Death Lake

Chapter 1

Everyone knew the world would go to shit eventually, just not this soon.

   I had to run from my house on the seventh block, to the store at the end of the 15 blocks. Staying on the grass to be quiet was hardly easy, for most of my small town was concrete and asphalt. The quiet was overwhelming and it hummed in my ear and made them hurt. I pushed open the back room door for access I had my bat in hand, just in case. Most of the stores produce was already swiped by scavengers, but I learned if you go around the back and pry open the back room door, they keep that door locked from the rest of the store. The back room had some white rice, canned goods, chips, and a black, orange hand held back up generator. I put all of the canned goods in my black survival backpack with multiple bags of chips and a sack of rice. The generator was light but very orange and it would be hard to conceal against raiders and the things outside.

  "I could be seen if I don't get this home soon," I said in a quiet whisper and zipped up my bag to walk out into the open. The sky was a navy blue with a sliver of an orange sunset when I came out. That meant it was around 8:00 PM. Micha had to go to bed soon, and so do I.

  "Micha!," I whisper shouted as I locked the dark mohagony front door "I found a grocery store that had food in the back, and a generator,".

   Micha, a 8 year old boy with a chocolate face walked into my yellow counter, white linoleum floor, kitchen.
 
"Laura! You're back! And you have more food!".

  I always give him my brightest, prettiest smile that he loves when I come home. People lose hope in others quickly nowadays and I want Micha to feel hope and safety when he's with me as family.

  "Here, can you put away the cans while I put away the rice and chips," I say in a low, thoughtful voice.

   I take off my bag for Micha to unpack. He unzips my bag and takes out everything food wise, to put away for tomorrow. We work together to put all of the remaining food away in the beautiful white cabinets adorned with sunflowers on vines, before I get us ready for bed. I tell Micha to put on his hoodie and sweat pants before I do so he can brush his teeth and hair without worrying about how much water he has used. Micha and I don't have much other than each other, a picture of our family, and our clothes. We are going to have to leave soon to find more supplies and housing before the stores run out of food.
   Micha is in his zero degree sleeping bag when I walk into our room, looking at the boarded up window with enough nails to build a dog house and then at me.
   "Sis, how much longer until our birthday?" He asked, he always asks so I don't forget how old we are. Me and my brother share a birthday, he is 8 and I am 17. This hell hole Planet started to go to shit when I was 16 with my brother, mother, father, and family friend Chris or my adopted brother. They weren't around for long after "they" showed up. The only reason me and Micha survived was because of my fighting habit in high school and how fast we were.

  By now I have told Micha it was 7 months until our birthday and he had fallen asleep. I get onto the chair in the corner of the little girls room we are settled in after putting the generator in the opposite corner and review my notes on the monsters or whatever they they are called that lurk outside. I fell asleep quickly but jolted awaken to something outside of the bedroom door, scratching and clawing to come in.