Sample from Immune, a Night Portals Short Story

The last hours of the day that everything was normal were just like any other day. I was happy to be out of the motel office and going home to Marie. I walked a couple of blocks to our house. There was a slight breeze, and birds chirped over my head as I walked down the tree-shaded sidewalk. For a long time, I felt mad at myself for going home. If I had known I would have asked Brent for a room at the motel. But after seeing what I have seen in the last few years, I know now that Marie’s death was inevitable. Everyone was doomed. It’s funny, but I consider the rest of humans the lucky ones. I’m the one that is doomed.
Anyway, I’m getting off track. Marie and I cuddled on the couch and watched some dumb movie that I can’t remember now. I wish I did though. I wish I remembered every second of that last day. I would relish every detail. I wish I remembered what her hair smelled like. I wish I could conjure up a vivid picture of Marie in my mind. An image to keep me warm on lonely nights when I ask myself what am I doing? Why do I stay alive? I had pictures of her on my phone but after the electricity went off, and after I got sick of opening cars with dead people inside of them, only to find the car’s battery dead. I chucked the damn thing on some road outside of Denver. Anger and frustration make you do stupid things.
I fell asleep that night oblivious to the damned world I was about to be flung into. Like I said. I don’t remember much of the last normal day on Earth, but the next few days… The days the shit hit the fan. I could give you a minute by minute dissertation.
I woke up to Marie coughing. I didn’t tell her, but she looked like shit. Her eyes were bloodshot, and the amount of snot coming out of her nose was a biblical amount. Biblical… What an odd word. I had a small but existent belief in god then, but after all the things I’ve seen I know God was just a fairy tale creature we made up. A story to make us feel better on nights that seemed just a little too dark. God was a night light for our egos.
I never put two and two together with Marie’s coughing, and the man and the boy at the hotel. I simply got up and went to work. As I was about to leave Marie looked at me with bloodshot droopy eyes

Get Immune HERE

Get all the Night Portals stories HERE