Shadows of the Past

Chapter 1

10 years later

It has been 10 years since I left the Underland and 9 since the cataclysmic event happened. The air is still thick with radiation, we are all forced to wear special masks that keep out the radiation, it's better than the suits they used to make us wear. Boots, who goes by Mag it Maggie now, and Lizzie haven't left the house in 5 months. I have to leave to provide us with food and money because Mom and Dad both died. Dad was already weak enough, but mix in radiation and unclean air, he passed only a year after. Mom was heartbroken and eventually passed, a few months after. We didn't get the luxury of having a funeral for either of them. 

"Gregor,"

"Yes, Maggie," 

"When will we get to go outside?"

"Soon, okay," She was already 12 and Lizzie was almost 18, they had both grown up in a broken world, "I have to go to work, there are some leftovers, go to bed at a reasonable time, okay?"

"Okay,"

"Did you hear that Lizzie?"

"Yes," She called from the other room. I grab my mask put it on and walk out of the apartment. The lobby was quiet as usual. We were still living in the same apartment, the same building. We didn't have time to move to Virginia. Grandma was really sick and couldn't travel, she passed thankfully, or she would've never survived the radiation. Then, the event happened and we couldn't travel. I walk out the doors. The sky was cloudy, as it was most days and there were piles of rubble on the sidewalk. Some buildings collapsed due to old age and riots. There were fires set off because of rioters. My beautiful city was destroyed.

I worked just down the road at the supermarket. It wasn't the best job, but it paid, quite a lot actually, $15 an hour. I see the bright neon sign of the supermarket. I walk through the doors.

===

It was 12 am when I got home, exhausted from a long 8-hour shift. I quietly open the door and strip off my mask. I go straight to the bathroom and strip down and take a shower. I get out of the shower and put on pajamas. I open Lizzie's door, she was fast asleep. I quickly shut her door. I open Maggie's door she was asleep at her desk. I quietly walk into her room and pick her and set her in her bed, she stirred. I covered her in her covers and turned off her lamp. I quietly shut her door and went to my room, and the second I hit the bed, I fell asleep.