Anarchy on Earth

~17~

I woke to the sound of scratching on the front door. I squinted my eyes against the brightness of day, and the small dust particles floating through the glass.

"Auden." I grunted, standing up. He was asleep, lightly though. I could see his eyes jerking about underneath his eyelids.

I shouted his name a couple times, then pulled out a pistol. I raised it to the ceiling and pulled the trigger. The deafening bang shook the room, and a small piece of drywall fell on Auden. He woke up, sputtering wildly.

"Is it midnight already- wait a minute..."

"Yeah. We slept in. We need to get moving. We've already burned 3 hours of daylight." I told him.

"What time is it?"

"9:30."

"Darn."

As he gathered his bearings and brushed drywall off his already ruined shirt, I listened closer to the scratching at the door.

"It's a stranger."

"Get ready for it." He told me, finally up and about.

We drew our weapons, and stepped towards the front door. There was still scratching. Something was out there. I threw open the door, and lashed out with my sword. Nothing was there. I looked down, and saw a tiny fox, staring at me, terrified.

"Awww..." Auden said "We can't kill this..."

"Thank god the others aren't here-"

"Jesus, Jack we forgot about Greenway!" Auden said, punching my arm.

I looked off in the distance to find Greenway a couple streets down. Smoke was trailing up in the sky from the half of Pinedale were it was.

"No... No... We have to go!" I said.

"That rhymed."

"SHUT UP AND MOVE!" I shouted, mortified.

I immediately started to run down the road, keeping track of how we got here in the first place. Auden huffed behind, clutching his arm.

"Slow down!" He shouted. "My arm!"

I stopped, as Auden caught up. I looked at the gauze on his arm. It was really bloody. Chances were if Greenway was open, we would have to change the bandages. He nodded, and we jogged on, turning corners. We saw no strangers, and I sighed in relief. We didn't have the manpower to fight more than four of them. I led Auden through the confusing the streets, as the smoke grew thicker, and the houses began to show signs of fire damage.

"What the heck happened around here?" I asked, as we turned down the street were Greenway should be. I slid to a stop. "No!"

The entire street looked as if a bomb had gone off. Greenway had collapsed, fire turning up on the edges of it's crumbled infrastructure. The roof had caved in, and the riot doors broken into. All the supplies were scorched. and were lying on the ground. We approached the wreckage warily, and fearfully. Dead strangers littered the ground.      I coughed on smoke, and spat on the ground, my spit black.

"We need to get out of here." Auden reminded me, wheezing. "The smoke will kill us."

I waved him off, and walked inside the destroyed store. The shelves were blown apart, but still held some things, ruined by the fire. What had happened? I walked down the aisles looking for remains of people. I silently begged everyone had made it out. I stopped, as I looked at one of the shelves. Completely ransacked. The fireworks aisle. Another aisle empty. The propane aisle.

"They blew the doors open." Someone said.

I looked behind me, drawing my sword, and Jackson dropped from a beam on the ceiling to the floor.

"My god, Jackson. Are they okay?"

"I think so. I got blinded by the explosion, but they ran out. They took my van. Probably heading for Riverside North, and they left me here. Probably pay-back for when I left you guys a while back.

The van... How had I not seen the van?!

Soon, Auden walked into the aisle, and sighed. "It's just you. Jack, we need to leave. Like, now."

I nodded, and turned to Jackson. "We're gonna make it."

"I know you will."

"Me? You're coming too!"

"No. I have things to do."

I kicked the shelf, furious. "Why can't you be upfront with me? You saved me, I saved you... sorta. Aren't we even? You don't need to keep secrets!"

Jackson thought for a moment, his mouth creasing thoughtfully. He frowned, and turned away. "Sorry. No one can be trusted. Never again."

He turned to leave, but then turned back.

"If you follow me, I will not hesitate to put a bullet in your stomach and make you stranger food. Just you though, because I already know this chap over here wont last another 8 days." He told me, jerking his head towards Auden, who enthusiastically gave him the finger.

Jackson laughed. "Make it to the military base. If you die, I'll be watching. And I'll be very disappointed. If you make it... well, same applies, except I'll be slightly happier. You all are dang lucky I came around. Don't squander this, and don't follow me."

He turned around again, and left. I gave him a small salut and turned back to Auden, who was staring straight ahead at something. I stared at him a while quizically, and looked at what he was looking at. I gasped.

"You..."

I KNOW YOU CAN SEE THIS WIMP. I GOT YOUR FRIENDS. WANT THEM BACK? FOLLOW THE ONE WHO BETRAYED YOU AND WE'LL END THIS... LIKE WE SHOULD HAVE.

"What the hell...?"

"It's them. Kyle... and James... We need-"

"We need to follow Jackson. But he'll kill us."

"And have them kill everyone else?"

"We don't even know who they are, much less where they are!"

"I know exactly who they are. And we're about to find out where they are. Let's go follow a traitor."

And that's what we did.