(Flash Fiction) No Senses

(200 words or less) A cop struggles with his loss of hearing in a zombie outbreak.

    Man takes for granted all luxuries until he's stripped to bare necessities. Hope is lost when he's stripped of something even more. The gunfire was worst during the first day, police using strength to combat futility. Last day on the force, that was. He was on his own, and his ears rang. They hurt.

    Day after day, like sinking in the deep end of a pool, it only got worse. His sense of sound had betrayed the fight in him by opting for flight. Bullet by bullet, keeping the monsters at bay, both fluttered away. The howls of what were once people started to fade, his efforts to repel them turning from sharp bangs to dull thuds. When the screams of danger became nothing more than whispers, he realized he'd already drowned.
    It’s been weeks. The ear plugs he now wears are nothing more than a helmet worn after the fall. He lost his fight. It's come dark, when his eyes close for sleep, that paranoia kicks in. He cannot witness the sea of hunger rage at his doorstep. He cannot hear its knocking, nor its howling. All anyone can have left is hope.