I move over to what looks like a pantry and open the door, finding rows of canned food. “Sin! Food! There’s food we can eat! Come here!”
He runs in, shushing me. “Reese, you cannot raise your voice. These walls are paper thin and they will hear you.”
“Sorry, but look.” I point inside of the pantry. Sin moves past me and immediately tears open each drawer until he locates a can opener.
“You hungry?” A devilish grin tugs at his lips as he peers over at me.
“I mean, I could eat, I guess.” I match his smile with my own. “Something that doesn’t taste like bacon would be a dream.”
Sin closes his eyes, his grin still present as he lets out a soft chuckle. “You are disgusting.” He brushes by me, snagging a few cans and puts them down on the counter. “But it totally does taste like bacon.” He’s quick to open all four cans of Spam and two cans of vegetables. There was a time I would snarl at the thought of eating Spam, but now it sounds as good as a fresh cut of prime rib.
I rummage through the drawers until I find two forks. I hand one to Sin and he hands me a can in return. “Slow, don’t forget. You’ll get sick.”
I take a few bites, releasing the savory taste as it slides down the back of my throat. My stomach screams for more and at a faster rate, but I try to keep myself at a snail’s pace. I eat more than I’ve eaten in years and my stomach feels filled to the rim. I could die a happy woman now. Sliding down against the cabinets, I close my eyes to savor and relish the sensation of fullness. Sin follows, letting out a long and loud sigh. “That was amazing,” I tell him.
“We’re definitely going to get sick from eating as much as we ate, but it was worth it. And there’s more.” No more than a few seconds after his last word, I feel bile moving up my esophagus. Will I ever be able to stomach more than a few bites? I stand up and vomit everything I just ate into the sink. Hell. That’s what this is. Pure Hell. I press on the water lever, but water doesn’t come out.Of course. Sin pulls himself up and opens the refrigerator, snagging a small bottle of soda. He unscrews the top and spills a little into the sink, enough to wash the vomit down.
Hopefully he has more soda because now he’s vomiting too.Just awesome. Right as he finishes, he pours a little more of the soda into the sink, washing his remains down too.
“Round two?” I ask, my voice sounding as if I swallowed a rusty nail.
“Let’s give it a few minutes.”
“Do you feel that?” I walk closer to the front door, listening for a sound to match the vibrations I’m feeling under my feet. Sure enough there are voices, men’s voices. Sin rushes over to my side and slips in front of me. Both of us remain quiet as I press my cheek against his back, feeling his heart pound heavily. He’s holding his breath, too. I hear knocking and door knobs twisting on neighboring apartments. They’re trying each one. Who would let them in? As they pass by this apartment, they knock and try the knob.Please, keep walking.I pray while listening to the sound of a hand twisting the doorknob of this apartment. I relax and inhale as the knob recoils a little from the movement. My chest deflates as I hear them move to the apartment across the hall, but it only takes a second to register that we didn’t lock the apartment we walked out of. They’re going to find that man’s family and it’s because of us.
“Shit,” Sin whispers.
“Should we help them?” It’s our fault.
Sin looks down at me, his eyes dark and unfocused. He shakes his head with dejection as he places his hand heavily on my shoulder. “We can’t.”He’s right.Screams filter down the hall and I can’t help but consider what the patrol told me about the dangers of waking someone from a nightmare. Is that what just happened? More screams commence and I hear loud thuds, body-sized thuds. What are they doing to that poor family?We should have tried to help them.We’re horrible people. “Take that look off your face, Reese. We couldn’t help them.”
The thuds and screams continue for several more minutes, informing us that these people are not giving up without a fight—a good fight.
Neither Sin nor I have moved in what seems like a half hour, but silence has now replaced the horrible noises we’ve been forced to listen to. “Do you think they’re gone?” I ask.
“I think they’re all gone—family included,” Sin replies.
I pull in a deep breath, feeling like I haven’t taken one in the entire last half hour.
“We’re staying here,” Sin continues. “There’s enough food to last us a little while. We’ll build up our energy and strength, then keep moving until we can find our next source of food and shelter.”
“I don’t think that’s the answer, though. We’re prolonging the inevitable. We need to do something,” I argue.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. This is how the world is now and if we don’t adapt, you’re right, we are only prolonging the inevitable.”
What he is saying technically makes sense, but how do we just begin a new life living like nomads, with little food and no money?
Sin leaves the conversation, probably hoping I don’t bring up any further valid points. I get it, we’ve been running for way too long and sitting in one place that appears to be away from danger for a little while will be a pleasant break.
“There’s a bedroom in here and this mattress is like a cloud of fluff. Holy hell we’re going to have the best night’s sleep tonight,” Sin shouts in a whisper.
I follow him into the bedroom, finding the same clean and modern feel in here. “Home sweet home, I guess.” This feels so wrong, not that there is anything right about the world now.
If we’re going to do this, I might as well do it right. “I wonder if there are clean clothes—I mean, I’m sure there are. There has to be.”
“I’m guessing there is,” Sin says. “Sweet.” I turn to see what he’s found as he’s rummaging through a nightstand. He pulls out a long knife and slips it through the belt on his pants. “Check the other one.”
I walk away from the clothes I was going to maul and pull open the other nightstand. “Just a Bible,” I tell him. “And condoms.”
