The youngest one, named Carlos, fell to his small knees beside a garbage dump in a narrow alley.
The two children had chosen this filthy corner as their shelter for the night, hiding from zombies, monsters, and the cruelty of other humans.
The air was thick with the stench of rotting food, rusted metal, and damp earth, a foul mixture that burned their noses and twisted their empty stomachs.
Hearing his little brother’s weak voice aching for food, the older boy named Lucas, barely nine years old, lifted his eyes to the gray, cloud-filled sky.
His stare carried more weight than a child should bear, filled with confusion, longing, and a quiet despair he could not put into words.
He was just a little boy, yet the world had stripped away his innocence from the very moment he was born.
Lucas was born four years after the apocalypse began, and he had never seen the bright colors of a normal world.
He had no memory of laughter filling homes, no taste of a meal that could leave one satisfied, like in the stories he once heard from an old grandpa.
His little stomach had never felt full, not even for a single day.
Lucas had grown up watching their little mother try her best to feed them, little him watching her constantly pleasing big men day and night just to get scraps of food in the base.
Lucas understood that although the three of them were always hungry and thirsty, at least they could still be together.
Yet, who would have thought that one day, last year, their little mother would be taken by bad people?
Little mother hugged them for the last time, saying she would get them food, but she never came back after entering a room full of bad guys.
Since then, the older one, Lucas, had used his small brain to escape from those who caught them, the bad men who hurt their little mother.
He and his little brother had escaped successfully, but he knew they weren’t far enough.
Those bad guys were still likely hunting them. Fresh chapters posted on novel{f}ire.net
Now, the younger brother Carlos was hungry, his small body trembling from weakness.
As the big brother, Lucas must do something.
No matter how hard it was, he never dared to give up, never dared to leave his younger brother behind.
Lucas was about to get up and search for scraps, maybe wild vegetables or spoiled food left in the ruins, when his own stomach began to protest as well.
He wondered if there was any food left to be found.
Even though it had been twelve years since the apocalypse ended the world, the chances of finding food were nearly zero.
Still, he had once been a little errand boy for the bad guys, and he believed that what he had learned back then could be used now.
"Big brother will get you food, but you have to stay hidden here, okay?"
Little Carlos, just five years old, was three years younger than him.
But he wasn’t a spoiled or troublesome child.
He was a sensible kid, which made Lucas pity him even more.
That was why he never thought of leaving him to the bad guys and escaping alone.
Lucas stood up reluctantly, his heart heavy with worries.
He rarely left his younger brother for fear that something might happen.
What if the bad people found them again?
But he had no choice. If he didn’t find food soon, his younger brother would become too weak to walk. He couldn’t let his younger brother die.
"Brother, don’t... don’t leave me!" Little Carlos cried, clutching his big brother’s trousers.
His small fingers dug into the fabric, trembling as if afraid that even the hug might not be enough to hold Lucas back.
"I won’t. I’m just going to find us food, or maybe some wild vegetables."
"I will come with you, I can...I can walk," Little Carlos said, trembling but determined.
His brown eyes were wide, glistening with solid fear.
His little mother was gone, and the bad guys were cruel, always beating him.
All he had left was Lucas. Even if he was starving, he would never complain, as long as his big brother stayed by his side.
Finding even a little food or wild vegetables unaffected by the virus was not easy.
Their small hands dug through damp trash, old cardboard, and broken glass, each scrape stinging their skin.
Buried in a grocery store’s garbage dump, they found a distorted but sealed meat can.
It had expired three years ago, but that didn’t matter.
Their little stomachs growled in relief.
"I got us food, Carlos!"
"Food! Brother, food! We have food! Yehey!" Little Carlos jumped up and down, his joy drowning out the sharp stench around them.
Then his beautiful brown eyes sparkled as he opened his palms. "Brother, look! I found two shiny things!"
"Shiny things?" Lucas leaned closer to see what his brother had picked up.
"Where did you get these?"
In his little hands lay two bright-colored cards, the kind people in safe bases under powerful leaders often carried.
Lucas and Little Carlos couldn’t read the letters written on them.
"It’s not food. Throw it away."
"No..." Little Carlos quickly hid the two cards inside his dirty clothes.
For the first time, had something shiny to call his own.
He would not throw them away, even if his older brother got angry.
Seeing his younger brother’s defiance, Lucas sighed and let it go.
Let him keep the little toys for now.
Sooner or later, Little Carlos would lose interest.
"Let’s find somewhere to hide and eat. Aren’t you hungry?"
As they searched for a place to eat, a mutant monster slithered out from the shadows.
Its skin was slick with virus-induced growths, and its grotesque jaw opened and closed with a sickening click.
Thick saliva dripped from its mouth, pooling on the ground with each step.
Fear surged through Lucas’s chest.
He sucked in a sharp breath as his stomach twisted painfully, his legs nearly giving out on the spot.
It wasn’t the first time he had seen a mutant monster, but facing one alone, without an adult to fight it off, was terrifying.
"Bro... brother... monster... monster!"
"Shhh... don’t look back... just run!" Lucas grabbed his younger brother’s shaking hand, pulling him forward as they sprinted together.
"Ah... my shiny things... brother, they fell!" Little Carlos suddenly let go, turning back to snatch one of the pink cards that had slipped from his clothes.
Lucas felt the cold absence of his younger brother’s grip.
"Carlos! What are you doing?" He screamed, panic clawing at his throat.