Generation Rogue

Chapter 3

Midnight came quickly, and we were moving. I walked around the cave, which was still filled with a slight glow left from what was left from the burning embers of the long-dead fire.
I walked over to Olivia, who was still asleep. I lightly shook her shoulder, as she groggily sat up. Matt to no one’s surprise was already awake and packing his bag. Then Daniel who had stayed up with me was already ready to roll out.
“Ready to start the rest of our lives?” I asked eagerly, pulling my bag over my shoulder, and tying the straps around my waist so it wouldn’t move around as much when we were running.
“As ready as I’ll ever be. “ Liv said. The genius she was had thought to cover her white clothes with the soot from the fire to protect her bright clothing from prying eyes as best as she could.
“Smart Olivia,” Matt mentioned as he scanned over her clothes quickly. “Well let’s get moving. The sooner we are gone the more time we have to get supplies and find shelter for the night.”
We stepped out into the cold West Virginian air. Quickly we started a steady jog. Olivia leads the group dodging through trees, constantly checking for landmarks. After thirty minutes or so of this, we reached the store, as it peaked through the trees.
“Here we are, this is the place.” She started to slow her pace and walked closer to the building. “Don’t take anything perishable, but also not completely junk food either.”
When we walked inside we were greeted by the dead bodies of the workers. They were leaning over the counters, or laying face down on the dusty floor. I tried my best to walk past and act as though I didn’t see them, because if I took any closer look than the glimpse I got I was gonna throw up, and that was something we did not have time for.
In the back corner of the store, I found a stack of emergency food preserves. Something most people ought rather than fresh produce and meats. Mostly because it both lasted longer, but was also cheaper. Another big factor in them purchasing them in bulk like most did was because many didn’t know when their next paycheck was coming so it was always smart to put a majority of the money that they did have into purchasing these.
“Liv, I found the emergency preserves!” I shouted through the store. Before long Daniel stood next to me and started placing the packages into his bag as well. After we had all finished filling our bags with as much as we thought appropriate we started walking back to the front of the store. When we found Matt at the front of the store he was packing his bag full with another gun, a set of ammo, and a knife as well.
“Matt, where did you find all this?” Daniel asked.

“They had a couple of these stashed in the underside of the counter. I’m guessing it was their version of security.”
“The more surprising part is how many they have considering how hard stuff like that is to come by,” I replied, getting a closer look at the guns. “They look like older models, so maybe they had them before the government collapse, probably stashed them away until the searches stopped.”
“It doesn’t matter where they came from, we have them now. We need to be moving, the sunrise will be here in less than an hour and I don’t really want to be caught like a sitting duck.” Olivia stated as she walked out the door and behind the building.
We kept a steady pace keeping up with her as we continued to walk. When we entered the back parking lot my eyes widened in surprise. There in the back corner of the lot was a car, it must have been a good two or three decades old. It could completely change everything, it could give us shelter, carry our gear, and turn our week-long trek into a couple hours.
A car was a rare sight and one this old was even harder to come by. The only people that I knew of that had access to cars were the rich. In fact I hadn't been in a car since I was a little kid back before the government collapsed.
This car was at best made in the late nineties granted that meant it could be up to sixty years old, but all that mattered was if it could run.
I looked at Matt. “What do you think we should do?”
“As of now, we need to find shelter. We can camp close by and come back at sunset tomorrow. See what we can do with it and go from there.” He replied
We continued to walk into the woods finding cover in a thick area of trees. We made camp and finally for the first time in days, I got some sleep.