WhiteScratch

Lost

We walked through our town passing all of our friend's houses never once going to say goodbye to anyone. We couldn't handle the pain that was going to come with that small but emotional action. We walked until we were at the border. I looked at Jake and I could see a tear had just dropped out of his eye. I took hold of his hand and he immediately squeezed mine. 

"Are you gonna be ok? You don't have to come with me." I said compassionately. " Yeah, I'll be ok and I want to come with you. I need to make sure you stay safe." He looked at me and could tell I was blushing. I reached with my free hand to wipe his tear away with my thumb. "We do this together?" He squeezed my hand again and said "We do this together." and at that moment we both took our first steps across the border. As soon as I was across my legs got weak and I fell to the ground. Jake got down to help me up but I got up on my own. " Are you ok?!" He asked. I could tell he was worried. "Yeah...yeah I'm fine." but inside something felt wrong. Like some of my strength had been taken away from me, but just as quickly as it all happened it was gone and I was ready for our adventure. The air was clearer out of town it seemed, and we both took a deep breath in. We looked back at what we knew as our home and said goodbye for the last time. 

We walked for what seemed like a day but was really only 2 hours. We were out in the middle of nowhere. Our planet is just a huge dessert. No life aside from our people living here. I had no idea where to go. I decided it was probably just easier to walk straight until we happened upon something. We kept walking for another hour talking like we always have. Making jokes and talking about everything we could think of and just trying to make light out of something that felt hopeless and unsuccessful. We finally came up on an abandoned city. Huge buildings towering up into the clouds. Cars were left on the streets and everything looked like it had been attacked. The buildings windows were all shattered and were missing some of their exterior. Most of them were missing whole walls revealing nothing but dark, empty rooms. The road was all tore up as well as though something had been eating it piece by piece. We walked to the edge of the city and looked at each other. "Should we go in?" Jake asked as though he wasn't terrified at all. "We have to." and then we both took a step in. The air was cold as ice and I could barely see anything. It was like all the life had been sucked right out of this place. Nothing felt right. I reached for Jakes hand and held it tight. "I have a flashlight, I think." I reached into my bag and found the flashlight. I took it out and handed it to Jake who switched it on. When he switched it on I heard something. It sounded like scratching on concrete. I squeezed Jakes hand tighter now and he squeezed back. We were being watched from the shadows.