Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 13

Savannah 

Since that night when Danger and I went up on the roof, the store has become a fortress that we spend most of our time hiding away in. All of the exits have been reinforced, and all of the first floor windows as well. The only door we can even use to access the outside is a back exit which only opens from the inside. If a party goes out, they have to contact us using the walkie talkie in order to get back in. Not that anyone goes outside often. 

Danger leads exploratory missions every few days, occasionally bringing back resources from other stores and working on a freehand map of the area. He always takes two people with him. We don’t want to split our party into groups any smaller than three each. The only one who hasn’t gone back out at all is Lana. Finding the corpse clearly had an effect on her. Her usual confidence, if somewhat snooty, has taken a worrying backseat. On the other hand though, she’s clearly working to build it back up. 

Indoors, we aren’t idle. We found ourselves in this world without any memories or skills, but we are working hard to change that. We’ve been training with the weapons we have available, from the machetes and knives to the bows. The only weapon we don’t practice with is the guns, so that we don’t waste ammo. Knowing there may be a killer out there has pushed all of us to learn to use the weapons as best we can, and we haven’t limited ourselves to the weapons we chose. 

Despite his complete lack of memories, Danger has the best instincts when it comes to all of our weapons, with the exception of the bow and arrow. He’s taken on the role of weapons master and tries to help correct our postures when we practice. The one weapon he hasn’t mastered, Elise seems to have picked up quickly. She’s the only who’s good enough to teach him, although he frustrates easily. For being an excellent teacher, he’s a rather poor student at times. Fortunately, Elise has the patience to teach him that I in particular probably wouldn’t. 

Not that I should complain about his frustrations, he has a lot to deal with when it comes to the rest of us. He’s taken well to the roles of leadership that we, by our ineptitude, force him into. He is our weapons master, survivalist, and expedition leader all at once. We do try to help when we are able though. Elise teaches us to use the bow, Lana keeps us constantly organized, Aiden reads everything, trying to research the world, Viren keeps us active, and I try to help everyone remember their pasts. 

So far, I’ve had the most success with Elise, Aiden, and Lana. Our initial memory loss aside, Aiden seems to have a great memory for anything he’s read. I try to work with him one on one, having discussions that lead back from what he’s read here. Once in a while, I try to ask him about his job, but he blushes and then I can’t get anything else out of him. I need to ask though, because if we worked together, that may be relevant to our current situation, or even to the return of my own memories. 

Lana and Elise seem to build upon each other’s memories well, like when we found out some of the most basic information of our world. Since then, the two of them together have built a better understanding of how we lived before. Elise’s initial memory of watching the news revealed the ruling families, but Lana remembered how the few wealthy ruling families rule the supercity by their control of vital resources. Elise was able to add in that the ruling families change through political warfare between the long established families. Lana then remembered that the so called lower classes, or everyday people lived mostly separate from the upper classes. They lived pretty normal lives, and went to regular jobs. Though there were sometimes upsets from the changing ruling families, regular people didn’t mix with them much. 

Though, it also seemed like there wasn’t much for people to aspire to socially. Either you were born to the upper classes, or the lower classes. Transcending the class system sounds impossible. The best normal people could hope for was a steady job. It seems like that was Aiden’s aspiration, as well as mine, since we had what sound like stable jobs. The last thing that Elise remembered was that on very rare occasions, ruling families would select talented individuals from the lower classes to join the ranks of their companies. That may have been the ultimate, but unlikely goal of the average person. 

Unfortunately, even Aiden, Lana, and Elise couldn’t remember what happened to our supercity and our normal lives. We still don’t have any idea how we ended up here, and without our memories. I’m also having a hard time finding any of memories, despite my ability to help the others reclaim theirs. Not that I’ve had success across the board. Viren is too easily distracted and hyper active for me to help much. They don’t care much about their memories either, only about moving forward. 

My biggest failure is with Danger. Danger knows the most about anything we need him to, but I haven’t been able to help him recover any memories. I wonder if he’s harder headed, or if that’s just me. Somehow, he and I both always end up frustrated and arguing with each other. That’s the case again tonight. 

“It’s not my fault you can’t remember anything!” I yell. 

“Maybe it is!” he returns. “You’re the memory expert, so why can’t you make me remember anything?”

My eyes narrow. “I think you’re just defective!” I swing my hand over towards the rest of our party, watching from some distance. They’re used to us fighting, but this may be our worst fight yet. “I helped all of them remember things from their pasts, even Viren, who can’t sit still for two flipping seconds!”

“Hey,” Viren protests mildly, but raises their hands in surrender when faced with Danger’s glare and mine. 

“What about you?” Danger asks. “Have you remembered anything?” 

My eyes widen, and I stumble for a moment. “That isn’t what we’re talking about here!” I cross my arms over my chest. “You yell at me like it’s my fault your stupid hard head won’t remember anything!” 

His eyes pinch so narrow they’re almost closed. His voice comes out low, like a growl. “Maybe we’re too hard headed to work together.” 

“Maybe we are!” I huff and turn away. “You try to remember your past on your own. Let me know how that goes.” 

“I bet I’ll have more success than you,” he grumbles back. 

I whirl to face him, ready to explode, but I don’t. My eyes are frozen on the window. Something already has exploded, but Danger can’t see. His back is to the window. He can’t see what’s coming. “Danger, get down!” I lunge at him, knocking him down roughly to the ground and landing on top of him. I grimace as I feel a massive heat wave rush across my back. The pressure forces us down and brings huge shards of broken glass and debris with it, tearing open my shirt, and my skin. “Ahh!” I scream out in pain, unable to help myself, but my cry dies along with the blast. 

I lay on top of Danger, my body shaking, and my ears ringing. I feel what must be another explosion in the distance. I see Danger’s face in front f me. His mouth moves but I don’t know what he’s saying. I hiss as I feel something touch my raw back. Danger draws his hand back just into my field of vision. It’s covered in red. His face turns and he yells something at the others. Hopefully they can hear him. I feel another rumble through my battered body. 

Danger sits up, pulling me with him and managing to cradle me in his arms. The weight of my own body presses my wounds down onto his arms. He starts to move, running with me. My vision is blurry because of the water in my eyes, but I see the others running alongside of us. There’s at least one thing we can all agree on. We need to get out of here. 

~ Hi,there, everybody. I apologize for being late this week, but I was extremely busy both with work and then a convention this weekend. (I'm also working on a post about my experience at the con, so that should be out soon.) After preparing for possible threats, how ready is our group of heroes to face them? Find out in next week's snippet. 

Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 12

Danger

The tension in the store is palpable. After Aiden and Lana’s discovery, we decided to call off the exploration and return to A-Mart. Now that we have a real, known danger out there, the mood has turned somber, fearful even. The group stays clustered together. No one wants to leave our base in the mattress section. Lana and Viren even moved some of our food stocks closer. If anyone needs to leave the group, they take a partner with them, and someone has a hand on a weapon at all times. 

I want to go around the store to check for weaknesses and points of entry, but I don’t think I should leave the group yet. They all seem terrified. I know that, for better or worse, they look to me as a protector or leader. Once they settle, maybe I can take one of them with me and sneak away to check the perimeter. 

“Hey,” Lana interrupts my thoughts. 

I look up to her, and straighten, realizing how far I’ve slumped over. “Can I help you with something?”

“You were awfully quiet.” She sits next to me. “I thought maybe you needed someone to share your thoughts with.”

I shake my head. “No, I’m fine.” I couldn’t show her what I had inside my head, even if I wanted to. Lana was the most shaken by the discovery she made with Aiden. Looking into her dark, nearly black eyes now, I can see the terror she’s trying to contain. I sigh and avert my gaze, not wanting to stare. Without looking, I wrap my arm around her. She jumps a little when she first feels my touch, but then she settles into it. I fall back into my own thoughts and she slowly falls into my side. 

Awhile later, Savannah walks by. “She asleep?” I nod. “You ready to go? You seem like you need to move.”

I shrug with my unhindered right side. Actually I’ve become pretty comfortable, but I do still want to check on our defenses, however little they may be. “How could you tell?” I ask. Gently I lay Lana down on the bed. She curls up into a ball until I throw a spare blanket over her. 

“You’re curious because you’re basically expressionless?” Savannah asks. I turn to her, eyes narrowed. “You just seem alert, like there’s something keeping you up.” 

“There is,” I confirm. “Do you have your gun?” 

“Of course,” Savannah tells me. “And a flashlight. What are we exploring?”

“Just the store.” I shoulder my pack, and pull out my flashlight. “I want to check the perimeter, maybe reinforce it a little.” 

Savannah nods. “Makes sense, since, you know...” She fidgets and looks away. Though she usually seems more resilient, it’s obvious she was affected too. I wonder if something’s wrong with me. Should I feel more afraid than I do? I feel less secure, knowing there’s someone out there, but I don’t feel quite as disturbed by that as the others do. 

“You guys going somewhere?” Aiden walks over with his hands in his pockets. 

I nod. “Yeah, are you going to be up for a bit?” 

“Mhm. I’ll keep watch while you’re gone, since the others are asleep,” he quickly agrees to what I would have asked. 

“Good.” I look over at Viren, sprawled across a bed. “Hm. I didn’t think the kid ever ran out of energy.” 

“Viren must have been busy pestering you today,” Aiden says. 

“They were certainly active,” I agree. “You don’t have limitless energy though. Are you going to be alright until we get back?” 

“Haha, I’m fine.” He pulls a rolled up magazine from his back pocket. “Yeah, I’ve got plenty to read. I’ll stay awake.” 

“Hey,” Savannah points at him. “Don’t lose focus, bookworm. I’ve seen you fall into those magazines of yours.” 

Aiden smiles guiltily and fixes his glasses. “I won’t. I’m far too on edge for that. The magazines are just to help keep me up.”

“Okay, someone will switch with you when we get back,” I tell him. “Come on, Savannah.” I want to get this done; it’s been eating at me since we came back. Maybe I am as scared as everybody else. 

Savannah follows my lead in silence, down the immobile escalator to the first floor. Immediately, we head to the front entrance. We locked the door earlier with the interior locks, but since it’s a rotating door, Aiden and I also moved a piece of furniture into it, to keep the door from spinning. We didn’t trust the locks on their own. “I’m not fond of these large windows,” I say quietly, pointing to the floor to ceiling windows providing a view of the unused first floor. 

“At least it doesn’t really look like anyone’s in here,” Savannah tries to reassure me. 

“Still,” I hold my chin in my hand thoughtfully. “I’d like to block them somehow tomorrow.” 

Savannah nods, not disagreeing with me. Even though she was bothered by finding out about the killer, and the body left in their wake, her instincts push her to be more defensive now, rather than blindly frightened. Savannah was the first to take control of the group, to give them direction. Leading is clearly in her nature, and a heavy weight of responsibility comes with it. 

I break the pensive silence with a question. “Can you show me where any other entrances or exits are in the store? I believe you all explored indoors a bit more while I was sleeping.”

She nods, and a sly smile creeps onto her face. “It wasn’t hard, since you were out for so long.” My eyes narrow and she laughs. 

Savannah does show me what I need to see with more precision than if I’d just stumbled around on my own in the dark. As we move further back, the light from the street lights fades and we resort to our flashlights. There are two other doors on the first floor, intended for emergencies only. I’m pretty certain that they’re intended to remain locked from the outside, but we bar them anyway, for added protection. The sublevel of the building doesn’t have any possibility of outside access, neither do the upper floors. Savannah does know where we can get up the roof, however, so I follow her there. 

“We should block this off too,” I tell her. “Just in case.”

“Okay,’ she agrees quietly. “But before we do, do you want to go up there?”

One of my eyebrows rises. “Why?”

She shrugs. “It’s just intriguing to me. Who knows what we could see from up there?”

That’s strange. “You haven’t been up yet?”

“No,” she answers as she looks down. “The others weren’t particularly interested in the roof, so I felt kind of silly.” For her strong personality, and sometimes stronger words, Savannah still has her own weaknesses. 

I take her hand. “Come on, let’s go up.”

Her face lights up. “Okay.” I push the door open and lead her up the stairs. The stairwell is enclosed, and dark. The air is stale and musty. Two beams of light guide the quiet steps of our ascent. Our shoes make the smallest of noises, tiny thuds, as they touch down on the concrete stairs. The door at the top of the staircase is metal, heavy, with a narrow reinforced window. 

“Seems pretty secure,” I mutter, and turn to look at Savannah, a step below me. “Are you ready?” She nods, a smile reappearing on her face. I find my face trying to mimic hers. With some effort, I push open the stiff old door. The fresh outside air rushes in and I take a deep breath. Suddenly it feels like I can breathe again. I hadn’t realized exactly how stifling the climb up was. 

We step out onto the flat roof, looking out over the city. “Wow.” Savannah turns, looking around us. “It’s so big.” 

We look out over the unevenness of flat rectangular roofs, some indistinguishable from each other. Street lamps cast light upon the streets below. Lights don’t reach us from the streets beyond our view, so it’s hard to tell how far the working lights extend. “Elise did say this is a super city.”

Savannah gives me a look. “Well, am I supposed to remember how massive a supercity is?” 

I shrug. “Yes, actually.” 

She sticks her tongue out at me. She looks away from me, and stops, exhaling. “Wow.” I follow her gaze. In this direction, not far off, the street lights are toppled and most nonfunctional. Buildings crumble and we can see the absence of many blocky silhouettes. The remaining pillars of civilization stand tall against the shimmering dark blue background. Separated from their comrades, they’re mere inky blots against the starry night. 

“That’s where we came from,” I say, taking in the destruction. 

“The explosion.” Savannah’s eyes are distant. Her vacant expression shows her mind’s journey back to when we woke up. I can almost see the flames in her green eyes, almost feel the heat coming off of her skin. She shivers and wraps her arms around herself. 

I take my jacket off and place it over her shoulders. “Maybe we should go back inside.” She looks up at me and nods.  Her eyes harden, returning to the present, as she leads us back inside.

Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 11

Lana

I bend over, breathing heavily. My eyes are still wide, my lungs and legs burning from the exertion. Aiden finishes relaying our location to the other two teams while I try to catch my breath. He comes over and rests a hand gently on my shoulder. “Are you alright?” 

I nod. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I look back towards the building. “I think.” 

Aiden follows my gaze. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” 

I shake my head. “I’m not sure I want to go back in there.” 

As I straighten, Aiden wraps an arm around me. Despite the fact that he’s only seventeen, his muscles are large and well-toned. “I understand. What we saw in there, it isn’t easy to see.”

I look up at his face. It isn’t surprising that he could pass himself off as older than he actually is. “You don’t seem very phased by it.”

He forces a grin. “Oh, I am, trust me.” His eyes return to the building. “I’m just not sure if we should be more concerned about what we found inside, or about what could be outside.” I look around us and my grip tightens on the bow in my hands. It’s a weapon I don’t know how to use, but it’s all I have. I notice Aiden has his other hand on the gun at his side. For all we know, he’s just as clueless about how to use it. Hopefully it takes less skill than mine does. “I won’t let anything happen to you, you know.” 

I feel a blush rise into my cheeks, and I look down. “I know.” Suddenly we hear a noise from the street to our right and we both jump. We release a sigh of relief in unison when we see that it’s only Savannah and Elise coming to join us. 

“What did we miss, lovebirds?” Savannah strides in with her confidence fully intact. Aiden and I quickly take a step away from each other. Elise titters behind a raised hand. Aiden’s cheeks redden, and I cross my arms over my chest. “Oh, I’m only kidding,” Savannah adds, waving her hand at us dismissively. 

“What is it that we needed to see?” Elise refocuses us. “You sounded pretty shaken up over the radio.”

Aiden nods. “I was. It isn’t a pretty picture in there.” He points to the building. 

“Huh,” Savannah muses. “Seems like a normal residential building to me.” She readjusts, cocking her hip out to the side a little. “Wanna clue us in as to what's waiting for us?”

Aiden shakes his head. “No, it’s easier just to show you. But I will say, you should brace yourselves.” We lapse into an uneasy silence. 

Danger is the next to join us, his long strides easily beating out Viren’s shorter ones. “Slow down, you giant,” they complain. “Hey, wait up. We can see them, and they already told you they’re fine.” 

Danger’s fast pace doesn’t change, and it allows him to reach us quickly. “You guys are okay, right?” Viren comes up behind him, basically panting. 

I nod. “We’re safe, just shaken is all.”

“Good.” He looks over me to Aiden. “What’s in there?” 

“Already asked that,” Savannah chimes in. “They said we need to see for ourselves.”

“We’ll show you,” I tell them. “Just, prepare yourselves.” 

Danger leads the group into the building. Aiden waits up a moment. “Hey, I can show them. You don’t have to go back in there.”

I shake my head. “No, I can do this. Besides, I probably shouldn’t stay out here by myself.” 

He nods, but I see the reassurance in his face. “You’re probably right.” I walk with him into the building. 

“Hey, what are you trying to pull?” As soon as we enter, Viren is right in my face. “This whole floor is empty. There’s nothing in here.”

I sigh. “Well, that’s what tipped us off that something was different about this building.” 

Elise walks over to us, stepping through a framed wall made of bare wooden studs. “This building was never finished. It’s like someone gave up on it.” She puts her hand up against one of the beams. 

“Well, we didn’t.” Aiden steps forward. “We wanted to figure out why this building was so empty, so we kept looking.” Aiden leads the way up the lone set of stairs. We follow him up, and I trail the group. Even though I’ve prepared myself for what we’re going to see, I’m not looking forward to it. Aiden stops just below the seventh floor, and I hear his voice filtering down through our posse, an extra warning. Of course, there really isn’t enough warning. 

“Oh my gosh!” I hear Savannah’s exclamation and Elise’s gasp. Danger doesn’t say anything, but that isn’t unusual for him. 

Viren, the last to reach the floor before me, yells, “Ew, gross!” 

I step up onto the floor and immediately slide myself up against the back wall of the building, trying to stay as far from the gruesome scene as possible. As the others move around, examining and talking, I only see glimpses of the object of their focus. I see a bony hand, a shrunken foot, aged clothes. I know what they all see, a human body. 

“This is how we found them,” Aiden tells the group. 

“That’s horrible,” Elise says. 

“This is the most recent sign of activity we’ve found so far,” Savannah adds. 

Danger nods. “Viren and I found some looting, but that clearly happened some time ago. This corpse is much newer than that.” 

“Ugh, I know.” Viren makes a show of pinching their nose. “I can smell that.” 

“It’s from the decomposition,” Aiden tells them. 

“No, actually I think it’s from the vomit in the corner.” Viren points to it, and looks back at me. 

I throw my hands up. “Okay, so when I first saw it, I was startled. Can you blame me?” Aiden shrugs. Clearly he was trying to cover for me. He ran out almost as fast as I did earlier, so I know he empathizes. 

“No offense, guys, but that isn’t really what’s important here.” Elise redirects our attention, back to the dead body in the room. I can see it clearly now, and it sends a shiver down my spine. I avert my eyes, preferring  to look at a blank wall. Even so, I feel the bile trying to rise up my throat. 

“Guys, what does it mean that the most recent sign of human activity is a corpse?” Savannah poses the question.

“It means that whatever scenario we’ve found ourselves in,” Danger starts, but pauses for a moment. “It can be deadly.”

“So, the apocalypse kills people,” Viren says dismissively. “Is that anything we didn’t already know?” They shrug. “If we were a little less lucky, we could be just as dead.”

“You mean, if we didn’t have Danger?” Elise asks.

Viren pouts, but Aiden shakes his head. “Actually, Viren has a point too. If you, I, or Savannah was closer to that explosion, we could have been killed by it. If the beams had fallen differently overtop of Lana, she could have been crushed.”

“Or if I’d let you try to rescue her.” Danger’s eyes pierce Savannah. 

“Will you drop it?” Her voice belies her frustration, as if her wild hand gestures hadn’t. “You know we were doing our best.”

He laughs quietly, and the corner of his mouth turns up. He may not be quite as instigative as Viren, but Danger clearly enjoys frustrating Savannah. “Actually my job was to not drop it.” She seethes in response to his shrewd comeback. Everyone else seems to enjoy the lighthearted bickering. For just a moment, it relieves the tension in the room. 

I realize something though. “Hey, I know the apocalypse is deadly and all, but whoever this was,” I point towards the corpse and glance towards it briefly before looking away. “They don’t seem prepared for the apocalypse.” I open my arms out to emphasize the empty space around us. “There’s nothing here. Who lives on the seventh floor of a vacant building with absolutely no supplies?” 

“An idiot,” Viren replies monotonously. 

Elise quickly punches them in the arm. “Have some respect for the dead.”

“Hey!” Viren rubs their arm. “I believe respect is a two way street, and I don’t remember this, whoever they were, showing me any respect. Why should I respect them just because their dead?” 

Danger rolls his eyes, and Savannah puts a hand over her face. “It’s called manners,” Elise grates out between clenched teeth. 

“Alright, alright,” Aiden interrupts. “So Viren is disrespectful, that’s nothing new.”

“Ouch, Aiden,” Viren pretends to be hurt. 

He shrugs in response. “You’re the one who said respect is a two way street.”

“Touché,” Viren admits defeat, so Aiden continues. 

“Now, Lana has a point. We should figure out how they died. Summing this up as death by apocalypse isn’t very insightful.” 

Viren turns to me. “Okay, Lana, do you want to examine the body?” They step out of the way, gesturing towards it. 

As they move, my carefully obscured view is cleared so I turn away, afraid to see the corpse again. My stomach churns. “No, I can’t do it!” I shake my head fervently, desperately. I hold one hand over my stomach, and one hand over my mouth. Smells of decay and my earlier weakness start to fill my nostrils, so I adjust my upper hand to cover my nose as well. 

“I know how they died.” Danger moves the corpse’s dried bangs. 

“Ack! What are you touching it for?” I cringe away as though I had touched it. 

Danger rolls his eyes. “That isn’t what we need to be concerned about. Look here.” We all crowd around, though I still hang back slightly. 

“A hole?” Elise’s voice is the first to pierce the silence. 

“A bullet hole,” Aiden notes. 

Danger nods. “We aren’t alone. Someone killed this pour soul. Somewhere out there, there’s a murderer on the loose.” 


- Sorry to be posting this a little later in the day than usual, but even writers need to get out of the house for awhile on occasion. As for this week's snippet, Aiden and Lana's discovery is the first proof of not only recent human activity in the area, but also of imminent danger. Find out next week how the group will respond to their newest threat.

Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 10

Viren

Last night, Elise was the first of us to actually recover a full memory. I mean, it was just some moment she had with her father rubbing her hair when she was a kid, but I guess that means Savannah’s plan did work eventually. As far as I’m concerned though, this is a much better use of our time. Overnight the storm cleared away, leaving a myriad of puddles in its wake, but no longer keeping us trapped indoors. Originally most of the group was pretty opposed to splitting up at all, but Danger was convinced that we can cover more ground by splitting up. So we grabbed our survival packs, Lana grabbed one of her too large collection of hats, and we split up in pairs. 

How exactly did I end up with the most boring partner though? Danger finishes his monotone hourly check-in via our walkie-talkies with the other two pairs. He looks at his compass to confirm the direction as we continue on. I kick random pebbles and trash in passing. Danger seems perfectly comfortable walking in silence, but it is absolutely driving me crazy. I sigh loudly, and he doesn’t even flinch. My eyes narrow and I walk faster to catch up with his gangly legs. 

I sigh again dramatically and one of his eyes shifts over to me. “Can I help you with something?”

“No. I just thought this whole exploration thing was going to be a lot more interesting.” I kick another rock. “This is pretty boring.” A follow-up kick accidentally sends the pebble flying into the side of Danger’s leg. My eyes widen as his narrow. 

“Maybe if you were paying an ounce of attention to your surroundings, like you’re supposed to be doing, instead of trying to bruise me with stones, you’d be less bored.” His eyes face forward again. 

“Okay, the rock was an accident, sorry about that,” I admit. “It’s still boring out here though. What am I going to pay attention to though?” I point to a vacant building. “Look, a boring, blocky, building.” I point to another. “Look, another boring, blocky, building.” 

Danger rolls his eyes and comes to a stop. I walk past him by mistake. “Well, maybe if you payed attention to this boring, blocky building, you would have noticed that this is a pharmacy. We should go in to look for medicine.” He strides past me and into the building. 

“He’s lucky we just happened to stumble across something useful,” I grumble as I follow him inside. “Whoa, what happened to this place?” Danger’s stopped just within the entrance, his eyes roving over the same scene mine are. Shelves are toppled on their sides, the few upright are barren. Empty containers litter the floor, some squashed by obvious footprints. 

“This store was looted.” Danger takes a long step into the mess, eyes scanning, hunting for traces of useful items. I pick up an empty carton and see that it’s for a fever reducer, before I toss it aside. 

“Well, that’s pretty obvious,” I remark. “But why loot the pharmacy and not the department store? We found some medicine in there too.”

Danger shakes his head, and his ponytail swishes across his back. “I don’t know. We’ll have to look at the store when we get back. Maybe it has some type of protection we didn’t notice before.”

I snort. “Clearly it wasn’t very effective. We just walked in through the front door.”

Danger takes a moment to look back at me. “Whatever defenses that building had clearly worked at the time. They kept the looters at bay then. This obviously took place awhile ago, there’s even dust covering the wreckage.” 

“Oh,” I say. “I hadn’t thought of that.” 

Danger continues to weave his way through the mess towards a window. He grabs one of the bars over the window and shakes it. “Solid. I guess they were there to protect the pharmacists.” 

I climb over the piles with a little less agility. I reach the window where Danger is and peer through the next one. “Doesn’t look like it worked in the end.” The glass behind the bars is shattered in this window, and beyond it I can see the back room in complete disarray. 

Danger sees the same catastrophe that I do. “You’re right.” 

I turn back around to face the devastated store. “You know, we haven’t seen any other people outside of our group, but clearly people were here.”

Danger’s eyes grow distant. “And clearly something happened to them.” I swallow, but try to appear strong when he looks to me. “Come on, we should check inside the other stores too. We should figure out which stores were looted. Maybe that will give us some clue as to what happened.” 

I follow him back out. It’s apparent we won’t gain anything more from the pharmacy, either in supplies, or in information. “Hey,” I call after him. “Are you going to radio the others? I think maybe they should know.” 

Danger shakes his head. “Not yet. I want to see what else we can learn first.” He looks back at me. “They shouldn’t be in any danger, if that’s what you’re worried about. Whatever happened here, it wasn’t recent.” 

“Why would I be worried about them?” I shrug. “Besides, we haven’t come across any concrete dangers. Right now, they’re just as unknown as they were before.”

“You’re right,” Danger agrees. “Although, you’d be a fool not to worry about them. In a world as uncertain as this, they’re our most valuable resource.”

“You’re the one who tried to go off on your own,” I remind him. 

“I get the feeling I’ve been a loner before,” he replies. “I probably could be again.” 

I don’t believe him for a second. “Pssht. With the way you sleep? You need us just to keep watch.” Calling the rest of us a resource may be as close as he ever gets to saying he needs us, but the honest truth is that we all need each other. 

We come to another store front, this one a clothing store. This time, when we push the doors open, we’re both more wary. Our caution seems unnecessary however, because it doesn’t take long to realize that this store wasn’t looted like the pharmacy. Just to be certain, we walk through the first floor, and even quickly take a peek up at the second floor. “Untouched,” Danger comments. 

“Just like A-Mart,” I agree. “Should we check the next store?” Wordlessly, Danger nods. He seems pensive, lost in thought. The next few buildings are locked apartment buildings, and the one that’s unlocked is blocked just inside the door by a cave-in from one of the upper floors. “What are you looking for in an apartment building, anyway?” I raise an eyebrow at Danger. 

“If there was some serious event that happened here, we should see signs of the way people reacted in their homes.” He looks away from the unlocked, but useless building. He keeps talking as we move on. “If there was some disaster, people likely either hunkered down in their homes, or they fled. Maybe we could get an idea of what they faced by seeing what they left behind.” 

I furrow my brow. “Are you sure you don’t have any memories, because you sure seem to know a lot about this.” 

“No.” He shakes his head, but his face never changes. “I don’t have any memories. This all just seems like common sense to me.” I don’t have enough memories of my own to tell him otherwise. 

“What’s this building?” I look up at a building with a design different from the others. It’s still one giant boring cube, but something about it seems older even than the others, like it was old when its neighbors were constructed. 

Danger points at the lettering above the embellished double door entrance. “It’s a bank, Viren.” 

I walk up to the door and try to push it open. It won’t budge, so I put all of my weight against it. “This one’s still locked up tight.” I peer through the glass pane of the door. A metal gate stands untouched as a secondary defense, but beyond that I can see that the bank is neat and tidy. “The looters didn’t hit the bank.” I turn around. “What kind of looters don’t go after a bank?” 

Danger shrugs. “The same ones who left food at the department store. Maybe the bank’s protection was too good.” He starts to leave, but I bend down and pick up a rock. I hurl it at the glass door and it sails through, shattering the glass so that it clatters loudly to the stone of the entryway. “Viren!” Danger’s eyes are narrowed at me. I think I startled him. “What the hell was that for?” 

“What looter wouldn’t at least try to break in?” I toss another stone up, and catch it again in my palm. “Maybe they weren’t targeting the bank at all.” 

He still seems annoyed by my test. “So, by your logic, the looters would only have targeted the pharmacy.”

I shrug. “I didn’t claim to understand it. I just don’t want to overlook any evidence.” 

“Danger, Savannah, come in.” The radio crackles with Aiden’s voice. 

“We hear you,” Danger replies. “You’re early for our check-in.”

“We hear you, too, Aiden.” Savannah’s reply comes over the walkie next. “What’s up?”

Aiden answers. “Guys, we found something.” The radio is quiet for a moment. “I think you should come see this.” 

-Thank you for reading this week's snippet, and as always, I hope you enjoyed it. This past week I know there were quite a few graduation ceremonies, so I'd like to extend congratulations to all of the graduates, as well as the friends and family who helped them get there. Piece by Piece will continue with a new snippet next week. Stay tuned to learn what Aiden found during the group's exploration.