Desolation ✔️

Chapter 9: 2AM

I strain to keep my eyes open, but they burn from fatigue and exhaustion. I just want the day to end, for sleep to come so I can start fresh tomorrow. Who knows how late it is now? It's pitch black outside and bitterly cold, even though I shut all the doors of the car to curl up inside. I just want to sleep.

But as soon as I close my eyes, there's a knock on the window. I snap my eyes open and look out the driver's side window. Ashton peers in.

I sit up and push the door open.

"Hey," he says. He props one arm up on the roof of the car.

"Hi." My voice is scratchy and I suddenly realize how dehydrated I feel. I rub my eyes. "So did you find anything?"

He lifts his other hand near his face and something clicks! just as a blinding light pierces my eyeballs. I squint and hold up a hand to shield my eyes. "A flashlight?" I ask.

He flicks it off and spins it around in his hand. "We sure hit the jackpot, huh?"

My frown deepens. "You checked everyone's pulses?"

He nods.

"They're all...?"

Another nod. "Whoever killed them went straight for the head, and their aim was pretty damn accurate. But I think maybe that's because..." He pauses. "They were shot point-blank."

Point blank. In cold blood.

I try pushing away thoughts of Marvin, Dean, and Terri being held at gunpoint...and the aftermath. But after witnessing so much bloodshed in the past couple of weeks, the image fails to fade away. My heart crumbles. How could someone do something like that? Just shoot people they don't know and take all their belongings? I mean, I guess it's not really that hard to imagine considering people did much worse things before the apocalypse, but having it happen to the few people left? It's hard to wrap my brain around. Who are these people? And where'd with all our stuff?

"What about the radio?" I ask quietly. "Was that in there?"

"Nope."

Ugh. The radio was our only connection to the rest of the world; the possibility of hope. But all things considered, I guess that's the least of our losses, despite how much more secure I felt while having it with us. Sure, I won't be able to listen in for the nightly announcements on Ostford to see if it's still there, but at least I know it's towards the mountains. At least I know that much. But you don't know where in the mountains, do you? My voice of ridiculous reason murmurs. Whatever. I'll figure it out in the morning. I don't even know if I'm going there anymore. I just want to sleep.

"We should find somewhere to sleep for the night," I say to Ashton. He looks at me through that dang mask of his, and his eyes shift to the flower shop.

"You mean here?"

I shake my head a little too quickly. "I want to get as far from here as possible. The thieves might come back. Yeah, there's nothing left for them to take, but at some point they'll realize they left one of their own behind. They'll come back for him. And they probably know we're here, too."

"Nah, I don't think anyone would want to come back for a piece of shit like him." Ashton scowls over at the flower shop. "I should've kicked his ass just enough to leave him conscious on the ground while those flesh-eating monsters took care of the rest."

My skin crawls. "Yeah...but what you did was okay too." Just hearing myself talk makes me cringe. I already feel like the world is changing me. The only emotion I ever feel now is anger and bitterness, and that scares me.