The Tainted Ones (discontinued)

[7]

Andy

"Can't sleep?" I heard Mikey ask.
"No" I sighed.

My body was tired, and I wish I could sleep, I really did. But I was too afraid to close my eyes. Because everytime I did I saw the images again. Of people being killed one by one, in the most horrific ways imaginable. The second I closed my eyes they were right back. I didn't want to see them anymore. I just wanted to go home and have everything go back to normal.

I let my fingers swirl around on the dusty ground. I could see the trails of where they had been. I started drawing small figures in the sand-like texture. I drew a stick figure. And two more stick figures behind it.

They all had a smiley face. They were happy. A happy family. A pretty family. Slowly I wrote it in the dust beneath the stick figures. In a swirly font.

Pretty.

I stared at my work for a while. Then I wiped it all away. It didn't matter, I wasn't pretty. My family would eventually have a new child and everything would go back to normal for them. Back to how it was supposed to be.

Without me...

"We should find something to eat" Mikey said. I turned around and looked at him.
"Seriously? You're thinking about eating?" I asked in disbelief.

Mikey shrugged. "Yeah, if we stay here forever we'll starve. It's that simple. We have so find a place to get food."

He was right. We needed to find food and water if we wanted to survive. The thought of it hadn't even crossed my mind. I had been so absorbed in self-pity that I didn't even once consider trying to survive. "Where do we go then?" I asked, ignoring the feeling of shame pressing onto my chest.

"Do you know any place you just get food just like that?"
"A supermarket?" Mikey shrugged.
"I didn't need a sarcastic reply" 
"No, seriously. We should go to a supermarket. It's nighttime right now. This is the best time to go, since no one is outside at night." Mikey stated.

"Okay... How are we gonna get in?" I asked.
"Simple" Mikey said, grabbing a rusty garden hoe next to him. "We break in"
My eyes widened.

"No! We can't do that!" I said. "Why not?" 
"Because it's a crime!"
"What do you think is gonna happen. The risk of crime was to become ugly. So guess what, we've got absolutely nothing to lose" Mikey said.

He got up from the floor and grabbed an old shovel, handing it to me. "Come on, now is the best time to go" he said. "Wait. What if it's guarded by handymen?"
"Why would they guard it? There's no one out on the streets at night."
"Exactly, we've never seen the city at night so we don't know if it's safe!" I hissed.

"Well we either risk our lives or starve. We litterally have nothing to lose but our lives, which we will if we do nothing. Now get up and follow me" Mikey said firmly.

Hesitantly I took the shovel out of his hands. Mikey slowly pushed open the door of the tool shed. I started creaking loudly as it opened, making me panic. But nothing happened.

I exhaled. I didn't even realise I had been holding my breath.

Slowly we stepped into the cold night air. It was dead quiet. Not a single sound could be heard, apart from our own breathing. All lights were out too. The only thing that made us see our path, was the moon, and a magnificent field of stars, decorating the sky with white sparkling dots. I had never paid attention to the night sky before, normally you shouldn't be awake at night. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.

"Are you done gawking at the goddamn sky?" Mikey hissed.
"Are you seriously gonna tell me you're not at all impressed by that?"
"Kinda, I mean, I've seen it before." Mikey shrugged.
"Seriously? How? When?"
"Sleepless nights. No big deal." Mikey rolled his eyes.