Life Is Changin'

Summer-The Wilderness

Almost thirty minutes before the Swan Landing people,workers or citizens of the town,when the blazes of hell finally stopped,a boy arrived to the scene in gasps for air.He was carrying a red backpack with the stitches
PROUD TO BE A SCOUT on the design,had black short hair similar to his brother's,and ran to the house,which was now in a desert of dark,saddening ash,in a frenzy.He yelled for his brother,crying his name,hoping that anybody,especially his sibling,could hear the shouting of help.His wish came true very quickly when he saw his one-of-a-kind brother,lying on the Earth face down,trying to get up as if he were doing weak push ups.The boy could tell he was exhausted,tired from the defeat that had just occurred before he came back home.
"Marcus,what-what happened to our house!",Wish exclaimed in shock.
"Wish,not now...we gotta go..."
"Where's Dad?"
"Wait wha-?"
"Where did Dad go,what happened to him?"
"Hey,I'll answer your questions later,right now we have to get out of here.It's the last thing he ordered before he left...somewhere."
Luckily Marcus managed to cover his little brother's mouth,preventing any annoying question that came out of the curious child.While wiping off the dirt on his face,he took Wish by the hand,led him to the wide open range of burnt belongings that were once a token of their memories and lives.They immediately went to work,searching for anything that could be still in valuable use,and though Wish had the uncontrollable urge to blurt out questions,the older wolf would demand him not to talk not even say a word to him.This was not the same Marcus as the one he knew from heart throughout his life:the quiet,sarcastic,and independent person that played the role of his older sibling.Deep down,he hated to be welcomed by this,on his knees,putting his clean hands and clothes onto the unexpected damage that remained in their burnt home.The two brothers finished their two minute scavenger hunt with a few items that were slightly in good use including a frying pan with a bent handle,three Twix bars found in the walk-in pantry,a compass that neither of the boys remembered where they received it,a map that had experienced a small flame that showed only a portion of Swan Landing,and their last find,an instrument case,revealing the complete set of a guitar,untouched yet not damaged for years.To both of their surprise,this was the only treasure that happens to not burn,though it was a redwood,polished acoustic guitar that released a soothing sound when the strings were strummed.Just by the gentle texture when the fingertips touched the body of this gift gave chills to the spine,in a pleasant way of course.By instinct,the oldest wrapped the case containing the instrument behind his back,shoved the other objects inside Wish's backpack,and with a panicked voice declared,
"Wish,we can't stay here any longer,Jac-Dad wanted us to leave this place as soon as possible.
He told me he was gonna drive to the police station,where most help is located,and catch up with us when we go...to the nearest town next door."
He waited for Wish to respond,maybe argue and become skeptic with what came out of his brother's mouth,but he simply nodded and wanted him to continue while saying,
"Where are we going?"
"Us?,"he said,"Well...we're gonna get the hell outta here by foot,walk for miles,run if we have to.Don't ask where we're going just yet,we'll see what the journey brings us no matter how difficult.So enough talking...we're crossing a bridge that separated us from a place that people have abandon for ages,and to think we are the few who actually get to escape to this territory!"
"What's it called,Mark?"
"Cause we're now our own people,living life our own way,I'll call it...the...The Wilderness..."
"Sounds like a common name"
"Nah...sounds better when I say it...hell yeah."

Southeast of where the smokes,ashes,and burning happened,another building was standing tall,but in a teenaged girl's view,her whole world was falling apart,burning in hell.Inside Room 14 of the cheap motel with a suitable care of a queen-sized bed,one bathroom,a closet with an ironing bench,and an old broken TV,the entire place was filled with boxes.Stacks and stacks of cardboard deliver stood as high as the walls,almost building an igloo instead of a hut.The girl's mom was in the shower for the second time today because of the wet drops of sweat on her back and face from a long,crappy day working nonstop for her boss.To make it even more worthless,Mr. Kennedy used to be their neighbor right across from their house when the girl lived with her father.The man (Kennedy) was a pain in the ass from the very first day of Matilda Lee's career in Feathered News,which was a stupid name in both the mother and daughter's opinion.As much as Lee loved the interesting stories from the press,exciting drama the world has to offer,and traveling across the globe,she was introduced to the lowest rank anybody could get in that building:
office duty.Of all choices,the manager fucking placed her in a cubical,forced her to spend over eight hours inside the lonely small space,
and all because she was...had an Asian descent.See,from the first look at the Lee family,you could obviously assume their culture,traditions,fetises,and inheritance came from Japan,and Matilda okay with stereotypes here and there.
The daughter had overcome them too very quickly and so did the father,but to her surprise,Kennedy was a fucking,insulting piece of crap when it came to "them".
In the first week of work,her coworkers became friends,strangers appealed to her,and frankly they treated Matilda as one of them...but when it came to meet the boss of the work,she really wished she could run away,never been hired to the press in the first place.As offensive and rude,that sorry excuse of a manager lowered her pay,barked more often at her,flooded endless amounts of paper work,gave very tight deadlines,and to push her off-her-limits,called her childish,shit names like
"Rice Eater","Blindy",and his personally favorite:
"Hey,Asian Smartass,get back to work!"
The torture led to her messed-up suicidal thoughts and wishes to kill the bastard,but after some counseling and support from her coworker friends,she overcame these insults,and eventually they started to protect this storm their employer was making.She faced these dramatic era of news work for almost 14 years,the same age as the daughter's,but it was after Jane Berling was hired two months ago from today that made Mr.Kennedy fire Matilda,a dream he knew would come true while the mother of a badass daughter and the wife of an ignorant husband grieved in millions of tears.
"Mom,what the hell?,"her child asked at that time,
"Why are you sobbing on the couch?"
Her mother lifted her head and eyes at her beloved,
sighing daughter while she waited for another breakdown.When she was stabilizing herself,Matilda finally spoke,
"S-s-sweety...I-I....th-at son o-of a b-b-bi-tch fired m-me!"
The stuttering was enough to make words the girl understand the suffering depression her mom was facing,comforting her in silence,while the husband,who Matilda will divorce,sleep in peacefulness 
on their queen-sized bed.
The sound of the small shower broke the dark memories that hammered her brain frequently,24/7 stares into the void of sad and black,a balance between the sight of life or death.
Before her mom exited the bathroom,Marceline reached for the walkie talkie sitting next to a table near her,went to sit by the window to watch the slow sunset,and press the button on the side of the tool.
"Check,check...is this thing on...oh cool...hey...hey dumbass-"