HOME | DD

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Shelly and Brad lay on the roof. The sun was nice and warm, but it wasn't too hot out.

"Pretty amazing we made it this far," she said, staring at the sky.

"Yeah. We've been through some crazy shit. Remember Denny?"

"Denny?" she asked. "You mean that guy we met up with in Greenwich Village at the start of the outbreak? Sure, I remember. He was pretty resourceful. A handyman's handyman."

"Yeah, he had that apartment boarded up solid in two hours tops. I barely made it back from running to the food store. It was chaos back then. Everyone running around, no one really knowing what to do or what was happening."

"True, it's definitely calmer now. A lot less exciting. I guess it's possible to adjust to anything after a few years, even the end of the world," she reflected.

"Boy, that was a rough one, though. First one I ever witnessed. You remember how it went?"

Brad sighed. "Yeah. He was fixing up one of the windows when one of them reached through and got a good grip on him. It yanked his arm all the way out. We tried to pull him back in, but it was just us and who knows how many out there. He had a saw in his kit. Told us to take his arm off. Screamed it, really. Can only imagine what that felt like. Having your arm eaten. We tried, but we weren't fast enough. They did it for us. There was this terrible crunching sound and all of the sudden he came flying into the room, knocking us and everything else down with half his arm gone and what was left all chewed up. Blood was flying everywhere. Then they started to take apart the window. We all knew what was coming. You and I grabbed the emergency bags and what few other things we could. Denny was a goner, though. He knew it, we knew it, too. Didn't even have to ask me. Just looked me in the eye. Grabbed the axe and with one solid swing, boom. Dead. First live man I ever killed."

"Sure wasn't the last," she smiled.

"No, it definitely wasn't. Not that yours was any easier."

"Pfft, that's for sure. That was when we were still kicking it in midtown. A whole big group of us on a top floor of an apartment building, where the stairway was the only entrance and it was guarded at all times. We thought we were invincible. Stupid, really. But it wasn't our fault. We had no idea they could climb. Never bothered to guard elevator shaft. Who would have that it possible? But one made it. That's all it took. Just one of those motherfuckers and the little society we'd remade for ourselves was gone in ten, fifteen minutes tops. Luckily for the both us, we both had rooms near the roof exit. Made it out in time with a handful of others. But one was guarding the exit. Saying we had to fight back, that we could control it. Dumb and young. Had no idea just how powerless we were. We had no time, so I shot him. That still gets to me sometimes."

Brad reached into his pockets. Pulled out two small chocolate bars.

"WHAT?" Shelley screamed. "WE HAD FOOD THIS WHOLE TIME?"

"Hey, hey, calm down. You know we'd last an extra half hour on these. I just thought I should save these... for the inevitable. Thought it'd cheer us up in these last moments."

"Well.... fine." She snatched one from his hand. "Still can't believe you managed to resist. But this is a good idea." She unwrapped it and took a tiny bite. The taste of sugar and cocoa flooded her mouth. "Mmmmm," she moaned. "This is amazing. I'd almost forgotten what food tastes like... ugh. This is wonderful. Thank you. This was a good idea." She wanted to shimmy over to him and hug him, but she was simply too weak.

They were quiet for a while. Just staring at the sun. It slowly continued its descent across the sky until it silhouetted the entire city as it reached the edge.

"Sunset in New York. Ain't nothing like it," he broke the silence.

"I guess. Wanna do it now? It's as good as any, and I can still taste a bit of that chocolate."

They helped each other up. It took a while, they were both so weak. They hobbled over to the edge.

"You sure this is how you wanna go? Feeding those fuckers?"

"I thought about that, too," he said. "But I mean, this is the closest we'll ever get to flying. And it'll be fast. I don't want it to hurt too bad. Not after everything else we've been through. And who knows, maybe it's one of our friends down there. I guess if I had to I'd like to be eaten by someone I know."

"I suppose."

They stepped onto the ledge. They hugged each other as tightly as they could.

"I'm scared," she whispered.

"No you're not," he said past her head. "We both stopped being scared a long time ago. This is the most relief we've felt in years. It's finally over. I'm so glad I met you, Shelly."

"You too, Brad," she sniffled.

"You crying?"

"Yeah."

"Me, too."

"On three?"

"Sure."

"One...."

"Two..."

"Three," they said together. And they fell, embracing each other. It was finally over. They could finally be at peace.