Under The Ashes

Chapter One

        Approximately two days after my eighteenth birthday the world caught fire. I don't mean that my boyfriend of a year broke up with me, or something cliché like that. I mean literally caught fire. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating when I say  "The world." Just the province.

       I'm currently residing in my families cabin two hours North from any type of civilization. It's been two weeks since the first fire caught. Now, there are over a hundred burning across the province. The army showed up last week and evacuated everybody in the 100 Mile House area. It's just my brother and I in the middle of nowhere. Our parents are always away due to work, and they are in Asia somewhere. They phoned us as soon as they heard and told us how to find the old shack by who-knows-what-lake-this-is.

       "Go get some more water will you?" My brother asked me from the kitchen. He is standing at the sink wearing a light gray shirt that used to be white. His jeans have dirt on the knees, and his hiking boots were untied. We just arrived at the cabin. The floor is completely filthy, and I'm pretty sure there is a plethora of rodents inside the walls.

       I grab a big bucket off the counter, and make my way to the shore. I crouch down, and scoop up water into the container. It's always been just Warren and I. Sure, my parents come home, but not for long. When I was younger it bothered me a lot. I hated that my dad couldn't come to the father-daughter dance. 12-year -old Warren dressed up in some of dad's clothes, plastered a fake mustache from the dollar store on his upper lip, and him and I pulled up to the school on his bike. He's only four years older than me, but he raised me. My aunt, who we stayed with when we were younger, didn't have children of her own, because she hated children and we were a huge burden to her. The moment Warren turned eighteen he got custody of me, and we have lived in our own house since then.

       "Tyler, I'm going to get fire wood. Mind trying to clean up in here?" Warren says as I pass him just outside the door. He is weidling an axe over his shoulder, and his boots are now tied. I nodded.

        "The broom?" I ask. I look around and see nothing in sight that could pass as a cleaning supply. He just shrugs his shoulders and walks toward the towering trees. I put down the water bucket, and begin to explore the cabin. I find a small closet holding a few supplies and get to work. The cabin is quite quaint. It has two rooms. The main one has the kitchen, living room, and dining room all in the open space. There are a set of beds in the corner beside the fire place that I suppose is the bedroom. Well, just bed no room. Thankfully the bathroom does have a door, but it doesn't close properly.

        Warren came back, and swiftly started a fire in the fireplace. Our old house used to have a fireplace, and the first winter we spent there we had to use it a lot because we couldn't afford to pay the bills for heating. By the end of the winter we made quite a team. We could split wood faster than a Woodchuck could chuck wood (Yes, I'm aware woodchucks don't chuck wood move on with your life) and we became professionals at starting fires with nothing but toilet paper, wood, and a single match.

       "What shall we have for dinner? Nitrite delights?" I ask while I searching through the cupboards to hopefully find cookware.

       "Nitrite delights?" Warren turns and looks at me with a cocked eyebrow.

       "You know, hotdogs." I open the fridge but immediately shut it again. The stench was terribly overwhelming.

       "Go get the coolers from the jeep."

       "Say please." I grin at him while he Just stares at me.

       "Ty."

       "War, you're never going to get anywhere in life without manners." I smirk at him, and spin on my heel to leave.