Ashes

Chapter 3

Rishi woke to the sound of rattling. He rubbed his eyes, as he always does, and sat up. All he saw was a light shining off some white medicine bottles and his sister's legs. He got out of his sleeping bag and walked up to Lil, sitting in front of her. "Hey." "Hey." Their usual greeting. Rishi moved a little to the side, allowing him to lean against some shelves. "Anything useful?" He asked. "Yeah, actually. Some aspirin, antibiotics and cough medicine." She looked at him with a smile "Even if we find nothing else, this would be worth it." Rishi smiled back, and closed his eyes for a while, ridding him of the last bits of tiredness that pulled on his eyelids. He awoke to a small sting to the side of his face. "Wake up, Rishi. Sheesh, you just slept. Why are you always so tired? You literally slept less than a minute ago." "I don't know. I guess I just wake up before I'm done sleeping..?" They sat in silence a while, the only noise being the medicine being shook and tossed in the bag. This went on for a while. "... Hey, could you teach me to read?" "Now? Rishi, is this really the time, mid-scavenging?" "Oh, come on. If I can read as well, I might be able to find some more useful stuff. Well, atleast decide it's more useful. Because... I can read then... Y'know." Lil giggled a little. "Nice explanation. Fine, get over here." Rishi moved next to Lil, looking at the bottle she was holding. "Alright, I'll begin by teaching you the letters. This is an 'A', you know that one?" "Yeah, I see it on batteries all the time." "Alright, this is an 'S'. This is a 'P', then an 'I', 'R', another 'I', then finally an 'N'. Understood?" Lil said, pointing out each letter as she spoke them. "Uhh... I think." Rishi began pointing at the letters "So, 'A', 'S', 'P', 'I', 'R', 'I', 'N'. What does that mean?" "Think about it for yourself. Think about those letters yourself." "A, S, P,... Ayes... I have no idea." "It's Aspirin. I mean, do you know any other medicine that starts with an 'A'?" Lil sighed. "Anyways, these are the last few bottles I could find. Would you mind already packing all our stuff while I finish up here?" Rishi got up, and complied, starting with his own sleeping bag.

"So what was the haul, exactly?" Rishi asked. He knew the answer, but was just hoping to get rid of the deafening silence that surrounded them. "Nothing too special. Five full bottles of aspirin and a half one, six bottles of antibiotic, and some miscellaneous medicine that might help in a pinch, but isn't gonna be needed constantly." The silence came back, not a noise to be heard, until a loud crack alerted both of them. "Must have been a collapsing building. That happens all the time." Lil said, worry still audible in her voice, despite her reassuring words. "No, if came from that blue house, right over there." Rishi said, pointing at a large two-story building with a now caved in roof, right across the street. "If it collapsed it wouldn't happen so suddenly. It would have creaked first. I think we should check out what caused it to collapse." He pulled out a small knife from his backpack. "First of all, stupid idea. Second of all, even if someone or something made it collapse, why do you automatically assume you'll need to fight them?" Rishi rolled his eyes, and started moving towards the house, slowly and cautiously. Lil, after rolling her eyes as well, started to simply walk towards the house. Eventually they both reached the door, and Rishi opened it slowly in a failed attempt to stop the door from creaking. "Nice work, Rishi. Try and open it a bit louder next time, maybe they hadn't heard us." "Oh, shush. I tried." "Unsuccessfully." Rishi, knife in hand, walked in, expecting a fight. After walking through a few rooms, they stumbled upon where the roof collapsed. "Doesn't look like anyone's here." "Wouldn't be sure about that, sis. Look, window's been opened." He took his flashlight, and turned it on, pointing it at the ash on the ground. "Footprints. Looks like they're headed... To the front door." Suddenly, he heard a loud smack, and a thud. He turned around, and before he could register anything else, he felt a pain in the side of his head, for a split second heard a thud, before everything went black.