Forgotten Memories

Exploring Day One

It's so scary to think of what it's going to look like once we get out. We'll say our goodbyes before we leave for these 4 days outside. 

     "Honey, if anyone or anything makes noise outside of the bunker, stay quiet and don't say a word. Just rest up for these 4 days, and we'll be back soon. Love you honey." Mom kissed Dad's forehead. She went to Dalton.

      "Dalton, don't cause any trouble for your Daddy, ok? We'll be back soon with more goodies, so wait here till we come back. Love you Dalty." Mom kissed Dalton on the forehead too. She turned around and waited by the hatch.

     "Dad. I'll be careful. I promise. We'll come back no matter what. Love you." I hugged Dad.

     "Dalton, behave and make sure you don't bother him. Love you too Dalt, I'll see you soon." I rustled up his hair and smiled at him. Mom and I headed out waving to them as we closed the hatch and locked it. The air was so dusty and hard to breathe. We could get sick if we kept breathing this stuff. We coughed as we quickly grabbed our masks and put them on. Mom and I looked at each other. We looked back at the house. The wood was slowly beginning to decay, the roof was caving in, and already, the plants began to climb up the sides of the house.

     "We should look inside just in case we missed something." Mom said to me. 

     "Ok, let's head in." I said. We both opened the creaky door and walked inside. It was dark, except for a few places where the sun could shine in from the roof. We turned on our flashlights and looked around. It looked like a completely different house. I could tell mice were eating away at the furniture, there were holes in the couch and a few chairs. The cabinets were open and some food was already eaten by some mice. I looked in the fridge. We mostly cleared it out except for some meat, which was now moldy and warm. I closed the fridge and began looking in some cabinets. There was a container with some chips in it. I grabbed it and put it in my backpack. It's better than nothing. There were 2 other containers with some vegetables in them, peas and some corn. Mom took those and put them in her bag. We continued to search the house but found nothing useful. There was a stapler though, we decided to take it as a weak weapon. We went upstairs and found nothing up there either. we decided to leave the house and drop off the items we got from there in the bunker, so we could have more room for stuff later on. 

After we dropped off the items from the house, we started deciding where to go from here. We looked around the area. There was a neighborhood behind our house a few miles. We decided to take that 4-mile walk. It'll take a while, but we'll get there today. It'll take us about an hour to reach that neighborhood, so we'll get there at around 10. 

Nothing really exciting happened on that walk, and we just kind of stayed silent looking at the burnt forest. There were 10 houses in this neighborhood. only 4 were still standing. We walked inside the first one. We could see better in this house, so we didn't need our flashlights. Mom had her rifle at the ready, and I had my pistol in my pocket. We looked around with a high guard and began to look in the kitchen. The cabinets weren't open which is a good sign for us. We looked and saw some food. We got a loaf of bread, chicken in a container, and lots of canned food. There was no water though. It was all spilled on the ground with the bottles everywhere. Mom was still looking in the kitchen, and I walked into another room. I turned the corner and saw that some of the ceiling was on the ground. It must've fallen when the bombs hit. I looked at the pile and saw blood on the floor. I froze. There was a decaying hand hanging out of the rubble. Mom walked into the room and saw it too. 

     "Poor soul. If only they weren't in this room and they would've been ok. Let's keep moving."She said holding my shoulder. How is she so calm? I just nodded and followed her. We went upstairs and saw a bedroom in good condition with a good mattress. We decided this would be the room we would stay in for tonight. We continued looking around and saw someone's dresser. 

     "We've been in the same clothes for 2 weeks. We should see if any of these fit us."Mom said opening the droors. I found a black plain T-shirt, and put that on. There were some dark blue jeans and a long-sleeved gray plaid button up shirt. I put on the jeans and the flannel over my shirt like an open jacket. My mom walked in "my" room, and she was wearing new clothes too. She was wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt, with some long black pants. We both were satisfied with this house and decided to go to one more house today. The next house was small and was a little bit burned. We walked inside and had to put on our flashlights. The windows were black and charred. We went to the kitchen and looked in the cabinets. There were 10 waters, and 2 bags of chips. We both took the stuff and put in in our bags. In the next room was a burnt dead corpse on the ground next to a black burnt wall. There was a backpack next to the body with a whole in it. We searched it and found some metal knuckles, a water, some granola bars, and some useless junk. We took the water, the knuckles and the food. Mom handed me the black ringed knuckles and smiled. I put them on and felt safer. We continued to look on the bottom floor but found nothing. It was either burnt black, or already eaten by mice. We couldn't even go on the second floor because the stairs collapsed. We headed back to the first house and went into the bedroom. Once it was dark, lied on the matress and rested up for the next day. Day one of the expedition was a success. I just feel like our luck will run out soon.