The year is 2033. For quite some time now, every news outlet outcry about the worldwide crisis. They say disasters hit everywhere, countries stopped selling precious commodities, others closed their borders, prices went up every day, and then politicians got into petty fights. At the same time, the little people's plea for help goes unanswered. It is a depressing time to live, like there is this keg ready to blow but every time we think anytime now, it just presents us another different problem. In times like this, I tune out the worries of the world and just make sure I have kibbles for my cats.
My name is Tamita, I am 30 years 30-year-old female living in the metropolis of Jakarta, Indonesia. I am of Chinese descent with atypical long black hair and a fair skin tone. I am not comfortable describing myself or looking at the mirror, my right eye is a crossed eye that makes people look at me funny or undermine me until I just discarded any physical self-worth. In addition, I wear a pair of glasses that are literally as thick as bottle caps and I can’t even navigate my own house without them. Like every day, I wear whatever hand-me-down t-shirt I have and a pair of long pants. At least I like the pants, it is my favorite emerald green. Sometimes, I draw cool stuff for people online as a commission service but that has been scarce lately. It’s not as bad as stuff on the news and my area hasn’t been flooded for four years.
I have two beautiful black cats that keep me sane, entertained, and feeling loved. The first one is Levi, he is a big round common shorthair cat with strong legs and a short bunny-like tail. He doesn’t like his tail being touched but loves good scritches behind it. Levi’s coat is jet black and slick, they shine in the light. He has stripes of white on his belly and chest that make it look like he wears a pair of bikinis. His head is kind of square-ish, he has two thin lines of furs that make him seem to have eyebrows, and his top right fang is chipped. His eyes are yellow in fluorescent light, but more of a yellowish green under sunlight. Levi is very chatty with various vocalizations he uses to get his demands, like extra kibbles and snacks. Sometimes, his expression made him look like a grumpy old vampire but most time his big round eyes under fluorescent made him an adorable derp.
I didn’t pick up Levi, he chose me. I was going out of the house when he demanded me to help him—even though I hadn’t helped or fed any cat for so many years. I gave him corned beef and fell in love at first sight. I named him after an eldritch horror disguised as a black cat from an online tabletop roleplay I played. Thankfully this one is an authentic cat, with flu that cost me a fortune. I was in a terrible state of mind back then, but somehow nurturing this little furry creature back to health also saved me from my mind.
Levi started skinny and underweight, 3 kilograms to be exact. After he becomes healthy and gets sterilized, he eats and sleeps his way to double that weight. Since he wrecks and gets bored of a toy every two to three days, I try to keep him healthy by taking him on a harness walk to the park almost every day, people around are pretty much surprised and know me as the only person that walks a cat. He only ever got bathed once, during such he made various cries that traumatized me. Even a single drop of water is enough to make him scamper away but I am glad that he stayed clean and licked his coat until it was practically glossy. We have been together for three years now, I have no regret even when people are baffled I care so much about this not-pure-breed cat.
Hamu is a different story and he is not even a year old by now. I found Hamu abandoned in the neighborhood, still too young to even be separated from his mother. He was a bundle of long black furs and a pair of beautiful vibrant blue kitten eyes. I took him home, cleaned him, then after thinking that I did not have the money to take care of him… I put him back where I found him. I try to look for his mother to no avail, and when I am back Hamu is gone. I heard meowing from the small sewer channel nearby. For an hour I tried to get help and do something to find and scoop the kitten out from a little opening but eventually, the meowing stopped and I went home weeping. I regret that I did not try harder to adopt the kitten, now he is gone.
As if given a second chance, I heard a kitten meowing loudly outside my house. I went out and found Hamu, dry, safe, and sound, and quickly brought him inside. Levi protested at first but he didn’t attack Hamu. Later that day, I got the full story that there were two black kittens abandoned so it was Hamu’s sibling that had gone missing in the sewer. I tried my best to grow Hamu, I scoured the internet on how to nurse a kitten, went into debt to buy him stuff he needed, and had sleepless days as Hamu needed to be fed every three hours.
Hamu is now a young cat, eating kibbles by himself. His eyes turn yellow in fluorescent and have a shade of orange in the sunlight. His thick long black coat now looks more of a rusty dark brown with hints of grey, only the area around his muzzle stays completely black with some hint of black on his ears and paws. His chest and belly coat are lighter than the rest of his body but all these complexions are only apparent in clear bright light. His face looks like a mix of lion and wolf, as he has both thick mane and jutting long furs out of his cheeks. One peculiar thing about Hamu is that he barely meows, he only makes quiet throat noises and that is mostly when he is in distress—which I try to avoid as much as I can. Hamu enjoys sleeping on my table and pushes my keyboard away.
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I was just sitting down on my chair and turning on a painting software when there was a commotion outside. At first, there was confusion, but then someone brought out a radio and tuned it loudly. I only heard a few words about missiles before people drowned the news with screams and prayers. I tried to check the internet for news but it didn’t load. My two black cats are also in distress and ran into the room, Levi meows urgently while Hamu looks intently at me. I grab a noodle card box and put the cats inside. Then I crawled under the table, hugging the box in a feeble attempt to keep them safe. Loud bangs filled my ears and everything shook violently as if the house would be swallowed into the Earth. All I am thinking is I hope my cats are safe. Not long after, I fainted.
When I woke up, my surroundings had changed. Beside the desk where I am below, everything else surrounding me was in ruins. I rub my eyes as if that would change the situation. My house is gone, with everything inside it. My computer set is melted and broken, what remains of my paintings are burned fabric scraps, and the cabinet where I store snacks, cat food, and my clothes is nowhere to be found.
My house walls are mostly gone and some light that pierce the ruined floors told me that the roof is no longer intact. Staying here is likely a bad idea, the roof could collapse on me any moment. I look down at the box beside me, the cats curled sleeping, and I can see their chest rise up and down as they breathe. Carefully, I crawled out of the table and picked up the box. Looking at my surroundings again, it seems there is nothing I can bring, and I regret that I never set up an emergency bag.
I started walking out of my room, carefully trying not to touch the leftover walls. I have zero knowledge about earthquake safety, but perhaps leaning on brittle foundations may cause the roof to fall on me. I should cover my head as I walk out, but I have a box of heavy cats in my hand. Levi is almost 6 kg in weight while Hamu is around half of it. They didn’t stir awake.
My room is right by the main room and the exit out of my house. As I approached the entrance, I smelled a very distinct sweet smell. Rotten corpses? Not sure if I can stomach seeing whatever made these intense smells, I peek out of the destroyed door. I see people shuffling aimlessly, their skin is sickly in color, their bodies swell and flies surround them. I quickly hide back behind the ruins.
IT CAN’T BE! I screamed in my mind as the familiar word ‘Zombie’ floated in my brain. I have spent way too much time, more than 2000 hours, on zombie survival games. Unfortunately, none of those 2000 hours would be applicable in real life. First, I am way too weak. I have been living a sedentary lifestyle, even carrying a gallon of water to my room has been troublesome. I do not think that the zombie game trope of just picking anything up and smacking them would work with my non-existent strength. Second, the survival advice inside those games is either so simplified to a comic degree or straight lies. A survival game called Green Hell tries to be as real as possible in its depiction of survival but they still don’t apply for this situation.
The zombies didn’t notice me yet and my brain still searched for information about this situation, even if they were from fictional games. Well, is this situation even close to real to begin with? In most media, zombies are slow and trivial as long as you keep alert and avoid being surrounded. But some have sprinting zombies and zombies with special abilities. If I take the idea that this is still the reality I am familiar with, moving corpses would start falling off after a few days as tiny microbes feast on them, but I can’t wait for such as every second could risk one of them entering my house and trap me here, the roof collapse on me, my cats wake up and made noises, or I would die of thirst.
The only solution is to risk it and get away from this place. My brain reminisces my many hours playing Project Zomboid, how I manipulate the line of sight of the zombies to move from place to place calmly without alerting them and crouch-fast walk whenever I want to escape from them faster. At the very least, that gives me slight confidence that I may pass this, even if I cannot run fast or long enough.
Not wanting to let my brain switch on thinking of all the bad things that happen in a zombie apocalypse, I decided to start moving. I tried my best to start by not stepping on anything that would make noises, but each step I made felt so loud that my heart jumped. My mind kept repeating to not forget about the line of sight, so I left the house when the zombies seemed to look away. I tried my best to start by not stepping on anything that would make noises, but each step I made felt so loud that my heart jumped.
The first phase is done, I am outside my house and now in the alleyway. More problems occurred as now zombies were both on my left and right, I had to pass them if I wanted to exit this alleyway. The distinct sweet smell assaulted my nose and I tried my best to hold out sneeze or attempt to puke. Now I am here, there is no to dally and I start walking to the west where there is a field and a park for better maneuverability.
The first zombies I passed were gazing toward a house and I successfully sneaked past. The second zombie gazes at another house, so I confidently walk past it. Until it suddenly moved and I froze. Bad! Bad! Bad! I scream in my head but thankfully that one was somewhat attracted to something else in the ruins. I kept going, mentally trying to beat into my poorly trained instinct to not freeze in place when something bad happened.
The last zombie in the alleyway is staring at me and I am staring back at its hollow eyes. For a split second, my brain wondered if this being was one of my neighbors. The zombie groans and then starts shuffling towards me and I rack my brain between trying to find out how I can evade it while fighting the urge to run. Cause running will call the other zombies behind me, right? Oh… game logic… I looked back and saw the other zombies staring at me, likely because the one in front of me made a noise.
And so I hugged my box closer and ran. I left the alleyway and ran further. Only two blocks and I am already breathing hard. I slow down to a jog and look behind, the zombies from that alleyway have not even come out yet although two zombies from a different alleyway near me seem to notice the noises I made. The field was also not empty, some roaming zombies had yet spotted me. I decided to walk away from the area, there is a larger road nearby and a pet shop near the end of it.