Waking Up in a Dead Town

The morning Lee woke up, he looked around to find himself within the ruins of a village.

He was still on top of the cart, lying within a heap of cloth and whatever was under and around him. Yawning and rubbing his eyes, Lee waved his arms around a little to get a grip of his surroundings, gripping the tarp that he was lying on to pull himself up into sitting.

He turned his eyes around to look over the mounds that he had been sat in and peered out over to see what was around him.

A lake dominated the view from in front of the cart, its blue mirror sheen reflecting the sunlight straight into Lee's eyes. He ducked down back under and hissed, pressing the palms of his hands to his eyes.

"Good morning," the God of Strength called out to him from Lee's side cheerfully, a giant smile beaming out from his face, the expression almost brighter than the sun. His hands were tying up the cart to a lone wooden post at the edge of the lake.

Lee ducked down again, focussing on the post and why it was so alone.

He traced down the line of the post, following it under the level of the water, and Lee saw the faint outlines of a larger wooden structure underneath the lake.

Lee grabbed the sides of the cart, pulling himself over the edges of it, letting himself to fall to the ground, into a crouch, as he came closer to see what was under the lake.

Peering down and reaching one hand under, using the other to pull his sleeves up from getting wet, Lee felt down and reached the soggy wood that he had seen from above. He brushed his fingers forwards and back over the seams and cracks of the underwater structure, before being satisfied enough to remove his hand and half his arm from the lake.

He sat up from the water and watched the God of Strength move around and pull off the tarp that Lee had slept on, revealing the most sand that Lee had ever seen in his life.

He watched the God pull out tens upon tens of bags as well with a shovel, laying out those bags open for him to dump the sand into them.

Looking up, he waved at Lee, before throwing over to him the belongings and steamed buns from the night before.

"Have some breakfast then explore, unless you're willing to help me with this," he called out jovially, motioning with his hands as if he were shooing Lee away regardless of his words.

Lee pulled out a single steamed bun and chewed on it, as he slung his belongings over his shoulder and began to wander around the broken down town.

The buildings nearest to the lake looked to be much more worse off than the buildings further away, with entire walls missing, the window frames completely rotted away, the damage always worse on the sides facing the lake.

Lee supposed that it would make sense for the decay to be facing the water, considering that they were the surfaces most receptible to flood water, but what didn't make much sense was the lower foundations of all the buildings.

The bottom panels of wood, which lined every and all the homes and offices of the town were almost completely immaculate, despite whatever damage may be visibly inflicted above them.

Lee walked over to the building closest to him, peering in through the hole, which he was once sure that was a window, missing its curtains and all covering mechanisms, just leaving a hollow absence of wood in its place.

Inside, there was barely nothing. There was the brief impression of where Lee supposed was where the countertop and cupboards were years ago, marked out by prongs of wood reaching out of the back wall and forming a rough frame of where he could envision where draws once were, and the marks and scrapes of where there were shelves.

The floor was a mess of slurry and mud, looking disgusting enough that Lee was fearful of even trying to remove the substance from his boots, if he was forced to step in, under extenuating circumstances.

The entire room that was looking into was oddly arranged as solely a kitchen, rather than an actual home with other features of furniture and really, anything else.

Walking around to the side, investigating more about the mysterious building, Lee discovered a large, empty patch of land, not visible from where he had been approaching from and standing prior.

There were deep, circular grooves arranged every now and again, marking out a rectangular space where different coloured grass grew inside the space than outside, noticeably lighter in colour and looking to be much younger and a more recent feature.

The ruining and collapse of whatever happened to be here then had to be somewhat recent, for the new seedlings to sprout here, rather than the native population of plants, Lee mused to himself, rubbing the blades of both species of grass between the fingers of his hands.

He supposed that the soil quality in the newer patch must be different from the other areas, to be unable to support the other plants, but perfect for more fledgling species who only seemed to grow in the inconvenient cracks were others couldn't.

Something had occupied this space, looking for all it was worth, like a building on stilts, rather than having any kind of firm foundation that involved laying down completely flat supports on the land, pushing down the entire rectangle of soil, compacting it firm, a feature completely absent from what was beneath Lee, the level and depth of the land remaining stable.

Lee looked away from the lake, looking towards where, if the building had been swept away, the smashed remains of the structure would be, only to find nothing.

The building would then have to be completely disseminated, or had to have been dismantled and taken away, considering that there was nothing there.

Lee looked back to the lake, and tried to map out where the flooding path of the lake would have travelled, only to see the top of a roof, not even an arms lengths away from the surface of the water, sunken within the depth of the blues and greys below.