Scavengers {#Wattys2016}

Chapter Fourteen

The rain had died down but was still at the bare minimum of pouring. It was now just before dawn that morning. I felt someone shake me awake. It was my father. His eyes with their usual sags underneath them. He nodded. 

"Come on, time to go", he said grimly. I nodded silently and stood up as he woke up Jason who jolted almost smacking my father but his hand was caught. 

"Time to go big shot", said my father letting his hand go and then went to wake up Anna. 

My mother was already up and had her things in her backpack and the green rain coat on with her once horse riding sweatshirt underneath it. She had gotten in from Dover Saddlery. Many years ago. But the horses. The cows. The livestock. We hadn't seen one in many years. Over a decade in fact. My best guess was that they were on the other side of that wall. My mother smiled a small smile at me. I did one in return. We took what we could carry from the location. Covered back the floor boards and pieces of the wall back into place. My father came out last. He looked inside one last time. Then he shut the wooden door. 

He tossed over his rain coat hood and turned. He stopped hearing the door creak open again. He sneezed and then came towards us. He fixed his backpack from his shoulders. 

"Let's go, we've got to cover as much ground as we can", he said scruffily and we began the trek through the rocky wet, muddy, slushy, once dry terrain.

There were chunks of broken road scattered about the vast expanse. Sometimes we had to climb over them, other times we went around. I looked back starting to climb up one of the first few. 

Through the rain in the far distance the rising dark grey smoke could still be seen. Along with the orange flicker of flames licking up the city. Building by building. 

Sammy and Anna both looked back behind me staring. Our jaws all clenched and eyes were hard. 

Sammy took a step towards it but my father called, "Sammy", he said. 

Sammy looked at him. 

My father shook his head solemnly. He knew how he felt, he wanted to do the same as his own son. But..."It won't do any good Sammy", said my father.

Sammy clenched his fists. But he turned defeated knowing that he had more important and more achievable things to do at the moment. If Sammy could do anything...he would. We all would.  

We continued our travel breaking the distance and gaining more ground. We just kept walking. Walking with little notion as to where exactly we were headed other than south. Sammy had a compass which supposedly still worked. But there's no tell what funky things they've built behind that wall that could throw this simple thing off. So we just gave it the benefit of the doubt that we were heading south. 

Luckily we were.