Survival has costs (Closed)

"'Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in
the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.' - Arthur C Clarke


In the end, we were not alone.

I know that looking at the devastated Earth, you would think that the extraterrestrials came to subdue and rule, found the planet unruleable and decided to trash it and move on.

I know that looking how mankind has to scrabble, dig and scratch to survive the wasteland and the mutants, it will look that way.

The truth is far harder to swallow.

We started the war.

Us.

Mankind.

A stupid decision made by one man led to a bitter war, one which lasted for two days. Both sides went at each other with conventional, well if you look at the weapons the aliens brought to bare, they started off with pistols. Then one general or minister got the bright idea to launch a nuclear attack.

The energy released in retaliation was awesome, in fact it was so awesome it decimated the Earth, not a city, not a country, it decimated our planet. Survivors who saw it, said that it looked like the sky filled with a shimmering green light, a lot like the Northern Lights and a few moments later a wall of fire followed.

Buildings crumbled, rivers boiled away, glaciers evaporated and nature was thrown into turmoil. Those who survived in bunkers, caves, mineshafts, submercibles and other shielded environments had to contend with the radiation and nature in turmoil. Just as things seemed to become stable enough to take a breather, the mutants appeared. Man-sized insectoids and lizards, fish with tentacles, truck sized predators and all had a taste for human flesh. Human babies were born deformed or mutated and the population dwindled even further.

My name is Chris Hunter, I used to be a soldier, but now I am barely surviving. I need fresh water as my supply is almost done, so if you find and read this diary, you know what happened and who is responsible for it all."

Chris closed the battered book and tied it shut with the bit of twine he used for that purpose. He eyed the canteen and decided against taking a sip of water. He wasn't that thirsty yet. His shelter was just enough to keep the glaring sun out and so far he had been left in peace. How long that would last he did not know. He knew he had to get moving, but he was tired and his last run-in with a mutated bobcat was still fresh on his mind.

Thinking of the cat, he picked up a piece of jerkied meat and took a bite, soaking it with his saliva and swallowing the juice as he slowly chewed. He took stock of his weapons and the few possessions he had. Machete, three crude spears, a few arrows, a decent bow made from scrap iron and plastics, an empty carbine and a knife. The canteen, hide tent and beaten up pan was the only luxuries he had. He needed clothes and ammunition or weapons, he needed to move. But not while the sun was baking down, he needed to conserve water.

Donna ran. She ran and ran and ran, all night, barely taking the time to breathe and rest, hardly daring to ever look back. If it was still following her, she didn't want to know.

Ever since The Day the Sky Exploded (that was what Donna called it), Donna had either been hiding or running. Her entire family, everyone she knew - they were all in the city. The city was gone. Just... gone. She'd been away for the week with work in some god-forsaken podunk town in the middle of no-the-fuck-where. It was Friday - pay day - when it happened. Most of the townsfolk had gone into the city, too. Donna had tried to find her family.

Instead she found... things. Weird things. Lots of them were alive, and all of them wanted to eat her. So she ran. And ran and ran, until her legs couldn't carry her any further. Then she would find a hole and crawl into it. Silently, Donna berated herself for not grabbing any food from the city. Not that there was a ton left, but she'd seen a few apparently unopened cans lying hither and yon. Out here in the - was there even a such thing as wilderness any more? - there was no food.

Unless she managed to kill one of the things, before they killed her. But she had no weapon, never had been the strongest of girls, and had absolutely no desire to get close enough to any of them to find out if she could overpower them. Not even a little bit. Shit. She wasn't that damn hungry.

Yes, she was. Dammit.

Donna looked around half-heartedly for something she could use as a weapon if she needed to. A stick? A rock? No. Fuck.

The woman was tired. Dehydrated, hungry, in shock, and about a million other random diagnoses probably too. Did doctors still exist? Did hospitals? She couldn't think straight, couldn't remember how many days it had been since she'd eaten... since she'd had a drink of water. How many days since the sky had exploded?

The sun was starting to come up. It was time to find a hidey-hole. Donna turned around and shaded her eyes to peer into the horizon. Was the thing gone? It seemed to be. She tucked her long, dark hair behind her strong shoulder and tightened the elastic still semi-holding it together at the top of her messy braid.

She amused herself while she looked for a place to hide by trying to decide if the thing had started out as a bird or as a dog. Its wings had done it no good for flying, while its legs were shaped oddly but still useful for running. The long neck it used to jab at her was strong, but its huge body reminded her of a German Shepherd. Donna immediately decided that she was now a cat person.

Finding a decent covering which would be out of the sun and away from the eyes of predators - even the half-dog flying sort - the middle aged woman lay herself down. She knew it would be too hot in a few hours to bother covering herself, and the smooth rock to the right would work fine as a resting place for her head.

Her hips were always a problem - if she laid on her side her back was too curved for comfort because of her full hips. Donna had learned to sleep on her back since the sky exploded, supporting her head and neck by elevating it - otherwise, her sizable breasts would cut off her airway.

The day rose and she knew it was best to travel at night and sleep during the day. Taking a deep breath and praying to no-one that if she was going to be killed by a predator that she just not ever wake up, Donna fell asleep.

Chris woke from his nap, eyeing the sun, he decided that the worst heat of the day had gone. The empty cobalt sky above him with the sun to his left. The moon would be full and that meant that he could see. It also meant predators could see just as well. He gathered his belongings and strapped the make-shift carry frame to his back. Leaving his arms free to carry the bow and arrows. He needed a quiver, he needed better arrows, but most of all he needed a fresh water source. One not originating on the surface and not contaminated.

He gauged the distance to the next series of hills, adjusted the floppy rim hat and started off. The ground was still hot, the make-shift repairs to his boots allowing him to walk, but he knew he needed shoes. In fact, the bobcat really did a number on him and he realized that he had been fortunate and lucky to survive. His attention returned to the surrounding area, keeping a watchful eye out for humans and mutants. Not wanting to get caught out in the open.

Donna did wake up, but she wasn't sure if she was thankful for that or not. The world had ended. There was no food, no water - only things which are trying to kill you.

The sun had gone down and it was beginning to cool once again. The hole she'd found had provided her with cover and kept her from being burnt to a crisp while she slept through the day. But now the critters were out again; it was much more dangerous at night, but after the sky had exploded it was unbearable to travel during the day time.

Donna heard something. It sounded...

Surely it wasn't water. Water was extinct. But it sounded close...

Donna tried to shake some sense into herself, tried to wake herself up from not only sleep but from the nightmare that was now her reality. Where, exactly, was she? Only now did the woman realize that this wasn't just a hole but that it went deeper into the ground. She crawled a little further to realize that it opened up almost tall enough to stand in.

Curious, and with not much else to do in a world that had ended, the brunette crept further into the cave until the floor started moving. Cave floors didn't move before the sky exploded - Donna was fairly certain of that. She moved closer to investigate, and her foot started leaking.

Feet didn't leak before the sky exploded, either. What exactly would a foot leak, anyway? Donna picked up her foot to inspect it, but it was just water. Water isn't harmful when it leaks from your foot. Is it? Donna put her foot back down and it splashed this time.

Surprised, the dehydrated and quickly fading woman looked down. Her foot had leaked a puddle... or it was bigger than that... it was a pond... no... it was a whole lake! How did her foot manage to leak a whole lake without her knowing?

Suddenly, Donna had a realization - her foot hadn't leaked this lake! It was already there! This was water!! Donna dropped to her knees and stuck her face directly into it and slurped. Maybe she should have sniffed it or tested it or something first. But this is the same woman who a few moments ago was convinced that her foot was leaking water, so who could blame her for not being so careful as to test the water first?

Besides, it was cool, and wonderful, and clean, and it tasted soooo good. If it killed her, it would be worth it. It was definitely a better way to go than being mauled by a flying bird-dog. And so the fragile woman slurped and drank as much as she could stand.

Finally, Donna sat. She sat in the water, not doing anything - just sitting.

And there was a noise. She wasn't sure, but she hadn't moved, so she just kept sitting, and listened.

There it was again. It was far away, but magnified by the tunnel she'd just come through - the sound traveling through the very place she'd found to be safe through the day while she slept. She'd regained a little bit of sense - enough to realize that there was something outside. It was of a decent size, and it may have found her hidey hole.

Donna was scared to move. If she moved, the water would move. If the water moved, whatever was near the tunnel's entrance might hear it and come looking for water. And if it came looking for water, it would find her. And probably eat her. Because now that the sky had exploded, that's what things that were still alive did. They tried to eat you.

Chris neared the rocks, saw no obvious threats and started climbing, scanning for places that would take out of the sun and be defensible. The fact that a few hollows looked promising, made him feel good about his chances. He saw a particularly good overhang and walked closer to inspect it. It had an opening which led deeper into the rock formation.

He dropped his gear in the growing shade and started scouting around while he still had light, he didn't find any trails or mutant tracks. He entered the opening and studied the sand gathered in the lee of the rocks. He frowned, drew his lighter and flicked it on. The flame sputtered and he had to twist his hand to see the ground.

Human tracks. Looked like the person had crawled.

He flipped the Zippo shut, conserving the wick and fuel was very important until he could make something to use as firelighter. He sat on his haunches and listened, nothing stirred but the evening breeze picking up. He retreated his steps, picked up his pack and moved to a hollow he had noticed previously.

Setting up the tent was quick, building a small fire and setting a piece of meat to roast on a stake was child's play. The almost empty canteen? That was a problem. He needed water. Strangely enough he had food, the cat had provided well for him. He absently rubbed over the healing scabs. It did take the last of his medical supplies to patch himself up and survive the infection, but at least he was alive. He sniffed, the smell of broiling meat wafted into the air, he picked a secluded spot from where he could see his small camp and sat ready with his bow and arrows.

He would shoot any animal which crept up and if any human were around, the smell of food in this wasteland would draw them to his small fire.

She'd seen the light flicker for just a moment and then douse itself. She'd heard movement in the tunnel, but then it stopped. After a few moments, Donna climbed out of the water and over to the mouth of the tunnel by which she had entered and listened. She heard nothing. Still, she sat and listened.

Then she smelled food.

It had to have been a person that had entered the tunnel briefly and then decided against it. Natural light doesn't douse itself that way. The smell of meat couldn't be mistaken, and it couldn't be far if it was wafting its way down the tunnel.

Slowly, painfully, but full of hope, the thin brunette made her way through the tunnel and out into the fading light that she was used to traveling under. Tonight, though, she would not travel. Having found water and what appeared to be an excellent hidey-hole, she wasn't sure if or when she would leave this place at all. Not that she'd thought about it. Right now, all she could think of was the possibility of food.

She crawled a bit, and sat a bit. She slithered on her tummy for a bit. Then, by the time she could see smoke, she knew that even if she tried to stand that her legs would not hold her. Having found water, Donna was still dehydrated, practically starved, and exhausted almost to the point of succumbing to a coma state. Hope was so close she could literally see the evidence of human life and of sustenance.

Yet, fear allowed her only to peek around the corner of the rock to see first what it was she would indeed find around that corner. Just because it was the smell of meat didn't mean there wasn't danger. In times like this, a person may well kill another person for food, and Donna was definitely in a prey-state. Breathing heavily, she poked only less than half of her face out from the corner of the rock.

Indeed, it was a man, and a fire, and meat. Dare she?

He watched the woman as she emerged from the rocks, totally disheveled and clearly malnourished and dehydrated. Silently he drew the arrow, his eyes scanning for any other people that could be with her. There wasn't any other movement or sound from the shadows and he stayed as still as possible as she approached the fire and then a stone rattled off to his right.

He turned his head and looked in astonishment at the beast which emerged into the light. It looked like some creature out of a nightmare, a cross between a bird and a dog. He had not seen such a creature yet and had no idea where to shoot. The creature looked at the woman with intelligent eyes and he could see that the woman was the intended target. So that was not a companion.

He fired his first arrow, quickly drew the second and fired again, with the first sound of the string releasing, the creature looked in his direction, the arrow struck it in the neck and as it reared up in anger and shock, the second arrow struck it in the chest. A strange sound came from the creature and Chris drew a third arrow as it got ready to charge, but then a gout of blood exited from it's nose and mouth and it crashed to the ground.

Chris rose from his concealed spot and approached the creature, he scanned around, looking for more of it's kind. He stopped just out of reach, bow at the ready, but the beast was dead.