This Was Home [h.s.]

| 24. TRIPLE SCOOP |

I thought about his statement for awhile after he said it. I hadn't thought about what freedom meant in today's world much before, and that was probably because I was too scared to think about it. I knew any possible answers for it wouldn't be what I wanted to hear. I wasn't totally sure there was such thing as being free anymore anyway.

I mean, what was free about any of this?

The hot breaths from my nose left small circles of condensation against the pane of glass as I continued to watch the abnormalities outside. I knew we were nearing close, even while I was distracted by the deep thoughts I was buried in.

It was all just more painful reminders of the restrictions we faced. Remnants of homes, cars, Crawlers, and even people had been scattered throughout the entire drive. I hated how normalized I had grown to it. The first time I saw a dead body, I felt like my world was caving in and I couldn't breathe. Now, it was starting to seem as normal as passing a stump of wood.

But these were people.

Mothers. Fathers. Children. Friends. Lovers. Individuals. People.

I shoved a hand through my hair with a deep inhale as I reached towards the map that was spread across my lap. We only had a few more turns before we would turn into Uncle Dan's driveway and I was nervous.

I didn't want to see any more death. I didn't want to feel any more disappointment. I just wanted to see Alayna—to hold her and not let go.

"Take this right onto MacArthur Street," I said as I pointed towards a road sign ahead. My nerves were inconsolable as we were only blocks away. The last stretch of the drive had felt like the longest of all, but we finally got there. After watching the clock on Harry's truck tick to each new minute, they finally added up to the end.

The music had dulled almost to complete silence, besides small fragments of beats heard in the background. I heard Harry flick on the blinker, and I couldn't help but find the humor in it. There was no one around, yet somehow we still found ourselves acting as if we lived in a normal world still. Nothing about what we all had been through was normal, yet our earlier formed habits were hard to rid ourselves from.

The map rested in my lap as I no longer gazed at it, now completely in dismay over the ghost town around me. I had always found Uncle Dan's town to be eerie, even before Crawlers invaded—even when there were little families walking along the sidewalk. It was still off putting how everything was surrounded by pure sand in the distance. One gust of wind would send a whole dusting of particles all over. I even remembered stories I was told about all the sand storms that he had lived through. I never understood why he stayed.

But, that was when the town was full of life. Now that it was rid of all of it, its peculiarities seemed to only have been highlighted further. There was no one left to sweep off the roofs or buildings in general. No one to keep up with the world continuing around it.

"Hey, Triple Scoop!" I exclaimed as I pointed ahead of us. I smiled wide as I felt Harry's eyes move towards me, probably confused by my sudden outburst.

"I used to go there every time my mom and I visited," I hummed out as the building drew closer and closer. I watched the sign as it passed by us; it was faded just like all the others we had driven by during our trip. It was a huge ice-cream cone with three scoops stacked on top of each other. At one time it had colored lights as to accentuate the Neapolitan colors. All that was left were cracked and misplaced bulbs mixed in with the other non-working lights.