I woke up on day 2 feeling about as bad as I had when I went to sleep the night before. But I had a blanket on me when I woke up. I think it was actually a jacket, now that I think back on it. Either way, it was obvious to me that the three people who had been in the diner the night before had put the jacket on me. They were gone when I woke up. The sun was still rising, and I decided that I would make it home by nightfall this time. The journey wasn’t quite as bad as the day before. I was able to make it to my suburb by mid-day, and then I knew all the nicer streets I could travel on. It seemed like the craziness from the day before had finally died down, and everyone seemed to be traveling more cautiously and slowly. I got home sometime after 4 o’clock, I think. My cell phone had lost its charge, so I wasn’t sure anymore about time–but it felt like 4 o’clock.
The door was locked. I opened the house up and was hit with a wave of smells. The power was still off in the house, and it smelled like a mixture of mold and bad food. I put my face in my shirt and headed into my house. It was very still. There hadn’t been a lot of noise outside in the first place, but it was a lot quieter inside the walls of my former home. l walked from our living room into our kitchen. The smell increased, and I saw why in an instant. The fridge door had been left open. Without power, most of the food had spoiled almost overnight. I wandered then into the other parts of my house. I called out to my parents a couple of times, but the way the house seemed to eat my words and swallow them into nothingness caused me to stop. Each room yielded more disappointment. No one home, no bodies, just nothing. I was still alone.
I can’t remember when I started crying, but I remember ending up on my bed, rocking myself back and forth while holding an old stuffed bunny I still kept on my bed. It was dark before I got out of bed again. I fumbled around the house for a while before I found the flashlight in the kitchen. I grabbed some garbage bags, bagged the fridge up, and tossed everything into the garage. I opened all the windows then. Not a huge improvement, but it was better than it was. The open windows brought a new sound to my ears: a slow, mechanical hum. It took me a little while to figure out what it was, but eventually, it hit me. Generators. Those were generators. Other people had power.
I still don’t know what possessed me, but I nearly burst through my front door trying to get to the street to see who still had power. A few of the houses on our block did, and our neighbors across the street, the Shultz’s, still had power. I slowly walked over to their yard. I had gotten over my initial excitement, and my shyness had kicked in. I had met the Shultz’s before, but it had been a while. And we never knew them that well. I tiptoed through their lawn to see inside their window. They were watching the news on their tv. I was lucky enough that I found the window open.I don’t remember the news report verbatum, but I do remember the important parts. “Don’t panic… Early reports indicate nearly 30% of all people in the US missing… Power being restored slowly… Stay indoors and lock doors and windows at night…”
I took their advice and locked my doors and windows that night.
