After Joel finds himself alone he meets a boy named Jaden. Who promises somewhere safe for them both, and they seem to fall for each other within the blink of an eye. But can they make it?
For context this takes place in 2024. Joel is 34 and Jaden i...
I stood still staring down at the charred black remanent of a building, almost completely unrecognizable.
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Joel appeared behind me and walked into my field of vision. "Where's the sanctuary?" He asked as I tried desperately to form an explanation. Luckily I noticed a bright white cut of paper sat gently on the floor of the foundation. I could feel myself growing more and more uncomfortable as the silence became louder and louder.
The letter was addressed to me coincidentally, I quickly unfolded the paper.
Jaden, due to unfortunate circumstances we've unfortunately migrated to Sacramento California. Due to the destroyed state of the current residence that was the best we could do. We left a little care package for the trouble.
How did the fire start? How'd they move so quickly? Questions started circling my head until Joel asked once more, "Jaden?" Joel hollered with an exhaustive sigh. "We're heading to Sacramento." "What?" "The sanctuary was evacuated and moved to Sacramento. We have two more fucking weeks now." I responded with nothing but annoyance.
Joel sat down to the floor, his arms wrapping around his knees as he twirled his thumbs. I found it adorable when he was fidgety. I then looked over to the small cardboard box hidden under the note, presumably it was once a shoe box. After brushing off a particularly heavy layer of sediment I opened it. The contents were helpful if a bit boring, a part of Jaden wanted something interesting in the box.
The container held a spool of rope, a crowbar small enough for the confinement, stiff beef jerky, a pack of old band-aids covered in dirt, a small packet of dehydrated strawberries, and a peculiar bottle of vodka. It was a nice little gift for the next two weeks, but it's not anything gag worthy.
"There's a place for us to stay about five miles north." I exclaimed. About three years ago I found an abandoned chain of train carts hidden deep in the woods. It was completely untouched by people since outbreak, the dense green vines growing all around it give it a warm interior. It'd be perfect for a nighttime rest stop.
"Alright. Let's get going before it gets dark." Joel wrapped a caring arm around me and we made smooth foreword steps north.
...
Jaden secretly and somewhat stupidly began taking swigs of the bitter liquid, it made him feel good. And slowly the world got fuzzier and fuzzier until it felt like dream, he was completely hammered. By the time they were about a mile from the cart Jaden had consumed about 6 shots of Vodka. Joel didn't even notice until he acted out, Jaden leaned his full body weight into the man, almost knocking him over, "Can you carry me?"
Joel looked over at the intoxicated boy, quickly seeing the bottle in his limp hand. He giggled a bit as Joel sighed, why and how the fuck did he? "Dear god you've drank more than enough to get drunk." Joel said looking into the boy's delicate and somewhat dark eyes.
