Extinct

Chapter 3: Seeking Help

We trudged for a lot of hours, climbing on top of burnt buildings or sliding off of tarmac to get from one place to another. Every road and street we saw just broke a piece of my heart every time. You never really appreciate something until it's gone. Now I understand the metaphor funnily enough. I looked at our once country literally shattered and burnt to bits. What was once filled with people walking down the road chatting about their day, or taking your child to the park? People in their Cars swearing at the other to move out of the way because of traffic at every corner. People in their houses admiring the beautiful scenery or just washing the windows from the outside. everyone and everything had a different job to do and a purpose in life to live by. now, everyone had the same job: survival. no one had a purpose except the same thought which was if they ever get to see the next day, most of them didn't even care anymore. they just wanted it to be over. who could blame them? when one loses the one thing they care about most they feel useless and done. I was once was like that, until someone gave me a reason to live, to show the world that I'm not going down without a fight.

now all we saw in front of us was despair, fire, charcoal and a little lava on the street which burnt holes in the ground making it impossible to reach our destination but we improvised by jumping from one rooftop to the other since the houses melted it was easy to get on top of one. I was determined yet gloomy, I haven't really had a moment to just find my happy place, I couldn't really afford to, my head had to stay in the game. on the other hand, Nick just kept on surprising me. he smiled and laughed at every chance he had, and even exclaimed: " This is such an adventure, a story to tell the kids for sure". I envy his admiration for the future, I cant decide if he actually has optimism for the future, or if he is just doing it for me, either way, it's not working. nick was always like this, in the bunker he would tell jokes to the children and perform a measly magic trick for the elderly. he wanted everyone to keep a smile on their face which is why I never really thought me and him would never click. how can one keep a smile on their face while THIS is going on? I mean you would have to be insane. he can't just hide away the negative, he needs to show it as well, life is not all sunshine and rainbows, clearly.

" Alex? Alex?!"

" Yeah?" I was too lost in my thoughts to notice nick calling my name to stop me.

" look at them," he said while pointing to a couple of firemen and policemen on the edge of a cliff talking to one another.

" survivors," I replied, quite content there were still people trying to help this God-forsaken place.

" Trouble." this was the first time I ever saw nick serious. he had a look so sharp it could kill. why was he so cautious all of a sudden?

" what do you mean? they're the ones that are trying to keep this world together, how could that be interpreted as trouble?"

" you seriously don't think that it isn't a bit suspicious that out of nowhere there are a bunch of policemen and firemen without a car or anything to prove that they are of their work? what if they stole the costumes to fit in?"

" maybe the car fell off the edge or broke down and they're walking" I stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world but honestly even I had my doubts in that.

" the.car.fell.off.the.edge." he mimicked sarcastically

" you never know!" I exclaimed, in some way or another it could be true

" right. well I'm taking the other approach where we just observe them at what they do next" he stated cautiously

" or we could just go up to them and talk to them like humans on how we once lived before" I retorted. how was the world meant to return if we never tried