After the Plague

XV. Going for a Walk

XV. Going for a Walk

Kira grew to appreciate the city more as she walked with Goodwin. She hadn’t truly been able to look it over when they had first entered, as she was too absorbed in the newness of it, but now, as she walked amongst its residents once again, she saw that it reminded her a lot of Genesis before the Plague. It was nowhere near as dense, but it had a definite metropolitan atmosphere to it. It almost - almost  - made her feel comfortable. 

“Everyone left the major cities,” Goodwin explained. “Within a few months, maybe a year of the Gateway, everyone was gone except for a few stragglers. There was just a lot of talk about how it was bad mojo to be here, so they high tailed it out. Everyone was scared about getting the disease. This is the first new city. Obviously it’s not fully repopulated, but there’s people all around, at least a million. It’s the future.”

“Where did they all leave?” Kira asked. “You keep saying that people left the cities, from Genesis, here, everywhere else. But that’s millions of people. Where did they go?”

Goodwin grinned. “See, the funny thing about people in the city is they don’t know how to live outside, and they’ve typically got some pretty nice stuff on them. Made for pretty easy pickings. That’s when the bandits really took over, more than they ever had. Just huge massacres on the freeways as people tried to escape. That cut down the population pretty well.”

They continued in silence. On the occasion Goodwin would wave or say a few friendly words to a passerby. He led her through the labyrinth until they reached where the skiff had been tied up in the water.

“Gene!” Goodwin called up into the vessel. A moment, and then Gene, a particularly large member of the company, came out, carrying a bundle of cloth.

“You ready for it?” Gene asked.

“Pass ‘er over,” Goodwin said, walking up the plank into the skiff and reaching out his arms. “She was our responsibility for way too long.”

“You’re telling me,” Gene responded. “You know how hard it was to clean this thing up while you guys were all up at the palace?”

He held out the bundle of cloth to Goodwin’s outstretched arms, allowing for a corner of it to fall down and reveal the top an infant’s head.

Kira squinted, hoping she had mistaken what she had seen. What the–

“Thank you very much,” Goodwin nodded as he grabbed the child, tucked up the loose corner and held it close to his chest. “We are going to make someone very happy today.” He turned to Kira and smiled. “Ready to head back? S’about lunch time, don’t you think?”

Goodwin didn’t mention the cooing baby in his arms for the entirety of the walk back, instead opting to fill the conversation with quips about his favorite foods. Kira responded, trying not to call attention to the fact that her eyes continually returned to the infant. 

“Food was better, you know?” Goodwin retorted. “Back before the Fall. More restaurants, people cared about what they were making. Those were good times, I think. I miss that. But I guess when you need to focus on living, gourmet food isn’t too much of an option?”

“I guess so,” Kira forced a small laugh in an attempt to acclimate herself to Goodwin’s attitude.

“A nice big hamburger though,” he said, trailing off into his own thoughts. “Yeah, that would taste good. Real good.” 

Kira nodded and they continued to walk. The infant remained silent. The child from the village. They didn’t kill it. The thought both comforted and disheartened her. While she was happy that the child had been spared, the thought of the woman lying on the ground after the attack still haunted her mind.