Her Stalker

The night was silent as Sarah sat on her porch.  Around her sat empty cars and houses. Tall grass was growing not only in the neighboring yards but between the cracks in the sidewalk. It had been weeks since she’d seen anyone. Everyone stayed inside their houses now to keep safe from the disease that ate you from the inside out. Work consisted of going to the local stores and scavenging for food that hadn’t gone bad yet.  She knew that soon she would have to go into the surrounding houses to see if there was any salvageable food. 

When the pandemic reached its peak and the body bags piled up to the point that even the military personnel were being added to the piles, Sarah knew in her heart that there was no one else to save or bury. Since the gas stations near her had run out of fuel and there was no one left to replace it, she walked as far as she could each day. She went to different buildings geared up in her gloves, mask and hazmat suit she had stolen from the hospital. As she checked to see if anyone was still alive, she found it more and more difficult to go into another building. The smell of the rotting flesh and the visions that remained in her head were getting to be more than she could take. 

As she left the dentist office she had just raided, she heard barking.  She walked swiftly toward the noise and realized that she was outside the local shelter. Why hadn’t she thought about them before? Sarah opened the door slowly just to be sure that she wouldn’t be attacked by any animals that might be loose in the lobby.  The smell was the first thing to hit. Staff members (or what was left of them) were laying on the floor in various positions.  She made her way back to the kennels and found at least 30 dogs in separate cages that were still alive.  Luckily, the outdoor section of their runs had a ridge that would fill with water when it rained. They were scrawny and their bowls were empty of both food and water.  She went to each cage and set them free. She took all of the food bags she could find and dumped them on the floor in various locations to keep from starting a dog fight.  She filled all of the water bowls with the hose that was used to clean out the kennels.  The dogs ran for food piles and water bowls with ravenous intensity. With little growling involved.  She left the kennel area after she was sure she hadn’t induced a dog fight and went to the cat room.  She found the cats in the same situation and there were only adults left. The kittens had been fought over and eaten and there were fur remnants scattered over the floor. She found the cat food and added water to as many bowls as she could find and set them up the same way she did the dogs. The worst part was yet to come.  Somehow she had to get all of these animals out of the building without them stopping to sniff or eat the corpses in the lobby and office. She found the best way was to wear a rubber apron and gloves that were worn to bathe the animals when they came in.  She put these on over her own PPE and dragged the bodies into the office and shut the door.  She then released the cats through the front door.  There were a few reluctant ones that she had to carry out but once they touched the grass, they took off in several different directions.  She then brought the dogs through the front door.  As they rushed past her to the point of almost knocking her down, she could see them scatter.  Sarah knew that she had probably created new feral packs of cats and dogs but she didn’t want them to die.  As she turned to shut the door, she noticed a small creature in the corner.  As she walked closer, she could tell that it was shaking.  Sarah squatted down and saw a tiny puppy that looked like it hadn’t been fed or cleaned in months.  She picked him up carefully and his little brown body wiggled with excitement.  She took him outside and sat him down on the ground.  She turned and closed the door and he was still there looking at her.  Sarah started to walk away and the little brown fluff ball followed her. 

 She went back to the store and grabbed all of the dog and cat food she could fit in a cart.  As she struggled to push the cart back home, she could hear the little pitter patter of puppy feet behind her.  After everything she had been through, Sarah knew not to get attached because she couldn’t handle another loss.  She poured bags of dog food along the sidewalk in front of her house from the neighbors house on the left to the one on her right. She did the same thing with the cat food on the opposite side of the street.  She grabbed a plastic baby pool and filled it with water and put it in the road so all of the animals could get to what they needed.  As she did all of this, the puppy sat on her porch and watched.  Sarah sat on her porch and listened to the quiet while her little furry friend gazed at her.  After some time, she brought out a blanket and put the puppy on it and then went inside to go to bed.  In the morning, there he was.  No matter what she did, the puppy followed her.  Sarah didn’t want to be mean so she just ignored him instead of shooing him away.  Night after night, he stayed on the porch waiting to see her in the morning.  Each day, Sarah set out fresh food and water for the animals. A lot of them came back every day and some sat with her for a while but then took off to find their own beds. As time went on, she noticed new visitors.

 In the next few weeks, she went into the neighboring houses to search for food, medical supplies and anything else she could use. She was able to rescue a few more animals in the process.  Parakeets, hamsters and one very big snake that she was terrified of.  She opened its cage and ran out of the house with the door open so the snake could find it’s own way out. At one house she found a bicycle that ran on a battery that was charged by pedaling.  It had a big basket on the back.  This was much easier than pushing a shopping cart with a squeaky wheel.  As she rode it back home, pulling the shopping cart behind her, the puppy struggled to keep up.  Finally, she stopped after she heard him cry and saw that he was sitting in the middle of the road, really far behind her. She went back and put him in the basket.  He sat comfortably and didn’t wiggle so she was able to keep her balance.  At another house, she found a cart-like wagon that was made to attach to a bike.

  She was able to go further now and get more supplies and rescue more animals.  As Sarah started going to the next town over, the puppy tried to keep up and Sarah would give in and put him in the basket.  She told him every day that she was not going to get attached and he needed to go find a dog pack to settle in with.  But every morning, he was on her porch. At some point, Sarah found herself calling him her little Stalker.  After six months of him riding with her and growing to the point where he was squeezing into the basket, Sarah realized that she enjoyed having someone to talk to.  

One day they went into a house and found two dogs near starvation that had used their humans as food. She brought them outside and grabbed a couple of bags of food and poured them on the ground.  She found some buckets and filled them with water and moved on.  After checking a few more houses, she piled more food and supplies into the attached wagon and basket and headed home.  When she got home, she went to bed and slept hard.  The next day, as she stepped outside and something seemed out of place.  Sarah looked around trying to figure out what was different and it hit her. No Stalker. Then she remembered that he wasn’t in the basket on the way home because she had filled it with supplies.  No matter how she felt about him (which was nothing, she told herself, as she hardened her heart), she had to be strong and hope that he had found his pack with the two dogs they had just rescued.

 Sarah headed out in a new direction to see what  she could scavenge or save.  As the day went on, she felt a heaviness in her chest that she was sure was indigestion.  Half way home, she stopped at a house she had missed and found another wagon she could hitch to her bike. When she got back on the bike, she saw something out of the corner of her eye and a brown fluff ball, jumped on her lap and into the basket.  The tears streamed from Sarah’s eyes.  Something that hadn’t happened for at least a year.  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t help but love her little puppy. Let’s go home, you little Stalker, she said.