Golden Wastelands

dangerous territory

As the sun rose Bero found himself getting ready, to leave. He'd already made sure his mother would be fine, and left here with plenty of water, as well as making sure she had access to her walker.
He'd found an old hoodie to wear, it was nice and thick too, so if startled his spines hopefully wouldn't rip through it. He'd readied a few bags and pulled his bike out of the small side shed, it was fast bit also quiet, better than a car or motorcycle, and didn't require gas. There was a trail he'd made months ago after buying the bike to ride on to the city, as it took too long by foot. He'd originally planned to get a motorcycle, as he'd always dreamed of riding one, but around the time his mothers medicine went up in price and he had to use most of his savings on them and ended up settling for this bicycle, as it was all he could afford. It had an electric motor at least, and would run for days, so he rarely needed to charge it. It was a pretty good investment afterall, having proven to be pretty useful after the outbreak. Quiet and fast, and being a bicycle, it didn't even need the electricity to be used.
Bero walked out of the house after reassuring his mother he would be back. As he started up the bike he put his hood up, making sure his ears were hidden, them being fuzzy was one thing, but he definitely couldn't explain away the secondary set. Though bero really would rather not run to anyone anyways. He was rather antisocial and disliked talking to people, it was scary enough normally, and now with his... unique circumstances, it was terrifying.
Many thoughts plagued his mind on this trip, and as he exited the woods he started to feel less nervous, what were the odds of running into someone in the city anyways.
As he looked out at the city, broken buildings and overgrowth slowly starting to reclaim the area. He was kinda amazed, the sun shone on it just right, the sky a beautiful pink and the Sun's rays made the buildings glow golden.
"Huh, I never thought the city could be so... pretty." He smiled softly, he almost liked the city from this view. Though he much preferred the woods, he had to admit the city wasn't too bad.
Taking a deep breath, he rode into the city, glad that most of the monsters were asleep. He knew exactly where the drug store was, though unfortunately, it was difficult to get into, as it had collapsed two days before the outbreak began. Luckily, Bero had found a way on his last run to find medicine for his mother, and some for himself as well. He'd actually found a hole at the top, that he'd made bigger, just enough for him to get through. Crawling up the rubble, he carefully squeezed through the hole, carefully climbing inside and dropping down. The store was still pretty much full, and he figured he'd check the back this time, where the larger bottles were stored. He wanted to take those this time. He didn't last time because he was afraid if getting caught, afterall, the last time he was here was before the outbreak. However he was now free to grab as much as possible, the security cameras didn't matter anymore, and it was no longer stealing. As he crept towards the backroom he heard movement and whispering. There were people here, definitely humans, he could hear them talking back and forth about something. As he moved to get closer he knocked something over and it clattered to the floor causing the quiet chattering to stop.
"Fuck." He whispered, reaching to pick it up. He could hear quiet footsteps coming closer, and he made sure to pull his hood over his head, feeling anxious.
"Who's there?" A girls voice rang out, she was holding a gun, aiming it at Bero.
Bero dropped the item he'd knocked over, slowly raising his hands "I'm just... looking for supplies..."
She lowered her gun and let out a sigh. "You're human..." she looked relived.
"Yes..." he replied, and I won't stay long so..." he gestured to the back room, hoping she would let him in.
"Oh yeah, there's plenty of stuff back here, it's practically untouched." The girl stepped back, turning and dissapearing into the room. "Luckily When the truck crashed there was a hole just big enough to crawl into.
"Yeah I know..." he said awkwardly, was it selfish that he had hoped no one else manged to get in here? He couldn't help but wonder.
There was a boy sitting in the back, on the floor, he looked eerily similar to the girl, they both had almost the exact same smell, and looked identical. The boy looked up, unlike the girl, he had orange eyes and hair, while the girls eyes were blue.
"Jot, how's the search going?" The girl asked the boy, who's name was apparently Jot, she then sat next to him.
"I cant find anything... though I'm not really sure what I'm looking for..." Jots voice trembled a bit, and his words were slow. He looked up, gazing fixated on Bero now. "Who's that?"
Bero glanced over, it wasn't any of his business who these people were, but now he'd been adressed and he'd feel awkward just keeping silent. "I'm Bero..." he said quietly, not liking that the attention was on him.
"Oh... nice to meet you, I'm... I'm Jot." He said softly. "And this is my sister, Elra."
He just gave a nod continuing to search, he'd found the medicine he needed quickly, and grabbed it, there were only three bottles available, bit it was enough. He then started looking for his own medicine, it wasn't as important, but things were... different now, and he'd rather not go without it. He didn't feel safe not having full control. "What are you looking for?"
"Heart medicine, for heart burn, and ..." Jot looked to his sister, not remembering what else they needed.
"Something for muscle discomfort." Elra chimed in. "We found everything else."
He nodded, looking over the bottles before grabbing two and handing them to the siblings. "These would work best, so I'd look for these. As for a muscle relaxant..." he bent down, looking at the lower selves. "This." He pointed to a bottle on the lower shelf.
"Thanks. Did you work here before?" Elra asked as she grabbed the bottles.
"I studied medicine, was nearly done with med school before..." he trailed off, he didn't need to say it afterall. "But it seems knowing what medicines to use and how to stitch a wound aren't all bad these days..." Bero had to admit, he felt like he'd wasted the last four years of his life, slaving away to afford to go to a good collage.
"Well, I can't argue that. Though med school, it's pretty impressive." Elra smiled, trying to make small talk, unfortunately for Bero.
"I guess..." he said softly, not really wanting to continue this conversation, or any for that matter.
Jot could sense that the conversation was tense and spoke up. "So... are you in a settlement around here?"
It was a bitter attempt at changing the conversation, and Bero wasn't really thrilled about the chosen topic either. "No. I live out of the city." He left his answer vague.
"Oh..." Jot sounded disappointed.
"To be fair, we don't live here either." Elra stated. "Or we didn't. We are hoping to find a safer place to settle, and since this city is so much smaller, we hoped to find a decent settlement."
"Decent..." Bero couldn't help but chuckle, it was a strange word to be used in a circumstance like this. "You'd be lucky to find anything decent these days..."
"You sound like an old man..." Jot muttered, having his sense of hope stepped on.
"Old?" Bero paused. "I'm only 26..." did he really sound old?
"Yeah, definitely old." Jot scoffed, he was acting rather childish.
"Jot we're 24." Elra sighed, face palming. "W9ildnt that make is old too?"
This caused Jot to frown, his statement having come back to bite him. "I guess we are also old."
Bero shook his head, but smiled softly. "We might as well be. I don't think any of us will make it past thirty." It was a harsh but true statement. They now lived in a dangerous world, with zero protection or support. The government quickly collapsed after the outbreak, and the military was completely wiped out after a third of them were turned. In all, around 70% of the human population was eradicated, and that number went up every day.
Jot just looked down at his feet, he clearly didn't like the thought. Likely the type to remain optimistic. "Things could get better. I can at least hope."
Bero shrugged, hope was something to hold onto, he wouldn't squash that, as it was likely the only thing keeping him going. "That you can." He then zipped up his bag, getting ready to leave.
"Hey if you're still gathering supplies, do you mind of we tag along?" Jot asked, fiddling woth his fingers. "It's safer in small groups, and we have a gun so..."
Bero hesitated for a moment, but agreed, he did need a weapon, all he had was a hunting knife, his shotgun he used for hunting was too big to carry, and took too long to reload, not ideal for protection, so he didn't bother bringing it out. "If you're offering protection, I won't turn it down."
Elra chuckled a bit. "I think my brother really just wants company. You're the first person here we've met that didn't try to rob us."
"Rob you?" Bero was alarmed by this statement.
"Yeah, a big group, they looked like thugs." Jot stated, trembling a bit.
"We didn't have anything and I threatened to shoot them so they left us be." Elra spat, clearly displeased. "They were a pretty big group too."
"People like that won't last." Bero stated bitterly.
"Even if you don't trust eachother, you've gotta help your fellow humans out." Elra smiled. "Right Bero?"
Bero paused, did he even count as a human anymore? He'd been bitten and remained sentient but, plenty of things had changed, like his senses. "Yeah.. humans." He muttered, not loud enough for the other two to hear. "We should get going." He suddenly felt very on edge. Picking up his backpack he started walking out of the room, something felt wrong and he wanted to leave, an unfamiliar smell hung in the air. He didn't even bother to see if they were following him.
As he crawled out of the hole where his bike had been waiting he stopped. It was gone, his bike was gone. "Fuck."
He heard something behind him and looked back, seeing Jot helping his sister up. "What's wrong?
"My bike is gone." Bero growled. "I left it right here and it's gone." He cursed himself for not thinking to hide it. Bero hadn't thought someone would just steal it, he didn't think anyone would be here. "Damn it!"
"Thats... unfortunate, maybe whoever took it-" Elra started to speak but then went silent as a deafening roar pierced the air. A beast was nearby, and it was definitely hungry.
"We need to go." Bero stated, he'd been bitten once already and survived, but he really didn't want to risk being bitten again... or dying. He couldn't afford to, his mother needed him.
"That's a good idea." Elra whispered, quickly climbing Down from the rubble, Jot following.
Bero nodded and jumped down, starting to walk at a brisk pace. He wanted to get away, his bike was something he could worry about later. He could hear the hurried footsteps of the two siblings behind him. He had a feeling this trip was going to take longer than he'd anticipated.