Anarchy on Earth

~22~

There were two things I was very happy about at that moment in history. Well, there was actually about 13, but I won't go into most of them.

One: We were in the richest district in all of Union City. The High Living District was a port city, right next to The Docks district, which held the bridge leading to Union Island... the location of Union City International Airport, the place were we needed to go.

Two: We had a couple hours until nightfall. That meant we had a ton of time to get to a house, clear it out, eat whatever we found, address wounds, mourn the dead, and sleep until morning.

Two and a half: Miranda hadn't said a word to me the entire way into town.

"These houses are entirely deserted..." Jordan pointed out as we walked down one of the streets. We hadn't seen one stranger our entire way here.

"It's quite possible everyone got out in time." I said.

TK shook his head. "The military protected this area like hell. Same with the Military Sponsored District. Eventually the strangers broke through military lines. Fortunately, by then, all the civilians had crossed the bridge to safety. The strangers could have simply moved on, and dispersed to just kinda roam around, but the military drew them to a single point to  kill them off. It failed, they all died, and they're all pooled up in some corner of the district."

We all stopped. and gawked at him.

"You know this... how, exactly?" Griffin asked, raising an eyebrow in concern.

"Just a guess."

Griffin shrugged, and we continued on down the street. We had a wide variety of houses to choose from. Everyone seemed to be pondering the houses in their mind, deciding for themselves which ones would be the safest to camp out in. I had a favorite myself. I held me hand up, and made a fist, signaling for everyone to stop, and I pointed to a nice looking two story house. Like all of them, they were really long, had way too many windows, practically all white, and looked completely untouched. I knew better though. All of the houses looked untouched. That could be wrong. At this point, it was deadly to assume.

"How 'bout that one?" I asked.

"Fine with me." TK said.

"I don't care." Griffin said.

"I still can't believe you did that." Miranda growled.

"Who want's to carry my spleen?" Jordan asked.

I shook my head, and we drew our weapons... or what was left of them. None of us had our guns. I had my sword, and Griffin had the pipe. Jordan begged for the knife, so I gave it to Miranda. TK, and Satan had no weapons, but we intended on getting them weapons soon. I scanned the house's entrances.

"Griffin, you take Miranda in through the side door, I'll take Jordan and TK through the front. That way we can clear out more ground."

Griffin and Miranda began to walk off, when I called them back.

"Um... guys?" I said.

They turned around.

"You guys head upstairs to clear out the bedrooms, and please... don't do anything stupid." I said, facepalming.

Jordan rose her eyebrows up and down quickly, and TK shook his head dramatically. Miranda giggled, and turned around again, Griffin following her, as they chatted discreetly.

"Are they a thing?" Jordan asked.

"They used to be." I said, motioning for them to follow me. "Let's go."

We approached the front door. I held my sword at the ready, as we reached the door handle. I grabbed it, and pulled. It was locked. I swore, and TK smirked.

"Language."

I swung my sword down on the handle, and it broke off the door.

"For such an expensive house, it sure has terrible infrastructure." Jordan said.

"No kidding." I said, kicking the door open.

We surged inside, no sign of strangers yet. It didn't smell bad at that moment. As far as I could tell, we were okay. The inside of the house was grand. A massive living room, with dead electronics strewn everywhere. A couple of lamps, and a giant bookcase filled with absolutely no books.

"Does nobody read anymore?" I said, as we walked into the living room.

Upon closer inspection, the bookcase had one book on it. The Stood , by Stephen Queen. I grabbed the thick 1,000 page book, and stuffed into my backpack, and we continued on our way. The house seemed eerie. Like some place that should usually be filled with loud obnoxious children, that you find in boarding schools, but then they all got eaten by ravenous flesh eating cannibals.

Oh wait...

We trekked into the kitchen, and I laughed. TK cheered. Jordan threw Dabini's spleen at the wall. It splattered all over the wall with a satisfying crunch I laughed. TK threw up. Jordan grinned. THE CIRCLE OF... DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEATH!

In the kitchen, was all the things we needed to live for the night, and maybe another week. A cleaver set, boxes of cereal, condensed milk, water, sardines, DIY MRE taco kits, dried meat, DIY MRE taco kits, beans, DIY MRE taco kits... did I mention DIY MRE taco kits? I was a Mexican at heart. You know, probably. TK immediately gravitated towards the tacos.

"No, TK." I said, laughing. "We need to hoard food."

So we set for pillaging the house. Jordan gathered knives, and food. TK found a rusty shovel in the back yard, and carried it to me, grinning like an idiot.

"You like shovels?" TK asked.

"Shoveley." I said.

"Food time?" Miranda asked, walking into the kitchen with Griffin behind her a couple minutes later.

"Yep." I said, when I heard TK shout out from the living room.

My heart dropped. I drew my sword, and ran into the living room, expecting a stranger attack, or a dead body... ANYTHING.

"GUYS!" TK exclaimed, holding up one of the 8 MPads scattered around the room. "I sapped all the power from the MPads, and transferred them to this one. I turned it on, and not only did it work, but the guy has Nutflix offline!"

Miranda cried out, and snatched the MPad away. "Movie night!"

"I'll find an HDMI cable, and we can connect it to that battery powered TV over there!" I said, gleefully.

For the first time in 17 days, we could relax.

So that's what we did.