Desolation

[Lovelickin]

When the end came it had been fast, radio and tv reports spoke of a growing darkness and getting prepared, Newspapers were not fast enough to react and still spoke of celebrity diets and entertainment. Then it all went silent.

the people huddled in the dark,waiting the darkness, but the government had other ideas. They dropped bombs, hoping to clear the way and preserve their populations - while sacrificing some. It failed.

the land ended up only partly inhabitable, large areas of radioactive scrubland were created and who knows what survived. People began to starve, to fight and to kill for the most basic things. Food, water, shelter. Society was ended

Dean Miller scrabbled in the ruins of a house, searching for anything useful, his hand hit a can, now the question was - full or empty?

He was 38,6ft tall and slim - a driver before the dark came, dressed in army surplus kit he looted with a large pack, a hand axe and a crowbar, he searched for food and avoided the 'others'

 

[ella_v]

Kathleen Ferreira had been hiding in her apartment building for the last few weeks. The city had been hit badly, once the resistance had been overrun by the darkness. Humanity, like it had been known, was gone, the basic laws of survival and the fittest were now in place. Everyone just tired to survive and to find a way out of the living hell. Normally Kathleen, a 20 year old brown haired girl, would have been an easy victim for the monsters that ruled the streets. However, she had been sick at home alone, when hell broke loose. So, she had been lucky and had avoided the certain death that would have gotten her in case she would have been working in the fitness center as usual. But Kathleen knew that she would have to leave the safety of her home, in case she did not want to starve to death, she just had no idea how she would be able to survive alone.

 

[Lovelickin]

Dean lifted the can and his face dropped as dust poured from it, opened and discarded like so much in this place. A lot of the buildings had fallen, but some stood tall and intact. Usually best avoided as lairs to gangs or the 'others' he avoided them often. Today was not going to be that simple. He had only two cans of food left, so it was either go inside that apartment block - or catch rats.

He walked closer,checking for barricades, none - not a gang den then. Carefully he took out the wind up torch and stepped into the gloomy entrance lobby, crowbar held ready to strike.....

 

[ella_v]

Dean’s shoes made squeaking sounds on the dirty green linoleum floor. There were dark stains on the floor and walls, which only hinted what gruesome events must have taken place here. But now everything was quiet and nothing could be heard besides Dean’s steps and his breathing. A pair of red, glowing eyes was slowly following the intruder with interest from the bottom of the stairway leading to the basement.

In the meantime Kathleen was pacing through her apartment and tried to come up with a plan. “The most important will be to get fresh water and some food. I might try the supermarket around the corner, but that is too dangerous.” Her boyfriend had gone there two weeks ago and had never returned to her. Sadness and helplessness spread through Kathleen’s body. She tried to focus on the situation and wiped away the tears in her brown eyes.

Suddenly it came to her and some hope started to spread though her. “The gym, it has a storage room full of bottled water and lots of boxes of power bars and energy drinks. That stuff will not be really tasty, but it contains everything that I need to survive.” She ran into her bedroom and changed into her sport outfit and got her jogging shoes, since the thought it would be better to be able to run away in case she met any unpleasant creatures. Then she grabbed her backpack and stuffed everything that looked remotely useful to her. Finally she got her keys to the gym and a big kitchen knife and slowly moved to the door. With her heart racing Kathleen slowly turned the key in the door and slowly opened it.

 

[Lovelickin]

the eyes watched as he moved through the lobby, Dean felt them there and tensed. He slowly moved through to a choke point, a locked gym door to one side and an old revolving door behind, he tested the mechanism - still moved. He turned to face the dark passage waiting for the eyes to make their move....

 

[ella_v]

The red eyes blinked in excitement and followed the victim into the dark passage. Slowly it started to climb the stars to keep the human in his eyesight and became visible to Dean. The dog had once been a nice, proud animal, but the darkness had pulled it into its control and had turned it into a zombie like creature. A soft growl exited it’s dirty blood covered mouth as it inched forward toward Dean. Then it suddenly charged into his attack…

 

[Lovelickin]

the dog looked dirty, probably infected along time. He tensed and waited for it to hit full speed, crouching ready to meet the impact. He let his left hand hold the revolving door and as the beast jumped he dived - pulling the door round.

the dog hit the panel behind him and its momentum threw the door round. He held the door closed as the dog was trapped on the other side. Smiling he used a broken pipe to wedge the door closed "missed" he smiled and turned back to his search

 

[ella_v]

With a loud crashing sound the beast smashed into some rubble that was lying in the dark hallway. It took the dog only a few seconds to get back onto it’s legs and rush toward the door, which was already shut. It started to bark and push against the door in blind rage and hunger. The sounds carried trough the house and Dean knew that every creature in the building would be alarmed by now.

 

[Lovelickin]

quickly he searched the corridor, finding nothing but rubble. The Gym door or the stairs were his last options. Knowing going up into the building would trap him he pulled a crowbar and went to work on the gym door.

It took two good efforts to force the door and he pushed in quietly, wedging the door behind him

 

[ella_v]

The gym was dark and quiet room, which covered nearly all of the floor. There were a few smaller rooms at the far end and an office area close to the entrance. Dean also noticed that there was a sign pointing into the direction of a staircase that connected the main area with the upper level, where the course rooms were located, and a lower level with the locker rooms.

In the meantime Kathleen moved through her apartment building with her heart racing and her hand gripping the knife hard. It was quiet and she felt like her heartbeat could be heard for two blocks without any problems. She reached the stairs without any problems and started to decent to the ground level.

 

[Lovelickin]

he headed into the office area, water, energy drinks and snacks were the staple of gym users, there could be some left here and the office would seem a sensible storage place. Also keys to vending machines would be there...

 

[ella_v]

Dean found a few bottles of water and a half empty box of nutrition bars at the reception, where the stuff had been sold to the clients. The door to the office area was locked and there was no sign of any key. The dog was still barking in the hallway, but he had stopped to jump against the door. Obviously he was working on a new strategy to get his teeth into his victim.

 

[Lovelickin]

he stuffed the supplies into his bag and began to move toward the stairs. Keeping as quiet as possible in the hope that there were no other predators in the building and that if there were they would go for the noisy dog.

carefully he moved up the staircase

 

[ella_v]

While Dean made his way into the upper level of the gym, where only a few wending machines were placed on the hallway to the course rooms, Kathleen had reached the front door of her building. She did not have a car and since her boyfriend had not retuned with it. So the had only the option to walk over to the gym, which was about a 10 minutes away at a normal pace. The streets were covered with junk, but no living being could be seen anywhere. Carefully, Kathleen started to walk quietly along the road, hoping that she might stay undetected.

 

[Lovelickin]

he reached the room, all the equipment was scattered and broken, vending machines opened and broken. He searched briefly, picking up a weight bar,it felt good and solid, making a good weapon.

carefully he picked his way down and headed to leave the building - it was safer outside and besides the dog may have attracted company

 

[ella_v]

Outside the building a car pulled up and five guy got out. They had seen the car and heard the dog barking like mad inside the house. “Someone or something must be in there. Check it out guys, and if you find a girl, she is mine at first!” The men had weapons and slowly spread out to take a closer look at the building while the boss stayed behind and covered them from the car. He was hoping that they might find something good inside the building, they had been searching the whole day in this neighbourhood and had found nothing but trouble so far.

 

[Lovelickin]

he paused, a vehicle! Shit! Slowly he inched to the revolving door, loosening the bar so that the dog could get out if it really tried, then he lifted his black hood and moved into the deep shadows, waiting to see what happened.

as the first of the men entered the lobby, the dog exploded into action, ramming itself at the doors and bursting through. It charged the first man, biting him hard and ripping left and right. The mans friends set about it with long bars and knives, killing it - the victim wimpered and pleaded then - knowing he was dead from the poison in the bite. His friends didn't let him suffer.....

 

[ella_v]

“Fuck, what is going on in there?” A third guy entered the lobby and looked in frustration at the dead teammate and the dog. “Fucking mutant puppy, this world had really become living hell.” He kicked the dead dog trough the room against the far wall. “Let’s search this place, but be careful! More of these things might be around here.” One of the guys started to work on the door to the gym, when suddenly some whistled outside the building. “Get out here guys, Jim spotted a girl two blocks down from here.”

 

[Lovelickin]

He paused in the dark, not enjoying the implication of the men. Slowly he lowered the blade into his left hand and gripped the bar in his right. He waited for them to move before sliding silently to the man exiting the gym, slipping the blade between his ribs and into his heart from behind. A small squeak of air was the only sound to mark the passing....

 

[ella_v]

The guys were so excited about their possible prey, they had not noticed anything about loosing another men. There were just three guys and the lookout, who had spotted Kathleen, left. Suddenly the leader noticed that he was missing someone. “Hey, where is Ryan, is he gay or why doesn’t he care about catching some sweet pussy?” He motioned to his fellow men to hide so that they could surprise the approaching Kathleen. The young girl had not noticed anything, she was too scared and glanced numerous times over her shoulder, that she did not see the danger that was in front of her.

 

[Lovelickin]

he watched, assessing the men, knowing that each had a blade and a club, easy to take without harming her,unless they got hands on her. He watched them go to ground and moved silently to get the optimum position to strike the first man and move to the second....

 

[ella_v]

It was easy to see that the four men knew very well how to trap someone. The spread out, so that all exits could be covered once Kathleen had moved into their net. Dean would have had problems spotting them if he had not seen them hiding in the first place. Then he saw the young woman turning around the corner and looking down the street.

Kathleen was happy to see that there seemed to be no strange monsters between her and the gym. She smiled when she even saw a car standing in front of the building, with a bit of luck, she might get a ride out of the city after she had gotten the provision. She quickened her pace and walked right into the tap that was waiting for her.

 

[Lovelickin]

he had to wait,she was a sitting duck and if he moved too fast he would be too, he needed the trap sprung before he could spring his own. He shifted the weight of the knife in his hand ready to throw it as they confronted her...

 

[ella_v]

One of the guys quietly moved out of his hiding spot once Kathleen had past him. He sneaked behind her and then grabbed her with a swift motion. While one arm went around her lower body, the other was placed on the young girl’s mouth to stop her from screaming. Then the other guys came out of cover. “Well, well, well, look what we have her. Are you sure guys that she is not a mutant? Maybe we should take a closer look, what do you think guys?” The leader was having nasty smile on his face while he checked out his catch.

 

[Lovelickin]

he glided up behind them,staying low to avoid the eyes of the man holding her. Then he rose, and threw the knife into the middle of the right hand mans back,he twisted, trying to reach the knife as the attack came in. Dean hit the leader in the face with the bar and spun to hit the other mans legs. He stood on the leaders chest as the man moaned through broken teeth and stared at the fourth thug