Vanessa Gable
Tuesday, March 29th, 2022 (9 days after the Shutdown)
Vanessa couldn’t stop squirming in her seat. Not because the crowd made her anxious or nervous.
No, it was because of something missing in this situation, something that had been man’s crowning achievement since the day it was invented. Deodorant.
Without running water for almost a week, bathing had become a luxury many people avoided, as it would tap into their daily allowance. So as members from the other apartments sat down for the meeting, even the cool night air wasn’t enough to nullify the abhorrent smell of 100 people crammed together.
I should’ve stayed in my apartment, she thought, wrinkling her nose.
There were two other apartments aside from theirs that they'd been working with.
Tonight’s meeting decided the direction that the collective communities of their street would take. Based on what her neighbor had said, this meeting would decide if they would continue trading as they already were or whether they would become more intimate and form a coalition.
Vanessa was skeptical about “building ties”.
The more they were roped with other groups, the more their supplies would be spread thin and when it came time to make pivotal decisions, their voices would’ve been watered down to a third of the total.
He probably already knows that. Vanessa thought, watching the landlord adjust his tie. This whole performance is to make the other apartments happy.
And just like she expected, the whole thing was a repeat of the night of the Armageddon. The show the landlord put on shocked the other groups into silence, and they sat there, enraptured by his oration skills just like she’d been the first time he’d talked.
Finishing by calling up the next speaker, he walked off to the sound of rapturous applause.
Reaching for her phone to check the time, she smirked at her forgetfulness and looked above the podium.
It was a quarter to 11 p.m. meaning an hour had passed since the meeting began. Judging by the thoughtful expressions plastered on the audience’s faces, they were completely engaged with the program.
The next speaker was one of the men who’d confronted the landlord earlier today, but if Vanessa's memory served her correctly, he’d taken a passive role at the back of the crowd. He was of middling height, similar to the West Wind Apartment’s owner, yet where the latter oozed professionalism with his pinstriped suits, the man standing above them now brought forth a sense of stability with his massive figure.
Sinew and muscles rippled under his chocolate skin as he raised one meaty hand to get the crowd’s attention.
“Thank you everyone for attending tonight’s meeting and thank you to Morrison for arranging this. For those who haven’t met me before, my name is Trent and I’m the… uhh… interim leader of the Braun City Apartments which you might know of. I’m proud to have the chance to be amongst such… such… distinguished individuals, who all have a common appreciation for working together. Not only for our sake but the sake of our children.”
Morrison? Didn’t think he had a name, Vanessa mused, peering over at the landlord who gave the crowd a small wave at the mention of his name.
Trent opened his mouth to continue when a struggle at the front doors caused all hundred heads to swivel in unison. Creasing her eyebrows at the interruption, Vanessa craned her neck to make out what had happened when she caught sight of a bloodied man stumbling in.
Phil, the portly security guard Vanessa ran into during the start of Armageddon, was breathing heavily as he struggled to help the man. He was a well-built individual with prominent shoulders and large hands, the injured stranger had one of his eyes swollen shut and his lip had been split open.
“Help!” Phil managed to wheeze out before he unceremoniously dumped the injured man onto the floor.
Perplexed, Vanessa watched two others move past her to assist.
A hundred questions erupted from the crowd. Jumping to his feet, Mr. Morrison had to yell as the noise from the crowd rose to a clamor.
“Everyone, please remain in your seats till we figure out the situation!” Mr. Morrison implored, waving his hands above his head. “No ma’am, please sit —”
BOOM!
An explosion from the front door threw those who’d risen to their feet, back down, spilling over chairs and colliding with unfortunate bystanders. Vanessa, who’d chosen to sit near the back of the room, toppled backward as the force from the explosion washed over her, pinning her to the floor.
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With the pressure from the blast squeezing the air out of her lungs, she lay on her side, struggling to breathe. What the hel— She didn’t have time to finish that thought as a secondary blast shook the building’s foundation, knocking someone on top of her.
Her head was pinned against the tiles and Vanessa heard a distinct crack coming from inside. Floundering about in shock, she didn’t see the incoming elbow through her double vision until it was too late.
Her nose exploded in blood as it slammed into her. Caught under a human dog pile, panic strangled her airway and her plight for help came out as a whimper.
Everything was moving in slow motion.
With her head pressed against the floor, she watched those who’d fallen start to get up, while others were unresponsive, their bodies strewn across the apartment’s lobby.
Weakly raising her arm to get their attention as they ran haphazardly, clouds of dust from the blast swept through the front door, obscuring her vision.
The ringing in her ears crescendoed into a high-pitched whine.
Sluggishly pounding her fist into the sack of flesh slumped atop her, a strong pair of hands wrapped around her forearm and dug her out.
The dark silhouette of a person raised a hand to her face and started snapping to grab her attention.
Who? …
Squinting through the dust, she knew the silhouette was attempting to communicate with her, but dazed, she blankly stared at its mouth moving in foreign motions. W-What are you saying? Moving its hand beside her ear, each snap came across as a thunderclap until the whining abruptly stopped, like someone flipped a switch.
“ — you okay?” the blurry man asked, ceaselessly snapping his fingers at her.
Taking a deep breath in to calm her nerves, a rush of oxygen filled in her lungs. She hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath this entire time. Remembering she'd been asked a question, she replied, “Yeah… I think so.”
Nodding as if that was enough confirmation for him, he ran off to help others.
Vanessa watched him for a few seconds before stumbling onto one of the few remaining chairs.
She absently rubbed at the blood from her nose and dust trapped in her eyes, leaving red streaks across her face. Across the lobby, Morrison was directing his men to assist the fallen, administrating the pandemonium without skipping a beat.
A field of debris was dispersed around her feet. Pieces of the ceiling had plummeted to the floor trapping people underneath, some of whom squirmed under the weight of it. Others… their bodies lay limp and pools of blood grew around them. By her feet, the person who’d fallen atop her was out like a light, unconscious beside another piece of fallen infrastructure.
Warm fluid started to run down her chin. Frowning in momentary confusion, she licked the corner of her mouth, taking in the metallic taste of it.
Ah right… the bastard busted my nose, she remembered, looking over at the unconscious man.
Pinching it to stem the blood flow, a dull throb of pain finally began to register as her body drained of energy.
Finally sober, she watched as another man tugged at the arm of an unresponsive body, blood spurting out of it from a gaping hole on the side.
He was screaming for help, beseeching others to aid him.
Dust started to settle and more of those who’d been rescued stumbled out the back door.
From a distance she observed Trent, the leader of Braun City Apartments, disorientated just like her, struggling to piece together the aftermath of the attack.
Who would attack us?
Unknown ID
1 hour earlier…
They all waited in silence, keeping a watchful eye on the clock. Most of them had been enlisted for this task because it was their boss who coordinated this task, but as they explained her role, it still didn’t make sense why they needed her.
“It’s time,” the leader whispered, pulling down his ski mask and nodding at the others to do the same.
Even with the sliver of light remaining after the power outage, they didn’t want the activities of the next hour to find their way back to them.
Opening a door that led outside, all nine of them including her followed him out.
Their destination was a small building they’d located based on a tip from their employer. Sticking to alleyways and tunnels which had been scouted and cleared by another group, she followed them with bated breath as they entered the final tunnel to pop out on the other side.
The wind nipped at her exposed ankles and she felt it dance through her hair, ripping it free of the bun she’d kept it in.
“You know the plan, right? Take a deep breath and relax. We’ll be right behind you,” the group leader assured her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Acquiescing to his words, she dusted herself off and walked to the front door. Behind her, another member of the group followed at her heels, instructed to back her up in case anything deviated from the plan.
Glancing up, the building stood around 2 stories tall and was unassuming, with brown brick walls and shuttered windows.
Though people were living in buildings all along the street, without common access to electricity, their sleep schedules followed the rise and fall of the sun. In other words, they wouldn’t need to worry about wandering eyes this late after sunset.
Raising her fist to lightly knock on the door, in the silence engulfing them the sound reverberated like a gunshot and a moment later, footsteps from the other side approached the door.
Too late to second-guess now, she thought, bracing herself for what came next.