Suzy’s Strange Saga

You wake up to silence and it’s an odd feeling.

You half expect Johnny to be vacuuming or cleaning or just being around, but you know that’s not going to happen ever again.

You sit up just thinking about what you’re going to do today for a few moments. Everyone you know or close to is gone and you’re truly alone now. Granted you’ve spent most of your life alone, but there was still always someone around to intrude. Most of the time this was unwanted like when Kelly bullied you or when Peter stole your clothes. Other times this was your choice like spending time with Bobby.

Now? There is nobody.

You finally get up and shuffle into the living room which still has a lot of blood on the floor.

“(Sigh) I guess I should clean that up too.” You mutter to your self and remind yourself to get some of the cleaning products from upstairs.

After ascending up the ladder you see the same garbage bags you left in a group nearby.

“I’ll be back to take care you later Johnny.” You say, then you glance your head towards your old room.

“You too bitch.” You say and head upstairs.

When you get upstairs to get something to clean with, you notice several bags on the floor in the living room. They’re yours or mostly yours anyway. It’s all the stuff you brought with you from Julie’s house. Johnny must’ve brought them in from the jeep last night. He always was thoughtful.

As you go to get your bags, a bright flash shines through one of the uncovered windows along with the sound of a large explosion in the distance. You can’t help but take a quick glance out the window.

And there you see it in the far distance, the dissipating remnants of a mushroom cloud rising up in the sky.

“…they finally went and did it.” You say.

From the direction it looks like it probably hit the city, but it still had to be a “small” one since you imagine your home still would’ve suffered a backlash of your windows breaking from the long range impact.

Still who knows which way the wind is blowing and there is no reason to not be extra cautious. So you gather up your bags and a few extra items and head back down to the shelter as quick as possible.

And once again you’re locked away from the outside world. This time possibly for a lot longer than average. Sadly, you know it can’t be forever.

As you look through your supplies, you think you could probably stay down here for about a decade before you completely ran out of what you needed, which means eventually you’ll have to go up to the surface at some point to scavenge or trade or whatever it is that you’ll need to do for more supplies.

And if you go up to the surface, you’re going to need to be prepared and that unfortunately means a lot of regular use for that exercise room you saw, along with reading all those survivalist books you saw in the library.

Still, this week has already prepared you in some ways. You have a much better mindset to deal with the outside world that you can’t hide away from anymore. You even know that you can do unpleasant things if you need to.

It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to be fun, but for now you can continue to afford to hide out from reality, if only for a little while longer.