An Empty World

Cut Off (2)

Day 1.

     The voice sounded very young and excitement was clear. Quickly, I got to my feet to see who I was being greeted by.  A young boy ran behind  the girl. He looked to be around five or six. The girl looked like she was maybe thirteen. The  young teenager had her blonde curly hair in a floppy pony tail which looked like it had been streaked with brown dye and she wore a singlet and shorts.  I thought that she looked pretty but generally don't like kids from her age group that usually thought they were "cool".  

    "Ew," she said when she saw me. I turned away for a moment and wiped a tear from my face in embarrassment. Then swung back around in hope that my eyes didn't look too red now.  The boy stood behind her now. It was obvious that he was her little brother as there was a good family resemblance between the two of them. He shared the same thin, straight nose, tiny forehead and pouty lips. His hair was darker, though I was unsure whether that was because she may have altered her hair colour. 

    "Are you okay?" the boy asked, worry spreading across his face. 

   "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks" I said trying not to sniffle,  feeling like a total wimp. I smiled at him, appreciating the concern.  The girl now put her hand on one hip and tilted her head, looking me up and down with those judging pretty blue eyes that I envied. 

    "So like, you're not with anyone?" she asked.  I shook my head in response. "Great," she said and rolled her eyes.  The girl looked disappointed.   

    "Do you have any idea what has happened?" I asked.

    "There was an earthquake last night," the boy stated, "that's all we know." 

    "Same," I said. 

    "So it looks like we're stuck with you," the girl then added to the conversation unpleasantly.

    "Nope," I replied and shook my head at her. With that I turned around and went to leave the annoying snob behind.

     "Wait!" I heard the sound of the little boys voice behind me. "You're just going to leave us here alone?"  I felt bad for a moment. They were both young...not that much younger than me but it felt like they were. I also felt sorry for him, having to be around the annoyingly snobby sister. I sighed then groaned and turned back around again realizing that it would be wrong to leave them there by themselves no matter how irritating they may be. 

      "Alright," I started. "We'll try and find some other people and then I'll leave you with some adults if I can but I will help you until we get things sorted."  The little boy gave me a wide grin then thanked me and asked what we should do next. 

    "Good question." I replied then considered my options. The thought then occurred to me that having the entire world to myself (almost) may not be as bad as it seemed. 

                                                                  *********************

Day 14

    It has been two weeks now and searching for other survivors seems to be a pointless idea.  The other two survivors that I have found who have introduced themselves as Megan and Danny  have been travelling with me from town to town in hope of finding other life forms but so far nothing .  The good news was that everything we needed was for free. Fuel, food, water and places to stay.  All we had to do was break into what used to be someones house or a shop and take what we needed. 

    "Christa?"  I heard Danny say from behind me. 

    "Yes Danny?" I looked at him as I pulled some canned fruit from a shelf and placed them inside my large new backpack. I had decided that in case anything were to happen to the food, we were to stock up on some of our own.   

    "Do you think we're ever going to find mummy and daddy?" Sighing to myself I bent down on one knee and made myself eye level to him. Putting my back pack on the ground and placing my hands on his shoulders I replied to his question.

    "I don't know sweetie. Your sister and I are doing our best to find answers but can't promise anything. However I will do everything I can to locate your parents. Okay?" Danny nodded at me sadly then handed another can to me. Over the small amount of time I had known him I had grown rather fond of the little boy. Megan on the other hand... well that's a different story. 

   "Yeah right. Mum and dad are never coming back and that's something we have to face." I heard the high pitched yet annoying voice say from behind me. Ignoring it I clenched my jaw and kept doing what I was previously doing, trying not to notice the tears beginning to fill in Danny's eyes. Megan of course, was sitting on a chair filing her nails carelessly. She always seemed to be doing something idly and her lack of interest or even worry towards our situation annoyed me even more. That and the fact she clearly had no consideration for her brother's feelings. Attempting to make her help would always fail so she pretty much does whatever she likes.  I wondered to myself why I got stuck with such a spoiled little brat. 

    "So where to tonight?" Megan asked when I turned around and went to leave through the entrance of the shop. "Some lame persons house? Wait let me guess, you want to go camping and sings songs around a fire to make this more boring?" she continued.  I ignored her and took Danny's hand hoping to comfort him somehow because he still looked upset. Megan got up from her chair and ran in front of us making it look like she was the one leading us out the door. She then began complaining about numerous things which I didn't care about so I drifted off into my own world.  The world that felt like home. I remembered my five sisters and thought about how much I missed them and everything else that I used to have. Dance lessons. School. Family. I had a few friends but very little. Growing up to be socially awkward and detached seemed to be my curse but it somehow made it easier to look at my situation more objectively. 

    Vroom vroom... the sound of the car starting. That was my wake up call telling me to focus now as I drove down the desolate road.  For a second I looked back through my rear view mirror and saw the sad little boy crying and held in the urge to do it myself.  

   Then I saw it in front of me. A ginormous black hole. The sound of screeching could be heard as I put my foot on the brakes and swerved to the side, just missing the massive crater in front of us and pulling the car over.  Megan screamed behind me several times before and after I stopped the car. Quickly I turned to see what happened but they both seemed to be fine. The twit glared at me when I rolled my eyes at her but was too shook up to say anything.  

   Only after I stepped out of the car did I realize exactly how big it was. It wasn't just a hole you could drive around. It was a widely stretched out crater that went out as far as I could see cutting me off from the other side. I went up closer to see how deep it was but there was no depth to be seen. Just a deep black hole. Throwing a rock in and waiting for the sound to hit the ground didn't work either. There was silence. Megan squealed again when she saw it too and I debated whether to push her in but managed to restrain myself as I realized she was all the little boy had left.  

    "What had happened here?" I whispered to myself.  "We're cut off from the other side."