Running Away

Two weeks. That’s how long Brooklyn had been hiding under her house. In a way the cramped space was comforting, she used to hide there when she was a kid. Her mother would have these “moods” as she called it, and Brooklyn would seek shelter under the house in the cold dirt. The bugs and spiders never bothered her; in fact, they would fascinate her. Even now, watching the spider crawl over her hand was calming, took her mind off the insanity going on out there or what she assumed was going on out there.

It had been quiet for the past four days, no voices, no footsteps, no cars. But every time she felt it might be safe to come out her memories would come flooding back, keeping her hidden. It started simple enough, a power outage. Couple hours later the cell towers shut off and the radio stations went to white noise. Some people packed up and went to stay with family outside of town. A few came back to warn that the power was out in the surrounding towns. No big bang, no fires, no alarms; everything just shut down. Stores were closed so people started breaking in and stealing. Then the fighting broke out. People tried to gain control of the town, unfortunately the wrong people won.

Brooklyn’s stomach gave a growl. She had run out of food a couple days ago, even then it was only a bunch of junk food. Her mother couldn’t even bother to give her any fruit or veggies. Brooklyn bite her lip. She didn’t want to think about her mother, it was too confusing. Her mother had been horrible but in the end she risked her life to save her. It was just like her mother, treating her like trash and a bother her whole life just to save her in the end. It was her mothers fault anyway, if she hadn’t been friends with those creeps.

Her stomach interrupted her thoughts as another growl, this time with hunger pains, radiated from her gut. She knew it was time for her to make her way out of town, try and find a safe place. Carefully, Brooklyn crawled her way over to the lose panel. Each scrape across the dirt made her cringe, it sounded so loud. Her arms and legs felt stiff making it difficult to army crawl, her whole body felt like dead weight. She got to the panel and opened it little by little. Broken cars and graffitied houses were all she could see but she still didn’t trust the silence.

Pausing to make her plan Brooklyn army crawled out of the hole, she scurried along the side of the house as fast as she could to the back door. Reaching the back steps, she stopped and laid out on the ground, catching her breath and soaking up the warmth of the sun for the first time in two weeks. She knew she didn’t have time to waste, but this was the most content she had been in a while. But her brain shouted at her to get moving. So, with a groan she attempted to sit up, and failed. Her back hurt and her limbs felt like cement.

Every move to stand up hurt, a mixture of pins and needles and tight muscles. Finally standing her head pounded and everything was spinning, she had to hold onto the side of the house in order to not fall. Each step to the door made her feel like she was going to collapse, and there were only 3 steps! The door opened easily when she leaned her body against it to take a breath. It must not have been latched, and she tumbled to the floor again. It was easier to stand up this time, using the cabinets to pull herself up.

The house was dark and disheveled. It had been ransacked and all the food and valuables were gone. There was a lot of junk left behind, some bits of food left around. The living room picture frames and tv shards everywhere. Every step made a crunching noise. She knew no one was in the house, she would have heard them walking around while she was under it. Still, the crunch of glass and plastic made her heart beat faster and she felt like someone was around every corner. Avoiding the windows, she made her way up the stairs to her room. Brooklyn kept her eye out for anything useful but assumed everything good had been taken.

She turned the corner to her room and froze. Ice filled her veins and her body felt like dead weight again. There on her door was the mark of the Awe Men, a sideways cross in a diamond shape. For such a stupid name it terrified her. They terrified her. Her mother had had these friends since Brooklyn had been a little girl, they always made her feel uneasy. The four guys would occasionally hang outside their house and her mother would party with them. She knew most of them had some sort of charges against them, usually petty theft or drug issues. She never liked them, but her mother would just tell her she was being paranoid, and ‘you can’t judge a book by it’s cover’. They would sometimes talk to her, occasionally making comments about her clothes or her body. If only her mother had listened to her sooner.

Checking the door for any traps or alarms, she slid into her room. It was as torn apart as the rest of the house, but she was able to salvage a few clothes, and even a pair of boots. Then she got in her closet and pulled herself up through a hole in the celling. A small crawl space in the attic that no one ever noticed. Crawling along the planks, she found her stash. An old backpack with supplies, she made it when she was little incase she needed to run away. Every year she would add more stuff or update it. Brooklyn gabbed the flashlight out of it and started checking her inventory.

Flashlight, extra batteries, a big pile of period products, a knife (for self-defense or for hunting), some extra cash (probably useless now), bunch of random maps, a blanket, some survival type books, and general hygiene stuff.

Brooklyn was just about to close up the bag when she felt something inside the back zipped pocket. She opened it and found a necklace. She didn’t wear jewelry, and all her mom’s jewelry were cheap and tacky. But this, this is a small silver heart locket. She opened the locket and found it empty, and really it was too small to put anything in there anyways. This concerned her. No one knew about her stash, even if they did the hole is too small for most to get up there and the only way to get up there was through her closet. It was simple and cute, something she would have picked out for herself. Did she buy this and forget? No, why would she keep it in her stash? Did she steal it from her mom to pawn? Her mother would never let one of her “expensive” pieces disappear. Huffing, Brooklyn stuffed the necklace in her jacket pocket. She’ll think about it when she’s safe.

Stuffing the few clothes she collected into the backpack, Brooklyn felt something was missing. She had a knife, but she needs a better weapon. Those creepy Awe Men might still be around, she doubted they would just abandon their new property. Those friends of her mothers were the ones who managed to get control of the town. They ran it like crazed barbarians. They would keep all the supplies for themselves, only sharing with those who gave them “donations”. They usually demanded alcohol or drugs but as time went on, they got worse. They would beat up the people who stood up to them, but then they started killing people. That’s when her mother started distancing Brooklyn from them. Their “donations” also got worse. They would ask for sexual favors from the women and even some of the teens. A lot of them had no choice. That turned into the guys keeping people as slaves.

Brooklyn new they would ask for her at some point, the only reason they hadn’t was because her mother was their friend. It seems they both new that was going to end soon. Her mother barged into her room one night, threw a plastic bag of food at her and told her to hide. She managed to get under the house just in time. A car pulled up and she could hear the front door slam open. She could barely make out their talking, they were looking for her. They wanted her. A shiver went down Brooklyn’s spine as she remembered her mother screaming at them. Calling them all sort of terrible names, talking about how much they owe her and other things. The guys weren’t having it and a fight broke out. She hears her mother being dragged out the door to their car. Her groans still haunt her every night, it keeps her up wondering if her mother is still alive. Brooklyn hopes, for her mother’s sake, that she’s dead. It was the better option than whatever the Awe Men would do to her.

She was finished getting ready. There was nothing left in the house she could use, and she knew the rest of the town had been raided. No point checking if the neighbors had something useful. Brooklyn new where she was going and had already mapped it out before this all started. Her grandparents’ house, she had already planned to go there if she needed to run away. They lived in the very tip of Maine, super secluded. No buses means it will take weeks to get there, and who knows what the world looks like outside the town. Checking outside, Brooklyn saw the sun was setting and she knew it was time to go. Travelling at night seemed safer, less likely see people.

She took one last look at the locket. It probably wasn’t from her mother, but she couldn’t think of anyone else who was able to leave her this in her stash. A part of her wanted to believe it was from her, that her mother did care about her. Another part wanted to throw the locket into a river and never think about it again. But she couldn’t let it go, at least not yet. She tucked the necklace back into her pocket, shouldered her bag and started walking. She didn’t know what she would find out there or who was left, she just hoped it was better than what she was leaving.