Absolved

"Over there." I said, pointing to a building a ways away from us. "Let's head there and take refuge, it's far enough from the machines." I said.

We had arrived at another house and I decided it was a suitable place for us to take refuge. It was a two story apartment building and since it was an apartment building, I was banking on the fact that those machines would at least get a little confused if they managed to track us down.

I pushed the door open and a hallway was right in front of us with multiple rooms lining it up. It was a basic set up, but what lay above?

We went to the top floor and entered into one of the apartments. It was a one bedroom apartment but it had all the basic necessities you would expect from a normal living space.

We settled down in the flat and finally took time to breathe. We had been running and panting ever since we saw that tripod. Now, we could finally rest. I looked around the house for a bit and called out to Margaret.

"The water's running, you can go have a shower." I said.

"Okay... Thanks." She said.

She went into the room and found a towel. She then proceeded to bathroom.

The squeaking sound of the shower nob cut through the silence. The sound of water droplets hitting against a body and falling to the floor slowly became prevalent.

I walked around the room for a while still trying to wrap my head around my show of weakness a few moments before and setting mental locks to prevent such a mistake in the future.

I walked to the window and peeped outside. The roads were as clear as they were empty. Not a single soul was found. The only signs that there was life here before, were the buildings left behind as reminders of things past.

It got me thinking, how did this place become so deserted in the space of two days? How come everyone was evacuated so quickly? The amount of dead bodies wasn't enough to explain the lack thereof.

With the amount of buildings in this area. There should be a plethora of bodies scattered around but we only see a few here and there. We haven't had access to the news or the media for a while so maybe something is going on?

"I'm done." Margaret called out to me from just outside the bathroom.

"Oh, okay." I said as I turned back. I lay my eyes on Margaret and this was the first time I actually had a good look at her. She was a beautiful lady, with short brown hair and mesmerizing Light blue eyes. The curves on her body were hidden behind the towel but they were still pronounced enough for visualize.

"Ummm... Karl?" She said.

"Oh... Right." I replied.

I walked into the bathroom and had a shower. This was my first shower in two days! The water droplets fell on me and the cold pierced my body. I applied soap on myself and the Sud soon covered me from head to toe.

I didn't apply the shampoo I saw there on my hair though, because it's my hair and not my shampoo. Even in this situation, I wasn't taking any risks with my hair. I used the normal bathing soap and applied it on my hair until there was enough foam to stuff a pillow. All in all, I enjoyed this shower experience.

I came out of the bathroom and then I noticed Margaret wasn't in her medical uniform.

"Where did you get clothes." I asked.

"I found them inside the room. Whoever lived here apparently had a girlfriend, works out for me perfectly." She said.

I went into the room and looked for something to wear. I was going to ditch my white shirt and black trousers but at least I was going to get some clean clothes, that was until I found a white shirt and black trousers.

I came out if the room dressed in basically the same thing I was dressed in before, just cleaner (hopefully).

"You're really into this office look aren't you." Margaret said, dressed in a long sleeve shirt and joggers.

"Yeah, black and white, it's a classic." I replied.

"That's nice." She said.

Silence filled the room. We both knew next to nothing about each other so it's not like we could really talk about anything. I decided to start a conversation.

"What do you think about this whole situation, I mean the aliens and everything." I said.

"What do I think, I don't think anything, it's a disaster, a complete disaster." She said.

"It's terrible. Bodies everywhere, robots running round killing people and giant machines shooting death rays. What else can we do?"

"Yeah, it's terrible, but I think we can win." I said.

"..."

"How?" Margaret asked.

"Well, look at it this way. We've managed to stay alive this long and even outsmart these things in a few occasions. What do you think the US military will do to these things?" I said.

Margaret thought about it for some time then replied.

"Yeah, you're right." She said.

Her face lit up just a little but it was enough to clear the look of uncertainty that was plastered there just moments ago.

"Back there, at the house, what made you do all that. You had already given up just moments before, so what made you do all that. I mean, you saved us." I said.

She looked at me and said.

"You."

I was actually taken aback by this statement because as I could recall, I was a slave to fear inside that building.

"When we were upstairs and that thing was climbing up, even though our chances looked bleak and I had already given up hope, you never gave up. You had faith that we would survive that encounter." She said.

"But-" I tried to speak but Margaret continued.

"And even when you faltered, you had already instilled in me some of that faith that you spoke about, that's why I could formulate a plan to escape. If you had also been as pessimistic as me, we would surely be dead by now." She said.

Her words struck a chord with me and part of the guilt, regret and uncertainty that had been eating away at my mind had been freed. I was human at the end of the day and I was vulnerable to mistakes. The important thing, was not to make them again.

"Or maybe it was just adrenaline." Margaret said with a slight smile after seeing me being beaming with relief.

I looked at her and we laughed. The conversation continued for a while before we both decided to go to sleep.

"You sleep in the room, I'll sleep here." I said to Margaret.

"Okay." She said as she went into the room.

We could look for Mark and the others when it was bright. At the moment, we just needed to get some rest. How was Mark doing? Was he safe? I decided not to think about it too much and go to sleep. After all, it was Mark we were talking about.