Things we lose

Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.

"Well this is it I guess" David thought to himself as he walked the dark road at midnight.

The broken streetlights around him created a blackness which felt consuming right to his core. His head was down and his hood was up, he wanted to be left alone and ignored. It was easier this way. David walked with purpose and direction without looking up, he'd trodden these roads many times and knew their winding paths well.

His stomach growled once again and he felt weak, when was the last time he ate? A week? More? It was hard enough to get a decent meal in this place even without The Scavengers attacking and stealing the food from ration banks. Waiting in line for hours just for a few potatoes.

"What's the point of it all?" He thought as a tear rolled down his cheek. "I'll just disappear, nobody will notice."

He reached the place where he was heading and looked up. An abandoned building with boarded up windows and doors, tall enough for this decision. He walked around the right hand side and squeezed behind a large container near the wall. David had been here before and knew how to get inside, a small opening into the basement hidden behind the container. It was a push but he was so skinny that he could fit through it, all those years of hard work and minimal food had pushed his body in an unhealthy way. The government was doing their best to provide its citizens with supplies but that was doubtful, they never fell to malnutrition it was always the lower class.

"They don't care about us" He thought as he squeezed himself inside the building. He looked around and couldn't see any signs of other people, empty just as he expected. David took his hood down and walked painfully up the stairs leading to the roof, sweating with exertion as he neared the top.

He opened the door and stepped outside, it was just as dark up here and silent. So very quiet it was eerie. He walked closer to the edge, slowly, his legs shook with each step. He could hear the sound of his boots hitting the floor. One step, another step, another. He reached the edge and pulled himself up onto it. One more step.

"Well, this is it I guess" He thought once again.

Time seemed to stretch on forever. His thoughts fell back onto his life and experiences. His parents when they were still alive, his first day of school, being bullied for his clothes, his first job. He'd grown up a lot now and become much more bitter about his life here. There was nothing but endless suffering. Suffering which was about to end. A wave of calm spread over him as he thought all of this. He relaxed and his shoulders dropped a little as the tension left him. It will all soon be over.

As he teetered on the edge his thoughts strayed to how he started this morning. He had waited in line at the ration bank and The Scavengers arrived and attacked the place. The guards tried to defend it but fell to the onslaught of these wild men and the hungry citizens fled before they were also killed in the crossfire.

"Those men who never went hungry" he thought.

David took a step backwards off the edge. He turned around and left the building, he knew it was immoral but he didn't care. He had decided to locate and join The Scavengers.