Lucidity (On Hold)

A Single Step

A click from the door was all that stood between us and the outside world now. That and Jimmy finding his key that he seemed to have misplaced. After getting even more fired up, it was a bit of a let-down, but in the meantime Elizabeth handed out some kind of high-tech watch that was supposed to go on our wrist. With a diamond shaped screen and about 10 buttons on the side, I didn't even want to touch it for fear of making the whole thing go haywire. She told us that she had grabbed these at the last second before leaving the warehouse, and in order to simplify things, she just explained the main features; an advanced GPS that could tell you where you and the other survivors were down to the last detail in the trees, thanks to all the sattelites we left floating around, and it also allowed you to communicate with the other members of our group wirelessly anytime and anywhere. She stressed to us how important it was not to break or lose these because if we got lost this could be a last resort that will save our lives. 

When she was done explaining Jimmy had finally pulled himself together and found the keys to the steel door that was the only way to escape the 2-foot thick walls. Leading rather unsurely, slightly expecting to be scolded by Elizabeth, I took my first terrifying step down. Everyone looked around nervously as they followed, and we moved to the sidewalk cautiously like we might just be vaporized on the spot. We paused for a few more moments, but not wanting to wait around for the things that could already be picking up our scent, we quickly took to the streets running as fast as we could.

The orangish-brown sun was pounding hot on my neck, and the sweat that followed it dampened it in futile efforts. We were once again moving through the cracked ruins of Philadelphia, this time not with fear and confusion but with confidence and purpose. With Elizabeth starding down at the GPS periodically and leading us in front with Jimmy close at her side, we did our best to stay close. She had also reccommended that we pick someone to stay close to at all times that could watch your back and keep track of you at all times even if we got split up. It was pretty predictable how this went down, so it ended up that Jimmy and Elizabeth were paired and running up front, followed by Catherine and Dillon and then Lorelei and I. We moved especially quick across the crumblind asphalt, because... well, it was crumbling. Dillon nearly got lost in a sudden cave-in that only stopped once it had a diameter of at least 12 feet. It was really sad what the beautiful city had come to, and the disastrous images of it now were overshadowing the ones that were deep within some of my happiest memories. Visiting my aunt Adele in the suburbs was suddenly buried by images of charred, fallen bridges, cars and debris polluting the river, and scattered corpses here and there in so called "Safety Zones". 

I was glad we were on the edge of the city because Philadelphia is huge, as you could probably imagine, and walking through it would have already eaten up at least 6 or 7 hours. But anyway, our position was close to the Delaware River already so it was only a half hour or so of this nervous hiking before we finally cleared the endless rows of vacant shops and dilapidated houses and the sight we saw in this new clearing was only worse. The Ben Franklin bridge was almost completely totaled, and gigantic chunks of the bridge were sunken crooked in the river, and 2 of the supports were nearly walked out. We assumed this was a sudden event like an earthquake, because making a gruesome addition to the scene, were hundreds of dead bodies (more like skeletons now I guess) sitting in cars and strewn across the streats with bloody stains all around them. It was a painful sight to see, and it was going to be even worse trying to cross the bridge when it was in this kind of condition. I looked to Elizabeth for any order she may have but she only said, "We don't know what could be lurking in the water and it will be miles and miles before we even have another hope of crossing. And we have to cross here so we can raid the towns like I said, otherwise we won't have enough supplies." And with that she strode towards the first 50 degree slant down towards the water that was barely connected to another broken chunk leading back up to a short piece of bridge still slightly intact. Jimmy followed her with an extremely agitated look and we all got down on our hands almost crabwalking carefully down towards the gap coming before the way up. I was feeling pretty good going down, but that kind of ended when Catherine slipped and started rolling down the last 20 feet to the water. There was a small landing before the abyss, but it wasn't enough to stop her, and she was promptly followed by Dillon, determined to save her.