Who We Were | Book One

8. The Flames

Every essence of the town I had grown up in, everything I once loved, had melted as quickly as morning snowfall.

Even the leaves which sagged from the green canopy looked like they had given up and were already prepared to fall. The picture of normality had vanished along with all the noises that had made it feel like home.

Josh's jaw was clenched as I got level with him. His eyes were focused on the road ahead but behind his irises, he was elsewhere.

"Everything okay?" I asked as our steps echoed around the open crossroads.

Once, the traffic lights kept order but now they had been overruled by the abandoned cars that scattered the road.

"I'm fine," he replied with a deadpanned expression.

He blinked and avoided my gaze.

I wanted to understand what was going on inside his head, but I had been away from people for so long I'd almost forgotten what it was like to have a conversation. The only voices I'd known for so long were static ones.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked, catching me off guard.

His face was turned towards me, an eyebrow suspended against the creases which lined his forehead. I snapped my head away, turning to the road that rolled out in front of us.

"No reason," I shrugged, pretending to scratch my face. "How old are you anyway?" I asked, changing the subject.

He tugged at the strap of his bag. "17," he replied, pulling his brows together. "Why do you ask?"

"I just thought this journey would go a lot quicker if it wasn't in complete silence."

I caught another glimpse of him out the corner of my eye, he was slim-built and only slightly taller than I was. In the soft light of the rising sun, his fair skin only emphasised his cheekbones.

He was attractive and seemed the type that knew it.

I turned my attention to a stone on the ground, kicking it lightly. It skidded along the road, landing in Josh's path where he booted it further.

The only noise had come from the soft rustling of the trees which put me on edge more than it relaxed me. I leant my head back, feeling the breeze against my skin and looking up to the white marble clouds laying against the blue satin of the sky.

I missed the rumbling sound of cars on the road. I missed the engines which purred lightly in the morning as women in heeled boots walked along the pavement. I missed them smiling politely at the small dogs which barked from wooden fences.

Everything had been taken for granted.

"How many people do you think are still out there?" I asked, lowering my head from the sky.

"We're not extinct yet," he joked. "If that's what you're really asking."

"I just don't understand how everything happened so fast..." I shook my head in disbelief. "How once there was everyone and then... Nobody." I hesitated before I continued. "Have you come across many people? Still alive?"

He exhaled. "A few... You never told me why you were in the city?" He pressed, changing the subject.

"You never asked," I shrugged, looking to my feet.

He said nothing, but I saw his body shift and his head cock, waiting for an answer.

I sighed, lifting a hand to scratch the back of my head.

"I was at university," I replied. "I was staying in my flat off-campus."

"Hang on a second," he interrupted. "You were there the whole time?"