Steel Horizon

Chapter Fourteen

 The border of Kentucky came quicker than expected. Maybe I'd thought I never would've gotten out of the midwest, but I was glad when we did.

Being this far east slowed our traveling. The highways and roads were more packed with cars, and we had to get out regularly to push them out of the way. It also became hard when our gas ran low. We could spend an hour siphoning gas from abandoned cars, only to get a half tank, but it was worth it to keep the car.

Two days after traveling with Kaileb and Elliot, we came across a small city that seemed untouched for the most part. It was empty, just like everything else, but it seemed like the Scrappers had never been there. Every other city and town in the US had been attacked—the buildings left crumbling and scorched, bridges demolished or barely standing.

But not Louisville.

Kaileb navigated carefully through the streets, avoiding abandoned cars and buses, looking for a good place for us to search for food. All we had left was a bottle of water and half bag of turkey jerky. But in this place, it seemed like for the first time in months, we would be able to find enough food to last us for a while. As for where the people were, we didn't know. It made me nervous, glancing at all the untouched buildings we passed, making it seem like someone could walk out of them at any moment, but knowing nobody was going to.

Elliot initially thought there might be other humans here, but Jude brought up something. It had snowed recently, maybe within the last day or so, but there were no footprints or evidence of other people anywhere.

Everything was untouched. It wouldn't be that way if humans were still in the area.

Kaileb parked the Jeep in the middle of an intersection. After the engine was shut off and silent, he was the first to open the door and we all followed in suit. After pulling my coat on, I shut the door and joined the others near the front of the Jeep.

I knew we were all wondering why the city was unscathed, but nobody talked about it. We were here to find food and nothing else.

"Can we go to the Slugger Museum?"

We all looked at Elliot, who just shrugged once in response.

"We should split up," Kaileb said, "and try to find as much as we can."

He didn't need to explain any farther. We all knew what to do. These days it came as naturally as pushing dead cars out of the road. Kaileb and Elliot wandered off in opposite directions, leaving me and Jude alone next to the Jeep.

"This place feels weird," Jude said, looking around at the tall buildings surrounding us. "It's like a graveyard without the headstones."

I shivered and shoved my hands down into my coat pockets. "I don't like it either."

"Let's go find some food so we can leave." He nodded his head for me to follow him and I didn't argue. Elliot and Kaileb might have been alright with going off alone, but I wasn't. Not here.

We walked down the empty streets, glancing at the passing stores and taking extra care not to be heard. I was feeling more unsettled with every step. The little shops were crammed together so tightly it was hard to tell one shop from the next. The windows blended together, sometimes with a little side door in between, and every building was made of brick. There was no doubt this was the older part of the city.

"There might be something in here," Jude said, pointing to the corner shop coming up on our right. "If you want to wait out here I can go inside and check things out. Just be careful if you see anything, come and get me."

"Don't worry, I'm not about to make anymore noise than I have to." I gave a shaky laugh.

He nodded and gave a final look around the street before going inside. I leaned against a parking meter and waited for him. My stomach turned uneasily but not from the lack of food. It was from something else entirely.