The buildings, short and tall, have gaping holes where glass windows had once been. The glass is long gone. Rarely do you even find it shattered close to where it had once been installed.Survivors have harvested it for weapons and tools, or time has made it into fine sand, which nature has washed away.
The first building we come across that looks like it was hit by a beast is missing an entire chunk of the corner. It looks flayed open. As we pass by, I’m actually impressed that it’s still standing. That must be some good bracing.
Keary sighs. “I don’t miss the pollution, but I do miss all the sounds. It’s eerie being so silent. You can feel that life once filled these streets and buildings.”
Rainer peers into an open door. “Have you been here before? When there were people?”
Keary nods. “Yep. I won’t pretend it wasn’t overpopulated, but there was a sort of harmony. There was life here, loud and happy. Sometimes the crowds didn’t bring out the best in people, but there was a lot of life here.”
He takes Rainer’s hand and drags him toward a building. Drystan and I follow until we’re standing just inside the threshold of a store. Chunks of the ceiling have fallen in some places, but otherwise, it’s still standing.
There are racks, empty save for a torn piece of fabric here and there. Shelves empty. Baskets empty. Doors to coolers hang open. There’s a single mangled shopping cart. A light fixture hangs precariously on a wire from the ceiling. The checkout lines are dead, dark things. A sign just inside the door says, “Welcome shoppers.”
A ghost of what was once here.
“The shelves were stocked with food,” Keary says. “Everything you can imagine. Everything you can’t imagine. On those racks were clothes. New. With tags on them. There were toys in the back for kids—dolls and balls and building sets. There was an entire electronic section where you could buy tablets and phones and computers. Games and consoles. In the back corner was the automotive section, including all the basic componentsthat you might need for your car. And there was a pharmacy with toothbrushes, shampoo, makeup, and medicine.”
He sighs. Rainer looks around, his eyes seeming to touch everything as he takes it in.
“In exchange for a plastic card, you could have anything you wanted. It was all at your fingertips.”
“Keary liked his things,” Drystan says, amused.
Keary gives a wistful nod. “I did. I won’t pretend that I wasn’t spoiled—both by my parents and myself.”
“Where did all those things go?” Rainer asks.
“They’re still locked away in my house.” He waves vaguely to the west. “Safe and sound.”
“On a base?”
Keary shakes his head. “Nah. When we rose up against Silence, there was a single base, the one we visited—Base 6. To be honest, I didn’t think Silence was going to take their attack so widespread. I didn’t think they intended to eliminate humans. I think that took everyone by surprise.”
“Considering they were using humans as disposable wombs, I think everyone was surprised,” I note.
“Like so many monsters, I left our world and came into the human world to escape Silence. I admit that for most of my life, I was like the majority of my world. I kept my head down. Silence wasn’t coming after me or my family or friends. What they did wasn’t affecting me, so I continued on with my life, thinking I was completely removed from it when I left the monster world. I lived among humans.”
“Then the humans were killed,” Rainer guesses.
“Before that, I joined my friends and family on Base 6 to fight back, but yeah. Then the humans were killed, which meant living off human technology no longer worked. The power grids shut down over time with no one there to maintain them. Fuel. Oil.Food. All depleted as those who survived raided everything they could.”
“You had no choice but to leave your home behind?”
Keary nods, shrugging. “Something like that. It’s safe. The sun protects it from would-be raiders. But yeah, it’s a lifetime stuck in the past. No longer able to sustain the lifestyle it had been built on. I guess maybe I’ve been roaming around ever since, trying to find… something.”
“Trying to find Rainer,” Drystan says, giving him a wide, toothy smile.
Rainer bows his head, trying to hide his shy smile in return. I wouldn’t have guessed this man was shy.
“I didn’t shop here. I usually shopped online. Everything I could possibly want was delivered right to my door.” Keary sighs nostalgically.
“Huh,” Rainer says. “What a way to live.”
Keary shrugs and turns away. “Come on. Let’s go find the pod. Stores make me wish for a different past outcome.”
Rainer buries his fingers into his lut’s fur. I’ve noticed he does this almost every time we walk. At first, I thought having the beast at his side was a sense of security, but after observing him for weeks now, I think it’s comfort and companionship. I’ve heard him talking to his lut as if she can respond. As if they’re having a conversation.
It’s probably a good thing that the lut found him.
