Scurry

We are the only ones left, possibly in the world, likely in this city, definitely in this room, and the scratching inside the walls is growing louder. We followed the rats. The rat population had remained at normal levels. They seemed unaffected by the Scourge, as we had taken to calling it. A fact we had noticed too late. Unfortunately, we are larger than rats.

We stared as the swarm of rats we’d joined surged through a small hole at the far side of the room. Behind us the Scourge picked and scratched through the walls. We heard the stone decay and fall as the hallway we’d just left collapsed. Frederick ran to the hole and pulled at the stone around it in an attempt to make space for us. His muscles bulged as he pulled, the veins in his neck pulsed, he grunted. No use.

This room was a dead end. Why’d we think that the rats would take an escape we could follow? Because they had up until now, probably. I turned back toward the door and sighed. I grabbed the knob and pushed. It caught on the rubble that used to be the rest of this building. The rubble that was this city, the whole world. Was this room the last thing standing? The Scourge was in the room now. I saw the decay creep across the stone. That decay spread to whatever, whoever, it touched. Except rats, of course. I saw the wood at the top of the door molder. I quickly let go of the knob lest the Scourge infect me through the door. The rubble outside was infected. It was the Scourge now. We couldn’t touch it. That way was closed off to us now. We were well and truly trapped. Frederick gave up on the rat hole and fell to his bottom in the middle of the room. He placed his head in his hands and exhaled. 

The stone room collapsed on us. The Scourge infected me. I felt my body begin to decay before I even had the time to finish dying. It was over. I was thinking that the planet belonged to the rats now as little paws scurried over my body and sniffed at my bones.