Project Maelstrom - Interactive

Part Six - Insertion

~ cheyenne 'chee' morrison ~

    "I guess it'll be just us three," Selina says as her, Trix and I walk out from our basement refuge. After the fire from last night, most of the town had been partially destroyed. It would take ages to rebuild fully, I assume.

     Everyone else had chosen to stay inside, fearing what we'd seen. Meredith, especially, didn't want to leave. She really didn't take interest in anything that she didn't care about, but I think she knows what she indirectly caused.

     "Yeah, guess so," Selina says. "I hate that basement."

     "At least it wasn't fire yesterday," Trix replies, looking at a piece of paper flying through a street in the wind. Many of the buildings around us were burnt heavily, and the town looked something akin to a dystopian wasteland. Ash was still present in this part of the town, and so we couldn't see very far away.

     "Christ," I mutter, holding my shirt up to my face and trying to block out the smoke. The other two swiftly follow along, and we race across the street to a nearby building. There was a bit less smoke inside this one, but it still wasn't perfect.

     "Arrow would be really useful right now," Trix says, and Selina coughs a bit. This looked like it used to be a bakery of sorts, with a glass-covered counter towards the back and many shelves with bread around.

     "Didn't have to go far," I say happily.

     "Yeah, but bread alone won't be enough," Selina sighs, coughing again. This clearly wasn't a good environment for her massive immune deficiency. "We need to go farther into town."

     "Agreed," Trix states, putting some loafs into a rucksack we had found in the basement. "Water, more than anything."

     "So, we head back out?" Selina asks.

"Guess so," I mutter. "Let's go. No sense waiting."

Zipping the sack, Trix slings it over his shoulder and uses his other hand to cover his mouth and nose. We rush back into the ashy street, running to the left and keeping our eyes peeled for a grocery store. That was harder than it seems, due to our eyes burning from the smoke.

Finally spotting one, we rush through the glass door and nearly crash into a counter inside. "Well, this will work," I mutter. The sign on the front of the building read 'Save On.'

"Split up, I assume," Trix says. I nod in agreement, and so does Selina. She takes right, Trix takes left, and I take center. Walking down the isle, I go for a few things we'd need there. Canned goods were high on the list, like beans and vegetables. The twelve year olds wouldn't eat the latter, of course, but they would still be valuable.

After a half hour or so, the two meet me in the front of the store with handfuls of goods. This was probably illegal looting, but we were probably illegal anyway. None of us really had an idea of just how deep in shit we were right now, but we all had a different idea.

     We could, however, hear voices outside the market. "That's new," Selina says, and we walk towards the front of the store. Outside, the smoke had cleared a bit, allowing us to see down the road farther.

     What we saw was a street turned into a hospital. People burnt and wounded on stretchers in the street. The smoke had seemed to clear from that side of the town as well. Nurses and doctors were rushing from buildings on the sidewalks, treating hundreds of people.