Apocalypse (The Wasteland Chronicles, #1) (8 page)

I came across ruins often. But I had yet to
come across any city, lived-in or not.

On the third day, I arrived at a deep gully
spanned by a collapsed bridge. I almost fell to my death while
picking my path across the bridge’s ruins.

The Mojave Desert, even in the Old World, had
been a dry, harsh place – scant of vegetation and hostile to life.
Now, it was even more so. I did not see a single living thing other
than the odd bush or barest wisps of grass. Red dunes slanted
against the skeleton remains of civilization.

The mountains to the south were almost out of
sight now. They had once been my home.

There were mountains everywhere in the
distance - to the south, to the east, to the west. Some areas I
walked were flat and bare - others were hilly and mangled. I had no
idea where I was going, so I followed the path of least resistance,
which often meant following the old roads. In places, the asphalt
and concrete still showed.

It was startling how much could be buried and
lost in thirty years.

Often, when I camped for the night in a
building, I saw a black spot on the floor from previous campfires.
I tried to find another place in those cases.

It was a week after I had set out when I came
across my first Wastelanders. I was camping in a small hole on the
side of a bare, rocky hill, when I heard the laughter. At first, I
thought it was my imagination and loneliness. Curiosity made me
follow the sound.

As the voices grew louder, I noticed the
smell of smoke borne by the wind. Mingled within was a savory aroma
that made my stomach growl.

I climbed up the top of a rise, and lay low.
Below, in a small depression, six people surrounded a low fire. A
giant pot simmered over the flames. My heart raced.

There were five men and one woman, all
dressed in dingy military apparel. They were too far to see
clearly. All had weapons, most of them rifles, but the woman was
armed with a pistol.

Any thought of approaching them was dashed
from my mind. Their faces were so hardened they looked more like
monsters than humans.

I guessed that these were Raiders, the worst
kind of Wastelanders, who robbed, stole, and murdered for a living.
If I went up to them, they would kill me, or at best take me
prisoner.

I would have snuck away, but for one reason:
I was low on food, and I needed something to eat. If I waited for
them to fall asleep, I could sneak into their camp and take some
supplies.

It was desperate, but I saw no other choice.
I hadn’t found any supplies in my few days out in the Wasteland. It
was death either way.

For now, they were eating. Each ladled stew
into a bowl. While they ate, they joked and laughed. But somewhere,
the conversation took a turn for the worse. The Raiders started
arguing. One man threw his bowl on the ground in anger. Seeing that
stew spill was torture.

The argument seemed to be about the woman.
She had stopped looking bored and started looking attentive.

A brawl started between two of the men. One
of them raised a gun.

Another gun went off, shattering the silent
night. A man with a blond crew cut had shot dead the man who had
drawn the gun.

The man who was shot fell to his knees, then
to the ground. Blood pooled in the light of the fire. The man
twitched as everyone watched. He stilled.

The three remaining men started stripping the
dead man's body of clothing, jewelry, and useful things he had been
carrying. The blond man took the dead man’s rifle. No one argued.
He was probably in charge.

The dead man, with only his clothes left, was
hauled into the night by the men. The woman sat by the fire,
watching. The men tossed their fallen comrade into the darkness
like unwanted garbage.

After that, everyone was quiet. The blond man
walked to the woman, and whispered something. She turned her face
away. He left her to go back to his spot.

Everyone curled up for sleep.

I waited for at least an hour. When they all
seemed deeply asleep, I decided that now was my chance. I crept
forward, toward the fire.

As I neared, I knew I would now be clearly
visible to them. Just one look, and I was dead.

But if I did not eat, I was equally dead. I
needed food and I needed a weapon.

I did not dare take any food from the pot,
however much I wanted to. That risked too much noise.

All were sleeping, their backs to the flame.
So far, so good.

I decided to find something immediately and
take it away. Any of them could wake up at any moment.

My eyes fell upon a hefty backpack sitting
next to the man with the blond crew cut. I nearly jumped out of my
skin when he rolled over to face me. Thankfully, his eyes stayed
shut. His face had a long, deep scar, running diagonally from the
top of his right eye to the left corner of his mouth, full across
his pockmarked nose.

After a moment, I reached for the pack. I
lifted it slowly, so it would not disturb the stones beneath it.
But two of the stones clacked ever so slightly against each other.
I winced. The sound must have been a lot louder in my head than in
reality. Nothing happened.

The pack was very heavy. My heart raced.
There would be lots of supplies in it.

I backed away from the flame, toward the cold
night once more. I was going to make it, at least for the next few
days.

I was now far enough from the fire to walk
normally. I scurried up the slope. I needed to make it to my cave
and grab the rest of my stuff. After that, I would set out. I
needed as much distance between myself and the Raiders as
possible.

That’s when cold hands wrapped around my
neck.

I couldn't even scream. My head swam as
darkness took hold. I fell to the hard earth.

When I awoke, my head throbbed. Footsteps
crunched on the ground near my head.

“Wake up,” a female voice said.

I rolled on my back, facing upward. My vision
was hazy, and the cave was dark, so I could not make out what she
looked like. It appeared that she was alone, however.

“Who are you?” I asked. “Was it you who
attacked me?”

“
I’m
the one asking the questions,
thief.”

“Thief?”

“You stole a Raider’s backpack.”

“He probably stole it first.”

The girl didn’t say anything for a moment. I
pulled myself up into a sitting position. She merely stood there in
the darkness, watching me. Beyond the cave mouth spread grayish red
sky. It was morning.

“You’re not going to kill me, are you?” I
asked.

“No,” she said. “Lucky for you, I’m ready to
split from them. If it had been anyone else who caught you, you’d
be dead.”

The girl knelt down. As my vision cleared,
and her face got closer, I recognized her instantly. She was the
one who had been watching from behind the rock. Instantly, anger
burned within me.

“
You
…”
I said, through gritted
teeth.

She
was the reason the whole Bunker
fell.
She
had been the one who left that diseased body right
where Michael and I had found it.

Her eyes went wide with recognition.
“You’re…you’re that Bunker kid. What the hell are you doing out
here?”

I stood, clenching my fists. “Everyone I know
is dead because of you!”

She stared. “What are you talking about,
kid?”

She wasn’t that much older than me – maybe
nineteen or twenty. She had long, black hair, and hazel eyes. Her
skin was a creamy mocha color, and she was very much in shape. She
was very pretty as well, and her looks took me aback for a moment.
Despite her beauty, there was a hardness to her features that this
world had given her, making her appear older than she would have
had she grown up in a Bunker. It was hard to place her ethnicity,
but she seemed Asian.

“You stabbed that man, and we brought him
back,” I said. “He infected everyone in the Bunker, and now
everyone I know is dead. I should have shot you the minute I saw
you.”

She just stared at me, my words clearly
having no effect. Why
hadn’t
I killed her? Why didn’t I tell
Michael on the recon? None of this would have happened. My dad,
Khloe, everyone else…they would all still be alive. Then I realized
that this wasn’t her fault. It was mine. That realization was
almost enough for me to break down, right there.

“Hey, kid. Calm down. I don’t want to hurt
you.”

“
Hurt
me? I don’t care what you do to
me. I couldn’t care less. I have
nothing
now because of
you.”

“First of all, shut the hell up and give me a
chance to explain myself. Alright?”

Sizing her up, I knew she could probably take
me in a fight. Let’s face it; she was a lot more in shape than me,
and
she had a pistol holstered at her side.

I sat down on a large rock and crossed my
arms. I knew I was being childish, but it was hard to keep myself
under control.

“Alright,” the girl said. “We found the guy
lying on the side of the road. He looked dead. We were going to
pass him up, but he groaned as we walked past him. We stopped. The
guys wanted to kill him, more for sport than anything else. There
was nothing I could do to stop them. I just wanted to keep moving.
But Brux stabbed him, three times in the back. We hauled his body
off the road.”

“Brux?” I asked.

“Blond crew cut,” Makara said, a scowl on her
face. “Scar on his nose. Nasty excuse for a human being.” She
sighed. “Then,
you
guys came, so I hid. I thought you might
have seen me. But I guess you didn’t, because you didn’t say
anything. I was ready to split if anything happened.”

I
should
have said something to
Michael, back when I had the chance. Bunker 108 would still be
here, and I’d still have my life. I didn’t tell that to the girl,
though.

“I had no idea you would take him in,” she
went on. “So did everyone really die? He looked a little sick, but
none of the Raiders I was with dropped.”

“Yes. Everyone died, except me. I’m the only
one who made it out. At least, the only one I know of. I lost my
dad and my friend, among other people.”

She looked at me. “I’m sorry. I really am.
But it was a mistake on our part. You have to believe that.”

“It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. I
don’t know what to do now. I’m trying to find a city. I won’t
survive long out here. I was just trying to find some food, which
is why I snuck into your camp.”

The girl looked me up and down, seeming to
see me in a new light. I looked past her, toward the mouth of the
cave, wondering when, or if, she would let me go.

“You’re going to die, you know,” she said.
“They’ll come after you. They’ll make you wish you were dead.”

“I wish I were dead now.”

“Don’t say that. You keep saying that, and
you really
will
be dead. Trust me, you don’t want that.”

“What do you know? Maybe I do. My dad is
dead, because of you. My friend is dead, because of you. There’s
nothing you can do to make up for that.”

The girl looked at me, and scowled.

“You don’t want my help? Fine. But if you
decide you want to survive out here, I can teach you everything you
need to know. How to make a fire. Where to find food and water. All
the good places to camp. Who to trust, who to avoid, what cities
will let you in. It will take you years to figure that out on your
own. I can teach you in hours.”

“Thanks, but I’ll be fine on my own.”

“I doubt that. How long have you been out
here?”

“One week.”

“Have you found any food or supplies in that
time?”

I looked at the backpack. “Kind of.”

“There’s only a few kinds of people who would
sneak into a Raider camp and steal their gear: the insane, the
stupid, and the desperate. I think you might be the third, but the
first two are sounding pretty accurate, too.”

She handed me the backpack I had stolen. I
held it awkwardly in my hands. I had no idea why she was offering
to help me, or why she wasn’t just taking the backpack to her
Raider buddies and leaving me for dead. It didn’t make any
sense.

“Now,” she said, “you can either come with me
and keep all that stuff, or you can go out on your own without it.
Your choice.”

I looked up at her. She was serious.

“Let me at least see what I’d be losing out
on.”

The girl didn’t say anything as I set the
pack on the ground and began rifling through its contents.

A pot. Some cans of food. Some bullets.

There was a heavy shirt. Might make a good
extra layer for the cold nights.

I lifted up the shirt. Below it at the bottom
of the pack were dozens upon dozens of small, silver batteries.

“What the hell…?”

“All our pay was in Brux’s pack. I’m willing
to split it with you, if we work together.”

“Batteries? Seriously?”

“They’re currency.”

“But they’re worthless…”

“To you, maybe. With these things, you can
walk into just about any settlement and get food, weapons, whatever
you want. There’s well over three hundred batts in there.”

“That’s…insane.”

“Look, kid. Batts are valuable. They’re from
the Old World, and they’re useful. They give heat, cook food, and
power machines that would otherwise be useless. They’re a
commodity, and someday, all of them will be gone. These are even
the good kind…the kind that can last for decades. And if you can
get your hands on some rechargeables or solars, you’d never have to
raid again.”

“Fine, I believe you. So why would you want
to split them with me? That’s the part I don’t understand.”

The girl didn’t answer for a moment. She
looked into my eyes.

“Because, believe it or not, I actually feel
bad for what happened. Most Raiders aren’t bad people. We were just
in a bad situation, and we do what we must to survive. If I’ve
already ‘killed’ everyone who matters to you, maybe this is some
weird way to make it up.”