A very loud screeching noise was then heard right from above us just as we were starting to head to the nearest chain link fence that separates the street from the highway. Without thinking, I ran as fast as my lungs could take me.
"Leave them! Just leave the guns!" shouted Jonathan to Ryan as I was running.
Once in a while I peeked towards my back to see if both Jonathan and Ryan were still close to me too. When we were running further away from the destroyed and burning truck, it did not feel like we were getting away from it since the loud noise did not seem to wear off at all.
I also looked up a few times as I heard a faint beeping sound from above us as we were trying to approach the fence. When I looked straight again, the fence was already within my reach.
I immediately jumped and reached about a half of the fence, and it took me a few climbs to get to the fence top. As I finally reached the top, I jumped away from the fence, and therefore I was already inside the street. It did not take too long for Jonathan to do the same, but Ryan definitely took the most time entering the street.
If I had to guess, the chain link fence was about 10 foot tall, and there was absolutely no rust smell on the chain, at least not on the spots where I climbed. It led me assuming that since the fence must be taller than the average ones, and that there was no rust, the three of us just entered a considerably elite street.
As Ryan finally entered the street like the both of us did, we continued to head to the fire department. I realized that we were all actually already that much nearer from our destination once I saw a fire department road sign just across the fence that we just climbed from.
"Well, if that is not our destination?" I said to both Jonathan and Ryan while pointing to the road sign.
"Good… it should be just a few blocks up ahead." replied Jonathan.
I could sense that we were all at least a bit relieved to know the short distance we still had to take, and unlike before, where we had to run away, this time we walked our way towards our destination.
Fortunately for us, a few street lamps were still functioning and blinking even though most of them were no longer standing or on their right place anymore, so it was not a total pitch dark on the road for us. Strangely enough however, I also noticed that the previous loud screeching noise from above us was no longer heard. Not even a faint sound of it was.
As we walked, I also looked around to see if there were any survivors, but to no avail. The condition of the street was perhaps what the inferno we experienced earlier would look like once all of the fiery flames went out. Most of the houses and other buildings there had also been destroyed – some had large holes on the walls, some others had the middle part like torn apart, and the rest either lost a floor or two, or just reduced to piles of bricks.
"I hope the fire department is at least not destroyed completely just yet…" said Ryan as he walked beside Jonathan in a worn out tone.
"Have you seen it yet, Travis?" asked Jonathan to me.
I was about to say that I had not seen any signs of the fire department, until I had a faint sight of what looked like a red brick building from quite a distance ahead of me.
"If that red building ahead is not the fire department, then I do not know what is." I replied.
We picked up our pace, but still walking since all of us were obviously drained from the continuous events that fell upon us. Instead of destroyed buildings and houses, burning trees were the only things seen on the side of the road as we approached the fire department.
We finally arrived at the main entrance of the fire department, and another problem came before us – the entrance door was locked. Breaking the door window to unlock it from inside was not an option since it did not have one in the first place.
"Should we check the back door?" Ryan asked.
"No, no need." Jonathan replied.
He then told us to take few steps back, and then he also stepped back a bit before kicking the window besides the door. It took him 5 kicks before the window finally broke with considerably fine shards. He also rid most of the shards before finally entering the building and letting us know that it was clear inside before allowing us to enter.
From what I saw, the fire department only had one floor. Right next to the main entrance on its right side was a large garage that seemed to station the fire engines inside. The windows, as well as the one that Jonathan broke were on the left side of the main entrance. I assumed that the building was around 11 to 12 foot in height.
I let Ryan entered the building first, by giving him a boost jump by using my hands, and followed him after that. As he was entering the building, I noticed several cracks on few other windows. All of the cracks were only mild ones, so I assumed that during an earlier panic when other survivors were desperate for any refuging places, they had some attempts on breaking into the building.
Since breaking the solid door was definitely not an option, they tried to break the windows, and failed. It was some kind of a revelation to me on realizing how strong Jonathan is since it only took him 5 kicks to break a reinforced window glass.
When I entered the building, Ryan was holding a small flashlight on his left hand, and Jonathan was checking the lockers one by one. As it turned out, we just entered the locker room of the fire department.
"Any luck?" asked Ryan as he lighted each locker that Jonathan checked.
"No. Probably not even a single strand of hair." replied Jonathan with a disappointed tone.
Apparently, they decided to look for whatever supplies they could find while we were in the locker room. I also decided to look around, and found a fire ax still in good condition kept inside a red box lying on a chair just behind the lockers that both of them were still checking out.
"Yeah… I also saw it right after I got in here. Let us just leave it there for now." said Jonathan, who seemed to know what I was going to say or ask.
I also looked at other sides of the locker room, and also did not find any useful supplies. However, not long after that, Jonathan found few things useful – a folding knife, and a pair of small gauze pads.
"Heheh… better than nothing, right?" said Ryan with a little relieved tone.
"Not bad…" replied Jonathan while he handed the things to Ryan.
As Ryan put the things inside his small medical kit pouch, Jonathan picked up the fire axe red box before throwing it down, and taking the ax with him and we continued to search for supplies inside the building.
At first, we exited the locker room and found ourselves on a corridor. We headed straight to the door ahead of us which led us to the main lobby of the fire department, and found nothing there except for a few waiting chairs and desks standing still. Then, we decided to search for the kitchen.
The next thing we did was to get back to the previous corridor and checked each of the doors that we had not opened yet. There were a total of 6 doors, including the ones leading to the locker room and the main lobby.
I opened the door on my left side, to see that it was just the restroom. Jonathan said the door that he opened seemed like a training or conference room. Ryan was the one found the dining room, and with that, the kitchen. It turned out that the door to the dining room was actually just next to the left side of the locker room door.
The first thing that we searched for when we entered the kitchen was food supplies. There were only a pack with small portions of bread loafs left found near the stove of the kitchen, but fortunately there was a water dispenser standing next to it, with about a quarter part of it still filled with water and a couple of empty small water bottles on top of the water gallon.
Nevertheless, it was a huge relief for us as we took turns on drinking and shared similar portions of the bread. It was also the time when I suddenly felt as if I had not been sleeping for days as my fatigue immediately kicked in. Ryan headed towards a nearby long chair and laid down there after I asked him to lend me his flashlight. I pointed it towards my watch, which showed the time was already 4.15 a.m.
I intended to give the flashlight back to Ryan, but it seemed like he already dozed off, so I decided to keep it with me for the time being, and sat down on the dining chair across Jonathan, who also just sat down to relief himself from his fatigues. At last, we finally managed to give us a time to rest.