Chapter 13

He entered from the yard of one of the houses around the edge of the town. The yard was cluttered with rusted out air cars and even an ancient wheeled car that he had read stories about but never seen. Whenever he came to town for supplies, he would circle around the town and enter from the main road north. This area was unknown to him and seemed to be a loose collection of houses with large yards.

Slipping deeper into the yard he moved from cover to cover with plenty of piles of crap there was no chance he would be seen even with the full sunlight. The back of the house came in sight and he stopped and studied it. The back door was wide open and there seemed to be some movement inside. He couldn't hear anything and the shadows inside the house made it difficult to see anything more.

He started for the back of the house coming under the back porch and pressing himself against the wall next to the door. Closing his eyes for a minute he waited for them to adjust to the darkness and then slipped in through the open door.

He was in some sort of kitchen. It was filled with rubbish and dirty dishes that looked as if they had not been cleaned in some time, Mold and other things growing on them. The smell was horrible, there were a bunch of strange machines looking old and worn. He had never used modern cooking appliances and he wondered what some of the strange looking contraptions used to do.

Focusing on the door into the rest of the house he put aside curiosity and drew his knife. Keeping it low and ready he moved silently through the door to a long hallway. There was a slight rustle from a room towards the front of the house.

The sound came again and again as he got closer to the door leading to a side room. He slipped his head around peeking into the room with a slow and steady movement. Sharp and rushed movements were much more likely to register in someone else's vision.

The room was empty, and it was a moment before he saw what was making the scratching sound. It was a curtain brushing over a small stack of crap near the front window. Keeping his guard up he started around the house checking out each room to find the house deserted.

Sheathing the knife back on his hip he moved to the front curtain and slowly looking through to the street out the front. It was as deserted as it appeared from above in the hills. There were a few houses in this street they all seemed to be in rough shape like the house he was hiding in.

'Time to go then being too cautious won't get me anywhere.' Layan thought to himself before opening the front door and quietly closing it as he left the rundown house.

He headed into the street keeping to the sides as much as possible moving around various bits and pieces littering people's yards as he did his best to move unseen. The house one the corner was in a bit better shape than the others in the street with the cross street being a wider and more populated street.

There was still no sign of any people or even animals as he continued to move further into the town. Most people in the town generally had some sort of pet, usually a dog but there was no sign of them. Even the sky was clear of birds adding to the silence.

By the time Layan made it to the middle of the town he had yet to see even the smallest sign of life. There was nothing like everyone had simply disappeared. There were no signs of fighting or bodies and even the tracks that he was able to find were old by at least four or five days.

It was unnerving walking through the deserted town.

It wasn't until he got his first sight of the town square that he saw the first sign of life.