This is to celebrate that I reached 50 reviews on my other story "Better." It's going to be short, only three chapters. The chapters are going to be pretty short too. But I hope that you will enjoy this story to the fullest until it's done.
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to PJO, Rick Riordan does.
The girl entered the field. The first thing that she noticed about it was how...depressing it looked. Then again, the fact that it was dark and raining contributed to it. The area that she entered looked destroyed and forgotten. There were twelve fallen buildings making a kind of u-shape. The ground had burn marks all over it and was littered with what looked like...swords? And was that a bow and arrow?
She took a step inside the field and felt something triangular and hard under her foot. The girl lifted it up and saw that it was a knife, a bronze, and really sharp knife. Despite the fact it was probably here for a really long time, it looked shiny and new- perfectly capable of killing anything that it came in contact with.
Shrugging, the girl put it in her back pack. A weapon was a weapon after all.
This place wasn't very different from all the other areas that she visited. It looked liked it was ransacked and destroyed in the process. There was an aura of sadness and hopelessness surrounding the place. She wasn't around when it came. But according to her parents, it swept in like a storm- completely unexpected and disastrous. The effects were even more so.
It has been approximately 20 years since that happened.
The girl shivered. It was cold (well, it was always cold) and her clothes were already soaking wet. Her legs were sore from walking too much and her head hurt from that impact she took yesterday. Her stomach growled in hunger. The only reason she came to this place was to find shelter and hopefully, food. She saw a sign a little while ago that said this place had strawberries.
She looked around. Nope, no red fruit in sight. She should've expected this to happen. Up ahead, the girl saw a house that was still standing. By the looks of it, it was on its last legs.
The girl sighed. Oh well. It had to do.
Slowly, she walked to the house. As she walked, she noticed that the house was painted sky-blue- a rather unusual color. Even from this distance, she could see it clearly. Though, it was rotten and the walls had several holes. In fact, some of them looked like bullet holes. The girl figured that this was probably used as a shelter or something.
She enters the building and decides to search it for food, clothing, and maybe even a few survivors.
"Hello? Anybody here? Hello?" The house was bigger from the inside. She said this in each and every room that she visited. And every time, there was no response.
Giving up, she sat down on the wooden floor of one of the rooms. It had a desk and a bunch of cardboard boxes, stacked neatly on top of each other. It looked like an abandoned office.
Having nothing better else to do, the girl decided to open the nearest one to her. Perhaps it has something useful that she could use. When she opened it, a cloud of dust blew out and the girl ended up coughing and hacking because of it.
She waved the air around her in hopes of trying to get some of it out. After she was finished, she examined the contents.
The first thing that the girl noticed was a piece of paper that was on top. It looked like a note of some sort. The girl frowned. She couldn't read at all. In this world, being literate really wasn't your top priority.
She tucked the piece of paper into her pocket. The girl knew someone that lived before the apocalypse that could read this out for her. Assuming that person was in the same location as last time, finding her should be easy.
The girl decided to look at the other things that were in the box.
After the note, there was a picture with several, smiling people in it. The girl guessed this was probably taken after the apocalypse. No one could look that happy during this time. The glass frame was shattered, as if it was dropped on the floor. The frame holding in the picture had writing on the back of it. Again, the girl didn't know what it said. But it was dated back to 2011, one year before it happened.
The people in the picture were all wearing bright, orange t-shirts. There was writing on it and right below that was a...winged horse? The girl couldn't remember what it was called. From left to right, there was blonde girl with stormy grey eyes. She was holding hands with a black haired, green eyed boy. They were outside and the sun was happily shining upon them. They looked like they were happy and were content with their lives.
The girl felt slightly bitter and jealous. It wasn't fair that she was born after the "end of the world." She never got to experienced the joys and safety of the world before her. All she knew was survival and the pain of losing someone close to you. These probably were probably dead by now, probably killed off by the monsters of this world.
There were more pictures inside of it, each one depicting a different person. But all of them was wearing the same attire as the other two. There was a boy with black curly hair standing next to a metal dragon. He had a crazy smile on his face and was surrounded by two more people, a boy and a girl. The girl was ridiculously pretty, with brown hair and a tom-boyish appearance. right next to her was a tall guy with blonde hair. He had electric blue eyes that looked at the girl with admiration. They were probably lovers. If only she could read, then maybe she would find out their names.
As the girl looked through them, she found herself getting more and more absorbed with this place. Some of the pictures were old, dating back until the 1800's. The girl furrowed her eyebrows. She knew that something important happened during that time, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
Finally, the she closed the box. The girl was genuinely interested in this place, but it had nothing of use to her. Although, the girl would go back to search this place again if she had time. It seemed like an interesting place to explore. Just in case she wouldn't make it, she put some of the photographs into her pocket. There was a slim chance that her friend would know them, but it was worth a try.
The girl couldn't help thinking what life was before the apocalypse. Obviously it was better than it was now. Once upon a time, these people led happy, fulfilling lives. And now, they're just people in a picture. Forgotten in a cardboard box.
The girl laid her back on the walls. It slightly creaked under her weight, but it still held her up. She reached into her backpack and brought out a thin, blue blanket. It didn't help very much to keep her warm, but it was something. For now she had to get some rest.
The girl closed her eyes. The sound of raindrops making a soft patter on the roof of the house helped sooth her. She had a long day ahead of her tomorrow and she was going to need to conserve her energy to make it to the next day. And the day after that, and the day after that.
The girl isn't a real character in the books if you guys wanted to know. Don't bother trying to guess who she is.