The Masked Child

Chapter 3: The New City

As we drove into halldrove city past the welcome sign since Jasmine has been here before she was telling me where to go in order to enter the biggest store here. Unlike where we just came from most of the buildings were not on fire nor did they look like they were burning at any point in time. However all the windows were completely shattered and some houses caved-in one house even caved-in as we drove past it. It looks like there was no one here for years, no dead body's, no dead trees, not even any wildlife here. there was an open field farm near here with a bunch of animals however they were only on the side furthest away from this city almost as though scared by what was here. 

"Hey Kevin, do- do you think we are gonna live through this." Jasmine asked with a very worried tone and look

"Yeah we will live through this. We are going to figure out how this happened, put an end to this virus and rebuild. Plus these powers are pretty cool you can't deny that so it's not all bad." I say trying to reassure her but am not very confident myself and I think she noticed

"How can you even try to act so cool about-..." her voice starts trailing off. "Hey can you tell me about your past?"

"Sure, why not. I spent most of my life jumping from foster home to foster home after both of my parents died in a fire. When I was 14 I decided to leave and try to live alone and was successful for awhile. I became lonely so got a golden colored lab and named her goldy. After another seven years she was hit by a car, I took her to the vet and they said they couldn't save her and she had to be put down. Well and then this whole mess happened."

"Jesus your life sounds like a hard one."

"Meh, you get used to it I guess. What was your life like before this whole thing?"

"Well when I was five I had 2 dogs and 3 cats. I had both parents and four siblings. When I was seven my dad, older brother, older sister, and little sister died in a really bad car crash. Throughout the next couple years all my animals started dying of cancer and old age. When I was sixteen my mother died of a heart attack so it was just me and my older sister left. Last week she went to japan for vacation, so I don't know whether she is alive or not. Pull over here this is the store."

I pull over and we both hop out of the van and enter the store. It was way too dark to see anything. The only light there was happened to be the store lights that couldn't stay on for more then a second at a time and the sparks flying out of the wire sticking out of the wall. Less than a day and the world completely turned to shit. I still want to know how this all happened and so fast. There was an emergency box that was smashed open, underneath it there was blood on the wall that spelled out "HELP ME."  

We walked around the store looking for a flashlight. With how crappy the lighting was it is pretty hard to find anything, under the no name chips I found a flashlight but when I tried to use it I found out that the batteries were dead. Luckily for me I can make power, I try to hold back a lot so I don't ruin it like with the car battery. I once again fry it but my lighting has a weird bright glow so I don't even need it. As I walk around I notice that other than the lights and wires this store is actually very clean compared to what I thought it was like. All of a sudden the lights stopped flickering and just stayed on.

"Kevin! Get back here!" I heard Jasmine yell from the back of the store

I run to the back of the store to see mountains of food. There are crates and crates of food filled with stuff like, cereal, pop tarts, canned beef, potatoes, and more types of junk food. They were shelves of food in neat rows, enough food to last me and her for at least five hundred years well if food didn't expire and go bad.

"Isn't this great? We can just live here. We don't have to go anywhere just set up in this city. We have food there's a gun shop down the street, so we can also defend ourselves from the things out there and can live in peace." Jasmine said with a half assed smile and tears running down her cheeks

"Staying here isn't gonna be a good idea." I say feeling bad about immediately shooting down her idea. "We don't have any clue or idea about what is happening. This clearly is not something natural, there is no way to know what is happening. I don't think guns and food are gonna save us."

"I think I understand what you are trying to say. You are probably right. Let's get some food in the van and head out to figure out what is going on."

"Alright let's load up the van and then head south to the U.S."

"Why the U.S.?" she asks with a confused look

"It doesn't have to be the U.S. we can go anywhere where there are a lot of people, find some body's and figure out what exactly is inside of us."

"Alright seems legit. Let's go find some dead people."

We both keep going back and forth from the store to load the van with food. after a couple trips I opened one crate to find it filled with dead body's, I jump back and pretend I didn't see that. I just then gather more food out of the crates. Yay months and months of nothing but junk and canned food great... that's not gonna be bad at all. After the van is loaded we both hop back into the front two seats and I start it up. 

"You are not gonna have enough gas to get there! It's all her fault! Hit her with your lightning! She deserves to be punished!" The voice in the back off my head seems like it has its own emotions separate from my own, I really wish I could get rid of this damn annoying voice. Of course I'm not gonna hit her with lightning I have no reason to and it would be a waste of energy.

After five hours of driving we entered what used to be a very populated city. The first place we go to is a very big five star hotel. I was hoping to find any kind of body but what I found instead was just terrifying.