The Altered.

Chapter XXII.

Miles hadn't even realised beyond the city, places like this still existed.

The road they walked now was old. There was grass on either side of it - more real grass than Miles had ever seen in one place at one time. White-picket fences neatly lined the footpaths. The houses were constructed of things that weren't ever seen nearer the city. Things like brick and wood and small windows as opposed to the grand, wall-consuming windows that normally resided in city homes.

They'd walked a long way to make it here, and it almost freaked Miles out. All the houses were empty, doors hanging open and paint peeling from fences. If inanimate objects could be dead, this whole place was long-since, utterly deceased.

"Blimey," Aaron breathed, tone expressing the same kind of awe and astonishment that filled Miles' thoughts.

"Blimey," mocked Miles in his best attempt to mimic Aaron's English accent, unable to restrain himself.

Aaron shot him a cold glare. "That doesn't even sound like me."

"That doesn't even sound like me," imitated Miles in the same tone.

Percy looked at the pair of them distastefully. "How childish."

Miles turned his gaze on Percy. "Says you, Posh-boy, complaining the whole way about being a little wet from the creek. At least you weren't shot or stabbed. If anyone is childish, it's you."

"I-" Percy started, but was cut off when Bri spoke over the top. Aaron looked relieved that Percy hadn't been able to reply and Miles clenched his jaw.

"Ghost-towns," said Bri, sounding sad. "There are plenty of them all over the world. This one isn't so much a town as a street, but it's the same thing. People lived here, decades ago, but when technology started taking over the world, some areas weren't worth upgrading or didn't have the money to do so. So the houses kind of just... stayed like this. Their owners probably moved into the city or just lived in these houses until they died, I guess. Whatever happened, they don't live here anymore, and streets like this will never change."

"Fascinating," murmured Percy, voice trembling for a second. Miles narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

"It is," Bri agreed. "But I find them almost sad. These would have once been such lively places to live, and then the upgrades came to the cities and these places just weren't included."

"I'm guessing the place you and your group is staying is somewhere along this street," Lia assumed. "You sure came a long way just to get water."

Bri nodded. "The street is completely devoid of life, and no Altered have found their way here yet, so it's safe. For now. Even though it's far away, they'll make their way here eventually." She shuddered when saying that. "And I... I wasn't just going for water. My group thought it would make sense to send out a few scouts this morning, so three of us headed for the city and split up, then agreed to be back here. We needed food and water, and the best place to find it is back in the city. We also needed to see the condition of the place now that it's the day after the notification came through.

"How big is your group?" Eira asked.

"Five," responded Bri. "There's five of us. I hope the others got back safely."

Reminded of last night, when he and Aaron had waited to no avail at the school for Eira and Lia to return, Miles had a little doubt that both other scouts would have returned safe. He trampled down that doubt - his own experiences didn't impact anybody else's. Lia and Eira had been unharmed anyway, when they'd reappeared. Just because the world was dangerous now didn't mean everybody was bound to get hurt.