Last Alive?-Grethan

Chapter 20

Ethan's POV

I crawled out of the murky sludge of water and out of the pond after about an hour of sitting down there, making sure the people were long gone before I left to the next town.

I sat down on a rock and placed my backpack in front of me and dried off my hands on my pants before taking my map out and searching for the right way to go.

I opened the map up and saw that I had been slightly traveling towards the direction of the town already. I packed my map back up before slinging it over my shoulders and continuing on with my path.

~•~

My feet ached and throbbed from the long journey, I could see the town about a half a mile away from the top of the hill. I continued on down the hill and to the town.

I made it to the side of the town, jumping over a fence and into the backyard of someone's home. I entered through the back door and cautiously looked around, there wasn't much of anything left in here, just molded food and crumbled up wrappers and empty water bottles. No supplies or anything anywhere, I looked around the other houses, all replicating the same.

I entered the last house, going up the steps and pushing the door open. There was the same as before, wrappers and water bottles sprawled out on the floor. I walked throughout the first floor seeing nothing of use, I walked up the stairs and into the bathroom to find some toothpaste and a toothbrush with some floss in the cabinet, I stuffed it in my bag and went in to the other rooms. Mostly just clothes that didn't fit was all I found.

I opened the last door to the master bedroom to see a white bear underneath the covers with its head on a pillow. Some snacks were out on the bed side cabinet along with some water bottles, the drawers to a dresser were open and stuffed with clothes.

Clothes were out on the floor and a half eaten granola bar was left on a shelf. I wondered if someone was here, were they coming back, lived here or left it like this before they died, or just left, but why would they leave everything, unless they left in a hurry like I had to.

I packed up a few essentials, leaving some just in case I find the person who lives here or they come back later. I left the house and searched around the other stores and such for anything else left behind.

After searching most of everything and finding nothing I sat down in the middle of the town at a fountain, releasing a breath of exhaustion from the long-frantic day I've had. I stayed here a bit, letting my muscles relax for a bit before I took out my map to look for another place near by to search materials for.

My map showed another building very close to the town I hadn't seen or searched through yet. I doubt anything would be left in there but decided to go look anyways, it's a school so I don't think people could have taken that much from it already.

As I walked up the path to the school I thought of Bryant, how he would be right now, how scared he would have been from my last encounter with them, what he would be saying right now, joking around and cheering me up from my slump right now which is due to his absence. I looked up at the bright sky and smiled sadly at the memory of him, my best friend who is now gone.

The birds were chirping cheerfully as squirrels rustled the leaves in the trees. I walked up the steps to the school until I approached the front doors of the school. I peeked inside the windows, seeing the home office, a meeting room, teachers lounge and the hallway with lockers that lead to the schools classrooms.

I slowly pushed open the door with a loud creek of the rusty doors, I walked in taking slow yet loud steps from the crumbled up floor.

I looked around the hall, back and forth, waiting for a sign of danger to leave. My eyes lingered a little longer before taking one more step inside looking up and being faced with the muzzle of a gun pointed right at me.