3rd File: P4S1N - 16A33

I looked up, bright eyed. The school I’ve wanted to go to was finally in front of me. The greatest music university in all of Heim, located right here in B-Town. All I needed to do was take that first step. So I took that first step, and then another. I started running. I ran past other students, teachers, and random pedestrians, straight into the front hallway. I skidded to a halt and let my jaw drop as I circled, taking in all of the sights. It was a dream come true.

I could barely contain a giggle, when suddenly, somebody bumped into me. My voice slipped out in surprise which came out like a squeak. My face immediately flushed with embarrassment. Hesitantly, I looked up to see the perpetrator. I could not believe my eyes at how beautiful the woman was. Shimmering black hair that almost looked like indigo in the sunlight. Her brown eyes sparkled with a hidden mischief that tugged at my heartstrings. She had her hair loose and free which only caught the light even more perfectly.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going. Are you okay?” She gave a warm apologetic smile and I awkwardly smiled back instinctively. Then my mind snapped back to reality and I opened my mouth to reply but before I could, she checked her watch. “Oooh, the opening ceremony is starting soon, we should hurry up.”

“Right, right.” I shouldered my bag and followed her through the crowd. Surprisingly, I managed to not lose track of her. We managed to make it to the gym without much trouble and was able to score some nice seats.

The opening ceremony was nothing to write home about, just some director talking about how special it was for that many students filling up the halls was a blessing. I tuned him out pretty quickly and I took a peek at the woman next to me. She was busily organizing her backpack and it was probably then, that I was gone. Nothing special about that particular scene, but it had a certain radiance that I was enamored with. I couldn’t let it go.

Imagine my surprise when I found out, in my first music class, that I was in the same class as her. Through the attendance, to make sure that we were in the right class, I found out that her name was Rozanne.

The days following were a dream.

I learned that she played the violin. That she liked ranch dressing on salad. That she lived only a block away from me. We got paired up for a mock performance to present our skills in musical collaboration. The objective was to create an original piece or recreate an already existing song in such a way it is nothing like the original.

The months following were the greatest.

We presented our parody, spearheaded by Rozanne’s passion for the classics. The reimagined song, taken from a famous science fiction movie from before the turn of the century, was named after a sunrise. It was tricky at first, taking what was a song made for a whole orchestra, but Rozanne made it work. She had the inspired idea to have it slowed down, to have the intense majesty be more creeping and gentle. Our presentation was magnificent.

The years following were a nightmare.

“What was that!?” A student cried out next to me. He was huddled underneath an overturned bench. I was currently in psychology, a class I had decided to take if only to understand why people liked music.

It was a class like every other, learning about a thought experiment when the sky flickered, like a weakened string of a violin. It spluttered and then there was a sense of wrongness that pervaded our very beings. Then, without warning, the sky was back to normal. With that normalcy came the sounds. Cacophony that did not please the ears. It came like thunder, as quick as lightning, and as soft as piano. The resulting explosion was incomprehensible.

I groaned and picked myself up. I had skidded across the floor and slammed into a desk leg. The force had the chair flip over my body. There definitely were going to be some bruises, but nothing was broken.

I looked around in shock and awe. If I were of a scientific mind, I would say that it was a miracle. There were no direct visible after effects of the explosion except the scattered bodies. People groaning from underneath flipped over furniture and some were not moving at all. My hand had reached out instinctively when a sudden thought intruded.

I gave it no second thought and rushed out of there. My goal was the tech lab which was down a level. I slipped when I tried to skid to a halt by the stairs. I merely got up, ignored the blood that dripped down my leg, and practically threw myself down the stairs. I passed people of all kinds in all sorts of situations. I ignored it all.

I all but kicked the door down when I reached the lab. I tried to jump into the tangled mess that was the servers and computers but a few people held me back. I made no attempt to reason with myself, to see the electricity sparking dangerously, to see the dark liquid pooling on the ground, the cooked smell floating through the doorway. She had to be alive, she had to be!

“ROZANNE!” I heaved my body forwards, determined to make it to her side. That was when the wall behind us ripped open. The rush of cold wind shocked my senses, and with my captors, we went sprawling.

I scrambled, my feet slipping on the wet floor. I found a purchase somehow and sprung forward. My injured leg from earlier and collapsed yet again. My chest hurt, my clothes soaked, and a dull throbbing started. It was all wrong!

Exhaustion overtook my body and I fell unconscious.

I had no time frame for the following years after I woke up in an unknown house. I was told that out of the thousand people at the school that day, only thirty made it out. I was dragged out by a mother who sprinted into the burning wreck that was the school to save her child and found me instead.

I stayed with her for a while because of the guilt that clawed at my conscience. I helped out with labor, boarding up the house, digging a trench, scavenging the abandoned houses, and the like. She got pregnant one day and she wouldn’t tell me how. There was a moment where I wondered if the child was mine before scrapping the ridiculous idea entirely.

“Do you need anything else, Miss Kay?” I asked after placing yet another homemade sandbag in front of the DIY bunker that I had dug out the moment I heard about the baby.

The woman smiled sweetly and patted her large belly. She didn’t inspire the same feelings that Rozanne had, but she was special in her own way. She took care of me when no other would. If I dared, I sometimes thought of her as my mother or an aunt at the very least.

“I’m alright, sweetie, really.” Miss Kay rocked in her chair a little, knitting quietly.

“Are you sure?” I stressed and scratched at the patchy beard that had started to grow. “Maybe have one of the mothers on standby?”

“Noo, no no. Don’t bother poor Roxie. She’s had enough on her plate as it is.” Miss Kay looked up at me with a motherly tenderness. “You’re so kind, sweetie, but I’ll be fine. We mothers have been doing this since the dawn of time, but if it makes you feel any better, you could make me some tea.”

“I’ll go do that then.” I gave a small smile before scuttling out of the little bunker. Past the dusty piano in the garage and up the carpeted stairs and crossed the cushioned hallway to the kitchen.

I quickly made some earl gray tea, only three packets remaining, and passed it over. She thanked me and claimed that she was sleepy. I nodded and wished her a good night. I slipped outside onto the porch and sat in the hammock. I found it in a camping store in one of my earlier scavenging sessions.

I rocked myself and watched the sun set. I admired the beautiful colors dancing along the horizon, silhouetting the broken buildings of B-Town. Not many people were still living here, maybe a thirtieth of the original population. The rest have all fled or gone.

The community had combined efforts after some sort of status quo fell upon the town. Together they built defenses and dug bunkers in case of an emergency Darkling attack. What a weird name, I thought that night. The name was given to us by a scruffy looking wanderer who said he came from S-City down south. He said it was a nightmare, the entire city had fallen in under a day. The Heimish army was also wiped out the moment they rolled in with tanks and artillery. It made us realize how lucky we were in our little B-Town.

Seasons changed, and little Sarah was born without much trouble. She became a beacon of light for the community, especially after what had happened with Roxie. Sarah, despite not having experienced what the rest of the town had seen, still somehow understood the underlying tension and terror that pervaded the residents of B-Town. Her antics were kept to a minimum and she never shouted or wailed. A blessing, the community said. Miss Kay merely smiled and nodded.

I tried to leave several times, but Miss Kay stopped me every time. She claimed that she needed my experience, my youthfulness, and especially my kindness. I never believed in that, but I accepted it nonetheless.

So it was like that. The three of us. Miss Kay, cute Sarah, and little ol’ me. There were times I felt like family, others, I felt like an intruder. It was life, I suppose.

At some point, I started writing music. It might’ve started that night under the sky in the hammock, contemplating about Darklings, as I couldn’t seem to shake the magic of that moment. It was only after I had written practically all the notes that I began to question if there was any magic to write about. I threw out the song.

“Uncle?” I looked up from my musings. I found myself unconsciously tapping rhythmically at the closed lid of the piano. I shook myself out of my stupor and faced Sarah. I frowned and I lifted my head even more. When did Sarah get so big?

“Yes?”

“Are you okay?” Her chestnut hair came from her mother but her green eyes did not. Her soft smile certainly did but her freckles did not. Even after all these years, I still haven’t figured out who the father was.

“I’m alright, Sarah. Thanks for asking though.” I gave her a weary smile and rubbed her head affectionately.

“Nooo, I told you not to do that!” She playfully batted away my arm and I chuckled. A comfortable silence fell between us. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

“Okay…it’s just…mom’s worried. You haven’t had lunch and you’ve been staring off into space a lot too.” Her eyes betrayed a worry so deep it took me by surprise a little.

“Hmm, I’ll try to do better, alright?” I stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder, which was much higher than I thought it would be. “Let’s get food, shall we?”

“Okay.”

We walked upstairs and moseyed into the kitchen. We chatted about pleasantries, the latest crops were doing well, the Beumers down the block found a working grill, and the anniversary of the Darkling’s arrival was coming soon. I prepared two small cucumber sandwiches, the vegetables and wheat both grown from our garden built from Miss Kay’s hands.

I was about to take a bite when a sudden boom echoed throughout the town. There were a few screams and a couple of more crunches. Then came the ringing. I abandoned my sandwich and picked up Sarah without a second thought. I ran downstairs and all but threw her into the bunker before running back upstairs. I grabbed the shotgun hanging by the doorway and charged outside.

Miss Kay was visiting a friend on the other side of town which was a twenty minute run at best. I gave it no second thought and ran. I ran like my life depended on it. In the corner of my right eye, I saw a couple of people yelling obscenities and running into an alleyway. A crumpled car then flew out into view before skidding on the pavement sending up sparks. I cursed and picked up the pace.

I only passed the town’s park when my chest started cramping badly. I gasped heavily and collapsed against a tree, trying to regain my breath. It hurt so bad like a badly tuned piano and hammering a single key at full volume, but in my chest. I gritted my teeth and put one foot after the other. I just had to reach Miss Kay.

When the street came into view, I forgot about my pain and took off sprinting yet again. I didn’t stop, not even when I crashed into the door and burst into the hallway. There was a click and without thinking I dove further into the house and a sharp bang rang out behind me.

“Oi! You nearly shot him!”

“I’m sorry! Oh gosh, I’m so sorry.”

I groaned as the pain in my chest flared up again. I flopped onto my back and gasped for breath. Miss Kay floated into my vision and patted my head with such tenderness, I nearly fell asleep.

“Gah! Miss Kay! We need…to get back home…Darklings!”

“Yes, we know. Oralie and I have been waiting here. Where’s Sarah, is she with you?”

“I put her...in the…bunker like we practiced. I came…to find you…as quickly as I could.” I managed to say it through heaves. She nodded and helped me to my feet. She said a few words to Oralie and then made her way out the door. I nodded my thanks to Oralie and followed her, albeit more slowly.

“Where are the Darklings coming from?”

“Eastside. I saw a few people fighting already.”

She picked up the pace and I struggled to keep up. There was this weird psychological analysis on the brain’s ability to perceive time and how returning the way you just came from helps perceive time go faster than before. Same goes for listening to music for the second time right after the first. We ended up back at the house at what I considered quite a fast pace.

Miss Kay hustled downstairs while I collapsed in the front hallway, trying very hard to catch my breath. I felt sweat in most uncomfortable places, especially my neck. I stayed there, shotgun lazily pointed at the closed doorway, attempting without much success to keep my heaving to a minimum.

A sort of tense calm fell in the household. If I strained my ears, I heard the soft sobbing of Sarah downstairs and Miss Kay comforting her. If I quieted my breathing, I heard muffled shouting and explosions outside.

Time passed and exhaustion was creeping into my bones. I recited notes for certain classical pieces under my breath to keep myself awake. My eyes drooped anyways and I caught myself sliding to the side several times.

Miss Kay poked her head a couple of times, worry clearly etched into her face. Each time I waved her back, whispering as loud as I could that this was my duty. I would be the distraction should a Darkling ever enter this house. If I could not kill it and if I didn’t die immediately, I would take off as fast as my legs could carry me. Far far away.

A loud crunch had my head whip up in terror and I clutched the shotgun. The breath in my throat was caught and I couldn’t seem to let it free. I strained my ears, trying to reach beyond the deafening silence that seemed to have been infused in B-Town.

Nothing.

I slowly got to my feet and walked with care over to the doorway, the many carpets muffling my footsteps. I forced a deep breath, but it didn’t feel like any oxygen actually got in. I took another and another. My chest hurt and tears sprung to my eyes. I screwed my eyes shut and grabbed the door handle. I took another breath, this one felt more natural, and then whipped the door open.

Nothing. A deserted town. I held out my shotgun and creeped out as quickly as I dared. It had been too quiet for too long, I needed to know why. I made it to the cracked concrete and scurried over to a broken ECar and ducked behind it. The suspense really was getting to me and I had to place a hand over my heart as if that was going to calm it down.

My head tilted backwards and rested on the red chrome of the ECar. I closed my eyes and the cold air washed over me which calmed me down somewhat. My body twitched when I heard clattering off to the side. Fearing the worst, my eyes fluttered open.

A Darkling on top of our house.

Panic seized my heart and I scrambled up to my feet and instinctively screamed. It wasn’t manly, but it got its attention. The Darkling seemed to have seen me and bunched up its legs and prepared for a jump. I all but punched myself to get my legs moving and I took off. A heavy thump behind which made me run even faster. At some point I realized that I didn’t have my shotgun any more, but I didn’t dare stop.

I sprinted away from B-Town. We planted some mines there after acquiring them from this grizzled old man a few years back. I just had to hope none of them had been triggered and that it was enough to take out a Darkling.

I weaved through the buildings, opting for the smaller alleyways than the larger roads. Heavy thumps behind me was the only indicator that it was still after me.

I vaulted over a large flower pot and tried to turn but slammed into the wall instead. My arm worryingly went numb, but I didn’t stop to think about it. I pushed off and went left. Just one more turn and I would make it to the minefield.

“GET DOWN.”

My body reacted on its own and I all but face planted. When my thoughts finally caught up, I screamed at myself but I didn’t dare get up. The heavy thumps accompanied by concrete cracking and metal creaking grew ever closer. I curled up and covered my head with my arms.

Then there was a loud bang. My ears rang out in agony and it was all that I could do to not cry in terror. Silence fell after the ringing stopped, leaving only me and my heavy breathing. Soft crunching came over to me and I didn’t dare look up.

“Hey, you alright?” A rough voice, feminine, friendly, and a hint of warmth. I looked up and saw her. I had no idea how I did it, but I quickly found myself hugging her tight. “Woah, you alright there? Did you hit your head?”

My disoriented brain finally decided to pick out that this voice was not the voice I knew. I stumbled back and leaned against a wall. Tears threatened to spill, but I kept it in. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. A hand fell onto my shoulder and I flinched violently, my chest heaving. I stared in shock at the strange woman who had suddenly appeared by my side. Wait, she was there the entire time. I groaned loudly and slid down the wall and collapsed in a heap.

“Do you live here?” I nodded numbly. “Do you need help getting home?” I nodded again. “Alright, up we go.”

She was surprisingly strong as she pulled up my pathetic self. She placed my arm around her shoulders and started walking. I stumbled after her lead. I didn’t want to look at her, it hurt too much.

“My name’s Sunset, what’s yours?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer. How could I? I focused on putting one bumbling foot after the other. A small quiet followed but it was quickly overwritten by her melodic voice yet again.

“I’ve traveled quite a bit, heading to C-City and all. I came from Nachbarn, and I’ve seen all kinds of things.” She propped up my lolling head. “I used to be a high school student before everything happened. Now I just want to get home, you get what I mean?”

There was a hidden passion in her voice that floated into my ear. It snapped me back to reality and I found that walking was easier. The woman felt this and eased some of the burden off of her. I smiled softly despite the guilt.

“Yeah, I get what you mean.” I said, quietly.

“Right? Other people I’ve met all told me that I was crazy for doing this, but you get me.”

I nodded, keeping my eyes forward. “Why are you being nice to me?”

There was silence but I didn’t dare look in her direction. Then she spoke, and the warmth was gone. “You had the eyes of a dead man. I wanted to breathe life into you even if it was only for a moment.”

I contemplated that then nodded. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Where do you live by the way?”

“This way.”

When we appeared on our street, Miss Kay all but tackled me, sobbing and saying that she would’ve never forgiven me if I died. I chuckled weakly and rubbed her back. Sarah also came out of the house in tears, but she had a smile playing on her lips. I smiled back.

It took a while, but once everyone regained their composure, I introduced Miss Kay to the woman. She smiled and shook hands, explained how she saved my life, and her current situation.

Miss Kay smiled weakly at the thought of my life needing saving but she told the woman to stay right there. She hustled back into the house, claiming that she had a few items to give to her. I stayed next to her as well, but I never once gave her a glance.

“You said you got me.” The woman started after a moment. I frowned, not entirely sure what she meant. “I meant when I was talking about going home and you said you understood.”

“Oh, right.” I fell silent, collecting my thoughts. “I…used to be a pianist. I was in university, final year, when it happened. I…had a partner. In music, I mean. Rozanne… We played many pieces together and it was always a blast. I always thought we would travel the world playing music together.” I trailed off.

“Yeah…I know what you mean.” They sat in comfortable silence, companions in passions unfulfilled and broken dreams.

Miss Kay came out of the house with Sarah scurrying behind her. She was carrying a small satchel and handed it to the woman. “I’ve packed it with bread, cucumbers, and a few apples. I hope this is enough.”

“Oh yeah, thank you so much.” I heard the genuine but pained smile in her voice. It made my heart ache for her. “Could I bother you with one more thing?”

“Of course!”

“Do you know the quickest way to C-City?”

Miss Kay snapped her head to look at me with concern. I nodded. She sighed heavily and her shoulders visibly drooped. “The quickest way would be to go straight south, but I really recommend going southwest. It’s safer and you’ll meet more towns that way.”

“Okay. Thank you, really. I mean it.”

“I know, sweetie. Just stay safe, you hear? I can’t thank you enough for saving him.” Miss Kay smiled softly.

Sarah then waddled up and gave the woman a piece of paper. I managed to catch a glimpse of the colors before the woman took it. “Thank you for saving my uncle.”

“Oh, you’re welcome.” The woman crouched down and ruffled Sarah’s hair which elicited a giggle. “Well…” There was an awkward pause but the woman solved it just by leaving, raising a hand in a farewell.

I raised my hand too, gave it a moment, then walked back into the house. Miss Kay and Sarah followed soon after. I didn’t wait and marched downstairs. I stepped past the sandbags and rummaged through my trash can and found my old song. I looked it over, the woman’s words that still resonated in my head bounced around. I gave it a small smile and wandered over to my piano.

I lifted it with care and softly pressed a key. It sounded slightly out of tune. I popped the lid open and memories flooded back as the dust rained down. I found myself smiling as I grabbed the tools and handled them with ease. I spent an hour, maybe two, making sure every key sounded the way it was supposed to.

After it was all done, I eased myself into the pianist's chair and placed my hands on the right keys. How long has it been since I’ve last played? Twenty years? Maybe more? My fingers itched at that thought. I placed my piece on the stand and was poised to start playing.

One, two, three, four.

The first key was hit, then the second, and soon after, I was playing with the smoothness of a master out of practice. It wasn’t perfect, but it shone brilliantly, just like a sunset.