The Last Inning

The microwave beeped at 2:17 AM, and Sarah watched her spinach rotate one last time, thinking about how much it looked like the wilted hope she'd been carrying around for three years.

Her phone lit up. *Where are you? First inning's almost over.*

Baseball. Greg's thing. Always baseball. The company softball league, the weekend games with friends, the way he talked about stats and ERAs like they were the only things that mattered in a world that felt increasingly like it was ending anyway.

Sarah stared at her reflection in the darkened window above the sink. Hollow eyes, skin that had gone too long without seeing actual sunlight. She was what the kids called a zombie now—one of the walking dead, working remotely in her apartment, same yoga pants, same delivery food, same endless loop of Zoom meetings where nobody turned their cameras on anymore.

She hadn't left her apartment in six days.

*Sarah?*

Greg would be sitting in those bleachers right now, surrounded by people who still knew how to be alive. He'd saved her a seat, brought her that terrible stadium popcorn she secretly loved, probably already asked someone to take a picture of them for Instagram. Look at us, living our best lives.

The microwave beeped again because she'd forgotten to take the spinach out.

She opened the door and the steam hit her face, smelling earthy and green and overwhelmingly real. Her mother had always said spinach was what kept you strong, what kept you going when everything else fell apart. Her mother had been wrong about so many things, but she'd died believing that.

Sarah took the container to the window. Outside, the city flickered with life. People were at the baseball game, laughing, drinking beer, touching each other's arms when something exciting happened. Being alive.

She ate a forkful of spinach. It was overcooked and bland, and it tasted exactly like the moment she realized she didn't have to be dead anymore.

She picked up her phone.

*On my way. Save me some popcorn.*

The zombie stood up, turned off the microwave, and finally walked out the door.