Forgotten

Chapter One: The Big Apple

"Not long now, Pago," I patted my dog, looking up at the red sky of what used to be New York. "We'll find something to eat, I'm sure of it."

Pago whimpered and lied down on his stomach, placing his paws over his eyes.

"Oh, Pago, I know you're tired. I'm tired too, just look at my feet!" I lifted my left foot off the ground and looked at the underside of it. The bottoms of my boots were worn and blood was slowly seeping through from where the calluses from walking had reopened. I hadn't really noticed how bad it was until I looked at it. I grimaced.

"See, if I can keep walking, so can you. Come on I'm hungry, you big ugly mutt," Pago growled in protest, but he stood up. "Good boy." I said, looking around the wasteland, "Where do you suppose food would be hiding? Let's go find an IHOP, that's sounds great! I could use a pancake. Or six. With loads syrup, of course. Some powdered sugar." My mouth watered at the thought. "Does that sound good, boy?"

My dog barked in agreement and we set off again towards the tattered city in the distance. Everything was so quiet, it almost made me sad. Not even a bird or a lowly insect made a sound. In the past three months I have come across a total of eight birds, most of them ravens, and killed four of them for food. Luckily, two of the ones I didn't kill we're chickens and one was a rooster. Saved them for eggs. It was great until the wolf attacked. Damn thing killed the rooster before I could get to it. I got my revenge at dinner that night, though. Best wolf stew I ever tasted.

I stepped into the dismal town, Pago growling beside me. I took out my hunting knife and kept walking. All of the buildings had fallen apart, some were lying horizontally on the ground, others were still standing, but they were tilted. Like that Colosseum thing or whatever that I learned about in Roman history.

Seems like a million years ago when all of that mattered. School and such. Who was popular, who had "daddy issues," who was dating who, and who'd had sex with about half of us guys on the football team. Of course, they're all dead now...my parents, my girlfriend, my team mates...not that I cared, really. My dad was always drunk and my poor mother never really stopped crying. I kind of miss my teammates, though Jack could be a real pain. The only two people from my past life I honestly missed was my little sister, Lily, and the only person I ever truly loved: Avery. I imagined them in my mind as I kept walking.

Suddenly, I heard a crackling noise and jumped back about ten feet, staring in the direction of the sound. I saw a long, black wire that stretched from one building to another; the middle part of which had sunken down to the small pool of water in between the two tilted buildings. Once in a while, blue sparks emanated from the wire which cackled in the air before falling harmlessly into the pond.

Pago rushed towards the water, his tongue flapping greedily in the wind.

"No, Pago!" I shouted, running after my dog and tackling him to the ground a split second before he reached the pool. Pago squirmed and attempted to wriggle out of my grasp, but I was too strong for him.

"I'm sorry, Pago," I said. "This water isn't safe for us to drink. It's probably got radiation poisoning all over, around, under, and inside it," Pago let out a long, high-pitched whine before he stopped struggling and I let him up.

"Come on. Let's find something to eat." I got up and started walking, not sure where I was going. We walked for hours, the sun beating down on us like we were chicken that needed to be deep fried. I took off my jacket and stuffed it inside of my backpack. There was hardly anything inside if it, just an empty plastic water bottle, a can opener, a couple of utensils, a blanket, an old pot, and my dad's lighter. He used to smoke a lot, and thank God that he did. I never could start a fire without a match or something like this. At least my dad turned out to be useful eventually even if it was only in this aspect.

At last I saw it, a run-down convenience store with the words MOLLY'S GOODS written on the outside, except that the Y in MOLLY was missing, as well as the D and G in GOODS, but in pretty sure that's what it used to say. Hopefully, we'll be able to get a bit of food tonight, if it hasn't already got Infected inside.