Chương 84: The Pure LIne: Chosa pt.1

It was midnight, the beginning of a September Friday, though the city wasn't the type to have autumn leaves filling the streets. Just drunk college kids. Chosa Sonomiya was out with her friends, "celebrating." There wasn't much to celebrate. It was just one of many days working on their journalism project. Her friends would've gone out if they'd scored an interview with the president, just like they would've gone out if all their computers had spontaneously burst into flames. People used any excuse.

Chosa wasn't drinking much. She just sat at the bar watching everyone else, while rimming the top of a salty margarita glass. She was by herself until a perky blonde sat next to her, breasts pushed up to her neck by a bra working overtime.

"What's up, babe?" the blonde sat on the stool next to her.

"You don't look like you're up for it tonight."

"I'm fine. I just got a weird feeling in my stomach. I might head home early," Chosa said.

"Oh, don't be like that. The night just started. Besides, don't you live with that loser in his grandparents' house? I bet he still doesn't have a job. I don't see how you could stomach living with someone so worthless. Why don't you just take some time tonight and…" she nodded at the other end of the bar.

"do better." Chosa smirked. The two guys had already offered to buy her drinks so many times that she was sure she'd be dead if she accepted them all.

"Trust me. It's a good deal. He isn't high maintenance. Barely comes out of his room. I can do whatever the hell I want, and he'll just come fetch like a little puppy dog every time I come home. I don't plan on marrying the guy, but on my own. If jerking a man around every once in a while gets me a three-story house…" She took a sip of her drink. The blond smiled like she just got the joke.

"Oh… you're so resourceful. I love that. You're a survivor. Now I wish I had someone like that… It's like a sugar daddy." Chosa nearly dropped her drink laughing.

"He is not a sugar daddy."

"My boyfriend doesn't get me a house. He just gets me pissed off. I feel like pissing off back." She smiled at the two boys down the bar and started walking.

"You're so deranged," Chosa downed the rest of her drink.

"I love that." When Chosa got home that night, T'balt was what he would call "locked in" headphones on, face two inches from the screen. She shook her head. There wouldn't be any use in announcing herself, so she went straight to the bedroom and got a few winks of sleep before an early start that morning. There was homework for her Friday class that she needed to catch up on. Surprisingly enough, T'balt was up early too, even though he couldn't shed the zombie from his face.

He stumbled into the kitchen where she worked, crawling over to put his dirty mouth on a gallon of orange juice.

"Late night again, Tibby?" He droned on about some video game, and he definitely hadn't showered. As always, she had to remind him of the few responsibilities he had, like paying the electric bill. Then her friend arrived outside to take her to class. It was another hour of boredom in slow motion. The entire time she couldn't seem to shake a slow aching feeling in her stomach. But it seemed to slip away when the class ended at 11: 30.

Her friend, tall and handsome, not used to girls telling him no, brought her back home afterward and left the car idling, with one of those puppy-dog looks on his face.

"What is it, now?" Chosa asked.

"I just wanted to say, I'm sorry about my friend last night. He's been known to have a few boundary issues." Chosa closed her eyes.

"Boundary issues, is what you call it, huh?" She got out of the car, and the guy looked out after her.

"Say, how come you live in a house this big, and you can't afford a car?"

"Now, why should I buy a car when I have yours?" He fake chuckled, trying to figure out if he was the butt of the joke.

"When will I get to see you again?" Chosa smiled.

"The next time I need a ride." She watched her friend leave and sighed. T'balt's car was still in the driveway. The only reason she didn't use his car was so he could work, but the car was there when she left and was there when she came back in an hour. That meant he probably didn't make a dime today.

"Typical. If only I could snap my fingers and get him to stop being so damn lazy." She groaned to herself.

"I see your car! You can't hide from me!" Then the world started to shake. She was thrown to the ground by the violent rupture. The air turned hot and too stiff to breathe. And that feeling in her stomach erupted into reality.

"Chosa, I'm upstairs!"

"Is this a damn earthquake!?" Chosa called.

"I think so!" Then a light, too bright to see, turned the room white. All she could do was close her eyes and wait for the storm to pass. Eventually, the shaking stopped, and the light faded. Chosa ran upstairs, clinging to T'balt's arm out of sheer fear.

"T'balt, what's happening?"

"Chosa, we need to go to the basement." But she was stuck still, petrified by the demon outside their house.

"What the hell is that?" It was like a walking wendigo with a flaming sword. Something that could never be real. She couldn't believe it was real. That was until it sliced a pedestrian in two, and she could smell the blood and feel the heat of the flame. When she screamed, the beast came marching towards the house. While she was stuck in fear, T'balt grabbed her and ran her back down the stairs, looking for solace in the basement. They never made it to the basement.

The monster caved in the front of the house, knocking debris everywhere and toppling them both. Chosa had all the wind knocked out of her when a piece of wood smashed against her back. It took her a while to regain her senses. When she did, "it" was standing right above her. Blood was smeared across its chest, and its giant hands were gripping the sword so hard she could hear the popping of bones. Or was that the fire? She couldn't tell. All she could tell was that this was the end of her life… for some…

fucking reason. Then he screamed.

"CHOSA RUN!" He was fighting the thing. Throwing himself at it, like his small body could actually do something. She squinted her eyes, wanting so badly to say.

"Stop that. Don't you know that's stupid? Why are you doing that?" But she heard the word "run," and her body's instinct kicked in. She fumbled to grab T'balts' keys next to the door of the garage. And jumped in T'balt's car without feigning to look back at his struggle. She had to get out, she just had to leave.

"Goddamn it. Goddamn it." She hesitated, her face in a cringe.

"That little bitch." She swung the car out the garage and into the front yard. She saw that thing swinging its sword and yelled out the window.

"T'BALT GET IN THE CAR!" No. He wasn't going to get in the car. Because his severed head was flying through the air, burnt black. Chosa's eyes widened. But all she could do was get away. She stomped on the gas and the car barreled down the road. The monster started to give chase, but when it realized it wasn't fast enough, it roared its disapproval and marched off to find other victims. She drove as fast as she could, swerving past cars, driving into yards just to get as far away as possible.

Then all demons were out of sight, "WHAT THE FUCK!!!" She banged her head against the steering wheel, damned to the consequences of blaring its horn.

"It's okay, Chosa. Just calm down. I have no idea what's happening, so what's the most logical thing to do? Call the police." She dialed the number, and the phone rang… and rang… and rang. Then it just died. That was something at least. If the police weren't around, that meant whatever was happening was likely happening everywhere, since the line would get redirected unless everywhere was overwhelmed.

"The world just ended. I love that. I love that for everyone." She squeezed her own head. Her next thought was to try to find a shelter somewhere, possibly at one of the military centers downtown. All her friends were downtown, and she would need someone new to stay with, considering her house was dealing with a demon infestation. But as soon as she turned towards downtown, she was greeted by a traffic jam.

It was caused by the demons, of course, bugs with giant turtle shells were picking people apart, leaving their cars stranded. And somewhere in the middle of it all, there was a kid shooting lightning out of his hands, sniping the bugs like it was some carnival attraction. Chosa took one look.

"Nope." She put the car in reverse and drove off before she got trapped in that nonsense.

"On second thought, I need to get as far out of the city as possible." Ideally, she wanted somewhere remote, free from people and most importantly, demons. For that, there was only one place she could think of. A lot of the backcountry roads were mostly untouched. Those demons seemed to just be attracted to people. Where there weren't any, there was hardly any destruction. Not that she didn't pass any on the way to her destination, but if they didn't notice her, the things were strangely docile.

Just standing there and wandering around like deer in the headlights. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"What the hell even are these things?" It felt like a story, something that needed to be documented. But that was just her journalism major thinking. She doubted if she wrote something up, there would be anyone around to read it. But not all of them were so docile. One of them, in particular, a giant bird, straight out of the prehistoric era, started stalking her car. She noticed it in her rear view, and a mile later, she noticed it again, closer, right on top of the car.

"Oh no." Its claws tore at the metal on top of the car, stabbing and scratching at it. She tried to swerve to get away from it and felt like her only choice was to take a sharp right into the woods by the road. That managed to get her out of its sight, its wingspan too long to fly through the trees. She stared back at it, hoping she was safe. But in that split second of not moving, she ran into what felt like a brick wall. Her neck jolted with the whiplash, and the front of the car was caved in.

When she came to enough to see what she had hit, it wasn't a wall. It wasn't even a tree. It was some roided out bear with skin carved from stone. She didn't have time to process what she was seeing when it lifted up the car like it was made of beanbags. Her world shook when it roared. It pressed the car into the car before launching it directly at a tree. On impact, the car exploded and filled the forest with the smell of hot gasoline. Satisfied with itself, the bear walked away licking its chops.

Chosa did her best to hold her breath in the bush nearby. She'd slipped out the driver's side door just before the car got launched, but was emotionally attached to her bush. The car was gone, which meant there was nothing between her and the demons. She looked at her phone.

"Your destination is 20 minutes away." Chosa sighed…

"That's by car." Some demonic wolves suddenly ran by. They had found some family on the road and decided they'd like to have them for dinner. Chosa used the distraction to sneak off further into the woods. There was nothing she could do. Nothing she was willing to do, except get to where she was going. Hours later, she made her way to a house. A rickety yellow two-story building followed in the back by a bunch of empty plains.

A couple of windmills here and there, but otherwise empty besides the few houses next to it. One in particular, the next-door neighbor, was barricaded like a fort. Make-shift barbed wire fences surrounded it on all sides, right behind six-foot trenches. The windows were boarded, and she could see guns stacked through the upper-story windows. But that wasn't Chosa's target. She wanted the plain-looking yellow one. She opened the screen door and knocked on the one behind it. No answer. Chosa was exhausted.

Her body ached, and she was in desperate need to sit down after ages of walking and dodging the end of the world. She knocked again. Still no answer. And again. And again.

"GODDAMN IT! OPEN UP YOU OLD BITCH!" The knocking turned to kicking and screaming until the door was about ready to cave in. She looked around to break a window, seething at the mouth. A strange noise behind her stopped her in her tracks. Enough movies taught her to recognize the noise. It was the racking of a shotgun. She put her hands up, too afraid to turn around.

"State your business," it was a man's worn voice with a heavy trailer park accent.

"Just… looking for someone. I didn't mean to trespass or anything." But there was another voice next to the man's. A more familiar woman.

"Chosa? Is that you?" She turned around. There was an old man with a shotgun, a jean jacket, and an eye patch. Next to him was an older woman, late fifties with dark hair, and the small frame of a second-generation Asian woman. They were a good distance behind her, inside the fence of the house fortress. The woman gestured Chosa over.

"What on Earth are you doing here banging on my door like that?" Chosa shamefully bowed her head.

"I was calling the door a bitch, not you."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"I know. But there's a gun in my face, and if it's all the same with you, I'd rather get inside first, Ms. Ferrier." Harriet Ferrier stared at Chosa, dressing her down with equal parts confusion and caution. Chosa couldn't help but notice the mature woman hiding half her body behind the man with the shotgun despite the openness of her words.

"So are you going to put the gun down?" It didn't move until Harriot patted the man's shoulder.

"Donny, stop it. You're scaring her. Chosa, you'll have to find a way to climb over, I think."

"Harriet, what the hell are you doing letting in random folk off the street for? You must've lost all your senses. Don't you know this here is an apocalypse? For all we know, she could be infected or something." Despite his anger, the man dropped his gun. Though under his jacket, Chosa could see that he had at least two more. He was more strapped than a cowboy in a western.

"I'm not infected," Chosa felt the need to say. The man snarled like an old dog.

"Donnie, it's okay. I know Chosa. She's an old student of mine. Let her in."

"Yeah. I'll let her in. Then she'll make a mess of the place, then make out with all my food, my guns, and she'll probably take my cat too. I've seen the movies. It's always the twenty-somethings that fuck up everything for the rest of us," the man ranted. He led Chosa to a small hatch on the back side of the house. He pointed to a spot in the trench that led to a pipe Chosa could crawl through, where on the other side, he opened up a padlocked hatch to let her inside the fortress.

It was a grimy experience, and the man complained every step of the way, even when Chosa was standing right next to him. He never seemed to take a hand off his gun, which made Chosa nervous. Harriot met them back there with a towel for Chosa to wipe her hands.

"So now tell me, what are you doing here, Chosa?"

"Sorry," she answered.

"I tried calling, but there wasn't an answer. I didn't have anywhere else to go, so…"

"Oh… I heard it was worse in the cities. But I guess if you're here, then it's as bad as the news said before they all shut off. Well, I'm glad you made it out alright." She sighed and considered.

"I'm guessing my good ol son isn't far behind then." She said with a certain distaste in her mouth. But Chosa froze for a moment. T'balt was dead. That was simple. He was around, and now he's not anymore. But that would undoubtedly get into the whys, hows, and emotions she wasn't prepared to deal with. I kinda left your son to die while I escaped with my life seemed like a good way to expend the little hospitality she had here. Then she'd be out on her own, dealing with those things again.

"Uhh. I don't know. I wasn't with him when everything started." Harriot frowned.

"Well, it's somehow a good thing that he never leaves my parents' house. He's probably stuffed up in that basement, glad that he has a legitimate reason never to interact with society again."

"Well, I hope you ain't thinkin bout goin get him neither." The eyepatched man spouted.

"Of course not. He'll be fine in that basement. That house was built to last a lot of things. I'm more worried about how we'll survive out here," Harriet said.

"We should get Chosa in the house and show her around." The man stuck his hand, laying a chunk of extra spit to moisten his handshake. Chosa stared at the hand, disgusted, before looking back up into the man's pirate eyepatch.

"People round here know me as Little Donny," the man said.

"But you can call me Big Donny." Chosa's face soured more than it already had.

"I'm not gonna do that."

"It's alright, " Harriet said.

"Donny has his ways, but he'll keep us safe. This is his house after all, and his handiwork is why it looks like this." Donny showed Chosa around the house. Inside was like walking into a country hunting store: guns, dead animals on the wall, a lot of wood, and old-fashioned furniture that looked like it was made by hand, not by a carpenter. There were 4 other neighbors staying in Donny's house. They weren't too interested in meeting the newcomer as they were still coming to terms with this new world they lived in.

"That there's the gun cache. Do not touch anything in here unless directed," Donny ordered.

"Okay."

"This here is the kitchen. Do not touch anything in here unless directed."

"I have to ask permission to get a sandwich?"

"I'm glad we understand each other."

"Right."

"This here is my cat, Moky. Do not—""Touch unless directed," Chosa finished.

"Feed her people food. You may pet the cat whenever you like. She likes pets. Don't you, baby." He started loving on his little grey cat in the weird way cat lovers do, with too much of their face involved. At one point, Chosa couldn't tell who was getting off more, Donny or the cat.

"Do you have a bathroom? I really feel like I need to wash up."

"Wash up? No can do. We gonna need to conserve our water for the long haul. What do you think, water just falls from the sky?"

"Yes, actually."

"Clean water?" Harriet came into the room.

"That's not how water works. Donny. You don't just run out. The faucet works until they turn it off. So we basically have an unlimited supply."

"Not unless it gets contaminated."

"Then we have unlimited water until it gets contaminated." Chosa was pretty sure both of them were off, but didn't have the strength to argue. She didn't have much strength at all.

"Bathroom?"

"Upstairs on the right. And don't flush anything that isn't toilet paper," Donny called. Now that that was over, she was finally getting a chance to wash her face. It was red and tired. Too tired. She felt like she hadn't properly sat down since this morning. That was really all she wanted to do, so she fell back on top of the toilet seat and buried her face in her hands. For the first time in a while, she just didn't know what to do. She couldn't make sense of anything. Yesterday, everything was so normal.

And now T"balt was dead. She'd seen it with her own eyes. Death looked so… final. When she saw his body, she knew that he was gone forever. She knew he didn't mean anything to her, but still… she couldn't get his face out of her head. The bathroom door burst open. Chosa covered herself before realizing she wasn't actually going to the bathroom.

"Haven't you ever heard of privacy!?" she yelled. Harriet looked surprised by the outburst, even though she was the one intruding.

"Oh, don't freak out. I've seen those parts far longer than you have." She closed the door behind her, making a home in Chosa's personal space.

"Is something wrong?"

"No. I just thought I'd pop in to… well, honestly, I just wanted to catch you in the act if you're hiding a bite park or an infection or something."

"They're not zombies out there."

"You don't know that." Chosa frowned.

"I'm sorry. I think I just let some of Donny's conspiracies get to me."

"Or you've read too many books."

"I don't read much anymore. In fact, it's been years since I taught high school English, so I don't read nearly as much as I used to… speaking of, how's your journalism degree going?"

"I don't know… any more. All my teachers could be dead right now. Who even knows if the buildings are still there? I think it actually might be a good time to drop out."

"You're right. That was a dumb question." Harriet leaned back against the bathroom wall, blowing air out of her lips.

"You don't think anything might've happened to T'balt, do you?" Again, a dreaded feeling hit her chest.

"I don't know."

"Do you think he'd be afraid to come here if he made it out?" Chosa squeezed out a fake smile.

"He probably wouldn't come here."

"And you came anyway?"

"He hates you, ya know."

"Hates me? I was an exceptional mother to that boy. And how does he show his appreciation, by taking my parents' inheritance and doing fuck all with it. And then he didn't even have the nerve to show up to my father's funeral afterward. If anyone hates anyone, it should be…" She paused. Chosa pursed her lips.

"Listen. Your guy's issues don't have anything to do with me. But I am trying to use the bathroom here, so…" She gestured at the door. Harriet looked surprised and then shot through the door without another word. Once she was gone, Chosa went back to the dark world of covering her face and stayed there a while. Until she heard gunshots coming from inside the house.