"I think I'm really going to report them to the principal this time."

A boy's weak voice came out of a dumpster. It was a humid, dark night in the middle of August. At this time the boy should have been at home eating dinner with his parents, but life had other plans for him.

With a sigh he pushed himself out of the trash can and fell onto the pavement below him. "I just can't catch a break."

The boy stood up and looked around himself. He had no shoes on and his pockets where empty. The bullies had left him nothing.His body was blue and bruised. Every movement he made ached him.

"I don't even know where I am!" The boy stepped out of the alley he was in, hoping to find some kind of familiar land mark.

Fear started to set in as he found that he didn't recognize anything around him. In fact the place he was in didn't look habitable. The buildings were all on fire and smoke clouded the skies. Black skid marks from tires where all over the road and sometimes even on the walls.

Most disturbingly there was no sound, or not as much as there should have been. In this apocalyptic setting there should been people screaming, cars honking or some kind of sirens. Yet the only sound he could hear was the fire burning and his own breath.

"What the heck is this?! Where is everyone… Hello?" The boy shouted in futility hoping that someone would answer him, but all he was met with was a cold silence. He took in the deepest breath he could and gave it one last attempt,

"HELLLLLOOOOOO!?!"

…Nothing. The boy looked down in futility. Out of breath, he sat down and tried to make sense of what was going on. "Can't anybody hear me. Would someone please answer me!! Where am I!?" Then his answer came.

A loud rumbling could be heard and the ground tremored. The boy, shaken, climbed back into the trash can and closed the lid. He couldn't hold back his tears and silently cried to himself.

"Please let it all just be a dream. Please, please, please!" Eventually the rumbling stopped. Pieces of the towers the boy had seen collapsed and explosions could be heard in the distance. After that there was once again nothing but the sound of the fire and his breathing. The boy was too afraid to move so he stayed curled up in the trash can. Trying to stay as quiet and still as possible, as if any movement he made would broadcast his location.

The sound of the fire was still the only thing the boy could hear. It was almost comforting, if the only sound was fire that meant that there was nothing else outside waiting for him.

A few minutes passed and the boy had finally gathered enough courage to take a peek outside. He slowly sat up halfway and slightly propped the dumpster lid up so he could take a look outside.

There was nothing. The boy relaxed and stopped holding his breath. Then something tall and black entered his peripheral. He immediately dropped the lid and laid back into the trash can.

"THUMP." The trash cans lid wasn't that heavy so it didn't make that loud of a sound, but to the kid it felt like the loudest sound in the world. His heart beat rapidly as if it wanted to jump out of his chest. He locked his joints into place and took long quiet breaths. Every so often a step could be heard. The sounds the steps made were squeaky, like they were coming from a wet boot. They got closer and closer. They moved slowly too. Slowly enough that every time the boy would slightly relax thinking it had gone past another step would occur causing him to tense up all over again.

The young boy's imagination tortured him. "Could it be a scaly man with no face or a zombie or an-" he went on and on scaring himself, wishing for it to just be a nightmare that would just end in a few seconds.

Suddenly the steps stopped altogether. The boy looked up at the crack in between the lid of the dumpster and, to his horror, saw a small portion of a figure standing there. "I-Is it waiting there?" The boy didn't dare to move a muscle. Not until the figure moved away.

An hour passed…

The figure hadn't moved, not even a little bit. The boy knew he wouldn't be able to stay inside the dumpster forever but he was too frightened to move at all. Then disaster struck. Wether it was thanks to the dust or the smell from the trash, he had to cough.

The poor boy fought it off for as long as he could his small frame shaked as he struggled to keep it down but then, "AHEM." He couldn't help but clear his throat.

Ice filled his veins. He looked up to see if the figure had moved. Still nothing, it seemed as if the creature was unresponsive to any sound he made-

Then the lid to the dumpster was torn off. The boy jumped and looked up in terror at the monster. The lid landed and clattered behind it. The boy didn't bother to be quiet anymore, screaming as loud as he could. The tall, jet black, featureless monster raised its large skinny hand and swung down at the boy.

Now the only sound left was the sound of the fire burning.