We waited there in silence for a long time. I didn't move from my position the slightest bit at all. I'd felt the tremors decrease in strength and eventually cease, but I wasn't taking any chances. I wasn't going to leave that building till at least tomorrow morning.
The injured man looked over to me and stared for a short time. Then he spoke.
"Hey... thanks for helping me back in the shop. I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't had come. Died, probably."
"No problem," I replied. "I was just looking for supplies and I saw you there. I couldn't just leave you there. That was a close one, eh?"
"Which time?"
"Both."
"Yeah," he laughed, then winced a little in pain. "Well, thanks, stranger."
"I'm..." I didn't answer for a little bit. "I'm Joe."
"Derrick."
"Well, nice to meet ya, Derrick," I said to him.
"The same to you, Joe."
When I finally felt like the coast was clear, I meandered over to Derrick to see if I could do anything to help him. I asked him, and he asked for some painkillers, which I had conveniently acquired yesterday.
He downed them without anything to drink, which I found a bit remarkable. I'd always struggled with taking pills, and when I finally learned how, I needed something to drink with them. He thanked me for them and we decided to settle down.
Derrick seemed like a good guy, but I wasn't taking any chances. As we weren't at base, we had nothing comfortable to sleep on. He layed across the room from me. I layed down, too, but I didn't go to sleep. Honestly, I wasn't that tired, as it was only about midnight, but I also didn't feel comfortable being asleep around him. I rested my gun up against the wall next to me and just sat there, looking up at the ceiling. I think the building had been weakened, but it should hold up fine.
While I sat, I thought a lot. About lots of different things, too. The giants, Derrick, my old life, music. I'm not sure how long I was up for, but after a while I let my eyes close. I rested a bit, still awake, but eventually sleep overtook me.
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I woke up, frightened and prepared for the worst. Luckily, Derrick was still asleep. That was good. I let my body recover from the sudden shock and watched him as he slept. He could have woken up many times in the night, but I don't know. If he had, he hadn't done anything. My gun was still in the same position, and everything was fine. I was starting to trust him a bit more. Even if he turned out to be a bad guy, he was still weakened from his injury and I'd have an advantage.
The morning light crepeed through cracks and holes in the building.I sat there for a while, pondering what I'd do in the future now that all my resources would have to be split in half if he was to stay with me. It'd be nice to have someone to work with, but it would be hard to adjust to considerably less of everything.
A sudden movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention. Derrick was rousing himself from his sleep. He sat up, looking very groggy.
"Morning," he said tiredly. Like me, he didn't seem like a morning person.
"Morning," I replied. "How'd you sleep?"
"To be honest, not too well. This isn't your place, is it?" He asked.
"No. I just had to get us somewher fast to get away from that giant. I don't live too far from here, so we could head out soon if you wanted."
Derrick layed down for a bit more. After a large sigh and some annoyance he sat up and started to get his stuff ready to move. He didn't have much, just a backpack with who knows what inside and some clothes he'd taken off last night. With his stuff ready, and a few minutes of preparation on my part, we set off towards my base.
We weren't too far, only about 15 minutes from home. The walk home was uneventful. We didn't encounter any giants or any other people. We didn't say much to each other, either. A light snow had started.
We eventually arrived at my base, the old video game store.
"It isn't much, but it's enough," I said to Derrick. He looked over the store and seemed content with it, but I wasn't sure.
We walked into my base and dropped our stuff off. Derrick explored the interior of the place scrupulously.
"Like it?" I asked.
"It's pretty nice. I haven't had a permanent home at all, so it's the best I've seen so far," he replied. Well, that confirmed it. He already thought he was staying here permanently, so it'd be that much harder to turn him away if I wanted to.
Derrick sat down again and sighed. I told him he could help himself to some food, so he did so.
"Just don't eat too much," I said, "we need to save it. There isn't a lot and it will be harder to keep now that there are two people."
He quickly ate an entire can of sardines but stopped himself after that. At least he knew when he shouldn't eat anymore. It's an important thing to know in times like these.
His face abruptly contorted into one of pain and he started to squirm a bit. It must've been his shoulder. I started scrounging around for some more painkillers. The ones from last night must've worn off. I couldn't find any, though. Did I misplace them? Or was I really out already?
"Do you have any painkillers on you?" I asked him.
He shook his head. And now I had a choice to make. Leave him here, alone, where he was vulnerable or could take all my stuff, or stay here and watch him suffer agonizing pain. I couldn't let the latter happen, so I was basically forced to go out, again, in search of medicine.
"Stay here," I told him. "Go into one of the back rooms. If someone comes by, they won't see you. And if you're in danger, do you know how to use a gun? Are you able to?"
He nodded that he could use one. After all, he'd been shot in his left shoulder, and he likely was a righty. I hesitantly left the base with my trusty gun ready.
The snow had accumulated about an inch already, and didn't show any signs of stopping anytime soon. I was getting tired of going out everyday into dangerous situations. I'd nearly died at least 3 times already in the past few days. Maybe once Derrick got better he could help me. Or maybe I could find more people and we could make a group. It sure would make things easier, but it wasn't exactly my style. I was a loner.
I had unconsciously gone to the left when I exited the base, so I was headed into dangerous territory. It was morning, so it was safer out, but it didn't mean that there weren't plenty of dangers about. The giants were more aggressive and common at night, but they would still be merciless during the day. I walked on through the snow, thankful for my beanie, bandana and heavy jacket for keeping me warm.
The decay and destruction increased as I went on. I can't remember, but I think that when I found Derrick, I'd turned right, so this time I went left.
My footprints were obvious in the snow, so I could easily be tracked or followed. I decided to pick up the pace and hurry up with my mission. By going left I was also moving further from the Toes, so the state of the buildings got better as I went on. Maybe this also meant that there would be more to scavenge.
The white snow started to come down a bit heavier, and I pulled my jacket a little tighter to myself. My eyes were constantly scanning, looking for places where I could find something. I was in a neighborhood of sorts, so finding a store would be a bit more difficult. Then a thought occurred to me: why did I have to go to a store? There was probably a bunch of stuff in these apartments, and most people would go to the stores, so it might even still be there.
I stopped my walk and looked around, examining the apartments. They were all packed together tightly. I mean, this was New York. At least I thought it was. Some were taller than others. If any of these had already been raided, it would have been those ones. I chose a brown complex that was somewhat shorter than all the others and entered it.
A staircase was immediately ahead and to my left, against a wall. On the right was a small hall that I assumed led to a public place like laundry or something. I wasn't sure. I headed up the stairs. Thinking as if I was a raider again, which I suppose I was, I assumed that the floors closer to ground level would be looted first. I headed up a few levels. I didn't want to go all the way to the top just yet, but I was prepared to if I had to.
On my way up I passed by some fairly strange sights. I saw numerous apartments with the doors boarded up. There was a lot of graffiti, both on the outside of the building and in the halls. I even thought I heard some sort of scratching and banging at one point. It spooked me out. Maybe I wasn't alone here.
I kept climbing the stairs until about the 15th floor. I was pretty confident that this area would have been relatively untouched.
There were doors on either side of the hall, but only 8 in all. I went to the first door on my right and surprisingly it opened up without any hassle on my part. Inside the place was a mess. Chairs were knocked over, as were tables and numerous other items like cups. A window on my right was broken. The floor was carpeted and was a tan color. Glass littered the floor and the place had a very pungent smell that I couldn't quite place my tongue on. It wasn't a good one, though.
I walked through the trashed place, looking for anything valuable. I wasn't sure how the place had gotten to be as it was. It was important to know, as well. If it'd been affected by shockwaves from the Toes, then there could be good stuff left. If the previous owners had fled the house in a hurry, maybe at the beginning, and taken their stuff with them, it was likely there wasn't anything left of use to me.
As I explored more, it seemed like it had been the former. I didn't find any bodies here, so the owners weren't dead, or at least hadn't died here. I went into the bathroom, as there might have been medicine there. The shower was in poor condition and the mirror was incredibly dirty, so dirty that I couldn't make out my reflection very well. I saw my overall shape, but couldn't determine any specific details from it. I grabbed the mirror to see if it would open and maybe reveal some medicine, but it wouldn't open up.
I left the bathroom and headed to the kitchen. It was an open one, so it connected with the living room and led into a hall that led to the bedroom. I found nothing in the kitchen, except a few cups that had survived whatever has happened here. I looked around a bit more and made my final venture into the bedroom before I was to leave and try another room.
There were paintings and pictures all along the hall. Many were either abstract or of something like a lake, but one at the end caught my attention. It was a woman in her mid 20s with a young boy sitting on her lap. A thin layer of dust covered the picture.The woman was smiling and had brown hair. Her blue eyes stared right at me. The boy was blonde and smiling even wider than his what I assumed to be his mom. He had spiky blonde hair and was holding a toy rocket ship. I felt really upset when I saw this. As much as I hated to admit it, they were both likely dead. The woman had likely been caring for her son, working hard to provide for him, and bam, the giant women come and destroy everything. They really ruined everything.
I trudged on to the bedroom in a bad mood. I looked through the closet and under the bed but as expected found nothing. Defeated, I slowly walked out of the room.
As I was about to leave the room, I saw a cup jiggle a bit and felt an all too familiar feeling, followed by the sound that strikes fear into the hearts of people. My heart skipped a beat and I got really scared, even though she likely wouldn't see me. The mini earthquakes' power and intensity increased as she came closer. I saw a huge tan leg pass by through the broken window. The picture of the mom and her son flashed through my mind. I raised my gun and aimed at the giant's leg. I was enraged. I almost shot it. My finger was on the trigger and it nearly pulled back. Luckily, my mind started to reason with me and I put the gun down. The woman and the kid were already dead, so shooting wouldn't do anything to help. The giant wouldn't even be hurt by it, but she'd know I was there and I'd be a dead man. I sighed loudly and walked out of the room.
I started to head down the stairs. I actually noticed the floor numbers this time. I had been on the 17th floor actually. I went down and so did the numbers. 17, 16, 15, 14, 12, 11. On the tenth floor I looked at one of the boarded up doors. This was the one where I was certain I'd heard banging from inside. I stopped my descent but I didn't want to check it out. Who knows what could be in the opposite side of the door? I wasn't about to find out. I kept going down the stairs till I reached the second floor. I heard something again. This time I went to investigate.
I heard it from the third door on the right. I was sure of it. It sounded like a clang, like something had hit the ground. I put my hand on the knob, and with my gun ready, began to turn.
The creak of a door filled the hall, but I hadn't turned the knob yet.
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
Check out stubbornstain's Deviantart! http://stubbornstain.deviantart.com He really seems to be enjoying my work so far. He has some great work on his page and even made a render based on chapter 3 of my story! Check it out here! http://stubbornstain.deviantart.com/art/Survving-With-The-Giants-Inspired-Image-600848876?q=gallery%3Astubbornstain&qo=0
Chapter End Notes:
Please leave feedback if you enjoyed. This wasn't a particularly good chapter in my opinion, but I'll try to add another one tonight or tomorrow.