2 days after...

A cold touch woke me up and when I tried to move I felt a strong bruise, my eyes immediately closed when I saw an incandescent light in front of my face and suddenly I felt all the pain in my body. I tried to look under the light and saw a pale hand grasp my leg, the one that made me wake up.

—What...?

The light faded and darkness emerged in the abysmal silence affected by the sound of our breaths.

My wet clothes stuck to my body leaving a feeling of cold and an unbearable aroma entered my nose alerting all the sensations of nausea, it was so stinky and strong that I could not contain the vomit that to my surprise, I perceived the metallic taste of the blood in my mouth.

—Goody...

The deep voice made me jump in place, I had forgotten its presence amid my agonies of pain and confusion. The figure in front of me rose to show how dense and dark it was. for a moment I thought there would be no end.

—We are alone... —he murmured.

I did not understand his words and I could not do it either, I felt my ears plugged and the pain in my numb body made me lose track of everything, I still felt his icy touch on my skin. The flashlight came back on pointing to nothing and when the brightness fell to the ground I screamed when I saw a hand covered in blood holding my leg, I kicked it apart and my eyes traveled through what the light illuminated finding me with the lifeless body of Mrs. Smith. The pain disappeared due to the adrenaline, I got up attracting the attention of the other person who returned the light to my face.

—Are you hurt?.

His question took me by surprise and the confusion only made my mind go into chaos, I did not even measure my words by the time I speak:

—Did you kill her?—He put the flashlight away at my question reflecting the body—What have you done to him? What do you want?—the bravery in my voice was contradictory to my backing up. He kept pointing the flashlight at the decomposing corpse of Mrs. Smith, just enervating my senses and panicking at her silence.—Who are you and what do you want ?!.

—I hate being yelled at—he warned with a certain dangerous tone in his voice.—Don't do it, okay? —He pointed the light back at my face.

I nodded automatically, afraid of what I was going to do. The breeze from outside made me pay attention to my surroundings. I was in the street, we were surrounded by the tall silhouettes of the buildings that limited the access of the moonlight, a mortifying fear invaded me before the sepulchral silence and the dense darkness.

—What...? Where ...? — I turned around trying to look for a trace of light outside the flashlight.

—You know nothing?—His touch on my arm made me jump and again I felt pain all over my body. —They are all dead.

I would not have understood his words if he had not slid the white circle across the ground illuminating the street that was beginning to fill with vehicles and corpses of people who seemed to have died in the blink of an eye. He illuminated everything around us so that I had no doubt that what he had said was true.

—What the...?

—I'll be honest, okay?—He turned towards me, the contrast with the light made it impossible to distinguish his face, it was a black silhouette to my perception—All the doubts and questions you have in your head... I have them too... but I know something...—was silent for a few seconds that seemed eternal—We are both alone in this.

I started to laugh. my laughter seemed to fill the city with the echo produced by emptiness and silence. The city seemed to laugh at us, it laughed even louder than me, both under the circle of the lantern we looked like the clowns of the show. I was hoping that he would laugh, that he would tell me it was a joke, that it was a lesson from my father, I wanted to see Mrs. Smith getting up with her tender smile, but he didn't say anything and Mrs. Smith, nor the people around got up. My laugh easily turned into tears, my voice began to distort and my body remembered the pain I felt. His grip on my arm disappeared and he took a few steps back without heart to console me for my reaction to the news that the world seemed to have changed.

—This is a dream?—I tried to dry my tears as I approached Mrs. Smith, she could not die, she could not leave me alone, less with a stranger.

—Do not touch her—He turned off the flashlight without letting me see my nana's face.

—My parents... they... are they alive?—I got up off the ground when the smell of decomposition made me nauseous—They traveled, they are far from here...

—I don't know, I just know that this city is dead and the neighboring towns are the same... until now I only found you.

My body was shaking with pain, my mind was being a disaster, my heart was beating hard, I was trying to breathe but it was getting more and more difficult, I would lose consciousness at any moment if I couldn't calm down.

—I want... I want to go home, I want to be home...

—Are you sure you can move?.

—I want to get home.

—Okay.

—Come with me, move, I need light—my voice sounded too confident for the fear I felt of him, of the people at my feet, of the silence and the darkness.

I stumbled every step of the way from the pain, from the bodies, from the fear, from the confusion, I couldn't even coordinate my own feet well, it was increasingly frustrating to see the bodies on the ground, the anguish knotted my throat until it made it difficult for me to breathe, I could only cry and moan in silence with him behind me attentive to my steps, he seemed willing to get up, but I really did not want to check it, I was afraid of falling and that I could not get up again, I was afraid of dying.

But at one point, I don't remember when the darkness consumed me.