Cold, so….. cold.

I wrapped the wool blanket around me even tighter. The wind howled through the broken windows on the old abandoned bus that I hid on for several years after the first wave knocked out about 78 percent of the world’s population. I’ve never been very good at math, but even I know that 78% of 8.5 billion people is, well, a lot of people dead. I lost everything

My mom…

My dad…

My friends..

Everything, gone. in what seemed like an instant. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. But after seeing the news reports, and after seeing the news slowly die away, I was forced to believe it. Suddenly we were all shut off from the rest of the world. Food soon became scarce. People began to split into factions and gangs. But no amount of people with guns could withstand the second wave. That was when the infantry dropped from the ships keeping our city in a large shadow, an everlasting night. The city of New York became a blood-bath. If you fought, you were killed. If you hid away, you were killed. If you did anything, you were shot on sight by the infantry. Death Squads were sent to every street, every corner store, every tunnel and alleyway. All the while I hid in a bus that had crashed into a convenience store, wrapped in my wool blanket with a Glock 19 at my side.

“Hey… uhhh, you okay?”

no

I slowly nodded my head in response.

“Okay, you just had that hazy look in your eyes Felix.” Alex spoke, “We’ve all seen too much, everybody around us, just, dead.” he snapped his fingers “In an instant, everything we knew was gone. The last two years of our lives spent hiding on a wrecked bus.”

He looked away for a second or two

“But at least we have each other.” he attempted a smile, and I smiled back.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” he reached towards the half of a sandwich we had found in the store and took a bite out of it.
“It may be stale,” Alex stated, “but it’s still the best thing I’ve eaten in the last two years.”

Two years... huh…, that means I’m seventeen….

Wait

Today is my birthday.

I smiled, after a while, we had forgotten about things like age and birthdays. It seemed silly now but, my parents would always make a huge spectacle out of my birthday. Even if we didn’t have very much. I would always come back from school to see a banner hanging from the small doorway to the apartment that we lived in, and our small kitchen counter would be filled with presents and a chocolate cake with candles. My parents couldn’t afford much, and I knew how much it must have cost them to keep this tradition anyways. But I could never refuse the presents they gave me, even though they were just little things. But on March 12, 2025, while my dad was out of town, my mom got into a car crash. She survived, but she was paralyzed from the waist down. Not long after, my mom lost her job. So I had to pick one up so we could pay the rent on the apartment. I picked up a job as a DJ at a club. It didn’t pay very well at first, but as I started to get better and better, and more and more popular. I could eventually provide three meals a day and pay the rent on the apartment. But, that was when everything fell apart.

“Want some Felix?” Alex passed me the rest of the sandwich.

“huh?”

“The sandwich, want some?” He said as he waved the sandwich in my face.

“No thanks.” I pushed the sandwich out of my face.

“Oh come on, you must be hungry. you haven’t eaten in two days!”

He had a point, I was really hungry….

My stomach growled.

And that sandwich did smell rather delicious….

“I guess I’ll have it then.” I said as I took the sandwich from his grasp. He looked at me with a face of content. As I took a bite.

He was right….

It was the best thing I had tasted in three years.

PS: I am looking for feedback, don’t be afraid to be blunt. :)