Ravaged Land - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (8 page)

“We’re coming too,” Dean said answering for both himself and Sienna.

Ryan didn’t say anything, he just walked off and shut the bathroom door behind him.

I don’t think I could stop myself from looking a little disappointed. Owen put his hand on my shoulder, “Aw, I don’t think it’s you or anything. He saw what’s out there, we haven’t.”

“Well, maybe he knows best and we should stay here,” I said with a shrug and suddenly doubted myself. What if I was making a mistake?

“Maybe, but we won’t know unless we go,” Owen said curling his lips into a half smile. I smiled back, I couldn’t have agreed with him more. “Besides he didn’t say we shouldn’t.”

“Well, OK then. Let’s pack and make sure we get a good night’s rest?” Seth said sounding more like he was asking than he was telling. I hoped I wouldn’t be looked at as the leader of this adventure because I wasn’t a leader, far from it. I wouldn’t know what to do or where to go.

Everyone agreed and went off in separate directions to take care of whatever they needed to take care of. I emptied out my backpack that I still had with me from the first day we came down here, it felt as though a lifetime had passed since that day. I filled it with the things I thought I might need, several changes of clothes, toothbrush and stuffed in as many water bottles as I could. There was a second bag in the closet which was smaller with a flap closure that was held in place with a thin strip of Velcro. This one I filled with snack bars, pop tarts and anything else I could find that would have a long shelf life. I realized we were giving up having a kitchen and pantry, warm food and having something to eat any time we wanted. Without knowing exactly what was out there for us, I worried it might be foolish to be giving up this luxury.

Before bedtime I had checked my pack at least six times before I could settle down in my cozy bed. It was another luxury that would soon be gone. Sienna was already sleeping and the boy’s room was pretty quiet, they were either sleeping or about to be. I pulled up the covers and pushed my head against the softness of the pillow. It didn’t take long until I drifted off into a dreamland where everything was perfect again.

Chapter six.

Ryan had his things packed and was sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him, waiting for us. He had decided to join us whether he really wanted to or not. Part of me felt bad for him, even if he wanted to stay here, it would have been hard for him to make that choice with everyone else leaving. It would have been too lonely for him to have stayed by himself. Heck, I wondered if he hadn’t already been lonely even with all of us here. I couldn’t help but wonder if the dips in power and dwindling food supplies, not to mention all the food we took, played a part in his decision making process.

“Morning,” I said to him without making eye contact. The lights dimmed momentarily, and I felt a bit better about things, but Ryan didn’t even seem to notice.

“Morning.”

He popped up as if he had just remembered something and walked off into the pantry. Perhaps he was mad at me for being so quick to suggest we leave, without even a real conversation about it. He was probably right to feel that way, I should have put it up for some kind of vote or something. Not to mention he and I had sort of been a team down here, watching the cameras and listening to the radio. I hadn’t even given him a chance, I just stomped all over his toes and made the call.

When we had all gathered together, we quietly ascended the stairs in single file. Ryan first, I followed close behind both nervous and eager to see everything for myself. Before we even got halfway up the staircase, I could feel the drastic change in temperature even with the door closed. He opened the door at the top of the stairs and the blast of hot air that hit my face was overwhelming. It felt like sitting too close to a campfire. My face felt like it was roasting and it had only been a matter of seconds. I took the hair-tie off my wrist and put my hair up. It was a sad attempt to cool down.

“Christ!” I heard Owen complain behind me, “I must be in hell, maybe this is hotter.”

The others behind him all groaned when the wave of heat rippled towards them. There hadn’t been much shade since everything had been uprooted and torn down by the storms. It had been too hot and with everything drying out, nothing was growing back. I spun around slowly just as Ryan had when we watched him on the camera. I was surveying this new world. The pure devastation was shocking. The cameras didn’t even come close to showing how bad things really were. I felt a tear form in the corner of my eye, but it evaporated before I could even flick it away.

Ryan’s grandpa’s house was completely gone. There was nothing left except for a few stray wooden boards, dirt, and twigs which covered what was once the basement. What was even more shocking was seeing dirt for as far as the eye could see. The roads were mostly gone, everything covered in a layer of rough, crusty mud. Crumbled parts of concrete were sprinkled around so you could still see where the roads had been. There were random structural parts of homes still standing, and across the street there was a single partial wall erect among the devastation. Just a wall. Nothing more, just a wooden frame with some peeling drywall and what appeared to be wallpaper hanging off the side.

Sienna was crying. It was a silent cry, but tears streamed down her face nonetheless.

I reached over and put my hand on her shoulder, “It’ll be OK, everything will be rebuilt. It just takes time.”

“It’s… not… that,” she said between sobs.

I looked at her my eyebrows scrunched together, I didn’t know what she was upset about if it wasn’t about everything having been erased away. She didn’t explain and buried her face into her hands.

“That was where our house used to be,” Dean said pointing down what was left of the road, “it’s gone, nothing there,” he explained. I couldn’t even tell exactly where he was pointing because all that was there was crusty dirt.

“We should check out the area, maybe there is something there?” I suggested, “I think I’d like to see my house too if that’s OK? You know, just to be sure.” To make sure it was gone, even though I knew it was. I felt a flutter of sadness in my throat.

We walked towards the empty space that used to hold the Coats’s home. Sienna and Dean paced the dirt searching for anything, a little trinket, or some kind of reminder, but there wasn’t anything. It had all been blown or washed away.

“I’m sorry,” was all I could offer them verbally. Dean nodded while Sienna swallowed a big lump of awfulness deep down inside herself. “Who’s house next?”

“Mine would be, I think? Not exactly sure where you lived Ros,” Owen said, and I flinched a little when he used the past tense of live. He walked across what had been the street and then several blocks further away from the shelter. Owen would have been a street over from Dean’s house. They had lived close together, which I guess is why they had been walking home together. Probably also why they had been friends having lived in the same neighborhood.

There was nothing here either. Owen let the sand sift through his fingers for a while before standing and kicking at the ground, but just like the Coats’s home, the Maitland’s house was gone too.

“Seth where did you live?” I asked.

“Across town, lucky I was hanging out with these guys or I probably wouldn’t be alive right now,” he said with a nervous chuckle.

“We can go there next,” I said, “Mine is just over this way.”

I plodded towards where my house once stood, I was both anxious and apprehensive, I knew what I’d find, and what I wouldn’t find. As I suspected, my house was gone as well, all except for a small part of the garage which was still standing. It offered us a moment of shade. It was still hotter than hell but at least the sun wasn’t beating down on us.

Everything had been blown away, all except for a key that was still hanging on a hook. It was one of the keys for the moped that had been given to me by my grandparents. The other key must have fallen off and blown away, or maybe it was buried somewhere in the dried up muck. I had rarely used the moped, but I had loved it since it was a gift from my grandma and grandpa. I crammed the key into my pocket even though the moped was gone, it would serve its purpose as a memory.

A piece of paper floated down to my feet when I removed the key. I picked it up and saw it was a hand written note. Was it possible that my mom could have come back to leave me a note? Maybe she thought I’d come back and check on the house if I could. The problem was most of what had been written had been washed and weathered away. The paper was brittle, it had probably soaked up a lot of water and then in this heat had dried to a crisp. I was a little surprised it was still intact. On the note, the only word I could make out was ‘going,’ at least I was almost certain that’s what it said. There was another partial word, but too many letters were missing to even make a guess, all I could tell is that it started with the letter ‘A’. I took the paper and gently placed it in the front pocket of my backpack hoping it would be safe there. Maybe when I had more time I could look it over better and be able to figure out what it had said, but for all I knew it was just an old grocery list.

“One second,” I said yanking out a bottle of water from my backpack. My throat was dry from the heat and air. Perhaps only twenty minutes or so had passed maybe a half hour, and I already was feeling dehydrated. I chugged the water so fast you could hear my swallows. “OK, ready,” I said chucking the bottle against the garage wall. We started silently across town towards Seth’s house.

Our area had been hit the worst, at least of what we’d seen so far. Once we got closer to the school, more of the buildings were in somewhat better shape, especially those of brick. But still most of it gone as if they’d never existed. Some of the school still stood but nothing substantial, it was still mostly shredded. The roof had been ripped clean off, there wouldn’t have been anyone inside.

“This is just too hot,” Owen said panting in the minimal shade provided by the school, “that was one good thing about the shelter, it was nice and cool.”

I nodded in agreement, I too was not a fan of the heat, nor was Seth. I couldn’t imagine anyone actually liked this temperature. Those who lived in places this hot must have done so out of pure necessity. At the same time, I was glad to be able to move freely, without being restricted to just a few rooms. I was no longer feeling claustrophobic, but now I was perpetually uncomfortable in my damp, sweaty clothes. At least I could breathe in real, albeit hot, fresh air.

After we took a five minute rest, we continued towards Seth’s, which turned out was only a few more blocks. When we got there it was in the best condition of all the houses. The roof had been mostly torn off just like most buildings, but three of the four exterior walls were still standing. Some of the flooring wasn’t coated in dried mud, and I could even make out which rooms had been the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. We all leaned against the wall that provided us with the most cover from the sun while Seth roamed about, picking things up and then placing them back where they once had been. Most things were just shattered pieces of who-knows-what covered in mud. Not much of anything could have been salvaged, but he shoved a few things in his backpack, nothing he wanted to tell us about and no one asked. Just like when no one asked me about keeping the key that was clearly useless.

“Where to now?” Owen asked me as if I had a plan I hadn’t shared with them. I wouldn’t be able to lead the group anywhere, I was just as lost as they were.

“I’m not sure. To be honest, this is pretty much a disaster area,” I said keeping the sadness out of my voice as much as possible. This had been my town. This is where I had lived and where I grew up. Everything I had ever known or cared about wiped away and all that remained were unrecognizable pieces of what had been people’s lives.

Our searching for answers had taken up the whole morning, and based on the position of the sun, I guessed we were well into the afternoon. The heat was blistering, almost literally, and unrelenting. We hadn’t run into any other living soul, which I thought is what we all secretly hoped to do, find someone, ask questions, get answers and be saved. That didn’t happen. It was just as lonely out here as it had been trapped in our underground hideaway, only up here we had more places to go.

“Let’s find dinner, then a place to stay for the night,” Ryan suggested.

“Sounds perfect,” I said smiling at him thankful he had come up with a plan. It may have been a short plan, but it was a plan.

“Let’s head to where the Target used to be,” Sienna said. Even our small town had a Target. Where there was a need, there was a giant retailer willing to swoop down and fill it.

We were surprised when we saw the big bulls-eye still mostly attached to the building. The whole store was almost completely intact minus parts of the roof and the doors. The whole pharmacy department looked as if it had been sucked up through the roof and then spit back down.

“I’m going to go look for clothes,” Sienna said skipping away on her own.

“Let’s check the food situation,” Owen said nudging Seth.

“And I’m going to go find the bathroom,” Dean informed Ryan and me. I could see the bathroom, the doors dangled off their hinges and I’m sure the water wouldn’t work, but it would still serve its purpose.