New Years Explosions

We took the long way.

Cale spilt from us at what looked like a T-junction. Unfortunately I was stuck with Kayne, the one who doesn’t speak much.

We all agreed to meet back at the T-junction in hour; we still had our watches with timers at least. So basically we were going to spread out our search in a distinct circular pattern, going around the area until we got back to the starting point.

The one thing we didn’t do was discuss what would happen if we ran into another monster, or what we’d do if we were separated for good. A thought like that was like adding wood to the fire, kept our minds going until we couldn’t take it.

Not sure if we should leave it hanging between us, though. Never a good idea to keep things to ourselves.

Kayne walked a little ahead of me, poking idly through a pile of rubble while we zeroed in on a half-collapsed building. It was the only one not reduced to a mountain of shattered glass and cracked concrete, might be worth searching in.

Silence stretched between us as the sun beat down on our backs like a whip and every sound or movement set our eyes scanning the horizons.
Kayne walked confidently towards the building while I followed warily behind, eyeing the strained wall of concrete and glass.

“Should we really go in?” I asked nervously, licking my dry and cracked lips. “What if it collapses? It doesn’t look stable.” I tried to hide the shake from my voice as I looked up at the building, but there was no denying it. I was afraid.

“It should be fine.” Kayne said quietly, making his way over to me. “Logically the building should be structurally sound, after supporting the weight of the fallen building already. As long as we don’t disturb it too much, we should be safe.”

I looked into his amber-flecked eyes and bit my lip. Sure, Kayne seems smart, but is it really logical to enter a collapsing building?
“Whatever.” I shrugged giving in, we had to search somewhere and the building seemed the safest compared to the others. Kayne cautiously walked towards the entrance eyeing the beaten concrete that was clearly from the building, taking a breath I followed him into the death trap.

Up close the building looked to be a storefront of some kind with a living area on the second floor, everything was covered with dust and the air was stale and dry. I coughed and put my arm up to shield from the dust as Kayne made a makeshift path, “it was a bookstore.” He stated nonchalantly.

“Uh, yeah. Guess it was...” I reply and make my way behind the counter; a wooden beam from the ceiling had hit the counter breaking it in the middle, but the shelves underneath were still intact. Carefully I checked what was there; A box of money, some notebooks, a first aid kit and a bag of salt and vinegar chips.
“Found some food and a medikit!”
“Good! But I found something better, come help.” I made my way over to Kayne clutching my prizes and wondering what he could have found, my curious thoughts were answer by a groan.
He’d found somebody, Kayne had found another survivor.

We weren’t the only ones.