When The Days Turn Cold

Chapter One

I'm cold and I'm scared. My thick jacket barely provides enough heat for me. I rushed into the city to find supplies and maybe even other survivors. But there's nothing. And no one. The air is stiff and it's silent. The kind of calm which suffocates you before something bad comes. The dilapidated buildings are perishing and the concrete under my feet is cracking. Despite the icy temperatures I'm still sweating which causes my hair to stick to my neck; I honestly feel like shaving all of it off but who knows where I'd find a shaver.

I try to jog up to an 8-floor building -which is on the verge of being diminished- but my large, inky backpack makes it hard too. It's filled with barely anything; just a bit of dried fruit and corn, a water bottle with no water, beef strips, powdered milk, iodine, wheat powder, a sleeping bag, gloves, socks and a blanket scarf. I only hope this helps me stay alive until I can secure down more rations. My neck feels bone dry and I know I need water. Very much soon. You would think that in a large city there would at least be some water.

I use a flight of stares and look for an open flat and I have to climb to the sixth floor to find one. My legs are knackered and I still feel the burn. I don't like this one bit. I creep the door open and amble in. The flat must have been homely once, but now it's just full of tattered rugs and ragged, lacerated curtains. I try the taps, and as usual, no water runs out. I walk into the bedroom and I cringe while I put a hand over my nose to block the rotting stench. Two bodies, a man and woman, lie on the sofa side by side holding hands. I leave immediately.

I climb to the next floor up. Two doors are jarred open (luckily). The first one has -not surprisingly- nothing. The second one makes me want to cry with joy. There is an open water bottle which is filled with seemingly clean water. I add a couple drops of iodine to it to make sure I don't drink it and die. I start my decent and when I exit the building I take out the water -which is hopefully clean- and drink it. My neck is still dry but at least my mind feels better knowing I won't die from thirst.

It's obvious that this ruined city is doing me no good so I take a path to walk out of it. While I'm walking I hear the sound of something snapping, and I bring out my hunting knife. I blurry figure comes into view and becomes larger and larger, he or she is easily much larger than me, so I use my common sense and choose to run. Fighting would probably end up with me on the ground surrounded by a thick, deep red liquid called blood.

I sprint as hard as I can, my body yells at me to stop, but I know I can't. The running part goes extremely well because whoever's after me has a slight limp on his right foot until I find myself in front of a very, very long, smooth wall. It covers my whole view. What on earth made me run in this direction. The person, who's a man just under 6 feet, is intimidating with yellow teeth, beady eyes, and slimy looking hair. He makes easy progress.

He says to me in a raspy voice "Hand me your supplies now or you won't see tomorrow."
He flicks up a gun,
I approach him slowly, until I'm an arms length away,  pretending to take of my backup. But before it comes off, I slash the knife across his arm. His dark grey hoodie becomes red. He curses with a violent look on his face. I need a way out and now. I take a glance around and pressed against the wall is a wide garbage bin. I scurry towards it and jump on top of the bin and then stand on the top of the wall. The wall has a flat surface all the way along which is about two meter wide.

The next sight doesn't really help my fear of heights. On the opposite side is the ocean. Fierce and strong with waves lashing against the walls. It looks angry with it's deep greenish- blue. I freeze, and even though my brain is telling me to move I can't force a limb to change position. I hear a shout from the man below which causes me to wake up. I scramble over the flat top of the wall until I find a building which I could probably leap to. With one great jump I land on the balcony of the second floor.

I climb over the railing of the balcony and drop into the garden. It's not much of a garden anymore though, there is yellow grass, and patches of dirt. The plants are dead and decaying leaves scatter the ground. Even the weeds are barely surviving. Although, the weeds are doing better than the humans, and it barely even rains in the areas I've been on the move in. I don't even know where I'm going, I guess I'm just trying to scrape by, but I don't know how long I can do this.

Before the cold hit, temperature were rising all across the world. We had just experienced the hottest summer in three decades. How could Earth be turning into a snowball? I think. Scientists better be trying to find out the cause but I doubt many are alive. I hope the politicians and all the other important people are having fun in their bunkers.

After a lot of walking I finally reach the outskirts of the city. After the last infrastructural object, there is a vast nothing of almost dead grass and dying trees. A neglected road snakes it's way up to the horizon How can it go from lots and lots of buildings to something that looks like the Australian outback? I question in my mind.

I solemnly pray that I don't have to encounter any other people like the one I just met, because at the start so many people started turning against each other, humans became a major threat. But the need to live does that too people, it changes them the way the ocean can go from undisturbed to the water forming monstrous waves, the way the sky can be victim to lighting and thunder, and then become so calm as if the only thing that passed over it were thin, whispy clouds.

I wander through the grasslands, sticking to the road. At least it'll lead me somewhere. Soon the sun falls and starts takeover the ebony sky. Since I grew up in a city, I barely ever got to see stars, so now every single night I've seen them in the past 5 months I've been mystified. Yes, every.

I spot a sturdy tree a couple of meters from the road and struggle towards it, my body aches and I could fall down at any moment. The air is so crisp it makes it even harder for my lungs to get the sufficient oxygen to respire and charge my muscles. I ponder, who knew the days could become as cold as the most shivering-inducing nights. I only travel throughout the day, as the nights are freezing and requires me too cover myself in as many layers as possible so I don't succumb to death.

It takes all of my willpower to convince myself to hoist up to the fork in the bottom of the tree. I take out my sleeping bag, crawl into it, and wrap the blanket scarf around head, and neck. My visions goes black as my eyes close before I even think of the action. And I only remember seeing one dream that night. A recurring dream. A dream about my young sister.

Author's note: Yeah, this isn't very long, but Im gonna update within the next number of days. I hope you like the first chapter.