Us Against The World

Chapter 37

"You getting hungry?" Jexton asks after another fifteen to twenty minutes of silence. The cool air has snatched my breath and is dangling it above my head. When I try to speak, my voice comes out in short puffs of clouded fog. "Yes." I managed and Jexton wraps his arm around me in attempts to warm me up. 

"We'll find somewhere to crash shortly. Somewhere warm. It's getting dark anyway." he says and I nod. I hope he's telling the truth. If we're out here any longer, my blood will freeze and I will be stiff with nothing but cold running through my veins.

I'm growing more and more impatient as the minutes pass and I'm hoping Jexton and I find somewhere to stay soon. "Hey, there's a neighborhood!" Jexton says excitedly, pointing down the road ahead of us. He turns to me and smiles and I smile back. Thank goodness.

As we make our way toward the small neighborhood, we're sure to be cautious. The last thing we need are more guns pointed to our faces. 

"It looks dead." Jexton says and stands from our hiding spot behind a bush that is severely lacking leaves. I think about pulling him back down, but decide against it. The last thing I want is to be a burden to him again.

I finally stand after a few more moments of looking around and decide to agree with Jexton that the coast is clear. He begins walking and I stay close behind.

"Pick a house." Jexton says as we stand in front of a road with rows of houses on either side. I look at him and he nods, then smiles, assuring me that it is my decision.

There are many houses to choose from and I try not to take my time picking the best one. I know Jexton is as cold and hungry as I am, but I want to make sure that the house we choose to spend the night in is one that we'll want to stay in for a while.

"That one." I say, pointing to a decent sized mobile home. The paint on the outside is a light blue and chipped, with flowery bushes that are welted. I decide on this house because it is the one that has the most appealing yard, and none of the yards are very appealing. Jexton nods and we walk to it.

The front door is made of wood and has a small widow toward the top. The knob is rusty but it opens with ease. Jexton and I share the surprise that it is not locked; as abandoned houses usually are after soldiers have raided the property and the people that once called them home have been either taken or killed. Sometimes they just let the bodies lie there and decompose in the streets. 

"Good choice." Jexton says, nodding in approval as we look around the house. 

The floors are made of two different colored woods and a large rug covers the majority of the living room which is the first room seen when you enter the house. There is a small television set in the corner, and the couches are filled with dust. A cloud floats around Jexton when he plops himself down. He coughs and I laugh. 

Paintings cover the walls of nearly the entire living room and hallway, and I'm intrigued that there are no family portraits of pictures of any kind to give us the slightest idea of who used to live here.

I grab the bag of food from Jexton before making my way to the kitchen. I set the bag on the ceramic table. The cupboards are white and the handles are made of copper which has rusted over the years. I yank open the small doors in hopes to find more food. 

To my surprise, there are a couple bags of cereal, a box of raw noodles and a few cans of mixed fruit. I look in the refrigerator and find a half full gallon of milk, orange juice, and three glass bottles of Coca Cola. 

"Seems like these people just left." I say to myself. "What?" Jexton's voice startles me and he laughs hysterically. I swat at his arm as he walks toward me. 

"There's food in the cupboards and stuff in the fridge. It seems like whoever lived here just left 'cause none of this stuff looks old." I grab the mil and orange juice to check the dates on them, and surprisingly, they are far from going bad. Jexton enters the kitchen and looks through the cupboards himself. He finds a bag of unopened donuts and shakes them at me. 

"Breakfast tomorrow." he says and places them back where he had gotten them. I smile and watch as he unloads the bag of food Gwen had given us and places all of the items in the necessary place. 

"We could stay here." I say and Jexton turns around but I'm too busy admiring my surroundings to look at him. "I mean, it's big enough, it's nice, isolated." I say and shift my eyes to his. He raises his brow in concern and I shake my head confusedly. "We don't want to be on the road all the time. You said it yourself: it's not safe. We need somewhere to stay and I think this is perfect." 

"But this is somebody else's house. I don't think it's right." he says and I try not to roll my eyes. "Well, the people were raided out. Our names are written all over these walls." my metaphor sends Jexton into thought. "Well, there were no locks on the doors, so maybe they're just out. Imagine if you came home to find two homeless kids in your house. I roll my eyes, sigh and shift my weight.

"Okay... well, for one, we're not kids," 

"Teenagers." I bob my head.

"Young adults." Jexton rolls his eyes and I almost laugh at his annoyance toward my correcting him. 

"Second, we won't be homeless if we have somewhere to go, and third, people don't live here anymore," Jexton opens his mouth to object, but I continue and beat him to it. "and if they do, I will explain to them myself what we're doing and why we're here. Okay? Now let's eat and get some sleep."

I can tell by Jexton's body language that he doesn't have the words or energy to protest against my conversation ender, and I'm glad. All I want to do is sleep.

(Hey guys... I'm sorry for such a late update. I've had writers block for the past two days, so please forgive me! I hope you guys are liking the story so far; it's almost done!)