had only been a
half-hearted suggestion anyway. Richard knew that, if there were
other survivors than just them (and there had to be, the gang holed
up in the hospital proved it) they would be gathering downtown as
well. For most of them, it would be to the same purpose that
Richard and Samantha found themselves – the simple quest for other
people.
“ Yeah, silly idea,” he groused quickly. “Let’s go”. He walked
away towards the gentle rise of the unimpressive skyline without
waiting for her to move.
SEVEN
They walked
down Court Street and as they did so the buildings grew closer
together and older. Aged red brick replaced dirty white siding and
the businesses that had previously inhabited them grew more
prestigious: doctors, lawyers, investment brokers, dentists. There
would be valuable equipment stashed inside those darkened
interiors, Richard thought. Medical equipment worth thousands.
Those touch-screen computers that were ubiquitous in the offices of
well-to-do dentists. The personal information of tens of thousands,
all locked away in filing cabinets and left to spend eternity in
the darkness. He wondered if anyone would ever come across them,
and make a master record of them someday. A sprawling book that
detailed the people that used to exist, and then didn’t. The future
archaeologists would have a series of giddy field days with even
this, a row of professional buildings in a second-rate decaying
industrial burg in the tail end of Ontario.
The further
they walked into the downtown, the more Richard could smell fire.
That smudge of smoke that hung on the horizon wasn’t as far off as
Richard had first thought. The wind freshened towards them and the
smell of wood-fire became even stronger. He wondered how far off
the fire was, with no small amount of unease. He also wondered if
those far-flung future archaeologists would have anything to dig
through, after all. He thought about discussing it with Samantha
but she seemed lost in thought as they walked; he didn’t want to
stir up anything, so soon after their last blowout, so he kept his
concerns to himself.
They passed
the for-sale sign on an empty brick office building and a gunshot
cracked from somewhere nearby. Richard stopped dead in his tracks,
trying madly to listen. Samantha seemed to be keeping an ear out to
the world as well, although she was staring off in a different
direction than Richard was. He breathed in long intervals, trying
to discern natural sounds from a repetition of something man-made.
Aside from the flutter of a flock of birds roosting atop a balcony
garden down the street, there was no sound. He licked his lips,
suddenly apprehensive about where they were heading. Samantha
seemed to accept it as a matter of course, however.
“ May as well keep going,” she shrugged. “Neither of us will
feel normal until we find some other people”.
She walked
ahead and Richard lingered for a moment before scrambling to catch
up. Their footfalls seemed to loud, now that that gunshot had
broken the afternoon stillness, and Richard winced with each loud
echo. They passed a boarded-up music store that seemed to have been
boarded up recently, and then they were on St. Paul Street, staring
south into the city core. The wind above them was drawing in a
series of clouds that bore a steadily increasing greyness. The
sunlight filtered through the gathering cloud layer and cast
strange shadows on the street ahead of them.
“ Not very impressive, is it?” Samantha asked, mirth tugging at
the corners of her mouth. Richard looked at her
sideways.
“ What do you mean?” he asked, honestly curious. She gave a
small smile.
“ Well, for the downtown of place with a couple hundred thousand
people, it looks an awful lot like the main drag of some small
town, doesn’t it?”
Richard gave
it another reappraisal. It was instantly familiar to him and so he
could not really give it an honest look; it appeared to him as the
downtown, somewhere that
half-hearted suggestion anyway. Richard knew that, if there were
other survivors than just them (and there had to be, the gang holed
up in the hospital proved it) they would be gathering downtown as
well. For most of them, it would be to the same purpose that
Richard and Samantha found themselves – the simple quest for other
people.
“ Yeah, silly idea,” he groused quickly. “Let’s go”. He walked
away towards the gentle rise of the unimpressive skyline without
waiting for her to move.
SEVEN
They walked
down Court Street and as they did so the buildings grew closer
together and older. Aged red brick replaced dirty white siding and
the businesses that had previously inhabited them grew more
prestigious: doctors, lawyers, investment brokers, dentists. There
would be valuable equipment stashed inside those darkened
interiors, Richard thought. Medical equipment worth thousands.
Those touch-screen computers that were ubiquitous in the offices of
well-to-do dentists. The personal information of tens of thousands,
all locked away in filing cabinets and left to spend eternity in
the darkness. He wondered if anyone would ever come across them,
and make a master record of them someday. A sprawling book that
detailed the people that used to exist, and then didn’t. The future
archaeologists would have a series of giddy field days with even
this, a row of professional buildings in a second-rate decaying
industrial burg in the tail end of Ontario.
The further
they walked into the downtown, the more Richard could smell fire.
That smudge of smoke that hung on the horizon wasn’t as far off as
Richard had first thought. The wind freshened towards them and the
smell of wood-fire became even stronger. He wondered how far off
the fire was, with no small amount of unease. He also wondered if
those far-flung future archaeologists would have anything to dig
through, after all. He thought about discussing it with Samantha
but she seemed lost in thought as they walked; he didn’t want to
stir up anything, so soon after their last blowout, so he kept his
concerns to himself.
They passed
the for-sale sign on an empty brick office building and a gunshot
cracked from somewhere nearby. Richard stopped dead in his tracks,
trying madly to listen. Samantha seemed to be keeping an ear out to
the world as well, although she was staring off in a different
direction than Richard was. He breathed in long intervals, trying
to discern natural sounds from a repetition of something man-made.
Aside from the flutter of a flock of birds roosting atop a balcony
garden down the street, there was no sound. He licked his lips,
suddenly apprehensive about where they were heading. Samantha
seemed to accept it as a matter of course, however.
“ May as well keep going,” she shrugged. “Neither of us will
feel normal until we find some other people”.
She walked
ahead and Richard lingered for a moment before scrambling to catch
up. Their footfalls seemed to loud, now that that gunshot had
broken the afternoon stillness, and Richard winced with each loud
echo. They passed a boarded-up music store that seemed to have been
boarded up recently, and then they were on St. Paul Street, staring
south into the city core. The wind above them was drawing in a
series of clouds that bore a steadily increasing greyness. The
sunlight filtered through the gathering cloud layer and cast
strange shadows on the street ahead of them.
“ Not very impressive, is it?” Samantha asked, mirth tugging at
the corners of her mouth. Richard looked at her
sideways.
“ What do you mean?” he asked, honestly curious. She gave a
small smile.
“ Well, for the downtown of place with a couple hundred thousand
people, it looks an awful lot like the main drag of some small
town, doesn’t it?”
Richard gave
it another reappraisal. It was instantly familiar to him and so he
could not really give it an honest look; it appeared to him as the
downtown, somewhere that
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