The Road to Nowhere

Chapter 17: Military

Chapter 17

The next morning I wake up to a flashlight being pointed in my eyes. 

It takes a second for my eyes to focus. I see that everyone is awake except the girls. Robbie is complaining about having no food and is shining the flashlight around the room willy-nilly. I knew he was the one that was doing that. He doesn't give a shit about anyone. Especially me and my beauty sleep. 

I had a horrible night's sleep last night. Sleeping on the ground made my back ache. The only good thing that came out of sleeping on the ground was sleeping next to Cameron.

I stand up and stretch my arms. I wipe away the crust in-between my eyes and yawn. My stomach growls really loud. I rub it as the empty feeling takes over my body.

I say good morning to everyone and help fold the blankets. We put them in a pile on the arm of the couch. My father takes off the blankets from the windows, letting the light in. It's not very bright outside. It's probably still early in the morning.

After hearing Robbie complain for about ten more minutes, Layke and I volunteer to go look for food. Both of us grab guns and Layke hands me his pocket knife to use. Using our guns is the last resort. Gunshots can be heard for miles in the dead silence of the city. It can attract the infected. And now, the military.

I unlock the door and make sure the hallway is clear. We walk out into the dusty building. There's really nothing in the hallway. A chair sits against one of the walls by the broken elevator. It doesn't look like any infected have been in this hallway before. That's a good thing.

We go to the apartment next door. The door is locked but Layke picks it with the pocket knife. The apartment is basically the same as the one we're in. A small living room is shared with a kitchen and a long hallway leads to the bedrooms.

We raid the cabinets and find a jar of peanut butter and a bag of white rice. We take a backpack that we found in one of the bedrooms and use it to carry the food. We search the rest of the apartment for anything useful. I find some tampons, which is always a plus. We take a couple more blankets and some kitchen knives.

As Layke drops off the blankets to the others, I go to the next apartment. The door was unlocked, surprisingly. This apartment looks untouched too. I find another jar of peanut butter, more tampons, and a few cans of vegetables. I meet Layke in the hallway and we search the rest of the floor. It takes us about an hour to get to the last room at the end of the hallway.

The last room is unlocked and different from the rest of the rooms. It's trashed. Furniture is scattered everywhere and flipped over. There's blood smeared down the hallway and on the floor and walls. One of the windows in the living room is shattered and I can hear the birds chirping from outside. The kitchen is full of dirty dishes. The smell is almost as horrible as how the infected smell. 

"What happened in here?" Layke says.

"I don't know." I sigh while kicking over a vase that was on the floor. As soon as it hits the ground, it shatters.

Layke laughs. "Now, don't be wrecking the place."

"Oh really?" I grab a pillow that was on the floor and throw it at him. It hits him on the side of the head.

"You want a pillow fight, don't you?"

"What? No. Those are for teenage girls at sleepovers."

Layke picks up the pillow and throws it back at me. It hits me in the shoulder. "Well since you decided to start one, are you going to be a normal teenager and fight me?" He smirks.