Chapter 01: A Year Later
It's been a year since the world spiraled downwards. Society collapsed and everything became restless.
I held my brother's longer hand and slowly, meticulously guided him towards our destination. On my other hand is a slightly longer dagger I nicked in a store while looting for any supplies that we would need. There wasn't much as we weren't the only stragglers in the world that would take things from readily available places, but what was there was enough.
Everything was fine for the moment and I felt for a second that we would be able to arrive without any difficulties.
Unfortunately, it seemed I was too hasty in thinking that way.
My brother suddenly held my hand tightly and forced me to stop. Despite knowing how to take care of myself, it's a fact that I am small, smaller than my seventeen-year-old brother. It's easy for him to force me to halt.
Hand tightly holding both important objects in my hands, I slapped his hand hard and forcefully dragged him to an alley to hide before quickly looking around. Thankfully, there was no danger. The place we're deserted. I faced my brother and pulled his hand a few times so he would look at me as throughout of all of that, he wasn't even looking at me.
We can't stay in this place longer. Though there aren't much crawlers and people were scarce, staying in this dark alley would be detrimental.
"What is it?" I asked as patiently as I could despite the growing frustration I feel. My brother looked at my eyes intently for a few seconds before he turned his gaze out of the alley we are hiding. I looked at the direction he was having and saw a person hiding in a house. The man though was looking at a window, his eyes turned towards us.
It would have alarmed me, knowing that someone was looking at us. In this new world, we not only have to watch out for crawlers, but also for people. No one is trustworthy in these times. We have to trust only ourselves.
The man though was someone I know quite well. It's the stubborn man whose always clinging to my brother.
Lucas Santiniel. It's my brother's childhood friend.
How and when exactly did he come to this place? We were from S City and this small place is in the jurisdiction of the F City.
Lucas had a grin on his face as he kept gesturing for them to come towards him. I narrowed my eyes at that.
Although I could clearly see him, he's too far away for me to hear his thoughts. We know him, but that doesn't mean that he is trustworthy.
I'm not taking any chances.
I ignored him and turned to my brother.
"Cade, we need to leave," I quietly told him. His hold on my hands tightened even more. I'm pretty sure I'll have a mark later. I did not care for that though. I, in turn squeezed his hand painfully.
"We can't go there!" I forcefully said. "Were not sure if he is trustworthy. We can't just approach someone just because we know them!"
"A-ah! Nananana!" Caden's voice was slowly becoming louder, his displeasure clearly seen on his face. Eyes widening, I quickly slammed my hand towards his mouth to stop him from continuing.
He did not. I just managed to muffle his voice. Eyes watering, heart beating rapidly and sweat building, I slapped his cheeks enough for him to be stunned.
I hate doing it, but I have to. I can't afford being so gentle with my brother. This isn't peaceful times. Every misstep in this new world means death. And if one of us died on each other, the other would not survive.
"Caden! Listen to me!" My voice was hard as I held his face on both my hands. I looked at him closely, our nose touching. I made sure that his eyes remained on mine. "We can't stay here. We have to leave." I released my breath as I close my eyes briefly. "Please, listen to me."
I'm tired. I haven't slept properly for a week trying to immediately return to where I placed my brother when I went to look for a new place. I'm sleep deprived and my mental strength is almost nonexistent. I just wanted to have a proper sleep for a bit without worrying for our safety.
The destination were going to is a small underground shack that I've seen before. I already scouted the place earlier and cleaned it up for a bit to make it human-friendly.
There were rough hands rubbing my face and I opened my eyes to see my brother wiping my face of my tears that just dropped without warning as if he's cleaning a particular stain on a table. My lips twitched upwards. I inadvertently look towards where Lucas were and saw him frowning in concern.
I looked back at my brother and saw him still frowning a little while letting out small, unintelligible noises. I sighed, heart wavering.
Throughout the entire year, we were the only ones together as our parents died before the second month was over.
We were at first lucky as all of us were still humans, still ourselves the next morning after the Moon changed its color into red. But it wasn't far before that changed.
We were unprepared as nothing was wrong inside our house. Upon mom leaving for the market, she was bitten by a crawler. She lasted for a week before dad had to kill her. The tragedy continued as dad was bitten while protecting both both my brother and I one month after. He lasted a day before he decided to kill himself.
After that, we were alone.
Despite being nine then, I had to be the sound of reason and my brother's protector.
This new society is dangerous. No peace can be seen. All manners of criminal activities were being committed by everyone as order collapsed. A kid and a teen with autism would not survive without adapting.
My brother's tantrums were now few and far in between, and he listens to me now more than ever, but there are times when he just could not help himself when he wanted something.
Caden seemed to want Lucas. My brother rarely asks for anything nowadays, seemingly knowing when to act and when not to.
I sighed.
"Alright. I'll see him later. If he's clean, I'll let him come." I'm unsure even until now if Caden could really fully understand my words but I feel like he got the gist of what I was saying. He sharply let out a giggle.
"Come on."
Caden finally let me move him. I looked at Lucas once again only to see him scowling fiercely at me. I glared for a second before reluctantly gesturing for him to wait.
I ignored his response to that and quickly pulled Caden to our destination.
Finally, safety.
TBC.
A/N:
This is an idea I had. I might continue but it'll take a while. This was casually written so still undecided on where this will go. Depends on my mood I guess.
This might become crappy so sorry in advance. Short chapters too. This is only a first draft. I might polish this later.
P.S.
Tell me you're thoughts about this little story, not about the grammar. I know mine is atrocious. And remember, this story is created by chance, lol.