Clary

"Clear!" came the voice of my older brother and then from my best friend Simon. Our footsteps echoed through out the small house we were searching and our voices carried from room to room with little difficulty. I could hear Jonathan opening and closing kitchen drawers and cabinets which was soon followed with a grunt of dissatisfaction in his findings. Simon's movements were quieter with distance but I was still able to keep attention on where he was at all times; a skill that had proven to be very important in the past.

I looked through the drawers of the desk in the small abandoned bedroom I stood in and found little things useful except a small bag of half eaten Cheese-its by the bedside table. Any food was graciously accepted. I tasted one and with satisfaction in the taste continued to consume them as I finished searching the room.

After I was satisfied with my mostly useless search of the room I went to meet back up with my brother Jonathan, handing him the now slightly more empty bag of snacks which he took without hesitation.

Simon now emerged from the other room and came to join Jonathan and I in the kitchen. His dark brown hair was getting way too long and was hanging loosely over the entirety of his forehead and down by his eyes. Though he was much thinner than Jonathan by nature, his slender frame held the shotgun in his hands with a strong dominance and readiness to face anything. He took his turn taking the bag of Cheese-its and downed the rest of it like one would a shot of liquor, before crumpling it up and tossing it into the nearby trashcan.

"Find anything?" Jonathan asked him which brought about a sigh from Simon as he ran his fingers through his hair to push it out of his vision.

"Nothing of use, no." He said with a hopelessness to his voice, most likely encouraged by fatigue and disappointment in their search so far. "Just a razor in the bathroom and a few bottles of water."

"Well," I say with opposing cheerfulness, "there's plenty of houses left in this neighborhood we haven't searched yet. We might get lucky yet." With that we all travel to other houses in the neighborhood. We found little in them but a few more scraps of food, a rusted baseball bat, a bit more water, and lots of victims of the virus -those of which that were not yet deceased we easily took care of-, raiders and suicide. Our still young spirits being slightly darkened by the sight, never having gotten used to it all.

After a few hours of this the sun began to set, the yellow sky turning darker every passing moment as we settled in the attic of what we felt was the safest house of the neighborhood, with plenty windows that we could spot danger out of.

Before long the street outside was completely dark outside of the windows view and the cold fall air of night creeped in on us. We used our backpacks as pillows and found a few dusty and frayed blankets that we took turns using throughout the night. I stay curled up and prayed that winter would not be too much worse than this.