Everything's Different

The Scent of Sunshine

Me and Tori walked up the hills and sat down, putting our packs onto the warm grass and pulling out the lunches that Gram packed us. I sighed and looked out to the view below, the dusty ruins going on for miles and miles. I looked over to Tori. She was pleasantly smiling as she nibbled on a strawberry, obviously daydreaming about something. I started eating at my sandwich as I thought about all of this.
Gran told us all about what she went through with the apocalypse. How she and my parents sought refuge in any place they could find and how as a baby I was always put in strange places in order to be kept safe. How so many people were lost due to morbid suicides and murders. How houses were bombed from crazed international leaders.
My grandparents aren't sure exactly what happened in order to cause all of it, for they mainly remember the struggle of how they survived. They said it was some sort of war going on but there was so much chaos no one knew who won and who lost. Its turned into a crazed killing frenzy. It's funny to me how all of these horrible things apparently happened and here I am, having a picnic with Tori, staring out into the ruins with her.
I looked over to her, the sunlight making her chestnut hair look like golden honey from a distance.
I met Tori when I was about five. She came up to our shelter crying and crying about her parents and how they never came back after a resource trip. We took her in and helped her out and now she's basically part of the family.
I sipped my drink and stared into the ruins. It was our third ruin exploration site. We were always excited for one. And with the refreshing scent of daisies and sunlight while seeing the sunset hitting the ruins and making the dust turn to glitter through the broken and battered windows, I knew it was going to be nice.
I stuffed my garbage in the lunch bag and finished up a couple strawberries as Tori sat up and adjusted her shirt some. She pushed the hair out of her eyes and smiled at me.
"Ready Berry-face?"
I smiled.
"Duh."
I stuffed the lunch bag into my pack and walked down the hill with her. We marched through the tall, overgrown grass while the cicadas buzzed in our ears. We ventured into the ruins and walked into a crumbling house.