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Chapter 3: The City

Andy lead us to a well in the centre of the town, and we collected plenty of water, filling our canteens to the brim. We fiound bits and pieces in different ruins, salvaging clothes and equipment where we could. We left the town within an hour, following the dirt road east towards the main roads. I figured that it would be the quickest way to find the city, and if we could find the city, we could find other people.

Andy was a good kid. He didn't complain once throughout the whole day, even when all we had for dinner was a tin of beans and watery pear slices. I was trying to ration our supplies; we would run out quickly otherwise. Despite having a small child and a poor leg, we managed to travel quite a distance towards the city.

When nightfall came, we figured we should take a break for the night. We pulled out a few sleeping bags and layed them out. All we could hope was that a snake didn''t sneak in with us in the middle of the night. We were quite lucky that night, Andy and Lily slept well, but I stared at the stars for hours contemplating the day's events. I must have fallen asleep at some point, because when morning came I was awakened by Andy shouting in my ear to get up.

For a week we continued like this. Each night Andy would start a campfire for us, and we would enjoy the small amount of plain food we gave ourselves. We would discuss theories on how all of this began, the craziest of which being Andy's suggestion that perhaps a crossbreed of penguins and lions all burped violently and turned half of the world into dust. It was this point that I gave up on trying to figure out what happened. I guess this was when I first truly began to stop asking why, instead I began to just accept the reality in front of me and just try to survive until tommorow.

It was weird to walk along what used to be busy roads, and not even have an animal in sight. On our final day of travelling,  Lily and I were having a discussion about how we hadn't even seen a snake or a spider yet, and disagreeing on whether or not they were destroyed along with most of the world. We were so deep in discussion, it wasn't until Andy shouted with joy and began running ahead that we realised the outskirts of Sydney were right in front of us.

A half destroyed sign lay on the ground, covered in dust. I cleaned it up well enough to see the words "Welcome to Sydney". I shouted after Andy to wait up, and we ran to catch up to him. 

"We're going to have to be careful. Whatever happened to this world, it wasn't good. And we don't know who we can trust. It's a big city, so it may be a few days before we find your parents." I told him, masking the worry in my voice. For when I looked around, the city was in ruins. No large skyscrapers remained, only fallen towers and ruins.

"Don't worry, I know where they are staying, they always stay at my Grandparents' place when they visit, so I can take us there. It should only take a few hours to walk there." Andy replied confidently.

So we continued towards the end of our trek. We didn't see a single living thing throughout our journey. Eventually, we reached the house. Andy let excitement get the better of him, and quickly dashed into the house - the door was non-existent.

"Mum! Dad! It's Andy! Are you ok? Grandad? Grandma? Hello?" he shouted, his voice getting progressively more agitated and shaky with each call.

Lily and I followed him in. The house was just as ruined as everywhere else we had been. The sun had begun it's descent below the horizon. We searched the house thoroughly 3 times. I shouted to the others to be careful of the smashed glass over in the corner, and that's when I spotted a smashed photoframe. Andy ran in, and looked down at the ground. I followed his line of vision to see a picture of Andy and what seemed to be his parents lifting him into the air together, smiling happily. I picked it up and handed it to Andy. He pocketed it. I told him maybe they left to find more people, to find us, maybe to a safer place.

"I don't think so. They would have left a note, left something. I don't think they made it."

His voice was broken, quiet. He hugged me tightly, sobbing gently into my t-shirt as the sun dissappeared from the sky, and darkness fell.