The Attack by William Bryden (you can read anyone txt) 📕

see me alive?”
“No.  I didn’t even know you were here.  I thought you went outside.”
“Are you crazy?  Why would I go outside?”
“The clouds are past.”
I got up and got on the floor to start crawling to the door.
“Michael.  Stop.  We need to dress those burns,” she said wincing at my pain.
I started crawling towards the bed and sat myself up on top of it.  Viviane went into the bathroom with a bowl from the kitchen and came back out with some water.  She laid my legs down and soaked them with water by taking a rag and wringing it out above the burns.  My legs immediately felt better.  After they felt sufficient enough Viviane took some bandage from the medical kit and wrapped it around my legs on the burns.
“There.  Done.  Try walking.”
I got up and winced once.  After that the pain was bearable.  I started walking around the basement until my legs felt normal and not gelatin like.
“Thanks Viviane.”
“Don’t mention it,” she said in a cute girl way.
I started walking up the stairs and Viviane followed.  I opened the door just a crack to check the outside.  It was clear blue outside and barely a cloud in the sky.  All of this was complemented by the destruction on the ground.  This confused me because usually when asteroids hit the Earth’s atmospheric temperature rises to levels in which blue doesn’t show.  Even though, I went back inside and started packing right away.  I took the medical kit, the remains of the food kit, and a backpack for each of us.  I stuffed the medical kit in my backpack along with a compass.
“So what’s the plan?” she asked me.
“We are going to stay one more night, then we are going to leave and find the source of that Asteroid.”
“Whatever.”
“I love the enthusiasm,” I say sarcastically.
“Do you really expect me to be enthusiastic about going to a death zone?”
“Not really. But you could be a little optimistic.”
“How?” she questioned.
“I don't know...”
I decided that I'd pack my food in the morning. I walked over and sat on the couch. Viviane took a seat next to me. I looked at her and she looked at me. I suddenly felt myself blush. Even through the dirt and ash on her I could see beauty. I shook my head and looked down even more embarrassed.
“What's wrong?” she asked completely clueless.
I thought she had a clue though so I just stayed silent.
“So do you think we are the only ones alive here in America?” she asked
“Nope,” I said still looking down. “There is bound to be people alive even after the huge gas cloud.”
“How?”
“Same situation as us, or maybe a bit better if they were a huge political figure like the president.”
“That makes sense,” she replied thoughtfully.
She looked back at me and we stared at each other for a little bit.
“I need to take a shower...” It was a complete fail after staring at a girl, but I remembered that I hadn't showered in days.
“Me too,” she replied blushing.
“Would you like to shower first?” I asked in the most gentleman tone I could.
“Yes please,” she caught on and did a little curtsy at me.
I sat back down on the couch as Viviane went in the bathroom and took a shower. After a couple minutes I heard the water stop. Soon after the door opened and I turned around. I was greeted by the sight of Viviane wrapped in a towel. I turned back around as quick as I could.
“Want some clean clothes I guess?” I asked completely embarrassed.
“That would be great,” I could tell she was embarrassed too.
I pointed to the door that led into the closet.
“Thanks,” she whispered as I heard her hurry into the closet.
I quickly got up and walked into the bathroom. I stripped down out of all my clothes, and got into the shower. I turned on the shower to immediately get hit in the face by freezing water. I jumped up and quickly turned the handle to hot. After I got the temperature just right I had a nice long shower. I got out once I was done and I looked in the mirror. I was steaming.
“Hey. Your hot,” I made a little joke. I heard some laughter outside so I quickly wrapped a towel around me and opened the door. Viviane fell backwards, but I caught her in time.
“Way to stay right up close to the door,” I said smoothly.
“I... I...” she stuttered.
I walked into the closet, shut the door, and turned on the light.
I was greeted by a vast amount of clothes. It was a guy's nightmare. I just pulled something off of each rack. After all of it I ended up putting on a white under shirt, a blue and white button up, some khaki shorts, some socks, and some undies. I also saw some new Nike Shox so I took those to replace my old battered Adidas. I took a watch from a dresser. Gold and crystal were very present all over the watch. According to the watch it was 6:30 p.m. I took the towel and walked out of the closet to find Viviane waiting for me on the couch. I threw the towel in the bathroom and walked up to Viviane. She stared me down for a minute.
“You look...” she trailed off
“No I don't.”
“Yes you do.”
She kept staring. So I stared back.
“You look better,” I said after a second.
“No I don't. “
“Yes you do.”
She blushed and I sat down next to her. She was wearing a blue t-shirt, tight jeans, blue sneakers, and some black ankle socks. She also had a bracelet on her left wrist that I hadn't noticed before. It had black and blue stripes going all around it, and it had yellow letters that said, “Persevere.”
“Where did you get that bracelet?” I asked as I looked it over.
“I made it during my freshman year of college,” she said as she looked at it. “I use it as a sort of reminder when things get tough to just keep going.”
“That's nice.”
“Thanks.”
We sat for a minute just thinking in the silence.
“How about a movie for our last night in this shelter?” I asked.
“That sounds great. How about a romance?”
“Um... alright then.” I got up and looked through the rack of movies to find nothing even close to the genre but those weird Twilight movies. The people that lived here must have had daughters.
I reluctantly held up the first Twilight movie. Viviane clapped her hands together and said, “Yes! I love that movie!” I even more reluctantly took the disc out and put it in the DVD player. I pressed play and it went to the title screen. I pressed play again and it started. I threw the case down and took my seat next to Viviane.
The next couple minutes went very close to the storybook line as Viviane scooted closer to me the more the movie progressed until she was almost on top of me. I got a little bit uncomfortable so I shifted away a bit but she followed. I just decided to pay attention to the movie.
At the moment Edward was telling Bella to say it. To say what he really was. I ran my head through all the things she could have said like gay, a homosexual, a fatty, a mermaid for crying out loud! But no... Edward ended up being a vampire and Bella was stupid enough to fall for him... an old freak that had lived for longer than he should have.
After that scene I looked over at Viviane who was looking at me.
“What are you doing?” I asked a bit surprised.
“Seeing if you have vampire qualities.”
“That's just weird.”
“Not really,” she said while looking me over. “You are strong, good looking...”
“No I'm not.”
“Yes you are so stop interrupting. You also are a little pale.”
“That's because we've been in a basement for about a week.”
“Still... you look like a vampire.”
I got up and walked over to the bed. I got in the bed and shut my eyes.
After a minute I heard the TV turn off and the light switch flip. A quick look at my watch told me it was 7:30. I was planning on getting up early anyway so I decided to go ahead and sleep.
“Goodnight Michael,” I heard in a sort of sad tone.
“Goodnight Viviane.” I replied back in a whisper.
I started to breathe heavier. Tomorrow we would start on our journey. Our journey to find this asteroid that had impacted the Western Hemisphere. Was this the beginning of the Post-Apocalyptic era? I started to throw thoughts around in my mind until I finally drifted into my first night of good dreams. Imprint

Publication Date: 06-29-2010

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Dedication:
To all of the people who helped me through writting this, I extend a large thank you.