The After Us

Chapter 2

One of the things I had grown to love about the apocalypse was the sound of the wind rushing through the empty streets. Sure, it was a constant reminder of how the world had ended, but it also offered you the sense of peace coming from knowing that you might just be the last of your race.

Or, were we?

Up until this point Kevin and I had never encountered another survivor, people had either blown up to pieces due to the initial impact of the bombs, been crushed under the crumbling buildings, or had died of the radiation that came after the explosion. Neither Kevin or I had any idea why we weren't amongst the overpowering population of lifeless bodies rotting out on the streets, but for whatever reason, we were given a chance; and we were planning on taking it.

We had no idea others were given a chance though.

"You alright?" Kevin asks as I sit by the edge of the plato where we had buried the man, watching the crumbled city and the bridge ahead of me.

"There are more out there." I tell him as he sits beside me "More survivors." my eyes find his near perfect side profile.

"You don't know that."

"Yes, we do." I gesture the grave to him "Him and his wife, the chances of even more being out there are far more likely than us four being the only people to have survived."

"What'd feel like?" Kevin changes the subject "Killing." he clarifies.

"Weird." I reply "I mean, it was awful, sure; but I also felt... proud, that I could protect us." he gives me weird look before nodding and turning his head to look at the view again "You should get some sleep." I tell him, offering my hand. He takes it and gets up, running his hands up and down his shirt to get rid of the dust.

"Where should we sleep?" he asks me.

"Library? The cushions there were really comfortable and I can get those electric sliding doors to lock securely." he rolls his eyes at my cautiousness "What?" I ask "We thought we were alone, look how that ended up." I gesture to the grave coldly before starting to walk the path to the main buildings, breathing in the fresh air from all the trees. The plato was situated a bit further away from the school buildings, and you passed the various villas some of our teachers used to live in. I was dreading going inside to clear them out, knowing there will be familiar faces that I would eventually have to bury in edge of the plato.  I run my hands up and down my arms in an attempt to get myself warmer, the weather had recently started growing colder even though we were supposed to be in August, the dreaded truth of the nuclear winter approaching.

"I'll grab some snacks and the blankets from Commons, you go rest." I tell Kevin who had caught up with me, his neck covered in bruises. He nods before we get into Gerald and separate, him going upstairs to the library and me going downstairs to get to Commons. Thanks to my magic hands, we now had electricity, something that was lacking in the rest of the city. I grab some snacks and the blankets, heading upstairs to the library "Kev!" I shout, not being able to spot him in the huge two-story library.

"I'm upstairs!" he informs me, making me take the stairs as I give him the backpack with the snacks and the water along with the blankets.

"I'll be right there." he nods and leaves to take our supplies upstairs, me going to the control center of the door. Locking the doors should've been quite easy, but me trying so hard not to concentrate on the dried blood on my hands made the process way longer than it should've took. I go upstairs once I see the red light, seeing Kev had already put two couches together to make a makeshift bed, a book in his hands; his blue eyes gracing over the words he's reading. The book seemed to be a history book, the genre putting a small smile on my face. In the three years that I've known him, he had always shown a great interest in history. He loved learning about how we had evolved as societies over the years, and even though we were now back at square one, he still enjoyed getting lost in the stories from the past.