Remains of Humanity - Book 1

Chapter Seventeen

An hour later, Linda and Jesse had arrived at a steel fence surrounding a small power station. The area had two massive generators next to each other connected to power lines extended over the forest, and a small building with one window and one door, closed shut. There was a gate by the fence, which Linda and Jesse walked over to open it and enter the facility one by one.

Jesse immediately glanced around the area, before an arm halts him to stop.

"Wait." said Linda.

"What?"

Jesse looked at Linda's confused face, and noticed she was staring ahead. He followed her sights and saw two cars next to the building, on the other side so it made sense they didn't see it on their way to the facility.

"Those weren't here last time."

Jesse immediately looked around again, "That can't be good."

Linda stepped closer toward the two cars, both their windows covered in dust and the exterior body starting to rust. The vehicles strangely still had all its wheels.

"You think it could belong to those Vultures?" Jesse asked, standing still while Linda inspected the car.

"It wouldn't make sense for them to leave their cars behind."

"Maybe they ran out of fuel."

Linda tried opening one of the cars, but it was locked., "For a group thats known for ambushing and stealing from people that travel down the D12 road, I'm pretty sure they would have more than enough fuel, and even if that were the case, they would probably not leave these cars behind without leaving a couple of people here."

Jesse looked at the building nearby, the windows covered in dust as well, "From the looks of it, no one has been around for a while."

"But with these cars, there has been people here... definitely after we have left, cause like I said, those were not here when we settled here."

"I assume the bag would be in there?" Jesse asked while pointing at the building.

Linda brought the rifle over to her front, to hold it with both hands, pulling the lever back then looking up to Jesse, "Yeah, but we should play it safe though."

Jesse agreed, as he waited for Linda to walk first toward the buildings door. Following right behind her, Jesse continued to look around the rest of the area, while Linda proceeded to face the door, and reached to turn the doorknob.

Slowly, the wooden door creaked opened, and the pair was met with darkness. All they could make out was a wooden floor, and a dusty table. There was only one room in this empty building, but because of there only being one window, it was too dark to see much.

Linda shifted her bag to the side to reach inside, pulling out a flashlight which she flicked the tiny switch and illuminated the inside, revealing at the back corner of the room, a hatch.

"Place is empty." Jesse said, while Linda walked over to the hatch.

"Over here." Linda replied, hanging the rifle over her shoulder, bending down and unlatching the doors of the hatch to open them.

All Jesse could see was Linda jumping back and coughing afterward. He was completely confused and somewhat concerned so he stepped closer, "Linda whats wrong?'

She did not answer, but then again it did not seem like she could as she leaned her hands on her knees, trying to recover and soon Jesse noticed barely visible mist with dots dispersing from the hatch. For a second, he mistook them for fireflies.

"Jesse-" Linda said, before coughing again.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm..." Linda stood up straight, breathing in the fresh air away from the hatch slowly to lessen the coughing, "I'm fine."