Apocalyptus
Introduction.
It feels so weird, looking back on it now. 1 year ago, I never would have believed that some sort of disease would wipe out everyone, and leave only a few survivors. If you are listening to this now, you’re lucky, because there is only one copy of this tape. But if you are listening, find us. We have food. And water. But best of all, we have protection. We are safe, and if you want to survive, your best bet is us. I hope to see you here.

1.

I woke up, hearing my heart beat so loud in my ears that I thought a freight train was passing by. I felt as if I had a migraine, and I had no idea where I was. My vision was blurry, but I could make out that it appeared to be some small room, with a door at one end. It was very dim, and the only source of light was that of a line coming from the bottom of the door. It was enough for me to see the vague outline of writing on the door. It looked as though it said “EMPLOYEE BREAK ROOM.” I put my head back down, and looked at the ceiling. It was so dim that I couldn’t see it at all.I could hear something dripping onto the floor, so I decided to get up and check out the room. Well, try to, that is. This would have been easy, except that I had been unconscious for who knows how long, plus I was essentially blind from the lack of light. Once I finally got on my feet, I lumbered over to the door and tried opening it. Locked. I could feel some sort of keyhole, so it appeared to be locked from the outside, and I would need a key. I didn’t have a key, so my only choice was to try and pick the lock. I searched the room for anything useful, and found a few paperclips. I could probably fashion them into some sort of lock pick, I supposed. The next issue I faced was being able to see. My vision had cleared up by now, but the problem was the lighting. There was only dim light leaking through the crack at the bottom of the door, but it was enough to see faint silhouettes of objects. I could see the outline of some square on the wall, and decided to see what it was. It turns out that it was the light switch, so that was good. One problem, though. When I flipped it nothing happened, so I flipped it a few more times. Still nothing. So now I could only jam a paper clip in the lock and hope for the best.

Once I finally got the lock sorted out, which took a good two hours, I opened the door. Immediately it felt like a magnitude 10 earthquake had ripped through my skull. My eyes filled with white, and I couldn’t see anything. I closed my eyes, but the pain was still there. I opened them again, and I could only see faint outlines, the rest was white. I turned back to the room I was in, but couldn’t see that either. Everything was very bright, and I felt as if the sun was the only thing waiting for me outside the door. After about a minute, I could see normally. I was in some sort of shopping mall. The floor was covered in paper, trash, overturned tables, anything you can think of. The weirdest thing was the quietness. When you think of a shopping mall, you think of a bustling place with hundreds of people, all talking at once. But not here. All you could hear was the sound of birds chirping outside and the wind gusting through the broken windows. Part of the ceiling had fallen in, and light was streaming through. Weeds had grown up through the tiles on the floor, and it looked as if no one had been here for months, maybe even a year. I began to wonder just how long I was out, just lying in that room. I still had no idea what had happened to me, to this mall, to the whole world even. And that’s when I heard it.

It came so fast that I didn’t even have a chance to react. Something was grabbing me and clawing at my back. It was growling like an animal, so I assumed that it was one. My only instinct was to fight back, so I did. I grabbed the nearest object I could, which was a small metal pole. I took it and jammed it into the thing’s stomach, but it kept fighting back. It almost bit me in the arm, but I banged it hard on the head with the pole, and it fell to the ground, lifeless. I finally got a good look at it. It looked to be human-like, with arms, legs, and a head. It was walking upright when it attacked me. It finally hit me that this was in fact a person, a person with some sort of horrible disease or infection. Its mouth was hanging open, and the inside was all black. Its lips were cracked open, bleeding. The blood looked black as well. It had so many cuts, so many bruises, that it looked like it had been in ten, maybe even twenty, car accidents. I couldn’t bear to look at it any longer. I looked away, and saw the broken windows. Outside, it looked as if an atomic bomb had been dropped on New York City.  I don’t know how I knew at the time that it was New York, but somehow I did. Maybe some of my memory was coming back. I was going that was going have to find a way to get out, but that was going to be a little tricky. You are probably wondering, “Why doesn’t he just go out through the broken windows?” I think I may have forgotten to mention that these windows are ten feet off the ground. And besides, even if they were closer to ground level, there were still shards of glass sprouting all around them, and I didn’t want to risk getting cut, because I could have ended up with an infection. I looked around for any type of escape, but found nothing. Then, I noticed a small hallway at the end what I assumed was the mall’s food court. I went and checked it out, and I saw a door at the end. But, of course, things don’t come that easy for me. It was locked. Lucky me. So, just like the door from the back room of that store, I spent about an hour picking this lock.

After picking two locks, and fighting some sort of creature, I was exhausted. But it was the middle of the day, and I had been “sleeping” (In a coma, actually.) for who knows how long. I wasn’t going to just go lie down somewhere again, and waste my time. But once I finally got the lock picked, I opened the door and stepped outside. Immediately, I noticed about 15 bodies just lying at the foot of the steps leading from the door. They smelled horrible, and I could barely keep my stomach down. They didn’t look like they had just died there, because they were lined up in rows. I walked in between them, and couldn’t bear to look at them. I got to the end, and heard a noise. I looked back, and one of them was face to face with me. I was so stunned, I didn’t move. It just sat here, breathing in my face. Its breath was horrible, smelling like the mix between burnt trash and rotten eggs combined with cow manure. I almost gagged, but my instincts told me not to move, or it may attack. I slowly tightened my grip on the metal pole I had in my hand, and in a swift motion brought it up and whacked the thing on its head. It fell to the ground, lifeless (Well, it had been lifeless before I suppose.) I kept on walking for maybe 300 yards or so, but then I heard a faint sound. I heard it again, and realized it was the sound of gunshot. And it was getting closer.

2.
I heard the sound of the gun, and immediately tensed. I had no idea where it was coming from, or who. I was paralyzed in fear, just standing there. I guess I shouldn’t have been, but I had a pole, and someone, or something, had a gun. It’s not like I could just walk up and say hi. I saw something rounding the corner, and tensed even more.