Sharing The First Chapter Of My New Novel

Let me know what you think:

Chapter One

It was the last time before trying to fall asleep that I would stare up at the water stain on the ceiling. The stain, which my father had never bothered to cover with paint, was in the shape of a witch's face. When I was younger, the image by night light accompanied by my father's drunken and delusional rants from the next room frightened me more than the monsters I watched in horror movies.

Shipsie jumped onto the bed, scattering my thoughts of the past back where they belonged, and I smiled as she laid herself down by my legs. The vibration of her purring could be felt as she engaged in her nightly cleaning ritual, the sound of her licking tongue providing comfort to me.

I looked toward the curtained window, knowing that the sun was soon to rise and that I would need to sleep if I was going to be ready to leave by nightfall.

I had not heard my father's voice in nearly three months, the weather was finally warming up, and I figured it was time for me to venture into the world in search of other survivors.

The world went to shit rather quickly, and if anyone was as smart as me they should have also survived. I was not too optimistic about the survival rate of humanity, however, because the internet was still working and I had not witnessed any sign on the world wide web that anyone else was alive.

I could have been the only person left alive, but even my deep pessimism did not allow me to believe it. Surely, at least someone else besides me had survived. Perhaps the individual who survived had no means of internet access.

Which begged the question of why my best friend who did have internet access was not contacting me. I refused to believe that he was dead. I preferred to believe that he was alive but unable to contact me via the internet through which we had kept in contact for over a year.

I would have traveled north sooner, three months sooner, except that the weather had prevented me from leaving. Snow was a bitch during the winter months, and after what I had witnessed I figured it was safer to wait for warmer weather.

Luckily, the end of the world as I had known it did not necessarily mean the end of certain comforts. The electricity remained, which meant that I was capable of heating myself throughout the cold winter months. In a trailer with thin walls, it was essential that I have that heat.

The electric blanket was a life saver in bed, though I did not spend all my time in bed or even in the trailer. At night, when I knew it was safe to venture outside, I would jog to keep myself in shape.

Getting food was the problem. Thankfully, the farm animals lasted me a while. I felt bad killing them, and I made a huge mess in preparing them for cooking, but hunger does strange things to a person. When the animals were gone, I had to search the pantries of neighbors.

Luckily, I did not have to resort to driving anywhere. That would have been a major pain through snow that no one was alive to clear.

I sighed as my cat finally nestled down to sleep beside me. She looked so peaceful. I wish I could be as much at peace. It was easier for animals, at least when they had someone to care for them. I imagined how many animals died in their homes waiting for someone to come back and feed them. It made me extremely sad to imagine their suffering, their pain at wondering why they had been abandoned.

Shipsie was coming with me during my travels. There was no way I could leave her behind. She might hate being in a kennel on the back of a motorcycle, but I had already figured traveling on a motorcycle would most likely be easier than in a car. After all, the highways were probably congested with automobiles.

There was only so much I could carry on a motorcycle, even if it was a traveling motorcycle that had extra space for that which was essential for traveling. I could not sleep, even though I had planned ahead, because I was nervous. Would I forget something, would I not find shelter before sunrise, what would I say if I met someone else, would someone else try to kill me?

The world was truly unpredictable because it had changed so drastically. If there were any survivors, I had no idea what they had to do to survive. They could be dangerous to my will to survive, and I had to keep that in perspective.

Was I willing to carry a weapon? It was a thought that was still weighing on my mind. It was a thought for which I had yet to provide an answer. My father had a gun, a shot gun which was too big for me to carry with me, but if I was determined I knew where I could find one.

I lived in the south, after all. Everyone here owned a gun as though it was a symbol of patriotism to be in possession of it. My father had clearly not raised me properly because I was nothing like him, and for that I was thankful.

To be like my father would be a disgrace to reason and logic.

I yawned and I knew it was time for me to sleep. Shipsie was already sleeping, like a good cat, and it was time for me to do the same. She had adapted to the new sleeping schedule much better than I had. Transitioning from sleeping at night to sleeping during the day had been hard.

It took less time to learn endurance for jogging than it took me to learn to sleep during the day than at night. Shipsie transitioned along with me, and I was very glad that she was a non vocal cat. She could have drawn the wrong attention if she was meowing when it was most beneficial to have silence.

 

I enjoyed it! Well done!