I remember the day it all happened, the day we lost power. I don’t mean someone hit a telephone pole on my street and we had no electricity for a week. I mean forever. The whole world, stuck in the powerlessness that consumed our everyday activities. Nothing worked, we felt like the cavemen that we had learned about in school. Telephones, ovens, computers they all just stopped. No explanation. We adjusted. Sure it was hard but we had nothing else to do. Some people didn’t even try, after weeks of being powerless they just couldn’t accept the fact that it was all gone. I had no choice but to move on. Dying of starvation or hypothermia was always a worry, but the biggest thing you had to watch out for was people.
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Andre walked along his path, hoping to find something better than before. As he made his way through the dense forest, he heard a quiet crackle. He ducked down and immediately hid in the ferns that crowded his path. No matter what it was, he didn’t plan on standing around in the open to find out. Ever since it happened, animals had become more hostile but much less smart. Some beasts that used to cower at a man’s sight would no longer hesitate to jump up and kill, hungry or not. They treated it like a sport, almost like hunting. The roles were reversed now. Running from a raccoon would never have crossed your mind before, but now it was an instinct. The crackles continued, growing in volume as the movement became clearer in Andre’s eyes. Out of the bushes came an older woman, about the age of 40 and her pre-teenage son. Andre had a choice to make: let them pass hoping to survive any possible encounters, or take that hefty backpack on the woman’s shoulder, by force if it came to it. These were the things people thought about now, all rules were out the door.
“Oh you killed someone? Yah, same here.” Nobody batted an eye about these things, they had become a natural part of life.
The pack looked full, really full, his hand rested on his hammer as he watched them try to detach the lifeless rabbit from a poorly made snare. After trying to tear at the bunny’s head, the mother pulled out a long, sharp machete from her bag and tried to saw the rope. Andre started to rethink his decision. One swipe of that blade and his journey to survive could be over. Maybe brutal force was necessary, right from the get go. As Andre moved slowly towards the unsuspecting people, he unsheathed his hammer from his belt loop and prepared it for the blow. He raised the club above his body and brought it down on the woman’s head. She fell to the ground with her skull open and her soon to be lifeless body twitching from the impact.
“Mom!” the young boy exclaimed.
“Hey kid, quiet down unless you want some too.” The kid just stood still, tears filling up his eyes. Seeing someone like Andre staring at you with a hammer bloodied by your family would make anyone feel traumatized. He was a 6’4” man who weighed about 230 lbs, quite a husky guy. His full, scruffy beard sat on his dirt-filled face. His matching green beanie and sweater brought out the ruthlessness in his eyes. No matter who you were, he would be a challenge to handle.
“You’ll run if you know what’s good for you!” Andre said coldly in his rough, angry voice. He felt no remorse. As the young boy took off, running through the woods whimpering to himself, he looked through the bag. He was relieved to see it had everything from baby formula, to a classic Smith and Wesson revolver. Pleased with his new collection, he didn’t forget to take the rabbit too.
“Your mom’s what? Where is the guy!” echoed through the trees. It took a minute before it settled into his head that someone would be angry with his decision, but he didn’t want to be around when they discovered the body. He ran, darting through the trees evading any thing in his way. He took a hard right, getting back on his usual trail. As he looked back through the green blur that was the forest, he could make out a frantic looking man. Grey hair and a grey beard, scruffy looking, with tears running down his face. Andre started to run faster because if the man saw him he would know where he was headed. An hour or so passed, and as the woods became less crowded he knew he was on the right track to his safe house.
He arrived at the abandoned storage shack he liked to call home. He made his way over to the rusted well, one of the only ways to get water now. He decided to wash some of the blood off of his shirt so that Sandy wouldn’t be as worried. She needed to stay calm until the baby arrived. He walked up the wooden steps, bracing himself for the overflow of questions. She had always been curious, but even more so now that she couldn’t come with him. He creaked open the door and saw Sandy burning a pot of beans over the fire. She dropped what she was doing to run over and hug him. It had been longer than ever before, days, maybe even a week.
“I thought you were dead...” she said as she embraced him. She broke away suddenly. “Why is there blood on your hammer?”
Andre stood there silently He knew she wouldn’t like the answer .
“Andre, you never killed this many people before I got pregnant, what has gotten into you lately?”
“Honey, I do what I need to to make this family survive, you know that,” Andre stated.
“I know, I just feel bad because what if that were us?”
“Someday it might be... but look what I found! I know we are going to need this for when the baby comes,” he said as he pulled out the baby formula.
“Found?”
“Baby, I know you don’t like it but it had to happen. Let’s get some sleep so we can get a fresh start tomorrow morning,” he said. They walked over to the blankets that lay on the floor and quickly got under them.
“I love that shirt, auburn's a good color for you,” Andre said sweetly.
“Good, It’s one of the only few left.” They lay there and slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.
Andre woke up with an empty space next to him. He rose and made his way over to the box they used as a table. A plate of eggs was prepared for him, fork and knife alongside. He scarfed them down and went to see where Sandy had gone off to. He opened the door that led outside and glanced over towards the chicken coop. Sandy was standing on a stepstool holding a 20 pound bag of chicken food that she was pouring on the floor.
“I’m going to check the traps, I’ll be back in about 30 minutes,” Andre said.
“Ok honey, be safe.”
Andre walked to one of the 4 different trails he knew by heart and set off on his journey. He crept slowly, being sure not to make any noise. Even the littlest crumple could set off a pack of coyotes. He arrived at the gully that rested at the end of the trail. The water glistened from the sunlight. He stopped to admire the beauty of the scene. You couldn’t look these things up on the internet anymore. The only astonishing things in life were now experiences. He climbed down the muddy walls, making sure not to trip over any rocks that would send him stumbling into the water. As he neared the river bed he regained his footing and strolled over to the large tree where his first trap was set. He appeared to have hung a squirrel. At this point any meat was better than no meat. He drew the long machete out of his pack and used the blade to start sawing the vermin down. Just as the rope was about to snap, a loud growl echoed from the bushes. A large coyote darted out of nowhere. Andre reached to his belt for his gun only to realize he had left it at home. He unsheathed his hammer and prepared for the fight.
The beast lunged at him and he struck it down on the top of its head with his hammer. It quickly got up and prepared to return the attack. As it circled him he questioned if he would make it out of this alive. All that ran through his mind was Sandy, how she needed him, how he needed to make it out of this.  The coyote lept from its position and Andre prepared to give it a final blow but it was too late. Its jaw was already clamped around his inner thigh. It wouldn’t let go. Andre struggled to get in a good enough position to smash its brains in but it was too quick, too agile. It tore into his leg and he felt a pop. At that moment he fell to the ground and the beast slowly moved over his face, lips snarling. Just when it was about to strike, a loud gunshot echoed. The 150 pound dog fell on top of Andre, knocking the wind straight out of him.
He attempted to shove the creatures dead weight off of his body in preparation of having to fight whoever wanted to kill him him. He thrashed around looking for his hammer, looking for anything that could keep him alive. During his frantic struggle he heard footsteps rushing towards him through the muddy ground. He screamed and pushed with all of his might, but his injury had drained all of his energy, he now just had to accept whatever was going to happen. He turned his head but saw Sandy standing there holding his smith and wesson revolver with a horrified look on her face. A feeling of relief came over him, she was the best thing he could’ve possibly seen.
“Andre... What the hell happened to you?” Sandy questioned.
“I was... I was just checking the traps when this coyote came out of nowhere,” Andre stated.
“I’m just so glad you’re ok baby, I don’t know what I would’ve done without you,” said Sandy. “Let’s just go home now.”
As Sandy worked to pull the corpse off of her husband he urged her that she shouldn’t be doing this much lifting. After he was too his feet, they began the long walk home, just hoping that they would make it there safely.
They stumbled through the door and hobbled over to the sleeping bag they called their bed. Andre laid down, and took off his pants to reveal the bloodied gash that had been sitting for nearly 6 hours now. The wound was black, clearly infected.
“Sandy you need to look at this.” Andre said concerned.
Luckily before all of this went down Sandy was a nurse at a hospital, she was familiar with treating injuries of this sort.
“Honey... This doesn’t look good.” Sandy said, her voice heavy. “But we’ll give it a few days, we don’t have to worry about it now.”
Andre could sense the nervousness in Sandy’s voice.
Sandy had seen this injury before, she knew that without the proper medicine there was just no way to come back from this.
“I think sleep would be best right now,” Sandy said.
“I think you’re right,” Andre said as he rolled over to try to get some rest.
“Andre?” Sandy questioned.
“Yes honey?”
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too.” Andre said as Sandy rolled on to her side. One by one tears fell from her eyes, Andre was the love of her life, she couldn’t live without him.