At Ends

Chapter Five: "Townspeople" and the London Bridge

We decided to keep walking straight, and it seemed the closer we got, the more transparent they became, until they were no longer there.
Maybe it was just a mirage, or a vision caused by our fear and lack of food and water. We kept walking, not talking much.
We slowed as we came to a bridge, even more confused as to where we were. We hoped there was clean water under it, but there wasn't. There was nothing. Unless you include the miniscule amount of water, trickling along the trail of death around it. The smell of rotting meat from the animals and rodents pervaded the air, but we kept going, nonetheless. We knew there were no towns or cities behind us, so the only way to go was forward. So forward we went, across the bridge.
All of a sudden, a deafening screeching sound was heard, and we all turned around, to see the two monsters running full speed towards us. We were halfway across the impossibly long bridge, and we began running as fast as we could, from the two behind us.
As we were running, the bridge began to tremble, and while running we looked behind us, just in time to see the bridge begin to collapse into the canal below us, the things running as fast as ever. We ran even faster, and I prayed they didn't catch up and pull us into the chasm of death below us. I turned again, and watched as they fell with the bridge and into the dry canal.
We all leaped off the bridge, and onto the other side, panting and sweating, just as the bridge finished falling.
And down goes the London Bridge, I thought to myself.
Marra stood and helped Jeff up, and Chris did the same to me. I took his hand got up, looking towards the fallen bridge with the other three.
We all turned around, and came face to face with them. They shrieked, their faces stretching and contorting abnormally. I covered my ears automatically, hoping they didn't bust my ear drums. I looked up and she crawled up his frame, and latched onto him before they shimmered out of view. I lost my balance slightly and fell a little, Chris catching me.
"You okay, Ade?" He asked, looking down at me.
I nodded. "I guess so, I mean, they're so loud up close."
"Adelynne... We didn't hear anything. We just saw them." Jeff said.
"That's not true, I heard ringing when they opened their mouths," objected Marra. We all looked at each other confused.
"We should keep going. Maybe we will find something." I said, determined to find something. They all nodded and we kept walking, our feet sore and blistered. My skin peeling from the sunburn. I could only imagine the number of freckles I had. The ones on my arms had more than doubled.

My face lit up as I begin to see the tops of sky scrapers, a few lights still left on, glowing in the barely setting sun. I got excited, the thoughts of a warm shower and a bed flooded my mind.
"Do you guys see that? Or am I just tripping?" I said, excited still.
"Oh, we see it," Marra said, just as excited as I felt.
We all picked up our pace, wanting to see what was there, and maybe even who was there. I hoped there were people there.

We got to the edge of the city. And... Well... I got my wish. There were people. Only... They were all dead. Death once again, perfumed the air, only very lightly. We continued walking and I tried in vain not to look at the dead, rotting bodies around me.
There were so many people. Men, women... Children. Women that looked as if they had been shielding their children from something. Tears stung my eyes.
We didn't ask for this, we didn't sign up on the first list for front row seats to see what the end of the world looked like, and we certainly didn't want to be welcomed by these kind of townspeople everywhere we went.
I absentmindedly clung to Chris's arm, hugging it and kind of hiding my face. I felt his hand go to my hair and he gently rubbed my head, before dropping his hand to his side again.
We stopped at a smallish grocery store, and found some food, and water. I prayed that the chemicals in the bottles weren't already decomposing. I chugged three bottles of water, automatically getting a stomach ache. It was so worth it though. The rest of them did the same, before we stuffed handfuls into duffels. Then we went and found the canned foods, and Marra gave me a look that told me I needed to eat.
She was still on this, 'you eat less than everyone else so I'm gonna make you eat more than everyone else,' kick. Chris saw the look and handed me a small can of raviolis.
"No, bigger," Marra protested.
"Its better than nothing, so chill," I said rolling my eyes.
"She's right," Jeff said quietly. "Besides, since she eats so little that might be all she can handle, and she chugged all that water." Marra huffed but gave up, and opened herself a can, as did the men. We sat and ate quietly.
"Hey, we should stop at a hotel or something. You know... Beds." I said, before popping another one into my mouth and chewing it slowly. Marra nodded quickly.
"I'm totally in. They might even have working showers, cause in the bigger hotels everything was machine operated. So.. Warm showers," her eyes shone as she imagined the feeling of warm water, and soap and clean hair. I did the same.
"Well yeah, it'd be a waste if we just went through with out messing up at least a few beds," Chris said. Jeff nodded too.
"Sounds like a plan," Jeff added.