Kenopsia - Chapter 43: Chapter 43

I pulled a can of old raviolis open by the tab, squinting into the inside, smelling it, it will be good.
I lit my little burner and put the can on top of it, pouring a bit of water in it.
I stared at it, knees hugged to my chest in silence.
I was out in my courtyard, hearing the birds chirp and earlier I heard another Husk, no matter how many I kill their number always replenishes and I still find some locked in houses I haven't explored before... When will their numbers start dropping? Probably never in my lifetime, no matter how long it might be, since we were like 7.7 billion before the Great Silence and I live in a continent with two others connected to it... I have an endless supply of husks...
Four years passed.... God.... I was eighteen at the start.... I was fucking eighteen.... With my life ahead of me.... Why did everything go wrong?
I rubbed my hand down my face with a sigh.
Four years.... I remember watching a documentary when I was younger, about what would happen if humans suddenly vanished of the face of the earth.... The short story is that within five years of that event, it'll start looking like a forest, within twenty years, the skyscrapers will start coming down, and within two hundred years, the place will have been fully colonized by trees....
I am starting to notice more and more the cracking concrete of the roads, the mossy patches, the long grass through the cracks and in the parks, the broken parts of the city being more broken, weeds growing everywhere.... Slowly nature is taking over.
I don't think I'll ever see this place become a forest.... I don't give myself more then five more years... After a while surviving might just become a chore and useless anyway....
I took the can off the fire, my leather gloves protecting my hands as I used the spoon I had to mix it and take a bite.
"Misses salt." I said but I knew I neglected getting more salt so I ate it as it was.
I put the can next to my corner of my ground floor water storage and went inside, starting to move all the plants I had back on the rooftop so they were in the sun and when it rained they got their dose of rain.
I was done faster then I wanted to be, standing near the shine high brick wall around the edge of the roof, leaning forwards to touch it and rip a piece of moss up from it.
"I'll need new cleaning supplies." I said, I tried to keep this place clean but I need to do more, not taking care of buildings will make them fragile, for fuck sake I have never even set foot on the second floor of this building unless it was five years ago when it was used as my actual school and not a base to survive in... I never had use for it really even if that statement is false, it is a whole floor with two classrooms and library.
This one is not useful in the was that what school has survival books? I could bring some back and store them there.
I grabbed my head, fingers sliding between my hair and grabbing on, kneeling down.
I need so much things.... So much.... Dammit.... Dammit all.
I stood straight and ran.
Down the stairs, out the school, over the wall and down the street and just ran.
I just needed to run, somewhere, across the bridge, passed the grave-marks, just run.
Emotions, I need to get them out, I need them all out, I need to run.
And so I ran, ran from my feelings, ran from the world, ran from my reality.
And I ran the whole way back, never have I ever ran at such speeds for so long, I felt sweat coating my body but I still ran, passed the grave-marks, off the bridge, passed the school, down south, passed the restaurant I first stayed in, up my old apartment building's staircase, passed my apartment and burst out onto the roof with a sore shoulder as I needed to ram in the door as this wasn't the building I usually climbed to the roof off.
I panted loudly, finally noticing how heavy it was when I stopped, facing down coldly three husks that must have been up here since the start.
I mechanically pulled my plastic gloves on my leather ones and the mask out of my pocket, putting my goggles on, having been hanging around my neck and fucking swung.
My fist knocked off the hard skull as no fat kept me from hitting it directly.
I lifted my leg and kicked down, crushing the back of the skull in between my boot and the roof before giving another kick downwards and a piece of the brain splattered out the side from the force.
I turned to the next, putting my right hand up and grabbing its shoulder, marching it back towards the stairs and the roof door.
I grabbed the back of its head and hit the face of it into the wall before showing it down, repetitively trying to slam the door closed but the husk's head was in the way until it caved in.
I turned to the last and ran at it, grabbing both its shoulders and shoving it the to ledge and shoving it against it.
I leaned down to grab behind the knees and lifted it enough to send it tumbling off the roof, hearing the loud splat it made on the pavement.
I was still panting but now I could add husks to the list of reason why as I pulled the mask and gloves off and hung the goggles back down around my neck.
I looked over the skyline of the city and these feelings I ran from were back.
I just grabbed my head.
I don't know what I was feeling exactly.
But I screamed.
I screamed or I felt like I'd explode and humanity would lose enough of its survivors.
I screamed because there was nothing else for me to do.
I screamed.