Jessa took a few minutes to watch the sunrise from the small apartment building’s window. There was a small balcony off of the sliding glass door, but they were too close to the city to actually step out on it. They couldn’t risk being spotted. She looked into the ruined town and felt a familiar sense of dread. Towns were dangerous places these days. Cities were worse. Jessa ran through her plan and questioned her tactics. They were alone on the outskirts of a place they shouldn’t be, but she had decided that it couldn’t be avoided.
The woman and her son had been holed up in the apartment building for two days now. She was stalling because she knew the decision to go straight through it was incredibly risky. She had been watching the city the entire time, scouting to find the best path and the best time to make the trip. She had left her son, Shane alone on two occasions for a few quick night recon trips. He was only five but had had to grow up twice as fast. It was clear that he was doing his best to pull his own weight and be strong, but in truth he was still just a young child. She could only learn so much without putting herself, or her son, at even greater risk. It was a mile through the mid-sized city or over forty to go around it considering the topography.
Scanning from the window, her eyes fell from the pink and orange hues of the new day’s sky, to the dark burnt out grays and browns of the gritty city below. It wasn’t even a city anymore really. It was just a series of burned out buildings and rubble. This was one of the cities hit by a nuclear device and what life was left looked a lot less like it should. The radiation had subsided over the years, but the mutations had taken hold and multiplied. Jessa had seen the packs of beasts herself. Their ancestors had probably been named “Fluffy” and “Spot”. Now they ran the destroyed city, like a disorganized pack of watchdogs – or watchcats- in a giant junkyard.
There appeared to be very little human activity, though she did see several lights on in the tops of some of the buildings that survived far enough away from the epicenter. Most people, if there were any here, were wise enough to stay in the shadows. What people she could detect had gone to the heights like she had. It just seemed safer with these creatures running around. This world’s version of an alley cat was the stuff of nightmares. She wondered if the people she saw – the lights at least - in the tall buildings were up that high for protection or a better view. Maybe they were one in the same, she realized. Either way, there were several issues to consider. Jessa was feeling anxious to move forward. The path she had mapped out in her mind was hardly ideal.
Looking back at her sleeping son, she wondered if it wouldn’t be better to just go around after all. There was no guarantee that traveling around would be any safer though either. God, this world sucked, she thought, half joking with herself to ease the tension. The only guarantee that she had was that it would be longer and instead of an hour or so, it would take several days.
Not for the first time, she said to the empty room, “Why did you leave him?”
The question came out as a whisper, as it was more in her head than on her lips. But she still did not have an answer. She had been asking herself this question to one degree or another ever since that morning when they slipped off. As a matter of fact, if she was honest with herself, she had been asking herself that question even before they took off on him. Of course then it was “Why are you going to leave him?” It just seemed to be in her nature now. This new reality demanded it. But she knew that she would have felt safer if Michael was with her.
No, she corrected herself, she would have been safer in reality if he were with her. She knew that. She still felt his touch when she laid down to sleep at night. Granted, she didn’t sleep much anymore, but when she did she remembered the feel of him beside her. Jessa only got a few hours’ sleep at a time now, and usually only in the daytime, when it was too risky to travel. She still had not fully adapted to the city ways, but it seemed like the opposite held true here. The nights were full of roaming animals, and the days, especially the early mornings, were calm and quiet.
A new plan formulated while she went into the kitchen and got a few plates down from the cabinet in her new kitchen. Vaguely she wondered if the woman of the house had picked out the plates herself, or if they had been a wedding present. They were nice blue glass. There was no food or useful items in the apartment that she could take with them, but there were these nice dishes. She liked the idea of eating in a civilized manner, even if just for a few minutes, on real glass plates. They had been on their own for a couple of weeks by then and while by old standards they were on the precipice of hell of earth, it was actually the most comfortable set up they had had since leaving the community. Shane was sleeping on an actual bed and she had a great view. She closed her eyes for a minute and allowed herself the luxury of pretending for a minute that it was the old days, and that if she opened her eyes she would see the beautiful bustling city below her. Of course when she did open her eyes, all she saw was the dead husk of civilization sprawled out below them.
“Good morning. It’s time to wake up sleepy head.”
“Why?”
“Because tomorrow we are going to be leaving early, so we need to get used to being up and ready to go.”
Shane nodded and got up dutifully, although his face was still a little grumpy. He most definitely did not like to be up early. He was more of a night person like his father had been.
“I’m hungry.”
“You always are,” she said with a wink. “Breakfast is on the table.”
Shane made a disparaging noise and sat down to the same food they had been eating since they got there.
“Why can’t we go find some fruit or something?”
“I don’t trust the food here. I am afraid it could make us sick. In fact the sooner we get away from the city the better.” She had heard stories about people who lived in the cities, and she didn’t want to take any chances.
“Oh. OK.”
Shane didn’t understand what it meant, but he knew that he was going to be eating more of the dried cakes until they got away from there.
“When are we leaving?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Good. I like this place. It’s different. And it’s cool to be up so high, but still, I would rather be able to go outside.”
“Me too. We are going to go through the city, so it might be a little scary, ok.”
He shook his head, though she didn’t think he really grasped how scary it might get. He looked at her with a trust that she hoped she had earned. She had had a sinking feeling in her gut ever since they had come upon the city, but she didn’t want to let him know that she felt so nervous.
“It’ll be fine. When we go all you have to do is stay close and be really quiet. Everything sleeps in the early morning, so we just need to make sure that we don’t wake them up.”
Shane nodded his head, but with just a hint less certainty, she thought. He seemed to know it might be better not to ask too many questions about whatever “things” she was talking about.
“Now eat up. We need to go through this place and see if there is anything useful we can take with us. I saw some comic books in the back bedroom. Did you see them?”
Shane brightened, as did Jessa. Ah, the power of a comic book to a boy’s happiness, she thought to herself. At least that hadn’t changed. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly and they were both tired by the time the sun started to go down. Jessa lay down with him until he fell asleep and then she went to the window to look out into the city again. As her eyes went to the few lights she had noticed in evenings past, she couldn’t decide if they represented a beacon of hope or a warning. They would just have to find out.