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┏━━━━━ CHAPTER FOUR ━━━━━┓ ★゜・。。・゜゜・salvation ──── Chicago Rhee
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❝ An act of kindness Is what you showed to me None more than I can take Oh, none more than I can take ❞ — an act of kindness, bastille
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GOD HAD DECIDED TO GRANT ME A PLACE WHERE I COULD HAVE A MOMENT OF PEACE. The faintest of smiles formed on my dried-out lips as I caught sight of an old and weathered shack. Sure, the roof was sunken in the very middle, with splinters of wood sticking out from the structural frame, but this was my chance to hide away for a moment. I seemed to be the only living soul within the vicinity and so I would use that to my advantage. I would rest my eyes, just for a moment.
A wheeze left my lips when I inhaled a little too deeply and my ribs protested. Fiona had truly done a number on me. And for what? I had not provoked her. I was just trying to survive, the same as everyone. If she knew she was going to abandon me then why had she allowed me to join her and Ben's tight-knit companionship? Perhaps it was sympathy. Although, I think that was giving her too much credit. I would never understand people like her. So stoic but equally afraid of anything that disrupted their system.
That is why I wasn't sure if being foolish or cold-hearted was the better way to go. In some ways, we were all terrified and uncertain about the world. One of us just pretended not to know the horrors by looking at things through a filter of innocence and ignorance, the other leaned too much into throwing everything away that reminded them of the old world. They sacrificed their heart in order to be on top of the world. Was that being brave? Or was being brave chopped down to remaining pure of heart in a world that did everything in its power to strip the layers of light from you?
What did survival of the fittest really mean? Who lived and who died couldn't have been just God's will or a skill of strength. I was in no way strong physically and yet here I was, scrapping by but still living. Were the people that died that were blatantly stronger than me victims to God's will? Was it luck I had? There were people that deserved to be alive that were taken out by the vile hands of another human being. Was that natural selection? A premature death for an otherwise healthy individual. Life was unfair, cruel, and made no sense.
My back skidded along the rusting walls of the inside of the shack. A layer of dirt was below me, covering the once brand new hardwood flooring. Who owned this building before the end? Where had they gone? I imagined that by the appearance of this rundown place that either they had fled to better shelter or had died. I glanced around, the hole in the roof providing sunlight. I didn't want to find a body, especially one that had reanimated. But after a quick scan, I noted that I was most likely alone.
