Complete Collapse

1

My feet ached and swelled against the leather of my boots, each step sending a shot of razor-sharp pain up my legs. We had been fleeing the swarm for almost a day now. The sun had long since risen and was once more threatening to fall beyond the horizon line. The cool of night would be a soon and welcome relief against the sweltering heat of the summer in the south. My eyes burned against the sting of exhaustion as I noticed my sister tugging her sweat-drenched shirt away from where it clung to her stomach, in obvious discomfort. I was certain we had put a decent enough distance between us and the swarm that if we managed to come across a building we would be able to wait it out until they passed. They always passed. The map of the area in my hands was the only thing I had managed to keep from our abandoned camp, having had it tucked in my back pocket while I slept. My throat was scratchy and dry now as I tried to pinpoint our location as we came upon what appeared to be a small town. Surely here we would find water, food, shelter, anything to hold us over and start rebuilding as we awaited a safe time to depart. I never quite liked staying in places like this anymore, not for long anyway. Where there were stores and houses there would be people looking to loot. This was a lawless world and two small women found alone was a recipe for disaster.

"There should be a string of houses just a few blocks up. If we stick on this path we should come across a place to wait out the swarm and get some rest." I said to my sister who was kicking a rock between her feet with each step, a meager attempt to distract herself from the exhaustion she was no doubt feeling now. "But we need to stay on this path. It's mostly away from the pharmacy and big food stores, less of a chance for us to run into any trouble. Understand?" I stopped walking and grabbed onto her arm to spin her to face me. She let out a frustrated grunt.

"Stay on the path. I've got it, Luce. Jeez. You do remember I'm the older sister, right? I should be bossing you around." Phoenix yanked her damp arm away and continued to walk. With a satisfied nod, I started to follow her again.

"I have a good feeling. This is a small town, less likely to have been ravaged when everything went to shit. We will surely find something here." I smiled for the first time since we had to abandon our home. There was something about the air here, the energy, that gave me hope that our luck just might change for the better. A new skip was added to my step, a fresh burst of hope and energy filling my whole body. As we took our first steps onto the cement of the sidewalk from the grassy expanse we came from we were once more greeted with the realities of our new world. The carnage from the fall of society would remain, a moment forever frozen in time as no one was left to clean it up. A car had crashed into a tree a few feet ahead, blood on the shattered windshield where someone no doubt collided with it on the impact. Streaks of blood dragged across the sidewalk and into the street where a decaying body, mostly a hunk of bones now, met its final resting place. The deeper we walked into the strip of housing the more we saw. Toys scattered in yards where children once filled the air with laughter and innocence, a stuffed small bear toy dropped beneath our feet never to be picked up again. I looked to my left where the front door to a house was left wide open, its owners probably in too much of a hurry and panic to think of shutting a dwelling they would never have the comfort of returning to. A white lace curtain was twirling through a shattered window, dancing in the breeze, a stark white reminder of the luxuries we would never know again. There was a time when these sights, the carnage, the reminders of the past would tug at my heart, maybe even bring a tear to my eye. But this wasn't a world or time compatible with these kinds of feelings. I was responsible not just for my own survival, but for my sisters as well. The cold hunk of ice I wrapped around my heart was a small price to pay for my sister getting to keep her innocence and her ability to mourn and grieve the life we had lost. She never had to worry about the tough decisions, she never had to worry about where we got our next meal or what we would do if we ran into others. I handle it, I have handled it. I counted maybe three blocks of distance covered before I heard the footfalls next to me come to an abrupt stop, a small scuffing sound against the rough cement as her feet came to a complete stop. Instinctively my hand retrieved the pistol from my holster and clicked off the safety in mere seconds as I spun on my heels ready to embrace some kind of danger. An exasperated sigh slipped unwillingly from between my painfully chapped lips, my arms lowering down from their position of being poised to shoot when my eyes fell on what she was looking at.