Miles sat crouched over, digging through a small pile of miscellaneous items in the dirt below. He shuffled through shirts, belts, and some small pocket knives. He made sure to take anything useful loading his arms with a few shirts, one belt, and two of the small blades. The moon overhead illuminated the ground below just enough for him to see something metal tucked away, slightly sticking out of the pocket of a button-down shirt. He approached slowly lowering his head slightly in an attempt to make out what the item was.
As he got closer he could see that it was a chain connected to something. He leaned down and grabbed the end of the silver chain pulling it from the shirt pocket slowly. Behind it trailed a golden band. He held it up to inspect it in the moonlight.
"Ace!" He shouted, dangling the ring above his head. Ace turned his head to see what Miles was holding. He made his way over and grabbed the chain from his hand.
"Yeah, that was my old man's wedding ring," He said, gently rubbing his finger around the circumference of the golden circle.
"Why did he wear it on a chain and not his finger?" Miles asked, curiously.
"Pops was allergic to fine metals, but rather than get it replaced he decided as long as he was wearing it how he wore it didn't matter," Ace said, smiling slightly.
"Pops loved Ma, a lot. I don't think I ever saw a day where he wasn't just ecstatic to be in her life. Every morning he would just sit in the kitchen watching her cook just smiling. Never said nothin' but he didn't need to, his eyes said it all." He continued, as his own began to gloss over.
"That's beautiful," Miles said, smiling.
"Yeah well, that was my dad, hopeless romantic and he didn't care who knew," He chuckled.
"Here - you keep it who knows maybe one day you'll need it," Ace finished, tossing the ring to Miles, and gesturing to Beck. Miles stared down at the ring then up at Beck. His eyes widened as he smiled uncontrollably. After a moment of admiration, he unlinked the clasp and secured it around his neck, dropping the ring itself inside his shirt.
Beck rummaged through old photos and debris not finding much of anything. She wasn't focused much. She couldn't stop thinking of everyone else. Were they all dead? Did anyone else make it this far?
The endless unknowing scared her more. She attempted to distract herself by scavenging for valuable materials. She found a few bundles of rope, a couple of packs of screws and nails, and some small tools. She loaded her arms and shoulders hoping she was making a difference in their chances of survival, but she wasn't very optimistic. Her heart told her she was going to survive because she wouldn't have made it this far if she wasn't meant to, but her mind told her she just got lucky, and eventually, luck would run out.
Ace didn't have much luck finding anything he needed or wanted. Maybe he was biased strictly searching for significant items or maybe all the valuable items went with the cabin. Either way, he wasn't happy with the outcome of his search. He found a few small things his older brother's war metal, a hacksaw, a few loose bolts and screws, and his dad's favorite tie. Nothing of much use but everything he found had value to him. There was just one thing he wanted to see.
He searched vigorously, waving through pile after pile of useless junk. He found stacks of baseball cards, a few items of clothing, and a few small pictures of his family. None of it seemed to be enough. He had almost given up hope until he stepped on it, a loud creak sounded under his foot and a sharp corner stuck into the sole of his sho putting pressure on the bottom of his heel. He eased his foot off of the object and that's when he saw it, a small wooden box with brass hinges.
A sigh of relief escaped from his mouth as he slowly knelt over to pick the box up out of the dirt. The box was small no longer than three inches on either side. The hinges on the back connected both halves of the box and a golden latch on the front secured it closed. Ace took a deep breath as he slowly unlatched it, the wood creaking open. Inside was a red velvet lining and a small satin pillow.
Sitting on top of the small pillow was a gold chain both ends connected to a small golden heart. He grabbed the chain by the heart and dropped the box in the dirt, the pillow fell out of it as it hit and collected a fair amount of mud. He pinched the heart with both hands and pried it open revealing a photo inside. It was a photo of his mom and dad. His mom was a beautiful black woman in a bright purple dress her hair worn in locks. His dad was a tall black man sporting a bald head covered by a white baseball cap in blue jeans and his favorite sports jersey.
This was what Ace was looking for. This was the last photo that was taken of his parents before the bombs rained down, and the locket was a gift to his mother from his father that he never got to give her. He was supposed to be part of the photoshoot but he was "sick" in bed. Truth be told he just didn't want to be seen at the mall with mommy and daddy, a stupid ideology looking back at it. His eyes swelled with tears as he gently pressed his lips to the photo.
"I miss you guys so much," he said as a single tear streamed down the left side of his face. He stared at the photo one last time before placing the locket around his neck. He wiped the tear from his cheek and sniffled one last time.
"Did y'all find anything interesting?" He shouted attempting to mask his shaky voice.
"Nothing unusual, couple items of clothing and some nails and screws that's all, you?" Miles replied, his arms loaded with various things.
"Nothing more than the same," Ace said.
"How about you, Beck, anything useful?" He asked turning his head.
"Some rope and assorted bolts and things, nothing crazy though," She replied, shrugging slightly.
"Well, it seems that this is all we're going to find here, everything else is junk," He said sitting on the ground below.
"So what now?" Miles asked, plopping down next to him.
"Haven't thought that far ahead," He replied, softly.
"Maybe it's time to start brainstorming,"
"I'm all ears," He replied, turning his attention over.
"The cabin's gone the city is probably no better. We have no idea what kind of effects that bomb had, our best bet is to find shelter, a cave, or something. Just until we can utilize some survival skills and make camp," Miles proposed.
"That's not a bad idea, but without food, I don't suspect we'll last very long out here alone," Ace replied, respectfully.
"We have no choice, we have to go back home. We need supplies and food and pretty much anything we can get ahold of," Beck chimed in.
"You want to go home?" Miles replied, concerned.
"I don't see any other option, plus going back will give us an idea of what is happening here, and chances are if anyone else survived they'd have the same plan, we have to go back," She said, sitting next to the boys.
"I hate to say it man, but she's right. We don't stand a chance out here alone with no food. If there's a chance that anything is left up there we have to take it," Ace said, shrugging his shoulders. Miles sat for a minute thinking of what the two of them were saying. He knew that surviving on no food for a day was bad enough let alone a week. However, he also knew going back could prove to be dangerous, and could even be pointless.
There were a lot of risks but the fact remained, that they needed supplies and if he had any hope of finding his siblings again it was back home.
"Okay, then we go home," He said, reluctantly. The three of them sat for a moment not exchanging words just looks. The air was still, and the sky began to light up as the sun started to crest over the east mountains.
"I say once it hits morning when it's light enough to travel safely we head out," Beck said, staring at the clouds above.
"Sounds good to me," Ace replied.
"Smart, if we get there early enough, we might find more than supplies," Miles nodded. Just like that, they waited for the sun to illuminate the sky.
Once the sun crested the mountains they were ready to set off back home, they didn't know what came next but they knew if they were going to make it, they needed to get anything they could.
"Okay so if we go this way here, we can make it back to the lake by noon, then from there if we make the right choices we can be back on the outskirts of town by 2:30," Ace said, pointing a stick at a poorly drawn map he scribbled into the dirt.
"Perfect, we avoid any unwanted interactions and we get back before nightfall, sounds great to me," Miles said, patting Ace on the back.
"Let's do this," Beck said, picking her bag up from the dirt, and just like that the three of them began their journey home leaving the larger items they scavenged tucked away awaiting their return.