Beth made more sparks with her lighter, showering all of them on the plastic. Another flame sprang up from it. The foil that fed it shriveled within seconds. But this time, the fire didn't die. It spread to the deeper layers of the roll, gaining strength.
"Beth, shit!"
A dog snarled at Burt, and he smacked it with the chair. While the animal retreated, another one entered the gap it left, bypassing Burt's defenses, and jumped at him. Burt stumbled backward.
One end of the plastic roll was burning now, the flames quickly gaining ground. Beth seized the other end.
Burt kept the chair between him and his attacker, but the animal had trapped him in a corner. Beth approached it from the side. At the last moment, it faced her, and she pushed the burning end of the roll into its muzzle.
It wailed, then it turned and ran.
~~~
It hadn't taken them long to build a fire feeding on rolls of plastic foil at the entrance to their refuge. Its flames cast a sickly yellow onto the street outside where the last vestiges of the day were fading. Oily smoke filled the room with an acrid stench and wafted out into the alley.
The dogs kept a safe distance, clearly familiar with the dangers of being burned. They sat in a group between the cars outside, their furs now a ghastly gray under the light of the moon.
As the flames died down, Burt tossed another roll into the fire. The foil crackled and flared up, adding to the stench.
"This was the last one," he said.
They both had searched the shop, but the only fuel they had found was the plastic.
From the other side of the fire, a pair of hungry, yellow eyes reflected the flames.
Burt got up from his squatting position, walked over to an empty shelf unit, and pulled at one of its boards. The structure made a creaking sound, but it didn't move.
"Damn, the thing's screwed down," he said.
Guessing his intent, Beth rose, planning to help him. Maybe they could use the metal boards to bar the broken door when the fire died down.
As she checked on the dogs once more, making sure they were staying put, one of them rose, too, mirroring the movement of its prey. The moonlight outlined its perked-up ears. The glow of its eyes disappeared as it turned them downtown.
It gave a brief bark, and its companions got up, too.
The lead dog looked at Beth once more—a last fierce reflection of firelight. Then it blinked and trotted off to the right, away from city center.
Its pack followed.
"Hey," Beth said. "They're leaving."
Burt joined her as the darkness swallowed the last tail. "Fuck."
The street outside was deserted now. The smoke from the dying fire fretted Beth's nose, its crackling slowly waning—making room for a faint, rumbling noise.
Beth moved to the side of the fire and, leaning forward against the doorframe, listened into the night.
She had heard the same sounds earlier today, out in the streets. But now they lingered, their droning familiar even if she only knew it from old movies.
A sound she had thought extinct for decades—but it was gaining strength.
"What's the matter?" Burt asked.
YOU ARE READING
When We Shed Civilization
Science Fiction[Wattpad Editors' Choice] In a dystopian future, Beth is to marry a man she has just met. And Leo seeks revenge for his wife's murder. They start off as enemies. ---- Decades after humanity's downfall, the last remnants of civilization hide in gated...
