And Darkness Fell Read Free Page A

trash-cluttered back yard,
unzipped my jeans, and urinated in the bushes.
The two jumbos still sat in the same place on the front lawn. They watched
me as I returned to my van and began waving after I’d slipped behind the wheel.
I hoped they’d remember to buy milk for that little girl.
Maybe if I go back inside and leave a note...
A wasted effort at best. They wouldn’t be able to read it.
I saw the little girl watching me through one of the windows. For a moment, I
imagined her dying, her big brown eyes glazing over moments before her head
dropped. I forced my mind off it.
Sympathy and regret had become wasted emotions in this bleak new world.
    I got back on the interstate and headed north, keeping the speedometer at about
ninety. I wasn’t afraid of being pulled over—I saw no traffic. The few people still
functioning knew how dangerous the roads had become. The others could no
longer operate a moving vehicle.
    Depression set in. I forced it away. Depression could be lethal nowadays. I
generally had no trouble keeping it a safe distance away, but this time I couldn’t
help it. That little girl had no future. No one did any more, but it seemed so much
worse for kids, who’d never had the chance to experience any joy in life.
    I’d seen forty years of it. I’d served in the military, defended this country in
many unspeakable ways, and witnessed things that would stay with me the rest of
my life. I fell in love several times, married and divorced once, met all sorts of
people, made friends and enemies, and operated my own successful business.
    I’d seen what the politicians had done to this country. I’d seen people kill one
another and steal from one another. I’d seen love turn to hatred, hatred to murder.
I’d seen envy. And deceit. I’d seen stupidity in all its forms.
    Worst of all, I’d seen the end of life as we all knew it.
Viewed this way, the little girl was fortunate she wouldn’t have to endure
much more. The young shouldn’t be forced to watch hell emerging from the
darkness to claim the lives of everyone on this godforsaken planet.
“What happened back there?” Reed asked.
“An old woman and a little girl. Their water and power were cut off.”
“I guess they didn’t have any fruit, then.”
Reed’s statement sounded selfish and callous, but the survival instinct had
emerged in many forms. Selfishness and callousness were merely two. I
considered Reed’s reaction a form of denial.
“There were roaches, flies, and rats. It was pretty disgusting in that house.”
“How old was the little girl?”
“Nine or ten.”
“How bad ... was she?”
“A few more days, maybe.”
“Bummer.” Reed sighed.
“If things were different, we might’ve taken her with us.”
“If things were different.”
“But they aren’t.”
“No. They aren’t.” Reed settled back in his seat. He probably wanted to talk
to his friend about the little girl.
TWO
    As I forced the van into the darkness of the night, I found myself once again
trying to believe the last six months hadn’t actually happened. I wished it had all
been a hellacious dream, because all dreams end, so things would eventually
revert back to the way they once were, and the world hadn’t really become a
gruesome hell filled with death and slobbering idiots. The powerful, intelligent
people running the planet’s governments would never let such horrors happen.
    Would they?
Unfortunately, after spending so many mornings gazing out the bedroom
window of my apartment and staring numbly at the growing number of bodies
lying on the pavement behind the complex, I came to the frightening realization
that I wasn’t dreaming at all. And the stench assaulting my nostrils whenever I
opened my window served as yet another clue.
A living nightmare had been born, sending reality gasping in the dust. In just
a few short years, the System finally broke apart and began its decline into chaos
and death, gaining momentum as things