Click! “Freddy is good to go!” I said, tightening his seat belt like a toddler. Don always joked that his fish was immortal. He had lived six years so far and had been put through the ringer of the Midwest. Power outages, tornados, and blizzards didn’t scare this little fish, and neither did a car trip.
Ralph practically loaded my entire house into the SUV: food, water, clothes, dishes, medical supplies, medicine, towels, rags, blankets, pillows, phone chargers, batteries, toiletries, papers, pens, and a deck of cards. I wandered my empty abode in a final sweep for anything we were missing while Ralph was hitching the neighbor’s bicycles onto the back of the car.
Open cupboards and bare beds occupied my hollowed house. I wrote onto the wall of Don’s room. For a moment, I was filled with giddy from the juvenile act, but as I took a step back and read the message back in full, my amusement fled.
It’s currently mid-January and I’m out looking for you! I don’t know if I’ll ever return here, but while I’m on the road, I’ll let everyone know I’m out looking for you! I’ll also stop by every post office I see and make a letter for you! I’ll even nail it to the walls near the front doors so you don’t miss it, dork! Love you! And Freddy is alright! I kidnapped him >:)
I drew a crude drawing of the betta fish and left his room with a sigh. But a glimmer of silver caught my eye when I reached for the doorknob. I recognized it when I lifted it into my palm, for it was Don’s cross.
“You never go out without this,” I muttered. Every memory I could think of him had this necklace on. “You must’ve forgotten it when you were rushing to catch that dumb movie,” I said. I stared at it before I put it around my neck. Unlike my brother, I was never religious, but the thought of some loser busting into my house and pawning it off disgusted me. I shoved it under my shirt and continued down the hall.
My parent’s bedroom was empty; I gave them a similar message on their wall. They were on a cruise to Alaska to celebrate their anniversary… and now they were gone. I somehow felt deep in my heart that they were away for good. Although my brother was missing too, I still felt a burning connection that we would see each other again.
I collected all our photos and group pictures framed in the hallway and said farewell to my house for the first time. Don and I were fortunate to have never moved houses before when we were younger, but now it felt like the nest was surrounded by a wildfire and I was forced to flee.
“All packed, Christian?” Ralph said with a sly smile.
“Wha- How did you-?”
Ralph shrugged, “I saw you through the window.”
“Creep,” I mumbled under my chilled breath.
The weather was not as cold as the days prior but gray clouds still smothered the sky overhead. No snowflakes fell but the windshield of the car fogged from our body heat.
“Maybe the weatherman is right for once and the blizzard has come to an end,” I said, shutting the passenger door.
Ralph scoffed, “Well they always say if you don’t like the weather, all you have to do is wait a while and it’ll change.”
I rolled my eyes, “If I keep waiting then I’ll freeze to death in this car waiting for you to turn on the heat!”
“Yeah, yeah. It takes time for this baby to warm up. Now, where to?”
“Starborn movie theater,” I said.
* * *
The drive was eerie to say the least. All radios wept a static cry. The roads were barren of anyone living. Cars sat empty in the middle of roads or crashed into the sides of fences or buildings. We were fortunate that we lived on a straightaway. If either of us had a house on the outside of a bend, over a dozen driverless cars would have smashed through our front door.
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“Seems like we were lucky that we weren’t passengers during this… rapture,” I said, looking out to the empty streets. “Jeez, can you imagine what it would’ve been like if your driver just disappeared next to you?”
“Sage—” Ralph blubbered, “I think my body is fading away.”
I snapped my neck to the driver's side. He seemed normal as ever. “What’s wrong?”
“I- I don’t know. My hands are becoming numb. My legs are heavy. My eyes are getting darker!” He jerked the wheel back and forth in a manic fashion and when I reached over to take control he slapped my hand away and laughed.
“That’s not funny! I don’t know how the hell it happens, Ralph!”
Tears welled in his eyes while a smile crawled across his face. “It happens immediately, Sage. One second you’re here, one later and you’re gone. Sadly, you don’t fade to dust or start floating to the heavens above. I don't know where my mother is, whether God plucked her from this Earth or what—I don’t know.”
“You don’t think it’s the rapture?” I asked.
“No, because only sinners stay on Earth. And yet here is an angel sitting beside me.”
“Tsk. What a flirt.”
“I try,” he shrugged.
Before I could fall asleep to the sound of the engine against the windowsill he started laughing. “What is it this time?” I asked.
“Suppose this is the true test of whether you’d date me if I were the last man on Earth.”
I scoffed once more and went back to staring out the window. “But you’re not the last man on Earth.”
“…Yet,” he smirked.
I would be lying if I said I never not thought about dating Ralph, but I felt that we were still strangers, even after being together in the apocalypse. Plus, my past relationships had never ended well. I’ve realized that I have always prioritized projects or work before a partner, and I’m not sure the end of the world would have changed my mind.
The drive was relatively short to the theater, but I wouldn’t have wanted to walk a couple miles in a blizzard to get to it. Wisps of powdered snow flew across the parking lot. It was empty, spare for a few cars in the back and the yellow bus near the front. I opened my door and before I could put both legs on the asphalt, Ralph grabbed my arm.
“Take your gun,” he said in a stern tone.
“Right,” I said. I forgot what the state of the world had become for a moment. The thought of a vinegar-stained man and the bikers were at the forefront of my mind. I pushed the memories aside by focusing on what was in front of me: the cold breeze pinning back my hair, my boots taking one step after another, and the cold metal of the gun warming in my grip.
Ralph led the way and cupped his eyes when peering into the front glass doors. I noticed that the lights were still on based on the glowing marquee. The bulbs flashed sequentially after one another, drawing eyes to the faded black letters that read Chaos Killers III.
“It looks clear so far,” Ralph whispered. “Be ready for anything.”
I gave a nod and he carefully opened the door. The noise of the northerly winds quieted behind, but the sounds of distant popping echoed from the middle of the lobby. I could smell the warm butter and taste the salt in the air without needing to see what it was. The popcorn machine was still on… and full to the brim.
“Are we the first one’s here?” Ralph asked.
“Or it was refilled,” I said, gazing all around the empty space.
Starborn was the most lavish and best held secret of all Fallfield residents. It was two stories tall with a spiral staircase up to a bar and lounge. Vibrant murals sprawled the tall walls, paying homage to the Art Deco style of the 1920’s. The ceiling rose 70 feet in the air before fading into the twinkling night sky of painted stars and the solar system.
I’ve gone here only a few times before, maybe once every other year, but each time invoked a warm memory. The theater did what it was designed to do and trapped us in a sense of comfort and luxury; whether it was the plush red carpet below us or the grand concession stand in front of us.
Ralph and I both lowered our guns and perused what kind of candy we were going to get. A lot of the glass cabinets were empty but a small box of Batter Bites and Elder Mints ended up in our hands.
I almost forgot that we were looking for my brother and his two nerd-necked friends while I tore open the first lip of the cardboard box. But I figured wherever he was, he could spare a moment. Ralph sauntered down the halls eating his chocolate-coated mints while I grabbed a small paper bag and headed for the fresh batch of stirred popcorn. I picked up the metal scoop to shovel it into the bag until I heard a commanding whisper behind me, one that was unmistakably not Ralph.