My scream echoed through the empty street and made everything feel far creepier. It was only a short little noise of shock and abject terror, but that echo made it feel like I was shouting into the Grand Canyon.

I clutched the paper in my hand as I let the newspaper stand slam closed.

It’s only fingers. Just fingers. I’ve seen worse. I’ve seen worse.

It became like a mantra in my head as I calmed myself down. I had seen a person explode. Fingers should not bother me as much as this. Perhaps it was the fact that I might have known who those fingers belonged to, or maybe it was just everything building up over the last few days.

Or weeks, according to Rowan.

My mind jumped to that like it was a life preserver. Just think about anything other than the bits of person shoved into the newspaper box. Thinking of Rowan, and our weird conversation, was so much better than thinking of fingers.

I shoved the newspaper into a bag and the fingers out of my mind.

Another glance down the street helped me feel a bit more at ease. Nothing had heard my scream, which also added to the thoughts running through my head.

Shouldn’t there be more things?

Every horror movie I had watched always had hordes of zombies or monsters roaming through the cities. Yet, we had not encountered anything in the city other than the wendigo-creature that had followed us in.

It was like the monsters had also left.

I shook my head at my wandering mind and grabbed the bags before heading for the apartment building. It did not take long to get back inside and up the stairwell to reach my floor.

Nothing had changed here, either. Same garbage. Same emptiness.

I hurried to my door, and I met a very surprised-looking Rowan.

“You’re alive.” Their voice even sounded shocked.

“What? You thought I’d die on the way to the store?” I said with a laugh.

“I heard you scream.” They were no longer quite as breathless when they talked.

“So… you thought I died?” I frowned.

“Well… yeah.” Rowan looked almost embarrassed. That new skin on their face blushing faintly. “Sorry. I know you saved me… but if you were already dead…”

“Yeah, yeah.” I mumbled, before tossing the bags on the couch. “Here.”

Even though I barely knew them, and it had been less than a day, it still stung to think that they had not moved from the couch despite thinking I had died. I had dragged them down the highway, but apparently, they could not even check to see if I was still alive.

“Sorry.” Rowan repeated. Not meeting my eyes when they spoke.

They made no other explanations, and I did not ask them for any. I was just focusing on getting some beef jerky to eat and that crumpled up newspaper.

“Why… did you scream?”

I was halfway through angrily searching the bag when they asked the question. My body flinched as I remembered.

“I… found fingers.” I answered in a much calmer voice. My annoyance fading in the face of talking about someone’s amputated digits and potential death. “Just… fingers.”

“Oh.” Rowan said.

“You know… I thought there would be more things roaming the city.” I said to Rowan after I paused. “Even my scream earlier did not attract a thing.”

“Of course not.” Rowan answered. “Animals go where there is food.”

“I’m sure there is plenty of food in those… oh.” It clicked to me. People were the food.

The military had evacuated the city. It was probably very close to empty. If there were monsters, most would have followed the humans that left. Like any predators, they would have gone for better hunting grounds. Tracking one or two humans wandering the empty city was definitely not an efficient way to hunt.

I grimaced at the thought.

“You got a newspaper?” Rowan quickly changed topics. “Why?”

“Just wanted to see if there was more about… everything.”

“I can answer…” Rowan said.

“Okay… what caused this?” I motioned as if I was covering the city.

“The rain.” Rowan answered, while giving me a strange look. It was that why did you ask me that when I already told you kind of look. “Something about the crystals.”

“But how do you know that?”

“I used to go on the internet a lot.” Rowan answered with the barest shrug of their shoulders. “It was only easy to find news about it all.”

That made sense to me, but then it had me wondering about the other thing Rowan had told me. About the forest and the moss.

“Is that how you knew about the moss?”

“No, that was because…” Rowan paused, and their face twisted into what must have been a frown. It just looked weird. The muscles were still healing beneath the skin, apparently. “We knew someone who went in.”

“We?” I quirked an eyebrow. “And they came back out?”

“Yeah… uh…” Rowan looked down at their hands. “The guy you saw… the one who was dragging me. I knew him. Knew him before he went insane.”

Insane was not quite the word I would use to explain how the gym rat looking guy had ended up. I just kept my mouth shut as Rowan talked.

“Another friend of ours.” Their eyebrows furrowed. “He went in. He came out, and he just wasn’t right anymore. He was delirious and kept saying he saw things.”

“That doesn’t mean…”

“It gets worse.” Rowan sighed. “Moss started growing on him. It grew fucking fast. By the time we realized it… he was dead, and the spores were everywhere.”

“That… doesn’t mean psychedelic…” I said it quietly as if that would make this conversation any better. A few seconds later, I realized what he had said. I sucked in a breath of air and stared at Rowan. “Will I grow moss?”

“No clue.” Rowan said.

“And you’re still… hanging around?” I stared at them with a growing feeling of horror.

“It doesn’t work on me.” Rowan looked almost miserable.

Right. Healing.

“Right.” I rubbed my face with one of my hands. “Never thought death by moss would be the way I died.”

I tried to joke about it, but I did not feel any better. In fact, the more I thought about it, the worse I began to feel. Then, like some kind of psychosomatic response, I began to feel like my skin was itching. Like the moss was ready to sprout from my skin at any time.

I really wanted a shower.

“I’ll stay.” Rowan said with resounding conviction.

“What?” I asked, not understanding but jolting out of my thoughts.

“I’ll stay with you. Until you die.” Rowan said it firmly. “You didn’t abandon me. I won’t abandon you.”

I stared at them. My eyebrow slowly quirking as I regarded them. They were claiming they would stay when they would not have even bothered to check if I was still alive earlier.

I mean, I knew that they could probably do zero to save me from a monster, but it had still been upsetting. Strangely enough, knowing someone would be around me until I died made me feel better. Despite what happened earlier, it was comforting.

In a strange sort of way.

“Thanks… I guess?” I spoke.

“I mean… unless you want me to leave?”

“No, no. You can stay.” I answered quickly. “I just don’t want to hold you back from finding your family or doing your thing.”

“My friends are dead. No clue about my family. And it’s not like I can just go catch a movie.” Rowan answered back. “At least you are company that doesn’t try to eat me.”

“Nope. I’m more for normal food.” I said in agreement. “Speaking of food, I brought back some different stuff that doesn’t need to be heated. Sorry that it’s not all that nutritious.”

“Food is food at this point.”

“Help yourself.” I pulled out a package of beef jerky before sliding the bag over to them. I ripped it open and popped a piece into my mouth.

I knew that we should be rationing food. The convenience store had limited food supplies. Once it was gone, it was gone. I just had no idea how much food would be in the larger stores. Especially given that those were further away. People probably already cleared those places out.

“Why did you grab these?” Rowan asked as they pulled out the candles and tea-lights.

“Light when it gets dark.”

“These need batteries.” They pointed at the tea-lights and then pointed at the candles. “Those need a lighter. You have either?”

“Uh… no.” I answered in a sheepish tone. “Whatever. I can grab some the next time I go out.”

Rowan said nothing, merely bobbed their head in response.

“Anyway. I’m gonna read.” I answered in a huff as I grabbed the newspaper.

Reading was so much better than thinking about my impending death. Like every other intrusive thought that I did not want to think about, I pushed it out of my head and focused on something else.

The main article was about the boil order. I read through it quickly and realized that it was actually a message saying the water was going to be cut off for the city. The article stated that people should boil the remaining water in the pipes before using it. Several times, they emphasized the recommendation not to drink the water at all.

Most of the rest of the newspaper were articles about the strange creatures seen roaming outside the city. That we no longer had contact with other cities. There was even an opinion piece about listening to the military.

Good to know propaganda still works at the end of the world.

There really was nothing new in the newspaper, but at least I now had a definite date for when the paper was no longer printed. Like Rowan had said, it was more than two days since my date of arrival at the airport.

Further proof that I had lost my mind in the forest.

“You know…” Rowan finally said. “We should check the rest of the apartments.”

“What?” I glanced up from the newspaper at them.

“There is bound to be usable stuff in the other apartments.” They continued.

“You… want me to rob my neighbours?” I asked. The shock was clear in my voice.

“I don’t think your neighbours are coming back.” Rowan provided.

“That…” I paused and thought about it. “Is a good point.”

The odds of people coming back were pretty low. Even if this whole apocalyptic event was only temporary, people were changing into things and eating each other. There was no way that everyone survived. And they would probably stay with a safer group instead of wandering back to this apartment.

Only someone like me would think it was a good idea.

“I think their doors are probably locked.” I said before I quietly laughed. “Never thought I’d be breaking and entering.”

“You worried about it being legal?” Rowan asked and chuckled as well. “What, you think cops are going to show up and arrest you for it? Think they have bigger problems.”

“Yeah… okay… you have a point.” I answered. “I mean… I might as well do something constructive.”

Until I die.

Rowan went quiet as I immediately killed the conversation. It did not take a genius to figure out what I had meant.

“I’m gonna go change my clothes.” I finally said after a few seconds of that awkward silence. Doing something practical seemed better than just hanging around.

“Why tell me?” Rowan asked.

“The monster broke the bedroom door and there is no light in the bathroom, so yeah…”

“Oh.” Rowan immediately focused intently on the bags.

I said nothing else as I walked to the bedroom. The place was already a mess from the wendigo-creature. The creature’s weight had squished my bed down on one side and my pillows were nothing more than ribbons. My laptop was between the bed and the wall, but I did not bother to check. It was just a useless paperweight without the internet and electricity.

Instead, I rummaged through my closet for something to wear. I had no urge to be picky and merely took out a shirt and pants before I began to peel off the clothing I had been wearing. The jacket was easy. Same with the shirt underneath. I tossed both into the closet on the floor before pausing to look at the bloodstains on my arms.

God, I wish I could have a fucking shower.

I sighed to myself before sliding on the clean shirt before moving to unbutton my pants.

That was when I felt like I was being watched.

I jerked my head up and stared accusingly in Rowan’s direction, but they were still staring in the opposite direction. The feeling still remained, so I turned to the window behind me.

Sitting there, with its gigantic face pressed close to the metal bars, was the wendigo-creature. Its mouth was half open and a long tongue hung out like it was panting. It had focused every single eye on me with a strange intensity that just kept me frozen in place.

This was how I imagined a little bunny would feel when faced with a wolf.

Our stare-down continued for several uncomfortable minutes.

“Are you dressed yet?” Rowan finally spoke from the living room. “Can I turn around yet?”

The wendigo-creature moved with an annoyed huffing noise. I could only watch in utter confusion as it turned around. Utter confusion that turned into internal panicked screaming.

It understood Rowan’s words.

It understood us.