We nodded and followed her to a guarded bunk in a tent. There was a heater inside which was the only thing keeping the place somewhat tolerable. There were cages, roomy cages, but cages nonetheless surrounding the prison style beds raised up on cinderblocks.
I looked to Private Marie with raised eyebrows, “Really?”
“Sorry, kiddo. It’s protocol. There have been too many wackos who try to slip out in the dead of night and bite someone,” She said, shrugging her shoulders. “Too bad the dumbasses try to bite a marine. Then there’s no more dumbass left. Don’t be a dumbass,” She said as she left us to the room.
A sigh of relief swept over me. Chelsea sat down next to me on the bed, “So what now?” she asked, opening Coal’s carrying case so she could stick her hand inside and pet her.
“Now? There is no more, what now. We’re safe, and I got you here to safety. I have a strong confidence that the military wants to protect this city more than anything else. Now we just adapt and live as normally as we possibly can.”
“Haha,” She laughed a sweet laugh. A giant wave of comfort came over me once I heard her laugh. “Shit’s still crazy in the world. I think that the term ‘normal’ will need to be redefined.”
“Shit’s always been crazy. That’s the normal of the world.”
Epilogue
I’m here, alone, amongst the wilderness. The cold is biting at me. I am supported by this frozen earth. This winter will be a hard one, though I’ll have to manage. I have some provisions left, but not nearly enough. It is dangerous out here and nothing seems to be getting easier. I’ll need supplies and better places to keep me warm. Risking a fire in the middle of an abandoned city is reckless and practically asking for death. These creatures, these things hunt, and they are smart about it. They’ll follow my footprints. They will search me down. They can smell my presence. They are changing. They are evolving. I cannot pinpoint how, but I know it. I live among them, in between them, in the shadows of their meaningless lives. I have to constantly be better than them. I have to be smarter than them. They think that they are hunting me, but it is the opposite. I will be hunting them. I should be dead. I should be with them. I should be part of them. I am not. I do not know why. I do not care why. All that I know is that the contaminated, the CRU, and anyone who gets in my way will not survive.
Memoirs,
Daryl Willows
