And one more.... [CENTER]***[/CENTER] [i]Katy. Her name was Katy.[/i] His first waking moments of consciousness was the sound of screaming. For brief seconds, as his eyes blurred into focus and he recognised the sounds for what they were, they sent a cold, icy shiver up and down his spine. Some poor bastard out had tried to run the streets alone. And then, seconds after waking, reality kicked in.....hard. Groaning slightly, Cain threw aside the cover, and the chill of the air bit into his warm flesh. Shivering, Cain rubbed his hands up and down his arms, and the hairs on his exposed torso stood on end. His head hurt......a biting, stabbing pain that sent needles of hurt down the back of his neck. As he attempted to stand, a sudden rush of nausea overwhelmed him. Turning to the side, he coughed up whatever vomit he still had inside of him. The days were a struggle. Each one progressively so. Staggering to the corner of the room, Cain knelt, as the vision suddenly hit him hard. They came more and more frequently these days..... [CENTER]***[/CENTER] [i]Her name was Katy Reynolds, and in this messed up world, she was the only person that I ever came to love.[/i] Cain remembered. He remembered the first moments of the apocalypse. The world dying in front of his eyes as he fled the only home he had ever known. That was the day he met Katy. Two desperate survivors trying to hang on to whatever remnants they still had of the world that they had once known. He remembered the time they had spent together, the time that they had spent getting to know each other. Distrust and paranoia at first, to be replaced by mutual respect and friendship, to finally be replaced by.....something else. It was strange that, for as long as he had tried to cast off the shackles of his past before, to try and know true friendship, love even, that here, as the world was in its death throes, he had begun to find that. Over time, he might have even begun to see the first shoots of recovery from the excesses of the life before. Like all things though, nothing lasted forever....... [CENTER]***[/CENTER] The visions passed, and Cain breathed a shuddering breath as he clenched his fist, sobbing softly at the sudden onset of the terrible, terrible pain that assaulted him. [b]"I miss you Katy."[/b] Cain smiled softly, bringing his own hand up to touch his face, running his fingers over his still smooth, youthful skin, knowing as he did so that all things in this world would eventually wither and die. Even him. [b]"Soon, Katy, soon."[/b] Standing slowly and tentatively, Cain stopped for a moment to smooth the stray strands of his hair. Reaching down, he picked up his black, long sleeved shirt. Fastening the belt on his dark breeches, he put his arms through the silken shirt and buttoned it up. Finally, smoothing over the collar, he walked slowly to the door of the room he slept in and opened it, stepping through. The room beyond would once have been termed a "living room", at least in the world before. The wooden door that was the exit to the apartment block was barricaded by a faux-leather suite, a cabinet and a TV unit, complete with unplugged television. The room itself was carpeted, though the grey carpets hadn't been cleaned in a long while and were stained in some places with a faint, reddish colour. Cain could make a guess as to what that reddish colour signified. The walls were painted cream, and on the floor at the far side of the square, equally proportioned room was a vase, tipped over with the flower stalks within long dead. A sliding compartment door at the end of the room led onto a balcony outside. It was still dark outside, but Cain didn't care as he sat on the floor. He had long ago lost track of time in this shattered world. Two doors on the far side of the room led off into other sleeping rooms, whilst on his side there were three doors. One leading to his room, a second leading to a converted sleeping area and a third leading into a kitchen area. His stocks were running dangerously low. Sooner or later he would have to go out on a supply run. He resisted the temptation to open the sliding door and go out to see which foolish bastard had gotten themselves killed outside.