Twelve Days Living

Chapter Four

Back to the present 

"Aurora! Wake up!" I heard a voice frantically whispering. My eyes fluttered open, with some exhausted effort, as they adjusted to the different lighting. There were a few beams of light spilling in through the windows, moving slowly, illuminating everything possible through the broken glass, and stone frames. Flashlights. I realized, with a sharp stab to my heart, that made it start skipping. I grabbed Brees hand immediately, and crouched behind the counter as best I could. I quickly, but carefully moved along the rim, keeping my head low. Bree knew better than to linger, as she followed in suit.

We reached a staff only door, and I quickly opened it, praying there was an exit in the next room. We crawled inside, hoping that, above anything, they didn't see the door open or close. We stood, and slipped out the back exit, holding our breath all the while. Bree didn't let go of my hand as we ran as far, and as fast as possible from the building, me half pulling her along with me. After a few minutes of sprinting, we slowed, and began to walk at a quick pace.

"There is a reason why you joined track, and I didn't." Breanna finally said, after a long while of silence. I laughed, but didn't feel like much of it was genuine. She had a tendency- even now- to compare us. As if I was any better than she was. I, was a sports kid, she was an all A's kid. I did track, basketball, and softball. She was the student council president, and was in the literature club. She was better than me, if anything. Even if we weren't in the same field in school. Even though she was great at sports, she put all of her time into her classes.

"Where those scavengers, or where they a bunch of new Macki?" I asked, skipping over her attempt at a joke.

"I have no idea, I didn't get a good look. I didn't see anything that looked out of place,- you know, on their necks. But then again, they were further away when I went over to wake you up."

"That's fine, at least we got out of there. Both of those things could have caused problems, that I wouldn't be too happy to deal with."

We continued to walk in silence, out of the newfound city, long past gone the days people used to inhabit it. Reaching the outskirts of town, we passed a sign declaring we were leaving Ridgway. We have been in Colorado for a couple weeks, heading north to Canada, for hell knows what reason. Just trying to find any way to escape the horrors of the U.S. states. We had gotten word that Mexico, and Canada had put up walls, not long after the infection of America. The Mexico border wall had been breached over two months ago, which is why we were on the run all over again.

We haven't slept in days, too paranoid of being caught. We had finally found a place where we could rest, when those people showed up. It had come as no surprise that we couldn't stay in one place for very long, they were everywhere. Roaming the streets, and crawling around any building that had not collapsed over the past couple years. Everything was one thousand times worse than the last time we had been here.