Days Gone Bye
Elijah O’Cain
Day 1
The alarm goes off. It’s eleven and Joel hops out of bed and gets in the shower. When he gets out his roommates are in the living room. It’s the first day of spring break and they are heading home to be with their families. Joel is planning on staying in the apartment they all share in the small college town that they have been living in for three years.
“You sure you don’t want to come home with us?” one of his roommates asks. All four of them grew up in the same town, but Joel was always on the fringe of his group and just doesn’t feel the need to travel home each break.
“Nah, I’m fine, y’all have a safe trip though,” Joel gives each of them a quick hug and helps them carry their bags to the car.
“Try not to trash the place too much man,” another one of Joel’s roommates gives him a playful shove.
“I’ll do my best.” The three roommates pile into one of their SUV’s and drive off. Joel walks up the stairs to his apartment. He flips on the TV in the living room and walks into the kitchen to fix some lunch.
In the background Joel hears a news announcer talk about some new disease that is starting to concern doctors. He rolls his eyes and mumbles about the fear-mongering media. He brings his sandwich into the living room and changes the channel to cartoons.
His phone starts to ring, a basic ringtone, one of those annoying chiming sounds. Looking at the caller I.D. he sees that it’s his mom.
“Hey Mom, what’s up?” Joel says in between bites of his sandwich.
“Hey honey,” she answers in a sweet tone, “I was just calling to see how you were and if I can’t convince you to come home.” Joel’s father ran out on his family when he was ten and his mom has been clingy ever since.
“Mom, I told you I just have a lot of school work to do.” This is a lie, but Joel needs an excuse to get a week of solitude.
“OK baby, I understand,” there’s a hint of disappointment in her voice as she says this and Joel grimaces as a slight jolt of guilt hits him. “You work hard and I’ll see you soon OK?”
“Yeah Mom,” Joel feels bad for leaving his mother alone but he knows that she has her friends to take care of her, she was even talking about some guy he had met who she had been dating. “Maybe I can get a ride home later in the week.”
“That’d be great Joel!” His mom gets excited, Joel shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up like that. “Well just let me know, I’ll talk to you later hon, I love you.”
“I love you too Mom.” Joel hangs up and goes back to watching TV.
Day 3
The alarm goes off. It’s eleven and Joel turns off the alarm. He walks into the kitchen and notices the trash has piled up. He puts on a robe and bags the trash to be taken out. As he walks out his door he sees the older man who lives across the hall from him notice him.
“Hey there Mr. Falls!” Joel jumps a little at the unexpected noise.
“Hey Mr. Robertsen, how are you doing?”
“I’m doing just fine buddy,” he smiles and turns towards Joel. “You decide to stick around for the break?” Mr. Robertsen is a nice guy who lives across the hall with his wife. They are in the thirties and Mr. Robertsen was laid off a while ago so they moved out of their house and into the mostly college student apartment complex.
“Yes, sir,” Joel locks his apartment and starts to head towards the stairs. “I’ll see you around Mr. Robertsen!”
“See ya Joel!”
When Joel gets back to his apartment he turns on the TV and sees that the news is talking about something that they’re calling Grimes’ disease. It mentions something about fluid-to-fluid transmission and a deadly nature. A list of symptoms appears at the bottom of the screen with a warning to report to a hospital if any of these symptoms appear. Joel’s phone rings, it’s his mom again.
“Hey Mom, what’s up?”
“Hey darlin’,” there’s a bit of concern in her voice, “how are you?”
“I’m fine Mom, is something wrong?”
“No, it’s not a big deal. It’s just, have you heard about this new disease that they’re talking about on the news?”
“Oh, yeah, what about it?”
“Well, you remembered Don? The doctor that I was, um, hanging out with?”
“You mean your boyfriend?” Joel laughs, trying to lighten the mood a little.
“Yeah, well, he was in surgery and something happened and he was infected.” The tears are almost audible in her voice.
“Oh my God, Mom, is he OK?” Joel is genuinely worried about this, although he hadn’t watched the news intently this disease seemed to be a big deal.
“Well, apparently this disease is highly contagious and he’s been quarantined in the hospital. I just want to ask that you keep him in his prayers.” Joel’s mother is very religious and has always pushed him to go to church.
“I will Mom. I’ll try to find a ride home tomorrow OK.”
“OK, sweetie, don’t feel like you have to.”
“I’ll do my best Mom.”
Joel spends the rest of the day trying, unsuccessfully, to find someone in town who can drive him the one hundred miles home. After a few attempts he turns on his laptop and gets on the Internet to try to figure out some more information on Grimes’ disease.
The information about it was worrying. It was discovered about a week ago when a small town police officer was admitted to the hospital after complaining of a high fever. Within five hours he died, but apparently the virus is transmitted via body fluid contact and after the patient died someone else contracted the disease and was able to spread it in the hospital. Conspiracy theorists were saying something about zombies and cannibalistic corpses. Joel rolls his eyes and turns off his computer and turns on some video games.
Day 5
Joel wakes up, he didn’t bother setting an alarm today. There is an urgent knock on the door. Joel rolls over trying to get more sleep but the knocking persists. Joel gets up and puts on his robe and walks to the front door. He looks through the peephole and sees Mr. Robertsen. Joel opens the door.
“Hey Mr. Robertsen, how’s it going?” Joel rubs his eyes and tries to adjust to the light.
“Hey Joel, sorry if I woke you up,” Mr. Robertsen looks really nervous, “have you been watching the news this morning?”
“Um, not yet, why?”
“Well apparently this Grime’s disease is really getting out of control. There’s gonna be some sort of evacuation to a safe zone or something.”
“What?”
“Like the National Guard is setting up some sort of safe zone at the high school’s gym. The misses isn’t feelin’ too good so I think we’re just stickin’ it out here and I was just gonna say that you should probably call your mom man.”
“Uh, yeah, Mr. Robertsen, thanks for the heads up.”
“No problem Joel.”
Joel walks inside and finds his phone by his alarm clock. His room is a mess so as he dials his mom’s number he starts picking up. It’s almost one in the afternoon so he tries to call her cell phone. When she doesn’t answer he tries her work number. When she doesn’t answer that he puts his phone in his pocket and decides to try the house later.
After his room is clean enough he puts a load of laundry in the washing machine and hops in the shower. When he gets out he gets dressed and puts his clothes in the dryer. He looks in his pantry and sees that he is low on groceries. He decides to go to the store.
He heads to his car and drives to Wal-Mart. When he gets to Wal-Mart he is bombarded with the noise of the crowd. People are grabbing as much food as they can. Joel decides to go straight for the go-to food for college students: ramen noodles.
Seeing that people are as worried as they are, Joel grabs more Ramen than normal in case something happens. He also buys some canned ravioli and green beans. He waits in the line for an unreasonable amount of time. When he gets up to the cash register the cashier says something about a few of the other employees being out sick.
When Joel gets back to the apartment there’s a man walking a few parking spots down from him. When he closes the door the man looks up and makes some sort of noise.
“Excuse me?” Joel grabs his groceries and looks at him. The man makes a noise that can only be described as some sort of moan and starts walking over to him. Joel gets nervous and runs up to his apartment and shuts the door behind him.
Joel puts his groceries in his pantry. It’s now filled with ramen noodles, some canned goods, and the junk food he had in there before he left. He gets his clothes out of the dryer and turns on some cartoons as he folds his laundry. After he puts his clothes away he calls his mom at her house. There isn’t any answer. Joel goes to his room and plays games on his computer until he decides to go to sleep.
Day 6
There is a knock on the door.
“Open up! This is the emergency response team!”
Joel jumps out of bed. He grabs his robe and opens the door, forgetting to look through the peephole in his confusion, he is greeted by a man wearing what appears to be a biohazard suit.
“What the hell?” Joel begins to freak out. The biohazard man is shoving some probe in his ear before he can protest.
“This one’s clean!” The biohazard man yells behind him and turns back to Joel. “Mr. Falls? We are here to take you to a secure quarantined location.”
“Uh, no, I…I can’t do that, I have to call my mom.” Joel doesn’t know what is going on, across the hall he sees Mr. Robertsen slam the door in another biohazard man’s face. He sees others knock on the other doors in his hall knowing that the other tenants all went home for the break.
“Sir, you can do that when we get you to the safe zone.” The biohazard man grabs him.
“Screw you man!” Joel shoves the man off his arm, “I’m going to call my mom and then I’ll see what I’m going to do!” He runs inside and slams the door. Confused, he runs to his room and grabs his phone. He calls his mom and all he gets is her answering machine. He leaves a message telling her to call him as soon as possible.
He then tries calling his roommates. One by one he tries their cell phone and each time he gets voicemail. He looks through the peephole and sees that the biohazard men are gone. He opens the door and looks down the hall. Once he’s sure the men are gone he walks over to Mr. Robertsen’s room and knocks. He sits outside the door and waits for and answer but one never comes. He assumes the biohazard men convinced him to take his wife to the safe zone. Joel walks back to his apartment.
He gets in the shower and puts on clothes. It’s only nine in the morning. Joel turns on the TV but gets only white noise. He changes channels and finds static on all the channels so he turns off the TV. The silence bothers him so he puts a DVD in his PS3 and watches a movie. When the movie ends he tries to call his mom again and gets the voicemail.
He sits down and plays video games to take his mind off of things. He wants to forget the biohazard men, Grimes’ disease, about the voicemail messages. He fixes a sandwich to eat and spends the rest of the day on the computer reading news articles.
Safe zones has been set up in high school gyms, recreation centers, and any other secure building nation wide. Information about Grimes’ disease is still at a minimum but now all the articles include something about spontaneous reanimation of the victims and that this is what is causing the main concern. People are mentioning zombies, the End of Times, and the rising of the dead. Joel calls his mom, this time getting a dead tone. He starts to cry but fights it back. He is alone.
Day 9
It’s been three days since the biohazard men. The only time Joel has left his apartment is to check out the front office. The door is unlocked and on a desk he finds a police scanner, he grabs it and returns to his apartment. The parking lot is deserted and there are signs advising people to head to the local high school. He turns on the radio, a recorded broadcast tells everyone to report to the nearest safe zones.
Joel sits on the couch and plays video games. He has already beaten and re-played all of his video games and starts a new file on hard mode for an extra challenge. Just as he gets through the opening scene the TV flickers and shuts off.
“What the…” Joel walks to the TV and presses the power button. Nothing happens. He tries to turn on a light and nothing happens. He walks to the circuit breaker and stares at the switches before deciding that he doesn’t know what to do. He opens the window curtains to let some light in.
He walks to the refrigerator and sees that his water filter is filled up. He looks at what he has, some soda, some leftovers from a week ago, which he goes ahead and puts in the trash. He grabs a soda and looks in the freezer. Not a lot, just a couple of things of ice cream that were his roommates. He puts them in the trash and closes the door.
He ties the trash bag and heads to the door. Before turning the handle he stops. Something about leaving his bedroom terrifies him. He turns around and heads to the balcony. He decides that in the situation a little pollution is not the biggest problem in the world and throws the trash off his balcony.
“Well, while I’m at it.” He decides that using his toilet might not be the best idea so he unzips his pants and urinates off the balcony. “Awesome,” Joel smiles for a moment then turns around and heads back inside.
Joel uses the last of his bread to make a sandwich and sits down to read.
Days 10
Joel comes to his first problem without electricity. How does one cook ramen noodles when there stove and microwave don’t work? Joel grabs a large pot and a small pot along with some papers from his room and heads to his patio. He looks at his supplies for a bit then pulls a lighter out of his pocket. He thinks about all the times he’s been made fun of for carrying a lighter when he doesn’t smoke.
“Who’s ridiculous now?” He starts a fire in the big pot and boils water in the smaller one. He pours the contents of the ramen noodles in the boiling water and lets it cook for a bit. Joel looks at the water filter and realizes that he needs to conserve more water. He eats the ramen and heads back inside.
Joel walks to his room and finds a Gameboy. He kills time by playing that. Eventually it gets dark and he turns off the game and goes to sleep.
Day 27
Light pours in on Joel. He feels disgusting. He hasn’t been able to bathe in weeks and would kill for a shower. He gets up and walks to his pantry. He grabs the last package of ramen and eats it dry to conserve water, grimacing as he crunches on the dry noodles. He looks at his water filter. The filter part is dingy and hasn’t been replaced in too long. He’s been refilling it with rainwater and it still tastes dirty when he drinks it.
Joel doesn’t go outside for too long anymore because of the moans. They started about a week ago, other tenants who were left by the biohazard men. He never looks through the peephole and he wears headphones at night when they are the loudest.
He’s read all of his books, including his textbooks. He is down to his last pack of AA batteries and his Smartphone died a while ago from playing too many games of Angry Birds. His sleeping is irregular and sometimes can’t tell if it’s night or early morning.
He spends the day picking the locks of his roommate’s rooms. He finds a pack of AAA batteries (useless), a flashlight, a baseball bat, and some more clean sheets among other things. The biggest prize of all was a different Gameboy game, which he began to play.
Later, Joel finds a stack of Playboys underneath one of his roommates’ beds. He never understood why people paid to see naked women, but he stares at them out of boredom, he figures they’ll probably be the closest he comes to sex again. He starts going through his roommates’ closets and decides that he can wear some of the clothes they left to feel a little bit cleaner.
Before it gets too late Joel walks over to the police scanner. He turns it on the emergency channel. The broadcasts stopped playing a few days ago but he checks every now and then to see if anyone is out there. Nothing comes on and he turns it off to save battery.
He stands for a bit and looks at the apartment. It’s trashed. Joel decides to sleep in one of his roommates’ rooms instead to change things up.
Day 63
Joel is sitting at his desk re-reading his biology book for the thirtieth time. His stomach begins to growl. He looks down and stares for a second before it begins again. Joel walks to the pantry and opens it up. There is nothing left but empty cardboard boxes. He ate the last of the food the day before. He opens the fridge and fills a cup with rainwater and drinks it. He looks at the pantry and then at the door. He decides to see if he can find any food.
Joel walks over to the door and slides the bolt unlocked. He opens the door and looks outside. At the end of the hall he sees someone. It looked like a man, except he was deathly pale. He had dark rings around his eyes and was slumped over as if he was bored. He had dark red smudges around his mouth and his shirt was stained. He looked as if he had a bite mark on his arm. The man turned and looked at him.
“Gaaahhh,” the man began to walk towards him, slowly, but with purpose.
“Shit!” Joel turned around and slammed the door behind him and locked it. He hears the man drag his feet up to the door and walk into it. There was a soft thud on the door as if the man was trying to get in but couldn’t remember how to work the door handle. Joel runs to the other side of the room and trips. Hysterical, he crawls to the corner and huddles in the fetal position until the thuds stop.
Hours, or minutes, or days, Joel isn’t sure, passes and Joel realizes that if he doesn’t get food soon he will die. He walks into his room. The baseball bat he found in his roommate’s room is leaning in the corner. He grabs it with resolve. It’s old and the print on it is worn. It’s a metal bat with a rubber grip. It’s very heavy and because of his weakened state it’s almost difficult for Joel to swing. Joel looks around his room and grabs a backpack and swings the bat over his shoulder. He ties a bandana around his mouth, walks up to the door, takes a deep breath, opens the door, and steps outside.
The man has returned to his spot down the hall. He looks up at Joel and opens his mouth.
“Muuuhhhh,” the man begins to walk at Joel. Joel drops his bag and charges the man who raises his arms as if trying to grab him. Joel swings his bat at the man’s knees. The bat connects with the man’s knees and makes a crunch. The man falls and Joel turns to grab his bag.
“Gruuuuuhhh,” Joel turns around. The man is dragging himself towards Joel. The man grabs Joel’s ankle with an icy grasp.
“Get the hell off of me!” Joel lifts the bat and slams it into the man’s head with a sickening squish. Blood flies into the air. Joel whacks the man three more times, grunting with each swing. When the man stops moving, Joel collapses back. He is panting and crying. He sits there for a few minutes to compose himself, pulling the bandana down he grabs his bag and stands up. Behind him, he hears a click. He looks over and sees that the Robertsen’s door is open.
“Hello?” He stays in front of his door. “Hello?” He calls again, hearing nothing but his own voice reverberating in the hall. He walks to the door. Mr. Robertsen must not have closed it fully when he left. He looks at it for a second and returns to his door, leaving a wide berth around the man’s body.
Joel walks into his apartment and goes to grab the flashlight he found. When he goes back outside he stares at the body. He decides to move the body out of sight by pulling it down the first flight of stairs. Once that chore was out of the way he returns to Mr. Robertsen’s door.
He gently pushes it open and looks inside. It looks as if someone has been keeping it clean, probably because the owners left and no one has been living there in about two months.
“Hello?” Joel calls into the darkness. He doesn’t know what would be worse, silence, or a response. Joel looks around and walks in.
He gets two yards in when he is knocked to the ground. He is flipped on his back and he sees Mr. Robertsen on top of him with a knife pointing at Joel’s jugular. Joel is stunned and can’t get any noise out. Mr. Robertsen has a look of pure rage on his face, he lifts the knife, but just before he plunges it into Joel’s neck a look of recognition crosses his face.
“Joel?” The formerly friendly voice now sounds harsh and rough after months of disuse. He looks gaunt. He has kept himself clean-shaven except for the long, stringy hair that is almost to his shoulders. “Is it you?”
“Hey Mr. Robertsen,” Joel chokes out, “I…I didn’t think you were still here.”
“Oh…yeah, me and the misses have been stayin’ strong here.” He gets up and helps Joel to his feet. “Sorry about that Joel, I wasn’t sure who you were or if you were…you know.” He nods outside, apparently referring to the man who was outside.
“Oh, um, I’m sorry about that, sir,” Joel says, noticing a gruffness to his voice, “I was just looking for food.”
“Oh! Is that all?” Mr. Robertsen exclaims, “The misses and I have been sort of, well, looting the nearby apartments so we have plenty of food, I can grab you some if you want.”
“That would be great!” Joel exclaims as he walks into the kitchen, “where is Mrs. Robertsen anyways?”
“She’s just in the bedroom,” he yells from the kitchen.
Joel walks to the bedroom to go say hello. The door is open so he walks in. When he looks inside he begins to retch. Mrs. Robertsen is on the bed. There is a bullet hole in her head and blood on the pillow. She looks to the ceiling with blank eyes. There is a bite mark on her arm. Joel hears a gun cock behind him.
“I’m sorry about this Joel,” Joel turns and sees Mr. Robertsen pointing a revolver at his chest. “She got bit before the men came trying to get us to leave. I couldn’t very well leave her alone like this…but,” he looks at Joel and smiles, “if you’re here with her then I can go to one of those safe zones. You’ll take care of her right?”
Joel doesn’t think, instinctually he jabs the baseball bat into Mr. Robertsen’s stomach. Mr. Robertsen drops the gun and Joel dives for it.
“Son of a bitch!” Mr. Robertsen kicks Joel in the stomach and Joel curls into a ball. Mr. Robertsen stumbles out of the room and into the kitchen. When he returns, he is holding a knife and is charging a Joel. Joel lifts the gun and pulls the trigger. Mr. Robertsen stops. Dropping the knife he looks at his chest where a red hole has opened up and blood is spreading over his shirt.
“I just wanted to keep her safe.” Mr. Robertsen looks at Joel, climbs into bed beside his wife, kisses her on the cheek, and closes his eyes as he breathes his last breath.
Joel vomits. He runs from the bedroom and runs to the door. Joel stops at the door and turns back around. He walks to the kitchen. Mr. Robertsen may have been losing his mind, but he was keeping his pantry stocked. Joel stuffs his bag full of all the canned goods and bottled water the Robertsens had along with all the bullets he could find.
It’s dark when he leaves the Robertsen’s apartment. He heads back to his apartment, drops his bag and bat on the floor, locks the door, and collapses. The events of the past two months all flood on him and he cries. He cries for his mom, for his friends, for himself, for the Robertsens, and for everyone else. He cries four hours. He prays, he curses, he yells and screams. Eventually he walks to the balcony and throws up off the balcony. He strips down to his boxers and falls asleep on the living room floor.
Day 68
The Days are blending together. Joel spends most of the day lying in his bed. He took the sheets off and lies directly on the mattress. He sleeps irregularly. He does not know what day it is. He gets out of bed wearing the clothes he wore days ago. He decides to change into some of his roommates’ clothes that he has not worn yet. He looks around the apartment and sees the police scanner. He walks over and turns it on, expecting nothing but static. He switches the channels and is about to turn it off when he catches something.
“Hello,” the voice says in between bouts of static, “Hello, this is the group of survivors from the Blaire Hope High School safe zone. The safe zone is not safe, I repeat not safe. If you are out there, we can protect you. We are camped a mile west of the Wal-Mart in town. We repeat the safe zone is not safe, we can protect you.” The message stop and nothing but white noise can be heard in the apartment. Joel looks at the police scanner for a bit, wondering if there is going to be another message. Eventually he walks over to the scanner and turns it off.
Joel walks to the balcony door and walks outside. He looks over the balcony ledge and sees another person like the man in the hall. It’s a girl. She may have been attractive at one point but is now pale and gaunt. She looks up when Joel opens the door and lets out a soft moan. She just stands under the balcony and stares up at Joel making noises.
Joel walks back inside. He grabs the trashcan, filled with empty cans and other food trash. He also grabs the police scanner and walks out to the balcony. The girl is still there moaning a little louder now and staring up at the balcony. Joel takes the trashcan and dumps it’s contents onto the girl. She stands there unfazed. He grabs the police scanner and throws it as hard as he can at the girl’s head. It connects and she falls to the ground. She isn’t dead, but she is immobilized for a bit, it’s enough for Joel.
Day 89
Dirty and greasy, Joel stumbles through his apartment to find boredom. His is apartment smells like trash and human feces. His hair hangs greasy and stringy in his face. He tears up one of his books just to fill the silence of the day.
Joel digs through his pantry. He pushes aside the few foodstuffs he has left trying to find anything that isn’t in a can. A thing of ramen, a stale cookie, a single chip, anything. He runs to his room, digging through drawers and looking under his bed for anything that he hasn’t found yet. He opens a plastic box and stops.
He removes a photograph from the box. It is from when he was five. It’s a picture of him and his parents, both of them. It’s the one thing that reminds Joel of what his father looks like. Everyone is smiling in the photo. Joel starts to cry. He cries for his past, he cries about his father leaving him and his mother alone, he cries about all the missed chances, and he cries for his lost future.
Day 103
Joel can’t sleep. Whenever he does, visions of the Robertsen’s invade his dreams. Mrs. Robertsen’s blank stare, the growing red stain on Mr. Robertsen’s shirt. The dream always ends the same: Joel pulls the trigger and Mr. Robertsen is shot, but instead of crawling onto the bed he smiles and the red stain disappears. When Joel looks down there is a hole in his chest and he falls to the ground.
This dream haunts him more than the moans from the people who lived downstairs. Finally, Joel has had enough. Visions of Mr. Robertsen flash through his brain as he grabs the revolver from his bedside table. He walks into the living room holding the gun and the picture of him and his parents.
Joel opens the curtain and squints into the sunlight. He takes a seat on the couch and puts the gun to his temple. He flips the safety off and puts his finger on the trigger. He takes a look at the family photo and a tear falls from his eye. He pulls the trigger.
Joel winces as nothing happens. He looks at the revolver in his hand and stares at the gun. The hammer is stuck halfway down. Joel takes the weapon outside to avoid setting it off in his house. He looks at the hammer and sees the problem. A small chunk of what appears to be dried blood prevented the hammer from falling. Joel licks his disgusting tasting thumb and digs his nail to get rid of the blood.
The hammer drops, the gun shoots into the distance off the balcony. Joel jumps and drops the gun in surprise. The shot echoes through the unaffected scenery. Below him he hears moans of the apartments unwanted tenants. Joel stands on the balcony for a bit. He grabs the pistol and puts the safety on. He walks inside and puts the gun on the table in the living room.
Day 115
Joel’s will to live is strengthened. He begins to ration his food and finds he can make it last for another two weeks before having to go looking for more. He begins to do pushups and sit-ups to keep muscle mass. He even cuts his hair with a kitchen knife.
Joel reads more than anything now. He reads everything: books, textbooks, nutrition facts on canned goods, even the articles in his roommate’s porn magazines. He begins to write in an old physics notebook. He tries to write his story but it ends up sounding like a suicide note each time.
He falls asleep every night holding the picture of his family.
Day 130
Gunshots. Joel sits up in his bed. He hears gunshots coming from somewhere. He jumps up and throws a shirt on. He runs to the door. He hears the Robertsen’s door being kicked in, a man’s voice yells that two bodies have been found. Joel runs to the door. Just as he opens it someone kicks it from the other side.
Joel crawls to the table in the living room. He grabs the revolver from the table. Three armed men in camouflage come in pointing assault rifles into the apartment. Visions of Mr. Robertsen flash through his head.
“We’re from the National Guard, is anyone here?” One of the armed men yells, they have not seen Joel yet. Joel stands to his feet and a jolt of pain shoots through his leg. He stumbles to the doorway.
“Shit! It’s one of them!” One of the men points a gun at Joel.
Joel wants to tell them wait but he looks up and moans in pain. He sees the stain on Mr. Robertsen’s shirt. He sees Mrs. Robertsen’s blank stare. He hears the voicemail message of his mom’s phone. He hears his roommates offer him a ride home.
“Whuuu,” Joel gasps, he tries to tell them to wait but the words don’t come out, only a pained moan. One of the armed men takes the shot.
Joel falls for the last time. A hole is in his forehead as he collapses to the floor. The armed man stares. The two other men disperse through the rooms, yelling clear as they walk through each of the rooms. One of them pukes after opening the bathroom door and chokes out an all clear.
The man who takes the shot walks towards Joel’s body. He sees the photograph in the young man’s hand. He picks it up and looks at it. He sees the woman and the little boy. The man’s face is his own. His commanding officer walks over to him and puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Well, Falls, it looks like we were too late to save him,” Sergeant Falls nods. He thinks about how he left his wife and son years ago. He was an alcoholic and couldn’t stand being tied down. Eventually he cleaned up and joined the National Guard to be a part of something bigger than himself. He figured his family was better without him and decided it would be better if he never returned. “Even if he was still alive, he probably lost his mind months ago. We were just a few months too late.”
“No, sir, I was a few years too late.” He folds the picture and puts it in his pocket. He kneels by his son and cries.
