Forgotten Memories

Day 2

We slowly woke up to the sounds of silence. We got up and sat on the bed. We both pulled out 2 granola bars and 2 pieces of bread for each of us. That's all we had for breakfast. I wonder how Dalton and Dad are doing. Can't worry about that now though. 

     "Hey, Nora let's get going. We can explore the 3rd and 4rth house today and make it to our next destination."Mom said getting ready to head out the door. 

     "Ok. I'm coming." I said as I put on my backpack and followed her. We made it out of the house and started to walk to the 3rd house. It looks really nice from the outside. There's a good chance it'll look nice on the inside too. I was wrong. The entire inside was burnt, broken, moldy, and falling apart. There was nothing here. We decided to leave that house alone and move on to the 4rth house. This one wasn't as burnt. We went inside and it was pretty nice. I looked around and went straight to the kitchen. The cabinets were open, which we've seen before. I looked inside them and there was some more bread and more granola bars. I took those and Mom found lots of water. We took those too. We walked into another room, and there was a bag sitting on the ground with a gun next to it. We heard two people talking upstairs. Mom grabbed her rifle and crouched down. I grabbed my pistol and had my knuckles ready. We crouched to the bag, grabbed the gun and the bag and put it behind us. Mom carried the gun. We hid behind some rubble and waited for them to come down. Eventually, they came downstairs and into the room we were in. Both of them were men, one of them was wearing a black jacket, and the other was wearing a blue shirt. They looked at the ground and noticed their stuff was gone.

     "Someone's here. Let's look around." The man in the blue shirt said.

     "If there are people, that means we're not the only survivors, more people must be alive too. That's just more food for them, and less for us. Let's find them and kill them." The man in the black jacket glared. They turned around and started to head the other way, they were walking slowly. I motioned for us to go, but when I looked at mom, her rifle was up and aimed right at one of their heads. She shot so quickly, the sound boomed and echoed through the house. She reloaded and aimed for the 2nd one. The man ran behind a wall and swore. I stared at the lifeless body on the ground, with one giant hole in the middle of his forehead. The bullet went through his head and hit the wall. The blood was making a pool around it. She killed him with no hesitation. I could never kill someone. Could I? Bullets fired and they hit our cover. I had to do something. I moved around the opposite side of where he was positioned. I was quiet and had my gun loaded. I looked at him. He wasn't looking at me. I have an opportunity to kill someone. How can I take the life of someone? I need to do it. I have to. Mom nodded from the corner of my eye. I raised my gun. I aimed, and I fired. The bullet soared through the air and hit him in the shoulder. He stared at me and raised his gun. I ducked and ran to the other side. I surprised him and my hand made a fist. The metal rings shimmered in the light. He looked terrified. I punched him once, then twice, then three times, I kept going. the rings cut his face multiple times. He then hit the ground and looked at me with blood over his face.

      "How does it feel to be a murderer kid..." He said right before he died. I stared at him. I killed someone. I killed someone. How can I do that? I'm a murderer...

     "Don't freak out. He could've killed us, so you saved 2 people. Me and yourself. It was either two die, or one dies. He was a bad member of society anyway." Mom put her hand on my shoulder. We're probably going to have to kill people to live in this new world. This is the norm now. This is horrible. I guess I need to get used to it.

     "Ok. I'll stay calm, like you." I said looking at her. She turned around and went to the person she shot. 

     "Well, get the stuff you earned from them. They're not going to need it anyway." She said looking in his bag. I looked at the body again. I then opened his backpack and looked at the stuff he had. I looked at his gun on the ground. It was a big rifle. with a huge scope. It was black with gray and gold markings over it. I picked it up and it was heavy. I looked at his chest, and he had ammunition strapped over his shoulder. I grabbed it and put it over myself underneath the flannel. I put the handgun in my pocket and the rifle on my back. I took more ammunition and put it in the belt I had for my knives and ammo. He had money in his bag, I took that too. I looked at mom. She had a new gun too. It was a big black shotgun. She put it on her left side, while she had the rifle on her right side. 

     "I'll teach you how to use that new rifle." She said looking at it.

     "I'm going to need to learn." I replied. We walked out of there and decided that we should stay in this neighborhood and practice shooting. She set up targets far away and close up. 

     "Get out your pistol." She commanded. I took it out and showed it to her.

     "Now, try and shoot that target." She pointed to the closest one. I aimed and shot. It hit the corner of the target. 

     "Don't expect to do good the first time shooting. When you aim, make sure you're looking straight ahead, and aiming perfectly with your target. Relax your breathing and stay calm." She explained as she aimed her pistol at the target. She was aiming perfectly straight and had a good stance. She was staring at the target without blinking, and she breathed slowly. She put her finger on the trigger and shot. The bullet went right through the target and she shot 5 more times, hitting it every time. 

     "Your turn." She said smiling. I felt very intimidated and aimed. I looked at the target. I stared at it and calmed down. I closed my eyes. I breathed slowly and opened my eyes again. I shot 3 times, they were close to the middle and the last one hit it perfectly. 

     "Nice job Nora." Mom smiled giving me a highfive. 

     "We should head back inside and rest up for today. You'll Learn how to shoot the rifle in the morning." She said putting her gun away and headin gback to the house we stayed in last night. I followed her and I felt amazing. I felt so powerful and confident the rest of the day. I'm excited to shoot again tomorrow. Nothing scares me anymore.