Chereads / Symptoms / Chapter 7 - Decisions

Chapter 7 - Decisions

The apartment building was now plain creepy. The eerie silence left me with an uneasy feeling as a waited for the elevator. When it opened, Amy followed me in, which surprised me. (Is she used to this?) The ride felt like it took five minutes. I was constantly on guard. With no security, people could be anywhere and do anything. I lugged the two carts back to my room and heaved a sigh of relief upon entering.

I looked around at my small apartment, where I'd lived for one and a half years. It felt small. With one known human living in the entire apartment building, everything, especially myself, felt small. I grabbed a bag of dog food, cut it open, and put down a bowl of food for Amy. Who knew how long it had been since she last had a full meal. I put the eggs and milk in the fridge and ate a sandwich. After I cleared my mind, I began to think about the future.

The first problem was electricity. If there truly weren't enough people left to run modern infrastructure, then the power would be going out, and soon. It was honestly a miracle that it was still. The only way I could make electricity (easily) in the future was with a generator. Then I would need gas. Based on the unscathed state of the store I had just been in, it was safe to assume the gas stations would still be alright as well. Fuel does have an expiration date, but that was half a year away if I could store it properly. If stored correctly, Jet fuel would last longer. (Will humanity be able to recover enough that I won't ever have to be without electricity?) After fuel and electricity, outdoor survival equipment was a necessity. Getting out of the city felt like a good choice. Anywhere outside the city would have a lower population density, no matter how many people were killed, unless the city was hit harder than rural areas. A completely dark city would always have corners you couldn't see around. To make the most of the gas, I decided I would carjack a fuel efficient car with a large capacity for the equipment, generator, and tanks of gas. It was also time for me to get a gun. I would grab some hunting rifles along with a few pistols to assist me with hunting in the future. (I really hope there are some people left.)

I'd given up on ever seeing my family, my friends and coworkers again. Everyone seemed to be gone. The thought troubled me, but I pushedm it to the back of my mind. Those thoughts would do nothing but hinder my survival. After thinking for awhile, I realized I forgot something extremely important for my survival list. Medicine. Medicine would likely be invaluable and of high rarity in the future. Ransacking the stores for painkillers, cold medicine, allergy medicine, and any antibiotics or vitals could be extremely useful. I wouldn't know how to use these, but the odds were that someone who could had survived, as long as I wasn't the only one left.

If enough people were dead, the GPS and internet satellites wouldn't have anyone to update there positions. GPS would be obsolete within a week or two, and satellite internet would be useless by the time the power was out for cell towers. With this in mind, I quickly screenshot maps of the city and the areas and cities surrounding it at various levels of zoom for more detailed road information. I decided to expand this whenever I had the time too. I would have to get some physical maps too Incase something happened to my phone. I decided to buy a few more phones as well. As long as I could charge them, I could transfer data.

After thinking and planning for quite awhile, I decided I would leave as soon as I ran out of milk and eggs, or as soon as the power went out. On the other hand, it might be better to leave as soon as possible. The longer I waited, the more likely I would be in a city shrouded in darkness. I turned on the TV to our regularly scheduled government broadcast. It was the only channel available. (I wonder if satellite TV still has some channels...) I used the smart feature to watch some videos online and looked out the window. Someone was walking on the street. Without a weapon, I didn't feel safe enough to make contact with them.

I had lost faith in humanity, and it was likely that Humanity had lost trust in itself.