I've taken shelter in an abandoned house. Well, really it's just a ceiling and a bit of walls, so mostly just a room. It's sunken into the ground in the twenty years since the world ended. Vines cover every part of the the walls and roof, but there's no cordyceps to speak of. The room is the only surviving part of the house, the rest of it having been completely devoured by nature long ago. It sits at the edge of a hill, steep enough to stop infected from trying to climb it, but not steep enough that I'm trapped up here. It's peaceful, sitting at the edge of the cliff, staring out into what used to be a city. Sitting here like this, I can make out what the world must have looked like before. Before Mother Nature decided to take back her world. It's sort of beautiful in an odd kind of way. The vines and trees covering everything, the buildings dilapidated and destroyed, most of them too tired to stand so they've fallen. I wonder what it was like, before. I wonder what people did instead of fighting for survival. I know people had jobs, but that couldn't have been all they did, right? They had to do something on their days off. Assuming they had those. It must have been boring, working. Can you imagine sitting at a desk all day? Horrifing. I shiver and pull my cloak tighter around me as the wind blows stronger. At least they had protection from the elements. I know enough to not make a fire, but it's tempting.
It's been five hours since I left the hospital, and I've put a lot of distance between me and it, but that doesn't mean it's safe. If there's one thing I've learned being born in the apocalypse, it's that, just because something is the same species as me, that doesn't mean I can trust them. In fact, I've found humans to be far more dangerous than the infected. I close my eyes to try and block the memory that tries to push itself to the surface. Instead, I focus on what happened at the hospital. I haven't read my file yet, but I read Ellie's. Apparantly, she's immune. They were going to dig into her brain to try to make a cure, but from the notes I found, they weren't even sure if it would work. They were just going to kill the kid for what would most likely be nothing. They included a photo of her, as well as a description. She's fourteen, so two years younger than me. She's pretty, in a subtle way. She has brown hair and a scar on her right eyebrow. She looks fierce, like she'd kill anyone who got in her way. I like her. It doesn't say anything about the man with her. It doesn't have to, it's pretty clear he's her father. With how young she is and his going completely feral to save her, it's obvious. From what I saw, he managed to kill most of the people in that place, including a pretty woman with dark skin and puffy hair in the parking garage. Lucky for me, they took the car, but left a motorcycle. It's possible they just didn't see it, or they figured it wouldn't be practical, but it got me three hours away before it died.
The girl's lucky. At least she has family left. I can't remember the last time I saw anyone I cared about. I still can't seem to remember the circumstances leading up to my apparent capture. The last thing I remember was walking down a highway in the middle of nowhere. and from the signs I saw leaving the hospital, I wasn't anywhere near here. It must have taken a lot of effort on their part to catch me and bring me here. It doesn't make sense. I quess I'm just lucky they kept my stuff. Except my shoes for some reason. I mean, why the fuck would they want my shoes? There was nothing special about them, they were just some sneakers I found a year ago. My feet are killing me. The boots I took from the soldier are durable, but not molded to my feet yet. My mind wander off, thinking about god knows what, and by the tim I focus again, it's dark outside.
I get up, stretching my arms and legs out and do a perimeter sweep. Everything's clear. Sliding to the middle of the hill, I set up trip wires connected to a lantern I found, which, when set off, turns on the flashing lights, so I know somethings coming. Back at the camp, I set another that, when pulled, drops a bundle of windchimes a hundred feet away, to get the clickers interested in something else and give me time to get my weapens ready. It's nothing that will stop a human, at least, not if they've learned to always keep an eye out. I turn my hearing aids off and put them back in their case. Before going to bed, I look out one more time. The city looks different in the moonlight. Sadder. Almost lonely. As if it just wants a friend. Someone to help it go back to the way it was before. Standing there in the silence I feel sorry for it. Sorry that it was forgotten by the people who made it. The people it cared about. Only one building stands mostly upright, as if it never trusted the humans. The rest have collapsed around it, mourning the loss of the humans they considered friends. It's melancholy, this city. I wonder why the house I'm in is so far away from the others. I wonder if it felt alone, even before the world collapsed. Or what it did to be so ostracized by the others. I pat one of the remaining walls and whisper an apology before lying down on the dirt floor. covering my self with the blanket I've brought with me since the start of the journey, I finally feel warm.
