Chapter 2: On Fire (Tyler's POV)

I woke up, it was a normal day... I knew it, my body felt sore though, I just wanted to go back to sleep, maybe I would wake up and it would all wear off. I knew that it wasn't to be true though, I sighed and just stared at the ceiling.

The alarm clock... Yes, that's what woke me up, that damn alarm clock! I slammed my hand into it, turned it off, it made a loud crackling noise, and then it shut off. I hope that I did not break it, I hated the annoying thing, but it was not only thing they could wake me up in the morning.

I sat there for a few moments, pondering whether I should go to sleep or not. But I knew that I could not, Alli, the poor lady would be waiting for me, wondering why I wasn't there yet. She probably would not be worried, she probably wouldn't care at all in fact.

She probably would just be upset and be sitting there waiting for me. I had never missed a day of work out there in my life. This would not just all of the sudden be my first. I thought back to the lady Alli, she was a nice lady, some where in her 30s, she didn't really care all that much about me though.

In fact, I don't think many people in this community really cared about me. I knew how to make it out there on my own, I had been taught to, when my father was still alive. I knew how to hunt and all of that, my aim was amazing, that was one of the main reasons I was considered I top wall guard.

There was only 1 reason why I still stayed in the community... That was for Angela, I was still in love with her, I had been for several years... Before her boyfriend and after her boyfriend had died... She still did not have a thing for me.

I was confused, sure, I was not as good looking as Tony, but I was always kind and sweet to her. I was the only 1 in the whole community that gave her birthday gifts. Every time I asked she told me she did not want to talk about it.

She still had a small faint of hope that her boyfriend was still out there somewhere... I did not think that he was, sure... She might be right about the other community getting attacked, but if they were then odds are he went down with them.

Shannon, she always shook it off, I think it was mainly because she did not want to scare everyone in the community. But surely, they had to have been attacked, fire could not have spread that much in the regions that were sperated so far apart.

I had been there before, and after as well. There were was blood on the ground everywhere... If they had been torn apart, surely some of them you would have seen them sitting around there dead.

Tony... The poor guy, me and him were actually close friends before... Before he started dating Angela of course, after that, he despised me every time he saw my face. It was sad, he did not want Angela ever talking to me, and for a while, she didn't.

But after Tony had gone missing, she finally came back to her senses, I had confessed my love for her several times after that as well... Every time she always shook it off. I was always so nice and sweet to her, not even her brother Ben understood it.

I sat there for a few moments, Ben... I had heard he was going on his final mission. After that he was going to finish his training, he was supposed to be out there for a few weeks... It had been nearly a week already.

Maybe, I did not know what day it was, or how long it had been. I never kept track of time anymore, unless it was near Angela's birthday, and then I would get her a present. She was always grateful...

Her birthday was still a few more months away, I was not worried about the calendar anymore. I sat there, I looked at the clock. I looked at the time, I had been sitting there for a few moments too many. I was going to be late, maybe... If I didn't take a shower, and I just changed my clothes I could probably get there on time.

Hopefully Alli would not be too upset, she normally didn't, I rarely saw her get pissed off. I looked at the time on the clock, 1:30... I had to be there by 2:00 it was 15 minutes away, 5-10 if I have myself a good jog.

It had been a while since I had jogged, I went ahead and slowly pulled myself out of my bed. Then I walked over to my dresser. I looked at the clothes... All so boring, no one had made anything cool every since this virus had spread everywhere.

It was all just 1 color... I went ahead and grabbed a blue shirt, the pants... I decided to just where a pear of athletic shorts. It was probably going to start getting cold real soon, might as well enjoy the warm weather while we still had it I suppose.

I then grabbed a pair of socks and a pair of undies. I walked over to my shoes, this is where the clothes section was kind of nicer. I looked at all of my tennis shoes, for some reason, something was telling me I might be needing those today.

Not even just for jogging, I had this weird feeling that I might be needing it for running. I shivered, maybe the warm water of my shower might heal whatever my mind was thinking right now. I picked up a pair of blue and green shoes and then I walked into the bathroom.

Once I was in there, I began taking the clothes off that I had worn yesterday. I looked at the shower... For some reason the ground at the bottom of the tub, was red... I blinked for a few moments trying to wear it off, and then it was gone just as soon as I had seen it.

It looked almost like blood, I hope I wasn't in one of those strange nightmares again. I had those pretty often, I would think it was all real, and it would all be fake and all be so scary. I closed my eyes for a few moments, I needed to think.

I knew it wasn't real... My mother, she had been murdered in a shower... That was when I was real young. I was in the baby crib. My father had video footage of the guy walking up to the crib and then smiling... All the while swinging his knife around.

After that had happened, my father had told me, every day he would wake up to hear me screaming and crying. Babies do remember things in fact, it is almost like it is stored deep in your memory, so when your body is conscious you can't seem to remember that.

I looked at the mirror, it was just me, I was the only person there... I shook my head, the world was different, the community was good, very rarely did something bad happen. Usually when there was something that did happen, it never was a murder or anything of that sort.

I looked at the large window that was sitting right beside the shower. I remember the day, I was about 16... The day that I had found out that Angela had started dating Tony. I went in the shower and just cried for several hours, sitting there in the warm water.

The water never got cold in our community, we had a large water system it was always warm, the builders of this community had done a good job... But back to what I was thinking about in the first place.

I looked through the window, a large one that basically went through the whole shower room. I wondered why anyone had even made the house like this in the first place. When I looked at the window I saw someone staring at me.

It was a girl, a girl that I had been talking to for a while. She was watching me and smiling. I covered my crouch region and she began blushing. Was she watching me? Why else would she just randomly be in my back yard?

I knew that she had a crush on me, she had never come straight out and confessed it to me. But I always could tell. She walked back but she was still looking at me. I uncovered my crouch, I suddenly was not feeling scared or wondering why she was watching me.

She was a nice girl, a year younger than me, I always did like her, but I always had Angela mainly in my eyes. I guess I had been to blind to see her this whole time... Bailey... That was her name, she was good looking, maybe not as nice as Angela, I was so lonely though.

I pointed to her, as if it was a way to say, come into my place! She looked at me a bit surprised, then she nodded to me, she quickly began walking over. Once I did not see her any more I heard her open the back door of my place.

This was not the first time she had been in my place, she knew where my room was. Well, it also was kind of obvious as well. It was the only room in the whole house. I waited for her to walk into the bathroom. I heard her walking into the room.

When she walked into the bathroom, I saw her, she was there. She did not have her shirt on. I gulped, but I was ready for something like this. I was so lonely anyways. I looked at her and smiled, she had nice breast, a nice ass. I nodded for her to come in.

I shook my head, I had my clothes off, just thinking about that was giving me a hard on, I knew I shouldn't though. Thinking about that girl as well, it just made me feel sick. The exact same day, she had gone out, it was her job, much like Angela, she was a scavenger.

She never came back, I slightly blamed myself for that, maybe she did not enjoy the time we had, and maybe she had just decided to run off. I told Angela about it, she said she was happy for me. But I guess she was not getting the point, the girl was gone now.

No one knows what happened to her, I thought maybe she had left because of me, but that couldn't be so, she had such a big smile on her face after that, and it wasn't like my package was small, in fact I thought of mine to be quite large.

I knew what happened, maybe she had been thinking to much about the time that we had together, and she got attacked and had not heard any of it coming. So once again, it was my fault, I was used to it though, a lot things that happened to me were my fault.

I realized I had been thinking for too long, it was probably too late to take a shower, but oh well... Alli would have to get over it. I stopped thinking about her, I needed to stop thinking about all of the bad things that had happened to me.

I wasn't the only one that had things bad happen, the world had ended, everyone had lost someone, or at least something if they were lucky enough to have their whole family with them still. I needed to stop thinking about it, Angela had been through much worse, she was stronger than me.

She had seen her own parents torn apart, I could not even imagine that... I had never found out what happened to my dad, but I am sure that he was dead. He probably was making sure that everyone around him was okay, just like he always did. That was probably the downfall of him.

I shivered, I needed some warm water to take of the tingling sensation that was flowing through my body right now. I walked into the bathtub, and then I turned on the water. I waited for it to get warm. Then I just sat there and enjoyed the warm water.

Alli would get over it, she knew the type of stuff that I was going through, besides Angela, she was the only real other friend I had. She would be fine if I was about 10-15 minutes late.

I sat there, the warm water was relaxing, I needed it. After I sat there for a few moments enjoying the warm water, my mind came back to its senses. I had to hurry up now, I didn't want to be too late, I shouldn't be waking up this late in the first place... It's just so hard to sleep.

Once I put the shampoo on my head, I walked over to the water and began washing it off, but as soon as I did it the water just randomly shut off. I looked a bit confused, I didn't want to open my eyes because the shampoo would burn them.

I walked the the end of the tub, the shower was obviously not on, or working, I could not hear water at all. I grabbed a towel and cleaned off my eyes and the rest of my hair, then I opened my eyes, wondering what could be going on.

When I opened them I felt a slight burn on my eyes, clearly I had not washed all of the shampoo off of my eyes. I looked at the at the shower. Had it just randomly shut off? No, the plug said it was still on... What could it be?

I shut it off, I shook my head, I had to get to work anyways, I would tell Shannon about it later. I turned it off just in case it randomly shut back on while I was at work. Then I went over to the sink, I tried to turn it on but I had no luck.

I suppose that the water was just shut off in the whole house. I shook my head and looked at the mirror, I could not see any shampoo in my hair, but I could still feel some in it. I shook it off, I would have to get over it, but I had a feeling this was going to be a rough day for me.

I looked at my clothes for a few moments and then I began putting them on 1 at a time. Once I had my shoes on I began brushing my hair... Looking at the mirror just to make sure that I had it on perfect.

Then I walked out of my bathroom, I looked at the alarm clock. The time was 1:45, my shower had been cut far too short, but at least that would give me time to get something to eat, I thought to myself as I walked over to my small little kitchen.

I opened the cabinet to see what I could eat really quick, obviously I could not cook anything right now. I chose the best option and I grabbed some bread from out of the cabinet. I put it the counter and then I walked into my refrigerator...

I grabbed some jam and then I put it on the counter beside the 2 pieces of bread. I then realized how hungry I was, 1 sandwich would simply not be enough for an 8 hour long shift... I went back into the refrigerator to see what else I could make.

Since I was a bit hungry I decided to make the smart decision and grab some chicken slices and some cheese. These were always so much better than the meat and cheese that I got when I was way younger. Whoever made these did a damn good job with them.

I put them beside the jam on the counter and then I grabbed some peanut butter from the cabinet as well. I then began making myself 2 different types of sandwiches, 1 for right now just to tide me over... Then 1 for later in case I got a bit hungry again, which I probably would. I then grabbed a zipped bag and put the pb & j in there.

I went and ate the other sandwich, it was a good sandwich, I always enjoyed these, even though they kind of got boring eating them just about every day.

I realized I had been wasting too much time, I through the rest of the sandwich in the garbage can after I saw that it was nearly 1:55 on the large clock on the wall. I then opened the door to my small little house, I then began moving at a quicker jog over to the tower that I was supposed so be working at today.

I looked around at the community, it was kind of quiet today, I wasn't really going to complain though, I liked it a bit more when it was. I could always just think for myself and think about life, usually when I did, it turned me down a dark path, but I still liked thinking.

Once I was at the tower that I was supposed to be at today, I looked at it and was surprised to see Alli not there... Surely I wasn't that late? Maybe she just needed to use the bathroom, guards were not supposed to leave their shift no matter what.

I looked a bit confused for a few moments, maybe she had something really important and she knew that I was going to be on my shift no matter what. I wasn't going to tell anyone about it, but it was still not something that you were supposed to do.

I sighed to myself, I did want to talk to her a little bit, but if she was really that busy, then she probably did not have time to talk in the first place. I looked at the top once again though, where was the rifle? She was supposed to leave it up there... Had something happened? Maybe she had decided to do the new thing that Shannon had recommended.

I looked there for a few moments, that's probably what she did. But if she was going on the other side of the wall, she didn't need a gun anyways, it was a knife you were supposed to us. We weren't supposed to be wasting any ammo right now, we were down to a small little stock now, it had been slowly deteriorating since the other community had just gone off the map.

I shook my head and then I began walking up to the steps that put me up on the tower in the first place. If she was on the other side, she would give the gun back to me and then I would let her go off of her duty.

There's no way she was doing anything stupid with the gun, surely right? She was smart enough to know that they were not things to play with...

As I was walking up the steps I saw something sitting on the ground on the side of the steps. I walked back down to the steps wondering what it was, it was fairly big, so obviously it was not normal. Once I was down I looked over to see what it was.

I was shocked... It was Alli! She was sitting there... She was dead, a bullet mark directly to her head. She must have fallen down. Who could have done this to her though? I shivered, was this why I had seen the blood in the shower earlier? My mind had a weird thing as if I was seeing in the future but I could never understand it.

I knew it was real, everyone would always laugh when I told them about it. Angela was the only 1 that really listened to me, but I could tell that not even she believed me most of the time. I did not go up on the tower though, I needed to go to Shannon right now! Someone in our community must have done this too her! Someone must have gone rampent.

I shivered, I then picked up the gun, feeling the could feeling on her body, she had been dead for at least 30 minutes... How had no one noticed this until now... I looked over at the other watch tower... Had they not noticed that no one was on that?

The watchtower was far away... But I could not see anyone on that either... In fact, I had not seen anyone in the community this whole time... I had to be in some sort of nightmare surely? This seemed just too far and too long for this to be so.

Where was everyone at? Everyone could not have randomly just died and disappeared while I was asleep right? I was a deep sleeper but, still... I would have woken up to hear gunshots... Unless they had a silencer... But why would they check every place besides mine?

I knew that the community was worried about a potential attack. I shivered, and then I began walking over to Shannon's place... At first in was a bit of a slower walk, but then I began jogging over. I saw someone from not far away that told me thankfully that I was not alone.

I began jogging over to him, since he was on the way to Shannon's in the first place. But as I was coming closer, he did not look like a guy that I had ever seen before. And why was he wearing that weird greaser jacket? I shivered and then sat there and just watched for a few moments.

He turned around, but luckily he did not see me, I was well hidden under a bush. I looked at the guy, it was a big guy with a big smile on his face. He was not alone... There were guys with him... I looked at his face.

On it I could see 2 large scars from huge cut marks that must have been from a knife, they were directly on his eyes... There were guys with him as well, he was not alone, they also had large scars, however theirs were different, they only had 1 scar.

I could hear them talking, this was not normal... I had never seen the guy before, and why did they have a large cut right on their eyes? I shivered and then I looked at all of them. I guess I had not been paying attention before.

I saw they had large assault rifles, the assault rifles had silencers on them. I then realized, that was how Alli had died... Surely... It was all coming together now... I shivered, but then I moved in closer to try and catch what they were saying.

"Take as many kids and as many woman, and strong men as possible, even if they might back..." The guy said to the other ones with him. I looked at the guy, I swear I had heard the voice somewhere before. The face... It looked familiar, but I wasn't sure where I had seen it from.

The guys with him nodded and then they headed off, 2 others then walked over to him. And they headed off in a different direction... They were not normal people, they were not a part of the community.

I felt like yelling to warn everyone, but was there anyone left? I heard someone yelling from far behind me that told me that there were still people around here somewhere... Just not the exact words I would have liked to hear...

"Everyone get water! Hide your kids! The walls on fire!"