Endure and Survive | Larry Stylinson

chapter two

SUMMER

"You know, as bad as those things are, at least they're predictable. It's the normal people that scare me." – Bill

"Through here. Kind of a shortcut." Harry leaves the highway and jumps through the railing and into an overgrown area, full of trees and plants and insects. Louis follows after him. The grasses are long now, tall and untrimmed. The trees are strong and everything's greener now. He remembers when he's a kid, the city barely contains nature and it's all about industry and smoke and technology.

"Why can't you just take me back to Eleanor?" Louis asks, fidgeting a loose fabric on his jacket.

Harry hears birds chirping before he sees a flock by a puddle of water. He scares them away with his footsteps, "You still want to go back to the city after all that we've triggered? I'm sure military's gone haywire now."

"Well, I mean.. you didn't want this job in the first place."

"Hey, I'm doing this for my guns, and my livelihood." Harry answers. Which is true as hell. The sun is beautiful. Neither of them knows the time, but it looks like a little after noon. Still quite early, "You must've forgotten my deal with Eleanor."

"Right, double your shit." Louis sighs, "I must be quite important, then."

Harry glances back at him, "What's more important than the cure for humanity?"

"Good, you believe me now."

Harry scoffs, "You said that yourself."

As they keep walking, they reach a gate, but it's rusted shut with barbed wires all along the metal fences. Harry climbs on the nearest shed and looks around. He sees a rising smoke from afar, "Please let that be you."

"Have you been here before?" Louis asks from the ground but Harry ignores him, gesturing to the wooden plank on the ground. Louis grabs it for him and leans it against the shed for Harry to get.

Harry makes a makeshift bridge as he connects the shed to another. From there, they jump down and continue their walk. "So, this guy." Louis begins, "He's a close friend?"

"Not exactly." Harry jumps down and they start seeing few buildings with the forage, "He just owes me a few things."

"He's going to give us a car?"

"We won't know for sure." Harry jumps down and swings a metal door open, "He can be kind of a jackass, if you ask me."

"How come?"

"Too paranoid about everything. Almost killed me because of his traps scattered every inch of his town." Harry informs him, jogging up the stairs and going through every room to steal any usable stuff.

"That's a bad thing?" Louis stays in the hall, "Him being careful and stuff?"

"He'll end up blowing his own head off if he forgets at least one of his traps." Harry emerges from the room, handful of stuff in his hands, "You have room in your bag?"

Louis turns around wordlessly and Harry walks closer to zip open his bag. Inside was a bottle of water, a gun, a small box of ammos, his broken shiv, a rope, and a comic book. Harry puts his loot there and zips it closed once again, "For a guy at twenty-three, I doubt that they still read comics."

They take a few minutes stealing stuff in the building before they come down again. They come across a gate which is jammed from the other side. "Fuck." Harry huffs, jostling with the gate.