42 Prospects (2/2)

She bites her lower lip and focuses on the caterpillar. She alters her stance for the second throw. It hits closer this time.

”Okay.....here we go. Wake up!” She yells and throws the next stone.

This one hits the caterpillar on target with a light thud. It bounces off the rubbery skin. No reaction.

Sia's mood sinks. The sun is slowly progressing toward the horizon. She needs to find shelter soon.

”Okay..okay..okay...” she mutters as she bites a nail, but spits when she tastes the dirt on her finger.

She turns in a circle to see what is nearest to her. There is a huge hill to her left and endless flat desert to her right. The hill is more sand than rock, so she doesn't fear falling down it. She jogs over to it and it takes some time for her to struggle uphill.

Plantlife, destroyed buildings, and.....

Large dark structures rise up into the air. There are towering over the buildings surrounding them. Several of the rippling structures connect buildings together with weird tunnels made from an odd substance. The nearest one is dark brown, but others look charred and black.

She feels tempted to ask the device if aliens have landed and developed structures in the Wastelands, but the device would be as clueless as she is. All the documents they NEED were labeled classified the last time she had urged it to check for information. Useless machine.

Sia pauses at that thought.

Unless it has been lying all along and it knew exactly why all of this has happened. Exactly why everything went so wrong.

She frowns at that thought. What was the truth and what were lies made to get her to follow their narrative?

She shakes those thoughts from her mind and focuses on the matter at hand.

Those buildings down there are the only viable shelters nearby that she could hide inside. But the odd structures around it did not look inviting at all. Some of the structures resembled mounds of dirt, but others were something entirely different.

Sia grits her teeth and begins the climb down the hill. It's a bit steep, but Sia makes it to the bottom with no incidents. She unevenly walks toward the closest building.

The door is ripped off the hinges and laying on the floor of the entrance. The building is weirdly altered. The stairs look like something took several large bites out of them.

Sia walks over to where the stairs should all be and looks up to the second floor...Where the second floor should be.

'Sigh.'

She walks out of that place and to the next one. This one is still intact. It is an apartment building. She goes through the lobby and steps over old fallen light fixtures and overturned furniture to find the stairwell.

'The last time I was walking around in darkness I had help from Puter...' she sadly remembers.

She stops to retrieve the lighter from her backpack. It's not much, but it's all she has.

When she opens the door she sees that the roof over the staircase is gone.

'Well, that's less of a bummer.'

She puts the lighter in her pocket and tries the stairs. Just in case she needs to jump from a window, she only goes to the second floor. The second-floor exit door opens easily and she slides inside the dim hallway. Most of the hallway is dark, but one apartment door is open and sheds some light into the hall. She enters the well-lit apartment.

The floor has collapsed in what she presumes was the living room area. The kitchen remains and a dark hallway into the rest of the small flat. She walks over to the high cabinets and opens them.

Nothing.

The fridge.

Nothing.

She bends to open another cabinet...a thick plastic bucket is there under the pipes of the sink. She retrieves the bucket and looks at the counters.

Broken glass and wood chips are scattered on the top of the counters, but there are dirty pieces of fabric...oven mitts or dish rags. All piled next to the sink.

With a moment's thought, she turns and pulls off her backpack. She rifles through it for a few seconds before taking out her rubber gloves. After putting on the gloves, she turns to the nearest wooden cabinet and holds the corner tightly in her gloved hand. Then she kicks at it.

The cabinet cracks with one kick but slips out of her grip when she tries to kick it a second time.

She lets go of it and then goes to town. She kicks, stomps, and crushes them in. Until she can pull out pieces of wood and drop them into her bucket. Then she grabs the dirty rags and puts them in the bucket. She takes one rubber glove off, puts it in her pocket, and uses her free hand to light the dirty rags on fire. When they light, she shakes the bucket a bit and waits for the rest of the stuff within to begin burning. Then she slips her hands into the dusty oven mitts with her rubber gloves underneath.

She leaves the apartment and walks further down the halls to find her hiding spot. The bucket of fire keeps her way lit, so she isn't traveling in complete darkness. When she gets to a turn she notices something weird about the walls there. Material similar to the charred black cocoon structures is lining them.

'Not going down THAT hallway.'

She doubles back and starts testing the doorknobs.

'Why wasn't I doing that in the first place?'

She jiggles the handles until she finds an apartment that is unlocked. She slips inside and locks the door behind her.

The entranceway is simple like the last apartment. There are a jacket and hat still on the coat hangers, but no shoes or other accessories left behind. There is a long sofa sitting across from a damaged plasma screen tv that is hanging sideways off its holder. Large glass screen doors open up to a balcony.

'Not preferable, but ...' Sia puts down her blazing bucket and grabs any flammable material nearby to drop inside and keep the flame going.

Then she picks it up and goes looking for a nice closet to hide in. The rest of the home is very minimal. The hallway has a bathroom and a hallway closet, but the closet has a sliding shutter door.

'Next.'

The bedroom has a thick layer of dust laying over everything, but overall it's neat.

There in the bedroom is a closet with a lock. Sia smiles. She sets down her bucket with the door open and then backtracks into the living room. She drags the couch into the hallway and turns it on its side to obstruct the way. Then when she gets in the bedroom, she closes the door and moves the dresser and bed to the door. If something breaks in she will notice right away. The bedroom has a bathroom with a window. That's her only escape, but it's better than nothing.

Finally, Sia snuffs out the flames in the bucket and pushes it inside the closet. She drops in her backpack and crawls inside too. It's a tight fit, but she feels safe with walls around her and a locked door. No matter how illusionary it is.

Her mind is blank. She stares into the darkness. She can't even see her own hand. If things were like before she would use this time before sundown to research things within the immersive mode.

But it's not like before. Nothing, no one is like before, especially her.