5.Bathroom Break
Alex cries softly on the floor for a few minutes but then they start to get louder and louder until he starts to scream and yell.
“FUCK FUCK, IS THIS HOW MY LIFE IS GOING TO BE FROM NOW ON? FIGHT FOR MY LIFE JUST TO FIGHT MORE, SHITING AND PISSING MYSELF TO SURVIVE?!!
Alex yells at the top of his lungs.
“This, this isn’t a life worth living”
Alex stands up slowly and makes his way towards the woman. He stops close to her and stares down at her eyes. Her eyes are wide open, her face frozen in pain and fear, being that close to her, Alex can tell that her eyes are slowly turning black, as the blood vessels in her eyes are getting filed whit the black substance.
“I will not be one of them, I will leave on my terms”
Alex’s eyes fall on the gun that the woman dropped. He bends down and picks it up. Alex is no gun expert, but he doesn’t have to be one for what comes next.
Alex takes a deep breath and looks at the ceiling.
“I wish I had some cool last words or at least different company”
Before he can re-think his actions Alex puts the gun inside his moth and pulls the trigger
Click
Alex pulls the gun out of his mouth and stares at it in disbelief, he pulls the trigger one more time, but nothing happens. He examines the gun until he finds the release button for the magazine. When he takes it out, he discovers that it’s empty.
Alex stood still for a few moments looking at the magazine and then to the woman. The feeling of despair that had driven Alex to suicide turned into Rage. He felt as if the word was mocking him as if it was telling him that he was destiny to suffer.
It was at this moment that the woman had fully transformed and was starting to stand up. When Alex looked at her, he was so mad that his mind made him think that the woman was smiling mockingly at him. This made him lose control of himself and punch her so hard that he sent her back to the floor. This wasn’t enough to calm him down, so he mounts her and started to punch her in the face.
“You think this is funny? you think that my suffering and misery is a joke?!!”
The woman tries to claw at him, but Alex ignores her and keeps punching. The pain that he is feeling just makes him angrier. Alex keeps punching her until she stops moving.
“Haa Haa Haa”
Alex slowly starts to calm down only for something to dash through the door. It was another one of those things, one’s inside it starts to look around. Not losing anytime Alex dashes to the pickax that is still stuck on the man’s head. Alex managed to reach the pickaxe and pick it up, but before he could turn around, he is tackled by the creature. Lucky Alex managed to remain standing while the creature stumbled forward. This gives Alex enough room for him to swing his pickaxe, hitting the creature on the neck with the steel point. Unfortunately, this barely faces the creature who starts to claw at him and tries to get closer. Alex shoves it to the side, taking the pickax out and swinging again this time hitting it on the heat.
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As the body hits the floor Alex hears steps coming in his direction, without thinking Alex does a 180-swing managing to hit another one on the side of the body sending it to the wall and making it fall. Before it can get up Alex stops on its head as hard as he can repeatedly until it stops moving.
As Alex tried to gather his breath two more came through the door. Alex’s anger that had almost extinguished comes back like a roaring flame.
“YOU WANT SOME OF THIS? THEN COME AND GET SOME!!”
The creatures without any more encouragement sprinted towards Alex. He managed to time well enough his swing, hitting the first one on the head whit the metal part, but the second one was to close and fast to hit it, it managed to get close enough to bite him, this made him let go of the pickaxe and fall to the floor, before Alex hit the floor he turned his body enough so that the creature fell beside him. The fall makes it let go off him. Rolling to the side he got up just in time for the creature to come, charging at him. Using all his strength Alex kicked forward, catching the creature on the chest sending it backwards to the floor, this gave Alex enough time to grab his pickaxe. Swinging one more time downwards Alex split the head of the last creature.
On the verge of passing out, Alex pushes through the pain and exhaustion and makes his way towards the door. After closing it and locking it he made his way towards the bathroom, ones in there he closes and locks it too. Alex leans on the door and sits down, soon he stars the arduous process of sweating out black oil. He tenses his body, breathes in and out heavenly and wills his body to sweat it out. This time he doesn’t try to cry, spit, puck, piss, or shit it out. After arduously working to sweat the black oil out for minutes he final succeeds. Immediately after the popping feeling washes over him, he passes out.
Unfortunately, it’s not for long, less than an hour later Alex stirs awake. The first thing Alex notices is how hungry he is, the second thing is how much pain he is feeling, but he doesn’t move. Alex lays in the bathroom floor without moving
‘Everything hurts, if I stay here, I’ll eventually die’
Alex has difficulty deciding if dying here of starvation is better or worse than getting up and facing what’s outside again.
‘Sigh’
Alex tries to go back to sleep thinking of all the good memories that he had shedding tears of nostalgia and resignation. Suddenly he remembers a speech that had left a powerful impression on him.
‘Do not go gently into that good night, rage, rage against the dying of the light. By Dylan Thomas. The speech was longer than that but those were the parts that I remember the most.’
Alex starts to get up slowly, pain coursed throughout his whole body, especially his arms. Ones standing, he notices his reflection in the mirror.
‘What the hell?’
His whole body was completely covered with the dry black substance, blood, and cuts.
“I look like shit. Sigh, I better clean up or I might die from an infection”
Fortunately for him the water is still working. As he cleans himself, he notices a few things.
‘I can’t believe I shit myself, why did I though that would work? Why did sweating worked?’
As Alex cleans himself, he thinks of a possible reason why sweating worked. Without any evidence he can only guess.
‘Whatever made everyone fall asleep changed us, the black oil, maybe everyone had some at some point. The crea- no, the ‘zombies’ might have been people that were unable to…? Adapt? Absorb?’
Alex couldn’t tell exactly what had happened but felt that he was on the right track. After a while Alex finished cleaning himself and throwing away his underwear, he also noticed that he had lost weight.
‘Hu, I guess that starve for a day, get in really stressful situations, and fight for your life really helps you lose weight.’
He starts to make his way out as quietly as possible while holding his pickaxe. Once outside he notices that the outside of the store is dark, and fortunately the store’s lights are off, so it doesn’t attract attention. As Alex makes his way towards the sandwiches and sweet bread section, he looks through the windows trying to see if there are more zombies outside. Fortunately, it appears that there are no more zombies around so he can eat in peace. Full Alex looks around for the manager’s office, the manager office has a couch that he can barely fit into.
Before he can go to sleep, he goes around the store closing the blinds and locking the back door, he also looks for pain killers and gauze. He also grabs more food and water heading back towards the office, ones inside he locks the door and puts the desk against it. Taking some time to eat, drink pain killers, and tend to his wounds, he notices that his injuries aren’t too bad, but since he is no expert, he decides to dress his wounds as best as he can just to be sure.
Using some jackets that he found as a blanket and pillow, Alex lays on the couch and quickly falls asleep for tomorrow a long day awaits.