Treasures of the Apocalypse
It had been days now… not a sound other than the odd moan or cry coming from God-alone-knows-where. There were no vehicles passing, no delivery man whistling, not even a bloody dog barking. Joss knew that if there was still a lapdog alive somewhere that the owners would be hiding it, trying to keep it safe.
Her own hands bore the results of this terrible virus, this ‘thing’ that hit them out of the blue and caused the carnage which was now visible all over the world. After months of suffering and trying to stop this flesh-eating monster virus the world had given up and accepted that some will recover and survive and others will not. It became a fact of life. Even funeral homes and gravediggers gave up and the survivors were left to bury or burn their dead. Joss had her share of that, first her grandmother, then her father and her cousin. Her mother had passed from cancer ten years before and her brother left for the military a few months before the virus hit. Joss had no idea whether her brother, Abel, was still alive or not. If he was, he was most likely kept busy trying to stop the widespread looting and other crimes, a losing battle, if ever there was one.
Joss herself had to forage for food and had no qualms or conscience about entering a deserted store looking for something to eat. The store had already been looted but she was lucky enough to find a packet of biscuits and a few packets of crisps. Behind the counter she found a single bottle of water, still sealed and thus hopefully safe to drink.
Her meagre stash did not last long and soon she had to leave her apartment again. It was becoming dangerous to venture outside. The only other person still alive in their building, Jason Albert, ‘entertained’ her a few times with stories of filthy pock-marked people jumping at him when he ventured out to find supplies, but not once was he caring enough to want to share what he found with her, nor was he brave enough to offer to accompany her on her own foraging trips.
Joss was happy not to see anybody when she first poked her head around the front door of the apartment building. The streets were littered with debris and the only things stirring were loose papers in the breeze. She knew that the supermarket was a waste of time as it had been cleaned out weeks before, as was the corner store and café where she found her previous stash. The only remaining options were private homes, those belonging to people who did not make it…
Very few homes still had electricity, but here and there were still a few lights burning. Joss decided to avoid those.
It felt strange entering a stranger’s home without invitation. Joss could also not be sure that the house was in fact deserted, thus she opted to knock on the door. Even her gentle, rather hesitant knock echoed and she let out a ‘shit’ under her breath.
Not hearing anything on the other side, she said a quick prayer before turning the doorknob. As if there was someone or something listening to her, the knob turned in her hand and with a click the door sprung open.
It was immediately clear to Joss that the home belonged to a rather affluent family. Regardless of the layers of dust, the quality of the furnishings still showed. From the corner of her eye she caught a sudden tiny flash of light. Joss stopped herself from yelling out and slowly turned towards the little red light, sighing with relief as she realized that it was only the pilot light of a huge flat screen television set. With that realization came the next one, namely that if the power was still on there would most likely also be some unspoiled food in the refrigerator. By now Joss knew that hunger can indeed overpower rational thought, but it took only a few steps out of the lounge area for Joss to realize that something was ‘off’ in this house and everything was not as it seemed.
Standing at the end of a long corridor Joss realized that the dust was not as equally and evenly distributed along the corridor as it was in the front of the house. Something or someone had moved along that corridor recently.
“Hello! Is there anybody here?”
Joss’ voice echoed down the corridor. No answer came, but while listening Joss realized that she could hear water dripping, most likely from a bathroom or kitchen tap. Moving slowly and quietly Joss made her way towards the sound. She was right though, mud coloured water was dripping from a bath tap.
Leaving the bathroom Joss could see the other end of the corridor opening out into a large space, most likely a family or games room of some sort and most likely the best direction in which to look for a kitchen.
The kitchen was vast and kitted out to befit a world class chef. Well, as Joss was unaware who’s house it was, it could very well have belonged to a chef… Joss could not believe her luck, but as she made her way to the row of fridges she noticed the numerous pieces of rotting but obviously half eaten fruit and foodstuffs littering the counters and even the floor in places. She found it odd as, like herself, a thief would most likely take what he wanted and left with it. Could it mean that there was still someone in the house? If that was the case Joss was not sure whether she would, or could, steal from them as they most likely needed whatever was left of the food as much as she did. Without giving it a second thought Joss turned on her heel and headed back down the corridor.
Shivering slightly and with a tight grip on the baseball bat she picked up along the way, Joss opened the first door. The room obviously belonged to a young boy. The bed was still covered in a Spiderman duvet set and numerous toy cars and planes littered the floor. Joss used the bat to lift the end of the duvet. There was no one hiding under the bed.
The next door opened onto a study. The laptop was off, but still open. The one wall was lined with books and files and on a coffee table were photographs of a happy family, a father, a mother and two children, a boy and a girl. Joss felt tears welling up and quickly closed the door.
For some reason the next door was difficult to open. Bending down to have a proper look Joss could not see a key in the door and trying the handle again she realized that it was not locked as the handle moved easily, however pushing the door again it moved but an inch before it refused to budge further. Joss realized that something on the inside prevented the door from moving. Once again she put her eye to the keyhole, but all she could see was a small portion of a pink wall.
“Hey, is there anybody in here? It’s okay, you can come out, I won’t hurt you…”
Joss could not hear a thing, but just as she was about to straighten out she could swear she heard a panting of some sort. With her heart beating wildly she pushed against the door again, this time putting her whole weight behind it. At first it moved only slightly, then it flung open unexpectedly. Joss lost her balance, but straightened herself just enough not to fall right on top of a dog, a golden retriever, which was now baring his teeth right in her face.
“It’s okay, it’s okay…” Joss held out her upturned palms for the dog to sniff while staying in place, not daring to move. Finally, the dog dropped his lip, but a low growl still came from his throat.
“It’s okay boy, it’s okay…” Joss was not sure whether she could move or not, but turned her head slightly in an effort to take in the rest of the room. It soon became clear that one of those wedge shaped doorstoppers was the reason why she struggled to open the door and no dog could have moved it under the door.
With her eye still on the dog Joss called out again.
“It’s okay, you can come out, I won’t hurt you.”
A cupboard door creaked, and a tiny dishevelled creature emerged. The little girl was not more than five or six, her face covered in grime, her hair a tangled mess. Seeing the kid, the dog once again bared his teeth at Joss.
“Stop it Rover!” The little girl touched the back of the dog’s neck.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Joss could see the healed marks on the little girl’s hands, marks similar to those on her own body.
“Where is your family? Where is your mommy and daddy? Are you alone?”
It had turned dark by the time Joss managed to get the girl to tell her story. She was woken up by her father one morning and told to stay in her room. He left her there with her toys, chocolate milk and some cookies. When eventually she got bored and her father had not returned, she tiptoed to her parents’ bedroom. There she saw her mother and brother, covered in oozing sores, laying on her parents’ double bed. She returned to her room, but later as she heard her father in the corridor she peeked out again and saw him carrying her mother down the corridor and out the door. She waited for her father to return but he didn’t.
As time went by she noticed sores on her own hands and body. It itched and burned and she felt like crying, but her dog stayed with her, licking her wounds and bringing her titbits from the kitchen. After a few days she was well enough to venture into the kitchen herself where there was still enough food so she could feed the both of them.
She had tried to go outside a few times but Rover would not let her and kept pulling her back by grabbing onto her clothes.
How long she had been on her own in the house, the kid could not say. Once or twice someone tried to enter the house, but each time Rover managed to chase them off, why he did not do so this time, the little girl could also not tell.
The girl told Joss that her name was Marly, short for Marilyn and that she was indeed five years old. Over a bowl of dry breakfast cereal, she also told Joss that her brother was eight, that her father was an accountant and her mother an actress. Joss asked whether she knew about other family and the little girl told her that she had grandparents, but that the cell phones in the home had stopped working by the time she decided to try and call them.
Joss had come looking for food but knew that she had now found more than that, she now had a newly found responsibility, or responsibilities to be precise. Joss, the young woman who said that she did not want children or pets one day as she wanted to be free to travel, now had a child and a dog that she could not leave behind at a whim. Somehow the idea now appealed to her and that night as she lay in a freshly made bed, with the warm body of a little girl snuggled close to her own and a large yellow dog at the foot of their bed, she knew why it may not be such a bad idea to stick to this kid and her pet.
“Yes, indeed, it took a pandemic to change Joss Murray’s mind and heart.” she whispered into the darkness before she to fell asleep.
Cope right
Lynne Lexow