How It All Ended

Chapter 9

 I don't know a damn thing about who or what caused that shockwave. I don't even know what some of the effects were, but it looks like, whatever it was, it's killing the vegetation in the area. The leaves are falling from the trees at a rapid pace. It looks like it's a mid-November day all around me.

"Think about it later, Dom," I said under my breath as I walked around Jon's bar and made it back to Hartwell road. Looking back up towards the balcony, Jon was up there. He looked down and smiled, shooting me a thumbs up. "Here I go," I told Jon.

"You'll be fine, Dominik," Jon responded, and I began to walk in the direction of Tommy's hideout.

It didn't necessarily take me too long to reach the area. I knew exactly where to go. It was roughly five blocks from Jon's bar. I just hoped that I didn't run into any problems along the way. I kept a lookout for anyone who could pose a threat, especially the car thieves from earlier. But, seeing all these abandoned and stalled vehicles around made me think that the thieves probably didn't have any luck in getting a car.

There was no way I'd go up to Tommy's hideout and knock. I had to scout out the area beforehand. I felt there might be a chance I could find a way into the building without Tommy or his group catching on.

Within a few minutes, there I was, back on the road where it all began. The street was deserted, like all the other roads in the area. When the building came into my view, I positioned myself across the street, and I hunkered down behind a mailbox, and I pulled out the rifle scope.

Nothing was happening. On that side of the building at least, it was all quiet. Unfortunately for me, I would have to walk around to the other side to see anything that could be happening, as that was the storefront. The windows that were facing the road had been covered with bricks a long time ago. I walked a bit down the road and looked down the side street adjacent to the building to make sure that the coast was clear. It was, and I was able to hurry around to the other side of the abandoned store.

When I rounded the corner, I stopped dead in my tracks. On the other side of the building was a parking lot, and standing nearby were two people that were part of Tommy's group. I recognized them from the day before.

"Shit!"

I stopped and quickly walked backward. Thankfully, those two people had their backs to me. I carefully looked around the corner of the building. The two people from Tommy's crew were smoking and drinking some beers. They were talking about something, but they were too far away for me to really hear what they were saying.

The woman had short, bleached blonde hair. She was wearing a black vest and dark blue jeans. The man was wearing a gray sweater and gray-colored shorts. He had shaggy black hair. I couldn't tell what their faces looked like, however.

Those two people could potentially be standing there for who knew how long. Even worse yet, more people from Tommy's group could wander out there for a smoke and a brew. For the time being, it was just the two of them.

The woman and the man appeared to be looking at the dying trees at the far end of the lot, in the right hand corner. Across from where the dying trees were, there was a large dumpster. As soon as I saw it, I knew that dumpster would be my hiding spot. He pointed towards the trees, and the two of them began walking towards the dying vegetation. When the two members of Tommy's clique were far enough away from me, I made my move. I snuck out from around the building, and hurried towards the dumpster, hoping like hell those two didn't turn around and spot me moving behind them.

I could hear the man and woman mumbling about the dying leaves while I slipped around the back of the dumpster. Neither one of them caught on that I was sneaking behind them.