"So the house is gone," Jenny looked between Mark and Scarlet, "so now there is absolutely nothing left of them?"
"Unless you count a bunch of broken wood, but even that might not be left." Mark leaned back against a wooden counterparts of a caffè. Jenny had lead them to what once may have been a Starbucks, or something similar. The building was still in good condition and a small grocery store around the corner had proved useful for food.
Scarlet pulled at her hair with a brush. After a few strokes, she had managed to get the worst of the knots out. "Honestly, I'm more worried now about being in a ruined city more than what is left of Mom and Dad." She pulled a fresh pack of hair ties out of her backpack, tying her hair up in a ponytail. "Also, there is that thing roaming around and I doubt it has left by now." She swung her legs over the counter, watching as her brother nodded.
"Mark, you have that look on your face," Jenny frowned from where she was sitting, "I know that look. You have an idea."
"It's not a very good one"
Scarlet rolled her eyes. "Mark, for everything you have ever done, you have never had a bad idea. Now spit it out."
Groaning, Mark gave in. "Fine. I was thinking about trying to get a signal on my handheld radio. Maybe we can get some help.” He looked at the two girls, expecting them to argue that the idea was absurd. Any help that could come wouldn’t be of any help against the beast.
Scarlet looked between her brother and Jenny. “It doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me. Maybe we can get somebody who knows their way around out here to help”
“True. Some help escaping from that thing would also be nice.” Jenny smiled. “Now tell me again why you doubted your own idea?”
Shrugging, Mark began to dig through his backpack for the radio. “After hearing that the army could no longer do a thing to protect people against that beast, it is hard to believe that anyone will be able to help in a situation like this, much less want to.” Pulling out the radio, he dug a bit more. “Anyways, I need to get to the top of a building to manage to get some sort of signal in all of this. I don’t think either of you want to go climb up one of those crumpling things out there, and I don’t really want to split up.”
“Mark, it’ll be fine. We’ll head to what’s left of Times Square and you can meet us there after you have a signal,” Jenny grinned, “Two girls can take care of themselves you know”
“Ok, but you two have to promise me you will be ok.” Mark gave them a worried smile.
“Mark,” Scarlet let out an exasperated whine, “We’ll be fine.”
“Fine, fine. We should get some sleep before this all happens though.” mark motioned to the sky past the crumbling buildings, “It’s going to get dark soon.” With that, the three of them pulled out sleeping bags and blankets, laying out on the floor, hopeful of a good nights sleep.
But Scarlet couldn't sleep. Something kept telling her that they should just leave, that this wasn’t where the three of them were supposed to be. She didn’t understand why she felt that way, but she did. Someone was going to die the next day, and she hoped with all her heart that it wasn’t going to be one of them. With that final thought, she drifted into a fitful slumber, her dreams haunted by images of what was to come for them.
-----
Scarlet was woken up to someone shaking her. She yawned, sitting up to see who it was. It was Mark. Jenny was there too, packing a bag full of food and water. It took Scarlet a moment to remember where they were currently.
“Earth to Star, you going to become conscious any time soon?” Mark waved his hand in his sisters face, trying, and failing, to wake her up. Unfortunately for them, the coffee machines in the little cafe they had slept in no longer worked. Slowly, though, Scarlet came to her senses, rubbing at her eyes in a sleepy haze.
“You don’t need to shake me that hard you know.”
“You won't wake up if I don’t”
“Coffee?”
“Sorry, the machines don’t work and I don’t want to try starting a fire in this place again,” Jenny turned towards them. “You can eat the coffee beans though.”
“Ew.”
“That’s what I thought, now get up lazy butt.”
“Fine.” Crawling out of her sleeping bag, Scarlet stretched her still asleep muscles. “Got anything with caffeine?”
Laughing, her brother tossed her an energy drink “It’s my last one, so be thankful.”
Scarlet didn’t even bother to look his way as she popped the can open. “Thankful my ass, you’re the one who is waking me up in the mornings.” Draining half the can in one go, she sighed. “That’s more like it.”
“Girl, you need to break that addiction,” Jenny laughed. She knew about Scarlets need for coffee in the morning all too well. “Sooner or later there won't be any caffine available to you.”
Scarlet grunted in annoyance at that comment. Of course she knew, the whole world knew. Hell, China was gone, so half of the things that used to be a daily part of life were gone as well. If it hadn't been for the peace treaty between the remaining countries, everything as they knew it would have ended.
With as sigh, Scarlet stood up. Grabbing her worn out shoes, she looked at the two other people that were with her. "So what's the game plan?"
"Simple," Mark pointed at the two females. "You two are going to are going to search for survivors and supplies while I go see if I can get a signal at the top of one of these buildings."
Nodding, Jenny picked up her back pack. "Sounds like a plan. We meet up at Times Square at dusk."
Picking up her own back pack, Scarlet looks at her brother. "You stay safe, you hear."
"Hey, don't worry about me," Chuckling, Mark pulled his fingers through his siblings hair. "I'll come back safe and sound, I promise."
With about three of them ready, they set off in separate direction. For the next hour though, Scarlet continued to glance over her shoulder, her thoughts dizzy with worry.
Nudging the girl with her elbow, Jenny gave her a sympathetic look. "He'll be fine, and you know it."
"I know, I know. It's just.. I don't feel as safe without him around, you know?" Scarlet gave Jenny a worried grin. As much as what she said was true though, she was much more worried about the feeling in her gut. The feeling that they were not supposed to be there, the same one from the night before.
The two walked in silence, each in their own thoughts for a while more. The person who kept on entering their thoughts was currently on the other side of the city. When had life become so strange? When had everything truly begun to fall? For one Scarlet Fisher, the answers to those question had seemed so far out of reach, but they had always been so close.
As the time went by, the two struck up a conversation. It wasn’t much, but it kept them from the darker thoughts that they both had, Scarlet more so than Jenny. It was mostly about how life had been, what had happened in the time that Jenny had left to search for her cousin, and the overall strangeness of the world as it was at the moment. Soon, their topic drifted towards the city itself, and what it once might have been.
“You really think the lights never went out here?” Scarlet had a surprised expression.
“Only if the power went out, but then all the generators must have kicked in.” Jenny laughed. “If only I could have seen it in person then.”
“What about the stars though?” Scarlet looked out ahead of them. The rubble of the city was becoming a bore to look at, no matter how impressive the city may have once been.
“Scarlet, dear, you didn’t come to a city like this one to stargaze.” Laughing, Jenny looked around. “It appears to be about noo-” Scarlet rammed into her just as a building began to tumble, pushing her to the side. Stumbling, Jenny looked back to see that a building had indeed fallen, though luckily it had been a small one. “Scarlet?”
Groaning, the person in question looked up from her leg. “I’m here. I’m good.” She winced, red soaking through her fingers.
“Scarlet, oh dear god!” Jenny quickly opened her backpack, pulling out a roll of bandages. “Thank heavens you’re not hurt worse.”
Scarlet lifted her hand away from the wound. A sign had caught on her pants and given her a nasty gash on the leg. “If you blame yourself for this, I swear-”
“Oh, hush. I’m more worried about your brother chewing me out over something like this.” Jenny wrapped Scarlet’s leg up nice and tight to hopefully stop the bleeding. “Anyways, we need to get moving again, Do you think you can walk?”
Testing her leg, Scarlet stood up, taking a step.”I should be fine.”
The two continued on, wary of the buildings around them. Scarlet’s uneven steps didn’t help with Jenny’s nerves, so much so that at one point she offered to carry the younger girl. A quick refusal and the idea was discarded. After another hour or so of silence, they had reached Times Square, dead and deserted, a shell of its former glory.
Scarlet looks around as they climb over the ruble to get to the clear space in the center of the square. The unease sense that they shouldn’t be there returned.
“Hey, Jenny,” Scarlet spoke up over the silence, “I really have a bad feeling about being here.”
“I know. I have felt that way since we split from Mark.” Jenny gave her a small smile.
Scarlet opened her mouth to say something, but freezed up. She heard Jenny say her name, heard the building crumbling in the distance, but at that moment, she was somewhere else entirely.