Chapter 1


“Rossette, when are we going back home? I’m tired, and my feet hurt from walking.” My younger sister Abby was leaning on my arm. Her little feet weren’t accustomed to walking long distances. She’s only 5 years old, and I’ve been bringing her with me wherever I go, because it’s too dangerous to leave her alone at our home anymore. Our home is not exactly what you’re picturing. We live in the back of where an alley used to be. I used the bricks to make something that resembles walls, and put a few scattered blankets that I found on the ground on the top of the bricks as a roof. I also put four large umbrellas on top of the blankets as a roof.
“Abby, we’ll walk back home after we find something to eat. I know you’re tired though, so why don’t you ride on my back for the rest of the way?” my feet ached too, but it would be faster with Abby on my back, and we had to get something to eat and be home before dark. She looked at me and her eyes started to droop. I bent down, and she jumped up onto my back. She wasn’t heavy, maybe about thirty-five pounds.
When she was comfortable on my back with her head on my shoulder, I walked on. I knew that I had to remember where we were so that we could get back home, so I paid a lot of attention to our surroundings. I noticed every detail, such as where the fallen cherry tree was in relation to the fallen down house on the right and the broken fence pieces surrounding the whole demolished place. These little things were vital to us getting home safely.
A few minutes of walking passed, and I heard Abby snoring lightly in my ear, and felt the rhythmic beating of her heart. It was very calming, and somehow it helped me to focus more. I still didn’t see anything edible however. I looked all around me and still couldn’t see anything that Abby and I could take home for today’s dinner and for food tomorrow.
I walked on for about twenty more minutes before I saw something. Off in the distance, to the left of a giant fallen down oak tree were five apples! There wasn’t just that, there was a bag of trail mix too! I was so surprised at our luck that I started to walk toward it without thinking. Why would there be food out in the open? If I could see it from this distance, then surely someone from around this area would have seen it already.
After a few minutes of debating, I decided that it was worth the risk. I walked cautiously and silently forward, and concentrated all my energy on the bag of apples. I watched them rise slowly off of the ground and make their way in our general direction. I moved them low and slowly toward me, in case this was actually a trap or setup.
Before I knew it the apples were directly in front of me. I then dropped the apples and looked back to where the trail mix lay. I slowly picked up this bag and brought it over in the same manner.
I took the bag down from one of my shoulders, being careful not to wake Abby. I put the two bags of food into the bag.
I made binoculars with my hands and looked toward the sun. It wasn’t too low, and I decided that I had at least ten minutes of walking before I had to turn around and go home. I was grateful for the food that I just found, but I wanted to find at least one more thing to put in the bag. We had a long way to walk tomorrow, and I didn’t want to be walking on an empty stomach.
I turned right, away from where I saw the apples, and walked in that direction. I would have to remember that I turned here, but other than that it was easy to find our way back home.
I walked for the ten minutes, and found nothing, but the moment that I turned around, I saw a movement. Someone or something was following me! I took out my knife and walked to the bush which was where I saw the movement. I held my breath and hoped that I wouldn’t have to kill someone. I’ve never actually done that before, I always found a way to distract them and then run. But I couldn’t run now. I had Abby on my back, so it would be impossible for me to outrun anything.
I peered around the bush with the knife held up defensively and saw to my amazement that it was a squirrel. I didn’t waste any time killing this animal. Meat was a very rare find, and I took it graciously. Once the squirrel stopped bleeding as heavily I took the bag off of my shoulder. I didn’t want to get the smell of blood on the bag, because it was made of cloth, so I dumped the apples out of the plastic bag that they were in. I stuffed the squirrel in the plastic bag and wrapped it up tightly before placing it into the cloth sac bag which I put onto my shoulder again.
I wasted 5 precious minutes with this, and so I rushed to get home. I walked to where I found the apples and trail mix, and turned left. I then continued until I got to the fallen down cherry tree, and the demolished house. I went straight from there, and arrived home without any problems. The timing was a bit too close for me. The stars were just starting to shine when I got back home.
I gently laid Abby down on the soft blankets that were on top of the tarp. After sitting down and taking out an apple and cutting it in half, I woke Abby. She is used to waking up quickly, so she was wide awake right away. I handed her half the apple and a bottle of water. We each ate our apple half, and drank some water from each of our water bottles. I then took out a small handful of trail mix, and Abby and I also split that. We finished our water, and I could tell that Abby was full now. This was one of the few times that we have had full stomachs, it felt great.
I packed our food up in the bag again, and took out the squirrel so I could skin it before I went to sleep. I told Abby, “go back to sleep hun, I’ll be right outside if you need anything.” She nodded her head slightly, and dozed off again. She needed a good night’s sleep if we were going to cover the distance that I had planned for tomorrow.
I took the squirrel and my knife outside and started to skin it. When that was done I gutted it out and made a fire so that I could cook it and we could eat it while we walk tomorrow. All this didn’t take more than an hour, and the cooking part only took about 15 minutes. I stomped out the fire quickly, because having it going at night wasn’t a good idea, I was just hoping that no one would see it I the bricks.
I wrapped the squirrel meat back up in the bag, and walked into the house. I then stuffed everything into the navy blue knapsack that I had and went to sleep next to Abbey after taking a blanket and covering us both up.