𝗧𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄'𝘀 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 | an apocalyptic novel ©

Chapter 106

Vanished Promises

2035

Valencia

I tear my eyes open, woken by a hand aimlessly trailing through my loose hair.

When I feel the heavy weight pressed against me and blink a few times to adjust my vision, I instantly realize what we did.

Hiding the redness on my cheeks, I scoot out of bed and look for my clothes on the ground.

The tension between us is gone, yet it has transformed into something else now lingering in the distance keeping us apart.

Denial.

We don't talk about last night, no matter how good it might have been, or that I think back to it more than I want to admit.

So far, we seem to be quite safe in the small town, but it doesn't feel like we can settle here. Since the car's engine is still busted, we keep wandering through the streets despite our suspicion that something is wrong with this place.

A ghost town, how Aidan said.

It feels like we are going in circles. The theater that we passed already appears again more than twice while we explore. There isn't much to this town, it consists of a small neighborhood with eight houses, the animal shelter, the hotel and said theater.

I stand in front of the gate to the yard of one of the eight houses. My mind contemplates going inside, but the memories of the deceased people in the basement still haunt me. Aidan gently squeezes past me and opens the gate that almost comes loose from its hinges.

"Hey... Aidan?" I hear myself say.

He turns around. "Yeah? What's wrong?"

I motion to the yard. "I- this doesn't feel right. Maybe we shouldn't do this."

His expression grows from worried to soft. "No problem. Let's go back."

I nod, thankful. Who knows what else we'd have found in these houses? When I walk out in front, Aidan catches up. I feel his hand nudge mine, wanting to grab it, and let it happen. Internally, I don't know why I have gotten so... caught up in memories again.

Aidan knows - I still don't remember what happened before the world ended. He also knows I'm caught up on everything that happened. And that makes me feel hopeless, in situations like this one.

We pass the animal shelter, this time through a back alley that connects to it right from the neighborhood. The sunlight is bright, blinding me when I raise my head to look up at the clear blue sky. A part of me wants to imagine what this world - this place - would look like if the anomalies didn't happen, once again. And another part of me believes that this place didn't get hit by them at all.

The animal shelter has a back door. We don't have a reason to enter it, but we can't proceed to get back to the main road just in front of the building other than going through it.

The door isn't closed, it is propped open with a door block. I peek through the gap allowing me to see inside. It is dark, only faint light trickling through to me from the storefront. Aidan and I exchange looks. Without a second word, I shove the door block out of the way and push open the door. Then, I enter.

Absolute thick and dusty air - hot air, like no oxygen ever entered it - awaits me. Instantly, breathing becomes harder. I stand still in my tracks, trying to listen out for noises. My heart jumps when I hear something. Not just one noise, multiple noises - all at once. It sounds like the faint rattling of a chain-link fence in the back area, almost audible as scratching.