19;

The rain had stopped overnight but the clouds still lingered and were diffusing the early morning light into a hazy blur. The road they slept next to unfortunately ran east and west, exposing them directly to the sun as it rose over the horizon even while under the protection of the bridge. Ellie had rolled over sometime in her sleep and ended up facing the exact direction of the source of the light which casted her out from her sleep.

She rubbed her eyes and looked around at their temporary shelter for the previous night and realized how it took on a completely persona in the daylight. The wooden beams grew texture and the whole thing took on a somewhat golden glow.

She leaned up and observed the girl still sleeping next to her for a moment before carefully wiggling her way out of the makeshift bed and forcing herself to her feet. She walked over toward one of the outer support beams and leaned against it. To the southeast she could see nothing but grass with the exception of a row of red and orange trees off in the distance, likely a border of a farm or other property. She found it a relief to see color again after another night of nothingness.

A twinge of urgency hit her as she stood admiring the view. She cussed under her breath and hustled off to the side and behind a bush, hiding herself the best she could.

She groaned in disgust. "Can't believe I'm doing this." She kept watch carefully when something caught her eye out towards the row of trees. "Deer!" She hurriedly finished and ran out in front of the bushes to get a better look. Her mouth was slightly agape in a half smile as she watched them simply graze and walk around.

She heard something faint but couldn't be sure it was anything and ignored it. "Oh my god, they're so cute." She heard it again, much clearer this time.

"Ellie?"

She spun around and reluctantly headed back toward the bridge, away from the deer, and walked around the corner back to where they slept. She spotted Riley leaning up in their bed and rubbing her eyes.

"What's up?"

Riley turned her head towards the sound and spotted the silhouette of Ellie, the rest of her blacked out by the concentration of light behind her. "Oh, hey. Where were ya?"

She shrugged. "I had to pee. Oh! And I saw deer out there, they're so cute. Why?"

Riley hesitated but spoke honestly. "Just wanted to make sure you didn't… you know, leave, or something."

Ellie expression dropped flat. "Seriously? I'm not gonna leave. And even if I wanted to, I'd tell you. So chill."

"Alright, alright. Sorry." Her eyes had adjusted slightly and she could now make out some of Ellie's features within the silhouette. "Help me up, would ya?"

Ellie nodded and outstretched a hand and pulled her up. "How'd you sleep?"

Riley flashed her a look of annoyance. "Not great. I think you had your ass shoved into my back the entire night. Hurts like hell."

"You'll live." She returned a mocking expression. "But yeah, that sounds like me. I toss and turn a lot when I sleep. You'll get used to it."

Riley began rubbing her back. "Hope so. Else I'm going to have a lot of painful mornings."

"Or you could just sleep on the grass from now on."

"Yeah… I'd rather deal with the pain." She stretched her back and smirked back at Ellie. "Anyway, we should have some breakfast. Or whatever we have that we can consider breakfast, I guess." She crouched down next to her bag and pulled out a couple more of the pastries along with a couple of napkins that were securing some dry food and a bottle of water. "We've got a bit to go today, we'll need the energy. Not sure we can get much out of these but it's something at least."

They ripped the plastic off and ate through the mass produced flaky crust. The leftover lunch and dinner they had stored in a napkin didn't provide much either and were soon gone as well. They shared the water, taking what they needed and saving the rest.

Riley was the first to finish and threw her napkin to the side. "Pack up the bed would you? I gotta pee too." She began walking off but stopped before reaching the corner and turned back around. "Oh, and take the lighter jackets out of the backpacks, it's gonna be warm for these today." She tugged on the jacket she was wearing. "Besides, they need to get dried out."

"Just go already."

Ellie shooed her away and began folding while Riley disappeared around the corner. She split up the bed's blankets and sheets and shoved them into both bags, neither capable of holding it all. She took out both light jackets and replaced the one she was wearing with one of them.

She took one last minute to observe the bridge they had stayed under for the night. It looked more worn down than glowing as she initially thought, but at least it held up for the night. Riley reappeared around the old rotting wood column and took one of the light jackets.

"No deer."

"No? Sucks for you."

The both slipped their bags over their shoulders and continued west down the road until the bridge disappeared into the horizon behind them. After another dozen miles of talking about nothing in particular, they reached another intersection. This one of particular distinction.

"Finally, Carver Street. I was beginning to think it would never show up." She breathed a sigh of relief as she looked down the road. "Well, now all we gotta do is take it north until we get to Bristol."

"How far is that?"

"To be honest, I don't know. When I was looking at the map I just saw that Carver was the important street that we needed to take. We'll just get there when we get there, I guess."

"Wonderful. Let's keep moving then."

They walked another several hours before succumbing to their sore feet and the need for a break. Since leaving the bridge the land had changed noticeably. Grass still dominated the landscape, but the trees were less numerous and of a different species, and the soft soil gave way to a rockier ground in increasingly larger patches.

They headed off the main road again and sat against one of the many tree trunks. They rested and finished off their current bottle of water and began on one of the few remaining, choosing to save what little food they had for later.

Riley looked around at their resting area and observed small spots of snow that had collected in the shadows. "We must be getting higher up."

"Feels like it."

"Yeah... not exactly what I wanted to do right before winter."

The breeze was cool and created a symphony of sound as it blew through the leaves of the canopy above them. Ellie managed to fall asleep from exhaustion as soon as they stopped, though Riley couldn't pull her focus away from the throbbing in her legs.

They rested for an hour amongst the wooden giants that seemed to disappear into the sky. After her pain began to subside Riley decided they rested long enough and reached down to sift through grass and dirt. Her fingers brushed against a small pebble which she picked up and lobbed it at the other girl passed out across from her.

Ellie shot up from the impact and flailed her hands around sluggishly deflecting further imaginary rocks. "What the hell?"

"Sorry to disturb your rest princess, but we should get moving."

"Fuck you, you could've just shook me awake."

"But there's no fun in that."

"Whatever." Ellie reached over and picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulders. "Oh look at that, I'm ready before you are."

"Wow, you're cranky when you wake up. Remind me to let you have your beauty sleep in the future." She got shot a frown which she shrugged off with a chuckle. "Let's go." She shouldered her backpack as well and they headed north down the road again.

Another large stretch of road was put between them and the trunk where they rested, the area now becoming mostly rocks and trees. The clouds were thinner than they were in the morning but still provided enough cover to ease their midday walking. They hit a curve in the road and spotted to the right side a large green metal sign sprouting itself out of the ground that read 'Welcome to Bristol' in large white letters. Below that was displayed 'City Limits' along with the estimated population and founding year: 235,700 and 1859 respectively.

They were able to barely make out the tops of some buildings just over a hill and through some trees farther down the curve some miles ahead.

"Finally! Holy shit we made it."

"Never thought I'd be so happy to see some office buildings."

"No kidding."

"We've got a bit to go still, but at least we're in the home stretch."

It took another two hours straight of walking before they reached what they considered the actual city limits, not the boundary set by the sign. Stores started reappearing for the first time since they reached the country side, though still sparse, and cars were roaming the streets. The tallest buildings, where they assumed downtown to be, were still another hour's walk.

Ellie was mesmerized by the view but was snapped out of her daze when the realization that they had no place to sleep and still didn't have a plan flew into her mind. "What now?"

"Well, we just need to head towards downtown. I know that the refuge is in there somewhere, I just don't exactly know where."

As they neared the center of the city the amount of people walking the sidewalks largely grew, the placement of stores was no longer spotty, and trees and grass gave way to buildings and asphalt. They reached what they felt to be downtown, the highest congestion of cars and people their indicator. They both walked in amazement at the amount of people swarming around, their eyes darting back and forth between buildings of towering height and graffiti infected walls. The roaring noise of construction work and road noise was something they'd never experienced before.

"This city is insane!"

"How are we ever gonna find the place in all this?"

"Well, like I said before. We just wander around for a while and see what we find."

"Really? Wander around? That could take forever. Just ask someone."

Riley groaned. "Fine."

She stood to the side of the sidewalk and tried to make eye contact with anyone walking by which she hoped would force them to stop. Numerous people passed her before she succeeded with a middle aged woman dressed rather luxuriously in a nice coat and jewelry adorning most places it could be attached to.

"Excuse me!" The woman adverted her gaze like the others and attempted to continue on. "I just have a question, please. A quick one."

The woman stopped and turned back towards her, a clearly annoyed expression graced her face. "Yes?"

"We're looking for a place called Bristol Refuge. Have you heard of it?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, I haven't." She immediately began to walk off again.

"Well do you know who we could ask ab-" She stopped as the woman walked out of earshot. "Bitch." She turned toward Ellie. "I asked."

"Went well."

"Yeah it did. Can we continue on now? I really doubt anyone is going to know where it is, or have even heard of a homeless shelter off the top of their heads."

Ellie just rolled her eyes and nodded at the same time, conflicting emotions of agreement and being annoyed.

They continued to pick people and streets at random to ask and to walk in their entirety, looking for any clues or signs that might tip them off in the right direction. After a dozen streets and several hours later, the sun was beginning to set among the mountain peaks. It threw shadows out of immense length throughout the city, those that were casted by the largest buildings blacked out entire city blocks.

Ellie was more concerned about their situation than Riley was, due to inexperience as she had hesitantly called it. "We really should find somewhere to sleep for the night. Did you spot any places as we were walking?"

"Well, the good thing about being homeless is that we can sleep anywhere we want. So… yeah, I spotted a ton of places."

Her expression dropped flat again. "Not funny."

"You'll appreciate that later. But, honestly, we really can sleep anywhere. There are a ton of alleys and benches everywhere. I also saw a park a few streets over. You did say you wanted to sleep beneath the stars under a tree."

Ellie thought on it for a moment before coming around to the idea. "That sounds okay, I guess. They're not going to kick us out or anything are they?"

"They? You sound a little paranoid."

"You know, cops, or whatever."

Riley shrugged. "I never had an issue with that. But if you're concerned, I'm sure we'd be able to find a spot that's hidden from the street."

"I'd prefer that."

Riley led them back over several streets to the east and up one to the outlying's of a park. It wasn't much, but it was generously spotted with golden trees and was a grassy haven among the hard surfaces of the city. It served decent enough as a sleeping area and gave some privacy from the night owls and early birds that would undoubtedly walk by at all hours of the day.

They walked throughout until they found a spot that satisfied Ellie's requirements. They fell onto their backs, their bags still underneath them, and let their muscles unwind. They watched as the first stars started to appear in the sky and listened to the still clamoring city around them.

Once settled in the pain of excessive thirst, hunger, and aching from their legs became the forefront though of their minds. Riley rolled over and pulled the backpack out from under her and reached deep into one of the pockets. She pulled out the last of their water, a couple of the plastic pastries, some breaded chicken, and plain bread that were bound in napkins.

"This is all we've got left."

"That's not even enough for tonight. What are we doing about tomorrow?"

"Well, we have several options. We could scavenge for food. It's humiliating and unsanitary, but when you're hungry, you stop caring about all that." She unscrewed the cap from a bottle and took several drinks. "We'll have to be really hungry to reach that point. We can also steal shit from grocery stores and convenient stores. Places like that. We could only really steal once or twice from them before needing to lie low for a while. And of course there's the risk of being caught."

"I'd rather not escape one jail just to end up in another."

"Good point. A third choice that we'll do, and yes, I said we will do, is beg for money."

"I'm not much of a socializer." Ellie kept staring into the sky, not putting much thought into her comment which Riley scoffed at.

"We're not putting on any graces here, Ellie. Have you even seen a homeless person before?"

"If we're going to beg for money wouldn't we need to interact with people?"

"Well, yes and no. We'll essentially just sit our asses on the ground and hold out a cup. It sounds stupid, but you'd be surprised how much you could actually get from doing that. But of course we'll have to make a sign or something in order to make 'em feel bad."

"Lovely."

Ellie's obvious unhappy sounding demeanor forced Riley into a more delicate one herself. "I know this is all probably a hell of a shock to you. It would be to anyone. But you're not going this alone, okay? You've got me... you need to know that."

Ellie sighed then tilted her head to focus on Riley. "The thing is, I don't even really feel anything right now. I'm just kind of numb from the whole thing, like it's not real. And yes, I know you'll be here, and I'm happy you are, really. But…" She dropped her focus toward the ground. "I'd just rather not talk about this right now."

"Okay… we don't have to." She forced a smile, hopefully sympathetic looking. "Let's just finish off our food and get some sleep. We'll need as much energy for tomorrow as we can get."

They ate through the rest of their supplies and drank the rest of the water they had brought with them for the trip. Ellie pulled out the blanket from her bag and threw it on the grass, Riley doing the same but laying hers on top. They both swapped out their jackets for the heavier ones before settling into their makeshift bed.

"We'll find somewhere better to sleep tomorrow. And an even better one soon."

"I hope so."

"We will."