Alone [Jenlisa Adaptation]

Chapter 1

Another lonely day at the Kim residence, which is pretty common after my brother disappeared almost six months ago, he was my only company, my protector, the only one I had left after our parents died. Now every morning is sad, but it's a kind of sadness that is familiar, expected, when you live in a world like this you expect your loved ones to die any moment, you prepare yourself since the day you are born to not be affected, to be familiar  with it.

We are born to fight, to walk great distances looking for food and water, expecting to die at any moment, to not trust anyone except your family, to not help others and always think of yourself first no matter what.

But I'm not like that, I have never gone out to look for provisions or interacted with other people besides my family and close neighbors, I don't know how the outside is, or what problems lie out there, all I know are the stories my family told me when they got back from days of hunting.

I wasn't raised like others, while others might be used to loosing people, I'm suffocating everyday in loneliness. I miss my brother, I miss dad, I miss mom. I don't know what to do, I don't know where I can go to find what I need, I don't know anything.

The lack of provisions in storage proves that it was not the right way to raise someone for this world. When my parents died, my brother continued this overprotecting method, it never occurred to him that maybe someday he would be gone as well, leaving me with no knowledge to protect myself with to keep on living, now I don't know how to survive.

All I know is I need water, not only for myself but to keep my plants alive, my only source of food since I can't handle any weapons to hunt or know how to identify the good animals from the bad ones.

There's a lot of things I don't know, but I do know that if I stay here I'm going to die of dehydration and starvation, I need to go out there, no matter how much it scares me, I need to.

I prepare myself early, grabbing a big backpack I stuff it with some food and what's left of my water, I also grab a big knife just in case, dad always said there were horrible people out there so I need to be ready for it, I hope I don't have to use it, though.

I look for the most important item for my excursion, the notebook. Filled with all kinds of information, although most of it outdated, this item will help me find the right type of plants, the ones that are edible and won't kill me, it has drawings of them and tell you where to find them, but it's so old most of the locations written there don't exist anymore, it has been on my family for ages after all.

Getting a hold of the notebook I mentally prepare myself for my first steps on the outside, I walk towards the balcony to admire the horizon, the big desert in front of me looks calm, but I know better than that, it has already taken away my family.

"Don't worry, I'll be back." I say out loud to the empty space that is my home, the same words they used to say to me after disappearing for days leaving me worried and scared.

I live in a damaged apartment, most of the building is in ruins except for the little space I call home. It's perfect since it stands elevated with the steam beams that passed the test of time, there's no way to come up here, just the rope ladder my family build a long time ago, it stands alone in the middle of the dessert, is perfect because it's isolated, is perfect because the nighters can't come in.

I put on a scarf around my neck to protect myself from the sand and put on a pair of goggles, the ones my mom used to wear, taking a deep shaky breath, I untie the ladder hanging from the balcony. This is it, I'm finally going to do it, I'm finally going out to the outside. The thought of what I'm going to encounter over there keeps my heart beating hard against my chest.