Apocalypse

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. Then, I would set out that night. I needed as much distance between myself and the raiders as possible.

That's when I felt cold hands wrap around my neck.

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

Chapter 12

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 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 the backpack of one of my friends back there.”

“Stole…”

I felt like an idiot. I was just repeating her words. It was like I had forgotten how to speak.

“Are you going to kill me?”

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

The woman knelt down. As my vision cleared, and her face got closer, I recognized her instantly. She was the woman who had been watching from behind the rock.

“You…” I said, through gritted teeth.

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 well-formed and in shape. She was very pretty. 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!”

I was screaming at her.  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.

“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.”

“Shut the hell up, and give me a chance to explain myself.”

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.

“Alright,” the woman 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. There was nothing I could do to stop them. Brux stabbed him, three times in the back. We hauled his body off the road, where no one would find him.

“Then you guys came, so I hid. I thought you might have seen me. But I guessed you didn’t, because you didn’t do anything.”

“And I should have.”

“I had no idea you would take him in. Besides the purple stuff coming out of him, we didn’t think he was sick.” She blinked. “So, did everyone really die?”

“Yes. Everyone 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, her eyes wide. “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’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.

“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 really 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?”

“No.”

“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 good, too.”

She handed me the backpack I had stolen. I held it awkwardly in my hands.

“Now, 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.

I set the pack on the ground, and rifled through its contents.

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

A pot. Some cans of food. Some bullets.

There was a heavy shirt. Might make a good extra layer for colder 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,