimes he thought he must have been blessed for finding all the stuff that had made his life so easy untill now, but all he wished was for an other person to be able to share it with him. He walked to his bedroom, and lit his candles, despite the access to lamps he still lit up his bedroom with candles, unlike the other rooms. He took one of the dried weed tips of the peg on the ceiling, and checked if it had dried properly, and packed his pipe with it. As he lit it, he opened the window, and pulled up the iron plate he used to block it, like all doors and windows had. While smoking, he thought back, not back to before the outbreak, but before he was alone. There used to be 4 of them; Lupe and Pablo Alvarez, the older hispanic couple, the kid Daryl and himself. Soon after Daryl joined them, Pablo turned, after eating a piece of jerky that had the bad proteins in it. Lupe then decided to leave, and promised to radio Antoine as soon, as she got out of the city, she never did. Daryl left to go after her, but without any promise he couldn't keep. Antoine actually thought Daryl survived by quite a while, but after 2 months he found Daryl's devoured corpse some streets away, his gun still in the hand, and a hole in his head. Daryl was the last person that Antoine saw alive, walking away into his death. The boy was still young, but a good kid. He used to talk about his parents, and his girlfriend; Missy, Misty or something like that. He made some small jokes to lift the mood, but was also still convinced his loved ones were still alive, the boy himself was a vegan, never ate meat, that's how he stayed uninfected, like most did, or by luck. Few people were as lucky as Antoine to be immune to it, but Antoine knew there still had to be somebody out there, his radio transmitted a message every minute of the day, desperately trying to make contact with anyone.

His pipe was empty now, Antoine thought about packing it again, but put the pipe down, and disrobed. He locked all doors, blew out his candles, and descended on the bed, falling asleep within minutes of laying down.