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Major re-write coming soon!
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They said it had begun years ago, before I could remember, before I was even born. But don’t try to pass that off me. I watched it happen. There was distrust between the university neighbors, and my class in school got smaller and smaller by the year until finally, the head of the board had to close the school. It wasn’t safe anywhere.
Evacuations had only lasted a week, but the perimeter had already been set up, towering over the four sides of the urban community, stopping at the bridge that divided it from the docks and the farming community along the river. Anyone who was leaving would have to do so quietly. That’s what my family did. I heard about it via post.
I was at school at the time, first year only, first time away from home, attending the university that every woman in my family had attended for the last three centuries.
The first few days, the teachers tried to keep up appearances, continuing classes, and we remained in our rooms. But once they left, all hope fled with them and everyone was on their won. Some left, myself among them, in search of something meaningful, none of us knew what that meant, in the surrounding town, just past the common and through the stone arch of the university, released into the world like a plague.
The first night I wasn’t prepared. I’d worn a sweatshirt that morning and shorts that went to my knees. I only had a few granola and candy bars in my pockets. The five dollars I found later didn’t help. No store had been open inside the perimeter for the past two weeks. I had to stay under a small bridge that night. It began to rain, and I didn’t get a bit of sleep for fear of what might come along.
I was hungry the next morning, but only allowed myself one of the granola bars, not knowing when I might need to eat the other one. The previous night’s rain had dried in the early hours of the morning, and it was looking like it would be a sunny day. I set off in search of somewhere to stay, resolving to search the perimeter the next day when I knew I would have a place to come back to.
Around mid day, I became lucky. In the centre of town and the beginning of the community surrounding it, I wasn’t watching where I was going, and in the process, I stepped into a hole and twisted my ankle and in the process of digging my foot out of said hole, under the leaves and under the dirt, there was a metal which led to part of a door. Or, more correctly, a hatchway. All that seemed left of whatever this door led to was the torched frame of a house. The foundation and the floor were still there, though covered in mud and decomposing leaves by now. One room in the back that looked as if it was once a kitchen or dining room that still had some shape to it. Looking around and seeing no one, I pulled the door open and climbed through.
Inside, it was dark. Only a little murky light shone through the high windows, or what was left of them, at the top of the foundation. On one wall was an old stove that would be fed by firewood. A staircase was nestled into one corner: three steps, a landing, four steps, another landing, and at that landing was a door that I assumed led to the upstairs. An old cupboard sat in the corner next to the stove. Here, I became even luckier. The old basement must have been a hurricane shelter in a previous life, and so contained stores of candles and dried food, and even a blanket.
I ate a second granola bar that day to celebrate before taking the blanket and curling up on the floor. It was the happiest I’d been in days, even though I’m sure there were other things living in that old basement and that old armchair besides me. It was here that I celebrated my seventeenth birthday.
When I got up the next morning, I was still hungry, but I didn’t want to eat up my whole store of food at once. I ate my daily granola bar, folded up my blanket, and left for the day the way I’d come, making sure to cover the door with leaves so that no one else could find it.
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Author's Note
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First of all, if you've made it through the above text and are now reading my note, thank you for reading. Any comments are appreciated.
Second of all, my question of the post: From the description given, could you get an idea of the setting?
Want to read the next chapter? It's here: Chapter One
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