External (Book 1&2)

13|Bodies Pt. 1

We walked all day yesterday.

After we had woken up from the rest stop's hard floor, we walked miles upon miles before sleeping in the forest when no other buildings were near.

But now, all I see are buildings. We have reached what William called 'the suburbs'. Houses and shops are everywhere (even if most are leveled). We had to leave the road to get here, but once we saw a sign that pointed towards civilization, we just had to see it.

Let me say, civilization is just as boring.

All there is is rotting wood houses that are falling apart and the occasional concrete building that still stands. Nothing special, no glorious signs of life. It just makes me feel more lonely to be here. It's a reminder that there used to be a life where people were everywhere and now? Not a person in sight.

Scratch that.

There are people, just not in the form I crave them to be in. Marcus points at a set of bones halfway into the ground, the white color stained dark brown with dirt. It must have been re-dug by erosion with some sort of weather. I peel my eyes away from the sight and close them, counting quietly to calm myself.

We continue to walk around, letting ourselves explore the abandoned area. I walk next to a collapsed house, the only thing still standing is a single bathtub. The sight is eerie.

My foot gets stuck on a wooden plank and I trip, falling to the ground. I groan as I feel my arms get scratched up by old nails, twigs, and vines. I can hear others coming over to me, asking if I am alright. Saying yes, I get up, but not without wincing at the pain.

"You could get tetanus." I hear Sabrina say, she lifts my arms to examine the scrapes.

"It isn't bad at all, just some cuts." I say, not understanding why she looks worried.

"Yeah, but bacteria could've gotten into you and that would be bad." She responds. Sabrina searches through her bag and pulls out an antibiotic, handing it to me. I take it with no argument, swallowing it with a gulp of water. My water is almost completely gone. We had gotten more water yesterday, but with walking in the sun like this, it runs out fairly quickly.

"Are we going to stop for water?" I ask William as Sabrina rubs some sort of cream on the wounds. I can tell why she was chosen for this mission now, she is very good at making sure we stay healthy.

"You're running out already?" He asks with a shake of his head. "Well, there's not much around here, so you'll have to wait a few more miles."

I nod and say thanks to Sabrina once she's done wrapping my arms.

"Be more careful next time." She states with a small glare. Sabrina looks so much better than yesterday. Her face has returned to normal and she doesn't complain of muscle pains anymore. I'm happy for that since we would definitely need our medic for the rest of this trip.

We continue back on the road, leaving the void suburbs behind. William had said that we are only a day out and by this time tomorrow we would be in the city. I'm excited to finally almost be in the place we are meant to go to. I know in the beginning I wanted this to last a while, but now? Now I felt like there isn't anything out here for us. I miss the crowded eighth floor and house with no bathroom. But, I mostly miss my childhood friend Danny which is something I know I can't get back.

My father had written an entry in his journal about the day that me and Danny wreaked havoc over the entire eighth floor. We had flooded the bathrooms and caused dirty water to flow down the 'streets'. The people on the third floor had to come fix it for us. I can barely remember the day, but some of it still can be pulled to the surface of my mind.

Danny and I ran around the makeshift tents, trying to find something to do. We didn't have extra points to go see a movie and the game room was full of things we had done ten times over. We wanted to do something fun, different. I had paused behind a tent, hiding from Danny since I had ran ahead of him. When he ran passed, I jumped out and scared him. He screamed, causing others to glare at us in annoyance. But, we hadn't noticed a thing. We were laughing to much to notice any on lookers. I laugh so hard my eyes began to blur and I fall on the ground for extra effect. To make the dramatics worse, I roll around on the concrete.

"Stop it! It's not that funny." Danny had stopped laughing and instead started growing angry. He never liked the feeling of being made fun of, even if I wasn't. Some of the other kids would like to make fun of him, since he had had trouble growing. At the age of nine, he was four feet flat, which is a little too short for his age. Though, puberty did him justice with growing to just under six feet.

"I'm so-" I can't finish because of my laughter, but I stop rolling on the ground. "I'm sorry."

"Whatever." He says, beginning to walk away. His arms are crossed as his feet stomp away.

"Wait, this gave me an idea." I say, my statement caused him to turn around. "We should prank everyone."

"How do you prank everyone?"

"I don't know, maybe, cause the water to go everywhere in the bathroom?"

"Alejandra!" Jacob yells in my face causing me to jump out of my day dream.

"Yeah?"

"Look!" He says, pointing off in the distance. I follow his direction and look. A mile or less away there are what seems to be millions of white things, sitting in an empty field. I can see the outline of cars sitting outside of it, large cars with big squares on the ends of them. I believe they're called trucks.

"What is that?" I question.

"FEMA." William answers me, but it doesn't make any sense.

"What?"

"FEMA. It says it on that sign over there." He points at a sign, a large one, unlike the road signs we've seen before.

FEMA
HELP IS NEAR

As we walk closer it is clear that we have reached what the paint of the road had called 'tent city'. Large, white tents sit perpendicular to each other for miles and the large trucks were FEMA emergency response vehicles. Though, yet again, not a single person is in sight.

William walks over to one of the large trucks, pulling open the back of it. A profound scent protrudes from the inside, invading our senses. I put my hand over my mouth and nose, coughing as William pulls it back down quickly. After a few moments, the air is clean again.

"Strange." William says with confusion on his face.

"What was that?" Sabrina questions.

William doesn't answer the question, but instead looks around hesitantly. He seems to be searching for something, but I don't know what. He looks hectic, eyes widened like a hawk in search for prey. Or more accurately a deer at the sound of a predator. When usually his emotions don't show, they do now. Fear and confusion written all over his face. Everyone figures that something is wrong very quickly, putting everyone in a state of worry. Over what, is what we don't know.

"What is in that truck William?" I ask, repeating Sabrina's question, but this time with more urgency. His eyes snap to mine and he opens his mouth to say something, but no words come out. "William!"

"I-It. It's bodies. Piles of them, shoved into the truck." I tear my eyes away from his and look at the truck. That doesn't make sense. It deosn't make sense at all.

"But-." I start, but no other words come out.

"They're decomposing?" Marcus asks, catching on quickly.

"Decaying flesh." William answers gruesomely. I take a small breath and look around at the empty tress around me. Not a single sound comes from us for several minutes as we search. But nothing is in sight. Not a single answer to explain this tragedy.

"What the hell happened?" Marcus asks the question running through all our heads. Along with:

Are people still out there?

These bodies have probably only been dead for the matter of days, if that.

So, what killed them and where is everyone else?