Bolu Ayeye

2746

In the end nothing matters, nothing ever mattered. The journey was pointless but he somehow it mattered to him. 2746 opened the locket , time had changed a lot of things but it was still heart shaped , taking him back to a time when things were different , a different life . When he had a name and wasn’t just a number , he even forgot his name at times , preferring the number , anything to forget who he was. A rustle in the background happened , scavengers he wondered ? Or worse ? He contemplated giving in . Does it even matter any way ? No but I have to , everything outside was likely just as due to die as he was eventually. He checked his gun to see how many bullets he had , still full plus the extra round if came to that. The rustling stopped , probably nothing. the road while different was familiar , he knew it all too well , from another life , when the weather wasn’t so extreme and harsh , when humanity still had a future , when the outbreaks hadn’t decimated all of life , and when he had a family. He hadn’t reminisced like this in forever , he preferred to forget, first the stations and electricity stopped and suddenly no transportation, then the riots , then the shortages , then the outbreaks. The safe zones were little corners of heaven that were designed to keep people safe and they did, but to make it there , 2746 gave up a lot , too much even . He’d been on the road for ages . He looks to his pendant again , dusty but still inside a picture of him and his brother. He needed to see what home was like , he wasn’t sure if he deserved to think of his brother. He had no choice , he convinced himself but was it really right , the world was over and he made a choice. “ I didn’t kill him” but he could have, “ arghhhhhhhhh “ he ripped of the pendant and threw it . “ Its not my damn fault okay , I couldn’t take care of both of us , I barely made it to safe zone , I tried okay , I tried, you were gonna die , I had to Survive okay” . Tears stream down his face again , he was better off as a number , 2746 , he wasn’t Dave anymore. “ I’m sorry Caleb” he whispers softly , and he truly was. He keeps walking , trying to ignore his thoughts again , he sees the pendant up ahead , picks it up . He could still turn back , the safe zone was still there .