Marcus heard the deadbolt click back, and he rushed through the door the moment it opened for him. He scurried around behind Malakai, and backed away from the door, watching carefully with fear that something else would come through. Nothing did though, and Malakai closed the door as soon he was done looking.<br/><br/>"Holy shit," Marcus said, placing his hands on his knees out of relief. "You're alive! I didn't think- I mean I was pretty sure but I didn't know-"<br/><br/>"Just how the fuck did you even<b>get</b>here Marcus?" Malakai interrupted.<br/><br/>"I was in a trashcan dawg! Had to hide from a couple of them motherfuckers for a while," the man nonchalantly lifted his armpit and took a quick whiff. "I didn't see none b'fore then to be honest..."<br/><br/>Marcus paused for a moment to take in his surroundings. The apartment was certainly in a state of disarray, but he wasn't sure if it was always like this, or if the mess was recent. He had never actually been inside Malakai's apartment before. The only reason he knew where the DJ lived was from the handful of times they carpooled somewhere, or took the same Uber to the bars.<br/><br/>Marcus turned to the TV, seeing the same broadcast he'd seen a number of times over already. They were just playing a recording, telling everyone to stay indoors until the military arrived. There hadn't been an actual, live broadcast in days. The news stations had shut down from the chaos, and the fact that it was just too dangerous to report from the field. In addition, there just simply wasn't any new information available to report upon. Local stations had tried to keep citizens informed in the area, on places to avoid and military movements, but with the constant outages it was getting harder and harder to regularly gather that info without journalsts  physically risking themselves, and the information changed too rapidly to be of any serious use anyway.<br/><br/>Marcus turned his attention away from the screen when his friend handed him a beer. "Thanks man," he said, taking the bottle. Marcus took off his backpack and made himself at home by dropping onto the couch. He cracked open the beverage with a bottle opener on his keyring.<br/><br/>"I'm not about to go running out there right now, Marcus.. Not until I get a more firm grasp on the situation."<br/><br/>"Yeah, good luck with that," Marcus sighed, "cause ain't no one know what the fuck is happening out there right now. And this repeat broadcast sure as hell ain't gonna tell you anything it hasn't already." He took a swig of the beer. It tasted a little off and flat, probably from the back and forth temperature changes in the fridge thanks to the power fluctuations.<br/><br/>Marcus glaced over at the counter, with Malakai's medication laid out haphazardly. "Hey, you doin alright dawg?" He asked his friend, "You ain't taking none of them Ghentu pills are you? Apparently they traced the source of this shitstorm back to that company. Said a bunch of their medicine was making people psycho."