The Ruins

Chapter 6

The exit of the East Tunnel was through the floor of a long-since abandoned diner lying just outside the wall of the quarantine zone.

Despite the generally-dilapidated feel (every window broken and every door hanging off their hinges) the interior of the diner was strangely neat and tidy. Every table still had condiment bottles and napkin holders neatly laid out on mostly-intact tables in largely intact booths. The soda dispenser still stood on the counter and empty but largely-intact drinks cabinets stood against the walls.

Lalon was striding confidently towards the doors whilst Mal re-settled the cobbled-together wooden cover to the top of the tunnel. "Be careful!" She called out.

"When am I not?"

Mal couldn't help a smile. "Is that a trick question?"

As for outside...? Well, Lalon put it best: "Ain't been out here in a while!"

"True!" Both Vix and Lugh shouted.

Mal looked around the space, having the familiarity of cities being a forest or a canyon in a jungle. A few abandoned cars, long since rusted into skeletal shapes, marked what had once been the location of sidewalks. Power and light poles stood in places, others having long since heeled over like dead trees. Vines, thick bushes and young trees grew everywhere, consuming the works of Man. Most of the centre of the road had long since been swept away by the out-flow from a shattered water main that had flooded up through the road surface before its supply had been cut off. Years of rains and erosion and swept away the remaining black-top, leaving a watery shallow crater that was rapidly turning into a swampy lake. The call of frogs and the buzz of flying insects filled the air.

"Y'know, being out here with you feels kinda special. It's almost as if we're on a date or something!" Vix explained.

Lalon chuckled. "Well, I am the romantic type," he responded, earning a warm smile from his friend. Mal rolled her eyes-romantic people.

"Oh... you got your ways!" She elbows Mal and she pushes her in payback.

The RK's sloshed through the knee-deep water to the other side of the road - a residential building over commercial premises once, now a crumbling ruin with gaping holes caused by more heavy weapons fire from the worst of the post-outbreak anarchy.

One particular wall was suspiciously clear of growth. Lugh looked around in annoyance. "Where's the ladder?"

"It's gotta be around here somewhere." Vix turned away from the wall and began to walk along the row of decaying buildings, searching for the tell-tale glint of maintained metal amidst the hip-high grasses, saplings and the omnipresent colour of rusting metal. Seeing her objective, Vix leant down and lifted the ladder up into a carry. "Got it!" She almost struggles until Lugh helps her, earning a sly smile from her.

Mal stepped back as they manoeuvred the ladder in place, on the wall under the breach so they could access the second storey of the building. Suddenly as Lugh was about to go up, Lalon holds against him, palming into his leather jacket chest, then stepped back and gestured courteously. "Ladies first!"

Mal agilely scaled the ladder but couldn't help but make a comment. "Lady? You must be thinking of someone else!"

This earned a chuckle from both smugglers. "It's all relative," Lalon remarked. Although he never saw it and a good way, this made her smile and blush ever so slightly. She hates it, why her body does this.

Once inside the former luxury apartment, she decided to take a look around. The main room was once a luxurious lounge centred on a pool table. Through the door was the kitchen and dining room.