Kim’s Earth: Skye: Stealing Shoes

[k_a_webb]

It had been a long journey. The number of pairs of shoes Skye’d had to steal proved that and she found herself searching for another pair as they stopped on the outskirts of the city. Stealing, no matter how often she was forced to do it, never got any easier, but they had no other options. No shops had opened since before it had become obvious exactly how badly affected everything had been after the injection. Quietly she made her way through the shop, hoping that no one else was around, searching for a size five pair of boots that would hopefully last her longer than two weeks, even though she had no idea what was going to happen next.

On the day, it had been so long ago, Skye’d agreed to join the only person she knew on a journey to find out if his family had survived the injection she’d done it because she had no idea what else to do. Her family hadn’t, neither had any of her friends, and she didn’t have any idea why she had. With a bag on her back she had left behind everything she knew, in an attempt to find something. She didn’t care what as long as it got her away from the reminders of all she’d lost. In the end she’d walked into a boy she’d gone to primary school with for a couple of years before they went to different secondaries and Ethan had asked her to go with him. Seeing the pain in his eyes, that she knew would be reflected in hers, was the reason she’d agreed to go with him.

While Skye searched for the boots Ethan was off looking for some more food. Normally they didn’t split up, because children could be just as dangerous as adults when they formed groups, but they had no choice if she wanted to have feet she could use. A lot of shoe shops were useless, fashionable boots were no good for walking at all, so she ended up in another of camping store searching for what she needed, and they were one of the shops that were rarely pillaged by the children. Like she did most times she ended up searching for boots she picked up some of the other necessities. Socks were always useful, batteries, any camping gas she could find, thermal underwear, and blankets. It didn’t take long for her to fill another backpack with stuff, which would probably all end up being used as quickly as the boots, although that often happened due to his generosity.

Finally Skye found the boots she needed, shoved her feet into them, and hoped they wouldn’t rub the same way all the others had done. That was the problem with having small ankles. As they’d agreed to meet in the camping store all she could do was wait, in the darkest corner she could find, until Ethan turned up, which was the major problem she had with them splitting up. Biting hard on her lip she took one of her penknives out of her pocket as she hoped that there were no gangs around. She knew, from experience, she couldn’t take on one alone.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.