Contagion: After The Ending » Places

         

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"I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape."

― Charles Dickens

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The smoke coming from under the car's hood wasn't a good sign. "Oh, no. Please, don't do this."Katherine all but begged the truck as if it would actually help, as the car started to jerk, then stop all at once. She leaned against the steering wheel with a sigh. "This is just my luck." There was a yip coming from the back seat from the black Labrador, Loki, who seemed to be agreeing to her statement. She had found him in a small apartment, few towns over. The poor thing had been left alone, his owner probably died in a hospital since there were no signs of anybody dieing inside. Luckily, Loki wasn't starving since the cabinet where the dry dog food was kept had been left open. He was about one year old and well trained, from what Katherine could tell, and since she was a dog lover leaving him there was out of the question.

There was nothing she could do; the car engine was dead. She took her backpack from the passenger seat and got out of the car, then opened the door to let Loki out, too. "Come on, boy. We are going to have to walk." Loki jumped out and stretched, before he run to sniff around. Katherine fastened the backpack on her back, and took a woolen hat from her jacket pocket and put it on. She also had matching gloves, but apparently they weren't fire proof and since at that time she wasn't in that much of a control of her new found ability, she had accidental burned them. Since then she stared practicing how to control it and she found out that if she concentrated to warm her hand up just a bit she didn't even need them anymore. After Loki relived himself he came back to Katherine's side and patiently waited for her to start walking toward the town.


Oh how Katherine used to love snow. As kids, she and Keaton would be outside all day making snowman and having snowball fights with the neighborhood kids. They didn't mind that their cheeks and noses were red from the cold, it was like it didn't even bother them. Their mother could only lure them inside with hot cocoa and freshly baked cookies, but even that didn't last long, they would shortly go back outside with their tummies full. But now the snow didn't bring up those happy feelings it once did. The cold seemed to seep deep into Katherine's bones, the wind howled and moaned as if it was mourning the people that had once lived in this new ghost town. The snow covered streets that were not that long ago full of people stood empty; it was so eerie that Katherine expected some kind of a monster to jump out from one of the back alleys.

Aside from the wind, her own footsteps and the occasional bark from Loki, everything was silent. She kept looking around, feeling as if eyes were following her every movement, which was probably just her imagination. At least she hoped, she wasn't looking forward walking into crazies or worse, those guys. After all it wasn't that long ago that she had escaped the group of looters that had attacked her. About three weeks ago, she had woken up in a warehouse of sorts after she had been knocked out by one of them when they sneaked up on her. When they tried to have their way with her, the panic and anger that she was feeling somehow triggered something in her. One moment she was trying to push away the face of the guy that was towering over her, and the next he howled in pain when her palm connected with his face. It was hard to tell who was more surprised by her new found ability, her or the guy who now has a burned hand print on his face. In the confusion she managed to steal their car and escape, but there was no telling when they will find her after all they didn't really look like the forgiving and forgetting kind of guys.

Next to her, Loki whined and nudged her right hand before licking it. "I know, buddy. I'm hungry, too."Katherine scratched him behind his ear, than looked around searching for a store. It had been about a day since they ate the last remains of their food supply, which wasn't much to begin with, and even though she kind of got used to very small amounts of food in these two months, she still needed to have more energy to walk since now she doesn't have a car anymore. "Let's go check that store out. Maybe we'll find something for you at least" The store wasn't in a very good condition. The door and the windows were broken and there was glass and trash all over the floor. Some of the shelves were turned over, and it was obvious that looters had been in here, if the empty shelves for alcohol beverages were any indication. Loki was one lucky dog, since it seemed that since the world went to hell, nobody seemed to bother to stock up with dog food. Katherine took a couple of cans of some kind of stews and and two smaller bags of dried dog food, since the bigger bags would've been way heavier for her to carry. She finished putting them in her backpack when suddenly there was a sound of glass shattering from the front of the store. Katherine ducked behind one of the shelves just as Loki started to growl, alerting her that they had company.