In the city, Miles, Beck, and Ace walked the fractured streets seeing the true destruction the bomb caused. The trees were bursting through sidewalks, large skyscrapers, being ripped apart by destructive vines, and husks lined the streets frozen in place. Miles looked at the husked bodies horrified seeing up close what became of the people caught in the blast. He pushed down the uneasy feeling he had in the pit of his stomach but it became nearly impossible.
"Where to first?" Beck asked, looking around the broken city not knowing how to feel.
"I have to go home, if Abel and Amanda went anywhere...it'd be home," Miles replied, staring down the long dark road his mom used to use to get home when they'd go to the mall. He remembered how fast she'd drive when it was late and nobody was on the roads. He also remembered the time she had gotten a speeding ticket when they had gone to pick Amanda up from hanging out with her friends. As they looked around taking in the sights of the fractured town, they heard a loud pop in the distance echo through the empty streets.
"What was that?" Ace asked, staring up from the floor for the first time in what seemed like hours.
"I'm not sure, it came from over there," Miles said pointing toward the Gusto Stupendo restaurant, a beautiful Italian place, usually a go to for special occasions . The three of them jogged swiftly toward the large buildings that were bundled together near the edge of town. The restaurant was the first in line then a couple of sports bars, a grocery store, and the sports store.
"Where did it come from?" Beck asked, scanning the crumbling buildings around them.
"Look," Ace whispered, pointing to the cinderblock propping the sliding glass doors of the sports store open.
"That wasn't raiders, someone's been here," He continued, inching toward the door slowly.
"Be careful, whoever was in there could still be here," Miles said, following cautiously. They each stepped into the cold store, avoiding the cinderblock as they did. Fear set in as they wandered the dark aisles aimlessly. The faint sounds of swaying lights squeaked as the cool breeze blew them slightly from behind.
Miles looked around not watching his footing. He fixed his sights on the tall ceilings and the cracked skylights above. The shadows of vines wiggled across them as they continued to grow and consume more buildings. As he continued walking with no sense of direction he bumped into a mannequin and spooked himself jumping backward and pulling the mannequin over. The plastic person fell onto him and scared him so bad he screamed before pushing it off of him and kicking it away dramatically.
"Jesus Christ, talk about poor placement," he chuckled through his short breath.
"Hello?" A voice called out. The air in the store was instantaneously sucked out as all of their necks snapped toward the origin of the voice.
"H...Hello?" Beck replied. Another moment of silence filled the store as they all seemingly held their breath waiting for an answer.
"Who's there?" The voice asked, nervously.
"My name is Beck I'm here with my friends Ace and Miles," Beck called out.
"We heard a loud bang so we came to check it out," Miles chimed in. Silence quickly filled the store once more. The three of them stood still in their positions anticipating a response. Then from behind one of the shelves Selena and Eden inched out slowly. Eden stood holding a compound bow while Selena gripped the wooden handle of her bright firetruck-red axe.
"You're Miles Henderson, Abel's brother," Eden said, looking at Miles and loosening their pull on the bow string.
"Yeah I'm Abel's brother is he with you?" Abel asked, excitedly.
"No...I'm sorry I haven't seen him since the pep rally," Eden replied sadly, placing the arrow back into the quiver across their back.
"Oh, you're Eden, Scott's little sibling right?" Miles asked, moving closer to the pair of them.
"Step sibling, if that helps. This is Selena, Scott's girl-"
"Ex," Selena said, confidently. Miles smiled awkwardly and nodded at her.
"Hell of a way to break up with someone babe," Scott's voice echoed from behind them. They turned to look at a rough-looking Scott stumble his way through the aisles toward them.
"Jesus, what happened to you?" Miles asked, disgustedly.
"Fuck you Henderson," Scott uttered.
"What are you doing here?" Eden asked, angrily.
"I thought I'd come let you know that dear daddy dearest is dead," He said, smirking. Eden looked at him not knowing what they were supposed to feel. They knew deep down they had some feelings about Thomas, but not enough to cover the anger and frustration they felt toward him in that moment.
"Okay...you can leave now," They replied, breaking eye contact.
"Well hold on a second, we're all here so that means we had similar ideas right?" He asked.
"So what?" They replied.
"So, if we all had similar ideas anyway, we might as well help each other. It's a dangerous world out there and we're stronger in groups," Scott said, insincerely as if he were crossing his fingers behind his back.
"I hate to say it, but maybe he's right," Beck said, shrugging, and softly cringing at her own words.
"I agree, regrettably," Miles said, dropping his head in disappointment.
"Fine, but keep him away from us," Eden said, pointing to Selena and themself.
"Deal," Miles said. Scott moved his way forward and wedged himself into Miles' group bumping Ace out of the way. As much as Miles hated to admit it, it did feel good to see someone he recognized, even if it just so happened to be Scott Wilkshire.
"So what's the plan?" Ace asked, repositioning himself within the group.
"We need to figure out what happened after the bomb hit, everything is changing and we need to know why," Miles replied, confidently.
"Are you talking about the burned people?" Scott asked.
"I'm talking about everything, healing plants, giant cave spiders, and the burned bodies," he replied.
"Don't forget about the guns," Eden chimed in quietly.
"What about the guns?" Scott asked, concerningly.
"When you fire a gun, it doesn't shoot. It creates a kind of explosion inside itself. It superheats the gun which leaves the hand of the shooter burned and then shatters like glass if it's dropped," Eden said, rolling their eyes at Scott and talking directly to Miles.
"I'm sorry did you say giant cave spiders?" Selena asked, nervously, refocusing the conversation.
"Yeah, it's like the spiders were affected differently than people. They didn't just die they evolved," Miles said, thinking back to the glowing red eyes staring at him hidden in the shadows of the cave. Selena shivered as a chill crept its way down her spine leaving chill bumps in its path.
"Jesus Christ, what about the...Healing plants?" Eden asked, confused.
"After we jumped in the river our shoes were destroyed by the rocks on the bottom. After a while, they to slice our feet. They got infected from the water and dirt, but we walked through a forest and stepped on lavender, and the oil that came out of the stems...healed the gashes and cleared the infection," Beck said.
"We came across the vines in the woods they...devoured a cop car and almost killed us for a radio, I think they only want modern technology," Eden said, her mind filled with the oozing husk of the policeman smashed against the steering wheel.
"Fuck is that it?" Scott asked, sarcastically.
"Anything to add Wilkshire?" Miles asked.
"Well, if there's mutant spiders, healing lavender, technology-eating vines, and exploding guns, then I think that's all we can handle at the moment," He replied, counting the things he listed on his fingers as he went on.
"The real question on my mind is how did you all end up here?" Scott asked.
"We came here after you decided to be an asshole, we were gathering supplies to survive on our own," Selena said, matter-of-factly
"We came back to find my brother and sister and any answers along the way," Miles chimed in before Scott could respond.
"Then we heard a loud bang when we got here and found this door propped open," He continued.
"That was us, I burned myself shooting a gun I found, so we decided to test out another one to see if it was the same result, and there it is," Eden said, pointing to the metal shards scattered on the floor in front of the mannequin. The group stared down at the metal shards resting neatly on a burnt patch of carpet revealing the concrete floor beneath.
"You said you were grabbing supplies, what did you grab?" Miles asked, still focusing on the shards.
"Some tents, a water purifier, some clothes, and some unperishable food," Selena said, attempting to remember everything they grabbed.
"Okay, that's good. Let's grab some supplies for the rest of us a few more large tents maybe a couple of small ones some clothes and some food," Miles said, looking at his group.
"Oh, grab some tools for hunting and protection, guns won't work but machetes, knives, and any kind of blade should do the trick," He finished before beginning his search for supplies. He headed back to the front of the store and grabbed a cart and started grabbing anything he thought was useful. He grabbed a compass, some new clothes, a pair of composite-toe work boots, a fishing rod, and a twenty-person tent.
He found a machete, a tomahawk, and a hunting bow that he also grabbed. After that, his mind went to food. He knew he had to get anything that didn't expire and that didn't require much prep work. He grabbed small snacks like peanuts and almonds. He got some oats and a good amount of spam. He piled on cans of corn and beans and anything else he could manage to hold in his arms. He also grabbed a small red butane grill and three small butane bottles before dumping everything into the wired cart. He then grabbed a heavy backpack off the shelf for himself and a heavy coat knowing it was going to start getting colder soon.
"I think that'll do," He said to himself, before making his way back to the front of the store. It wasn't long before the rest of the group came up as well. All of them had various items that rolled around the bottoms of their carts. Scott came up first, his cart had three shirts, two pairs of pants, a pair of shorts, new boots, a backpack, and a coat. As Miles looked closer he realized Scott had grabbed what seemed like the entire store's supply of almond pouches. Scott's weapon choices were almost identical to Miles' except instead of a machete he opted for a small hatchet.