Out After Curfew

Chapter 30

Leon and Tony traipse through a light cacophony of birds' chirps, tweets and songs as they progress through the thin sunlit forestry outside the city, oblivious to the beauty of their surroundings in their pursuit of new accommodation – their stomachs empty, any paltry pittance they possessed now expended.

The city is availably visible to them behind, incrementally becoming smaller as they graduate away from it. They do not walk without direction. They know there is an old agricultural storage building a few miles away which used to be used for vehicles among other things. They had come across it while lost after being evicted from Gerard's house. They hadn't stopped for long, hadn't fully investigated the place at the time for a number of reasons.

They needed to find where the city was before it got too late and they were left stranded out in the wilderness with evening approaching. They also decided on locating some source of sustenance – some aliment from somewhere, no matter how meagre the portion – as a priority. They'd taken a risk retuning to the city as they always inevitably do, but they knew that if they procured enough food, they may be able to stay away for a number of days in a row. What a ridiculous routine, Leon always thinks to himself when reflecting upon their day-to-day activities.

The food they have located is indeed austere, but if they are sparing with it, they predict they can make it last at least three days.

"Alright, we can probably stop and have some lunch if you want now, Leon." Tony says, turning back to look at the city from the hillside.

"Ok." Leon says, sitting down on the ground in amongst the twigs and other organic debris.

Tony joins him, puts the plastic bag he is carrying down between them and they both look through it and select what they each want, both knowing they must choose carefully, because they will not be able to have anything more until later. Leon selects a small, stale fairy cake, and Tony a bag of crisps. This selection has once again been gathered from the disposal bin behind a supermarket, a common gold mine for the boys, but today the pickings have been slim.

"The last meal we had was a bit better, wasn't it?" Tony says, reminiscing about their time in Gerard's house.

"You think so?" Leon replies sarcastically.

Tony smiles. "It was good while it lasted, right?"

"I suppose so. If you discount all that noise from the blood-suckers outside. But you know we can never do that again?"

"...Yeah," Tony says, sounding mildly remiss. "It was just nice to have one night in a place like that."

Leon finishes his cake and leans back, propping himself up against his hands, starring out at the distant city.

"Jas would've liked it."

"...She would have." Tony says finally, after not replying for a while.

The boys emerge from behind the foliage, coming to the huge mesh gates, secured shut with a chain holding them together, a thick padlock hanging down from the links like the jewel of a necklace.

The gates strain against the chain as Leon pulls one towards him and pushes the other in the opposite direction, squeezing through the small gap created, underneath the padlock hanging from the chain. Tony follows and they continue through the yard – across the concrete through broken glass and other detritus including a large amount of copper shells, ejected from the firearm chambers of the military fighting against the vampires long ago.

Tony sees the battered helmet of a soldier laying on the ground, now just another part of the collective debris.

"Hey, Leon, look." he says as he picks the helmet up and puts it on, playfully modelling it.