Adretheon

ok...ok...back on track...one a week...come on Adre...you can do this...

I'll be putting the old ones back up every other day, then maybe move to once a week, or whenever I get around to writing more.

Towards the Sun

There was five of us left. By the rate that we had been losing people we'd all be dead in a matter of days. Maybe we'd survive longer if we found food and water in the jeep. Maybe we'd get lucky and find an abandoned town nearby to make shelter. But it was no use getting our hopes up. It would only make it worse when there was nothing.

I helped Marcus remove the driver of the vehicle and we moved him to the pile of bodies we had made. Marcus climbed in the passenger window that was now on top of the car. There was a box in it, full of ammunition, that laid on the floorboard. In the glove box there were papers, a canteen of water, and by the grace of God a candy bar. Marcus broke off a piece and savored the taste. It might have been the last piece of candy he'd ever have. He wrapped it back up and handed it to me.

“We have food!”

The other three gathered around me and I broke up the bar into five almost even pieces. Marcus got less since he had already taken some. The look on the other's faces was the best thing I had seen in days. We hadn't just found candy, we found hope. That was enough to keep us going. Keep us living to see an end to this.

“Heh, I'll do you one better. I found what looks to be a poorly drawn map.”

The map was drawn on an old napkin from Burger King. The paper was so worn I almost couldn't make it out. Marcus and I were the only two who knew what it was. A once giant in the food industry was now so easily forgotten. According to the map there was something called “The Cave” near-by. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else on the map to determine where that might be. Considering where we were it was most likely an old mine shaft. Which meant, around here somewhere, there may be a mountain.

I looked at the jeep and wondered if there were any parts that could be salvaged. Someone said we could pull the battery and one of the head lights to make a flashlight. I popped the hood and looked for the battery. The jeep's left head light was smashed from the wreck, and was bent in on the right side from a previous encounter. This made the head light hard to remove without the proper tools. We had nothing to cut it out with, and nothing thin enough to pry out the light. Marcus came out of the jeep and looked at what we had to use. He looked at the back of the jeep then back at the light. He walked to the back, dismounted the machine gun, and placed it in front of the jeep. He had a grin of his face, and we all knew what he was thinking.

“You guys might wanna step back a bit. You know, just in case.”

Marcus lifted the gun and rested it on the engine.

“If you're a praying man, you better start!”

He fired short bursts into the side of the jeep and hoped he wouldn't hit the light. Halfway around it a bullet blew out the side of the light. Glass exploded from the jeep and everyone stared in disbelief. Marcus stopped shooting and looked at the light. Luckily he missed the bulb and just shot through the glass. He continued to shoot out the light till he had gone around it. He kicked out the light, and I tied it to the battery to see if it worked. The light came on, and we were satisfied.

Marcus tried to decipher the map. There were markings on the paper, but we couldn't tell if they were hills, mountains, or just marks. It furthered my suspicions that the drivers weren't very bright. It wasn't uncommon to see people with less of a mental capacity than most. It's been over a decade since a school was in session, let alone seen. It's hard to teach without schools. Hard to force unused information onto our young without anyone there to tell them they need it. Now, if something is learned it's because it was experienced. You're taught to fight, shoot, and survive. You don't use math or history when you're out in the wild. You use wits, your killer instinct.

After a short discussion we had decided that it was close to 1:00pm. That meant that the sun had been setting. From there we got our barrings, and had a rough estimate on which way we needed to go. According to the map the cave was only a few miles. It wasn't as bad since we were walking away from the sun.

There wasn't much to do while walking. Just listening and looking. No one talked. No one ever talked. I pulled the diary I had been reading out of my pack. Thought it would be a good way to pass the time.

There was only names in the diary. There were no dates or locations. Just names and the horrible truth about what had happened to these poor people. I had so far read three different stories in the diary. All written by different people in different parts of this world. It was passed on from person to person. When one died, another would pick it up. Just as I did.

I made it through the night. I need to get out of this place. I don't know how much longer I can last without food. I'm setting out towards what I hope is west. Maybe I'll find something out there. Maybe I'll find people...or maybe I'll see my family again...

The ground below us had turned harder. From a dessert to a wasteland. I could guess that the “Cave” was an old river bed, and if that were true maybe we would find water. Maybe civilized life.

We could see it in the distance. It was a miniature canyon built into the ground. This was the cave. It was built inside of a large boulder, and the path sloped underground. At the entrance there was two dead bodies. They had been sitting there for months. Most likely, they were killed by the people we had killed earlier. I shined the homemade flashlight down the cave. It looked safe, but that was only the entrance. We didn't know what we'd find inside.

I've been traveling all day along a mountainside. I found a small cave, and decided to make camp here for the night. I didn't see a single clue as to where I was or where I was headed. The nights are getting colder. I may soon freeze to death.

Half way down the page there was a final note. It was scribbled in, and barely legible.

Tell my family I love them...

That was it. There was a tear in the page, and the next page had blood stains on it. What had happened to this poor soul? Who killed him? or even, what?