Perfidy

(I am so sorry for the structure of this. This is my first time and I have no idea what I'm doing)

“I’m starving, Erik, let’s just check out one of these houses for some food.”

“No, Caleb. Those are other people’s homes. I just can't bring myself to do it. Things have to get better.”

Erik paused as his stomach growled in protest.

“Dude, look around!”

Caleb yelled as he threw his hands around.

“No one is here and no one is coming. No one is going to save us. We have to look out for ourselves.”

Caleb turned and stormed his way across the street towards a two-story house. It had a welcoming look to it other than the damage to the roof, the broken windows and the siding falling apart. The front door nestled neatly on a small front covered porch with two wooden steps leading to it. When this house was in its prime, it was stunning. An endless display of beauty and comfort. But no longer. Now, the house had fallen into disrepair in the months that followed the war. Society seems to evaporate when supplies are diminished. Erik caught up to Caleb at the front of the sidewalk in front of the house.

“Caleb, Stop.”

He hushed his voice in caution.

“We can’t do this, this is wrong.”

Caleb brushed his friend aside and marched down the sidewalk to the front porch of the house with no thought to Erik. He made it to the wooden steps when they heard a woman scream loudly from the house.

Erik looked at Caleb and yelled “we need to leave now!”

Caleb was already grabbing the door handle of the house to get inside.

“Shit, no Caleb, wait!” Erik shouted as he chased after his friend.

Caleb entered the house and frantically began to search for the screaming woman. Erik followed closely behind when they heard another scream from the woman.

“She’s upstairs! Come on Erik!” Caleb roared as he vanished from Erik's view, taking off up the stairs.

“No!” Erik belted as he sped his way into the house and up the stairs behind his friend.

Erik chased Caleb, right on his heels to the top, where they heard another and even louder scream from the woman followed by a desperate plea for help.

Erik grabbed Caleb by his shoulders as they were standing at the top of the stairs and said “We need to leave, this can only end badly.”

Caleb threw Erik's hands away and sped down the hallway behind Erik to a room where the screams were coming from. Erik followed directly behind, terrified of what they were going to find behind that door. Caleb swung the door open with ease and burst into the room with Erik spilling in behind him. It was a big room. It had two separate doors on opposite sides of each other. The house had already been looted long ago. There wasn’t much left except the drywall, some trash scattered around the room and a woman sitting on a mattress in the middle of the room. Her clothes and skin were filthy. She sat with her knees to her chest and her face buried in between, crying.

Caleb took a few steps in the room when the woman jumped up and said “Now!”

Suddenly, both doors in the room explode open and a man from each comes running into the room armed with steel pipes, intent on killing their prey. Erik and Caleb reacted as fast as they could to the now lethal threat in the room. They each took a man while the woman waited eagerly in the corner. Erik dodged the first swing his man made. The man was old and sickly looking. Erik anticipated the follow through swing and caught it, easily disarming his weaker opponent and pushing him away causing him to fall to the ground.

Caleb’s opponent was much stronger. He was a brute of a man and he swung his pipe with purpose. Caleb was able to dodge the first two swings but the man caught Caleb off balance and was able to trip him to the ground. Erik leapt across the room as the big man was about to deliver the killing blow, striking him in the head with the steel pipe he had just acquired. The big man fell to the ground, dropping the pipe instantly. The woman screamed in horror. His body convulsed on the ground a few times and blood poured from a huge gash on the top of his head.

Erik was frozen. He had never taken a life before. He didn’t know what to do. Does this make him a killer now? Did this man deserve to die? He was going to kill Caleb. He didn’t have a choice. Erik was in shock until he heard Caleb call him.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah. Yeah I’m okay.” As he let out a big breath

The woman ran out the door where the big man had come out of. She was still screaming in terror.

Erik chased after her. “Hey! Stop!” He was furious now.

Caleb picked up the pipe the big man had dropped and followed. As the woman made it to the stairs, Erik caught up with her and gave her a big shove in the back causing her to go tumbling down the steps.

“Erik, you were right. Let’s get out of here. I think that old man is getting up.”

“But the other one isn’t. Is he? Erik responded with cold contempt.

Caleb suddenly had a flash of fear come across him. He had never seen Erik look at him like that before. Erik had always been the voice of reason and maturity. Ever since they were boys he’s looked out for him. Erik turned his focus to the woman groaning at the bottom of the stairs. He began his descent, each step howling in protest as the boards deteriorated from decay. The woman gained her momentum back and tried to run but Erik was already on top of her. She screamed in agony as he picked her up from the ground by her hair and threw her hard into the wall.

“Erik! Stop! Let’s just go!”

Erik picked her up from her hair again. She squealed in pain. He took the end of the metal pipe and slammed it hard into her stomach. The air escaped her lungs and she dropped to her knees, doubling over in pain as she clutched her abdomen.

“She set this whole thing up, Caleb! They were just waiting for someone to get close to the house. They were going to kill us!”

Caleb walked down the stairs as the woman regained her breath.

“I know they did. I know. This is my fault, Erik. Please forget her. Let’s just go.”

“So they can just do this to the next person who comes walking by here?”

“No…no. The big man made me do it. I won’t do it again. Let me live, please.” The woman said through painful tears.

Erik knelt down by the woman and said in her ear. “If the big man made you do it, then why did you run away after I killed him?”

“Because I was afraid!”

Erik smacked her hard in the face with the back of his hand. “Liar! How many others have there been? How long have you been murdering people? You never had a chance to get away? How did you get here?”

She recoiled from the hit and let out a few whimpers and more tears started to flow. Caleb didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know who he was looking at anymore.

“Erik, what the fuck are you doing right now? Why are we still here?”

Erik pushed the woman to the ground and stood in the doorway looking at the street where their evening transformed.

“Caleb, I tried. I tried for so long after the war to believe that things would get better. Law and order would return. Scum like this wouldn’t be around to harm anyone. We could live in a society again…but now I see the truth. The truth that you have been trying to tell me for so long. Even tonight.”

“What? What truth?

Erik walked back to the woman laying on the ground. He held the pipe high above his head.

“That we are all alone. And no one is coming to save us.”

He swung the pipe straight down on the woman’s skull, crushing it.