Chapter 4

"What?!" Pierce yelled, a surprised expression on his face. I suppose the news was spontaneous.

"Pierce, we have to get onto the roof of the school. Do you remember from when we snuck from orientation? Horrible idea, by the way."

I remembered we found a ladder at the top of the stairwell on the third floor. All three of us didn’t dare use the steps, so we used the railing, with our feet on the bottom and hands on the top to balance.

Once we got to the third floor, we saw the ladder, but the school probably thought kids would throw watermelons off the roof or worse, because there was a blockade covering the first six rungs. "Did you remember THAT?" Peirce said. "Wait, Garry could you give me a boost if I can grab the first rung?"

"Wow. That's actually a good idea, Pierce. Natasha, do you think you can jump up to the first rung?"

"Yeah, but how are you going to get up?" Natasha replied.

"Well, uh, I can actually jump pretty high."

"Garry does gymnastics and he doesn't want to tell a pretty girl." People would never think I was so honest if I didn't hang out with Pierce. Natasha blushed.

Pierce jumped and grabbed the first exposed rung. "Garry- boost- soon." he said, struggling. "Oh, right." I gave him a boost."Really Garry? ‘Oh, right'?" "Just climb." Once Pierce was out of sight and onto the roof, Natasha jumped for it.

Once she was up on the ladder, it was my turn. I got the third exposed rung on the ladder with just enough room for one foot. With effort, I hoisted myself to the sixth and climbed normally from there. Natasha and Peirce were standing near the edge of the roof.

Natasha had her face in her hands and Pierce was trying to look away.
"Pierce?" I said.

"It's terrible Garry. God, it's awful." I looked over the edge then felt like I was going to puke again. Buildings with no glass. Houses with chunks taken out of them. Cars overturned."Oh god." I said. At this, Natasha started crying. I felt like doing that too.

"People will find out about this. They'll send people." I said to reassure her, still staring into the distance.

"So, we should find shelter, right?" Pierce suggested. "R-right." We stood there for a while, unable to speak or move.


* * *

I looked at my watch. 4:27. S**t. "Guys, we need to get moving."

"To find shelter?" Pierce asked. "Yeah, probably a house." I said.

Natasha spoke up. "Won't there be... Bodies?" This never struck my mind.

"Most people were at school or work. But we'll have to check them first." Answered Pierce. "Let's go." I said. I was first down the ladder. Once I got as far as possible down the ladder, I dropped backwards, but lost balance and fell on my butt.

"Are you okay Garry?" Pierce said. "Ow, yeah."

I made sure to catch Pierce and Natasha. No one talked on the way down to ground level. Upon closer inspection of a body, I could clearly tell they were mostly burnt to death. I puked. I grit my teeth and tried not to cry.

How could I look at them? They were people.

They were just happy that the first miserable day of school was almost over. Now I'm staring at their dead body, seeing how they died, like some forensic officer with no emotional connection.

I opened my eyes, I was on my knees and Pierce's hand was on my shoulder. I was getting a concerned look from Natasha. "God damn it, let's just get the hell out of here." I need to stop thinking about them. Pierce looked across the street, Natasha’s and my eyes followed to a house that was mostly burnt down.

"Should we see if the rooms are intact?" "No, I just want to find one on the out skirts of town."

* * *
6:24. The walk was terrible. Natasha kept looking down, and every 4 minutes there was a dead body or destroyed landmark.

"Garry, I think this one's good." I looked to where Pierce was pointing and saw a house that, though burnt, was the most intact thus far. "Looks good to me. Natasha?" I asked. She nodded. We had been walking for a while, and as far as I could tell, we were all hungry and tired.

"We're nowhere near the outskirts, are we, Garry?"

There goes optimism. "No, Pierce." I said. "We can only walk so far, Garry, we should take this opportunity." Pierce insisted. "I already said, all right. Plus, since when am I the leader? We can all make decisions here, right?." Peirce raised an eyebrow. "I'm glad you think so highly of me."

It was hard to find, but the house had a huge canned food section in their pantry. "F**k, we should've kept our backpacks on!" Said Pierce.

"I did."

Natasha made me jump. I had almost forgotten she was there. She was holding a blue checkered backpack that I never noticed until now."Whatever, we'll probably find more food at our permanent shelter." Pierce noted.

Permanent shelter. We ate the Non-canned food at a table in the kitchen."Everyone's dead." Natasha said with her face in her hands. She hadn't been eating. Pierce put down his peanut butter sandwich. "I wasn't that hungry anyways." She said "Shouldn't we mourn them? All our families are...."

I slammed my head on the table. I guess that's what Natasha had been thinking about all day, while I had been too afraid to. "God damn it!" I said through tears. Finally someone was brave enough to acknowledge the fact that everybody we knew was dead.

And we lived.