FRIDAY

“Wakey wakey sis.” You hear a voice say.

You slowly open your eyes and at first see what looks to be a man standing in front of you holding a shotgun. Then after the blur of your eyes clears a bit, you see that it’s your sister Kelly.

Looks like she’s still hostile to you as well considering she’s pointing a shotgun at you. You don’t know why, but then has she ever needed a reason?

You look at your pistol on the floor near the couch you’re sleeping on and Kelly just shakes her head.

“I guarantee you wouldn’t make it sis. I suggest you don’t even try…heh I doubt you’d have the balls to go through with it anyway. I have to admit when I came up here to get something from my room, I didn’t expect to glance over this way and see you sleeping here.”

Up? Where the hell would she come “up” from? You’re in the basement now. Kelly’s blocking your doorway, but you think you can make out a glowing light source coming from the basement floor beyond. And then it hits you.

“…he moved the fucking shelter entrance in the house? And it’s been right near my goddamn room all this time?” you ask.
“Hey hey! It’s about time you used that blonde head of yours other than taking up space!” Kelly mocks.

Well you know where the entrance is, but unfortunately you’ve got bigger issues now. Kelly pointing a shotgun at you is concerning to be sure and makes you think back to what you saw in the garage. Peter and the other man’s body. Their bodies were beaten and their necks were broken. Kelly certainly has the strength and the skill to do such a thing. Kelly’s always been hostile to you and barely civil to your other sibling, but to actually kill one…

“When did you find out? When you killed Peter?”
“Pfft. I’ve always known. Crazy old Ben thought he was being so sneaky moving the goddamn entrance around all the time, but I knew where the fuck it was nearly every time. He had just moved the entrance again a few days before he blew away his family and himself. I’m just surprised YOU never accidently found it given that you lived practically right near the fucking thing for years. If the entrance was any closer you would’ve been sleeping in the damn thing.”

Kelly continues to address you while briefly looking over her shoulder. You don’t know if she’s just being cautious or if she knows someone else is with you…and where is Johnny anyway?

“As for Peter, that little faggot managed to find out where it was and thought he was going to hide out from the current shitstorm in it with his boyfriend or whoever that other faggot he was with. Had to convince him that he had to go, he didn’t listen and tried to resist and well you saw how that turned out.”

Kelly briefly moves a bit to her left in your doorway allowing you to briefly look to see if you see Johnny coming, but you see nobody. Kelly notices you looking though.

“So where’s that little whore Donna? Heard you moved in with her. She come with you? Julie maybe? Both? How the fuck did any of you survive the week?”
“I’m here by myself Kelly.”
“Bullshit. SOMEONE is here with you. I can’t see a shrinking violet like you hauling your ass through a bunch of military patrols as well as those freaks. The fact that you’re wearing military fatigues tells me that SOMEONE helped you. I know damn well you didn’t kill someone yourself for them.”
“It’s been a weird week Kelly. You never know what you’re capable of until you’re put into the situation.” You say in such a way that gives Kelly a bit of an eyebrow raise.

“Oh? So…are you a killer now, little sister? Tell me, how did it feel when you did it?”
“I threw up. I’m not a fucking psychopath okay?! It didn’t give me some thrill! I just did what I had to, to survive!” you exclaim.
“Okay, okay, calm down there killer.” Kelly chuckles before getting serious again.

“While this is enlightening and all, we really should be getting back to the matter at hand.”

Still no sign of Johnny. Where the fuck is he?

“So what’s next Kelly? You gonna kill me too?” you ask.
“Don’t know sis…don’t know…severely thinking about it. I’ve never liked you. You’ve been a thorn in my side since you crawled out of mom’s vagina. Always having to be compared to how good and pretty you were and how bad and rotten I was despite the fact I was the one who was shouldering most of the responsibility in this fucked up family. What did you ever do except hide in the goddamn basement? Even now you left the house only to come crawling back here. Yep, I’ve thought about killing you on many, many, MANY occasions.”
“Actually that wasn’t my initial intention. My initial plan was to drive out of this forsaken town. I only stopped here because my own vehicle was badly damaged and I had hoped to maybe get Peter’s car and some extra supplies before heading out again.” You say trying to stall for time.
“Oh? Hmm, you’re just full of surprises today aren’t you? Well if that is true, you may have just bought yourself a bit of a reprieve sis…okay. What the hell, I’m in a good mood. I’m gonna let you walk outta here alive and you’re going to be thankful.”
“I don’t suppose you’ll allow me to gather some supplies or let me have my gun will you?”
“Hah, no. Wouldn’t want you getting any ideas of trying to shoot me, you being a killer now and all. In fact let me just take that pistol right now. Stay on that couch and keep lying in that prone position. Don’t you fucking move, or boom there goes your pretty little blonde head all over the place.”

Johnny is still nowhere to be seen. Did he take off? Did you actually get abandoned by a fucking stalker? Is your luck really that bad?

Kelly now moves into your room, still pointing the shotgun at you, As she’s crouching down to pick up the pistol, there is a brief moment that she takes her eyes off of you.

It’s apparent that there will be no rescue; the only thing you can hope is that Kelly is going to keep her word and let you go unharmed. Of course you don’t really think that’s likely and part of you wants to grab for the pistol before she can.
> You don't move
It’s no good. You’d never manage to grab the pistol before Kelly. Even if you did, she’d probably manage to shoot you before you could shoot her. Fear and panic begins to well up inside you as you believe this is the beginning of the end.

Kelly picks up the pistol and smiles as she puts it in front of her pants. You look helplessly as she does this…and then that’s when your eyes wander to your closet.

You don’t remember shutting the closet door. In fact you never shut your closet door…

And it’s opening right now.

Instinctively you try to flatten your body and disappear into the crevasse of your couch as much as possible. You then place your arms up to your face.

“What the hell are you doing? That’s not gonna…” Kelly starts to say and then she hears a creak.

Johnny unloads several rounds into Kelly’s body and head. She doesn’t even have time to fully turn around. Pieces of her fly out from the exit wounds and she falls to the floor in a bloody mess still twitching a bit.

“Shit. Shit. Oh Shit. Oh fuck. Fuck. Please oh God. Please.” You’re muttering to yourself the whole time, barely aware of everything else.

Johnny walks over from the closet and kneels over to you.

“It’s over Suzy. Calm down. It’s over. She’s dead. That bitch will never bully you again.” Johnny says grabbing one of your hands.

You calm down and look at Johnny. In that moment you don’t care about what he has done in the past or what he might do in the future. All you care about is that he was ultimately there for you when it counted.

You sit up and hug him, getting teary eyed in the process.

“Oh god, I thought…I thought maybe…”
“No, I was always there to protect you. I told you. I’ll always be here. You’re my perfect angel. You give my life…purpose.” Johnny replies hugging you in return and patting you on the back.

Johnny also sniffs your hair as he’s hugging you at which point causes you to pull back a bit.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I just…” Johnny says.
“It’s okay. I know. It was the moment.” You say trying not to make it too uncomfortable.

With you and Johnny done embracing, you stand up and look over at your sister’s body, which has stopped any sort of death twitch it might’ve briefly had.

You just stare at it silently. Johnny doesn’t even speak, he instead watches you looking at your sister. After about a couple of minutes of this, he finally speaks.

“How do you feel?”
“Honestly? I feel nothing. I don’t feel anger for what she did. I don’t feel guilt or even happiness that she’s dead. I just don’t feel anything for her anymore. She’s dead and that’s it. Just like Peter upstairs. Just like my Mom, my Dad, my whole family at this point. They’re all dead and I’m alive.”
“Well, we don’t know about your sister Donna.” Johnny remarks.
“She’s dead too. I know she is.” You say and look at Johnny who looks away and focuses back on Kelly’s body.

“Well anyway, it looks like we know where the shelter entrance is now. Why don’t we check it out?”
“Well that was the whole goal of this ordeal I suppose.” You say.

Johnny exits the room and you grab your pistol back from Kelly’s body before leaving. Stepping out of your room you see the hatch in the floor wide open where the fluorescent glow of lighting coming from.

You take a look inside and see a long ladder down leading to another floor, which you imagine that’s the main shelter. You can’t believe how close it was to your room and how you never knew about it!

“How the hell did you brother do this with you hearing or knowing about it?” Johnny asks.
“I dunno. I mean he managed to routinely change the entrance all the damn time too. Ben had a gift I guess. Everyone does I suppose.” you say and you and Johnny start climbing down the ladder and you close up the hatch.

Eventually you get to the bottom and you and Johnny open up a metal door, which is fortunately not locked.

And there it is, you’re in the shelter proper. Before you is a dimly lit living area with various furniture and even a TV. Other rooms include a bathroom, kitchen area, a couple of bedrooms and A LOT of storage rooms. One such room is huge, as rows and rows of canned food and bottled water are found.

“Well looks like sustenance is plentiful. Doesn’t even look like Kelly put a dent in the supplies.” You say.

Another storage room contains a goodly amount of ammo and weapons of all kinds. Mostly rifles. Medical supplies are in another.

One thing that stands out is that Ben’s shelter has solid steel walls. You have no idea how the hell he did this and you guess you never will. You do notice on several of the walls something has been repeatedly scratched out though not entirely successfully everywhere.

At one point you make out most of it.

Pr-p---- o- th- Gr--n- -er- Cor---at-o-

“Well, I guess spending thousands on one of those Ground Zero shelters would’ve been a waste of money for you Seems like you got a nice one for free.” Johnny says looking around.
“Indeed. Now we need to talk about us Johnny.”

Johnny turns to you and sees you’re holding your pistol directly at him. He doesn’t react with surprise or anger or anything. It’s nothing.

And that’s the “real” Johnny right there. The one you’ve always known even when you weren’t quite sure.

“So…what is this Suzy?” Johnny asks.
“I don’t know yet. I really don’t. I wish I did. I wish I could make a decision. I wish I could be the killer my sister thought I was. This would be so much easier. On the other hand I also wish I could trust and just let go.”

Johnny makes no move towards you. He just continues to stand there. You briefly wipe your eyes while still holding the pistol on him.

“Johnny, you’ve been here for me this whole crazy week. I don’t think I would’ve survived if you hadn’t been around…but I know you. I know what you are.”
“I never thought that you wouldn’t figure it out, you’re an intelligent woman after all which is matched only by your beauty of course.” Johnny replies.
“Stop. Just stop.” You exclaim.

You tear up and sniffle for a moment and then address Johnny again.

“My uncle Ed was a serial killer. We all sort of wondered, but it wasn’t until that fateful day when I decided to go snooping around where I shouldn’t have that I learned the awful truth. He caught me finding where he was storing body parts, but in his own twisted honorable way due to being related, he said he’d spare my life if I helped him kill someone. Kept saying I was pure and good, and not like the rest of those whores he killed.”

Johnny’s eyebrows raise when you say this. Now he seems genuinely surprised.

“In a more fucked up twist, he was feuding with a group of cultists into human sacrifice. Wanted me to help kill them. I initially did out of fear, but then I met Bobby during this mission. I ended up betraying my uncle because I felt that connection to Bobby because we both came from fucked up families. I thought it was love, and maybe it was, but it didn’t last obviously.”

Johnny seems a bit overwhelmed by your new information.

“That’s… some story Suzy. I have to admit, I never would have guessed…”
“That what? That I’m not perfect? I’m not good? I’m not so pure? That I’m a backstabbing whore like all the rest?” you snap.

“That…that wasn’t what I was going to say at all. Suzy, do you really think I could ever see you in that light?”
“I…I don’t know Johnny. You’ve never told me much about your past. I mean I can piece things together by what you have told me and how you’ve acted. And that’s the problem I DON’T KNOW.”
“Okay, Suzy, let’s just get it completely out in the open. What exactly is it that you think I’ve done or what I am?”
“You’re a serial killer. I mean I don’t exactly know just how bad you are for certain and I can’t know for certain, but I do know you’re a killer. I’ve been studying you probably just as much as you’ve been studying me. I mean…Christ…I don’t KNOW if you killed Donna. I don’t KNOW if you killed Julie, but the more I think about it and how they just disappeared and the conclusion I come to isn’t pleasant. There’s also your own suspicious behavior, the incident with the soldier “falling” down the stairs, your rage when beating that guy’s head in, claiming that you’ve done bad things, stealing a jeep and most likely killing the owners in process, and finally your obsession with me. I’m quite familiar with your kind enough that even if I can’t prove some of this shit, I feel it in my heart that’s what you are.”
“Well…if I am so terrible, then I suppose you should kill me.”
“Goddamn it Johnny, if it was THAT FUCKING EASY I WOULD! But YOU KNOW it isn’t and I KNOW it isn’t! Because I also know underneath the fucked up social chameleon predator, I KNOW there actually IS a human being capable of love. I believe you really love me Johnny. I do. I don’t doubt it. The problem is, how can I fucking trust that it’s going to last?”

Johnny has no answer. He just looks down.

“Well see there’s my problem. How do I know that I’m not going to do something that’s going to set you off? Make you see me as fallen angel or a flawed person that is fit only for destruction? And this goes both ways Johnny, how do YOU know that I might not strike first? Granted I’m not a killer, but I still manipulated events to cause the death of my uncle. Can YOU really trust me, if I’m scared of you?” you say.

Johnny at this point rubs his eyes and sniffles a bit. He’s not exactly crying, but he’s definitely having an emotional moment.

“Suzy. I cannot think of anything more that I can do, that would convince you that I’ll love you forever and that I will always protect you. It’s true I have done bad things…it’s also true that I probably would be classified as a serial killer. I’m very sick Suzy. I have a lot of bad thoughts going on in my head most of the time and even though I can emulate emotions, they don’t feel genuine. It’s like I’m just a mask. But with you, it’s different. I haven’t felt this way towards anyone since…well my first love. I don’t really want to get into that right now, but I want to say it was a much different situation.”

Johnny falls to his knees.

“Almost everything I felt during my time with you this week was actually real to me. You made me feel like a normal person. Like I had at last found a purpose to my life. I love you Suzy. You can never fall off that pedestal. I know that this is difficult for you. I understand the alienation and mistrust you feel, perhaps in a different way, but I understand it. But I also know that you want to give us a chance, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be struggling with this right now.”

You continue to point the pistol at Johnny as more tears roll down your cheeks.

“Johnny…I know you’ve lied to me or been evasive about things this week. I’ve been nothing but truthful. If this has any chance of working. I need to know right now. (Exhale) Did you kill Donna and Julie?”
“I thought you said you didn’t care what happened to them and that they abandoned you.” Johnny says.
“And that may be the case because you FUCKING killed them! Now stop evading the fucking question and answer it!” you demand.

Johnny looks at you. In fact it’s the most cold-blooded stare you’ve ever seen from him. It’s like when Uncle Ed looked at you in his van.

“Would you believe me, if I said no?” he asks.
“ANSWER!” you demand.
“Very well. No, I didn’t.” Johnny says looking straight at you.
> You accept the answer
And with those words that you hear from Johnny, everything in your mind just sort of shuts off.

It doesn’t matter. None of it does. You see that now.

“Okay.” You say and put your pistol away.

Johnny looks a bit uncertain, almost as if he was expecting you to shoot him.

“Okay?” he asks.
“Yeah, okay. If you’re telling me you didn’t kill them, then you didn’t kill them. In fact I don’t want to know about your past either. It’s just not important. You were there for me this week when nobody else was, that’s the important thing and that’s what I should place my faith in.”

Johnny slowly gets up off his knees. He doesn’t approach you right away; instead he just continues to stand at a distance.

“I apologize for my earlier outburst Johnny. I just, well it’s been a stressful week. You understand.” You say.
“Yeah….yeah I get it. Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.” Johnny says.
“Good. Good. Well, let’s move on to other matters shall we?”
“Yeah.” Johnny says.

Suddenly Johnny rushes at you and grabs you tightly. While one arm is firmly around your waist, one hand moves up to your neck and you feel a gentle squeeze as he looks into your eyes. It’s the look of a predator that has finally caught his prey.

“Well? What are you waiting for lover? I trust you.” you say not resisting.

Johnny’s hand moves from your neck and to your face, where upon he strokes your cheek gently.

“You have the face of a perfect angel.” he whispers and then he moves in to kiss you.

As your lips touch, he begins to take your clothes off in a hasty fashion. He’s definitely getting aggressive, but oddly you’re not quite feeling his “enthusiasm” yet…

By the time you get pushed over towards the bed and are basically in your bra and panties, he still isn’t quite “ready.”

“Do you need some help?” you ask.
“No, I’ll be fine...” He says as he tries to get it up.

While you take off the remainder of your clothes Johnny’s still having difficulties.

“Look I can help you out, I don’t mind going down on…”
“Shhh! No! I don’t want you debasing yourself like a whore! I just need to focus!” Johnny snaps.
“Okay. Okay.” You say and back off.

You lie down on the bed and try not to stare in an effort to not look judgmental. This is really awkward though.

Johnny starts swearing, as his buddy is not doing what he wants it to do. Swearing turns to shouting and then finally a complete breakdown.

“Shit! I wanted this to be so perfect. I wanted to be everything for you, not some fucking impotent eunuch!” he says sniffling a bit.

“Hey, calm down. It’s okay. You’re trying too hard, you just need to relax.” You say moving over to caress him a bit.
“I know. (sniffle) This just has never happened before.” Johnny replies.
“Well, you probably aren’t used to…uh situations like this. I mean would it help if I pretended I was dead or something?”
“What? No. That doesn’t work. Your body is too warm and submerging you in cold water would be really uncomfortable for you.” Johnny says.

As you continue to try to make Johnny feel more at ease, he slowly speaks.

“Suzy…there is something I can think of…but…you’re not going to want to do it…”
“Does it involve pain?” you ask.
“No.”
“Then go ahead and say it.”
“Could…could you pretend that we’re related?” Johnny asks.

Why are you not surprised?

“Ah. I see. So you want me to role play as your mother?” you ask going for the obvious serial killer obsession.
“Hah, no. You’re a bit too young for that, I don’t think I could maintain the illusion, but… um maybe you could be my sister?”

Wow, a murderous boyfriend who fucked his sister in the past, it’s like being with Bobby all over again…and there’s something vaguely comforting about that. You always did prefer something familiar to something new.

You smile and caress Johnny’s face.

“Of course brother dear.” You say and passionately kiss Johnny.

From there things get a lot better. Johnny actually is a pretty sensual lover when he gets going. You guess he must’ve loved his sister just like you once loved Bobby a lot.

Johnny falls asleep shortly afterwards professing his usual love for you. After being awake a little longer yourself thinking about what the future might hold, you go to sleep.
> Next day...
SATURDAY

You wake up to the faint sounds of rustling. You look up from your bed and see Johnny getting dressed.

“Where are you going?” you ask groggily.
“I was going to get the stuff I brought in from the jeep and left up stairs on Thursday night. I know we’ve got more than enough stuff down here now, but I still thought you’d want your clothes which we don’t have any of down here.”
“Oh. Okay, I’ll come with you.” You say.
“No, stay here and relax, I got it.”
“It’s okay really, I don’t mind. Besides, I still left things in my room that I’d like to get.”
“You sure you want to do that with your sister’s body still in there?”
“Oh yeah that’s right. Well I’ll just help you with the bags from upstairs then.”
“Okay. Always enjoy your company anyway and don’t worry, I fully intend on cleaning up all the bodies upstairs, not just your sister’s. I mean know we’re going to be down here for a while, but you never want bodies just lying around to rot in your area. Never mind the smell, but there are also vermin and health hazards to consider.” Johnny says.

Well he’d probably know better than most…

You and Johnny finish getting dressed and exit the shelter. From the basement you then head to the ground floor where you see your bags lying on the floor near the front door.

“You said you brought these in on Thursday night?” you ask.
“Yeah, after you fell asleep.”
“I suppose it’s a silly question since you never seem to be scared of anything, but you weren’t concerned about those rabid things possibly wandering around at night?”
“Oh I definitely was prepared in case of an attack, but the strange thing is, its dead silent in your neighborhood. Or at least it seems like it is. I didn’t see anything wandering around out there. Rabid or otherwise. If I had to guess, the National Guard exterminated everything in this area and moved on.”
“Hm, well from what I’ve seen they’re getting their ass kicked elsewhere. I just hope that…”

Before you or Johnny can say anything else a bright flash shines through one of the uncovered windows along with the sound of a large explosion in the distance. You can’t help but take a quick glance out the window.

And there you see it in the far distance, the dissipating remnants of a mushroom cloud rising up in the sky.

“…they finally went and did it.” You say.
“…I have to say, I’m not entirely surprised. Johnny replies looking with you.
“From the direction I saw the cloud, I’d say it probably hit Security City and that’s fairly far away. I know impact should’ve at least shattered the windows of the house had it been closer or bigger so it probably wasn’t even a large one. Still, we probably should still get down in that shelter.” You say.

Johnny agrees and the pair of you grab all the bags and quickly head back down to the shelter.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing we decided to come back here instead of trying to leave town.” You say.
“Yeah, I imagine things are going to be quite chaotic for a long time to come. It’s better that you’re safe down here.” Johnny says.
“We’re both safe down here.” you say, but Johnny’s pacing suggests that he’s a bit preoccupied.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” you ask.
“Well, with this new event come to light, its already established that the situation just got a lot worse and isn’t going to be ending anytime soon. Now we’ve probably got a decades worth of supplies, possibly a little more since I don’t eat much anyway, but the fact remains, we’re going to need more supplies eventually and that means going up to the surface and dealing with it.” Johnny replies.
“Yeah, I know. I didn’t really want to think about it, but you’re right of course. I think I saw some survival manuals in one of the rooms down here, guess I better read up on them.”
“While I certainly wouldn’t stop you from getting yourself acquainted with such things, my thoughts are, why do you need to leave here and risk your life at all? I’ll be the one going up there.”
“Well we are sort of a team now right? I mean don’t you want me to help you?”

Johnny’s hands touch your shoulders as he stares into your eyes. His hands gently run down from your shoulders to your arms until he’s holding both of your hands.

“Suzy, you were too good for this world when it wasn’t completely fucked up, you’re definitely too good for it now. As dangerous as it was in this past week, it’s going to be ten times worse now. It’s going to be chaos, anarchy and people killing each other for survival as well as pleasure. In short, it’s going to be a world that someone like me would thrive in. I actually belong out there.”

Johnny then lets go your hands and raises his arms upward and looks up and around making motions with his hands pointing to the shelter in general.

“And this, all this, is your world. This is all you have ever needed Suzy. Some place to feel safe. Some place locked away from the outside world. I mean you’re the honest one here, can you tell me sincerely that you really want to go out there scrounging around for supplies and having to deal with people wanting to rape you or kill you, or hell even eat you? Wouldn’t you rather someone else deal with it?”

Johnny focuses his attention back to you. You look at him and you don’t even answer because your face is probably giving him his answer already. He’s absolutely right.

You don’t want to deal with reality. You never have. In fact you got along pretty well without having to for a very long time and whenever you have had to deal with it, it’s always been a stressful mess. He’s also right in that he’s far more suited to dealing with the shitstorm that the surface is going to be.

And maybe that’s just one more reason why you didn’t kill Johnny. You knew he’d be willing to take care of you no matter what. It’s all you’ve ever wanted, for someone to just love and take care of you while you didn’t have to worry about a thing.

You move forward and put your arms back around Johnny and look into his eyes.

“Just don’t killed okay?” you say.
“Never. I’ll always be around to protect and take care of you Suzy. My love for you will always keep me going forever and ever and ever and ever.”

The way Johnny is looking at you while he strokes your hair each time for emphasis when he says “and ever” would probably be creepy to most, but you know its just his way of confirming his love you.

You’re so lucky.
>
Sheltered Princess

The Future…

It’s been about a month; Johnny should be home again soon. Just have to keep an ear open for that certain knock and his voice.

You wonder what things he will have brought home this time. You’re still pretty much good with the necessities. Maybe he will have found some new movies or books to bring you this time.

At first when he started going out, you worried about him even though he assured you he would be fine. Of course as time went on, you ceased worrying altogether.

Still, after the first few years, Johnny was getting restless. Sure he was going out, but never for long periods of time.

Then one day he went out and didn’t return for a full week. For the first time in a long while you worried so much when he did that. This caused an argument when he finally returned. You were so angry.

You even accused him of cheating on you, but deep down you knew that wasn’t and would never be the case.

To Johnny’s credit he was honest about what the problem was. He apologized realizing he should’ve at least told you before disappearing like that. He tried, he really tried and he thought that “you” would be enough, but he wasn’t like you. He couldn’t stay cooped up down in a shelter for long stretches of time. Even though he was in the presence of an “angel” he always felt like a trapped animal. Sometimes being around you made him feel and realize just how inferior he was to you.

He explained how the surface was better than he could’ve ever imagined. No law, no order, and freedom to do whatever he wanted to whomever he wanted. The pull was too great and was getting greater.

You were upset and rightfully so. After all he had professed that he would always be there for you, and now who would take care of you if he left?

Johnny however insisted that he wasn’t going to break your heart. He assured you once again that he would still be there to take care of you; he just needed time to himself. He explained that he just needed to “wander” because deep down that’s who he’d always be. He also explained it would be safer for you if he did wander as he didn’t want to one day unleash his…urges out on you by accident.

What could you do? How could you compete? He was a slave to his nature. It was like Bobby all over again.

That first time, you practically kicked him out and he left without struggle or even raising his voice, he just told you that he would keep his promise and that you would see that he would not fail you.

Naturally you didn’t believe him at the time you were too upset. That entire month was a pretty bad one for you. You spent most of your time crying and wondering if you’d been a delusional fool for sticking your head in the sand and ignoring reality as usual. You even started reading those survival books that you hadn’t actually gotten to reading yet and rationing your food and water a little more since you were potentially facing an uncertain future.

But then when that month had passed and Johnny did indeed return like he always had in the past.

At first you were reluctant to even let him back in, but then you realized that he had kept his promise just like he always has to you. The reunion was a happy one and over the years you’ve gotten accustomed to this arrangement. In fact it’s nice to be by yourself too. You’d actually forgotten what that was like during the years Johnny was around all the time.

You hear a familiar pattern knock on the shelter door followed by Johnny’s faint voice coming from the other side. After taking the usual safety precautions, you excitedly rush to open it with your pistol drawn.

“I’m home, my perfect angel.” Johnny says smiling and holding a couple of bags no doubt stuffed with goodies.
“Well don’t just stand there, come in! I missed you.” You say and welcome Johnny back home like you always do.

Johnny tells you a few things about the outside world like he always does, but in general you never care that much. As far as you’re concerned, what he does out there you don’t want to hear too much about and it doesn’t matter anyway. All that matters is his time with you.

You happily accept all the gifts and supplies he has brought for you and later on you and he embrace as lovers do.

The pair of you enjoy your time together, until its time for Johnny to wander again. But you never despair about it, because you know he’ll always come back.

And one day, you know he’ll come back forever.

It’s not perfect, but then nothing in this new world is.


It’s no good. You’d never manage to grab the pistol before Kelly. Even if you did, she’d probably manage to shoot you before you could shoot her. Fear and panic begins to well up inside you as you believe this is the beginning of the end.

Kelly picks up the pistol and smiles as she puts it in front of her pants. You look helplessly as she does this…and then that’s when your eyes wander to your closet.

You don’t remember shutting the closet door. In fact you never shut your closet door…

And it’s opening right now.

Instinctively you try to flatten your body and disappear into the crevasse of your couch as much as possible. You then place your arms up to your face.

“What the hell are you doing? That’s not gonna…” Kelly starts to say and then she hears a creak.

Johnny unloads several rounds into Kelly’s body and head. She doesn’t even have time to fully turn around. Pieces of her fly out from the exit wounds and she falls to the floor in a bloody mess still twitching a bit.

“Shit. Shit. Oh Shit. Oh fuck. Fuck. Please oh God. Please.” You’re muttering to yourself the whole time, barely aware of everything else.

Johnny walks over from the closet and kneels over to you.

“It’s over Suzy. Calm down. It’s over. She’s dead. That bitch will never bully you again.” Johnny says grabbing one of your hands.

You calm down and look at Johnny. In that moment you don’t care about what he has done in the past or what he might do in the future. All you care about is that he was ultimately there for you when it counted.

You sit up and hug him, getting teary eyed in the process.

“Oh god, I thought…I thought maybe…”
“No, I was always there to protect you. I told you. I’ll always be here. You’re my perfect angel. You give my life…purpose.” Johnny replies hugging you in return and patting you on the back.

Johnny also sniffs your hair as he’s hugging you at which point causes you to pull back a bit.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I just…” Johnny says.
“It’s okay. I know. It was the moment.” You say trying not to make it too uncomfortable.

With you and Johnny done embracing, you stand up and look over at your sister’s body, which has stopped any sort of death twitch it might’ve briefly had.

You just stare at it silently. Johnny doesn’t even speak, he instead watches you looking at your sister. After about a couple of minutes of this, he finally speaks.

“How do you feel?”
“Honestly? I feel nothing. I don’t feel anger for what she did. I don’t feel guilt or even happiness that she’s dead. I just don’t feel anything for her anymore. She’s dead and that’s it. Just like Peter upstairs. Just like my Mom, my Dad, my whole family at this point. They’re all dead and I’m alive.”
“Well, we don’t know about your sister Donna.” Johnny remarks.
“She’s dead too. I know she is.” You say and look at Johnny who looks away and focuses back on Kelly’s body.

“Well anyway, it looks like we know where the shelter entrance is now. Why don’t we check it out?”
“Well that was the whole goal of this ordeal I suppose.” You say.

Johnny exits the room and you grab your pistol back from Kelly’s body before leaving. Stepping out of your room you see the hatch in the floor wide open where the fluorescent glow of lighting coming from.

You take a look inside and see a long ladder down leading to another floor, which you imagine that’s the main shelter. You can’t believe how close it was to your room and how you never knew about it!

“How the hell did you brother do this with you hearing or knowing about it?” Johnny asks.
“I dunno. I mean he managed to routinely change the entrance all the damn time too. Ben had a gift I guess. Everyone does I suppose.” you say and you and Johnny start climbing down the ladder and you close up the hatch.

Eventually you get to the bottom and you and Johnny open up a metal door, which is fortunately not locked.

And there it is, you’re in the shelter proper. Before you is a dimly lit living area with various furniture and even a TV. Other rooms include a bathroom, kitchen area, a couple of bedrooms and A LOT of storage rooms. One such room is huge, as rows and rows of canned food and bottled water are found.

“Well looks like sustenance is plentiful. Doesn’t even look like Kelly put a dent in the supplies.” You say.

Another storage room contains a goodly amount of ammo and weapons of all kinds. Mostly rifles. Medical supplies are in another.

One thing that stands out is that Ben’s shelter has solid steel walls. You have no idea how the hell he did this and you guess you never will. You do notice on several of the walls something has been repeatedly scratched out though not entirely successfully everywhere.

At one point you make out most of it.

Pr-p---- o- th- Gr--n- -er- Cor---at-o-

“Well, I guess spending thousands on one of those Ground Zero shelters would’ve been a waste of money for you Seems like you got a nice one for free.” Johnny says looking around.
“Indeed. Now we need to talk about us Johnny.”

Johnny turns to you and sees you’re holding your pistol directly at him. He doesn’t react with surprise or anger or anything. It’s nothing.

And that’s the “real” Johnny right there. The one you’ve always known even when you weren’t quite sure.

“So…what is this Suzy?” Johnny asks.
“I don’t know yet. I really don’t. I wish I did. I wish I could make a decision. I wish I could be the killer my sister thought I was. This would be so much easier. On the other hand I also wish I could trust and just let go.”

Johnny makes no move towards you. He just continues to stand there. You briefly wipe your eyes while still holding the pistol on him.

“Johnny, you’ve been here for me this whole crazy week. I don’t think I would’ve survived if you hadn’t been around…but I know you. I know what you are.”
“I never thought that you wouldn’t figure it out, you’re an intelligent woman after all which is matched only by your beauty of course.” Johnny replies.
“Stop. Just stop.” You exclaim.

You tear up and sniffle for a moment and then address Johnny again.

“My uncle Ed was a serial killer. We all sort of wondered, but it wasn’t until that fateful day when I decided to go snooping around where I shouldn’t have that I learned the awful truth. He caught me finding where he was storing body parts, but in his own twisted honorable way due to being related, he said he’d spare my life if I helped him kill someone. Kept saying I was pure and good, and not like the rest of those whores he killed.”

Johnny’s eyebrows raise when you say this. Now he seems genuinely surprised.

“In a more fucked up twist, he was feuding with a group of cultists into human sacrifice. Wanted me to help kill them. I initially did out of fear, but then I met Bobby during this mission. I ended up betraying my uncle because I felt that connection to Bobby because we both came from fucked up families. I thought it was love, and maybe it was, but it didn’t last obviously.”

Johnny seems a bit overwhelmed by your new information.

“That’s… some story Suzy. I have to admit, I never would have guessed…”
“That what? That I’m not perfect? I’m not good? I’m not so pure? That I’m a backstabbing whore like all the rest?” you snap.

“That…that wasn’t what I was going to say at all. Suzy, do you really think I could ever see you in that light?”
“I…I don’t know Johnny. You’ve never told me much about your past. I mean I can piece things together by what you have told me and how you’ve acted. And that’s the problem I DON’T KNOW.”
“Okay, Suzy, let’s just get it completely out in the open. What exactly is it that you think I’ve done or what I am?”
“You’re a serial killer. I mean I don’t exactly know just how bad you are for certain and I can’t know for certain, but I do know you’re a killer. I’ve been studying you probably just as much as you’ve been studying me. I mean…Christ…I don’t KNOW if you killed Donna. I don’t KNOW if you killed Julie, but the more I think about it and how they just disappeared and the conclusion I come to isn’t pleasant. There’s also your own suspicious behavior, the incident with the soldier “falling” down the stairs, your rage when beating that guy’s head in, claiming that you’ve done bad things, stealing a jeep and most likely killing the owners in process, and finally your obsession with me. I’m quite familiar with your kind enough that even if I can’t prove some of this shit, I feel it in my heart that’s what you are.”
“Well…if I am so terrible, then I suppose you should kill me.”
“Goddamn it Johnny, if it was THAT FUCKING EASY I WOULD! But YOU KNOW it isn’t and I KNOW it isn’t! Because I also know underneath the fucked up social chameleon predator, I KNOW there actually IS a human being capable of love. I believe you really love me Johnny. I do. I don’t doubt it. The problem is, how can I fucking trust that it’s going to last?”

Johnny has no answer. He just looks down.

“Well see there’s my problem. How do I know that I’m not going to do something that’s going to set you off? Make you see me as fallen angel or a flawed person that is fit only for destruction? And this goes both ways Johnny, how do YOU know that I might not strike first? Granted I’m not a killer, but I still manipulated events to cause the death of my uncle. Can YOU really trust me, if I’m scared of you?” you say.

Johnny at this point rubs his eyes and sniffles a bit. He’s not exactly crying, but he’s definitely having an emotional moment.

“Suzy. I cannot think of anything more that I can do, that would convince you that I’ll love you forever and that I will always protect you. It’s true I have done bad things…it’s also true that I probably would be classified as a serial killer. I’m very sick Suzy. I have a lot of bad thoughts going on in my head most of the time and even though I can emulate emotions, they don’t feel genuine. It’s like I’m just a mask. But with you, it’s different. I haven’t felt this way towards anyone since…well my first love. I don’t really want to get into that right now, but I want to say it was a much different situation.”

Johnny falls to his knees.

“Almost everything I felt during my time with you this week was actually real to me. You made me feel like a normal person. Like I had at last found a purpose to my life. I love you Suzy. You can never fall off that pedestal. I know that this is difficult for you. I understand the alienation and mistrust you feel, perhaps in a different way, but I understand it. But I also know that you want to give us a chance, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be struggling with this right now.”

You continue to point the pistol at Johnny as more tears roll down your cheeks.

“Johnny…I know you’ve lied to me or been evasive about things this week. I’ve been nothing but truthful. If this has any chance of working. I need to know right now. (Exhale) Did you kill Donna and Julie?”
“I thought you said you didn’t care what happened to them and that they abandoned you.” Johnny says.
“And that may be the case because you FUCKING killed them! Now stop evading the fucking question and answer it!” you demand.

Johnny looks at you. In fact it’s the most cold-blooded stare you’ve ever seen from him. It’s like when Uncle Ed looked at you in his van.

“Would you believe me, if I said no?” he asks.
“ANSWER!” you demand.
“Very well. No, I didn’t.” Johnny says looking straight at you.
> You don't accept the answer
And with that lie you hear from Johnny, your head drops briefly in despair. With tears in your eyes you look back at Johnny.

“I…don’t believe you…and if I don’t believe you, I can’t trust you. (sob) And if I can’t trust you…(sob) I…I…”
“You have to kill me.” Johnny says for you.
“I’m sorry…” you say.

Johnny just stares at you and a tear actually comes down his left eye.

“Nobody is ever going to love you like I will Suzy.”
“That… I do believe.”

You then shoot Johnny. The first shot hits him in the body, causing him to fall backwards, but not enough to kill him, but you soon get over your shock and sorrow not just by remembering that he’s killed Julie and Donna, but that eventually he’ll kill you as well.

You don’t stop pumping rounds into the son of a bitch until the pistol is completely empty.

Johnny’s body lies motionless in a bloody mess. His eyes still open, staring at you even in death.

You slump down on the floor crying that it had to be this way, but it was survival.

After a few minutes of releasing your sadness, you realize that you can’t just leave Johnny’s body down here. The problem is you can’t very well carry it up the ladder from the shelter either, at least not in one piece.

You slowly get up and head back to the armory. There you find a good-sized machete that looks very sharp. You also get some garbage bags you saw in one of the supply rooms. You’re not sure why Ben had them down here, but it’s handy that he did.

You go back to Johnny’s body. You think about dragging the body to the shelter’s bathtub and doing your grisly work there, but you decide the best thing you can do is just to get it over with. You lay out some of the bags on the floor and roll Johnny’s body on to them and get to work.

It’s not an easy task for you and you get physically sick more than once, but eventually you get through it. Johnny’s limbs, torso and head all get put into bags. You then make several trips up and down the ladder to haul the pieces up to the basement. It’s still an exhausting task, even more so after having to go through hacking him up and the emotional drain you feel from it.

You don’t go any further than the basement after you’ve hauled all of Johnny’s parts up. You’re just not in the mood to deal with more. You look at the blood-drenched fatigues you’re wearing and strip them off to throw them into one of the bags.

Leaving the “body bags” by the entrance, you go back to your room to get a spare set of clothes. You also see Kelly’s body still lying in a heap there. Just reminds you that you’ll have more cleaning up to do tomorrow.

For now though you grab something comfortable from the closet and head back down to the shelter where you take a long hot shower. Afterwards you go to the bedroom and collapse on the bed, completely spent.

Doesn’t take long for you to fall asleep, it’s a welcome escape from reality.
> Next day…
SATURDAY

You wake up to silence and it’s an odd feeling.

You half expect Johnny to be vacuuming or cleaning or just being around, but you know that’s not going to happen ever again.

You sit up just thinking about what you’re going to do today for a few moments. Everyone you know or close to is gone and you’re truly alone now. Granted you’ve spent most of your life alone, but there was still always someone around to intrude. Most of the time this was unwanted like when Kelly bullied you or when Peter stole your clothes. Other times this was your choice like spending time with Bobby.

Now? There is nobody.

You finally get up and shuffle into the living room which still has a lot of blood on the floor.

“(Sigh) I guess I should clean that up too.” You mutter to your self and remind yourself to get some of the cleaning products from upstairs.

After ascending up the ladder you see the same garbage bags you left in a group nearby.

“I’ll be back to take care you later Johnny.” You say, then you glance your head towards your old room.

“You too bitch.” You say and head upstairs.

When you get upstairs to get something to clean with, you notice several bags on the floor in the living room. They’re yours or mostly yours anyway. It’s all the stuff you brought with you from Julie’s house. Johnny must’ve brought them in from the jeep last night. He always was thoughtful.

As you go to get your bags, a bright flash shines through one of the uncovered windows along with the sound of a large explosion in the distance. You can’t help but take a quick glance out the window.

And there you see it in the far distance, the dissipating remnants of a mushroom cloud rising up in the sky.

“…they finally went and did it.” You say.

From the direction it looks like it probably hit the city, but it still had to be a “small” one since you imagine your home still would’ve suffered a backlash of your windows breaking from the long range impact.

Still who knows which way the wind is blowing and there is no reason to not be extra cautious. So you gather up your bags and a few extra items and head back down to the shelter as quick as possible.

And once again you’re locked away from the outside world. This time possibly for a lot longer than average. Sadly, you know it can’t be forever.

As you look through your supplies, you think you could probably stay down here for about a decade before you completely ran out of what you needed, which means eventually you’ll have to go up to the surface at some point to scavenge or trade or whatever it is that you’ll need to do for more supplies.

And if you go up to the surface, you’re going to need to be prepared and that unfortunately means a lot of regular use for that exercise room you saw, along with reading all those survivalist books you saw in the library.

Still, this week has already prepared you in some ways. You have a much better mindset to deal with the outside world that you can’t hide away from anymore. You even know that you can do unpleasant things if you need to.

It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to be fun, but for now you can continue to afford to hide out from reality, if only for a little while longer.
>
Repression of Reality

The Future...

“I’m home!” you shout as you enter the shelter loaded with goodies.

As you unburden yourself of your haul, you hear the end credits of a movie playing on the TV.

“See? I told you I wouldn’t be that long. I got here just in time to put on another movie! In fact I got some new ones from that redneck encampment. I know most of them are a bunch of assholes, but they’re always up for trading and that Mel guy keeps ‘em mostly in line. Plus they got bigger things to worry about now that they’re at war with the Cult of Tiamat.”

You open up your bag and go through some of the DVDs you picked up in trade. You pick one and exchange it out for the one that was playing.

“I haven’t seen this one in a long time. I’m glad we’ll be able to watch it together.” You say.

As the movie starts playing you return to unloading your bags occasionally looking up to watch the movie playing.

“So speaking of the Cult of Tiamat. I meant to tell you I…uh…ran into Bobby a few days ago.”

You unpack some of the canned food you found. Sure you still have tons of food to last for years, but it never hurts to have more.

“See? This is why I didn’t tell you! I knew you were going to get mad! I wasn’t trying to hide it, I just…well you know how your temper is and I didn’t want you getting all jealous and screaming at me.

You finish unpacking the rest of your bags and place most of the items on the table where you plan on going through a complete inventory later, right now though you just want to relax. You strip down to your underwear and sit on the couch to watch the movie playing.

“One of my favorite parts is coming up...(sigh) are you still mad? Look I told you, nothing is going on with Bobby and me! Just because that bitch Diana is dead doesn’t mean I’m going to get back with him! Bobby’s got other sisters you know? Besides, he’s pretty much firmly entrenched in his beliefs now. I only think he’s cordial with me, because we once had something. I mean being friendly isn’t a crime. I mean it’s a good thing. One less person for me to worry about blowing my head off.”

You briefly glance over at the TV before returning to your argument.

“Oh that’s fucking low. Don’t you think I wish it didn’t have to happen? I wish every day that things could’ve been different, but you know what? They weren’t, so you need to just fucking deal with it!” you shout and get so angry that you punch the mannequin positioned on the sofa and its head falls off and tumbled to the floor.

“Shit. Oh shit. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Let me help you.” You say and scramble to pick up the head.

You reattach the head and inspect it for damage; fortunately you didn’t do any save for a minor loss of paint near the ear.

“Hold on…there. Not so bad. Look I’m sorry I got angry, but you shouldn’t have said that to me. You know I still feel bad about that. I don’t want you throwing that back in my face okay?”

You kiss the mannequin on the cheek and cuddle up next to it while holding one of its hands.

“I accept your apology too. Like I said, you really shouldn’t get so jealous. You know you’re the only one for me. Let’s just finish watching the movie together, then maybe later, who knows?” you say and giggle a bit.

You finish watching the movie as planned, and then afterwards you take your companion to the bedroom where you have an interesting time with certain attachments that you’ve made to him.

After relieving your tension you roll over next to your companion and turn your head to look at it. You still can’t believe how you stumbled upon one that looked a little similar to him.

Sometimes you wonder about your sanity and if one day you’ll just completely lose yourself in your made up world, but then you think you never did before no matter how hard you tried. And you certainly won’t now, besides what’s a little retreat from reality every now and then?

“Goodnight Johnny.” You say and kiss him before going to sleep.


You’re still not quite sure if any of this is going to lead anywhere, but fucked up or not, Johnny’s still been there for you. To abandon him without even an explanation is just something you’re not willing to do.

Besides, if you’re right about Johnny’s past, having someone like that around might be necessary given how crazy things are right now. Other than pushing someone down the stairs out of panic, it isn’t like you’re a fighter.

Looking a nearby clock on the wall, you figure it’ll be getting dark in a few hours. Johnny didn’t tell you when to wake him, but you figure you should give him a few extra hours after it goes dark if only so he’ll be more rested. Then you’ll try to convince him to just leave in Donna’s car again since you still think it would be safer than trying to steal a military jeep.

Still feeling a little uncomfortable about the back door windows now being broken and thus your safety more compromised, you head back into the kitchen to fix the problem. As you get close to the backdoor, you briefly see the thing still lying dead with several holes in its body and head on the back porch. Looks human, but even dead it does look a bit feral.

With great effort you manage to push the refrigerator in front of the back door. Nothing is getting in now, well at least not easily anyway.

You return to your room and check to see if your phone isn’t quite as damaged, as it appeared when you threw it against the wall, but of course it is. Hardly matters, you don’t have anyone to keep in contact with any more anyway.

With the gunfire still going on outside, you flop down on your couch-bed and realize that barring something trying to break in again, there’s nothing to do. You re-open your laptop and lose yourself in a game because it’s way better than reality right now.

Hours pass…

You look at the time on your laptop and realize you’ve been playing much longer than you intended to. You immediately get up to go wake up Johnny. It actually sounds like the gunfire has died down outside as well.

“Hey Johnny wake up! It’s time to go. I know you said you had plans to steal a jeep, but I really think we should…”

When you get to the living room though, Johnny is gone. You call out to him a couple times figuring that maybe he’s upstairs or even in the basement, but you get no answer.

You do see a note placed on the nearby end table in such a way that you’d notice it. You almost hesitate to pick it up, but of course you do anyway.

To my dearest Suzy,

I’ve left to go get that jeep. I know you probably still want to use your sister’s car, but I still think our best shot is with a military vehicle. I figure we can blend in a whole lot better in one of those and not look suspicious while driving around at a casual glance by soldiers. Probably better at running over those rabid people too. We might even be able to get out of this forsaken town.

Anyway, I left this note since I didn’t want to disturb you or cause any unpleasant arguments on this matter.

I also know you didn’t leave while I slept, even though you could have. This means so much to me, I don’t think you know how much.

I know I haven’t exactly given you much reason to not be distrustful of me, but the very fact that you didn’t leave tells me that you believe in me on some level. You know I’ll try to come through for you and that you’re willing to wait.

I knew when I first heard your drunken whore of a sister talk about you; I thought you sounded like you were the one.

Then when I saw and spoke with you, I was sure of it.

I will come back tonight as planned, however if the situation becomes dangerous over there, then by all means escape in your sister’s car. It would never be my wish for you to stay in danger.

Forever my love,
Johnny

When the hell did he leave and write this? And how did you not hear him? He wasn’t joking about being stealthy you guess.

Of course you probably would have known all this a lot sooner had you not got wrapped up in your game and actually left your room.

As for the note itself, well…it’s standard Johnny in the short term you’ve known him. The “whore” description of your sister is a bit of a standout from the rest of letter which is fairly white knightish.

Of course you know damn well Johnny is far from being a “white knight”.

Suddenly you hear the basement door opening. You tense up in fear since you’ve left not only the car keys but also your pistol in your room. You think at first you’re going to have to risk just running out the front door, but…

“Hey Suzy! Suzy? I got the jeep, come on let’s get ready to go!” you hear Johnny’s voice call out.

You cautiously walk towards the hallway and see Johnny standing there looking into your room, then he turns his head and sees you. He’s got some clothing in his hand.

“Oh there you are. I was worried for a moment that you had to run out in a hurry!”
“Johnny, what the hell…didn’t you hear me calling you?” you ask.
“No, I just got here.”
“What? How? I’ve been in the living room for the past few minutes! You couldn’t have gotten by me.”
“No I came in through the basement window. I couldn’t just leave the front door unlocked when I left.”
“Basement win…wait I didn’t hear any glass breaking.”
“That’s because it’s not broken. I had it so I could easily open it. Don’t worry, I thought about your safety. That window is pretty well hidden and not exactly easy to crawl through so I didn’t think any of those things would see it. They would’ve been more likely to just try to bash the ground floor doors or windows in.”
“When did you mess around with the basement window and why didn’t you just tell me you were leaving?”
“Didn’t you get my note? I explained why I left with bothering you in it.”
“I only just finished reading it this minute.”
“Oh, well I assumed you would’ve left your room before now. Anyway, here I got you these to wear. I think they might be a bit baggy, but they should work to help us blend in more.”

Johnny shoves the clothing at you as if to distract you from asking more questions. It’s a uniform like what Johnny is wearing.

You almost ask Johnny how he got the uniform, but as with most things concerning Johnny you’re starting to think it might better if you don’t know.

As far as the basement window weirdness, you’re not going to dwell on it too much because it’s really not important right now.

“Alright, that sounds like a good idea, I’ll go put these on.” You say and go to your room.
“Um, don’t worry, I didn’t get those from a dead person or anything. It was a spare one I found.” Johnny blurts out.
“Okay. I trust you Johnny.” You say which seems to make him smile.

You lock the door and change into the military fatigues. Granted you don’t see any blood or tears in the fatigues, but then he could’ve just choked the person wearing it to death.

“(Sigh) Suzy, why the hell are you attracted to this guy? Oh right, because you’ve got some serious psychological issues yourself, that’s why.” You mumble to yourself as if being painfully aware of the situation makes everything okay.

You grab your bags and exit your room.

“Glad to see the fatigues aren’t excessively big on you, I know you’re small framed and all. You ready to go?” Johnny asks.
“Yeah, let’s get out of this place. How is it out there?”
“In our immediate area? It’s fairly quiet now. Haven’t seen any of the rabid and the remainder of the Guard is busy burning bodies right now. I mean there are still patrols, but nobody even batted an eye when I drove this thing up to the house. Probably assumed whoever was inside was investigating or something. We shouldn’t linger here though.”

With both of you ready and as prepared as you’re going to be, you and Johnny exit out the front door and quickly enter the jeep which is sitting right next to your sister’s car. You have to admit, you do feel a little safer sitting in this thing than if you did in your sister’s car.

Johnny starts up the vehicle and turns to you.

“Suzy, you know I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. So is there any place you had in mind?” Johnny asks.
‘Never been anywhere, so not really.” You answer.
“I remember you saying you wanted to go home before.”
“Well that would be nice, but things aren’t exactly normal any more. I mean the only reason for going back there would be to look for my brother’s bomb shelter, which definitely would be a safe zone knowing how Ben spent so much time building and constantly modifying it. Of course my other brother Peter is currently looking for it as well and who knows if he already claimed and locked himself inside it.”
“Hmm, well it might be worth a look if you still want to try it. I mean the only other logical option I can think of is to as I suggested, leave town altogether. Should be much easier while driving around in this thing. Of course it might still be risky, if they’ve set up some sort of checkpoints outside of town…but maybe we can get the edge by fooling them briefly before smashing through such things.”

Pretty risky stuff, but then these are risky times.
> You try to get out of town
The whole town has gone to shit and it’s either going to get completely obliterated by the government or its going to get overrun by those things or both. In any case, your best bet would be to put as much distance between you and this god-forsaken town.

“As much as I’d like to, I can’t go home again. So if you know someplace we can go that’s safe, I’m game if you are.” You say.
“Well I can think of a few isolated places I’ve been through in my travels before I came to this town. Dunno, if they’re safe right now, but it’s worth a shot. Gonna be a long drive though and I need to go east so hopefully that way is going to be clear.” Johnny says and pulls out of the driveway.

You pass by a few soldiers dragging a few more bodies and placing them in a large pile outside one of the homes in this area. Another large pile of bodies is burning outside yet another home. Nobody tries to flag you down or anything though, you’re guessing that between the dark, the uniforms and the jeep, if anyone is actually paying attention to you driving through, they probably think you’re just more soldiers patrolling around. It isn’t like this is most stable of situations right now.

You continue drive and you go through another area where the National Guard has a presence. Again, you have no problems for the most part. However you then start hitting areas that are still suffering from conflict and in those cases, pretty severely. This is where some soldiers notice you a lot more and try to call out to you, presumably for help.

In one case, you see two soldiers ragged and bloody running desperately from several of those rabid people. They cry out for you to stop, but naturally you and Johnny just keep driving. You hear some faint curses and screams as you put distance between you and the unfortunate soldiers.

You eventually drive through areas that have been completely overrun by rabid. In fact you find that the military doesn’t actually have that much control at all over your town and that there are far more of the rabid roaming around either chasing down normal people or attempting to break into houses.

However, you’re in an area now that’s thick enough with them that some of them are actually attacking the jeep or at least managing to bang on it a couple times before you out distance them. Johnny runs over a few of them that get directly in the way. They’re starting to get too close for you at this point.

“Holy shit, this is just getting worse. Maybe we should go in another direction.” You say.
“We can make it, we’re almost out of town.” Johnny says.

You aren’t quite as confident as Johnny who now seems to be going out of his way to mow down rabid in the jeep. In fact he’s got a big grin on his face as he smashes into another and turning the windshield wipers on.

“Johnny, would you fucking stop that!? We can’t run over everyone one of these things! It’s going to damage the jeep!”
“Relax! It’s a military jeep, these things are built to last! Besides this is kinda fun. When else do you get the chance to just run over people?” Johnny giggles.

Johnny’s obvious display of psychopathy might be more worrying, if you weren’t more concerned with the bigger threat of a very large group of rabid up ahead.

“Johnny! You can’t go through that group it’s too fucking big! Turn around!” you shout.
“Fuck that, we gotta go that way and I don’t give a shit how many of those freaks I have to splatter! Let’s do this!” Johnny shouts and slams on the gas.

You close your eyes as the jeep speeds ahead while Johnny is laughing the entire time. He’s really getting off on this.

Johnny manages to run over several of them, but there are just too many, it doesn’t help there is also debris in the road left from the fighting that was going on here before.

A tire gets popped, a body gets stuck under another wheel. The jeep begins to skid and spin. Johnny tries to maintain control, but fails to do so and the jeep flips over landing upside down.

You’re hurt, but since you had your seatbelt on, you’re still able to move. You look over to Johnny and he’s not moving. In fact he’s half way through the windshield. He’s obviously dead, but that isn’t what concerns you at the moment. What concerns you is the rest of the rabid running over to the jeep.

You struggle with your belt and manage to crawl out of the jeep only to be quickly nabbed by the rabid. They sink their teeth into you and gnaw straight through your bones. You die screaming as they eat you alive.


Regardless of what your sister does, you’re not going to get yourself into more trouble by running.

“Look Donna, I can’t stop you from running, but I’m staying here.”
“What? You can’t do that. You’re supposed to be supportive!”
“I’m not going to be supportive in your resisting arrest attempt! Now like I said, I won’t stop you, but if you’re going to do it, you’ll be doing it alone.”
“(Sigh) I should’ve known you’re still the same old goody two shoes that follows all the rules. You’re a goddamn idiot Suzy, one of these assholes just felt me up when he frisked me. You really think if they’re just going to arrest us when they find something? Chances are they’re going to drive us to some secluded area and make us suck their cocks and god knows what else! I’m getting the hell…”

Just as Donna is starting to get up, both cops have taken notice of you two again.

“HEY! I told you to stay put! Don’t give me an excuse!” one of them shouts nearly going for his gun and it’s enough to cause Donna to rethink her actions.

“Despite the pair of you acting mighty suspicious, you appear to be clean and so does the vehicle. Don’t think you’re getting out of a ticket though!” the cop says and shoves a ticket at your sister who takes it. Looks like Donna had a drug free car after all.

At this point the cop’s partner says to him that they’re needed at the mall since apparently a small riot has broken out there. You are left with another verbal warning and they drive off.

As for you and your sister, the pair of you get back in the car without another word and continue your drive to Julie’s house in silence.

When you arrive, the place is much more subdued than your used to. You don’t even hear loud music coming from inside.

“No party going on?” you ask.
“Probably will be some folks coming over later. I dunno, even I don’t keep up on it all the time. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll be wanting to hide away before that happens, so like I said your room will be Julie’s dad’s old office. Julie also wants to talk with you as well, so if you’re actually feeling social you could go speak with her before heading off to planet Suzy.” Donna says coldly.
“…what the hell? Donna, I know you’re pissed, but I really don’t know why. If it hadn’t been for me stalling you from running, you’d be in for a lot more trouble than just a ticket. I’d say it worked out much better.” You say.
“Right. Your plan worked. Following the rules always works for you. Your life is so great and that’s why you had to beg to move in here.”
“Uh, you’re living here in JULIE’S house too with no means of support either. I wouldn’t start pointing fingers.”
“Fuck you Suzy. I thought things were going to be different, but I can see that you’re still the stuck up bitch that thinks she’s better than everyone else.” Donna exclaims and storms off leaving you in the car.

So much for “sisterly bonding.” This is really an unfortunate turn of events, but not completely unexpected. Donna’s always been a bit bi-polar with you. One moment she’s saying how much you should hang out and bond and the next minute she’s calling you a stuck up bitch that doesn’t know how to have fun.

The girl has some serious self-esteem issues. Really you have no idea why she still acts the way she does. Mom is dead and so is dad. Who is there to rebel against anymore? From some of what she said earlier it almost seems like she parties out of habit more than great desire anymore.

You pull your bags out of the car and head on inside. The front room is messy, but not overly so. Your sister is nowhere to be seen, but there are a couple of people you don’t know sitting on one of the couches playing video games. Another one is asleep on the floor. The place smells of spilled beer and none of the people even acknowledge your presence.

“Suzy! You’re here!” a voice suddenly calls out. You look up and see Julie waving from the second floor. She immediately runs down the stairs to greet you close up, nearly tripping in the process.

When she gets to you, the years of partying are really starting to take their toll. She’s your age, but she’s starting to look like one of those trashy strippers that wears too much make up.

“Suzy, it’s been too long! Give me a hug!” she exclaims and before you can even react, she gloms on to you and gives you a tight squeeze.

“Mmmm, you smell so nice. Like strawberries.” She says while rubbing her hands across your back.
“Uh, yeah. Probably the shampoo I used.” You say.
“You’ve been keeping in shape too, guess Bobby was keeping you busy physically. Ha ha ha ha.” Julie laughs and now she starts getting a little too touchy feelie for you. You’ve already had unwanted touching once today, you don’t feel like more.
“Yeah, okay good to see you too. Back up there now. I need some space.” You say and start pulling away.
“Hah same old prudish Suzy. What you think I’m gonna just start sexually assaulting you right here in the living room? Please, I know a girl like you needs to be romanced first!”

Julie jokes, but she’s probably somewhat serious with her playful advances. Shortly after you got with Bobby, Donna told you that Julie spent a couple days crying because she wanted to tell you how she’s always loved you. (You of course weren’t sure why she ever thought you’d be into such a relationship, but apparently before Bobby, everyone just assumed you were a big lesbian.) Of course she quickly went on with her hedonistic life, but you’ve always wondered if she really ever “got over” you.

“Okay Suzy, I hear you’re planning on sleeping in my dad’s old office. You remember the way right?”
“Yeah I think so.”
“Oh, I’ll just walk with you, we need to catch up on so much. I’ve missed you, you know!”

Resigning yourself to the fact that you’re going to have to at least be friendly to Julie, you walk with her to your new room. Julie of course is very talkative.

“So Suzy, speaking of Bobby, did you make up with him yet?”
“No and I doubt if it’s going to work out anyway.”
“Ohhhh, that’s so sad. You two did make a cute couple in a creepy shut in way.” Julie says and begins rubbing your shoulder.
“Hm, thanks.” You answer.
“Well, not to worry, you could meet a new boyfriend right here! Contrary to what you might think, I don’t just have mindless party animals coming over here. There’s actually a wide variety of people that come here to hang out. You could meet that special guy tonight in fact! Or girl…you know whatever…” Julie says trailing off and nervously smiles at you.

“Well I’m not really thinking about that right now, I think I’d rather be by myself for awhile.” You answer.
“Oh yeah sure. I understand. But I just want you to know that my house is your house okay? And all the fun that goes on here, well you can have some of that fun too you know?”
“I know Julie. Thanks for letting me stay here.”
“No problem, you were always welcome. Okay well here it is. I’ll leave you to get settled and remember you can always come out and join us later.”

At this point Julie hugs you again though it’s a quick one this time and briskly walks off.

You enter the office and see that it is indeed much neater and cleaner than most of the house. Even better that it has a small bathroom attached to it as well, but you knew that since this actually isn’t the first time you’ve been in here.

You remember playing tag with Julie when you were in elementary school and you both ran in here. Julie’s dad wasn’t angry though. He even gave you a lollipop from a jar on his desk. Come to think of it anytime he saw you, he was always giving you lollipops. He was pretty nice that way. Shame he died in a car accident just as Julie was starting to get wilder, since even if he did work most of the time, you get the impression Julie might at least had some boundaries during her late teens and onward.

It doesn’t take long for you to rearrange some things and make yourself at home on the fairly comfortable couch in there.

It also doesn’t take long for you to get back to finishing what Donna interrupted earlier today. (Making sure to lock the door of course)

After finishing up and washing up a bit, you hear some music. Sounds like the party is getting started. Continuing to be the introverted personality you usually are, you don’t leave your “safe zone” and go back to playing games on your computer and looking up random shit on the Internet. The more things change the more they stay the same, time passes and it’s almost like you’ve never left the basement!

Eventually you get bored doing that and you start looking around the office a bit more. It’s sort of snooping, but then Julie’s dad is dead and you’re sure Julie doesn’t care.

You start going through the filing cabinets and find that all the paperwork is mainly business files dated back to before Julie’s dad died. Looks like nobody ever bothered to clean any of this stuff out or even go through the stuff.

The bookshelves aren’t filled with the most interesting of topics. Mostly about economics, business practices, legal things, though some of the books are historical in nature. You don’t see much fiction though.

The desk just contains regular office supplies. You actually aren’t surprised to find a pistol in there (along with bullets) but after rummaging around a bit you notice a secret compartment in one of the drawers.

You find a black box and you waste no time in opening it. Inside you find pictures. Pictures of little girls…in fact there are some of YOU! By the looks of them, these were all taken in secret.

Nobody is naked in the photos, but given that nearly every single picture of you involves you either sucking or licking a lollipop it’s pretty apparent what the purpose of these were.

Some of these girls are other kids you knew from school and hung out with Julie as well. In fact one of them went missing. Nobody knew who did it, but it was a big deal in town and it probably lead to your mother being even more overprotective of you. And you’re really glad she did since you’re starting to get a sinking feeling about what you’ve uncovered here.

“Christ…” you say going through the photos. You start to wonder now if Julie’s behavior is caused by years of sexual molestation. It would certainly explain a lot.

Then you get a knock on the door.

“Hey Suzy, it’s me Julie, I’ve got something for you.”

“Uh, hold on. Just a minute!” you exclaim as you quickly put the photographs back. You have no idea if you should tell her not, but you open the door.

Julie appears with a bottle of soda and a pizza and walks in.

“I figured you’d stay in here all night, but I thought you might get hungry or thirsty so here you go!” Julie says and places her gifts to you on the desk.
“Oh. Thanks Julie.” You say.
“You’re welcome…so why’d you take so long in answering the door? You splittin’ the kitten in here or what?” Julie asks.
“Hah, yeah well busted I guess.” You say with a fake chuckle.
“Suzy, if you came out and had some fun with the rest of us, that wouldn’t really be necessary you know. I know you probably still miss Bobby on some level and you’ve got needs, but he’s not here and you’d be better off moving on with your life and getting some free dick out there…or pussy…you know whatever…” Julie says obviously still hoping.

Given how unstable Julie is at times, you almost wonder if you should address what you found at all. Maybe dredging up bad childhood memories isn’t the best thing right now.
> You keep quiet
You decide this isn’t the time to bring it up. It is a party after all and you don’t want to ruin Julie’s fun just because you’re not feeling so great about several things like Bobby and your fight with your sister.

Well maybe you can get to dealing with Bobby later, but you can still make up with your sister right now, besides you’d rather not linger in here alone with Julie, she might think you’re leading her on.

“Hey Julie, I think I will come and join the festivities.” You say.
“You will?!” Julie says surprised.
“Yeah, I’m not saying I’m gonna get wild, but who knows. But what I really want to do is speak with my sister, I had a fight with her earlier.”
“Hm, yeah I heard. Well I’m sure she’s still out there. Saw her talking to some guy earlier. Don’t know if they hooked up yet though. Probably best if you didn’t disturb her if you catch her in the act as it were.” Julie says.
“I’m well aware. She’d be even more pissed at me. Okay, see you later.”
“Yeah, see you later and um, if you want to talk to me I’ll be available anytime.” Julie says looking a bit dejected as you walk out the room.

Yeah, probably best you left. You swear, you’re wondering if you’re going to be able to put up with Julie’s crush on you while living in the same house with her, but that will be yet ANOTHER thing to deal with at different time.

You enter the living room first, which is the most crowded part of the house. The music is up loud a couple people are playing video games on the TV and several people making out on the floor. A few guys come up to you and try to speak, but you brush them off and continue to look for your sister who obviously isn’t in this area.

You head upstair which isn’t quite as crowded, but the bedrooms are definitely being used for their obvious purpose, and worse nobody even bothers to close the damn doors! (Which certainly draws a few onlookers)

Fortunately, the quick glances you do make into the rooms prove to not find your sister, so you head out to the backyard.

The backyard is a little more relaxed at least in terms of sex and drugs, though a few of the guys are doing some sort of stupid stunts and hurting themselves in the process and then laughing about it. Another guy is filming the whole thing. Several girls look on and shake their heads at the ordeal and telling them that they’re going to really suffer serious injury if they don’t stop.

You don’t see your sister and you ask one of the girls watching the spectacle.

“Excuse me, do you know Donna?” you ask a woman with short brown hair.
“Huh? Donna? Skinny little thing that thinks she’s hot shit? Yeah I know her… hey you look a little like her…actually I shouldn’t insult you. You’re actually prettier.” The woman replies.
“Uh, thanks. Yeah she’s my sister and I was looking for her.”
“Sister huh? My condolences. Anyway, yeah I think I saw her inside talking with some guy. He didn’t really stand out, in fact he didn’t really look like what she normally goes for, but she was already pretty drunk and when that happens she typically doesn’t give a fuck. Or rather she always gives a fuck. Hah.”
“Hm, I just looked inside, but I couldn’t find her.”
“Did you try the basement? She might be down there getting fucked, well assuming Julie isn’t down there getting fucked. Not that it’s ever stopped them from fucking in the same room before.”
“Uh, no I haven’t checked down there.”
“Well that’s probably where she is then. Now if you excuse me, I have get back to making sure my idiot boyfriend doesn’t break his goddamn neck.”

You leave the backyard and head back into the house. You decide you’ve had enough of crowds and if your sister is fucking someone in the basement, you don’t want to interrupt, so you head back to your room.

Just before you reach your room however, a guy about your age opens up the door leading to the basement. Maybe this is the guy your sister was with.

“Hey, is Donna down there?” you ask.
“Huh? Um, who are you?” the man asks as if you’re interrogating him.
“Donna. She’s my sister. Someone said she might be in the basement with some guy. Are you him?”

The man’s demeanor becomes a little more relaxed.

“Oh…wait are you Suzy?” he asks.
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, your sister Donna mentioned you when I was talking with her. She wasn’t lying, you are pretty.”
“Wait, she said that?”
“Sure, she was very praising of you.” The man says.
“…Donna? She was praising of me? I find that hard to believe, I just had a fight with her.”
“Oh. Well maybe she was feeling bad about that, she seemed upset about it when we spoke.”

The man seems to shift a bit and look sideways a couple times after he says that, and you become suspicious.

“Okay…well I need to go talk with her, but the man suddenly tries to stop you from going any further.
“Yeah, I don’t think you should. Like I said she’s upset right now.”

You take a quick glance at the man and see that his clothes are disheveled like he just put them back on in a hurry.

“Funny, I’ve never know my sister to be upset after sex.”
“What?”
“Come on, your clothes were obviously put back on in a rush, I know what happened, so if she’s finished with satisfying her urges, she should be in a much better mood to speak with me…”

At this point the man stops you again.

“Suzy, I don’t like what you’re implying. I never touched your sister. She’s a fucking whore. I was just trying to console her about you. SHE aggressively made the moves on me, but I resisted and then she started crying about what a whore she was and how she could never live up to being like you and screamed that she wanted to be left alone. Now I suggest you do just that, at least until she calms down. She’s a little drunk too, so you probably should just let her sleep it off.”

While the man continues to maintain a smile, his tone is somewhat threatening. His whole story stinks of lies and you’re getting a really bad vibe from him. Almost like you did with your uncle Ed.

“Get the hell out of my way. ” You say and push past him to descend down the steps quickly.

Unfortunately you’re not quick enough as the man to manage to shove you in back causing you to lose balance and go crashing down the stairs. While you’re taking a tumble, the man locks the basement door and makes his way down the stairs in a normal fashion. The loud noise from the party ensures that nobody is going to investigate even if they bothered to.

You break your leg and smash the side of your head against the floor when you finally hit the bottom. You surprisingly don’t scream out from the pain, but you are about to fall unconscious from your head injury.

Your vision is blurry and you feel dizzy, but despite that, you see Donna sprawled out on the floor not that far from you. She’s naked and isn’t moving.

“Don…” you utter and stretch your hand out towards her.
“I’m sorry it had to be like this Suzy. I really did want us to get off on the right foot. When your whore of a sister Donna was bitching about you to me, you sounded so… perfect. Such a shame…” the man says and then kicks you in the head.

The blackness takes you and then the man takes your life.