It was only about an hour later when we stumbled upon my first ever city.
         Even before we reached the main attraction, signs of civilization were popping up like springtime daisies. For the past hour of travel, we had been steadily traversing through block after block of housing, what my brain told me was called suburbs. The houses came in ranges of shapes, sizes, and colors, and now that I was running for my life, I got to truly appreciate them. Some were run down and about ready to collapse while others looked brand new and almost shiny. There was so much life around them as well, life in the form of dogs barking, children playing with black and white balls, parents talking and laughing on their front porch, vehicles zooming by at breakneck speeds.
         The people made me nervous. Though they mostly paid us no heed after a curious courtesy glance, I couldn't help but feel as if there were eyes following my every move. From the tense way Riff held his shoulders, as if ready for a fight at any moment, I could tell he felt the same. When I had asked after we first encountered larger amounts of people why we couldn't try to skirt around the masses of population and avoid any unnecessary confrontation, Riff had replied with a flippant, "It is unnecessary." Though he hadn't further elaborated on that statement, I could guess that he meant we needed to restock.
         It wasn't until we passed the second store that I started to really question his judgement.
         "So..." I drew out, eyes glancing around nervously. "Why exactly did we come here again? I mean, we already have that stuff from the last house so it's not like we really need to restock. Except maybe on water since you can never have too much of that-." I knew I was rambling but I couldn't help it. The feeling of being watched was grating on my nerves.
         "I said, it is-."
         "Necessary," I interrupted him before he could finish, trying not to roll my eyes. "Yeah, I got that the first time you said it. Can you tell me why though?"
         He took a deep breath and blew air out in a exasperated sigh. "My friend Peter lives in Davis county, which is a couple hours away if we can catch the next bus. That's why we're here." He glanced back at me. "Does that satisfy your question?"
         "Um..." His friend Peter? He hadn't mentioned him before. So that was where we were heading? A petty part of me kind of felt irritated that he hadn't bothered telling me this before, but at the same time, I kind of understood why he hadn't. I probably wouldn't have trusted me if I was him either. "Who is this Peter guy, and why are we going to him?"
         "Peter is...an old friend of mine. We should be able to stop there for a while until we come up with a more permanent solution." I didn't like the way he had hesitated before saying friend, as if he had really wanted to say something else. But I guess there really were no better opinions, so I would just have to trust that Riff knew what he was doing.
         I had a sudden thought. " Hey, you said you were part of some organization, right? Why don't you try to contact them? They should be able to help us-."
         "They can't help."
         His reply was like quicksilver, with no hesitation, and for a second I was so shocked I couldn't speak. When I finally could form words again, I asked, "Why not? Don't you work for them? Surely there's something-."
         Again, he interrupted me before I finished speaking. "I told you, they can't help us, alright? So forget about it." As if he thought distance could prohibit me from asking further questions, he picked up his pace, leaving me almost jogging to keep up with his long strides. What was up with him? Why didn't he want to contact his work? There were so many questions swimming through my brain, but the visible tension in Riffs back and shoulders kept me from asking anything else.
         We once again fell into silence as we walked. The sun had set about an hour ago, and the stars had come out to wink down at us. Unfortunately, they were mostly obscured by the artificial lights that reflected off the clouds, giving the night sky a weirdly orange glow. I was still distracted by the sky when we crested the next hill, and almost missed the baffling sight before me. When I lowered my eyes and saw it, though, I actually stopped in my tracks from amazement.
          I had thought the town I saw before was huge, but that was like a childs toy compared to this sight. Huge buildings soared into the sky, higher than I could imagine going, so high that some even seemed to touch the clouds. Cars and people wondered in the streets, despite the dark sky. And the lights... The entire city was drowning in lights, lit up from the streets to the tips of the highest buildings, glowing with a halo made of artificial light. It was astonishing, beyond anything I had thought possible.
         I had to hurry to catch up with Riff as he continued down the hill towards the city streets. My eyes remain huge globes in my head as I try to soak everything up, trying not to miss even a single detail. As we got closer to the huge buildings (skyscrapers, I was told by before-me), the crowd of people walking got denser and denser, people walking behind and in front of me. I hurried my pace so that I could walk closer behind Riff, afraid of losing him as the crowds got a little denser. I had to stop myself from reaching out to grab his jacket. A child would do that, and I was not a child, no matter how unfamiliar I happened to be with places like this. I was quickly disoriented by all the ruckus and chaos around me. Luckily, Riff seemed to know where he was going and parted the crowds like waves as he moved through them. Grateful but unwilling to show it, I merely followed.
         We traveled through the city streets for another half hour. The large buildings started to grow smaller and smaller the further we went, until the largest buildings were once again only a couple stories high. The streets started emptying of people quickly after dark, and pretty soon, it was just Riff and I, with only a few people every now and then. The streets at night made me nervous, especially since they were practically deserted. Luckily, we didn't have to travel through for much longer before we arrived at our designation.
          The building before us wasn't all that impressive, especially compared to the behemoth buildings that we had been walking through before. It was a drab dark gray and white brick, with large windows lining the front and sides. The sign above the doors read "Greyhound" in large white block letters. Without pausing, Riff swung the doors wide open and strutted inside.
         The inside was a little more impressive, with seats in rows filling the middle and a large desk taking up the space near the wall. Yet again, the place was practically deserted, with only an older man snoring near the wall and a bored looking lady behind the desk.
         Riff and I approached the lady behind the desk. Her skin was a lovely shade of dark mahogany, and her long hair was braided with tiny braids and pulled up into a bun. She was wearing a simple vest with a name tag pinned to the front, on which read "Nia." She didn't look up from her phone as we approached.
         Riff opened his month to speak, but the lady, Nia, interrupted him before he said anything. "Bus ain't running now, folks. Come again at 6 tomorrow morning." Riff looked ready to argue, but, apparently sensing this, the women added with pointed emphasis, "Tomorrow at 6."
         Riff sighed and turned away, and I followed him as he slumped down into a chair that was a significant distance away from both people. I sat beside him, and a few moments passed in silence before I whispered, "What now?"
         Now..." Again, the air whooshed out of him in a sigh. "Now, I suppose we wait."
         For how many hours? The lastest I could guess the time to be was around 10 p.m. That meant we had around eight hours of waiting time. I didn't particularly like the idea of spending eight hours in the same place, especially not a public place where anyone could walk in at any second.
         As if reading my thoughts, Riff added, "But not here. I saw an abandoned warehouse a few miles back. We can sleep there and come back in the morning."

               *               *               *

         It took another thirty minutes of retracing our steps to finally find the warehouse that Riff had seen. By the time we finally picked our way inside and took apart a few cardboard boxes to use as bedding, I was practically a zombie on my feet, doing all that I could to just take one more step. Using another piece of cardboard as a blanket, I laid down. Not even two seconds later, I was adrift in sleep.