RUIN

Morgan

Every morning I crawl through the rubble of burnt out buildings in search of food or anything I could use to make my life better. So I wait as I watch the killers as they hunt a deer that has made its way into the city. The killers have guns with silencers and hand grenades, these killers have the guns because there is still fighting between pockets of humans which I have divided into four sectors. I am in sector two right now and since its closer to what I call the forest they get a few stray animals coming past so the picking are better for someone like me.

I was caught once by a group from sector three but escaped pretty quickly. They aren't the best at keeping people in, when all their focus is keeping people out. 'You are just a fourteen year old girl and you should be happy that you will have food,' the leader said to me as he grabbed my ass. Little did these dim wits know that I had it better then all of them, I had fresh water and a clean place to stay and no one's allowed to touch my ass so I escaped within the hour.

I watched as the deer fell on its side, I was grateful the gun had a silencer we would be safe from the crazies but everyone was careful this close to twilight. There is a difference between killing a deer and a human who has basically turned into a animal, one will lay and wait to die and one will fight to the death so the quieter the death the better.

I watched as the two killers walked up to the deer and sliced its throat, the animal let out a mulling noise then there was silence. The two killers worked quickly skinning and cutting the animal up into movable pieces, lucky for me the killer that picked up the back end of the deer didn't notice the large hunk of meat that fell to the ground. I flung my bag over my shoulder and headed down to pick up my prize once the two killers were out of sight of. When I reached the meat it was better then I expected, the chuck was double the size I thought it was. I knewI would be able to salt some and have meat for the next week. I picked up the bloody chuck and put it in the ziplock bag I always carried with me. I made sure I didn't step in the blood or disturb the scene to much because the killers always came back to the scene of there last kill to see if any other animals would come to the kill sight.

I looked towards what I call the forest and shivered, I can live in a world of falling down buildings but wild animals, no way. The wild humans aren't nearly as bright as the animals. I'm sure there are some crazy people out there living amongst the wild beasts but I won't be one of them. I dropped the ziplock into my backpack and quickly headed to sector five or that's what I called it anyway, in actuality it's on the edge of sector one. I quickly made it over the hills of discarded cars and everything else you could imagine that would be left in the aftermath of war. I made sure like always to check my surroundings, you never knew when something that could kill you, will pop up.

I stopped several hundred feet away from the small opening to the place I called home, I had lived here since I was twelve. I waited for the millionth time for someone I knew to be there, but no one ever was. That is the real reason I haven't left since my mother died two years ago, it was the fact that I was waiting for my family, I knew they would come here to look for us. So I waited at the museum for my dad or one of my brothers to come to the steps and sit and wait for me up but its been four years and no one ever comes.

I didn't sigh or cringe or scream that no one was their waiting I just walked the remaining feet moved the piece of plywood that I glued a bicycle to and slipped behind it putting the plywood back in its place and walked through the large double doors and disappeared out of sight.

From the outside of the museum you wouldn't think that any of it was still standing but some of it was and this is where my mother and I made our home after the blast. My foot falls would have echoed on the marble floors but it didn't matter no one out side these walls could hear what happened inside. Oh sure, I have to still be careful and someone could be in here right now watching me, but that's why I wear black jazz shoes with a piece of hard plastic I cut out to make the insole stronger. I had to protect my feet from glass or other sharp objects so I knew my feet made no sound.