On a sparrow's wings

Chapter 2 - A nice autumn day

  That feeling was right. It’s been seven years since that day and both her mother and father are dead. And she missed them a lot, more than she could say or even think. She would give anything to be a little girl with them again, careless in a simple world with simple needs. Ironically the things she missed the most were the parts that she used to hate the most. To see her father’s passion show in his cheerful blue eyes when he talked and talked about cars or her mother’s prideful smile when she heard Anastasia say that the food was good and that her day was fine. Her father died first, his shoulder wound never healed, it festered sapping his life slowly until there was none left. And her mom died shortly after in a supply run, she was overrun by the monsters that came to their home that day.

  They called them greys because of their dark grey patchy skin. Anastasia was terrified by them at first, they had no eyes and these at first look small mouths but which opened into a gaping hole filled to the brim with sharp teeth and a long green tongue that strangled the victim before it was eaten. They were thin and short which made would make them quiet and sneaky if not for their awful high-pitched screeching that would make a grown man shiver if he heard it in the dark of night, as he prowled the lonely streets in search of supplies. The worst things was their disproportionate arms and legs, far too long for their small bodies. And at their end three fingers with long sharp claws that clicked together when they moved.

  Eventually Anastasia had to face her fears and she learned, it wasn’t easy but she didn’t have a choice. She observed them, watched how they hunt, how they move and how they attack, and after experimenting with them she knew quit a bit. She knew that they reacted mainly to sound and if the victim had a strong scent to smell. They moved slow when they weren’t giving chase. They ran but couldn’t jump or climb or at least didn’t know how to.

  She learned how to avoid them, she had no problem sneaking past a herd of them no matter how big. But she did have to kill a few of them, that was unavoidable. She never got used to that, the killing. It brought this weight on her heart even though she was killing monster, even monsters had hearts that beat and she made them stop all the same. She could kill grays but not humans, that was a line she wouldn’t cross, and thankfully she hadn’t needed to.

  At least her brother Ethan was still with her. Even though it wasn’t the brother she knew. He had become a man grown. A stubble of beard covered him from chin to ear and he had grown a lot taller. He was almost two heads taller than her and broad of shoulder. At least he retained his pale complexion that her whole family shared. And every once in a while Anastasia could peered through his eye and see the boy he used to be. He didn’t annoy her anymore not since their mother’s death. “Everything will be alright.”, he had told her that day making the same promise her  dad had made and she knew it was a promise he couldn’t keep. After that day he didn’t let her out of her side and Anastasia did the same for him. Even though he didn’t want to admit it Anastasia knew that they were taking care of each other and that she helped him as much as he helped her.

  Ethan woke her in the morning, they had temporarily made this old apartment into their shelter. At least until they moved on in a couple of days. That was their routine, they didn’t stick for long in any given place, and never big cities. It took some time to get used to it but they had no other choice. This apartment was in better shape then most place they had been. Mold wasn’t growing on the roof and the walls didn’t have bullet holes in them and there weren’t any gaps in the windows or rotten through walls so it was fairly warm during the night. Anastasia liked that but Ethan always said “Don’t get too attached we’ll be moving on soon.”, Anastasia wished they could take a break for a week or two but she knew that wasn’t possible, not if they wanted to survive that was.

  She stumbled out of her bed roll which she had laid out on the floor of the living room and sat next Ethan in the table in the kitchen, one of the legs was missing so they had to support it with a few shelves they took out from the drawers. They were eating the regular, cold beans from a can. It did taste like cardboard but Anastasia got used to it eventually. She gobbled her food quickly and waited for Ethan to finnish.

“You still hungry?”, asked Ethan.

Anastasia knew he would give her his food if she asked so she said no.

  She went over to the balcony and looked out. She saw the old decrepit buildings, she found them depressing at first sight, all alone and left unattended to fall into disrepair, but Anastasia knew to look deeper, past the surface. When she did she noticed the beauty that hid there. She saw vines creeping up the chinese restaurant’s neon sign and she saw the little bushes and trees that were forming around the corners of the clothing shops and markets. She saw the huge tree that sprawled from the coffee shop in the middle of town, it raised its leafty fist towards the sky as if in triumph. Once humans ruled over this town with cement and brick. But now they were gone and their cement and brick had began to disappear and be replaced with roots and leaves. Nature was taking back control and it was apparent in the numerous nests filled with birds, on windows, above doors and in the small holes where brick once stood. The deer and rabbits prowed the streets as humans once did. There were greys on streets as well, their dreadful screeching and clicking ruined the melody of the nature that surrounded them. But the greys didn’t notice that, they didn’t notice the animals or the trees and bushes, no they had eyes only for humans and their mouths existed for the sole purpose of consuming them.

  Other people didn’t seem to notice the hidden beauty at all. And when she tried her best to show them the way to unveiling it they never understood. She enjoyed it herself nevertheless, but she always tried to show them, she always had this little hope that someone might see it someday. What things they could talk about she imagined. Her brother always told her not to have high hopes but she always ignored him, he was always so negative. He was here brother and she loved him dearly but she hated that negative attitude of his. He never tried to get her down on purpose and she appreciated that at least.

  “Daydreaming again?”, her brother leaned against the rusty railing next to her, it screeched and moved a little.

“Yep. You should try it. Although I don’t think it would help with the brooding persona you are going for.”, she gave him a sly smirk.

He chuckled softly but his serious demeanor quickly returned, “We should go check out those two shops before we go towards the apartment buildings”, Ethan pointed out towards the town.

“Can’t we go to the coffee shop it looks cool.”

“There are too many greys. Maybe tomorrow if they clear out by then.”

Anastasia agreed and they went to gather their gear. Anastasia picked up her backpack, it was almost empty they hadn’t had much luck with scavenging anything recently. It had a water bottle and a peach Anastasia was saving for another time. Fresh fruit was a rarity and she didn’t want to waste it. She put her knife in the sheathe on her belt and they went outside.

  They made their way along the path that had the least greys along it. They made it to the first shop, which used to be a liquor store by the looks of it. Anastasia noticed the two greys that were inside and pointed them out to Ethan. They had to take them out at the same time because they were too close together. They pulled out their knives and walked towards them, slowly and quietly. The screeching got louder and louder as Anastasia’s knife got closer to its mark. The greys twitched and twitched as their heads moved around trying to pick up a noise. Their fingers clicking touching the walls and everything around them. Anastasia got behind one of them and grabbed him by the forehead and shoved her knife through it’s head quickly ending it’s life. She shivered and let go of it’s body. She looked at her knife and saw the coat of black blood that was on it. She wiped it against the wall as best as she could before she returned it to her sheath.

  Ethan stood behind her, when she turned around he went over to scavenge once he made sure the grey was dead. Anastasia joined him looking through the shelves for anything that wasn’t expired or empty, or anything at all. The only thing left were empty bottles of liquor that rolled around aimlessly and a few expired bags of chips, some were open and reeked awfully when Anastasia got closer. She went over to look behind the counter and rummaged through the empty cans and tins that piled up in the drawers below it. Someone had lived there, but not for long if the number of cans could be trusted. Anastasia looked back at the grey corpses they had left behind and next to their black blood that flowed from their opened heads and sizzled and bubled on the ground she saw dried blood, dried human blood, and immediately knew that whoever it was the greys ate him whole, their saliva was slightly acidic she had noticed as there never were any bones left after the greys. The only thing left from you would be the little splatters of blood around the place of your death if you got caught by them. And if you didn’t struggle their tongues would strangle you as you neck burned and nothing would be left of you. She returned to searching through the empty cans and tins that seemed to be forming an aluminium mountain. When she was about to give up she found a single unopened can. It was a tin of tuna fish, not the best but it was food.

“Found anything?”, Ethan peered over the counter.

“Just this.”, she handed the tin over to Ethan.

“Better than nothing I guess.”, He looked it over one last time and put it in Anastasia’s backpack.

  They were coming out when a loud crack echoed through the streets and Anastasia saw the crumpled can underneath Ethan’s foot. The greys around them turned their heads and when they thought they were in the clear one of them screeched loudly and they all gave chase. Anastasia and Ethan ran down the street looking for a place to hold up in, or hide. They went past a shop with broken windows, a locked apartment building, a jammed garage door and they finally managed to get inside another apartment building down the streets. They barricaded themselves in as best they could, moving the little furniture that they could find around the the door.

“Always good to get some exercise in.” Anastasia said as they moved the last piece of furniture.

“I could deal with less greys.” Ethan headed up the stairs.

  They decided to loot the building while they were here, they might find something. All the apartments on the first and second floor were picked clean the only thing left was the things that couldn’t be carried or was nailed to the floor. Dust still lingered on the places where there once were paintings, chairs and tables. Anastasia spotted the usual mold growing from behind the fridge and in the bathroom, the humidity seemed to feed into it.

  On the third floor Ethan kicked in the one door left locked or the one that still hung to it’s hinges, whether it was locked or jammed they couldn’t tell. The apartment didn’t have any food or water but Anastasia noticed a picture covered in a thick layer of dust standing on the nightstand of one of the bedrooms. She picked it up and rubbed the dust off revealing a picture of a family. The dad was in his forties wearing glasses and he had an extremely cheesy smile on his face. The mom was tightly hugging her son and a small smile covered her face. the daughter was giggling with her mouth open wide. They looked happy.

  Anastasia smiled softly when she saw it.

“What did you find?”, Ethan came in behind her.

“I miss this.”, she turned around and showed him the picture.

“Yeah, me too.”, he sighed as he took the picture and looked it over.

“What do you think they would say if they were here?”, Anastasia leaned against the wall.

“Dad would sit on the dusty sofa and watch tv while complaining about the dust on the screen.”

“And mom would go crazy and make him rub every inch until it shined.”

They both laughed. But Ethan’s smile quickly faded away and he turned around and said they had to go. Anastasia sighed and followed him to the upper floors.

  They made it to the fifth floor finding only a few bottles of expired juice in the cabinets and moldy fruit lying inside bowls around the apartments. It looked as if someone purposely left them and went out or never got the chance to eat them. Anastasia found a nest with three small bald birds in them, they stood and chirped inside the tiny nest. She watched as their mother came and fed them. But she didn’t get the chance to look at it for long as Ethan pressured her to go.

  They stopped in front of the last door on the fifth floor. Anastasia looked at the crack in the bottom of the door and saw light flicker under it. She pointed it out to Ethan and he pulled out the pistol he had holstered in his belt. Anastasia moved in behind him like they had done a dozen times before. Almost always it ended in an empty room with a fire in the middle of it, left forgotten. Ethan slowly tried the door handle but it wouldn’t open. He got back a few steps and kicked it open waving his gun around the room. It was empty and quiet and there was a fire in the middle of the room as Anastasia expected, it’s hissing and crackling were the only noise in the room. But she noticed the lack of dust and the placement of items around the apartment so immaculate on shelves and pictures were hanged on the walls. But the main thing that stood out was the warmth, there musn’t be any holes for an apartment this big to get warm. She noticed the boards on the windows and it hit her. They weren’t alone. She signaled Ethan, he nodded and slowly made his way down the hall.

  "Not another step, kid.", a large man came out of the shadow brandishing a shotgun aimed directly at Ethan's throat. His beard was grey and covered in sweat, his eyes looked as if they were going to burst into tears at any moment. But his face was like stone, cold and broad, trying it's best not to show any emotions, but they swam to the surface all the same.

"What do you want?", the man said.

“We were looking for supplies. We didn’t know anyone was here.”, Ethan looked at him not blinking and his legs ready to vault.

  They entered a stare down each man not surrendering, trying to scare the other. Thunder roared and then silence. The man fell on the floor with a hole gushing with blood right between his eyes. Smoke spilled out of Ethan’s gun

“Jesus Christ! Why did you do that for?”, Anastasia covered her head with her hands and looked away.

“He was going to kill us.”, Ethan went over to search him.

“You didn’t know that! We can’t go around killing people on suspicious!”, Anastasia still tried to avoid looking at the newly bled corpse.

Ethan grabbed Anastasia by the shoulders and looked into her eyes, “Look, I don’t ask you to do this kind of stuff and I never will. But we live in a world where this is necessary. It’s sad but it’s true and the food this guys has will last us a long time. I don’t like this as much as you do but I do it because I have to.”

“Get the food and let’s go.”

Ethan let go of her and went over to search the apartment. Anastasia decided to wait outside. When Ethan came out his backpack gingling with food and holding the man’s shotgun they headed down the stairs. They got to the lower floors and escaped using the fire escape going around the greys that were still banging on the doors and they returned to their temporary shelter.