The atmosphere was dehydrating, I'm confident that's what glued my lips shut, cracking my eyes open took a lot of force but it did it, and was greeted by the light flowing out from the window on the right side of my bed. It was warm against my pale skin. The first thing I tried was to move my stiff neck to scan the room, it was bright from the sunlight. A tall metal drawer stood on my left decorated with crimson plastic flowers inside a brown vase. My body shot up noticing the skinny boy sleeping on the single couch near the metal cabinet, that's when I felt a piercing pain shooting up from my wrist that had a needle inside it, not any needle— an IV needle. I was in a damn hospital room.

The noises I made caused the boy to stir, I went still. I tried to move numb my toes, it took some time but eventually, they wiggled. Looking back at him, I realized he wasn't fully awake yet. I attempted to move my other hand, It didn't budge at all. I breathe out, exhausted by all these movements I made. God, why was I so weak?

“Oh my god, you're awake?” It was more of a question and before he could say anything else, I grabbed the vase next to me and threw it over his face. My hands were working again. He had a few seconds to realize what was happening and almost successfully shielded himself from the vase completely shattering his face. It ended up on his head, he dropped to the floor. It was the perfect opportunity for me to get up and figure out what was next— I woke up in a room with the air conditioning turned off and a stranger watching over me. Surely, I wasn't at home, that stranger could be some creep who took me here, I needed to get out here fast. Unfortunately, everything died down inside of me when the first step sent me tumbling down the floor, I received a good knock on the head when the bottle of saline fell with me causing everything around me to spin fast as if I was in a roller coaster ride. The last thing I could remember was hearing the door busting open followed by rapid footsteps.

The next time I woke up It was because of some kind of firecracker going off outside, I was restrained to the bed. There was nothing visible from the window except for some street lights from afar, I was probably more than two stories up. There was no way for me to escape now, with some tears slipping down I forced my eyes closed.

It was another day, I presume I fell asleep after some time and made it to the next day alive. The boy awakened me by tapping on the metal at the edge of my bed, the first thing he did was apologize for tying me up, I didn't say anything. He then went on to ask me my name, and that's when I realized I could remember nothing about myself. My mind was simply empty.

“You can't remember...? Sarah this is me, Tyler” I looked at his patched-up face blankly, I did some real damage there “Tell me you remember me. It's been you and me since like forever. How can someone just forget that” My empty stare sent him sobbing, and he slipped to the floor crying. He spent an hour there before getting up to tell me more unfamiliar names.

“You'll meet Adam Scott later, he's my boyfriend. He kept you alive. Us alive. He warned me that this could be a side effect. You probably don't remember this, when we were in school and I was dating this man, he was different.” He sighs “Somehow, he changed when everything changed. We don't even look eye to eye anymore. He disappears every day now, leaving me here in this empty building. I don't think he's himself anymore. I understand. We all have lost things. I guess it changed us. I'm not the same either...” He breathes out “Sorry, I've been babbling. I haven't spoken more than a word to anyone other than Adam for months.” He unscrewed a bottle of water from the cabinet and downed it. Realizing I was thirsty as well, he offered me a few sips, I couldn't bring myself to shake my head and no. I was too tired and thirsty.

“What happened?” That was the first thing I said to him, my voice was hoarse but it managed to come out. The was a look of pure shock on his face.

“The thing, you know..?” I don't. Without me saying he figured it out by the look on my face “Oh god. Sarah, everyone died. Almost everyone we know is dead. You saved me and almost died doing it. Scott and I brought you here with me when you were unconscious. He kept you alive. You took a heavy hit in the head. God, I hope the memory loss is temporary. I really need you. I'm barely keeping it together” He took my hand and I felt a surge of emotion suddenly hitting me all at once. There was something, it was barely there but I could feel that trusting him wouldn't be that bad even though he babbled like crazy and made no sense.

“How did people die?” If that actually happened...

“We honestly don't know. They were okay one day then they weren't. People just started chasing other people and eating them like food. Just insane. Once these people catch a glimpse of you, they'll group up and just creepily walk, chasing you. Once you get caught, they'll chew you alive. Scott said it was an infection, the radio talked about satan taking over the world. If you ask me right now, I'd say I'm willing to give that second theory the benefit of the doubt. The radio died a few months ago, along with electricity and every other thing. We ran on the backup generator of the hospital which died two weeks ago. The only way we're alive right now is because of Scott running outside for food while I watch over you.”

“Where does he find them?” The world outside is bad but some kind of doctor wannabe goes in and out looking for food and successfully finds them. This boy is full of shit. I have to play along to escape this sick game.

We were interrupted by a scream from the outside, I jerked trying to move. Instantly, Tyler pulled a silver handgun out of his pocket, I froze in fear. Then he ran to the window, to get a glimpse of the situation. Cursing to himself, he looked at me to bark “Stay here!" I slowly nodded, still not breathing. As soon as he trudged out of the room, I shook and shook the bed until the belts around my wrists loosened up, wriggling out of one, I removed the other one before moving to my ankles.

This time I took slow steps forward to the window, and immediately everything started spinning. The wall broke my fall, the headache immediately increased as I gazed out the window and gasped seeing Tyler fire two shots at a group of people while a man standing on the roof of an ambulance slid down to the ground beneath Tyler's feet. That wasn't the reason I felt my blood go cold, it was the man who took those shots like a champion and kept striding forward. I couldn't even lie to myself and say Tyler missed because there were two holes in his chest spilling out blood but none of them seemed to bother him until his head was blown off by another man who appeared beside Tyler. Maybe Tyler wasn't a crazy guy who kidnapped me and made up something insane to keep me in after all.