Shame By D.I. Jolly
There’s something fucking liberating about running, isn’t there? Your whole body working together, moving you forward, wind in your hair. It makes you feel strong, and fast and alive!
Or at least, that’s what I used to think, until I had to start running away. When people started to get so angry, and frustrated with the world and so much negative energy collected in one place that it created cracks in time. A rift in our reality that let the demons in, and Hell literally broke loose. Turns out that hope was what kept Pandora’s box locked, and when enough people lost it… the lock broke.
I’d like to be able to tell you that I was an innocent bystander, but it would be a lie. In truth, I was just as frustrated and angry as everyone else. I’d like to tell you that I was being brought down by the negative energy of everyone else, but, well that might be sort of true, or maybe true. But deep down I know it’s a lie. I’m just a bit ashamed to admit it sometimes.
Some people say I’m lucky, because I was such a fast runner to begin with, because I had unknowingly trained 5 days a week for the race of my life. The race for my life. A lot of people weren’t as lucky as me, and a lot, a hell… no. Many people died in those first few days. Some just went instantly insane, some tried to fight back, most ran, most didn’t make it.
But I did, and maybe it was luck but, again if we’re being honest, I had trained. I ran when it was hot, I ran when it was cold, I ran in the rain. I loved it, I still kinda do, but it’s different now. Now it never really feels like I stop running.
Every now and then though, when my little group of survivors get a clear day and an open road and I can see that nothing is close by and I just run. I feel the ground under my feet, and the wind in my hair. I feel like my old self again, and I smile the way I used to smile and a small spark of something like joy flickers in my heart. It makes me feel safe, it gives me hope. Hope that things can get better, hope that a little bit of joy might help make the global supply go up and maybe, just fucking maybe, that will help close the gates to Hell and save the world.