Wanderer (Book 1): Wanderer

the far side of the courts came into view and they looked strangely familiar to me. Then the thirty foot spire appeared atop the glass front library, its gold bell glowing in the early morning sunlight. It took a moment for it all to sink in, then I looked back at the mountain I had just fallen from and I saw the white tower of the radio tower at the top, confirming my suspicions. I have ended up right where I started, Phoenix High School.
If I were to walk around the library I would see the charred remains of my house. And if I were to walk a little further I would see the satellite compound. I had effectively gone in a circle.
I knew I had back tracked a little when I ended up back at the SUV, but I didn’t realize how close I was to home, the one place I was trying to get away from. We had been wandering for weeks and ended up only about a half mile away from where we started.
I didn’t even try to stop the tears rolling down my face. What a waste of fucking time. We could have stayed home and fared better. Who knows if the scavengers even showed up there. Sure, there’s a couple right here in front of me, but who knows where they came from.
I noticed the truck and it brought me back to reality. The driver wasn’t moving, but I didn’t think he was dead. The driver, only the driver. I scanned the area and didn’t see the other so he wasn’t ejected and he couldn’t have recovered that quickly to run away. He must have been left behind and he would be here soon.
I needed to get out of here. The school would be my best choice to hide until they left.
Slowly, and painfully, I pulled myself up. It was hard, something in my left leg was definitely broken, but I could still walk.
I stopped to look in the truck as I walked passed. The driver was still breathing and one of the glass eye pieces of his gas mask was cracked and the other had some blood on it. There was also blood in his hair, no doubt from a gash on his head. He was wearing some sort of grey jump suit, I expected them to be wearing tattered clothing with long hair and scraggly beards, not this uniform wearing, clean shaven soldier. Nice to know they wear uniforms while they rape, steal, and murder.
I didn’t even realize I was doing it as I reached for my gun. During the fall the holster had shifted to the back of my belt. I found the holster empty. The gun must have fallen out during the fall. He was lucky this time.
I had lingered too long and I needed to get to the school before the other one shows up.

Entry 28
I limped to the first of the double doors of the school just as the sun completely crested over the eastern mountains. The doors were pried open long ago by vandals, or whoever, making it easier to slip in. Before I shut the door I looked behind me one last time at the truck and the mountainside. There was still no sign of the other scavenger.
The door led into a long dark hallway with a sliver of light peeking out from underneath a classroom door to my left. In front of me, at the end of the hall, was an elevator. To the left of that was a door, and to the left of the door was a stair case leading down. I could be in any one of the buildings, I’m not sure which, the school was built on the side of the hill and a lot of the buildings are two stories. I didn’t have much time to hide. I didn’t know how close the other scavenger was.
I opened the door to the classroom first. It was directly to my left and the wall took up most of the hallway. It was gloomy inside. There seemed to be a layer of smoke or fog filling the room. The classroom itself is almost untouched. With the exception of a few overturned chairs and a layer of dirt, it looks like the kids left in the middle of a lecture.
I checked behind the teacher’s desk looking for some place to hide or maybe something I could use against them in case I couldn’t find a suitable spot.
I didn’t find much; pens, markers, and some rulers. One drawer was filled completely with blank video cassettes. This must be a video production class. My suspicions were confirmed by a shark, drawn in chalk, holding a video camera with words scrawled above it, “Welcome to Video 101.”
There was a door in the back of the classroom. I walked up to it and peered through the small rectangle of glass that was its window. There were no windows in the room behind the door. What light did filter in there revealed a couple of very large black boxes. This room was no doubt their storage room. There were probably set pieces and camera equipment piled high in their protective cases that would make a perfect hiding area. I could smash the window, but it’s that safety glass with the steel wire running through it. Even if I could break the glass, I wouldn’t be able to get through the steel wire. I wonder if I could pick the lock.
I was about to start looking for a paper clip or something to pick the lock when I heard crunching followed by a scrapping noise. It’s not as bad as the crash, but it was still pretty bad and I imagined it was coming from the truck. The other scavenger had arrived and was prying the door open to get his comrade out of the mangled wreck.
The classroom offered no acceptable sanctuary. I left the classroom and started down