Chapter 4

4.

Jason:

    I stood in front of the house. Vincent and I had taken the liberty of searching through houses in the neighborhoods to see for other survivals or weapons that could come into good use. I quickly went up the steps, eager to see the inside. This was the most thrill I ever got out of the day.

    “ Stand back,” I said. I swung my fist at the door till it crumbled. This door was obviously made of cheap wood.

    “ I know you’ve got this super hero strength and all, but doesn’t that like a little bit? Don’t yah feel it?”

    “ Well, no duh I feel it,” I said, hating these dull conversations with Vincent. “ Except it doesn’t hurt. It’s like breaking a tower of lincoln logs.”

    “ Oh. Have you even ever thought about where these powers came from?”

    “ No, and I really don’t care.”

    Vincent, who was obviously a little hurt by this, said, “ Gosh, man. You really like Carrie, don’t you?”

    “ What does she have to do with this!” I said, angrily, turning to face him.

    “ You like her and you’re mad at Nathan cause she loves him, instead. Everyone knows. It’s obvious. The only clueless one is Laura.”

    “ Let’s just get to work,” I grumbled. I walked inside and reeled back. “ Ugh, it smells like the school’s locker room in there!”

    “ Only worse!” Vincent said. “I didn’t even know that was possible!”

    “ Just hold your nose, we’ve gotta go in anyway.”

    “ There is no way anyone could survive in there!”

    I ignored him and went inside, pulling my shirt to cover my nose. I looked around. The walls were moldy and dripping a foul smelling liquid. No furniture, decorations, or even sounds could be found inside. I climbed up the stairs, being careful not to touch anything. I heard Vincent’s feet shuffling around downstairs. The whole upstairs was vacant, just like the bottom floor. After a long, meaningless search, we came up empty handed.

    It made me curious why the house was so empty. It was possible that this house wasn’t owned by anyone when the attack first arose. Still, what was the liquid dripping from the walls?

    I started to walk out the door when something caught my eye. It was a shiny object, glinting in the sunlight. I stared at it, trying to guess what it could be. It was just sitting in a windowsill. The gooey, rancid liquid was casting an eerie green light on it.

    “ You coming?” Vincent asked as he walked past me outside.

    “ Uh, yeah. Just gimme a second,” I said.

    “ Oh, okay,” he said, not the least bit curious. I knew he was ready to leave this house. It was easy to tell by the way he ran to the next house. I walked over to the windowsill, grabbed the object, and shoved it in my pocket.

    It was a silver pocket knife.