Air pierced my lungs as I had over exerted myself. I found a small convenience store with a vending machine out the front that was in a walled off area and some picnic chairs still out. I hid in the very corner, beside the vending machine as the rain started again, drumming on the hard tin roof with such intensity that my ability to think straight is completely hampered.

I bite my lip, my breath haggard as I try to force it through my nose. Taking a few moments to let myself slowly calm myself down. Leaning back against the wall, I look to the ceiling, seeing a gap between the wall and the overhanging roof that made up this shelter. It was big enough for me if I was cornered, I could climb up and escape.

I seriously need to consider what I’m going to do next. I have enough food to last me for a few days. I can’t carry any more than that. It would be too risky. Mulling over it, I turn a little to see if the vending machine was empty.

It was. The glass was smashed in and scattered around on the floor with me and the contents were all missing. I let out a breath, what was I hoping for? My best bet was that apartment building I ran away from. I wasn’t about to risk my neck going through that crazy group’s territory again any time soon. I just hope I’ve gone far enough that I am out of their range.

Turning back to my bag that I had beside me, I push it a bit further so that I could lie down and rest my head on it like a pillow. Shutting my eyes, I focus everything into listening, trying to distinguish sounds between the rain drops. Nothing. Silence. Good.

My eyes open again, I was still to jumpy to actually sleep. But I need to rest my body for as long as I could. I may not get a moment like this again. So I lie here, wondering, waiting.

The pale grey light of the sun soon comes and I sit up to look inside my bag. Ignoring the few edible things in there, I head straight for the map of the area. Mentally examining where I was last night, I trace my steps roughly and see that I was in the outskirts, heading out of the suburb onto the motorway. It connects to a toll road that goes right through to the heart of the city; the beachside which was basically the CBD. There may be something there. Otherwise I can move on.

Folding the map up and putting it back in my bag, I stretch out while getting up. Looking around, I double check the small store through the broken glass window and sure enough there was nothing left. Making a noise of irritation, I abandoned the broken empty store and walk out into the overcast morning, hoping that the clouds will clear up sometime soon.

As I head out, I keep an eye out in case someone decides to give me a good morning stab and slash while stealing my limited supplies. Food and water shortage is such a pain to deal with when you do not know the mechanisms to operate the machinery of the power grid of this place. I do not enjoy this creature comfortless world that this place has become.

Looking up at the sky as I walk down the lonely desolate highway, I could see the blue planet between the clouds that finally break away in the sky. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pitied helplessness. I unconsciously extend a hand as if I could pluck it from the sky but my hand only grasps at the empty air. The place that was once my home. It was the same size as the moon that would take to the skies in a few hours and join the Earth in its sky trek.

Spero. That is the name they gave this artificial satellite that now orbits the Earth. I don’t know the specifics, I was part of the last fleet when my dad brought me with him over to this moon. A bunch of scientists were able to recreate a miniature artificial Earth and decided to get some people up here to join them…some 90 million. They created cities and towns that replicated much of Earth’s but ran on a hydrogen economy. But that being said, if you don’t know how to operate it, you can’t use or recharge it. So the electrical blackout can’t be fixed.

But it makes me wonder…why hasn’t anyone on Earth recognised the problems that are happening here? Why has no one come? Do they even know? Or are they ignoring us?

These thoughts sour my already depressed mood and the Earth is swallowed up by the clouds once again. I look back to the front of me, towards the long and impossible large road that cut through like a scar across the world. I look to my left and see that another rainstorm was coming and that I won’t make it to shelter in time.

I reach the suspension bridge that spans over a river mouth to the sea just as the rain pelts down. This bridge was the only entrance and exit to the main part of the city, unless you like swimming.

From a distance the shiny grey monolithic skyscrapers and similar tall buildings all looked clean and majestic. Like everything was fine and dandy. But it was eerily quiet and the closer you get, the more you realise just how much of a wasteland dump it was becoming.

Joyriding idiots who though they could drive took it upon themselves to litter the streets with the metallic carcasses of cars. Most were crashed into shops, houses, street signs…posts…there was even one of those postal boxes thrown from its spot on the side walk. I felt my eyebrows shoot up as I see that a car had managed to get stuck inside a house due to a makeshift ramp that was made out of another car parked in the street and a sheet of wood. As I continue down the street, the rain eases up enough to only a few dying drops and I almost pull down my hood to get a good look of my surroundings.

My spine prickles as I hear a vehicle rolling down a street not too far away. I’m surprised that they haven’t run out of fuel yet. But that isn’t my concern. My concern is whether or not they find me. And I’m not going to chance the risk that if I was to be found, what they would do. Quickly looking around, I head straight for the smashed in house and crawl through the hole a small old car had made.

Keeping my head down, I peek up from a window with lace curtains and watch as the vehicle slowly turns down the street I was standing in before. It was a police car. One person in particular rode on top like it was a portable throne and this was his kingdom. From a distance, I could see that he was about my age and held onto something that looked like a long iron pipe slung against his shoulder like a staff as he sat cross-legged, perfectly balanced and alert as his entourage took him further down the street.

His head swings in my direction and I swear we made eye-contact as I duck down, freezing in place as my breath is paralysed in my chest ready for him to call down hell on me. But nothing came. I quickly look back up to see if I was going to need to make an escape but the car was moving its way down and he was looking back to the front again, completely losing interest in whatever he saw.

In time, the car turned from this street and my breathing became regulated again. I look around the house. It was completely timber on the inside. Timber floors, walls and furniture. A huge stone fireplace with a plaque that was missing the antlers on top stare back at me. I blink, seeing that the house’s bookshelf was untouched.

It might sound lame but I couldn’t stop myself from searching the bookcase shelf by shelf to see what was here. Stories and a book on the birds that were released on Spero. I wanted to take all of it with me. Instead I decided to look around the house a bit more to see if there was anything useful.

It was all one floor and simple enough and all timber. Even the kitchen. But most of the cupboards were ransacked and torn from the hinges like a bear decided to crash the house along with the car that’s half hanging out of the lounge room. And naturally anything edible was missing as well. Going to the back, I found a bathroom, toilet and another two bedrooms. Looking through the wardrobes, I saw that the clothes were also missing or torn to shreds.

At the end of the hallway I came to the master bedroom which remained untouched and the ashen dust covering the blankets and pillows were the reason why. I step back from the room, making sure that my jacket’s front zipper was still all the way up and covering my mouth and nose. Direct inhalation for too long could be dangerous. Not to mention it was someone once. I turn from the room, shutting the door behind me and walk back to the front of the house.

I notice on the dressing table out in the hallway near the front door that held the phone and a half dead fern and a glass bowl with keys in them. A photo inside a gold photo frame sat beside the phone of who I could only imagine to be the people who were in this house. Now they were nothing but Bonedust. Just like every other adult in the world.

Going back to the lounge room, I take one more glance at the books. I make a half-hearted promise to come back for them but I don’t have a clue when I’ll be able to do that. I was a drifter and I was still looking for answers.