[2028]

There used to be the sounds of birds chirping. Now the streets are lined with chip bags, plastic bottles, and overflowing trash cans. The only signs of life are the here and there new additions to the piles of gray-brown rubbish. As she walks with Xavi along the streets leading away from the city, she listens to the crunching of the gravel and trash underneath her.

“I heard that the rebels are passing out food to all that join. Would you do it?” Xavi says as he chews on a plastic straw.

“Hmm...I call bullshit." She points back to a starving hollowed-eyed boy down the street. "Does he look well-fed to you? Plus, they’re taking everyone. Why is a 12 year-old carrying a gun? That’s a mouth to feed the rebels can’t afford, and a gun the boy probably can't even hold up properly.”

“Well, they’re starving and we are in a war, so these kids are loyal, naive, and eat a lot less. That makes a lot more sense than adults who only know how to take care of themselves.”

“I guess.” She holds in her thoughts about how disgusted she is by this. It doesn't matter what I say. Xavi always seems to dismiss these things as "just the way it is."

"Are you sure this is the place, Xavi?”

They had made it through the trashed streets to the end of town and an abandoned house surrounded by a rusted metal gate. The front door is threatening to completely unhinge and dissolve into the rotted floorboards of the patio. Parts of the roof have collapsed in. All the windows have been haphazardly boarded up.

They slowly navigate the weak wood underneath them to enter the living room. She whispers into Xavi's shoulder. “When we walked in, I saw several footprints. They look fairly recent. Also, this place looks like it has already been combed through several times. I think we should be careful. We should probably just go.”

Xavi doesn't react to her words and moves into another room.Dammit, Xavi. You never listen to me.

“Xavi” she whispers, “What did I just say?”

She follows him into the next room and there Xavi stands next to a guy with a gun. The man smiles and holds the gun directly at her head.

“Oh you mother fucker. I knew you wouldn’t need my help for a simple job like this.”

“Like I said, adults are really the worst. But I do hope you live. I really do.” Xavi chooses to look at the man with the gun as he says this. 

“Come upstairs with the others.” The smiling man says.

“Xavi.”

“Really, I thought you'd be smarter than this. You're right, why would I need you to search an abandoned house? No one has time to go after petty robbers like us. And what’s the point in entering quietly? That’s what guns are for.”

Xavi stays downstairs as she and the man walk up.

“There’s nothing left to rob anymore anyway! All that’s left in this hellhole are broken bodies!” He yells up at her.

Another man waits upstairs for her and grabs her arm.

She looks behind the man holding her and sees women and children huddled into a corner of a dark room. Oh fuck.

"Hey, Smiley! Watch her! She's not stupid." Is the last thing she hears from Xavi before they shut the door behind her.