Somewhere in California an old lighthouse stands, there Lisa scouts the surrounding places with a pair of binoculars looking for anything of interest. She shares the deck with Arthur who’s sitting in a corner sober yet bored out of his mind.
“We need a gameplan, jumping from place to place will eventually get us in trouble” Lisa expresses her concerns, “We need to settle down somewhere” she adds.
Arthur stretches his legs as he relaxes, whatever focus he has is spent admiring a bridge from far away.
“Hey Arthur, you have a place you wanna go to?” Lisa asks.
“Miami beach” answered Arthur.
“What’s over there?”
“Miami beach”
Lisa sighs, “I guess it’s up to me to keep us both alive” she says.
“Yeah, you’ve been doing great so far” Arthur cheers.
Aside from the shore and sand they’re mostly surrounded by residential areas and to Arthur’s dismay not a single bar in sight, their plan is to trail the shoreline to look for a boat not for anything important they just wanted to spend leisure time at sea Lisa inquires if they should go north or south.
“North is the safest” said Arthur “You don’t want to be anywhere near the Mexican border” he explains.
“People die in Mexico” said Lisa.
“People die in Mexico” Arthur repeats.
Across a long stretch of sands they walked carelessly leaving behind a long trail of footprints, Lisa worries that the monsters might track them with the clues they left behind to which Arthur smiles and eases her worries as he covers his lips with his painted respirator while gesturing his hammer.
“I will make sure to smash their heads in” Arthur’s words muffle against his mask
Lisa chuckles “You know what? Let’s just stay out of trouble” she goes behind Arthur and pushes him to a more concrete side of the beach, “by the way? What’s the art on your mask called?” She asks.
“Demon” Arthur says while letting Lisa push her around “It’s really effective, nine out of ten times the monsters really hesitate to attack, I mean really hesitate” he emphasizes.
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“Oh, so it has some practicality behind it. I thought your kind did that just to look cool”
“Yeah that was the original intent, we wanted to look badass. We found out a bit later that monsters don’t like big teeth” Explained Arthur.
Half an hour passed and Lisa is still pushing Arthur while he goes with her flow, despite the silence they enjoyed the sun and sight making fun conversations as they’ve always done.
They haven’t come across a single usable boat but they did encounter a large pier full of opportunities for recreational activities, their eyes quickly locked onto a simple stall which appears to rent kayaks, fishing rods and other kinds of equipment.
Lisa spent the better part of the day setting up a grill and reeling in fish while Arthur fiddled around trying to figure out how to fish, often focusing too much on the mechanics rather than enjoying the moment.
“I can’t get these dumb fish to bite my worm” he jokes.
“Maybe your worm isn’t big enough” Lisa quips.
“It’s above average,” said Arthur.
Not much happened in the coming hours until eventually they heard vocalizations in the distance, they had an idea of the situation since the sounds came from where they came from. Lisa sees movement in the distance, she uses her binoculars to see a pair of monsters with canine features.
“It’s just a pair of Type 3 coyotes, we’re not in any danger”
Lisa hears Arthur’s muffled voice beside her, she glances to see him already wearing his ‘Demon’ painted respirator.
“What the fuck is a type 3 coyote?” Asked Lisa.
“Type 3, Anthromorphs– you know the ones with human limbs, flat faces” Arthur tries to explain. “I’m surprised you don’t know about the taxonomy”
“Nerd” Lisa jabs.
“Anyway, I’m gonna go and kill them” he says while happily swinging around a hammer.
Lisa watches him run along the pier to intercept the monsters tracking them. “He’s gonna come back with blood all over him and smelling like a zombie” she mumbles, “I should have stopped him”.
She watches as Arthur sprints with malicious intent, like deer in the headlights the two monsters froze as the young and possibly psychotic man crashes into them smashing open heads with disciplined hammer swings. He takes a few moments basking in his glorious victory feeling the seaside breeze as it carries the smell of rot deeper inland.
A long silence ensues as Arthur waits for more monsters to appear “Is that it?” He says, “there’s supposed to be more” he complains.
Arthur sighs as he drags his kills into the water letting the waves get rid of the evidence, he then takes time to thoroughly wash off the blood before returning to Lisa who’s in the process of grilling fish. She offers a few morsels which Arthur happily accepts, he hangs his wet clothes on the ledges as he once again joins Lisa in her fishing escapades.
With his belly full he decides to catch some sleep, he finds a nice shaded corner and relaxes.
“I’m gonna clock in early” he says.
Alone, she tries enjoying the ocean’s bounty with only the fire to fill the silence. Lisa spends the rest of the day fishing and waiting for Arthur’s eyes to open, it wasn’t until the skies darkened when he finally awakens and for Lisa to have her own rest.
“There’s food on the grill, you can eat it all” said Lisa, She finds herself a spot, a shadowy corner much darker than the night.
“Goodnight Lisa” said Arthur as he watched Lisa meld into the darkness.
The moon shines bright, a little too bright for Arthur’s liking. He could easily spot the signposts on the far streets, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness he could even see inside the buckets where Lisa kept her live fish.
Just as she watched over him while he slept Arthur returned the favor, sitting through the long cold night awake, vigilant. Arthur has developed a habit of making the most out of the most boring, he learned how to appreciate the silence, so far his favorite pastime is looking up at the night sky and waiting for a shooting star.
The sun rises along with Lisa, she first looks for Arthur who’s sitting nearby looking at the only possible entrance of the pier meticulously cleaning his respirator. She says her good mornings and prepares for a day taking out the live fish and processing them for consumption.
“Arthur, do you have any dreams?” Asked Lisa.
“Yeah, every time I go to sleep I dream about jumping off a bridge” answered Arthur.
Somehow Lisa was expecting that answer “Any other dreams?” She asks.
“Getting hit by a truck, yeah that’s also on the list”
“Okay, something that does not involve dying” said Lisa.
“Getting smothered with love” said Arthur, “By a 7 foot tall woman, preferably blonde” he adds.
Lisa grimaced, she’s confused whether to be weirded out or disgusted but one thing is certain she’s being very judgemental. “That’s better than the first two” she comments.
Yet another boring day in the apocalypse, Lisa worries about the future while Arthur wishes for something to happen. Good or bad it didn’t matter, falling off a bridge or getting hit by a truck as long as something changes that’s his only wish.
