Searching For Home

Burnwell

Closing my notebook, I placed it back into my bag, my feet aching as we continued to walk through the forested area. We had decided to stay just within the treeline as we walked towards nowhere in particular, the lights from the lampposts being our guide in the dark.

"Still writing in that notebook of yours?" I heard Gavin say as he walked beside me, Bella's head drooped along his shoulder as he carried her.

"I don't know what's really going on here, but I want to document it somehow." I explained, readjusting the backpack onto my back until it sat comfortably. "Besides, it gives me something to do."

Silence filled between the two of us as we continued to walk, the lights from the lampposts beginning to flicker off the higher the sun rose in the sky. My school uniform was drenched in my own sweat, clinging to my skin uncomfortably. It felt nice to at least have a skirt to cool my legs off, but it was also very impractical for our trek.

"Where do you think we should go now?" I asked quietly, not wanting to wake Bella from her slumber.

"I don't know." He admitted, his eyes trained forward. "We can't go back home right now and we have no idea what's even going on around us. These Stragglers could just be part of our own town for all we know."

Gavin had a point. If it was simply just part of our town, we could easily just hop over to the next town over and try contacting our family members in hopes that we can reconnect with them. It sounded so simple, yet...

"And what if it's not just our town?" I voiced the worst of my thoughts, looking at Gavin with uncertainty.

His face pulled into a grim expression. "We'll just have to hope that isn't the case."

Gripping onto the straps of my backpack, I trudged on, deep in thought. It wasn't exactly healthy to keep dwelling on the topic, so I decided to talk about something else. "Don't you think it's strange we haven't run into anyone else trying to escape town? We haven't passed any cars and we haven't run into anyone else travelling on foot either."

Gavin shrugged, looking up at Bella as she began to stir on his shoulder, yawning as she rubbed her eyes. "Maybe everyone else went in the other direction of town. I mean, this road we're travelling along isn't a main road either, but you're right to be skeptical about it." He pondered out loud, stopping to let Bella off of his back before continuing alongside me.

I began to absentmindedly pull out some of the beef jerky and an energy drink for the three of us to share in the meantime. The energy drink was probably not the best choice in beverage to give to Bella given her age and my own parent's would have probably scolded me for such an action, but at the moment, it's all we have. The beef jerky was just enough to satisfy our stomachs from the constant grumble and the energy drink felt good going down my throat despite it now being warm after being in my backpack all night.

"Where are we going now?" Bella asked, licking at her lips after finishing her share of beef jerky.

"To the next town over. Since we've been travelling all night, we should be there within the next hour or so." Gavin explained, offering a small smile to her.

"Maybe they'll have a lollipop there." Bella mused, causing Gavin and I to chuckle. "But you owe me two lollipops now since we couldn't find any yesterday after you promised me."

"I'll buy you three lollipops if you walk the rest of the way there all by yourself."

Bella put her index finger to her chin as if she was deep in thought before nodding vigorously. "You've got yourself a deal."

~

About two hours later, we finally arrived to the nearest city, Burnwell. The sun was now almost directly over us, hot sweat causing my clothes to cling to my body even more uncomfortably than it had before. Without a hair tie, my dark hair was damp against my neck and was hot to the touch.

"What should we do first now that we're here?" I asked Gavin, looking around at the town that lay before us.

It was a little smaller than our own hometown and looked almost deserted other than the few people rushing towards their cars from what appeared to be a convenience store. For the most part, Burnwell seemed pretty quiet partly due to its size, but I couldn't help but wonder if it was perhaps too quiet.

"I guess we check out that convenience store and ask around about what's going on." Gavin suggested, already walking towards the store.

Following after Gavin, I began to take note of the appearance of the eery town. It almost felt as if it were one of those old western towns they showed in cowboy movies right before a showdown took place, the streets wide and void of any trees and people. All it was missing was the classic tumbleweed and a setting sun on the horizon and it would have felt like something straight off of a movie set, only the air felt still, almost as if the place itself was on edge. Even if there were any tumbleweed, it wouldn't be tumbling around the streets in this stale air. 

"It looks so...deserted." Gavin spoke, voicing my thoughts. 

"I thought Burnwell was more populated than this." I muttered underneath my breath, my gaze seemingly held in a trance as we watched a beat up tiny red car putter out of the small town in the opposite direction. 

"We should check out that convenience store in the meantime and see if we can find anything else that could be useful to us. Something tells me that we should leave town as soon as we can." He decided, continuing into the threshold of the convenience store without heisitation, it's doors wide open and welcoming us in a way that sent shivers down my spine.