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THE APARTMENTGunlord500’s Unofficial Phoenix Point Fanfic #6, Published on 3/02/2018If I was smart, I would’ve dumped this place ages ago. Not even before the mist came, I mean back in the 20’s. But honestly, I just loved the apartment so much. I couldn’t tell you why—it’s just a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, and the rent was way too high for it. But when I first saw it, I really needed a place to stay that wasn’t too far from work, and there was a real neat little bodega just down the street too. And by the time I settled in, I got to know my neighbors and they turned out to be the swellest folks I’d ever met. After a year, I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else no matter how much it cost.Now, my neighbors are long gone. At first I kind of hoped they’d take me with them, but I kinda figured they were “gone” in a way I wouldn’t like. I heard the screams and the growls and the gunshots. I guess I’m just lucky none of them paid me a visit, else I’d either be dead or changed like them. But anyways, the point was, there was nothing keeping me here anyways. So why didn’t I leave?Well, I guess I was just too slow. That’s how Father Time gets you—you put something off day after day, and before you know it you can’t do anything about it anyways. When I first heard of the mist, I thought it was just weird weather. Nothing too serious. I was making more than enough money to cover the rent and I didn’t feel like setting up in a whole new neighborhood, so I decided to stay where my friends were. Then came the creatures, and the war, and everyone thought the world was ending. But if it’s gonna end, what’s the point of getting a new place? Then the war ended, and maybe it seemed like things were going to get back to normal. But then the mist came a second time, and the creatures started coming onto land. That’s when I should have left. When things got really bad, but there was still time to get out. But my friends hadn’t left yet, so I thought, why should I? So I bought a gun and stocked up on supplies, and a little while later the power went out. That was when Nate—my best friend in Apartment 2013—decided to strike out on his own. I guess when he came back he wasn’t himself anymore, cause that’s when I heard the shots and the screaming. Don’t know how it all played out, but when I went to check on his family all I saw was some spent ammo casings and blood on the walls.So I guess that told me I ought to just stay where I was. It’s not really so bad, I have plenty of canned food and the 20th floor all to myself. I’ve been knocking on the doors, seeing if anyone else is around, but nope. Seems like everybody’s left. I’ve heard noises coming from the apartments below mine, but not recently. And there’s one nice thing about my situation—no rent. Haven’t gotten any threatening messages from the landlord anytime soon, and I’ll be damned if I know where he even went.So boredom and loneliness are my two greatest enemies up here, and that’s the thing I wanted to tell you about. See, the other thing I loved about this place—aside from the neighbors—was the view. Absolutely wonderful. Just one window, but I could see the skyscrapers by the ocean—sunrise was really something, I’d have easily paid a million dollars a month for dawn—the boats in the bay, the people having fun at the beach, the birds by the windows, everything. I didn’t even need a TV, just going to the window and watching the world go by was enough.But that all went away with the mist. I mean, it’s obvious, right? Even if everybody hadn’t already evacuated the city, or gotten shot up, or eaten by the things in the mist, I couldn’t see anything with that stuff hanging around. The 20th floor’s too high up for it to reach, thank God, but it’s so thick I can’t see anything I used to love. Can’t see the ocean, can’t see people or cars or trees or anything. Haven’t seen a single bird fly by in weeks, either. The sunrise is still nice, but when it’s just hitting all that fog, the effect is less impressive than when it’s on the water to say the least. As the days passed by, I think I might have seen things in the mist. Flashes of claws and legs and tentacles, sometimes on what I though were people, but most of the time on things that seemed big enough to be tanks—those were the only ones I could see even close to clearly. But in the mist, they were just shapes. Couldn’t make out any details. But I’m happy to report things have been changing.For the past couple of days I thought we were having earthquakes. The apartment shook so badly I thought the building was gonna collapse! Now, I don’t live in California, and this place is way far away from anyplace that ought to have earthquakes. But hey, if the world’s ending, not like it’s so weird, right? Well, these “quakes” were pretty weird. Just boom, boom, boom like they were footsteps, and real steady, too. Quiet at first, but getting louder, and then quiet again. After a while I learned to live with them, and just slept through ‘em. I thought maybe it was the government testing new weapons or something. But yesterday, I learned the truth.The boom-boom-booms were still coming, but this time, they were getting louder rather than quieter. Same with the quakes. I look out the window and I think I see the most beautiful thing I could ever dream of. It’s also too far away to see clearly, but I know it towers above the mist. I’m on the 20th floor of my building, and this thing looks even higher. I don’t know how many legs it has, but they’re all multijointed and spiky, like a crab’s. And its body…well, it was late at night, and it was silhouetted under the moon. There was no other source of light, but I could see it reflecting, like it was a beetle’s carapace. Shaped like it too, but it had two huge antenna, at least as long as its entire body, long enough to drop down below the mist. At least I think it did. Who knows? Maybe I was just seeing things. Wouldn’t surprise me, being cooped up here for so long. But that great giant was the first thing I saw in weeks—that I could see the whole of, not just glimpses through the mist. It stomped through the water, boom, boom, making waves I heard crash through the buildings, but then it turned, and it went away. I saw it leave, the legs moving up and down, the boom, boom, booms getting quieter and quieter as it headed back to the sea.I don’t have anything here. Plenty of food—more than enough to keep me set for years—but no friends, no family, nothing. It’s just me and the mist, twenty floors below.It’s not enough for me. I want to know what that thing was. I want to see it again.I’m going to get a good night’s rest. Then I’ll take my gun, all my ammo, and some supplies. I’ll make my way through the mist, and see if there are any boats docked to the piers nearby. I’ll see if I can take one—I’ve never driven a boat before, but it can’t be that hard—and then I’ll go off to sea.I think that when—if—I find that thing, the earthquake-maker, that which stands above the mist, I’ll have found where I need to be. Maybe where my friends are.Wish me luck.