Alfred had first stayed put. Cramped with pure fear, he had not dared to get out of his chair. Quickly he had realized, though, that this would not solve anything. It had given him time to gain some courage, as well as reflect on the events of the last couple of days. They had not been easy at all. Absurd things had happened and not many people had been able to survive. The events were of inexplicable grounds. Almost as if something larger than life was navigating all of this. The apocalypse? Judgement day? Alfred was not a pious man, nor a believer in extra-terrestrial beings. To say these events had shaken him to the core was therefore an understatement. At the same time, it had instilled in him an irresistible and overwhelming desire to keep holding on. To keep fighting and not think a day ahead. Why give up without a fight, after all? He had endured so much, lost so many people already, it would be foolish to just wait in his chair and let them finish it off. Although it had crossed his mind earlier, struck by fear and intense fatigue of having to live a restless life.
At the moment, Alfred was completely back in his survival mode. Standing in the middle of his living room, he looked around him. His room looked as peaceful and serene as always, but this was merely misleading. It was a striking paradox with the outside world that was in disarray. Faintly in the distance, there was the sound of tiny legs scratching the different doors in his neighbourhood. Slowly finding their way inside the houses. He wondered how many people were still left. John, his neighbour with the bad eye who always cleared his driveaway for him when it snowed without asking. Marcia, the very intruding and always suspicious neighbour. Clark and Jean, always fighting and screaming inside their house, and their cute twins Mary and Kendra, only six years old.
Unsure, he looked around the room. Since they were trying to get in, he would have to find a way out in order to avoid him. This seemed like the best option. He had thought of finding a hiding spot, but they would probably smell him. They were insects, after all. Though they were probably blind, they would sense the movement. Or were they even blind? Agitated, Alfred tried to gather all the information in his head he could dig up about them, but it was surprisingly little. Totally worthless beings. Whoever or whatever had come up with this was probably laughing his head off right now. A loud scratch interrupted his reverie. They were there! He had been too distracted by his own thoughts. “Quick, grab something”, the words slipped out. If, apart from the size, they were identical with their smaller-sized colleagues, they were not completely untouchable at all. Question was, how to scare them off? They were with too many to slaughter them one by one. Meanwhile, the scratching got louder. A troop of these insects scratching his rather crappy door would surely cause his front door to collapse eventually. Damn him, for not purchasing a normal door which could resist more than a slight breeze. Frantically, Alfred looked around in the living room, trying to get a hold of something that could keep them off of him at least for a few seconds. He just had to go past them to get to the outside area. What would scare them off? How did he normally scare them off … of course! Alfred grabbed the newspaper and rolled it up in a funnel form. This item was big for the normal insects and very small for these ones, but at least it was a newspaper. Not very popular amongst them. He raced to the door and opened it at once, raising his arms monumentally. The army of horse-sized flies stared at him with their dull , meaningless expressions. Their wings were clapping in the air. And, to his despair, rubbing their hands as if they were up to something.