I hate the color blue

I don’t know when it started. It just happened one night. When everyone woke up it was there. No one knew why or how or what to do. Some people thought it was the government, some thought it was aliens. The blue haze ran along the edges of town. It wasn’t quite a fog but something thicker. If you waved your hand through it it would feel like you were cupping a handful of water in a bathtub, but nothing would come back with your hand. There were a few people who walked into it but were never seen again. After the first couple of people never came back people stopped trying, but then the things started to come from the other side. 

At first it was just things that would float in the air. Think of mutated dandelion seeds floating but bigger and more menacing. Everyone thought that was a freaky thing but what came after made us long for something as simple as that. You would think it would be something big, dark, with claws and teeth but no, it was quite the opposite. The creatures that came through were small, soft and very cute. They wandered through almost in a daze. They looked like Koala bears but with dark blue fur and smaller noses.  It’s amazing how people will let their guard down to cuddle something they think is cute, even when it comes from some unknown blue fog.

The first person to fall was Mrs. Peterson. She was a widower who had a house full of cats so the urge to pick up one of these creatures was natural. At first the animal brushed its face against hers, like a cat who head bumps you for attention. She was laughing and talking to it in a funny little voice and then she just froze, solid.  She made a noise in her throat but it came out as a hum that started out loud and slowly faded until she fell over. People rushed over to help her. She was unresponsive but conscious with her eyes open. After a few minutes the people who tried to help her were on the ground right beside her. They were all lying there stiff as boards while the creatures climbed on top of them with no hurry and began to take little bites.  After that no one picked up anything that came from the fog.

With a little investigation people figured out the fur carried some kind of paralyzing neurotoxin. This was their defense against predators and how they used it to hunt. The little creatures came through in little packs and were like Raccoons, digging through the garbages and looking for anything they could eat. I shot one on a clear afternoon and put on some latex gloves and shaved a bunch of its fur off. In an apocalyptic situation anything can be a resource. I figured a soft brush of neurotoxin would come in handy with everyone losing their shit, at the very least it would give me time to run away. 

The strange things that moved were only the first problems. Food was the next issue. After a few weeks everyone’s cupboards and pantries were depleted. People began to barter, beg and steal. You wouldn’t believe the things they’d do for a can of beans and a 7-Up. It was sad. I used to watch those apocalyptic or zombie movies and think how stupid the people in them were and then I realized that people are that stupid in real life. I just had to look out the window. If curiosity killed the cat then the human wasn’t that far behind. I would just sit in my room with whatever food I had scrounged and yell at the window like I was watching a horror movie when the part came where some idiot would hear a sound and go toward it. At first I felt bad but after awhile it just made me mad that they were that careless. It became my guilty pleasure. I know it sounds bad but again, people are dumb and when you feel like it’s the end of the world you gotta get your kicks somewhere.

Because of the haze surrounding the town, even the sky, everything was dark. It was like living in Alaska where you don’t see the sunlight for months. I forget how much I liked sunlight. The dark just saps your energy and you feel tired and ornery all the time. I wasn’t a person who liked to hike or really do anything outside but after this shit I think I’d become a backpacker or at least someone who spent more time outside. I guess I’d like to revert to when I was a kid and spent all day outside and not come home until the sun was setting. At this moment that’s all I have to do is reminisce. To write and say whatever comes into my mind. It’s hard to have a conversation with myself or this pad of paper but it kills time and if I die for some reason maybe someone will find this and it will entertain them, hell it might even make them laugh. Finding things to occupy your mind is invaluable. This is one of the first lessons I learned.

I had moved to this town a few years ago. I didn’t have family here and what few friends I did have either died in the beginning or weren’t in the town when this happened. I tried to call my family but there was no cell service and even the land lines were dead. I didn’t miss the communication that much. We were never that close anyway. I wasn’t that close with any of my neighbors either. They were either too loud or annoying or just plain boring. There is nothing worse than a boring person. I tried, I really did for a long time but I just lost patience. I got to the point in my life where I realized my own mortality and I wasn’t going to waste time on people that I didn’t enjoy being around. My nickname used to be the king of Irish goodbyes. I would just walk away from anything that bored me and not come back. The good thing about the end of the world is you don’t have to deal with people and when you do its usually to defend yourself when they’re trying to kill you. Especially Gary down on Elmore St. I think he’s a cannibal now.

I don’t know what day it is. That’s why you don’t have any dates in this notepad. After a few months of all this, keeping track of time took a back seat to staying alive. I would go by seasons but since the giant spider like things emerged from the fog a couple months ago it’s hard to tell. Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention those things. Sorry, I just space out sometimes. I get lightheaded now. Maybe it’s the dehydration or low blood sugar. Where was I? Oh yeah the spider things. They came in different sizes and shapes. Some were about the size of a human others were the size of an elephant. But the thing that stood out is that their bodies emitted a cold, like dry ice, where fog just rolled off of them. They stalked around the town and the temperature dropped just below freezing. If killer koala’s, giant ice spiders, and insane humans weren’t enough to drive you crazy the cold was the tipping point. I spent a whole month under a cocoon of quilts and could still feel it in my bones.

Remember Gary? Who I mentioned earlier in these pages. He broke in while I was sleeping and tried to eat my face. As I was pushing his open mouth away from me while struggling on the floor I grabbed the bag with the neurotoxin fur and shoved it into his mouth. I jammed his jaw shut into the bag. It took a second but the toxin did its job and Gary was a drooling mess on my floor. I took him by the legs and dragged him out of the house and into the middle of the street. It took a few minutes but one of the spiders had made its rounds and turned down onto the street and ate Gary. I wish I could say I felt bad but when someone tries to eat your face you lose all sympathy for them.

It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen or talked to another human being. I guess I’m tired. I’m tired of being cold. I’m tired of being hungry and I’m tired of the color blue. I hate the color blue. That’s all I see when I look out the window. I never thought I would hate something like a color. But I do now. This is my last entry. I’m not going to wait to die of starvation or be eaten by some damn horror movie cliché. I’m going into the fog. It’s gotta be better than dying here. Maybe there’s something behind it? If things come through it then there must be something on the other side. Goodbye, wish me luck.