The Survivors Trilogy

BOOK ONE || CHAPTER ONE

I was told the world ended over one hundred years ago, but that's only what I've been told. Since I haven't seen any other humans, other than our small group, I think it might be true. We don't know how or why the world ended, but it did. We are the only survivors we know. 

We are on the search for people like us—survivors. I'm sure we all believe deep down, we are the only ones left. After all, who would want to live in such a desolate city? There's nothing here. We, as a small group, can just about survive.

Sometimes, it brings a tear to my eye to think that I'll never find my parents again. 

I think they are dead. They probably think I'm dead.

The Estate has been my home for pretty much all my life. It never used to be as bad as it is now. When I was younger, the buildings were still somewhat intact, now they're not.

Every time we think one of the buildings is going to come down, we pack our things and move to another building, and so on, and so on. We've never stayed in a building for more than three years. It would be too dangerous.

This isn't the right life for a sixteen-year-old. I never asked to live in this place—I just got stuck here.

I look into the distance with tired eyes, seeing the old dilapidated buildings every now and then. In the sunset, the buildings give off a nice orange glow, but in reality, they are an old light brown. It's the type of color that matches everything around it, making it look like one smear of color.

The building I'm on now is like the others. The roofs are the only things still intact; for now, anyway. The roof has always been my hideout—away from all the others. Away from everything and everyone. The surface of the roofs are flat, giving us the opportunity to sit or stand on them without any harm; to keep us comfortable, I guess.

Only people like me can get this high on a building. You need to scale the buildings, but the only things we can use are the ledges. You need to be quick on your feet, because if you apply too much pressure on the ledges, then they'll crumble, and you will go tumbling down. 

I sometimes wonder what it would be like if it was only me in this town. I would definitely be lonely. I would probably go mad from the loneliness. I'm glad I have all the people that are surviving with me, though. I would never ask for more.

Out in the distance, I see the faintest flickering of light. The light flickers three times, then stops.

What the hell was that? I would have said back in the day, but now I just look in that direction, and turn away. I squint my eyes to see if the lights will appear again, just once, but they don't. Not even for one more time. What could that be? Instinct will always tell me that it's more survivors sending us signals, but it could have been the sun reflecting off a piece of metal or something. Of course that's what it was. I relax my muscles.

Almost every day I see something strange out in the distance, but I no longer take any notice of it.

The first time I saw something, I bugged everyone to see if we could check it out, see if it was anything, but no one would help me. Granted, I was an annoying twelve-year-old that didn't know any better than to shut up. It served me right when a boy a year older than me, walked up and slapped me across the face. Then I shut up. 

It wasn't until later that night that I went and slapped him back harder, until Kyle came and pulled me off him. If he hadn't, I would have knocked him out... maybe even worse.

Kyle has always been there for me. Whenever I was upset or angry, he would always tell me to talk to him until I felt better. I'm probably the one closest to him.