The Hollow City

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room.

This was the only room in the building that had a window. It was special to her, for many reasons, but the main one at this point in time was because it gave her a glimpse of the outside world. It wasn't distasteful or chaotic, it was a somber yet peaceful sight to see. Buildings that were collapsed and in ruins that were scattered across the vast area of the edge of the city had grass, vines, and floral plants growing from them. It seemed like plant-life and animals were growing on the concrete carcasses of an era that just ended. Nature knows no obstacle in its conquering of the world. Such a beautiful yet sad truth. The young girl could see what looked like cars, bikes, and even trolleys scattered throughout the streets ahead of her. Shattered glass from the car and building windows reflected numerous colours of the rainbow. What she did not expect to discover in a world now peacefully quiet was a new range of colours. The shattered glass of the buildings scattered in the streets reflected the entire rainbow, and then some that no two words could explain. The fact that, despite the world rising from the ashes of the one she once knew, is something the young girl couldn't stop thinking about ever since her arrival at the man's building.

The man who had taken her in and looked after her was currently away from their home. She did not quite understand what resources meant, but what she did know was that they needed new dirt to grow food, and animals to have meat, milk, and eggs. What she really wanted though, was a nice, crunchy chocolate bar. The man told her that it wasn't likely they could find one, especially since it wasn't in the building they were living in, but if he found one, she will be the first person he will give it to.

While her train of thought rapidly shifted from one topic to the next, the young girl failed to realise that, in her deep, motionless thinking, a herd of deer gathered near the door several floors below where she was. They gradually crept closer to the building, making their way to the young girl's new home. She let out a little squeal at the excitement of seeing an entire herd of red deer. A split second later, she clamped her hands to her mouth to shut herself up from squealing too loud.

The deer had noticed something was amiss. Their heads perched up at the sound of some high pitched noise. Standing like statues with only their ears twitching, they were listening for a sound that was not normally in their surroundings. After a minute, they seemed to have determined no real threat near them and resumed their feeding on the newly grown grass.

The young girl let out a quiet sigh of relief. These were the first animals she had seen in months, aside from your small mammals and critters that usually skitter around the brush. She quietly shuffled over to the dinning room where she often kept her backpack in, opened it up, and shuffled back to the window with her pencils and book. Thankfully, the window was just low enough for her to climb up onto, even while carrying a book and pencils. She began drawing.

The day passed by and the herd of red deer comfortably fed and relaxed throughout the day. The young girl drew the deer to her hearts content, capturing both the melancholic scene of the decimated city in the background, and the serenity of the deer at the front of the young girl's building.

The young girl thought she would have noticed immediately, but it looked like the man who had been looking after her had been a distance away from their building, watching the deer. It wasn't like she hadn't spent any time with the man, but it still shocked her that he could go unnoticed for so long. She didn't mind that he was so skilled. In fact, she rather admired his as a child would a hero, or a toddler would their parent. It seemed to her that he could do just about anything he said he would. This was something that she didn't tell him. She vowed she never would. She wanted to continue looking up to him forever, always staying together and always learning from each other.

* * *

The man looked in the direction of the young girl's favourite spot in their building, expecting to see her doodling in her books as she always did. She always loved to concentrate wholeheartedly on whatever she was putting her mind to. This helped the pair's understanding of each other as he would often teach her things she needed to know in order to live together. The knowledge he gave her also helped to give her a head start in supporting herself if the need ever arose.

Putting his teaching into practice, he whistled their familial bird whistle to get each other's attention. Once the young girl had her attention on him, he motioned to covering his eyes for ten seconds before pulling his hands away to confirm she understood the gesture. It continued to stun him, no matter how much time passed, just how much of a genius this child was. He could see her raise her hands into an 'O' and scamper away from the window.

* * *

This was one of the many signs which the man had taught the young girl over the past several months. They were signs that they could use when they couldn't or shouldn't speak out loud, but could also see from a distance. She slowly picked up all her pencils and her book, careful not to drop anything. Shuffling slowly, the young girl retreated down a few corridors and rooms to the lounge room where she packed away her book and pencils and sat herself down on the black leather lounge which sat against the wall. The young girl sat on the lounge facing a painting from the distant past. She couldn't really figure out what about it made her thought that is was a painting from the distant past, but then again, she wasn't really one for the visual arts. Maybe when she grew older, she might find a taste for it.

The painting was large with lots of trees and lots of buildings. The frame was wooden, but worn. Although, the colours from the painting complimented the worn out colouring of the frame so it looked like it was all on purpose. Maybe it wasn't, but once again, she really couldn't tell. After a minute of looking at this painting, she realised the reason. The reason was that there was a lot of people in the painting. She hadn't seen a crowd anywhere in the world she currently lived in. That was the most she could entertain herself with the painting.

Growing bored of it, she rummaged through the books she usually kept nearby. A couple of titles stood out to her that she wanted to read. One of them was an old, worn out diary of a man that may still be alive. Opening the book, almost a slab of dust slid off the front cover. It wasn't her favourite book. There was too much writing for her to fully enjoy it; although, the pictures drawn in the book helped to read one of the fairy tale books. It gave a bit more of a realistic picture, rather than the characterised version of the images. The only name that was written in the first page was Kal. "This will take too long to read..." the young girl whispered to herself as she placed the diary back in its place.

The second book that she picked up was one that she was both terrified of, and fascinated with. The title of the second book was The Kangalaree: The God of Déjà Vu. Opening the book, she began looking at the pictures to refresh her memory of what the Kangalaree supposedly is, though, the pictures in the fairy tale book did it no justice. There was no clear picture of what it looked like in this book. She knew that and knew that she would need to look through the diary to see the drawings of it, but she didn't need to. The drawings of the Kangalaree are one of the few things she will never forget.

Whilst the young girl was engrossed in her thoughts and the pictures of the book, she heard the loud noises and thumping of the deer echoing through the corridors. It wasn't uncommon to hear loud noises of animals whenever she followed the man's signals and commands. What was uncommon; however, was that there were so many large animals so close to their home. Interrupting her thoughts once again, a rare sound to hear alongside the sound of animals was what came soon after. The squeaking of metal and the squealing of chains was clearer than the sound of the deer.

"Oh no." The young girl said in a hushed voice to herself. "The sound might be too loud." She felt herself wince at the sounds of the metal.

Despite her worries, she stayed as she was. That was one of the things the young girl and the man talked about many times. She would stay as she was and wait for the man to either call out to her, or for him to walk through the door.

The small arm on the clock was at 11 and the big arm on the clock was at the 6. The young girl couldn't tell the time very well, but she knew from her time with the man that it was close to lunch time.

The hands on the clock met at 12 before she heard the door being unlocked. He had been away for a long time. Longer than he usually was after they would follow their signals. The young girl rushed over to the front door of the apartment as it opened up to reveal the man, bloodied from the waist up, covering his his shirt and coat. The young girl, undeterred, dove into the man's waist and hugged him tightly.

"Why were you gone for so long?" The young girl looked up, pleading for an answer.

The man simply hugged her back and stayed for a moment before she let go. The young girl grabbed the man's hand and dragged him toward the lounge room where she had been reading the fairy tales.

The young girl took a seat on the lounge, comfortably sunk into the cushion as she pulled out the fairy tale of The Kangaralee and continued reading. However, now that she had gained an audience member sitting on the floor in front of her, she needed to put on a show. In a loud voice, the young girl began reading as dramatically as she could, attempting to mimic the man when he would read her stories before she fell asleep.

The man looked like he was paying complete and utter attention to her, barely moving a centimetre, not making a sound as he watched her wave her hands around, describing how big or how dangerous something in the story was. She was never a fan of sad endings, particularly considering the world she and the man lived in, now. The young girl often gave the main character of the story from The Kangaralee a happy ending where he and his friends beat the big, bad monster, win the day and get to live happily ever after.

She knew he liked her reading the stories, but he never read this one to her. She always wondered why that was the case, but he always told her, "when you get a bit older, that's when you'll know why I don't read it and why I like you reading in instead".

The man saying a comment like that always made the young girl overjoyed at the fact that she was making him happy and that she could make him smile and laugh, even if she was changing the story a lot.

***

After finishing the story, the man stood up after sitting on the floor for so long, shaking his legs after becoming numb. The young girl shows the man the other stories she had been reading. As he scanned through the various books she had been reading, the man gave her a soft smile. He told her to continue reading through the different books while he goes to the kitchen to begin dinner preparations.

The butchers knife the man had found when he was out on his scavenging run into the city was clean and sharp; perfect to use for preparing the deer meat for the pair. All the leftover meat was placed in the large chest freezer they had on their floor. It could store the meat for several weeks, and even months if they could stay in the building that long. It was a good thing the solar panels, batteries, and generator all continued working after the world went south.

Having being captivated by the fact that they were blessed to have electricity, the man didn't notice the young girl peeking at him as he stood in the doorway of the kitchen with the butchers knife in hand and a freshly killed deer on the preparation bench. He knelt down facing the young girl, taking a deep breath, and asked, "how old are you, now?"

"Ten years old." The young girl cheerfully perked up on her toes as she responded.

"Okay," the man breathed with a sigh. "What are the three rules of hunting?"

The young girl tilted her head as she wracked her brain for the answer. Half a minute of face scrunching and 'umm' and 'aah'ing, the young girl's face lit up as she figured out her answer. "The first rule is..." The young girl paused, put a finger up as to signal for the man to wait, put her fists on her hips and puffed out her chest before continuing. "Only hunt what you need."

The man chuckled lightly with a bright smile. "Hahaha. Yes, that's correct. What about the second rule?"

The young girl held her pose as she continued to respond. "Never hunt if it isn't safe." The young girl responded with confidence and a face that was eager for praise. "Oh! Let me say the last one!"

"Hahaha, of course. Go ahead."

"The third rule is... drumroll." The young girl looked expectantly at the man kneeling in front of her. The man placed the knife down and obliged her with a drumroll.

"Don't waste a single bit of what you hunt. We've only got so much." The young girl puffed out her chest and tilted her head up a little more, looking like she was waiting for something.

The man gave her a soft smile as he pat her head. "Okay. It looks like you've remembered the rules. Time to graduate."

"Yippee!" The young girl jumped for joy the moment the man finished his sentence.

The man picked up the knife once again and placed it gently in the young girl's hand. "I'm going to teach you how to prepare the food, first. When you can do that well, I will teach you how to hunt, how to track, and how to survive if anything were to split us up. Sound good?"

The young girl's face lit up throughout the entire conversation. The man thought he did quite well, that was until he noticed the young girl grimacing. "What's wrong? You don't like it?" The man asked, expecting her to be pouting about the order he was going to teach her.

"You promised you wouldn't talk about us splitting up. You said that would never happen."

The man only just realised his mistake. Backtracking through his thoughts, the man shook his head as he looked at the young girl with as much seriousness as he could muster in front of a pouting child. "I only said such a thing as a just in case, because we never know what will happen in the future. I will always do my best to make sure we stay together, but even I can't control what someone or something else does. That's why I need to teach you as much as I can so you can survive until we meet up again, if we ever do become split apart from each other."

"You promise?" The young girl squeezed her question through her still grimacing pout.

"I promise." The man held out his pinky finger, waiting for the young girl to respond in kind. After a few seconds, the young girl interlocked her pinky finger with the man, swearing their promise to each other.

After a few seconds of sealing their pinky promise, the man stood upright, set up a stepping stool, and gestured for the young girl to join him. "Alright, let's start your new lessons."