4 Days - 7

Day 2 - Noon

             

            The loud bang of the gun had rung throughout the house, the boys vision widened in fear as he quickly ducked into his fathers room. Another loud bang rang as a small hole burst through the door and chips and small wood dust flew through the room. The boy hid by the side of the door, trying to hold his breath in as to not make any noise. He hears the muffled voice of the stranger say, “If there’s still an individual left in here, I can’t be truly free. I won’t let you take away my freedom as a human.” He fired again, shattering a window on the other side of the father’s room. The boy remained silent, staring at the open doorway. The boy was behind the actual door, so the stranger couldn’t see him. The stranger slowly stalked into the room, both hands on the grip as he searched the room. The boy raised his foot up high and smashed it into the door, slamming the man and knocking him back, as he was dazed from the knockback, the boy threw himself, tackling the man into the corner of the room. The man gripped hard onto his firearm, refusing to let go. The boy hoped to have disarmed the man with that assault, but his panic still remained. He shot up rapidly and stomped on the man’s shins with all the force his leg could muster. The man on the floor let out a muffled screech of pain, holding his leg close to his body, pointing the gun up at the boy. The boy smiled lightly, feeling a sense of superiority over this grown man, but not forgetting how much of a threat he is, the boy swung his leg and slammed his foot into the strangers hand, knocking the gun out of his hand and across the room and over his fathers bed. The mans hand had bent back from the kick, causing him to let out another shout and curse at the boy, he shot up pouncing onto the boy and reeling his broken hand back and striking at the boy, he raised his hands in defense but the man knocked his right arm out of the way and socked him in the stomach. Feeling pain shoot up and the air being forced out of his body, the boy upturned for the stranger to grip the boys shoulders and toss him onto the floor forcefully. Holding himself and groaning, the boy attempted to wriggle away. Angrily bellowing curses at the boy, the man stamps on the boys left arm, and kneeling down on top of the boy. He placed his forearm on top of the boy’s throat, constricting his neck against the floor. The boy struggled to lift the stranger’s arm off of him as he gasped for air, and his vision blurred. The man’s arm was too heavy; it felt as if it was immovable. The man above him reeled his other arm back and bashed the boy’s face. Everything went black to him, he couldn’t see, couldn’t breath. Fear flushed through him as he struggled to move anything, anything he could do at all to get him away or to stop this violent man. The boy reached his right arm up slowly, trying to push the man’s face away, but he couldn’t gather enough strength. The boy felt his consciousness gradually begin to float away from him; he began coughing, feeling blood splatter on the inside of his mask.

           

            With a all the tension, the helplessness, the boy felt one desperate surge of energy fill him as he shoved the man’s face away, lightening the pressure constricting his throat, the boy pushes the man away with his legs and quickly pulls himself up onto his feet, feeling the air return to him. The weight in his chest remained as he used what little energy he had to swing around the bed and grab the gun off the floor. The stranger spotted that the boy was now in possession of the pistol. The stranger cautiously raises his hands into the air and announces that he will leave the boy alone, the stranger gets on his knees slowly, pleading for the boy not to shoot him. The boy furrows his brow angrily, leaps across the bed and places the barrel on the mans forehead asking why he should not shoot him. The man starts throbbed in a pant, clearly afraid of the boy now. The boy hands were shaking, he didn't have the courage to actually end this man's life, but he didn't know how else to dispose of him. His thoughts were hustled, trying to think of a solution. He reeled his right arm back and bashed the hilt of the gun against the man's face, knocking him over. The boy hoped he would've been knocked unconscious from the blow, but he still was awake, holding his eyeglass, screaming in anguish. The boy was filled with fright from his voice, this scream was different from the one other, that was just a growl of pain, this sounded deathly. The man shot up, stumbling over to the boy, swiping at him desperately, the boy ducked back, noticing that the eyeglass on the strangers gas mask was shattered and small shards had been embedded into his eyelid. The boy jumped over the bed, to have the man waver over to him, difficultly. The boy lifted up the gun and tapped the trigger frightened. Two bangs rang, as one bullet pumped into the strangers vest, pushing him back. The second flying into the nozzle of the gas mask making another loud bang noise as the man yelped with his head being flung back. He pulled himself back forward, holding his own throat, gasping for breath. The boy kept the firearm trained on the man as his shoulders began quivering and a loud guttural groan came from the fractured mask. The man's arms began twitching and spasming, his legs quivered and he fell to his knees making a thud unto the floor. The man started shaking violently as he crawled towards the boy in futility. Coughing violently, traces of blood falling from the fracture in his mask the man slowly stopped shaking and fell silent, leaving behind a low gurgle. Looking down at the man, the boy cautiously paced towards him, keeping the iron sights trained on the man. He knelt down and peeled a patch off of the back of the gas mask and slipped it off of him. The man was indeed not the boy's father, however, his face was familiar, he was a young man, possibly in his late 30's, the boy vaguely remembers seeing this man in the lobby of the apartment from time to time, but he didn't know him personally. His left eye was sunken in and strained, just like the boys were last night. A low gurgle came out of him, as his left eye twitched. The boy looked at the gun in right hand, and back to the man, he didn't know if the man was still alive, but the boy decided that it wasn't important to him anymore, and pulled the trigger, leaving a hole in the man's temple, knocking him back.

           The boy dropped the gun on the man, and slowly walked out of his father's room, exhausted from that encounter. The boy reexamined his apartment once more, hopeful that his family would be there. He sighed, knowing they weren't there, but refusing to let go of the notion that they're out there. "Maybe they're on their way here?" The boy though. The boy felt that was the most sound theory. If his sister was ever scared she would return back home, and it made sense for his father to have the same mentality as the boy. He decided that he would wait to see if his family would return home. The boy went back into his fathers room and opened a window, glancing back at the strangers corpse. He didn't want his father or sister seeing this, so the boy picked up the man's body and dragged it over to the window. A click noise came from the man's body, followed by several more clicks. The boy looked down to spot a small radio on the man's belt. It continued clicking. The boy took the radio from the stranger's belt and pushed the man out the window. The clicks fell to static as the boy walked back into the main room. Small whispers came from the radio, the boy, filled with curiosity began playing with the various knobs and antennae of the radio. Eventually a voice came in, it sounded like a newscaster's voice. It said "National warning has gone out, a viral outbreak has occurred in the Midwest U.S. This neurological virus seems to be of a mutated strain, causing seizures and eventually total brain shutdown. The fatality count is unknown as of this moment, officials have been dispatched to contain the infected area. Repeat..." The boy shut off the radio.
The boy felt safe, if he had survived the initial surge, he felt that this mysterious virus couldn't do anything else to him. The boy collapsed onto the couch in the living room, and dreamt up fancies of his family returning to him.