Stay Alive For Me (TordTom)

1

My steps were taken with caution as I entered the store. Walls were crumbled, leaving debris in my path. Shelves had been tipped over, their contents being spread out around me. I wasn't surprised by the sight in front of me. This store was particularly close to a bomb that hit a while back. In all honesty, I expected this place to be in a much worse state. Though, for the sake of acquiring more food, I was glad it wasn't.

I walked to a shelf housing cans of food. I took a few, reading the labels and making sure none were opened. Peaches, beans, even some sliced pineapple. My bag was about halfway full once I placed the cans inside. I walked around the store, finding bottles of water and other drinks. I quickly placed them in my bag, hardly being able to close it afterwards.

The silence around me was unsettling. I remembered being in this store only a few weeks ago, people bumping into me as they walked past, the smell of fresh seafood lingering in the air. Now all I could smell was ash. The only sounds made were by the howling wind outside and my own footsteps. The cracking underneath my feet was just background noise as I made my way to the front desk, looking over the counter. Some liquid was strewn across the floor, the lack of light preventing me to determine what it was. Though my first guess was soda. An empty bottle was on the other side of the room. I wasn't going to begin trying to determine how it got there in the first place. What's the point?

A quick glance outside told me it was getting late. The sun was already starting to set, though it was hard to tell through the dust and ash in the air. I had spent most of my day gathering new weapons and nourishment, finding a rather nice collection for myself.

I began walking home, thinking about recent events. The bombs weren't even announced. It seems like they came out of nowhere. I chuckled at the memory of myself three weeks ago, having a pitiful argument with Edd about how cola is not an instrument. It was really stupid, but at that moment it didn't matter. We were living our lives with enough time and patience to waste our breaths on something as trivial as an argument. I just prayed that they were safe. Edd and Matt had left two days before the bombing, going on some sort of road trip. I didn't hear from them until the second day, Edd complaining about Matt always looking in the mirror instead of keeping his eyes on the road.

The sun was almost completely out of sight when I made it home. Well, home isn't really the right word. My old house was destroyed in an explosion, leaving the walls crumbled and hardly giving me any protection from the shockwave. So I left, in search of a new hiding spot. One that can shelter me from any sort of debris or harmful scraps. The perfect place ended up being a room at the bottom of a barely intact building.

I had made a slightly cozy place for myself, despite the obvious lack of need to do so. I was going to leave this place again first thing tomorrow. My plan was to make it to the next town over, trying to find any other survivors willing to come with. In the three weeks that I had been looking, I hadn't run into anyone else.

I placed my bag on an old mattress lying on the floor. The blankets and pillows were just large pieces of cloth I could find. I was just glad the bombs that fell weren't atomic, or else I wouldn't be able to eat or drink anything.

With a long sigh, I sat down next to my bag, taking off my hoodie and boots, laying back and letting my body hit the barely soft material under me. I ran my hand through my hair, feeling it spring up again in its usual pineapple style. I closed my eyes, relaxing my muscles into the fabric underneath me. The 'bed' wasn't comfortable, but it was all I had.

After a while of resting, I decided to get up and cook dinner. My hideout had a relatively large hole in the wall, allowing me to have enough ventilation for a fire. I had made a fire here before, having everything already set up. It took a while, but I managed to heat up some beans for my dinner. It wasn't enjoyable to say the least, but the time for preferences was long over. I ate what I could find. The taste didn't matter. It couldn't matter.

There was one good thing to come out of this, though. Even through the clouds of ash and dust, I could clearly see the stars shining brightly in the sky. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen them, twinkling in the darkness beside the moon. The hole in the wall provided the perfect view of the stars, letting the wind softly hit my face. A relaxed breath passed my lips, my jacket being slid off as I positioned myself on the bed. It had been an exhausting three weeks to be honest. My only wish was that I wasn't alone. And that Edd and Matt were ok, of course.

Thin sheets of cloth draped over my body as I laid down, moving the bag of food and weapons off of the mattress. Yes, I was cold. But I didn't have much of a choice. I'd been suffering from a lack of sleep since the bombs hit, the memories haunting me in my dreams. That didn't stop me from closing my eyes and letting my mind take me away. Dreaming was the only escape I had of this place. So I closed my pitch black eyes, my worries slipping away when I slept.