The Old Days

Nobody talks about how society fell. Not anymore. At first it was all anyone would or could talk about, pointing fingers and placing the blame. Blaming anyone and everyone in a vain attempt to put the world back on track, but it wasn’t anyone’s fault, not really. Our society was bound to break at some point. Still, we were all surprised when it finally happened.

We all read the books in our English classes, the ones where one group of people-or even one person-gains too much power and ruins everything, at least most of us read them. We were all too preoccupied with how it would happen, when it would happen, what we could do to prevent it from happening. None of us thought about what would happen after.

I don’t think any of us thought we would see an after. We all thought we would die before anything would happen. It would be a problem for the next generation. Now none of it matters. The only thing on everyone’s minds, at the beginning of every sentence, on the edge of every dream was survival.

I sneeze at the amount of dust that surrounds me. From the looks of this house, you wouldn’t think that the Fall happened only five years ago. The door was kicked in long before the two of us found it. The furniture is toppled and caked in dust. The curtains ripped or missing, I had considered taking a piece of one that was left to use as bandages but the material all but disintegrated when I touched it.

It is unlikely that we will find anything useful, that would have been taken long ago, but it is nice to take a break from the endless walking. Underneath the grime and decay, I can almost see what the house used to look like. Whoever lived here took a great deal of pride to make this place comfortable. The remnants of a large couch, rotting hardwood floors, and the broken glass of lamps and windows mixing on the ground.

Through what is left of one of the windows I can see an overgrown garden. It would have been beautiful in full bloom, and I can almost feel the steam of a hot cup of coffee on my face. The house isn’t terribly large, but whoever lived here made it their own. I wonder if they got away. If they left before the first scavengers came.

For a moment I dare to hope that they did. Maybe they ran far enough away to a place they could settle in again. Away from the wreckage of what we have done to our world. Away from the broken people who still roam. In my mind I can almost see it, but I know that most likely they didn’t make it. Either they were still on the property somewhere or they were still running. Like me. Like Em.

I decide to head upstairs in search of Em. Maybe she was able to find something, lord knows there was nothing to be found down here. As I make my way up a small flight of stairs, I carefully step over a gap where the fourth step used to be. At the top there is more broken furniture and two more rooms. The first is a bathroom. The mirror is broken, the shower has graffiti in it, and the toilet lid is missing.

The second room is where I find Em, and the previous owners. Em is standing in one corner holding something in her hands. The owners are still in bed wrapped in each other’s arms.

“So, they didn’t make it,” I sigh looking around at the room itself.

“Most of them didn’t,” Em says looking up at me quizzically. This isn’t the first time we’ve found corpses and it won’t be the last.

“I know. I was just hoping…” Most of the room has been ransacked. It’s become the normal state of things, but the bed and the lovers has remained untouched. An unspoken hope that they died at peace and remain at peace.

“I know.” Em sighs, looking at the bed. There’s a long pause between us as we each look at the lovers. Em would say we were like guardian angels, but I felt more like a museum goer. I allow her a moment to say a silent prayer. She seems almost comfortable with them.

“So, did you find anything?” I whisper making my way over to her. I knew they were dead, but something in me didn't want to disturb them. Em shrugs sheepishly.

“Nothing useful, but I did find this.” She hands me a necklace on a thin gold chain. The pendant is a small heart with a red stone at the center. “Look.”

Em takes the necklace back and pops open the heart. I look again, and inside is a small picture of two smiling faces. I look back at the bed.

“I found it behind the leg of the headboard,” she tells me, “I’m surprised no one’s noticed it before.”

“Em,” I sigh, “we don’t need anymore things from the Old World.” I suddenly feel exhausted standing in this room. The weight of the two lovers still in their bed starts to sink in.

“I know,” she says, “they just look so happy, and it reminded me of us, and it’s so small it wouldn’t add any weight, not any real weight- “

“Okay,” I say touching her arm gently. I look at the corpses again, holding each other for eternity. “We should probably go.” Em smiles slightly and puts the locket in her breast pocket.

“You’re not going to wear it?” I ask.

Em hesitates. “It’s probably smarter that I don’t. We don’t know who we could run into, and anyways I don’t want to wear…” She trails off looking back at the bed.

I nod. Putting my hand in my pocket I rub my thumb against a large silver coin. Once a collectible item, now a token from the Old World. A barely remembered world. Found in a different house, from a different owner, with a different story to keep alive. I take Em’s hand in mine.

“Let’s go.”