Snow is out and you will doubt

“Heads up!” Brett’s voice starts to fade in, my vision gets clearer, and then the ball hits my face. It hurts but not the I-need-to-be-delivered-to-the-hospital kind of pain because I zoned out for a while and my body was quite numb. He run towards me and asks me if I’m good. I nod at him, saying that I’ll take a break, and then I walk to the bench to sit. The world felt like a different place for a moment and then boom, I’m back.

     I look around the park while I wipe my face with a towel. The heat is burning us out here and I’m sweating like crazy. I don’t even know why I agreed to play with Brett in the first place. Maybe because he’s my only friend, who by the way is extremely extroverted and I’m an introvert and passive person so I just go along with everything he says even though all I wanted when I woke up is to do my daily routine and then sleep like any other normal person. He sits with me and tells me we’re stopping by a convenience store before going home. I state, “Sure. Anything that has an air-condition right now sounds nice.”

     We’ve been friends since we were five and I don’t even remember how we became friends. All I know is that he goes by our house every afternoon and asks me to play with him. And if I don’t want to go out, which is on most days, he just go inside our house and play on his own toys while I play Sudoku or read. He is always there to keep me company even though other kids find me odd because I was a little boy who prefers reading instead of playing.

I came up with a conclusion that I like to keep my books close because it reminds me of my father. He died when I was little and my only memory of him is that he reads a lot. I don’t think I felt sad when he passed away because I never really knew him. Now that I’m old, I’m simply curious on what he’s like as a person and as a father. Maybe I’m meant to grow up without one for my character development because that’s what I notice with the novels I read. Either you need to experience trauma, failures, sorrow, or shortcomings in life to grow. Psychology books say that’s how our mind works and I think it’s fucked up. It’s like saying that we can’t have a peaceful life; otherwise, we won’t improve as a human.

Brett and I are already walking and we’re only three blocks away from the store. I’m still sweating and I really want to jump on a pool right now. We’re about to enter when kids from our school starts to walk out of the store and they’re all greeting Brett. It’s not his birthday or anything; he’s just popular at our school that’s why it’s funny how he’s still chooses to be friends with me. I rapidly walk inside because I know it won’t be hot in there and to let him talk with them for a while. He always introduced me and told me I should socialize more with the kids at our school but I guess having one extroverted friend is already enough for me. I mean, I can barely keep up with his interesting life so how else would I keep up if I have more?

I walk to the beverages section and stare at it, thinking what I’ll buy. Water is definitely the first choice but I kind of like some chocolate drink, which is a bad pick if I’m trying to be good to my health. Plus, I need to hydrate and a chocolate drink will only dehydrate my body so I guess I’m back to water. Brett suddenly goes beside me and then opens the refrigerator, gets the water and chocolate drink, saying, “You’re at it again with the water or chocolate drink? Just buy both Fin. And I’ll have this.” He grabs a huge bottle of energy drink that, according to him, makes him feel strong and healthy. I told him I doubt that it makes him healthy because that drink is still processed and he went on how bottled water is also processed. He chuckles, “Plus, I said ‘feel’ so I don’t need to argue with you anymore and pretend I’m about to say some scientific explanation that I have no knowledge about.”

We walk to the cashier and this store is ridiculously small. I don’t think I’ve ever been here. Has this place always been here? Well it looks like it from its vintage looks but how come I didn’t realize it earlier that this is my first time coming here? What is going on with me?

I look outside through the window while we’re queuing in line. The line isn’t long, just a girl with a bunch of junk foods. I close my eyes and open it again after looking outside because here I am again with my hallucinations. It’s getting worse with the heat around this tropical country. I look again outside and it’s still there. I rub my eyes to finally be back into reality and then Brett asks me what’s wrong with me. I said that I’m hallucinating again because I can see snow outside. He chuckles and then look out through the glass. I look at him and his eyes are wide open, staring outside, telling me that I’m not hallucinating. He taps my shoulder with his huge and strong hands and says, “I can see it too. Is this global warming or something?”

I guess I’m not crazy at all huh. Maybe it is global warming because it’s weird enough for other countries to snow in summer so it’s a lot weirder to have snow in a tropical country. The cashier guy and the girl in front of us probably heard us and start walking near the glass to see if there’s really a snow. The people are starting to go outside and they’re all enjoying it.

     Brett says to the cashier guy with a ‘Liam’ nameplate, that the snow can wait and he should finish the girl’s transaction. The cashier guy answers, “What do you mean it can wait? It might be gone later because a snow in a tropical country? This is a miracle!” The girl goes back to the cashier and chuckles, “That’s hardly a miracle and more likely global warming. Have you seen how humans treat the earth?” The cashier guy didn’t bother to listen to them and rapidly walks out of the store with his smile bigger than this store. We can’t blame him if he badly wants to see snow so now we’re waiting. I ask Brett if he doesn’t want to check out the snow and he says, sounding a little pissed, “I want to drink.” He opens up the bottle of energy drink and gulps it until it’s half empty. The girl in front of us, who looks like our age but I haven’t seen her in school, keeps on tapping on the cashier table.

We’re all peacefully looking at Liam the cashier guy, with his arms raised, head up, smiling and spinning while Here comes the sun starts to play on the radio –which I think is very ironic–, when someone suddenly jumps on him. We all startle and see him struggling to run away from that person and Brett’s impulse is to help him and he’s almost out the door when a woman throws herself on the glass and then Brett backs away. The woman doesn’t look unusual other than she’s filled with blood all over her body and mouth. The girl with us runs to the door and rapidly locks the door. She’s trembling while she slowly walks back and looks at me.

It’s happening. The apocalypse that every movie, book, and video game ever predicted is already happening and it came with a façade of a beautiful snow. Did the virus came along with the snow or the actual virus is a snow? What is the first thing that we should do? We’ve read and watched enough not to be ready for this disaster but the anxiety and fear is taking over me. I’m not built for this kind of world. I probably won’t survive this! My mind is still in shock and my body is weak. How are we supposed to get out of here? Well at first I think we shouldn’t because we’re more than lucky to be stuck at a convenience store with tons of food we can intake for survival. So, first thing to do is guard the door.

“Fin! Help me.” I hear Brett’s voice fading in from zoning out again. He’s holding the other end of the freezer so I run to him and help him move it to the entrance. We move the shelves to the glass to prevent it from breaking and when we look around, the girl is nowhere to be found. Brett goes to the back and I’m hearing murmurs. Everything is moving really fast and my heart is racing. I yell to Brett, asking if he saw her and he walks up to me saying that she just locked the back door and then he helped her move things to block the door. Obviously, we’re all in shock but the good thing is we all know what to do and we feel really sorry for Liam the cashier guy. I mean, he was just enjoying the snow! Brett introduced himself to the girl while extending his arm and then the girl shakes his hand, stating, “Scar.” I mumble, “Scar like Mufasa’s brother?” She says that it’s Scar short for Scarlet and then she utters, “And I’m guessing you’re Fin.” She sounds confident, given our situation right now. Maybe she’s simply adventurous or ready to take on anything like Brett. She extends her arm and I shake her hands while nodding. I’m not good with socializing so believe me when I say that it’s worse with a girl. We all sat down and talk about what we’re going to do next.

We’ve been stuck here in this store for almost a week but it feels like an eternity. It’s been four days since the electricity has gone out. We’re doing okay with food because there’s only three of us but we could barely sleep. We’re constantly looking outside like we’re war shock and even when I do get some sleep; I get nightmares and then instantly wake up just to find that the reality is a much worse nightmare than my dream. One thing’s for sure that we learned at video games is when this happens, we can survive but can’t live anymore. I’m only alive because I’m lucky to be with these two stuck at a place with foods. I’m probably gone by now if we were outside at that time. We tried to contact our family and the people outside but the signal went down minutes after the incident here. The radio in the store is still working and it turns out that it was already happening for hours on a different city that time and the zombies just came out late here. It’s odd to say zombie in real life even if it’s been overly used by people in our generation. I still can’t believe this is happening and the word zombie is now a reality and not just some science fiction. The scientists really fucked up this time huh, or they achieved their goal to finally end humanity.

We talked about how it’s really an advantage to be at a small town when things like this happen. We also got to know Scar a little more but she’s still a bit of a mystery to me. It’s not the stereotype thing wherein people say that women are hard to read because they constantly change their minds. She’s a mystery because she definitely has this invisible wall built to shield her emotions or something. She was supposed to be here for the weekend only to spend time with her Dad –which I assumed that her parents are divorced– then apocalypse happened.

We all have a family to be worried about. I’m afraid my mom is either worried like hell about me or already a zombie. Brett’s family probably survived with their huge house and strong sport-y set of family but we’re still not sure and we’re all still hoping until now. Scar didn’t say anything about worrying with her parents and just told us that it doesn’t even matter with this kind of situation. She’s either dark as a person or she already accepted this cruel fate.

We made rules whether we’ll help people get in the store when someone shouts for help or not. Scar wrote things like, “Keep running then go at the back really fast!” to face to the glass and let them read it when it happens. We’ll offer our help once we’ve secured that there’s no zombie near the store. We had it all planned out and we even have our weapons ready. The unfortunate thing is the three of us knows nothing about techs so we couldn’t find a way to contact other people through the radio. I hate how the movies and stories made for zombies always had a character who’s great on technology because the truth is it’s a matter of luck on who you’re with. Apparently we’re not lucky enough to be blessed by a technician and we’re mostly blind in here from the outside world.

We’ve observed a zombie from afar but we haven’t gotten much out of it other than they use their hearing because they’re blind. Like the ones in The Last of Us. We just hope it doesn’t evolve like it because we haven’t exactly faced a zombie before or actually battled one. We haven’t got much action in here and I think that means we’re safe. Brett is still worried that we may not be prepared when that time comes so he’s training me. He tried to convince Scar but she’s just ignoring him whenever he goes to that topic. I feel conscious when Brett trains me for things like punching or self-defense, especially when Scar is watching. I know myself enough to be aware that I look like shit for activities that involves physical strength but Brett is right, desperate times call for desperate measures.

I’m exhausted from training all afternoon which is why I’m certain that I’ll be out like flash after eating dinner. My body is in constant pain but Brett says it’s normal because my muscles aren’t used to exercise. I’ve read hundreds of books and some of them will come in handy, either to give solution to one of our problems or an idea of how we can better our survival. Scar looks like she knows enough because she’s fixing our weapons. She really knows what she’s doing and that’s what makes her a little scary.

The sun is setting when we hear a voice come out of the radio. It’s choppy and it’s like a walkie-talkie with the ‘ksshh’ sound. We all go near the radio to try to hear it better but all we understood is, “Anyone, this, help.” Not a whole sentence but enough to know that person is looking for help. It also sounds like he/she is in a car and for me that is definitely a bonus. We waited for a car to drive by but there’s nothing, not even a screech of tires.

We finished eating dinner and everything is so quiet. We tucked ourselves for a good night’s sleep even though I doubt that anything can be defined as good with our condition. I close my eyes and hear Brett walking to the back. Finally, I can sleep a little longer because my body needs it and I probably won’t wake up till the sun rises tomorrow. Another day to survive is another day to look forward to, somehow. The place is all silent so every bit of me shackles and my adrenaline rush comes splashing down on me as I hear Brett scream, “Fin!”