1 The Creature

I woke up to find the world has ended one day.

It was one morning, when I had just woken up from sleeping the night, and I opened the door to my balcony to witness the morning mood.

It was normal at first, a typical morning to start the day.

Then I looked to my right, and I saw a weird creature feasting on something.

There were torn clothing all around, and I saw blood everywhere.

I didn't know what to do at the time, the scene looked so comical that I thought it was some kind of prank, or a movie shooting.

This was weird, because we were in a suburban part of the city, and nothing like that ever happens around here.

I fetched my glasses to be able to see clearly, and when I returned, the creature had vanished.

There were body parts of a human ripped apart by something nasty, and I could see the organs and bones cocooned in an envelope of blood.

I knelt down to throw up in the dustbin, and then I wondered;

'Wait a minute, what's happening? What did I just see? Why did I throw up? What was that creature and what was it eating?'

Then I remembered the torn clothing and the body parts, and everything suddenly shook and I realized what I had just seen.

The creature was eating a human!

And it wasn't a movie shooting or a prank, it was real.

I threw myself inside and slammed the door shut, and then I locked it twice with the key and the bolt.

My heart was pounding and I was trembling, I peeked through the closed window beside the door and tried to find the creature.

Outside was peaceful, and no one was about, which was really weird because it was supposed to be rush hour and everyone should be milling about on the streets.

When I couldn't find the creature, I went back to my sitting position and tried to think things through.

I had watched and read several stories about post apocalypses, and I knew vaguely what I had to do immediately.

I went downstairs to get to the steel trapdoor of my underground basement, which had a handle I had to turn hard and a lock which needed a code I had known too well because of previous occasions.

I entered the number and the lock clicked open, thank god I had tidied up the interior.

It was pleasant and spacious, and there was a lot of room for storing valuable resources that I knew I would really need for the next few weeks, if my theory was correct.

And I hoped it wouldn't be.

I fetched a piece of paper and a pencil, and wrote all the things I needed.

First, I had to rummage the larder and get everything inside the basement.

It was a good thing my parents had stored a year's worth of food, with the reason if anything like this ever happens.

And there's another good thing, the basement had a toilet.

Next, I would need a million clean clothing and all the soap in the storage.

Another good thing, there were a few pipes that connected the basement to above ground, so I wouldn't need to worry about suffocating.

It was all so convenient that I couldn't believe it myself, I must thank you to my perfectionist personality, that I had always wished for it to diminish.

Now, it had saved me in the most crucial of times.

The most important is a means of communication with the outside world, and typically phones won't work anymore, so I'd need all the radios and walkie-talkies in the house.

Though just in case, all the phones too.

I would need weapons, if I ever encounter the monsters, and if they attack me.

I would need a vehicle, which could be hidden from any prying eyes, and in a place where I could have access to it easily.

I thought hard of what else I might need otherwise, and I came up with the idea of setting up a barricade in front of my house and a beacon, so that I would be able to warn any survivors that I was here.

I would want to make signs too, and traps, if any suspicious survivor ever decided to sneak inside my fortress.

And a means of communication from my basement to anyone outside or in front of my house, who would be intelligent enough to have understood the signs I made and wanted to join my team.

Of course, I would have to test him, and if he made even the slightest suspicious movements, I would have to ask him to scram or get rid of him so that he wouldn't warn his comrades about my existence.

Or maybe I could trap him, and get benefit from him.

Oh, and I would need something to make my voice sound like a burly wrestler man that had won the heavyweight championship three times in a row.

A disguise! Yes, a disguise would be the best.

A disguise of various occasions would come in handy indeed.

And something that would make my scent different from humans, like gasoline perhaps, or any type of scent disguiser.

No, gasoline won't do.

I'd be burnt to a crisp before getting to the nearest bunker if there was ever a problem, because even a tiny spark from anywhere could light me up and I would go up in smoke.

What else? Damn it, my mind's blank.

I should get up and prepare everything else, then something might strike my mind.

Oh right, something that would allow me to observe the outside world while being stuffed up inside the basement.

Something fancy, like a CCTV?

Haha, lol.

No wait, a hidden CCTV MIGHT BE AWESOME.

Yeah, I'd do that.

I have tons of CCTV cameras unused in the storage. I could install them.

Wifi? Internet? Will they work? If they work I could install a PC in one corner of the basement.

If they wouldn't work, I'd install them anyway so that I would have a means of entertainment.

Books too, so I could read.

Anything else? Any important things I missed? Come on, I can't think of anything else. I should do everything first.

I've done everything, right down to the last on my list.

It took me a whole week, and I haven't encountered any other of the monsters.

Maybe it could've been unreal, but who knows and who cares?

The important thing is I've done everything I can.

And I'm hella ready, for the nightmare that I'm sure is to come, in the next minute.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that, because exactly in the next minute, I heard screams and gunshots echoing in the distance.

Maybe there always had been, but that they were too far away for me to hear.

Anyway, I had nothing to do with it it.

And I sure as hell won't come out of this place, even if it resembled a hellhole.

And that was how I started living in my emergency shelter without knowing whether the creature I saw was real or not, for the next week.