Silent Scavenging

316 days until extinction.

Harper had been quite accurate with her guess of three days for travel.

Both of them got a later start the day after their rifle encounter and when the sun had set the city of Philadelphia had come into view. It had changed fairly drastically in the time since then with countless cars stacked on top of the other forming a very makeshift wall. There were several torches on the wall which Harper theorized was where guards were posted.

“Guards?” Jackson asked in a voice laced with concern. After the rifle encounter he was clearly trying to be more aware, often mimicking Harper in the way he now scanned the horizons while moving.

“Yeah. Can’t really get a good look at them from this far away.” Harper was cursing herself for not picking up a pair of binoculars from Rainer or anywhere else while on the road. “But safe to assume they’re armed.”

“Great. So how are we going to get in?”

They spent the entire day gathering information. It seemed that only a small section of the city had been walled off, and with the occasional sound of gunfire from within the city both Harper and Jackson agreed it was likely there were at least two factions within the city, potentially more.

“We’ll get in through one of the unwalled sections. First things first, where are the music stores?”

Harper had managed to pick up a map book in her travels which had fairly rudimentary maps of the major American cities. Flipping to Philadelphia he pointed to Dilworth Park.

“There’s four within about a block or so from Dilworth, five if you go a bit further out. After that it gets a bit more sparse, there’s like maybe one or two in each neighborhood beyond that.”

“Okay so that gives us a few options. We’ll hit the Dilworth area first, it’s a major throughway in the city so I doubt they’ll have any but no reason not to check. After that we’ll have to go clockwise, unless it’s unsafe to do so.”

Jackson nodded and after the sun had risen fully a day after they had arrived the pair began to venture into the ruined remains of the city of Philadelphia. Though to call it ruined would be generous as much of the infrastructure was still standing strong, with the major issue being much of the traffic clogging up the streets making it much more difficult to move without either making noise or making themselves far more visible than either was comfortable with.

They moved with as much haste as possible down the alleyways and sidewalks of the streets, and what Jackson felt was truly eerie was not the cars or occasionally destroyed shop it was the emptiness. Philadelphia had only been their home for a few years but he had come to enjoy the thrum of the city, the sounds of traffic intermingling with the chatter of people on the street.

But now there was almost nothing; occasionally the sound of glass breaking from several streets away, or metal clattering against stone that was then swiftly smothered. The silence made it feel like they were alone yet nothing could be further from the truth. Even Jackson could feel the eyes on them from somewhere, like an itch on the neck one couldn’t get rid of.

“Someone’s-”

“I know” Harper spoke, sharply and silently. Her eyes scanned the buildings and she had begun to move between alleys rather than moving in the open streets. They moved slowly but eventually came to one of the stores near the park Jackson had mentioned. Quickly moving them both inside she shut the door and quickly pulled down what remained of the shades.

“Chances are they were moving between the buildings. We lost them two alleys back but it won’t take them long to figure out where we are.”

“Shit are we going to have to fight again?”

“Hopefully not. They may just want to talk or trade.” Harper turned back to Jackson. “Look for what you need as quick as you can. We may need to make a fast exit.”

Jackson quickly fell into scavenge mode. Even though he was familiar with the store it had been nearly completely upended in the time since The Declaration and so there was little more to do than sit on the floor and go through all that was left.

After a few minutes the sounds of running footsteps echoed in the small music shop and Jackson froze without even needing to be told.

“Where’d they go?” The voice was gruff, likely male, and had a level of agitation to it.

“I’m not sure.” Another man’s voice, younger though than the first with the faint hint of a French accent. “I lost them.”

“You’re sure you saw a rifle?” A different voice now, an older woman’s. Calm, focused and collected. The voice was different but the tone was similar to what Jackson heard from Harper.

“Positive,” the Frenchman confirmed.

“Well then we keep looking. The Captain has been looking for something like that.” A brief pause, and a silence that caused Jackson’s blood to go cold. There was a shadow in the shop window and for a moment he thought they were about to get found out.

“Marco, double back to the last street, maybe we lost them in one of those buildings. Jason you check the shops in this area. I’ll report back, see if I can enlist some more help.”

Footsteps followed before a silent string of curses from the individual outside followed by the sound of him walking to one of the stores nearby to begin investigating it. Harper made eye contact with Jackson and gave a nod of acknowledgement, both knew they didn’t have long before whoever this ‘Jason’ was he would soon be upon them.

With her arm still injured Harper could no longer fight to her fullest and so positioned herself in a small corner of the shop near the door with Jackson hidden behind some of the debris to jump out if she needed help. They stayed there for a long time, long enough to feel the lactic acid building up in his legs to near unbearable levels.

Then the doorknob shifted.

The door opened.

And stepping through was a middle aged man with a patchy beard and thinning salt and pepper hair. He wore a puffy black vest, the type Jackson had seen fishermen wear, and a plaid shirt that had been dulled from years of washing. His eyes went wide and even before his mouth could open Harper’s arm was around his neck in a vice-like choke hold.

“Scream and I’ll crush your windpipe. Tap my arm if you understand.” Harper’s voice was cold, and as she received a single tap on the arm her grip lessened ever so slightly.

“Who are you?” He asked, eyes bulging out uncomfortably as he stared at Jackson.

“Doesn’t matter. How many of you are there.”

“More than you can-gurk!” Harper tightened her grip for a moment before loosening it causing a short coughing fit. “Something like forty or so. I don’t know, I don’t interact with many outside my unit.”

“And how many in a unit?”

“Ten, give or take.”

“Who leads you. She sounds military.”

“She’s former Pakistani, worked for the army or something I don’t know the specifics.” As the man looked around realization was beginning to dawn on him. “You guys aren’t even from here, are you?”

“Whose The Captain?” It was Jackson who now asked the question. Ever since the name had been mentioned uncertainty and worry gnawed at his gut, it was the same as a playful nickname his father had taken after entering his business; setting sail on the ‘high seas’ of business so to speak.

“I don’t know his name. All I know is he owns this city, at least for as long as we have left.”

Silence fell in the shop as Harper stared not at the person in a choke hold but at Jackson.

“What’s the game kid.”

“Let him go.”

Harper paused.

“He could shout for help, or alert his buddy the next street over. Easier to just bury him here.”

Jackson had walked over to Harper and began digging through her bag. He’d gotten a look in his eye she had seen only a few times in her life, the look of hunter setting a trap.

“Then they would for sure know something happened, they’d probably send a whole unit to scour the area.” Taking out the pack of chewing tobacco he showed it to Jason. “You chew?” When Jackson received a nod he continued speaking, “we give you this and you tell your friends you didn’t find anything. That work for you?”

A flood of emotions flowed through the man’s eyes as he gauged all his options, slowly nodding. And then gulping in air as Harper released him from the vice grip. Spitting a combination of blood and bile on the floor Jason stared at the two, snatched the chewing tobacco and stormed out.

“Well, hopefully that won’t spell our doom.”