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of her house and expected to see her husband lying on the ground. With the way he had charged out of the window, she didn't think that he would have survived the fall.
    To her surprise, there was no one there. That part of the lawn was clear.
    Phil was nowhere to be seen.

Chapter 7
    Adam stayed with his back against the wall far into the evening. The knife was still in his hands, clutched to his chest. His eyes had gone back to the door. He kept wondering if the man … creature ? …was out there.
    But he had heard the man run off.
    No , he decided , that thing isn't out there anymore.
    Adam got up off of the floor. It didn't make any sense for him to stay there doing nothing. He needed to at least see what was happening outside. To see if help had come. To see if people were still killing each other.
    He stood up.
    His legs were weak and almost crumbled underneath his weight. He swayed back and forth a few times until he caught his balance. He placed his hand against the wall to help.
    Adam felt slightly drunk. Though it wasn't because of alcohol. It was from shock. And fear.
    Once he steadied himself, he walked toward the window.
    None of the lights were on in his apartment. He didn't think that they were working out on the street, either. There was a dull glow coming from somewhere, but it wasn't the usual bright light of the street lamps. It helped him make his way toward the window. Adam kept his hands out in front of him , just in cas e .
    He walked slowly.
    As he passed the lamp in his living room, he reached out to try it. His fingers fumbled along the base of the lamp until he found the switch. When he clicked it on, nothing happened.
    He tried again.
    Nothing.
    The power was out.
    He sighed, though wasn't all that surprised.
    He let go of the lamp and made his way to the window to look outside.
    Strangely enough, the first thing he noticed were the stars and the moon. They were so bright and covered the whole of the sky.
    Guess that's what happens when all of the power in the city goes out , he thought. He chuckled at his joke, his laughter coming out more nervous than anything else. But, as he finally looked at the street underneath, even those tiny chuckles came to a stop.
    The bodies were still out there. Large dark pools of blood underneath them.
    There was no sign of any help. No flashing lights from fire engines or police cars. He couldn't hear any sirens, either. He figured that that meant there was no rescue going on, that he was on his own.
    There was also no clean up.
    He had seen enough movies and watched enough television to know that disease would soon follow all of these dead people. He could only imagine what the smell would be like in a couple of days. It would be horrible. Unbearable. And that was only out on the street.
    There were people in all of the apartments as well. Bodies lying torn, decomposing.
    He started to think of his apartment building as nothing other than an enormous tomb. He quickly pushed that image aside.
    He'd have to leave . He knew that much. There was no other choice . But not tonight.
    He turned away from the window and, with his knife, walked to the kitchen. There wasn't much that he could do abou t anythin g tonight. He wasn't about to leave his apartment in the dark. He'd leave in the morning, in the light. It might not be any safer then, but it would make him feel a lot more comfortable about it. Now, the least he could do was get himself a drink. He hadn't had anything since this whole thing started. That was…he didn't know how long it had been. It felt like it had been a while.
    Adam made his way to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. He couldn't see anything inside.
    The light was off. No powe r .
    He reached his hand in and felt around for a bottle of juice. He grabbed a few things to eat, too, and placed them all on the kitchen counter.
    He grabbed the bottle again and opened it. He drank the whole of it in a few gulps. He gasped for air once he had