A Weekend to Remember

The Ruins of our Society

It take us twice as long to get back to town. Due to us taking caution is every step.
As we near town we notice big clumps of black smoke in the sky. We decide to go up a nearby hill to get a good look of the town. "What are we doing" Alex says. "I want to get a good vantage point of the town before we doing anything else. Who knows what might be going on there." I say, back towards Alex. We continue climbing until we reach the crest of the hill. What we see isn't the ordinary place we once new, but ruins of burning buildings. "Oh my god" I hear Alex mutter. "What the hell happened here." I say. All of a sudden we feel the ground start to shake. "Quickly, hide." I say. We duck down into some bushes. Then as the sound grew louder I peer out of the bushes to see a formation a military helicopters fly low over us. "Are they American" Alex says. "I don't know, its hard to tell." I say, trying to speak over the sound of the blades chopping through the air. "Look" Alex says, pointing to where the heli's are landing. They're landing in a clearing that once was the park we met at before our trip. "Speaking of trip, what a helluva trip this has turned in to" Thinking to my self.
I notice a convoy of hummers and trucks pulling up to the helicopters. "Alex, look" I say. "Yeah i see them" Alex says. "What do you think they're doing" "I'm not sure, its hard to tell from this far away"
I pause for a second thinking. "Lets go see" I say. Alex turns to me with a raised eyebrow. "What, it's better then just sitting here." "Alright fine." Alex replies. "Okay, but stay close to me. We don't want to get separated."
We start our trek down the slope of the hill. I hear Alex talking behind me. "Do you think our parents are ok." "I don't know Alex, we'll have to find out." We stumble out of the forest through a clearing of trees. We're in someone's back yard. The house is burning from a hole in the roof. I notice something sticking out from the flames. Its the tail end of a jet. I walk closer to get a better look. I make out the 2 letters "U.S." followed by the numbers "042". I have no idea what the number mean but I know for sure it's an American military jet.
"Do you think the family made it out ok" I hear Alex say. "Again I'm not sure, I'm still trying to figure out whats going on exactly" I say.
We make our way around the side of the house. I pull the pistol out from the back of my pants, and click the safety off. I've fired a gun before, my dad taught me how. Usually I shot at targets at the shooting range. But never would I think I'd shot a person. "Alright stay low and be quick." I whisper to Alex. She nods.
We bolt across the street. There's house with it's door wide open. "Quickly in here." I say. "But Everett that's someone's house." She says, stopping at the door. "Alex come on, it's not safe out there" "but Everett-" "no buts, come on. Just follow me" "Okay, you better know your doing" she says. "I do" I say, but I really I'm just as scared and clueless as she is.
I look around the house. Every room is littered with belongings. "It looks like someone was searching for something" Alex says. "Maybe."
We look around for a bit more. When I entered the living room I notice quarter sized bullet holes in the walls. " Alright lets get out of here" I say. "Lets head to my house, if its still there.." We travel through ally ways to avoid being caught. We get to my house and when we get inside the place is a mess. I look around and notice there's no pictures hanging on the walls. "They're alive" I say. "How do you know" replies Alex. "Who else would take our family photos" We hear engines rev up outside the house. "Quick we need to hide" Alex says, under her breath. "I know somewhere we can." We run up the stairs. When I run past my room I peer inside to see its surprisingly untouched. We continue down the hall way until we reach the end. "Up here" I say. "Huh, where" says Alex, with a confused look. I pull down a cord which open up a ladder to attic. "Quickly" I say. We scurry up the ladder into the attic. Alex coughs,"It's dusty up here" "I know it is, try not to sneeze Alex" "I'll try." I close the ladder and hatch shut. We lay there in silence for a while, with our ears Pressed to the floor. Then we hear foot steps. Alex starts to sniffle. "Don't do it, hold it in." I whisper to her. I can hear voices beneath us. I can't understand what they say but they seem to be walking around the house, searching maybe. Alex sniffles again, then is about to sneeze. I quickly reach over to cover her mouth. I do but it only does so much to mutter the sound. The foot steps stop right beneath us. My heart drops. I hear the foot steps approaching the hatch to the attic. I ready my gun. Then all of sudden I hear some sort of radio go off. I don't know what it said but now I hear the foot steps wondering off. "He must be leaving" I whisper. After a few moments later when I think its safe, I open the hatch and carefully go down the ladder. Making sure no one is around. Once the coast is clear I signal Alex to climb down. "Lets get out of here" she says. I agree and nod. I start to walk down stairs and when i turn to go out the back door. There he is standing in the kitchen. A soldier in his drab green uniform. At first ge doesn't notice me. But when he does, he shouts and goes to raise his rifle. But my gun was already out and aimed at his chest. I close my eyes and pull the trigger. *BANG* I hear a thump as his bodies slams to the floor. I stand there in aw looking at the man I just killed. I killed him, just like that. Alex starts shaking my shoulder and screaming my name. I snap out of it. "Everett! We need to go now!" She drags me out the front door, running. Once I bring my self back to reality, I'm soon running on my own. We run about 3 blocks then we find our self behind a supermarket. There's a door with a padlock on it. Alex takes a pipe and slams the lock until It brakes. We enter inside. We find our selves in a small storage area. After a quick sweep we know its safe to let our guard down. We both sit down against a wall in exhaustion. I look over at Alex and her shoulder. "Hey let me properly bandage that up." She nodes, leaning her head back. I untie the cloth and peal it off. I take a small first aid kit out of Alex's pack. I wipe the bullet wound with an alcohol swab. She cringes with pain. "Sorry" I say. "Its ok" she replies. "Your lucky it went right through, it could've been worst." She looks over at me with a smirk "Oh lucky me." We both let out a brief laugh. I stick some gauze on her wound then wrap it back up. "We should get some rest" she says. "Okay but we should take shifts. You get to sleep first" I say. She nods and lays down on the floor next to me. I rest my back up against the wall with my pistol cocked and readied towards the door. I lay there for hours, thinking. Thinking about my family, where they are, what happened to them, are they ok. But there's something huge still lingering over me. The fact I shot a man. I did it with out hesitation. With out a second thought about it.
I shot him, he's dead.