World's End

Chapter One

A head popped out from behind the crumbled concrete wall, green eyes warily scanning the street before stepping out and readjusting her backpack. Marissa itched her nose as she carefully picked her way to the edge of the pavement, stopping before stepping onto the rubble filled road. Her brown hair hanged over her shoulder in a loose braid but it didn't stop the little wisps from escaping the hair tie and itching her face as the wind gently brushed her face. She looked both ways before making a quick dash across the road, avoiding the potholes and rusted cars, headed towards the place where she wanted to go- the number one spot on her to go list for this mini shopping adventure. Not that she could call it shopping, shopping had become practically non-existent around two hundred years ago when there wasn't enough people who wanted to stay in the cities to run the shops and make the products needed to fill the stores. Now everyone ran on leftovers and handmade items. They were a very dark ages sort of civilisation, but with Twinkies and electricity.

Marissa ducked under an overgrown tree on the side of the road, cursing as her foot caught on the curb. She fell into the tree, wincing as the bark bit into her hands.

"That's going to burn later." She muttered to herself as she straightened and looked down at her hands. The sharp bits of bark had drawn a speck of blood. Quickly, Marissa wiped the blood off her hands onto her jeans, wincing at the pain of it. She looked again and her hands beaded again. Shucking her backpack, she dropped to the ground and worked quickly to pull out some gauze and tape that she brought especially in the case that that she hurt her hands and still needed to get things. The world was covered in who knows what, Marissa did not want to consider herself in the running for opening up her body to some sort of blood-borne disease to take residence in her. Not when she had things to do.

With a quick wash of her bloody hands from water in her water bottle, Marissa quickly wrapped up her hands and got to her feet, pulling her backpack on in a swift movement before heading straight for the building that had the words 'HARDWARE STORE' on the front in large, faded letters that made one have to squint to be able to read what it said. Marissa ducked through the open display window and dropped to the ground, a small noise coming from her mouth as she dropped heavily, her bandaged hands aching a smidge as she landed with her hands flat to the ground, knocking the wind from her as her knees pushed into her chest. Marissa's eyes stung as they watered and she blinked, trying to catch her breath as quietly as she could. Too much noise, she thought. Too much noise, have to be quiet. Her ears were still ringing from when she hit the ground but she lay pressed herself down so that she was lying flat on the dirty shop floor, bleached leaves crunching under her as she moved. She winced but stayed where she was and waited, getting her breath back and waiting to hear if anything moved outside the building. Marissa strained to listen for any outside noises besides the wind.

Quiet.

Marissa pushed herself slowly to her knees and sat still for another few seconds, heart pounding in her ears as she ignored the pain in her hands and slowly crawled behind the nearest tool stand. The stand gave her barely any coverage but at least if something had heard her and sniffed her out, she could use the shelf as a barrier and push it down to give her a small head start.

When nothing happened, no snivelling creature or curious human appeared, Marissa gave a small, quiet sigh of relief. It didn't mean she was in the clear but it did mean that she had a chance to get what she needed before someone else came along to fight her for it. Which almost always happened in these parts. Pulling herself to her feet, she winced as both her knees cracked as she stood. Marissa held on to the shelf and peered around it, trying to see into the darkening street. It was getting darker earlier now, quite inconvenient when things were less safe after dark. She chewed the inside of her lip as she thought. She would need to find somewhere to sleep again, tonight. There was no way she would be able to get home before it was completely dark. She wasn't that far away as she had already been homeward bound but distraction had gotten the better of her and now she had lost track of time and would spend another night in a dangerous area.