Whenever I left the apartment a feeling of complete emptiness seeped into the very roots of my being, and a depression so deep rose in my consciousness that it physically hurt. I hated going out—it was like leaving the only sense of comfort behind—my security blanket.
The sun seemed to have forgotten this hell-hole. There was an eternal tarp made of gray clouds above the world's head, but this tarp held rain in rather than keeping it out. Streets beneath our feet nearly crumbled under our light weight from lack of caretakers. One can only imagine the potholes. Truthfully, I was in constant paranoia of being decimated by the towering buildings around us. They—like the streets—had nothing from halting their slow decay.
“What's wrong?” Cairo questioned.
Was he always entirely oblivious to all of this?
“It's nothing,” I mumbled.
“Well, I don't know about you, but I can't wait to get some grub at Oriana's. She is the best cook!”
“Yeah,” I nodded in agreement.
“My favorite dish is her spaghetti covered in tomato sauce,” he drooled dreamily. Anything other than canned food was a delicacy.
I nodded again, and he continued his rant.
“I mean, nothing can beat her cooking. I hope Vincent isn't there. I lose to that bastard in cards every time.”
My jaw clenched at Vincent's name, but I quickly gained my usual composure. “Maybe you shouldn't play cards anymore.”
Cairo laughed, “You know I can't help it. Gotta have fun sometime! Besides I'll beat him one of these days.”
I smirked. “Sure.”
He chuckled at my sarcasm. “I figured I would get a response from you if I mentioned him,” he added with a mischievous grin.
My eyes narrowed.
“Oh, come on, don't be so sour. You need to lighten up a little, man. And stop taking ever ything so--”
Before he could finish, my hand clamped over his ever-open mouth. I placed my other hand's finger on my mouth in a gesture for Cairo to stay quiet.
“Someone is here,” I whispered.
His green eyes turned fearful as he pointed behind me. I swept a quick 180 turn. My eyes darted furiously around the colossal buildings. Where was it? Where was it? There! There was a figure behind a shopping store's glass display. I couldn't make out specific details, but they were wearing ragged clothing, and their eyes... Their eyes were other-worldly, savage, insane. And it was then, within seconds, I realized we weren't staring at the front of this figure. No, they were staring at our backs. A reflection.
“Move!”
Our reaction time was quite impressive if I do say so myself. If the situation weren't life threatening, I would probably laugh Cairo's action movie-like roll out of harm's way.
I snapped into survival mode as the creature lunged towards my direction. Before my brain registered a signal to my hand, second nature took over, and I slid the pistol out of its holster that rested at my side.
Bullets from my gun spun out of the barrel one- by-one at an almost infinite speed. I couldn't stop pulling the trigger. Even when the body collapsed to the ground, I think I fired at least two more shots that went whirling into an unsuspecting Dumpster.
There were a few moments of silence. I'm sure neither of us were breathing. Cairo and I didn't look at each other, but we were transfixed on that disfigured body as if it was the only thing that existed. The “creature” was actually a human infected with GD. This hadn't been our first encounter with one, but we never quite got used to homicidal crazed persons throwing themselves at us with no fair warning.
“S-so” Cairo stuttered, “I kind of forgot my gun.”
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