The Will To Live✔️

Chapter 08: The Long Walk

Greg stood at a crossroads, (sort of), and found that he needed to make a decision.

The two choices were: keep going towards the town, or start walking towards the observatory that he now had a clear path to. He'd been walking for about half an hour now, making what he thought was decent time, under the circumstances, and it had been a pretty okay thirty minutes, all things considered. Nothing had tried to kill him, and he hadn't sustained any further injuries. Given how the past day had gone, this was a fantastic run of luck. But as he'd come out of the frozen, dead forest of the campground area, he'd finally caught sight of something. The mountain in the center of the island that rose so majestically into the sky sported something.

An observatory.

It was on a plateau, overlooking the region. And as soon as he set sight on it, a thought had begun to burrow into his skull. That was a good place for a rally point. And he kept thinking that if that was his immediate thought, then there was a pretty decent chance that it had been Serrano's thought as well. He'd given himself until he reached the road that led to the observatory to decide whether or not he would pursue it.

And so, here he was.

Standing there, Greg considered his options. The town was still a good eight miles away. It said so, right on the sign to his right. On the other hand, the observatory was just a simple two miles away. He could be adding four unnecessary miles and who knew how much time and danger onto his journey, but...well, he supposed it was just as likely that he'd find either what he was looking for or danger in either direction because at this point the island was a total Russian roulette situation. He had absolutely no idea which or how many chambers were loaded. Finally, Greg turned left, facing the mountain and the observatory.

The idea that it would make a good rally point just wouldn't go away, or, more significantly, that Serrano or Bell, (more than likely Serrano), would have the exact same thought. Feeling about as good about this whole situation as he was going to, Greg set off down the new path. He set a brisk pace, sticking to the middle of the road, keeping an eye out. The forest continued right up to the road to his left, the way he'd come from, but it seemed far sparser on the other side. In fact, he could see a structure up ahead on that side, maybe a football field's length away from his current position. So, bonus there.

He kept scanning the area around him, including the sky. There were just two shells left in reserve now, and after that it was back down to his knife again. Greg honestly hadn't thought he'd have to put the ammo to use so fast, or frequently, since finding it. But obviously this place was going back to nature with the power out and most of the population dead or gone. The way was clear though, for now at least.

As he walked, Greg found his mind wandering into a new place. Or rather an old one. A bad, old, miserable place that he tried hard to stay out of. His past. It was ugly and shameful and he hated thinking about it but that was one of those little quirks to the human mind, wasn't it? Sometimes, it went looking for the worst possible crap it could dredge up. All the humiliating and embarrassing things you'd ever said or done. The bad things you'd done. The accidents you'd had. He remembered a lot of things.

Like pissing his bed until he was damn near fourteen.

Now that was humiliating. But really, it was just a drop in the bucket of his childhood. Well, most of his life, actually. He thought about growing up poor, below the poverty line, coming home from school every day and wondering if the electricity or the hot water would still be on. He remembered going to school in ripped clothes or too small clothes or stained clothes. Getting screamed at by his parents.

Mostly he remembered making stupid choices and doing stupid things.

Mercifully, he arrived at the building, which turned out to be a rest stop with a few cars in the parking lot. Greg put his mind to the task of dissecting the situation before him. First thing on the menu was a perimeter sweep, which he conducted, checking out the exterior sections around the edges of the structure and its parking lot, which was small and made of cracked blacktop. He peered in through the windows of the squalid building and saw nothing moving around inside. There was a dumpster out back and a place where obviously someone had spent a lot of time smoking. He made a complete circuit, finding nothing alive.