Maraia [2]

            Nothing moved but her, the rain, and the fog that rolled ahead.  Darkening street lights lit the way.  Everything was still.  It was cold.  She walked down the middle of the road.  She did not need to hide when nothing was alive.

She walked around broken cars, piles of trash, and a large sign that had fallen.  This street was the same as the last one she was on.  The road was cracked, things were scattered.  It was dark in every building.  It was dark everywhere.  Nothing was bright or open.  No building offered safety.  Her armor stuck to her skin.

A sign fell from high on the buildings and smashed into the broken street.  As if it were instinct, she fell behind a car to her left.  She waited.  And then waited some more.  She sat down on the sidewalk and looked at the broken pavement.  It hurt to sit on.  It was cold.

Minutes passed before she looked up to see the sign was still.  The rain was the only sound she could hear.  Thunder rumbled in the distance.  She stood up and looked around quickly.  She began walking down the road again.  It all looked the same ahead, but she could not see that far.

She walked on the sidewalk now.  Looking into a lightless store, everything was messy: shelves had fallen over, glass was broken.  Smears of something was on the wall behind the counter.  All of the food was gone, but she was not hungry.

Something was blocking the road.  Tall piles of trash and a car walled off the street.  Climbing over it would be dangerous.  She would have to go through a building.

An explosion far off made her raise her gun.  She pinned her back against a close wall and looked to where the sound came from.  Something seemed to be flashing in the far distance.  She did not want to figure out what it was.  She quickly side-stepped to the corner of the building, and then peeked around the corner into a small commons area.  It was dimly lit yellow.  Nothing was there.

She slowly moved towards one of the doors to the left, and turned to keep her eyes on the road.  Content it was safe, she faced the door and pressed the “Enter” button.  It was not locked.  She stood still, facing a hall with back-up lighting.  Nothing was moving.  She stepped over the legs of a slumped figure, and moved in.