Pitch Black

It was dark, having just woke up he could do not realize where he was or why it was so dark. He knew he was in a bed, and it was quiet. He laid still for a moment knowing that this wasn’t his bedroom or his house. As his senses started to take hold, he could feel the rails of what felt like a hospital bed. How long had he been here and if he were in a hospital why was it dark?

He pulled the needles from his arm and the breathing tube from his nose. They obviously were not doing anything useful at this point. Not being able to see, trying to feel his way around in a place that he didn’t know anything about making it very difficult to find any solace in his situation. Why was he here and why was he in the hospital bed? The last thing he remembered is that he had been driving.

He found the door and moved out into the hallway. He was looking for the nurse’s station and for information about why he had been in the hospital. It really is difficult trying to move around in absolute darkness. As he moves down the hallway, he feels slimy stuff on the walls and floors. He had also bumped into other beds hoping there are not people in those beds. He didn’t want to think about what it was he was touching.

As he continued down the hallway, he found a desk and started searching through the drawers. Whatever happened everyone left in a hurry. There are personal items lying around the desk. He begins to look through a purse. He can’t really see but a flashlight would be great right about now. So many things in a woman’s purse feel like a flashlight. Lipstick tube, mascara, is that a vape pen? As he puts the vape to his lips, he presses the button. The taste of nicotine, something he has been craving since he woke up. He could have done without the fruity pebble taste though. Finally, one of the purses had a flashlight in it.

As he clicks it on, his eyes are struggling to focus. Such a bright light when he has been searching for what has seemed like hours in pure darkness. He then reminds himself not to look around too much. He is in a hospital, and he doesn’t really want to see what he is around. He then starts to look for his chart. He must know why he was here. Looking through the list he finds his name and it shows a coma due to being hit by a drunk driver. No wonder he couldn’t remember. He questions himself about how long was he in a coma and how long has it been dark? There is no telling what time or what day it is. No cell phones around and no one wears a regular watch anymore. Just smartwatches that would be dead just like the cell phones.

He turns off the flashlight and waits for his eyesight to go back to the darkness. He then finds his way back to his room. He turns the light on and finds a bag of clothes someone had brought him. It had to be his parents. But where are they now? He gets dressed and starts looking for a way out. He knew the hospital that he was in and knows how to get home from there. Without a car, it may take a day or so to walk. But if one of the cars will start maybe he can drive. He thinks about it. What if driving will make me stand out and create unwanted attention? Best just walk but he was in desperate need of some water.

Back at the nurse’s station, he found a couple of bottles of unopened water. He took a drink out of one and put the other in his bag for later. As he forces the no longer electric sliding doors open to step out of the hospital, he notices a full moon outside. While this is good to see in, it will make him visible as well. He decides he will need to walk home as obscure as possible. Looking in vehicles to see if there is anything useful, he realizes that there are not many vehicles around. It is somewhat warm outside, being it is night and around 70 degrees it has to be summertime or early fall. Down south it stays warm very late into the fall. The last day he remembers was it being June 29th and he had just come from riding with friends to a boat race. Still unsure what day it is, he just starts walking. He is 34 miles from his home. Walking at a pace of 3 to 5 miles an hour is going to take 8 hours of walking with no stops. No time like walking at night. Cooler than walking during the day and easier to stay out of sight.

As he started walking it was eerie how quiet it was and abandoned. What happened that everyone is gone and there is no electricity. He did know that his parents had planned for something like this. But why did they leave him in the hospital when this happened? Maybe they felt it was too dangerous to try and come get me and if he was in a coma with the machines keeping him alive, he wouldn’t have survived long. Being that he was alive, it couldn’t have been more than a day or two. The body can’t typically go more than three days without water.

The memories of his family work through his mind. He hopes that they will be ok. Knowing his father, he is keeping the family alive. While deep in thought about his family, he heard the familiar sound of an engine. Knowing this can’t be good, he jumps into the woods and stops to hide behind a tree. The car goes flying by. No real need for a speed limit anymore he supposed. No one is driving anyway. That was obviously a military vehicle of some sort. Must be in a hurry to get somewhere. Who can be trusted right now? As far as he was concerned, only his family could be trusted. He kept walking talking drinks of water every so often but ensuring not to just gulp it, he would need it to last him the entire walk. Hopefully one of these stores had a bottle that was forgotten somewhere.

Other than a few instances, the walk was uneventful. Being nighttime, everyone is hunkered down protecting what they have. Hopefully, as the sun rises, people will not come out. Only the idiots will come out during the day though. It why the deer always feed at dusk and through the night rarely coming out during the day. They know the dangers of it. His thoughts of this were because he could see the sun starting to rise. He was almost to his parent's house, out in the country with 35 acres perfect for hiding on. But he had to make it there before sunrise. He took a big drink of water knowing that if he got there, that there would be water to drink there.

Just as the sun was rising, he made it. Not crazy enough to just walk through the front door, he knew his father would have had it rigged up somehow, he decided to walk around the back. There was always one of those locked key holders back there and he could use the key to open the door and carefully walk. As he opened the doors quietly but loud enough for anyone in the next room to hear he announced himself. But no one answered. He slowly walked in and carefully walked into the kitchen. He opened the fridge to find a couple of bottles of water but was wiped out otherwise. The water was room temperature, but that was ok with him. It was wet and just what his lips needed.

As he walked from room to room, it was just as it had been the last time, he had seen it. He found his way to his parent's room, but they were not there. It did look like they packed whatever they needed in a hurry. Whatever happened, they didn’t stick around to see what was going to happen. He looked around and something stood out to him. The heart-shaped locket that his mother always wore and only took off when she was sleeping was on the nightstand. He opened it up and there was the picture of him and his sister that she had always had in it from as far back as he could remember. Why would she have left it here? Are they in trouble or are they even alive?

He kept going through the rooms and made it to his. He grabbed some more clothes. As he turned around, he must not have been paying attention to his surroundings. A tall guy was standing there with a shotgun in his face. Suddenly the guy slowly lowers the shotgun and removes his mask. Dad! He exclaimed giving him a big hug. Where is mom he said?

She didn’t make it son. We were on the way to the hospital to see you when all of sudden we received warning messages over the radio and then zap. Everything shut down. Like we had been hit with a nuclear bomb. Yet it wasn’t a bomb. The sun days earlier had let out a large shockwave of energy. The warning only gave us a few minutes before everything lost power. I had heard about this possibly happening before but didn’t think it would happen in our lifetime. Anyway, we got out of the car and I knew we had to get off the street. But before we could gunfire already started. People were scared and they didn’t have a care in the world about others. A stray bullet hit your mother right in her chest. I dragged her into the woods and stayed with her until she passed.

I then walked home. Your sister smart as a whip she is, already had everything in the shelter before I got back, and we have been hiding out. I knew someone was in the house because the fridge had a string tied to the back of the door that rang a bell in the shelter. They always go for the fridge first. But I am glad you are home son. I can’t wait to hear of your journey home. It must have been awkward waking up in the hospital alone and not knowing what happened.

The two men left from the family carefully walked into the woods where the underground shelter is. They climbed in and waited to see what was going to happen. The next months would be very telling about what society will be like. They stayed mostly in that shelter for 6 months, and he never let go of that Heart Shaped Locket that the picture of his mother now resided in.