Not Alone

"I need weapons!"

Alex looked around the room. He didn't have much money to spend on his apartment, so most of his furniture and wares are cheap.

"The kitchen knife?"

He went out to the kitchen and grabbed a small knife and looked at it.

It is the only one he has and he only used it once when he moved here to cook for his parents.

He surveyed the kitchen and the only thing worth noting is the stove and the frying pan.

"This is useless."

He threw the knife away and it landed in the sink.

Then, he opened the drawers. There was nothing he could use as a weapon.

On the last drawer, he saw something of interest: a meat tenderizer, a small hammer used to massage frozen meat.

"This is the closest thing I could find to a weapon aside from the knife."

It is not ideal, but it is the only thing he has.

"But, I can't just use it as is."

Alex glanced at the sink and sighed deeply.

"I don't even know if I can use any of you but it's better than nothing I guess."

He picked up the meat tenderizer and the discarded knife on the sink and went back to his room.

"Okay, now what?"

He had no idea what he is supposed to do.

Alex knew nothing about fighting, much less defending himself against monsters.

He suddenly had an idea, but he wanted to make sure.

"This can't be a simple case of zombies, right?"

Alex sat down and watched the live feed of the area on the laptop.

He saw the same things, the same actions.

'They are still walking, moving and doing stuff. I can't tell if they're smart or not.'

"But what else can cause the death of humanity?"

Then something clicked in him.

The thing that almost killed him.

The air?!

No, no, people suffocated because they can't breathe air.

Or they died because there's too much air every time they breathe and they couldn't adapt to it.

But it should be easy to take a couple of deep breathes, so why did they die?

"Could it be that the mind died from the lack or surplus of oxygen, but their bodies didn't even know they died?"

If that is the case, then how does that make sense?

How can a corpse, a living one, survive without a heart beating?

Is thrir heart still beating?

Are they sleep walking right now?

Alex deliberated over the issue and saw an apartment door open on the ground floor.

A woman on a sports getup wearing a hoodie walked out. She kept clutching her head and massages it from time to time.

It didn't take long for Alex to realize she was another survivor of the suffocation and she might be experiencing some aftereffects.

Before he could celebrate that he was not alone, he realized the danger the woman was in.

From her actions, it seems like she just recovered after the event and is heading out somewhere, totally clueless about the changes in the world.

How can he warn her?

Go out the hallway and shout?

The clueless survivor closed the door and even made sure it was locked by turning the knob.

The undead woman heard the commotion and turned around.

Alex saw the visible confusion on the woman's face.

Anyone eho just experienced a near death experience would look at everything in a different light - especially when you're facing a bloodied woman laying on top of a seemingly dead man.

Alex focused intently on the screen and saw a small microphone button on the bottom left corner of the live feed.

His eyes widened in realization and immediately clicked on it.

"Dodge!"

Not knowing what's going on, the woman still dodged seeing the crazy looking bloodied person charging at her.

She wasn't sure if it was her instinct talking to her but whatever it was that spoke up, woke her up from her momentary trance.

"Don't let them bite you!"

And she weaved around gracefully.

The woman finally found where the sound was coming from and mouthed at the camera: 'Them?'

"Another one's coming in front of you!"

The woman saw the homeless man running straight at her in full speed with blood dripping on the side of his mouth.

The woman ducked and rolled away from the man on reflex.

"There are two of them and they're going to kill you! Please be careful!"

Alex shouted out.

"Who are you?"

"No time for introductions. There's a baseball bat at the end of the hallway. You can use that to defend yourself!"

Alex pointed out, and the woman ran towards the end of the hall.

'She's not asking dumb questions and she listens. She's quite fast too. But can she really kill them?'

Alex became dumbfounded when he watched the woman yank the baseball bat off the dead man's hand...

And ran away from the apartment building.

"Wait, where are you going?!"

His voicr trailed off the security camera but she didn't hear it or chose not to answer.

Alex stood up, wanting to chase after the woman but suddenly stopped.

The two undead chased after her leaving the immediate vicinity empty.

Conflicted on what to do, Alex decided to let things go.

"If she leaves, it's her fault, not mine. Besides, I can't go outside in this state. Not knowing anything is bad, and I'm not even prepared."

Alex thought of several reasons, but he only one was real - he was scared and he knew he was a bad fighter.

Then he remembered how fast she ran and felt envious.

"I'm not athletic, I can't do that. I would rather hide in my room and wait for the military or police to clean everything up. They should come after some time, right?"

He closed the feed and went to charge the laptop just incase a power outage happens in the near future.

"Let's hope the zombies can't climb the stairs. As long as I don't make any noise, I could hide here for a week if I had enough food."

Alex felt like he was forgetting something important but he couldn't get his mind on it.

He walked out of the room and went over the kitchen to drink some water. Since he's already here, he took stock of his groceries.

He found a box of cereal, a loaf of bread, a carton of milk, a pack of sausages, and a bag of rice.

"If I ration, I can probably last for a week. Just wished I bought more canned food even when mom was totally against canned food."

Alex froze.

That's right!

His parents!

"Damn it! No, no! Please be safe!"

Alex practically flew back into his room to grab his phone and dialed his mom's number.

"Ring... ring... Ring..."

'Please be safe, please be safe, please be safe, please be safe...'

"Hello?"

Alex almost dropped his phone upon hearing his mother's voice.

"Mom! Where are you?!"

"Whoa, young man, just because you left the house and became independent doesn't mean you can talk to me like that. Do you believe I'll come to your place and smack you with my sandals?"

Alex smiled even further hearing the chiding voice of his mother.

"Please don't hit me. You don't have to, I believe you, I believe you."

Alex became so relieved he felt his knees go weak and had to sit down on the side of his bed.

"What's with the sudden call? I thought you were working overtime?"

"Yeah, I finished my side project yesterday. I'm at home right now."

Alex told her he got a commission with decent pay but didn't tell much of the details to keep her from worrying.

"Why are you whispering then?"

Alex smiled wryly and went to the living room. He turned the tv on and as expected, newsflash about the current events is playing on every station.

This is the biggest newsflash and everyone needs to be on top of it.

Alex took a deep breath before asking his intended question.

"Mom, where are you right now?"