#alexis-royce

-PLS DNT LT ME FRGT UR VCE

Stanley looked up through the broken window. Jagged shards of dirty glass rose up from the frame like teeth, scattering the moonlight that filtered through into a muddy kaleidoscope. It would have been pretty, in another time. Another life.

He fingered the scuffed and scratched old pager. Battery was getting low. He'd need to charge it soon, but that required sunlight, and sunlight required him leave this little corner of safety he'd dug out among the rust and rubble.

He could still hear the groans, the slick wet meaty sounds of the dead feeding outside. He hoped it was only some unlucky wildlife caught this time. It probably wasn't.

-U SD CHK IN THS WK. LST WK. LST WK 2

Shuddering, Stanley curled up tighter. His clothes were crusted with who-knows-what, blood and dirt and the oozing decay that seemed to coat the whole world, but he was used to it, he was used to it all even though thinking about it too long made his skin crawl. He just pushed it to the back of his mind along with everything else he had to to just keep going, along with thoughts of his life from Before and worries about his old acquaintances and fear for the voice, his guide, his friend who he couldn't hear anymore but who promised to not leave him behind like all the others-

Another wrenching meat sound, closer, made Stanley flinch. He stilled so completely one might have mistaken him for one of their victims, breath caught and fear swallowed like a deer in the headlights, a mouse in a trap. He froze as the sickening crunch, crunch sawed in his ears and only breathed again as heavy, dragging footfalls moved away.

The pager in his hand still read no response. The low-battery light blinked red and forlorn at him.

Stanley had never felt so alone.

-CNT DO THS W/OUT U

A world away, in a room full of antennae and computers that blinked and alerted of messages received and awaiting transmission, the lone door, once barred and safe, hung open, ripped off its hinges.