Still Got Some Hot Chocolate Left (A Pandemic Story)

Tory Bannon hopped off the edge of the abandoned railcar and made her way back towards her house. Ever since the sickness, or whatever it was, she'd spent a fair amount of time sitting down here and wondering if there was anyone else left alive. She was 16, and had never expected to be the last person she knew who was still living.

As she made her way across the rain-slicked streets, she thought about the sickness and how she had managed to survive. She had listened as first her baby brother, then her older brother, and then her parents had all gotten sick. Her mom had told her to stay out of the master bedroom, no matter what. Tory had listened as the coughing and gasping from all of the other rooms had gotten worse day by day, until it finally stopped one room at a time.

Since then, she had found room at a hotel downtown, not far from the railway. She'd made her way into the fanciest hotel she knew and found the fanciest room to stay in. It hadn't taken her long to figure out how to run the card machine, and before she knew it, she was in the Presidential Suite. There had been enough food in the hotel kitchen to keep her fed for a while, but it was starting to run out. She'd supplemented it with food from the three mini-bars in the suite, but chocolate bars and salty nuts weren't great nutritionally.

One of the first nights she'd been in the hotel, she raided the mini-bars and had drunk beer and liquor until she passed out because she was feeling sorry for herself. After waking up in a pile of her own puke the next morning, she had promised herself that she would never do that again. She decided then and there that she would remember her family, but that they would want her to live and have a good life, even without them.

As she moved through the empty streets, she thought she could hear another set of footsteps, matching her own. Once she even turned around but didn't see anyone near her. She hadn't actually seen anyone in days, but there were signs that people were still around. Lights in some of the buildings would change, things on the street would be in different places, even garbage was still piling up outside some buildings.

She was spooked by the thought that someone might be following her, because it wasn't like she could call 911 for help. She'd seen police cars abandoned in the streets, and figured that they had all...well...the same thing that had happened to everyone else had happened to them. She decided to cut down an alley that would get her back to the hotel much more quickly.

As she started down the alley, she heard a noise from a rooftop above her. Looking up, she caught a glimpse of someone scrambling away from the edge of the roof.

"Hey!" she yelled to the figure who had now disappeared from view.

"Hey, Come on! Can't you at least come down and say hi? It's not like there's a lot of people around to talk to these days."

But the figure was gone. Leaning back against the wall of a building, her heart pounding, Tori thought about the unknown person and what it meant. Obviously she wasn't alone, but who was it? Were they following her? Were they friendly, or did they want something else from her?

Suddenly, she heard footsteps at the end of the alley. Silhouetted against the fading light was a large figure holding a baseball bat. Not wanting to find out who it was or what they wanted, and realizing there was no way the person from the roof could have made it down so quickly, Tori whirled away and started towards the other end of the alley. A figure stepped out from the other end, blocking her way.

Realizing that her options were limited, she began to scream for help. Maybe the person on the roof would come back to help her. She thought she saw a flicker of light from one of the windows above her, but she couldn't be sure. As the two men, she could see that their outlines were definitely male, approached her from either end of the alley, Tori backed up against a wall. It was one less place she could run, but it also meant that nobody was going to get behind her.

What these two men couldn't know, had no way of knowing, was that Tori was actually a black belt martial artist. She'd taken it up as a kid to help improve her self esteem, but had enjoyed it and continued until she'd mastered the basic levels. It helped that she had a knack for reading people and seeing what they were going to do before they ever did it.

Tori hoped that her screaming would force them to relax, think that she wasn't a threat. Maybe they'd think she was just a scared teenager, because despite everything, that's what she was. At the same time, she forced herself to calm her breathing and focus on what needed to be done. As the two men approached her, she could see from their confident swagger that they weren't worried at all about her screams attracting someone.

"Shut up" the first man said, and flicked a cigarette at her.

They seemed surprised when she did what he said and stopped screaming. "Wh...what do you want?" she stammered.

"The fuck do you think we want, bitch?" The second man gestured at his crotch where he'd already undone his pants, exposing his erect penis.

"O...okay," Tori said, still pretending to be scared and adding a little bit of disgust that wasn't faked. "Just be quick and get it over with."

The two men were so blinded by their lust that they didn't even think twice about how quickly she had capitulated. Nor did they stop to think when Tori suggested they drop their weapons so that they could use all of their hands on her.

As the first man reached for her breast, Tori grabbed his hand with both of hers and wrenched it sideways. As she rotated his wrist, she heard bones break and the first man cried out in pain. Tori spun him and threw him directly into the second man, sending them both sprawling up against the wall.

The second man shook off the first and came charging directly at her, fists raised. Tori silently chuckled to herself as she saw that he hadn't taken the time to put away his...package...which was now shrinking faster than a puddle on a hot day. As he reached her, she ducked away from his fist, grabbed it with both hands and used his momentum to throw him over her shoulder. As he hit the ground, she whirled and stepped on his crotch, causing him to double over in pain. As he doubled over, she snapped a kick at his head.

She hadn't meant to do anything except stop the attack, but as her foot connected with the second man's head, she realized that she was about to do some serious damage to this man. His head snapped up and back, striking the wall behind him with a dull, wet thud. His body immediately went limp, and Tori wondered if he was dead. She didn't have time to investigate though, as she spun back to where the first man was holding his limp arm. It was definitely broken, and would likely never fix itself properly, especially now that there were no more hospitals.

She began to advance on him, but he immediately cowered away from her. He grabbed his injured arm and began to run down the alley in an attempt to get away from her.

"Hey!" she yelled, as she picked up the baseball bat he had dropped. "You forgot this!" And she threw the baseball bat at him as hard as she could. It fell short with a clatter, and Tori immediately regretted getting rid of it because she heard footsteps behind her. She spun around, ready to attack whoever it was.

"Whoa," said a middle-aged woman holding a baseball bat. "Easy there, girl. I'm not going to hurt you. I heard you screaming and came down to help. Looks like you didn't really need my help though." The woman looked at the second man's limp body, and then down the alley in the direction the first man had run.

"My name's Deb" said the woman.

"I'm Tori."

"You okay there, Tori?"

Tori suddenly realized she wasn't. She'd spent too many days trying to find food or shelter, trying to find someone else, missing her friends, her family. She'd been all alone, thrust from a comfortable family life onto the streets by herself.

She hadn't asked to be the one who survived.

She hadn't asked to be left behind when the rest of her family died and her friends all stopped answering her calls and texts.

She hadn't asked to be hunted in this alley by two men with only one thing on her mind.

She was 16.

She was scared, lonely, and overwhelmed.

Before she knew it, tears had welled up in her eyes and began rolling down her cheeks.

"Come on, sweetheart" Deb said as she wrapped her arm around Tori's shoulder. "My apartment is in that building, and I've still got some hot chocolate left."

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