You decide that keeping a bit of distance from Julie might be for the best for now. After last night you don’t want her to think you’re lingering around her because there is something there between you two.

Johnny seems a bit odd, but then you’re certainly used to odd people. You grab a trash bag and start cleaning up left over beer cans.

“Thanks, but you don’t need to help me. Your girlfriend probably could use the help more than I do.” Johnny says.
“Well I do live here now, so it’s gotta get clean or I’m living in a pig pen! And Julie isn’t my girlfriend.” You say.
“Oh. Sorry, I just assumed that you two coming out of the same room together…”
“Eh, long story. But she’s just my friend and I consoled her on a troubling topic. It got emotional and she slept in my room, though I’m fairly certain Julie wishes it had gone farther.”
“Hm, I see. Well your sister didn’t mention you had a girlfriend when she spoke about you last night, so I was sort of wondering.”
“Wow, I must’ve really pissed my sister off yesterday if she was talking about me to a stranger. Would’ve thought she would’ve been focusing on other things during a party. What exactly did she say?”
“Are you sure you want to know?” Johnny asks.
“It probably isn’t going to be anything I haven’t already heard before from her, so go ahead.”
“Well…she was sort of drunk when she started talking to me. I was actually surprised, since a girl like her doesn’t normally just go up and talk to a guy like me, well at least not when there are other guys around. Anyway, she at first propositioned me to go into the basement with her. When I declined, she got more hostile and started calling me a faggot and said I didn’t know how to have fun just like her sister Suzy.”
“And that’s when she went on a tirade?”
“Yeah, I was about to leave her since it isn’t my idea of a good time to be ranted at and insulted, but she grabbed my arm and practically forced me to listen. She went on about you being good and perfect and never doing anything wrong. Basically she said all this stuff about you as if they were supposed to be bad things, but I didn’t see it. I guess that just made her even madder so she eventually told me to fuck off and later on I saw her leave with that group I mentioned earlier.”
“Yeah sounds like her. (Sigh) I jut hope she hasn’t gone and done anything more stupid than usual. Family. What can ya do?” you say.
“Heh, don’t need to tell me. I had an older sister just like your younger one. Partied all the time, lot of sex, lot of drugs, pissed my mom off something fierce when we were still living with her.” Johnny says continuing to pick up cans and placing them in a bag.
“Oh I got an older sister too, but she’s even worse than Donna.”
“Party girl too huh?”
“No, she’s just a fucking sadistic bully. Had to put up with her abuse for years.”
“Your older sister sounds like my mother.”

While the tone of his voice reflects no anger though, you notice when Johnny mentions that, his hand crushes one of the beer cans he has. He looks at it briefly and then tosses it in the bag.

You wonder if you should stop talking altogether, but Johnny has already noticed that you’ve been staring at what he’s done.

“Sorry, bad memories. I didn’t meant to scare you there.” Johnny says.
“I wasn’t scared, just more surprised. We can get off the topic of families.”
“Heh, actually I was thinking we were kind of bonding a bit. Sounds like both of us come from fucked up families. Probably made us stronger right?”
“I dunno. I mean I suppose I’ve survived, not sure if that’s the same thing. I mean this is like the second day I’ve spent away from home. I only moved out yesterday and only then due to being under duress from my sister Kelly. I’ve always been a bit introverted and spent most of my life avoiding the outside world.”
“Eh, you’re not missing much. To be honest, I’m almost jealous you managed to do it for so long. I’m a bit of an introvert too, but occasionally I to mix with the crowd as it were. Just to see if I feel any different. Hence one of the reasons why I came to your friend’s party last night.”
“And?”
“And, I don’t feel any different. Just like I figured. It’s like I spoke with several other people last night even before your sister and everyone was just…dull…boring…like they were just empty shells. Like they weren’t even real people to me. To be quite honest before your sister started complaining about you to me, I was getting bored and nearly left the party.” Johnny says as he motions over to a few of the sleeping lumps still in the living room.
“What about your friend that you came with?”
“Oh him? I came here independently of him. Hell, he didn’t even show up. Really, he’s more of an acquaintance than a friend anyway…”

Johnny’s eyes sort of glaze over when he says this and he breaks in the middle of his sentence. Almost like he’s in a different “place.” ‘

“Johnny?” you say.
“Hrm? Sorry, I just kind of spaced out there. Anyway as I was saying, you haven’t missed much by not being a social butterfly, I think this group here is proof of that. And as far as not being strong, you’re stronger than you think. Despite coming from a dysfunctional family, you haven’t succumbed to drug and sex filled escapism like your younger sister and you obviously haven’t grown to become a mean bully like your older sister. The fact that you told me you spent the night consoling your best friend rather than indulging in some sort of meaningless hedonistic pleasure tells me that you’re a kind and gentle soul. That’s a rarity in this shitty world.”

You have to admit, as strange as this Johnny is, you do get the sense he’s being genuine when he says this to you.

“Well thank you Johnny.” You say.

Just as you’re about to converse more with him, you hear some loud noise coming from the second floor. You hear a man’s voice and a female voice, and then a very familiar voice. Sounds like Julie and it sounds like she’s gone back to distracting herself from last night’s concerns.

“Oh yes! Ohhhh yeah! Give it to me daddy!” you hear Julie scream.

A little disturbing choice of words considering what you both talked about last night.

Some of the people sleeping in the living room are even awakened by this. One of them looks at his watch and immediately runs out the front door like he’s late for something. A couple of others return to sleep.

“Sounds like your friend is feeling better.” Johnny says a little disdainfully.
“Mm, well she always was one to get over things quickly. Well looks like we’re all done in this room anyway.”
“Yeah, hey why don’t you take a break? I mean obviously we don’t need to clean this place spotlessly. Your friend Julie is just going to have another party tonight right?” Johnny says.
“True. Yeah, I guess you’re right. No point in me cleaning especially if Julie isn’t even going to be helping anymore, but what about you?” you ask.
“Me? Well I’m just going to dump out the trash and maybe pick up a few more of the bottles in the kitchen on the way. I’ll probably also take another pursue down in the basement. It was a mess down there, but I think I cleaned most of it. Nearly tripped on a bad step down there though. Anyway then I guess I’ll head home, I need the sleep anyway seeing as I haven’t been yet.”
“You didn’t sleep here?”
“Nope. I’ve been awake the whole time, but I find I’m more of a night owl and don’t sleep much anyway.”
“Well I understand that, but I’m just surprised you stayed. You told me you were getting bored with the party and were about to go home at one point.”
“Ah, but I also mentioned that after your sister complained about you to me, my interest was increased.” Johnny says.

You pause because you almost can’t believe what he’s implying.

“Wait a minute. Are you saying you just stayed at the party through the night AND this morning just to meet me at some point? Just solely based on what my sister bitched about to you?”
“What can I say? You sounded interesting and after speaking with you I can see I wasn’t wrong.”

Johnny smiles and you smile with a nervous laugh. On one hand it’s a little stalkerish and combined with Johnny’s oddness, he’s starting to come off a lot creepier.

On the other hand, in a strange way you’re sort of flattered. You always did attract the weird ones Suzy.

“Wow…I’m not exactly sure what to say to that.” You say.
“No need to say anything. The pleasure of speaking with you is all mine. Oh but one more thing, did you want me to get rid of these useless sloths still sleeping in the living room before I leave?”
“Well, they’re probably just going to be here for tonight’s party, so might as well just leave ‘em I suppose. No need to trouble yourself.”
“Okay then, as I said, it was nice talking with you Suzy.”
“It was…interesting talking with you too Johnny.” You reply back and head towards your room as Johnny starts taking a couple of garbage bags to the kitchen.

What a strange person. Even stranger is that your self-esteem has been a little boosted by Johnny’s stalkerish behavior.

Before Johnny’s praising of you, in the back of your mind you were still a little upset about Bobby and starting to realize you were alone again. Not that you had any major problems with being alone and you’re certainly used to it, but it still was nice to have a boyfriend every now and then.

After Johnny going on about how most people suck and putting you on a minor pedestal you don’t feel as bad anymore about Bobby. Screw him right? He’s the one missing out.

You enter your room and lock your door fully content on tuning out the rest of the world like you always do. You go back to fucking around on the Internet, playing games and when the mood strikes you, getting out your mechanical “boyfriend” who never disappoints you.

Hours pass…

Eventually the silence from outside your door becomes less silent. Looks like Julie’s party is getting started or at least getting louder.

You don’t really pay it too much mind as you pretty much managed to block it somewhat yesterday, but then you get a knock on the door.

“Julie?” you ask instinctively.
“Um, no it’s me.” A familiar voice answers.
“Johnny?” you say and then slowly get up to answer the door.

You open it up a little and see Johnny standing before you (Along with some party people passing by in the hallway).

“Hi again.” He says with a brief smile.

“What are you doing here? Did you even go home?” you ask.
“Oh yeah, I did, but just as I was finishing up in the kitchen, your friend Julie had come in to get some more booze. She mentioned that she appreciated my cleaning up and invited me back for tonight’s party. So I came back.”
“Really?”
“Well technically she also invited me to come join her and the couple up in her room, but I declined as you might aspect. Not an orgy guy.”
“Yeah, which is why I’m really wondering why you came back at all. I mean I have to live here, but this really isn’t your thing. You said as much earlier today.”
“I know what I said…but I also said…”
Johnny’s expression becomes… not quite flustered, not quite angry, but more like he’s having a hard time and you’ve just put him on the spot.

“(Sigh) Look. This is really difficult for me. I’m probably coming off like a creepy stalker and god knows you probably get a lot of guys hitting on you…but I like you. I know that sounds like third grade shit, but there it is. I really like you and I’d like to get to know you better. That’s why I came back tonight.”

Oddly that was honest enough to actually be kind of charming. Lot better than the “Show us your tits” pick up line that you’ve heard before.

Then again, Johnny is still pretty damn weird and much like how you didn’t want to lead on Julie; you don’t necessarily want to lead Johnny on either.
> You decline
As charmingly strange as Johnny’s awkwardness is you’re still not quite ready to go jumping into a relationship with another guy.

“That’s sweet Johnny. Really it is. It’s just… I’m not looking for another relationship right now. I just broke up with my boyfriend and I think I need to be by myself for a while.” You say.
“Boyfriend? I see. I suppose a pretty girl like you would have a lot of them.” Johnny says. You notice his tone sort of becomes “flat” when he says this.
“Pfft hardly. He was my first and only one.” You say.

And as quickly as his demeanor changed before, it changes AGAIN just as quickly. Before you got the impression he was almost pissed upon hearing you even HAD a boyfriend despite the fact he was your ex. After your additional information, it’s almost like he’s perked up again.

“Ah, okay…I understand. First love and lost. Been there before. Say no more, I’ll leave you be. It was a long shot anyway.”

Just as Johnny is about to leave, you sort of feel like you should say something helpful.

“Johnny?”
“Yes, Suzy?”
“You’re a good guy Johnny, and I’m sure there’s some girl out there for you.”
“I know, but she probably killed herself when she found out I was the guy for her.” Johnny says with a small chuckle.

“Anyway, thank you for being upfront and trying to be encouraging. I must say though, whoever your ex was, he must’ve been an idiot to let you get away.”

You watch as Johnny disappears into the crowd and you shut your door.

Having dealt with your momentary break up of your usual routine, you briefly check your phone for the time and to see if maybe your sister tried to call (You still think she probably got hauled in by the cops) but nobody has called.

Having little else to do, you go back to what you were doing before.

Hours pass and you start to get hungry which unfortunately means you’re going to have to brave going out there and raiding the kitchen assuming there’s even anything in there.

You exit your room and find that the party is still as lively as ever. Nobody pays too much attention to you as you creep through the crowd.

The kitchen is a complete wreck. You don’t exactly know what went on in here, but there is some guy lying face down on a broken kitchen table. His head is bleeding and there are several broken beer bottles all over the floor. You almost hesitate to step inside the room, though there are a couple of other people just standing around in the kitchen drinking as if nothing was wrong.

“Jesus Christ.” You say. “Does that guy need an ambulance?” you ask.

Eventually one of the people in the kitchen realizes you were asking them.

“Hrm? Oh him? Yeah he’s fine. Just got drunk, got into a fight and then well as you can see he wasn’t the winner. He does this all the time.” A girl says in a bored tone.
“Yeah well I’d appreciate it, if he and whoever else was involved hadn’t wrecked the goddamn kitchen in the process!”
“What’s the big deal and what concern is it of yours? It’s Julie’s kitchen and she won’t care.”
“I happen to live here so it actually is somewhat of my concern, and where is Julie anyway?”
“I dunno. Probably getting fucked as usual. Still don’t know why you’re worried about it. Besides some weird guy said he was getting something to clean up the mess anyway.” The girl says and goes back to talking with the guy she was previously talking to.

“Weird guy?” you say to yourself.
“Hey, Suzy.”

You turn around and see Johnny behind you with a broom, a dustpan and some sort of cleaning product.

“Johnny, what are you still doing…wait, have you been lingering all night around hoping that I might come out of my room?”

Johnny looks away a bit as if you hit the nail on the head.

“Well…actually at first I was kind of hoping that maybe you’d change your mind and come running out of your room to find me. A silly storybook fantasy really…but then after about an hour of indulging in that delusion I realized I needed to accept reality. I was going to leave, but then I suddenly got offered a video game controller from a guy that stopped playing, so I started playing. I ended up getting sort of wrapped up in the game, shooting people in the face, murdering hookers and such. Sort of fun, and made me feel better.”

Johnny passes you by and starts sweeping up broken glass and continues talking.

“After my escapism with virtual violence then I decided to go home, but then I heard about a fight going on in the kitchen so I decided to be a spectator, but by the time I got here, it was already over and the winner went out the back door. I didn’t think it was right to just leave your kitchen like this even if nobody else cared, so I tried to find your friend Julie because I didn’t want to bother you again since you made your feelings quite clear to me and I didn’t want to look like a stalker.”
“A little late for that, Johnny.” You say.
“Heh, well anyway I couldn’t find her. I asked around and someone said she left wit ha couple guys. So not knowing what else to do, I just decided to clean up the mess myself before I left.”

“Wait a minute, are you telling me Julie isn’t here for her own fucking party?”
“Uh, no it appears she isn’t.”

It’s one thing to have to put up with the parties when she’s actually here, but if she’s not even going to be here then why the hell do you have to still put up with it? So much for Julie’s sob story about going to turn over a new leaf after your talk. You’re annoyed and to top it off you’re still really hungry.

“Goddamnit all I wanted to do is get some food from the fucking kitchen…” you say.
“Did you want me to order a pizza for you?”
“I don’t have any money.”
“So? I got some money, I’ll be happy to buy you a pizza, I’ll get you a drink too.”

Actually you don’t have anything against Johnny’s offer, but you’re hesitant to accept.

“Johnny, I’ll accept your offer, BUT I don’t want YOU to get it in your head that I owe you something because of it.”
“Thought never crossed my mind.” Johnny says. He doesn’t even seem hurt by your implication.
“Okay. Sorry, I got a little authoritative there.”
“No, no, I get it. It’s smart for you to lay that out there immediately. Anyway I’ll call up the place and I’ll get it to you when it’s here. In the meantime you can go back and relax in your room if you wish.” Johnny says continuing to sweep.

“Oh. Um okay. Thanks. Hey, do you think we should call an ambulance for that guy on the floor?” you ask Johnny.
“Him? Nah, he’s fine. I actually checked him soon after I came in here. Really I would’ve rolled him over on his back, but with all the broken glass on the floor I probably would’ve done more harm. Anyway I got this, don’t worry.” Johnny says.

Well he might be a weird guy who seems creepy at times and is definitely stalking you a bit, but at least he’s helpful which is more that can be said for Julie who has seemingly just abandoned her own party. You try to call her up, but you get no answer, but you weren’t really expecting one anyway.

Still it is weird that she left. Julie’s always been irresponsible, but she’s like you in that she barely ever leaves the house. After all, why would she go get fucked, drunk and high elsewhere when she can do it right here?

In any case, she’ll probably be back, and you go back to wasting your time on the Internet. After a half hour passes and there’s a knock on the door.

“Pizza delivery.” Johnny says.
“Okay.” You answer and get up to open the door.
“Here you go. I ordered a standard pepperoni and cheese pizza and got you Coke. Hope that’s okay, since I forgot to ask what you like.”
“It’s fine. Thank you.”
“Alright then, I’ll leave you be.” Johnny says starting to leave.

You don’t know what it is about this guy but…

“Hey Johnny, did you want some pizza?”
“Huh? Oh, nah. I’m good. I ate a little earlier. I don’t tend to eat much anyway.”
“Hm, don’t eat much, don’t sleep much. You sure you’re human?” you half joke.

This causes an unusual guffaw of laughter that you didn’t expect from him.

“I sometimes wonder that myself.” He says still chuckling. “Enjoy the rest of your evening Suzy.”

Johnny once again disappears into the crowd in the living room and you lock your door.

The rest of your night is pretty much eating your pizza, drinking your coke, taking a quick shower and then eventually settling in for the night. You have no idea if the part is still going on outside, but the noise has decreased a little, so maybe it’s starting to wind down.

Well at least you don’t need to share your bed this time.
> Next day…
WEDNESDAY

You wake up to the hum of a vacuum passing the outside your door. You shake your head, because you know who that probably is.

You check your phone for the time and see that you’ve slept through the morning as usual and nobody has called.

As you go through your bathroom routine of brushing your teeth and such, you ponder on whether or not you should check how trashed the house is or just stay in your room and not deal with it.

Ultimately you decide to check despite not really wanting to. Besides Johnny is obviously out there and you’re going to have to do something about him.

You exit your room and find that the hallway is fairly clean and the hum of the vacuum is now coming from the living room.

“At it again are you Johnny?” you say walking into the living room. The living room is spotless and you notice that unlike the last time you don’t see anyone flopped out on the floor or sofa.

“Hi Suzy, did you sleep well last night?” Johnny asks while turning off the vacuum.
“Yeah. So did Julie ever come back?”
“Nope, I never saw her again. Guess she might’ve stayed the night somewhere else.”
“(Sigh) I see. Is there anyone else here?”
“Nope, you’ll be pleased to know that I eventually managed to kick everyone out of the house, of course some just left anyway, but I figured you’d be glad to not have your home resemble a flophouse when you woke up.”
“Wait, so are you telling me there’s nobody else here?”
“Nope, except me of course.”

That makes you feel a little uneasy.

“Uh…okay…” you say and start backing away a bit. You briefly wonder how fast you could run to the back door and escape and then you wonder if you could run into your room and grab that pistol that’s still in Julie’s dad’s desk.

Johnny already senses your distress.

“Shit. I’ve done it again. I’ve made you uncomfortable. I’m sorry Suzy, I just…I dunno. I don’t mean to be creepy, I just wanted to make things nice for you.” Johnny says and actually starts walking backwards from you in an effort to put you more at ease.

“Johnny, I know you mean well and I know that you like me, but like I said, I’m just not ready for anyone right now.”
“I know, I know, I know you said so before…but how can I win your heart if I don’t continue to try? Couldn’t we at least just talk more? I mean we really haven’t gotten to talk a lot one on one with just us around.” Johnny says.

“Johnny…” you start to say, but then you’re interrupted from something loud outside.
“What the hell…” Johnny says and walks over to one of the windows to peek.

“Holy shit, there’s a bunch of military guys, a couple of military trucks and even an A.P.C. coming down the street!” Johnny remarks.

At first you can’t believe him, but that soon disappears when a loudspeaker is heard.

“ATTENTION! THIS TOWN IS UNDER MARSHAL LAW AND THIS NEIGHBORHOOD IS NOW UNDER WATCH BY THE U.S. NATIONAL GUARD. A GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE WILL SOON VISIT ALL OF YOU AND ASSIST IN ANYTHING THAT YOU MAY NEED DURING THIS STATE OF EMERGENCY. STAY IN YOUR HOMES. DO NOT COME OUT FOR ANY REASON. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN THE USE OF LETHAL FORCE.”

Well that is certainly something you didn’t expect. You also don’t know what you’re going to do. Why is this town under marshal law? What the hell is going on?

While you’re not sure of why this is happening, Johnny has some thoughts on the matter though.

“Wow, I really hope this isn’t something serious, like some biological weapon or something…but then I’ve been watching the news while vacuuming and there’s been no emergency broadcast about such a thing or anything. Just those Ground Zero infomercials, which have been increasing as of late.”

Johnny turns back to you.

“Well anyway, I suppose one upside to all this. With us being stuck inside, we can talk and get to know each other better like I was suggesting before.” Johnny remarks.

While Johnny has been just slightly on the side of creepy there actually is no proof that he isn’t just someone that lacks proper social skills and is a bit head over heels for you. And considering your last boyfriend was going around sacrificing people and could be very outwardly charming and charismatic, the way someone acts isn’t necessarily who they really are deep down inside.

Maybe if you did get to know Johnny a bit better, you might feel different. Not ready to spread your legs different, but if you like what you hear he might actually make that step towards “winning your heart” as he put it. (Something about that phrase sounded so quaint that it actually was endearing)

“Oh…all right. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do at this point, but I’m warning you, don’t get the wrong impression. This isn’t a date or anything.” You say.
“No, no, I got it. I just want a chance that’s all.”

After you sit on the living room couch and motion that he sit in the chair you begin.
“Okay then…well what should we talk about first? It isn’t like I’m usually that much of a conversationalist myself.” You say.
“Well what do you like?” Johhny asks.

A general question, but a perfectly reasonable one for getting straight to the point on wanting to know more about someone.

The funny thing is there isn’t much about you to know. Since you don’t get out much, you don’t DO much. The only time you did get out a little more was when you were with Bobby, and you can’t very well talk about shit you did with your ex.

So you mention hobbies such as watching movies, playing games, and reading shit on the Internet. (You leave out masturbation) Sounds like a pretty dull life to the average person, but Johnny doesn’t seem to care.

“You don’t find what I said boring?” you ask.
“Simple perhaps, but I wouldn’t say boring. Are you happy?”
“Well I was happier when I could live in my basement and not have to deal with the rest of the world, and it would’ve been nicer to not have to put up with Kelly, but yeah I suppose I was happy just living like that.”
“Then that’s all that matters. Me? I’ve been sort of drifting from place to place ever since I left home. To be honest it would be nice to have some place to call a permanent home, but something always happens and I end up having to move on again. As you might aspect I’ve had several lines of employment, I’m not rich but I suppose I at least know a little bit of everything to make a living.”
“Sounds like you’ve had way more luck in that department at least. I’m flat broke and can’t even get a job. So why did you leave home in the first place?”
“It was time. Really don’t want to go back either. Not fond of the memories… so hey did you hear from your sister? I mean did she call or leave a message or something?” Johnny asks, changing the topic.
“Nope, and now with this marshal law thing going on, I’m a little concerned about her. Julie too. Who knows where the hell either of them are. I’m even wondering if I should call my brother Peter to see if things are all right with him, though I imagine he’s probably fine.”
“You have a brother too? Wow, two sisters and a brother. You have a big family.”
“I actually had an older brother Ben as well, but he died.”
“Oh? Sorry to hear that. Should I ask how?”
“He killed his family and then blew his brains out in our house.” You say.
“Wait…what? Why?” Johnny says a bit off guard.
“Well I wasn’t there for the final show, but he apparently thought the government was coming to get him and that it would be better if he killed his wife and son rather than they get captured and brainwashed. Something like that. He always was paranoid and just got worse as he got older.”
“I see. And you say there was no truth to his stories about the government?”
“Of course not.”
“Are you sure? I mean just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean that they aren’t still trying to get you.”
“Pretty sure if he was that much of a threat to the government they would’ve assassinated him long before he killed himself. And even if they were out to get him, there wasn’t any need for him to kill his wife and kid.”
“Well I guess I can just see it from his point of view. He genuinely believed in his mind that the government was going to get him and seeing it as a losing battle and not wanting to lose those he loved to the enemy, his act of killing them was out of love. Kind of romantic really.”

Johnny is so deadpan, you think he’s attempting some sort of dark humor, but you realize he’s being completely serious. Somehow you’re not really surprised.

“…yeah well I’m just glad he didn’t love me then…” you remark.
“I’m glad that’s the case too.” Johnny says with a smile.
“So what about you? You said you had a mother and an older sister.” You ask.
“Oh them. Eh, not much to tell I suppose. Like I said yesterday, your younger sister sounds very much like my older one, and your older sister sounds very much like my mother.”
“You mother participated in illegal underground fight clubs and roller derby races?”
“No. Wait, your sister really does all that?” Johnny asks.
“Yeah, so what makes your mom so bad?”
“Very domineering. Verbally abusive, sometimes physically. Emotionally too I guess.”
“What about your father?”
“Dunno, never knew him. Took off before I was born. My sister is only one year older than me, so she doesn’t remember him either. Just know that my mom hated his guts. Didn’t keep any pictures of him. What about yours?”
“Eh, he was a travelling lightning rod salesman, so it was like he was never home. When mom died of the flesh-eating virus though he was practically home all the time and just gradually drank himself to death over the years. Still wasn’t really there for any of us.”

Johnny nods and continues the conversation.

“After hearing about your family…I’m starting to wonder if I really had it all that bad and perhaps I just think I did.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well like I said, my mother was very domineering, but I pretty much did what my mom said. I mean I hate to say I was a mama’s boy, but I didn’t really step out of line compared to my sister.”
“Heh, sounds a little like me. Did pretty much what my mom told me too though she was the nicest one in my family. She probably was a little too sheltering of me though.”

You go on a bit more about your mother since you’re actually enjoying remembering the good times you did have with her. Johnny listens intently. Most of the time he looks like he’s displaying happiness because you’re mentioning positive memories, but sometimes you catch a glimpse of him looking away from you as if he’s in another place.

“She sounds like a very nice person and I can see where you get your kind qualities from. Sorry to hear that she died in such an awful way…just yet another example of how you’ve overcome so much hardship in your life.”

Now Johnny looks as if he’s completely gone to another place. He stares downward vacantly, if he was staring in your direction, you’d feel like he would be staring through you.

“Johnny? Johnny? You with me?” you say.

Takes him a few moments, but eventually he answers.

“I’m not feeling…myself… I should go.”
“What? Go? Where are you going to go? Are you sick?”

Once again Johnny doesn’t answer right away.

“Yes.” He answers.

The monotone voice he answers with, isn’t exactly relaxing and you get the strong impression when he acknowledged that he’s sick, he didn’t mean physically.

He starts to get up, and he wobbles a bit. At first you think maybe he is physically sick, but then he also said he was tired. Considering he was cleaning up earlier, he probably never went home and stayed up all night again.

“Johnny you can’t go out there, especially in your condition. The National Guard is out there, remember?”
“I’m not worried about some weekend warriors, I can be stealthy when I want to be. I’m just glad you gave me a chance Suzy, but I fear I’ve wasted your time. I’m sorry.” Johnny says and then attempts to walk out the front door, but his balance isn’t the best.

You aren’t sure what’s going on with Johnny right now, but it’s even weirder than usual.
> You let him leave
As much you don’t necessarily relish the idea of possibly sending a man to his death, he’s not your responsibility and it’s already weird he’s been sticking around when there isn’t anyone else here maybe it would be best if you let him leave especially if he’s implying that he’s mentally ill.

Besides if he claims he can sneak past the National Guard, then who are you to disbelieve him.

“Okay, but you probably should go out the backdoor at least.” You say.
“Yeah, good idea. You’re so thoughtful to look out for my well being. I just wish…things could’ve been different…” Johhny says and starts stumbling back towards the kitchen.

You follow Johnny just to make sure he doesn’t fall or something similar. When you reach the kitchen you’re impressed with how clean it is. You’d never know there was a drunk fool lying on a broken table yesterday.

“How the hell did you get this so clean?” you ask.
“Oh, I’m very (yawn) good at cleaning. Always have been. There’s also some pizza and another drink for you in the fridge. I got an (yawn) extra one yesterday in case you got hungry today. Don’t worry, I made sure nobody touched it.”
“Wow Johnny, that was pretty thoughtful. Thank you.”
“No problem. I just hope someone will be as good to you as you deserve. Goodbye Suzy.” Johnny says and walks out the backdoor.

You walk to the door and peer out the window to see if he’s going to jump the fence, but you see him walk around the house. You hope he isn’t going to try to go through the front gate again and is just going to cut through a neighbor’s yard.

You run back to a couple of other rooms peering out windows, but you don’t see him anymore. You look out one of the front windows and he’s not out there either. He must’ve already made his escape you guess or at least you hope so.

Lacking any other ideas of what to do at this particular time, you grab the pizza and drink from the fridge and head back to your room. You also attempt to call up Donna, Julie and even Peter to see if you can find out more information on their situations, but you get no answer from any of them.

After passing some time on your laptop, you suddenly hear a loud banging on a door.
Not the door to your room, but somewhere in the house. Upon exiting your room, it sounds like its coming from the front door.

You remember that the loudspeaker from earlier did say there was going to be a government representative coming to visit the houses in the neighborhood.

You head to the living room and look through the door window and see a well-dressed man and one soldier at the door.

Since you get the impression the government will most likely just break the door down if you don’t answer the best thing you can do is be polite and accommodating.

You grab the handle…

“Greetings miss. I’m Mr. Zoll and I’ve been assigned to be the government representative for this area. May we come in?” Mr. Zoll asks, though it’s pretty obvious that this is more of a polite formality rather than asking permission.
“Of course.” You answer and let Mr. Zoll and his soldier companion in.

Mr. Zoll sits on the chair while his soldier buddy stands nearby and you sit on the other side of the couch and ask what all this is about.

“My name’s Suzy, so how can we help exactly?” you ask.
“Well, before we start I know this isn’t an ideal situation. You’re probably already concerned about what’s going on and why this town is under marshal law in the first place.” Mr. Zoll answers.
“It is all a bit worrying.” You reply.
“I’m sure. Unfortunately I can’t talk about it too much, however I’m sure you’re aware that this town has experienced a vast increase in criminal activity and rioting. More than your police force can handle. So until we get the situation under control again, we’re here to stay.”
“Well I certainly can understand that. I haven’t experienced any criminal activity in this neighborhood though, well at least not to my knowledge.”
“Hmm, yes this is one of the quieter ones. Some places I’m hearing about are pretty bad. Anyway I’d like to ask a few questions before deciding if we need to search this house further.”
“Oh. Um, okay then. I have nothing to hide.”
“Good glad to… hear it.” Mr. Zoll says.
“So do you own this place?”
“My friend Julie does.”
“Oh? You’re not the owner? Where is this Julie?”
“Uh, don’t know. She skipped out on her own party yesterday and never came back home. She’s a bit of a free spirit.”
“Hmmm…” Mr. Zoll says and begins to write something down.
“Why are you writing? Did I say something wrong? I mean not that I meant to say anything is wrong, that is. Everything is just fine! Ha ha.”

Mr. Zoll’s staring and questioning makes you nervous and now Mr. Zoll is looking at you a bit mistrustfully. He thinks something is wrong and now that you’re shifting a bit uncomfortably, he starts to think you’re covering up something even though you aren’t!

“Okay, you know what. I think it’ll be easier to just give a brief search of the house.” Mr. Zoll says standing up to say.
“Um, all right then. I have nothing to hide as I said.” You say.

Mr. Zoll tells his man to go take a quick look through all the rooms while the two of you stay in the living room. The soldier nods and follows his orders. He first goes upstairs and looks through. You half expect him to find a stash of drugs in Julie or Donna’s room, but he either doesn’t or that isn’t their primary concern.

Next the soldier comes back downstairs and searches the ground floor, but once again finds nothing that is going to get you into trouble.

“Searched everywhere sir, well except the basement.” The soldier says when he comes back.
“Well you might as well search that too.” Mr. Zoll remarks.

The soldier nods and heads back towards the hallway. You hear the door open to the basement and then a few footsteps going down and then nothing.

You and Mr. Zoll sit in silence for a while. You don’t say anything, in fact you don’t even look in his direction for fear of giving Mr. Zoll an excuse to do something else which might not be as pleasant as a simple search.

“Where the hell is he…shouldn’t be taking this long… Jacobs! Jacobs! Did you find anything?! Because if not, we’ve got other houses to go to!” Mr. Zoll shouts.

There is no answer. Mr. Zoll calls again and still nothing. Mr. Zoll looks at you as if it’s your fault.

“Is there someone down there?” Mr. Zoll asks.
“What? No! I mean isn’t your man Jacobs the only one down there?” you say nervously.
“That’s what I’m asking you…let’s go find out shall we?” Mr. Zoll says and then turns your nervousness into flat out fear by suddenly pulling out a pistol from his suit pocket.

You put up your hands and attempt to say you have no idea what’s going on, but Mr. Zoll won’t hear it, he’s convinced you’re hiding someone in the basement and you’re going first down there. He also tells you to be completely quiet and not make any fuss or else he’s just going to shoot you on the spot and have a squad come in and burn this place to the ground.

Meekly you comply and you head towards the basement with Mr. Zoll pointing his gun at you from behind.

You reach the bottom of the stairs and you notice blood on the floor nearby and then suddenly a knife is plunged into your throat from an arm around the corner.

You fall to the floor in what almost feels like slow motion as you gurgle your last words and breathe your last breaths.

With your last vision from the cold basement floor, you think you see Johnny standing over you. You can’t hear him, but he’s obvious upset when he sees you. Then you see a burst of blood come out of his head and then you feel the heavy weight of his body collapse on top of you before the darkness envelopes your world.


WEDNESDAY

You wake up to the hum of a vacuum passing the outside your door. You shake your head, because you know who that probably is.

You check your phone for the time and see that you’ve slept through the morning as usual and nobody has called.

As you go through your bathroom routine of brushing your teeth and such, you ponder on whether or not you should check how trashed the house is or just stay in your room and not deal with it.

Ultimately you decide to check despite not really wanting to. Besides Johnny is obviously out there and you’re going to have to do something about him.

You exit your room and find that the hallway is fairly clean and the hum of the vacuum is now coming from the living room.

“At it again are you Johnny?” you say walking into the living room. The living room is spotless and you notice that unlike the last time you don’t see anyone flopped out on the floor or sofa.

“Hi Suzy, did you sleep well last night?” Johnny asks while turning off the vacuum.
“Yeah. So did Julie ever come back?”
“Nope, I never saw her again. Guess she might’ve stayed the night somewhere else.”
“(Sigh) I see. Is there anyone else here?”
“Nope, you’ll be pleased to know that I eventually managed to kick everyone out of the house, of course some just left anyway, but I figured you’d be glad to not have your home resemble a flophouse when you woke up.”
“Wait, so are you telling me there’s nobody else here?”
“Nope, except me of course.”

That makes you feel a little uneasy.

“Uh…okay…” you say and start backing away a bit. You briefly wonder how fast you could run to the back door and escape and then you wonder if you could run into your room and grab that pistol that’s still in Julie’s dad’s desk.

Johnny already senses your distress.

“Shit. I’ve done it again. I’ve made you uncomfortable. I’m sorry Suzy, I just…I dunno. I don’t mean to be creepy, I just wanted to make things nice for you.” Johnny says and actually starts walking backwards from you in an effort to put you more at ease.

“Johnny, I know you mean well and I know that you like me, but like I said, I’m just not ready for anyone right now.”
“I know, I know, I know you said so before…but how can I win your heart if I don’t continue to try? Couldn’t we at least just talk more? I mean we really haven’t gotten to talk a lot one on one with just us around.” Johnny says.

“Johnny…” you start to say, but then you’re interrupted from something loud outside.
“What the hell…” Johnny says and walks over to one of the windows to peek.

“Holy shit, there’s a bunch of military guys, a couple of military trucks and even an A.P.C. coming down the street!” Johnny remarks.

At first you can’t believe him, but that soon disappears when a loudspeaker is heard.

“ATTENTION! THIS TOWN IS UNDER MARSHAL LAW AND THIS NEIGHBORHOOD IS NOW UNDER WATCH BY THE U.S. NATIONAL GUARD. A GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE WILL SOON VISIT ALL OF YOU AND ASSIST IN ANYTHING THAT YOU MAY NEED DURING THIS STATE OF EMERGENCY. STAY IN YOUR HOMES. DO NOT COME OUT FOR ANY REASON. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN THE USE OF LETHAL FORCE.”

Well that is certainly something you didn’t expect. You also don’t know what you’re going to do. Why is this town under marshal law? What the hell is going on?

While you’re not sure of why this is happening, Johnny has some thoughts on the matter though.

“Wow, I really hope this isn’t something serious, like some biological weapon or something…but then I’ve been watching the news while vacuuming and there’s been no emergency broadcast about such a thing or anything. Just those Ground Zero infomercials, which have been increasing as of late.”

Johnny turns back to you.

“Well anyway, I suppose one upside to all this. With us being stuck inside, we can talk and get to know each other better like I was suggesting before.” Johnny remarks.

While Johnny has been just slightly on the side of creepy there actually is no proof that he isn’t just someone that lacks proper social skills and is a bit head over heels for you. And considering your last boyfriend was going around sacrificing people and could be very outwardly charming and charismatic, the way someone acts isn’t necessarily who they really are deep down inside.

Maybe if you did get to know Johnny a bit better, you might feel different. Not ready to spread your legs different, but if you like what you hear he might actually make that step towards “winning your heart” as he put it. (Something about that phrase sounded so quaint that it actually was endearing)

“Oh…all right. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do at this point, but I’m warning you, don’t get the wrong impression. This isn’t a date or anything.” You say.
“No, no, I got it. I just want a chance that’s all.”

After you sit on the living room couch and motion that he sit in the chair you begin.
“Okay then…well what should we talk about first? It isn’t like I’m usually that much of a conversationalist myself.” You say.
“Well what do you like?” Johhny asks.

A general question, but a perfectly reasonable one for getting straight to the point on wanting to know more about someone.

The funny thing is there isn’t much about you to know. Since you don’t get out much, you don’t DO much. The only time you did get out a little more was when you were with Bobby, and you can’t very well talk about shit you did with your ex.

So you mention hobbies such as watching movies, playing games, and reading shit on the Internet. (You leave out masturbation) Sounds like a pretty dull life to the average person, but Johnny doesn’t seem to care.

“You don’t find what I said boring?” you ask.
“Simple perhaps, but I wouldn’t say boring. Are you happy?”
“Well I was happier when I could live in my basement and not have to deal with the rest of the world, and it would’ve been nicer to not have to put up with Kelly, but yeah I suppose I was happy just living like that.”
“Then that’s all that matters. Me? I’ve been sort of drifting from place to place ever since I left home. To be honest it would be nice to have some place to call a permanent home, but something always happens and I end up having to move on again. As you might aspect I’ve had several lines of employment, I’m not rich but I suppose I at least know a little bit of everything to make a living.”
“Sounds like you’ve had way more luck in that department at least. I’m flat broke and can’t even get a job. So why did you leave home in the first place?”
“It was time. Really don’t want to go back either. Not fond of the memories… so hey did you hear from your sister? I mean did she call or leave a message or something?” Johnny asks, changing the topic.
“Nope, and now with this marshal law thing going on, I’m a little concerned about her. Julie too. Who knows where the hell either of them are. I’m even wondering if I should call my brother Peter to see if things are all right with him, though I imagine he’s probably fine.”
“You have a brother too? Wow, two sisters and a brother. You have a big family.”
“I actually had an older brother Ben as well, but he died.”
“Oh? Sorry to hear that. Should I ask how?”
“He killed his family and then blew his brains out in our house.” You say.
“Wait…what? Why?” Johnny says a bit off guard.
“Well I wasn’t there for the final show, but he apparently thought the government was coming to get him and that it would be better if he killed his wife and son rather than they get captured and brainwashed. Something like that. He always was paranoid and just got worse as he got older.”
“I see. And you say there was no truth to his stories about the government?”
“Of course not.”
“Are you sure? I mean just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean that they aren’t still trying to get you.”
“Pretty sure if he was that much of a threat to the government they would’ve assassinated him long before he killed himself. And even if they were out to get him, there wasn’t any need for him to kill his wife and kid.”
“Well I guess I can just see it from his point of view. He genuinely believed in his mind that the government was going to get him and seeing it as a losing battle and not wanting to lose those he loved to the enemy, his act of killing them was out of love. Kind of romantic really.”

Johnny is so deadpan, you think he’s attempting some sort of dark humor, but you realize he’s being completely serious. Somehow you’re not really surprised.

“…yeah well I’m just glad he didn’t love me then…” you remark.
“I’m glad that’s the case too.” Johnny says with a smile.
“So what about you? You said you had a mother and an older sister.” You ask.
“Oh them. Eh, not much to tell I suppose. Like I said yesterday, your younger sister sounds very much like my older one, and your older sister sounds very much like my mother.”
“You mother participated in illegal underground fight clubs and roller derby races?”
“No. Wait, your sister really does all that?” Johnny asks.
“Yeah, so what makes your mom so bad?”
“Very domineering. Verbally abusive, sometimes physically. Emotionally too I guess.”
“What about your father?”
“Dunno, never knew him. Took off before I was born. My sister is only one year older than me, so she doesn’t remember him either. Just know that my mom hated his guts. Didn’t keep any pictures of him. What about yours?”
“Eh, he was a travelling lightning rod salesman, so it was like he was never home. When mom died of the flesh-eating virus though he was practically home all the time and just gradually drank himself to death over the years. Still wasn’t really there for any of us.”

Johnny nods and continues the conversation.

“After hearing about your family…I’m starting to wonder if I really had it all that bad and perhaps I just think I did.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well like I said, my mother was very domineering, but I pretty much did what my mom said. I mean I hate to say I was a mama’s boy, but I didn’t really step out of line compared to my sister.”
“Heh, sounds a little like me. Did pretty much what my mom told me too though she was the nicest one in my family. She probably was a little too sheltering of me though.”

You go on a bit more about your mother since you’re actually enjoying remembering the good times you did have with her. Johnny listens intently. Most of the time he looks like he’s displaying happiness because you’re mentioning positive memories, but sometimes you catch a glimpse of him looking away from you as if he’s in another place.

“She sounds like a very nice person and I can see where you get your kind qualities from. Sorry to hear that she died in such an awful way…just yet another example of how you’ve overcome so much hardship in your life.”

Now Johnny looks as if he’s completely gone to another place. He stares downward vacantly, if he was staring in your direction, you’d feel like he would be staring through you.

“Johnny? Johnny? You with me?” you say.

Takes him a few moments, but eventually he answers.

“I’m not feeling…myself… I should go.”
“What? Go? Where are you going to go? Are you sick?”

Once again Johnny doesn’t answer right away.

“Yes.” He answers.

The monotone voice he answers with, isn’t exactly relaxing and you get the strong impression when he acknowledged that he’s sick, he didn’t mean physically.

He starts to get up, and he wobbles a bit. At first you think maybe he is physically sick, but then he also said he was tired. Considering he was cleaning up earlier, he probably never went home and stayed up all night again.

“Johnny you can’t go out there, especially in your condition. The National Guard is out there, remember?”
“I’m not worried about some weekend warriors, I can be stealthy when I want to be. I’m just glad you gave me a chance Suzy, but I fear I’ve wasted your time. I’m sorry.” Johnny says and then attempts to walk out the front door, but his balance isn’t the best.

You aren’t sure what’s going on with Johnny right now, but it’s even weirder than usual.
> You insist that he stay
Weird or not, you’re not going to just let him potentially get shot.

“Johnny! You can’t go out the front door! Look, just lie down on the couch okay? You can sleep here. It’ll be all right.” You say getting up and grabbing his arm.

Johnny stares at your hand and then at your face.

“Do you mean it?” Johnny asks.
“Of course, I can’t let you go out there and get shot. I mean if you still want to leave then at least wait until its night and you’ve had some sleep.” You answer.
“You’re so…so perfect…” Johnny remarks and starts to head back towards the couch.

You help Johnny back to the couch, and when he lies down he falls asleep almost immediately.

“I…love you Suzy…” he says as he drifts off.

Well there was nothing ambiguous about that. You start wondering if you should have your head examined for possibly enabling a possibly mentally unstable guy who’s more than a little obsessed with you.

“(Sigh) What the hell is wrong with you Suzy? First it was a cultist, now it’s this stalker. Are you deliberately picking crazy people as potential boyfriend material?” you say to yourself.

You stand over Johnny watching him sleep for more than a few minutes trying to figure out where you actually stand with this guy. As you do so you never noticed how cute he really is before. It’s true that he’s somewhat average looking, but maybe it’s due to him being in a more vulnerable position that he’s coming off as more attractive and not creepy.

Not knowing what else to do, you turn down the TV (Which is blaring a Ground Zero infomercial as usual) and leave Johnny to sleep. You stop in the kitchen first in the hopes of maybe finding food before returning to your own room.

“Wow, this place was a mess last night. How the hell did he get it so clean?” you say as the kitchen is indeed much tidier without drunken fools and broken tables lying on the floor.

When you open up the refrigerator, you surprisingly find another pizza box, which has been marked with a note saying “Property of Suzy, don’t touch!” Johnny must’ve ordered another one for you last night in case you got hungry later. That was pretty thoughtful, but what surprises you even more is its completely intact.

“He probably was acting like a guard dog all night near the refrigerator in case someone tried to eat it.” You laugh to yourself.

Grabbing cold pizza and an unopened drink you head back to your room and lock the door.

Still wondering about them, you call up Julie, Donna and even Peter, but you get no answer from any of them.

Just as you briefly pondering about calling Kelly too, you hear a loud banging on a door. Not the door to your room, but somewhere in the house. Upon exiting your room, it sounds like its coming from the front door.

You remember that the loudspeaker from earlier did say there was going to be a government representative coming to visit the houses in the neighborhood.

You enter the living room and find Johnny awake again. He still looks pretty tired.

“Wha…what’s going on?” he asks, rubbing his eyes.
“I think it’s the government rep.” you say, then you run over to the door and check through a window and see a well dressed man and one soldier at the door. You grab the handle…

“Wait, you’re just going to let them in?” Johnny asks.
“Well I doubt if they’re going to just go away. What can we do? Barricade ourselves in until they bash the door down? I don’t like it either, but it isn’t like we have too many options. Besides I don’t have anything to hide, do you?”
“No.” Johnny replies.
“Well there you go then, we might even be able to find out some answers too.”

You open up the door.

“Greetings miss. I’m Mr. Zoll and I’ve been assigned to be the government representative for this area. May we come in?” Mr. Zoll asks, though it’s pretty obvious that this is more of a polite formality rather than asking permission.
“Of course.” You answer and let Mr. Zoll and his soldier companion in.

When you turn around you see that Johnny is sitting up on the couch, but is propping his head up on the armrest. He’s still really sleepy so you’re not surprised to see a bit of a scowl from him. You just hope the others don’t take it the wrong way, but you figure as long as you’re polite and upfront, you shouldn’t have too many problems.

Mr. Zoll sits on the chair while his soldier buddy stands nearby (eyeing Johnny mostly) you sit on the other side of the couch with a space between you and Johnny and ask what all this is about.

“My name’s Suzy, and that’s Johnny over there. So how can we help exactly?” you ask.
“Well, before we start I know this isn’t an ideal situation. You’re probably already concerned about what’s going on and why this town is under marshal law in the first place.” Mr. Zoll answers.
“It is all a bit worrying.” You reply.
“I’m sure. Unfortunately I can’t talk about it too much, however I’m sure you’re aware that this town has experienced a vast increase in criminal activity and rioting. More than your police force can handle. So until we get the situation under control again, we’re here to stay.”
“Well we certainly can understand that. We haven’t experienced any criminal activity in this neighborhood though, well at least not to my knowledge.”
“Hmm, yes this is one of the quieter ones. Some places I’m hearing about are pretty bad. Anyway I’d like to ask a few questions before deciding if we need to search this house further.”
“Oh. Um, okay then. We have nothing to hide.”
“Good glad to… hear it.” Mr. Zoll says glancing over at Johnny who is still alternating between being sleepy and unhappy about being awake.
“So which one of you owns this place?”
“My friend Julie.”
“Oh? Neither of you are the owner? Where is this Julie?”
“Uh, don’t know. She skipped out on her own party yesterday and never came back home. Isn’t that what you said Johnny?”
“Hrm. Yeah.” Johnny mumbles.
“I see…” Mr. Zoll says studying Johnny though you don’t know why. It’s making you nervous though.

“Is this man your boyfriend?” Mr. Zoll suddenly asks.
“Um…yes! Yes he is. He hasn’t had much sleep. You see we had a party last night and he stayed up late cleaning up. He really shouldn’t have, but that’s just how he is!” you nervously laugh being completely caught off guard by the question.

In your mind you already are regretting saying that since you’ve sent out more than enough mixed messages to Johnny. Though when you look over at Johnny he doesn’t make any facial signs of a positive or negative nature, he’s too busy on struggling to stay awake.

Mr. Zoll is now looking at you a bit mistrustfully. He thinks something is wrong and now that you’re shifting a bit uncomfortably, he starts to think you’re covering up something even though you aren’t!

“Okay, you know what. I think it’ll be easier to just give a brief search of the house.” Mr. Zoll says standing up to say.
“Um, all right then. We have nothing to hide as I said.” You say. Johnny slightly awakens a bit at this remark, but otherwise he continues to say nothing.

Mr. Zoll tells his man to go take a quick look through all the rooms while the three of you stay in the living room. The soldier nods and follows his orders. He first goes upstairs and looks through. You half expect him to find a stash of drugs in Julie or Donna’s room, but he either doesn’t or that isn’t their primary concern.

Next the soldier comes back downstairs and searches the ground floor, but once again finds nothing that is going to get you into trouble. Johnny briefly turns his head to watch the soldier as he moves back and forth up and down the hallway.

“Searched everywhere sir, well except the basement.” The soldier says when he comes back.
“Well you might as well search that too.” Mr. Zoll remarks.

The soldier nods and heads back towards the hallway. Johnny doesn’t look at the soldier this time, he just closes his eyes.

You hear the door open to the basement and then a few footsteps going down, then all of a sudden…

“Oh shit! That basement has a bad step!” Johnny exclaims and goes running down the hallway and shouts at the soldier.

Mr. Zoll gets up and starts to yell at Johnny to come back and you call out to him as well. This is soon followed by both the soldier and Johnny yelling and then the sound of someone falling down the stairs.

At this point you and Mr. Zoll both run towards the basement and there you see Johnny in the stairwell and the soldier crumpled in a heap at the bottom. His neck doesn’t look like it’s supposed to be twisted that way.

“I…I tried to stop him from falling…” Johnny exclaims looking distressed.
“His fucking neck is broken! I can see it from here! You killed him!”
“I didn’t! I tried to save him! I shouted about the step!”
“Bullshit! And YOU’RE lying too!” Mr. Zoll says pointing to you as well. “Something fishy is going on here and I dunno what it is, but BOTH of you are going to pay for it!”

Mr. Zoll reaches for something in his suit pocket…

Panic washes over you and it’s in situations like this that sometimes people either freeze up or make a rash decision.
> You do nothing
The panic is overwhelming and you completely freeze up. Even when Mr. Zoll pulls a pistol out of his pocket you still do nothing. It’s like the next few moments are in slow motion to you.

You watch Johnny attempt to run up the stairs, but Mr. Zoll turns quickly and fires two shots, one in Johnny’s chest and another in his head. Johnny falls backwards down the stairs and his body falls in heap on top of the dead soldier.

You don’t even scream when seeing this, but your crippling frozen panic ends and you instantly make a run for it. Mr. Zoll attempt to grab you, but you’re too fast.

You actually get to the front door before you hear Mr. Zoll tell you to halt or he’ll fire. You can’t stop though, you’re too afraid for your life.

Upon opening the door, you feel a piece of hot lead going into your back and then another.

You slump face first onto the front porch. Tears in your eyes and screaming from the pain you attempt to drag yourself forward, but it’s all for naught. Mr. Zoll casually walks up to you and ends your suffering with a final bullet to the head.