(Warning: Violence, Graphic Language, Strong Sexual Situations)

“Where’s the can opener? Oh, God, Mikey, I can’t find the can opener!”

Michael Quinn shut his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and opened a drawer, while slowly exhaling through his nose. As he opened his eyes, his fingers closed around the can opener. Behind him, Melanie had begun to bang the can of tuna against the counter. Each bang grew louder, more frantic, and felt like a jackhammer inside Mike’s skull. He pressed the butt of his palm against the pulsing vein on his temple.

“Why.” Bang! “Can’t.” Bang! “I. Ever. Find. A. Fucking. Thing.” Bang! Bang! “In. This. Fucking. Kitchen!” Bang! Bang!

A pillow flung from the general direction of the living room sailed past his head and landed on the floor next to his foot.

“What the hell is wrong with you people? I’m trying to sleep here!”

Mike picked up the pillow and tossed it back at the figure on the couch. “Relax, Aiko. We’re all a little on the edge, right now, all right?”

“I wouldn’t be on edge if I got some sleep! She’s your goddamn girlfriend, Michael, can’t you take care of her? Fuck!”

He met Aiko’s red-rimmed eyes for a moment before she disappeared under the covers on the couch again. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. The banging continued, in time to the throbbing in his skull. He placed his hands on Mel’s shoulders. “It’s okay, baby, it’s all right. Here’s the can opener.”

“Thank you. Where the fuck was it?”

When she turned around to face him, Mike found himself a little taken back. Just a week ago, she was a beautiful young woman: blond, bubbly, full of humor and life. The slightly unhinged look in her eyes, the heavy purple bags under them, and the uncombed, unwashed mess she once called her “crowning glory” now told a different story.

“It was…” His eyes strayed to the shiny red bump on her chin, a pimple trying to push its way to the surface. “It was in the drawer.”

“Of course it was,” she muttered, snatching the can opener from his hand. “Why the hell didn’t I think to look there?”

Mike dragged a hand through his short blond hair and mentally counted to ten. The kitchen was too small for him to lose his temper. There wouldn’t be room for him to blow up. Hell, there wasn’t enough room in the entire apartment for him to blow up. He took another deep breath and held it longer this time before slowly exhaling. “I don’t know, Mel, why didn’t you?”

Mel’s glassy green eyes narrowed at him. “You don’t have to be snappy, Mike.”

The vein on his temple continued to throb. He gritted his teeth. “I didn’t mean to be.” He nodded at the dented can of tuna in her hand. “What are you going to make?”

“Some kind of salad. I think the lettuce in the fridge is still good.” She laughed self-consciously, and tucked a lock of hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear. “If the power holds, we should have another week’s worth of perishables. After that, we have canned food and energy bars.” She ducked her head and lowered her voice. “We’ll be okay for a while. There was a sale of Chef Boyardee at Costco and Aiko—she bought a few dozen.”

Mike stuck his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans and nodded. They would have enough food to last them a month, if they were conservative about it. After that, they could discuss venturing outside and raiding a grocery store. He didn’t have to say anything. It hung unsaid between them.

“I think she has more stashed in her closet or something. Bottles of water, cans of Spam and corned beef.” She ran a hand down her face and grimaced. “It’s funny, but I used to make fun of her for stockpiling on stuff. I asked her why she did it and she just laughed it off and said, ‘the big one’. She was always paranoid about a big earthquake hitting California and that’d be the end of everything. She said she didn’t want to have to eat me when she got hungry.”

Mike glanced at the blanket-covered lump on the couch and sighed. The kitchen was definitely getting too small. “Well, I’ll leave you alone to cook then. I’m gonna turn on the TV, see if there’s anything…” Anything at all, for fuck’s sake! “… on the news.”

Mel sucked her lower lip into her mouth and bit down on it with her small, white teeth. The glassy look disappeared from her eyes and replaced with worry. “Is CNN still on? This morning, I turned it on to Fox News and there was nothing but snow.”

“When, uh… I had it on CNN an hour ago, Anderson Cooper was still on.”

He didn’t have to mention that Anderson Cooper was also slumped over in his chair, looking more pallid and bloated than he did two days ago. The dried blood on his face looked purple under the studio lights and his tongue hung red and swollen out of his mouth. One of the cameramen with his headset still attached to his head had collapsed on Cooper’s desk, his eyes staring sightlessly at the camera. The dark brown streaks on his cheeks where blood had flowed freely looked like exaggerated tracks of tears and almost looked… fake. For a moment, Mike had been able to pretend it was nothing but make-up until he looked outside and reality came crashing down over his head.

Death, death everywhere… the city stank with decay and putrescence.

“Okay. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.” She pressed her clammy palm against his cheek and turned away from him.

Mike strode out of the kitchen, rubbing his temple. He headed for the bathroom where he flung open the medicine cabinet and grabbed Melanie’s bottle of Vicodin. It was prescribed to her when she broke her foot last year. He shook three tablets onto his palm and tossed them into his mouth, crushing them between his teeth. He placed his palms under the faucet to catch water to wash his mouth out and found himself staring at it for a brief moment. How long before they ran out of water? He banished the worry from his mind, leaned over to drink from the tap, and rose to close the medicine cabinet.

On the mirror, Aiko was standing behind him, watching him with her dark almond-shaped eyes and her arms folded tightly in front of her chest. She was dressed in only a white t-shirt that stopped short several inches above her knees and pink bikini briefs. He couldn’t help but rake his gaze over her long, slender legs. When he looked up, Aiko was smirking at him.

Even with her eyes bleary with sleep and her long, black hair a tangled mess, she was a beautiful woman. She had somehow retained a healthy glow to her olive skin even as he and Mel—the white people of the group—became more pale and ashy.

“You couldn’t wait till I was finished?”

She shrugged and pushed past him to get to the toilet. “When a girl’s gotta go, a girl’s gotta go.” She lifted her shirt, revealing a flat stomach, and hooked her thumbs into the sides of her panties. She raised an eyebrow at him. “You gonna stay and watch?”

He was tempted to stay where he stood just to prove to her she didn’t rattle him as much as she thought she did, but the truth was… she bothered him. If he stayed, he was just as likely to strangle her or slam her against the wall and give her what her eyes dared him to do. He sketched a mockingly polite bow much to her sardonic amusement and slammed the door behind him.

Mike shoved his hands into his hair and paced up and down the tiny living room, probably wearing a tear on the already worn carpet. He felt like a hamster stuck in a little cage with nowhere to go. But even a hamster had an activity wheel to run on. He only had an eight hundred square foot apartment to pace in and there was nowhere where he could be alone. Everywhere he went, Mel’s pleading eyes and whimpers followed him. If he went into her bedroom to lie down on the bed, she popped up a few minutes later and cuddled against him. He didn’t mind it most of the time, but sometimes, he felt like just yelling at her to leave him alone.

He figured the only place he could be alone in was the bathroom, but that wasn’t true, either. Lately Aiko’s been showing up when he just happened to be in there, brushing against him, lightly touching his chest, with a smirk curling her full lips. He couldn’t get away from her. Her scent, her mocking eyes, her naughty little fingers stalked him, dogged his every step. If he were more paranoid, he would say she was hunting him, but didn’t know if he could confront her about it. Aiko was flirtatious by nature. She couldn’t help it. It was one of the reasons they broke up many moons ago. Men were naturally drawn to her and he couldn’t handle it. Once he punched a guy in the face for making a comment about her legs.

But Melanie… Melanie with her kind blue eyes and understanding smile. He’d realized it wasn’t the smartest thing to do to start dating his ex-girlfriend’s best friend, but she was so nice to him in the dark months after Aiko dumped him that the progression of their friendship led him to sleep with her. Aiko magnanimously wished them the best of luck and insisted she couldn’t give a shit about Mel and Mike dating, but…

God, he just wanted to fucking get away from the two of them. He couldn’t stand Melanie’s grasping little hands or Aiko’s challenging smirk anymore. He strode towards the front door and flung it open. Almost instantly, the smell of rot and decay assailed his nostrils. He’d almost forgotten what it smelled like outside because they had lit up a half a dozen patchouli incense to cover up the stench that had managed to sneak its way in. His eyes immediately watered and he had to swallow the bile that rose up to his throat.

“Michael, what the hell are you doing?” Aiko grabbed his arm in an attempt to yank him back in. “You fucking go outside, you stay outside. Do you want to infect the rest of us?”

Mike whirled around to face her and the violence that surged through him as he stared down into her blazing black eyes threatened to overwhelm him. He had to step back for a moment or risk hurting her. “Air is fucking air, Aiko! If the disease were airborne, we would have gotten it already just by breathing. This apartment isn’t airtight, you know. We’re not any safer here than outside.”

Aiko’s eyes narrowed into slits and she stabbed a finger on his chest. “What, are you going to leave us, then? Fine! Go ahead, get the fuck out of here. Melanie and I don’t need you!”

Melanie appeared behind Aiko, her lower lip quivering and her eyes already moist with tears. “Wait, Michael, you’re leaving? Take me with you! I don’t want to stay here anymore!”

Aiko shoved away from Mike and threw her hands in the air. “Fine, both of you get the fuck out of here! I hope you trip on those fucking corpses on your way out.”

For a brief moment, Mike was tempted to storm out of the building and leave them both. Against his thighs, his fingers curled into fists. “I was just going to sit in the hallway for a fucking smoke! Jesus!” He yanked his crushed pack of Marlboros from the back pocket of his jeans and had to restrain himself from shoving it in their faces. “Can’t a man smoke a goddamn cigarette without getting the third degree from you bitches?”

Melanie held up a conciliatory hand. “Now if we can all just calm down here for a second. I realize it’s been a rough couple of days, but I think we should—”

“Rough couple of days? Rough couple of days?” Aiko repeated in disbelief. “It’s the fucking end of the world, you stupid bitch! Everybody we know—our families, our friends, our fucking co-workers, the goddamn president of the United States—they are all dead! We were watching the goddamn State of the Union Address when the president’s head is exploded and you’re telling me ‘rough couple of days’? Get the fuck out of here with that feel-good bullshit, Melanie, because I’m sick of it!”

Aiko raised her hand and Mike, thinking she was about to hit Melanie, grabbed her wrist and yanked her against him. “Jeez, Mikey, I was just going to sweep my hair out of my face. Overreacting much?”

Mike dropped her wrist and shoved her away from him as though her very touch seared his skin.

Melanie’s eyes volleyed between him and Aiko before settling on him. “You people are unbelievable. Do you think we’re going to get through this if we’re sniping at each other all the time?”

“Newsflash, Mel, we’re not going to get through this.” Aiko shook her head and buried her face in her hands. “Whatever the fuck this thing is, it’s creeping and crawling, killing everything in its path. Just two days ago, we’d been able to contact people through Mike’s ham radio, but we haven’t heard anything since then. They could all be dead too.” She laughed bitterly and hugged her arms to her chest. “Do you know what I did all night last night, I started mashing up random numbers on my phone just to see if I could reach anyone, and no one—” Her voice broke as she looked up at Mike. “No one picked up.”

Through this entire ordeal, Aiko had been a trooper: never crying, never falling apart. She had always been a take-charge personality. If it weren’t for her insistence that they all stay in the apartment until they could figure something out, he and Mel could be wandering aimlessly out there right now, probably getting sick from breathing the stench and diseases breeding in the dead bodies. It was a little disconcerting to see her finally show some emotion. Mike found himself lifting his hand to touch her face, but realized what he was doing, closed it into a fist, and stuck it in his pocket.

Mel placed her hands on Aiko’s shoulders. “Aiko, we live in the most powerful country in the world. We’ve got scientists, Area 51 guys, military dudes who are probably trying to figure this stuff out as we stand here. We’re going to be okay.” She looked over her shoulder at Mike. “Tell her, Mike. Tell her!”

Mike couldn’t say a word even as Melanie’s eyes pleaded with him. A frown of disgust crawled across Aiko’s lips. She cocked her head to the side and stared at him, issuing a dare with her eyes.

When he didn’t say anything, Aiko snorted and shook her head. “We’re just buying time and you know it. We’re probably not infected by the—whatever the fuck killed everyone within seconds, but who’s to say we don’t have something else incubating in our bodies right now?” She shrugged off Melanie’s hands and stalked towards the window. Propping one hand on her hip, she brought her free hand to her mouth and began to chew on her thumbnail. She yanked it out a few seconds later and looked back at them. “We’re fucked. We’re so severely fucked there isn’t a word in the dictionary for it.”

Melanie crossed her arms under her breasts and glared at her. “Well, if that’s your attitude, then why don’t we all just end it right now, huh? Maybe Michael can fetch his gun, shoot us both, then eat a bullet himself!”

Mike stared at Melanie. He had never heard her say anything like it before. She was always sunshine and light, which was why his friends often wondered why a pragmatist like himself could stand to be around her. What he couldn’t tell them was that being around Melanie made him feel… better. Whenever he was having a shitty day, he could always count on her to cheer him up. That was just her nature. “Okay, let’s just… calm down, alright? No one is eating a bullet.” He thought of the Glock-9 he had stashed away in a jacket hanging in the coat closet and wondered if he could ever stick it in his mouth and pull the trigger if he had to. “I’m just going to step outside for a few minutes to smoke, all right?”

Melanie narrowed her eyes at him. “Why can’t you just smoke here?”

Aiko saved Mike from having to answer. “Oh, for God’s sake, Melanie, just let him have a moment’s peace, okay? I’m sure he’s just trying to get away from you.”

“No, I’m trying to get away from the both of you.” He dragged a hand through his hair and turned away towards the door to avoid seeing the hurt look he knew he’d see in Mel’s eyes.

“Well, I’m gonna… take a nap,” Mel said softly. “Dinner’s in the kitchen if you guys are hungry.”

Mike glanced over his shoulder in time to see Mel disappear into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. When he looked at Aiko, she was staring out the window with her arms folded across her middle and one bare leg crossed over the other. There was a look of quiet contemplation on her face.

With a sigh, he stepped out of the apartment and pulled the door closed behind him. The smell of stale death lingered in the air, but after a few minutes, he managed to ignore it. After a few years in Homicide, he had become familiar with the smell of decomposition. Though he never got used to it, he learned to breathe past it after a while. He leaned against the wall next to the door, stuck a cigarette between his lips, and dug into his pockets for the lighter.

“Fuck.”

The door opened and Aiko stepped out to stand next to him. In her hand was the gleaming neon green plastic of his Bic lighter. “Looking for this?”

“Yeah.” He reached for it, but she pulled it out of his way. He narrowed his eyes at her, but she merely smirked at him. “Aiko, now’s not the time to be fucking around. I’m on the edge right now and trust me when I say that you do not want to push me over.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What are you going to do, Mikey? Spank me?”

An image of turning Aiko over his knee, pulling up her shirt to expose her butt, and smacking his palm down on her bare flesh assailed his brain, but he quickly put it out of his mind. “No, but I would shove you down the garbage chute.”

At his words, the two of them looked at the brownish smear on the door across the hall, then at the garbage chute at the end of the hallway. The day after The Incident, as Mel was calling it, he and Aiko decided to get rid of the corpses littering their immediate area. There was Mrs. Chumsky, who had expired just a few feet from them, as well as Mr. Caruthers who had been on his way out to buy a morning paper. Lynette Stevens from 8B had been in leotards and tights and was probably on her way to an aerobics class. He and Aiko carried all three of them to the chute and shoved them in. Lynette, Mrs. Chumsky, and Mr. Caruthers all lived alone, but there were two more units on the floor that housed families and small children. He and Aiko had banged on the doors, but there was no response. He didn’t want to think about the bodies that were rotting inside the other units, but at least they were out of sight.

“I may just take you up on that,” Aiko said with a strange little smile on her face. “But make sure you plant a bullet between my eyes first, all right?” She flicked on his lighter and touched the flame to the end of his cigarette. “Level with me, Mikey, how long do you think we can live like this?”

Mike drew heavily on his cigarette and slowly exhaled. “I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it. Once we run out of resources here, we could probably flit about from place to place and look for other survivors.” He passed the cigarette to Aiko who took a deep drag and blew the smoke out of her nose. “Lately I’ve been too busy wondering why the three of us were spared. Everyone else died, but somehow the three of us lived. Those are some crazy-ass odds.”

Aiko crossed her arms under her breasts and propped her shoulder against the door, a smirk playing on her lips. “Why, ’cause you and I used to date and now you’re fucking my best friend? You think it’s some cosmic trick being played on you?”

Mike sucked on his cigarette and held the smoke inside for a moment before slowly releasing it through his nose. “You gotta admit, it’s fucking strange. The three of us weren’t doing anything different when it all happened. You were in bed, Mel was getting ready for work, and I was checking out a crime scene two blocks from here. Why us? Don’t tell me you haven’t wondered about it.”

She shrugged. “God has a sick sense of humor, Mikey.” She snatched the cigarette from his hand and took another drag, but didn’t give it back to him.

“Can you honestly think there’s still a God after all this?” He slid her a sidelong glance, but the expression on her face was inscrutable.

She finished the cigarette in two more drags, crushed the end of it against the door, and flicked it towards the bloodstain on Mrs. Chumsky’s door. “This whole thing reeks of the Old Testament to me. Some serious fire and brimstone stuff. Maybe God finally got sick of his human experiment and decided to end it.” A bitter smile twisted her lips. “Hell, maybe we’re all dead and this—all of this—is your hell. Maybe Mel and I were sent down to torment you for all eternity. Did you ever think about that?”

Mike shook his head and found himself laughing. It was the first real laugh he’d had in—what, weeks and it felt good. “Wouldn’t that be some fucked up M. Night Shyamalan shit. It would serve me right for getting involved with the two of you.”

“Oh, fuck off,” she said, but there was no real heat to it. “You’re going to stand there and tell me that the months we spent together fucking each other’s brains out didn’t mean anything to you? Bitch, please. I’m the best you’ve ever had. You’re gonna tell me Mel with her sweetness and light was the better lay? I rocked your fucking world, Mikey.”

Mike couldn’t help the smirk that crawled across his lips. “You may have been a good fuck, but that’s all you where, Aiko. Right now, I’d rather stick my cock in a meat grinder than have sex with you again.”

“You lie.” She leaned towards him until her face was only inches from his and smiled. “I’ve seen the way you look at me. You don’t think I’ve noticed you checking me out when Mel’s not looking?”

Mike knew he should step away. She was standing too close to him and her scent was driving him crazy. He tried to sound angry, but even he could hear the desperation in his voice. “I’d have to be blind not to look at you. You prance around in your underwear and those tight little t-shirts just begging to be noticed.”

“Ah, but it’s all for your benefit, Michael.” She slipped her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him, hooking her leg around one of his. “Haven’t you been enjoying the scenery?” She ground her hips against the front of his jeans. “You’re going to tell me you prefer Melanie over me? I know how you like it, Mikey. You can’t tell me Mel can do things I’ve done for you.”

Mike placed his hands on her shoulders and set her away from him. He should go inside and lock himself in one of the bedrooms, maybe stick a chair under the doorknob so that neither of them could get to him. Christ, they weren’t going to leave him alone until he was stark-raving mad. “At least Melanie isn’t a cold-hearted bitch, Aiko. And that’s exactly what you are. I’m surprised I never got frostbite from fucking you.”

She threw her head back and laughed throatily, grazing the skin of her neck with the tips of her fingers. “I’ve always liked your sense of humor, Mikey.” She pushed her lower lip out in a pout. “But you should be careful about what you say. You may just hurt my feelings one of these days.”

“How can I do that when you’re an emotionless bitch?”

Her response was a sharp, strong slap across his face that shoved his head to the side. Mike tasted blood in his mouth. Aiko was a tiny, little thing, but she could hold her own against any man. With a groan, Mike realized he was a little more than turned on. His erection pushed uncomfortably against the front of his jeans. He turned his head back to look at her and saw a tiny smile playing on the corner of her lips. Without thinking about it, Mike grabbed her and slammed her against the door, burying his face in the crook of her neck. She immediately wrapped her slender legs around his hips and sank her teeth into his shoulder.

“Oh, Michael,” she said with a chuckle. “You’re so easy.”

“Shut up,” he growled, reaching between them to unsnap the front of his jeans and lower his zipper. “Don’t say another fucking word.” He lowered his boxers, grasped his erection in his hand, and with the tip of his cock, pushed aside the silky material of her flimsy panties. She was so fucking hot and wet that he almost lost it right there and then. Unable to wait a second longer, he stabbed hard and fast into her, stifling her little shriek of surprise with his mouth.

Sex between them was just as he remembered: brutal, sizzling, and a little more than angry. He buried his fingers into her hair and wrenched her head to the side, sucking the skin of her neck between his teeth and laving the area with his tongue as he pumped into her. He was pissed off enough at her that he wanted to come way before she did. In fact, that had been his intention, but Aiko must have sensed it somehow because it was not before too long that she was having her own orgasm, digging her nails into his back and screaming her pleasure for the whole damned world to hear. Mike followed soon after, pouring himself into her and surrendering himself into her embrace.

They stood like that for what seemed like an eternity, clutching each other and breathing hard. Aiko was looking at him with an emotion he couldn’t quite recognize and was too mentally exhausted to analyze just then. After a moment, she looked away from him and slid down his body until her feet were touching the ground. She seemed oddly shy all of a sudden and Mike couldn’t figure it out. Before he could put any more thought to it, however, the door behind Aiko opened and Mike only had time enough to zip up his pants and pull his shirt down.

There was no doubt on Melanie’s face that she knew exactly what Mike and Aiko had been doing. She looked at the two of them, her eyes widening and her mouth opening and closing as though she couldn’t quite figure out what to say. She backed away from the open door so quickly that she almost stumbled all over her feet.

“You… you fucking animals…” she whispered, her hand flying up to her mouth. “I… how could you do this to me?”

Mike reached out to her, though he knew nothing he could say could make it all better. Strangely enough, he didn’t even really care. He couldn’t even summon enough regret to feel bad about the tears flowing down Melanie’s cheeks. He felt… disconnected from it all. All he could think about was how much additional drama he had managed to bring down on his own head by losing control and fucking Aiko.

Aiko crossed her arms over her chest and braced her shoulders against the doorjamb, looking at Mel with an expression of boredom on her face. “Grow up, Mel. It was just a little sex. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but Mikey is the only guy around here. He was gracious enough to help me scratch a little itch, that’s all.”

“You… you monster!” Mel looked at the two of them, shaking her head in disbelief. She buried her hands in her stringy blond hair and sank to her knees on the carpet, biting down on her lower lip hard enough to draw blood. “He always said you were a heartless bitch, but I thought he was just bitter about your break-up…” She switched her attention to Mike. “Her… Why would you do this?”

Mike discovered he was more annoyed than regretful. Aiko was right. He was the only man left in the world. Why shouldn’t he be able to do whatever the hell he wanted to do? “Get up, Mel. You’re acting like a child. Why shouldn’t I have slept with Aiko? Christ, look at yourself. When was the last time you even took a shower?” As the words tumbled out of his mouth, he realized how angry he’d been with Mel and how he’d been holding it all in. All of a sudden, he wanted to yank her up and slap her.

“You guys are both sociopathic assholes,” Mel said bitterly. She slowly got up to her feet, yanking her arm out of Aiko’s grip as Aiko stepped forward to help her up. “I can’t believe I was unlucky enough to get stuck with you two.” She whirled away from them and flung open the coat closet. “I have to get the fuck out of here.”

“And where would you go, Mel?” Aiko demanded. “There isn’t anywhere else for you to go. Just in case you’ve forgotten, the world is fucking over and everybody’s dead.”

“Except us,” Mel murmured in an oddly melodious voice. When she turned around to face them, she was holding something in her hands. She flicked off the safety and pointed it at the two of them. “How much longer can we expect to live, anyway? Maybe we should all just end it right here, right now.” She raised the gun and prodded Aiko’s chin with the barrel. “You’re a destructive little bitch, aren’t you? You can’t stand to see anyone else happy so you have to destroy everything in your path.”

“Happy?” Aiko responded with a mocking snort, seemingly oblivious to the gun pressed against her chin. “Are you fucking delusional or something? He was just fucking you to get back at me, you thick-headed bitch!”

Mike had seen enough hostage situations to know that Mel wasn’t bluffing. The wild, glassy look in her eyes told him she had lost it and wouldn’t hesitate to blow Aiko’s head off. He tried to convey this to Aiko with his eyes, but she wasn’t looking at him. He wondered if he could grab the gun from Mel and take her down if he absolutely had to. He had never hurt a woman in his entire life, but the rules of the old world didn’t necessarily apply anymore. His stomach clenched at the idea of having to knock Mel out.

“You think you’re so tough, don’t you?” Mel shoved the barrel of the gun harder against Aiko’s chin. “You don’t think I could shoot you? I could blow your brains all over the fucking wall, shoot Mikey, then do myself. You think I give a shit anymore?”

“Do it then!” Aiko shrieked. “Fucking do it already, bitch!”

“No!” Mike put out his hand and found himself stepping between the two of them before he could even really think about it. He looked down and saw that the barrel of the Glock-9 was now pointing at his chest, right over his heart. He reached behind him and shoved Aiko away. The bullet could easily tear through him and get her too. “Think about this, Mel. Do you really want to die? There could be millions of people left in the world. We could be rescued any minute now.”

A small, snide smile quirked up the corner of her lips. “Do you really think I’d want to live in a world like this? My family, all of my friends… they’re all dead. And the man I love just fucked the woman I thought was my best friend… No, Mike… I don’t want to live anymore. Goodbye.” She placed the barrel of the gun under her chin and squeezed the trigger.

Mike felt her blood spray across his face before she fell down to the carpet, dead at his feet. For a full minute, he couldn’t feel anything. Aiko began shrieking behind him, crying and babbling, though he couldn’t understand a word she was saying. When he finally looked down, he saw that half of Mel’s skull had been blown off and her exploded brain was laying on the carpet. Briefly, he wondered if the carpet cleaner under the sink would work on blood and viscera.

Leaving Aiko crying on the floor, he hoisted Mel onto his shoulder and marched down the hallway to stick her down the trash chute. He looked down at the Glock-9 on his hand and wondered if he were brave enough to do what Mel did. Could he blow his own brains out if he had to? In case he wussed out the first few times, he had fifteen bullets to get it right. Of course if he had to take out Aiko, he would only have fourteen.

By the time he got back to the apartment, Aiko was still on the floor, but right next to her was a bucket and some laundry detergent. She was scrubbing at the spot where Mel had fallen with a brush and the determination of a woman possessed. She was no longer crying, but there was a blankness in her eyes that sent a chill down his spine. Mike stepped over her and walked to the kitchen to get himself a can of beer.

After cleaning the carpet, Aiko grabbed the bucket and disappeared into the bathroom without once looking at him. Moments later, Mike heard her start up the shower. He placed the Glock-9 on the coffee table and set his feet down next to it, sinking bonelessly into the couch. He finished his beer in quick, easy gulps and promptly fell asleep. When he woke up, Aiko was staring down at him wearing a bathrobe and a towel wrapped around her head.

“Your turn,” she said softly.

Mike nodded and got up. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw that she was lying on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest. She was staring unwaveringly at the gun.

Mike took a quick shower, washing off Mel’s blood from his body. He looked down and saw the pinkish water going down the drain along with the bubbles from the shampoo he had used on his hair. He dried himself off with a towel, slipped on a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and returned to the living room. His eyes immediately went to the couch, but Aiko was no longer there. Instead she was standing by the window, her back to him. Mike walked up to her and slid his arm around her waist.

Immediately below them was a woman lying on the ground dressed in a navy blue dress with her neck twisted in an unnatural angle. She was pregnant. Mike glanced past her and found body after body, both on the sidewalks and inside cars. Across the street, a little girl in a pink lacy dress and a tiara on her head sat unnaturally still, the front of her dress drenched in blood.

He turned his head to look at Aiko. She was watching him now. Mike jerked his head towards the window.

She didn’t say anything. Instead she wrapped her arms around herself and braced herself against him, sinking into his side.

“Shit,” Mike murmured.

He looked at the pregnant woman again and found himself watching her hand. The diamond of her wedding ring sparkled innocently in the moonlight. And then, right before his eyes, her fingers moved. He touched Aiko’s arm to get her attention and pointed to the woman. Aiko slipped her arms around him and together, they watched as the pregnant woman with the broken neck slowly got up and raised her head towards the window of their apartment.