From Under

A day in the life of the young Apocal girl Dynasty goes terribly awry when she is attacked by a Warped One.

Chapter 1:

From Under

 

“Look Shale!” Dynasty shouted as she ran towards her discovery. It was beautiful, outstanding from the insipid landscape. Since the bombs dropped, barely any trees or greenery grew, but after about 100 years of slowly settling, the skies were finally clearing and the sun could be seen once more giving plants a new hope to grow. Now, protruding from the ground was a scraggly plant that could possibly be a source of food. She kneeled down, her hands hovering inches from the delicate leaves. Her breathing came in short, quiet gasps, as if it could disturb the fragile form of life. Dynasty wanted to take off her tinted breather mask to see it better, but she knew that would be a death sentence in the toxic air.

“What is it?” Shale stepped forward looking around in that paranoid way he always did.

“Not sure, but it might be a bush of some kind. I just need to get a sample.” she pulled out a syringe from her cargo jacket pocket. She slowly injected the needle into the stem. Shale rolled his eyes. It was so tedious and painstaking. He hated going on plant missions, they were so boring, even if it meant the chance of food for the city. They never ended up finding any, so they would risk their lives for nothing in the end. He looked at his watch; they didn’t have a lot of time left before it got dark. It was never safe to be outside the walls of Fortify at night.

“Come on Dynasty, we’re almost out of scouting hours. We should head back before any Warped Ones or Breeders show up,” Shale said, a bit of edge in his voice. 

Warped Ones were deformed humanoids that had been exposed to toxic waste or were born uranium induced. They had many abnormalities including severely deformed limbs and skin color. They were terribly horrendous to look at. Why they were called Warped Ones, was because of their mental state. The uranium messed with their brains, turning them into mindless killers, eating their own kind. They usually came out at night, that’s when they could see best. Their eye sight was feeble, but their hearing was nothing short of super human. They could easily find and consume an unsuspecting victim at the snap of a twig. Despite their deformities, they could run down any regular human easily. 

Breeders were Warped Ones, but at the same time, a different beast altogether. They looked like normal humans, even acted like it. If it weren’t for their eyes, an Apocal and Breeder couldn’t be told apart. Dynasty had never seen a Breeder before and frankly never wanted to, but from what she had been told, they had florescent yellow eyes that made them stand out from a crowd. Rumors said that at night, the whites of their eyes would turn black and their irises would glow an eery yellow. It gave them a fitting demonic look since their habits were nothing short of  a moralless monster. They kidnapped Apocals, experimenting on them or Lord knows what. They are extremely intelligent and physically superior to a normal human. Worst of all, little is known about them, but they seem to know a lot about Apocals. No one knew exactly what happened to you once a Breeder kidnapped you, but one thing was for sure, you were never seen again. From what Fortify could gather, they seemed to care about DNA, like it was an addiction. They were soulless about it too. They capture children, maim adults, even kill pregnant women and drag off their bodies for their genetic makeup. People had theorized, it was to make some sort of hybrid army. Dynasty shivered and pulled her jacket closer to her body, it was getting cold. 

“Don’t worry Shale, we still have two hours of time left.”

“Yes, I know, and it will take us two hours to get back! Especially when we’re this deep in the ruins, we really should go.” Shale motioned with his gun to the hazy outline of a broken looking city. 

“Alright I guess we should go…” Dynasty stood up checking her vitals and sliding the syringe back into her pocket, now filled with a light green liquid. As she brushed off the dust from her jacket, she looked around. It was a depressing sight. Old worn down and rusty broken buildings around littered debris. The buildings had illegible signs, the broken windows gave light to the old spoiled goods inside. It looked like it was once a peaceful town with innocent people, unsuspecting people. Now, it was a waste land of death. One building in particular, with a half legible sign and large broken doors had caught her eye. Each gave way to the gloomy inside. There was no use in checking in there, everything was either broken or stolen from the early panic when the apocalypse started. Dynasty squinted as she looked in deeper into the darkness something reflective shone back. She cocked her head and started walking towards it. It glinted with a metallic look. It could be a medical kit! Antibiotics maybe!, she thought frantically. She started into a run. Shale ran after her shouting, but she was already too far ahead of him. He puffed in frustration and fear for her. He was eventually going to marry her, and it was his job to keep her safe. 

“Dynasty! Come back! It’s not safe!” He glanced around, something wasn’t right. It felt as if someone or something was watching them. “Dynasty!!” 

It was no use, she was completely ignoring him.

She stopped in the door way. The dark and decrepit room was filled with empty broken shelves. Shelves that were covered in sooty debris. There were rusty magazine racks with soiled articles dated back a century ago. Like time had just stopped for them. By the rack was a counter with an old cash register that had long been looted in the panic of the aftermath. In the corner was the metallic object. She crawled over to it amongst the disarray. She reached out and gingerly grabbed the object. It was a somewhat dirty pin made of copper and iron. It had a symbol on it, but there was too much soot on it to see it clearly. Dynasty rubbed her gloved thumb over the grime. The symbol slowly became clear, she cocked her head. It didn’t look like anything they had found in the ruins before. There were two letters; P and H in between the forks of a three pronged pitchfork looking thing. Puzzled, she placed it in her jacket pocket. She got up and looked curiously at the window pane. It was covered in ash and dust. She carefully walked over to the pane being sure not to disturb anything, in case the owner of the pin was still around and breathing. As she looked at the forgotten, cracked window, Dynasty could hear Shale’s voice calling from the distance.

“Dynasty would ya come outta there! It’s not safe!”

  She ignored him, he was always acting like some Warped One was lurking behind them, waiting to bite their heads off. He would think that he was protecting her, but in reality, she was protecting him. She always let him be the leader in these situations mostly because she felt bad. He was smaller and more sickly than his brothers. His father, the commander of the Fortify patrol was always worried about him, being what his father referred to as, “the weak link”. She had promised him that she would keep Shale alive at all costs. With his father thinking so little of him, she wanted him to feel strong and important. After all she had been through, Shale was really all she had left to care for.

She rose her hand and laid it on the cold glass. How sad it must of been deserting everything you knew and loved. The horrible terror they must of felt. She thought. She tried to imagine what life was like before the bombs hit. Maybe a busy store clerk worked here, where women dressed in lacy yellow dresses with pink flowers on them came and gossiped by the magazines. Their wide brim hats brushing each others’ as they talked before making their purchase. Then they would leave towards the street filled with cars of every color, and beautiful green trees on the side walks under a crystal blue sky, just like her grandfather said. When everything was better.  

“Dynasty!!!”

She sighed and slowly lifted her hand off the glass. Time to leave. The dust clung to her glove, leaving a perfect hand shaped, clear window. A slight movement caught her eye. Her blood went cold as she stared back at a large, neon yellow eye with no pupil or white to be seen. She staggered backwards her fingers fumbling for the pistol at her hip. She stumbled and fell over the counter, sending everything on it crashing to the ground. She landed with the back of her head hitting the ground hard. A red light flashed in her helmet, something broke. The Warped One let out a gut wrenching screech. It lifted its deformed arms and smashed the window. A flurry of raining glass landed on Dynasty. She scrambled to her feet and sprinted toward the doorway. She turned around only to fire a single shot in to its disgustingly mutated arm. It howled angrily and flung out its arm knocking her off her feet and into the side of a deserted car.

“DYNASTY!! RUN!!!” Shale shouted and charged at the mutated beast shooting wildly at it, trying to draw its attention away from her. She staggered up, pain shot up her right arm. 

“Shale!!” she cried.

“Get Outta Here!” his voice cracked. The Warped One was inches away from him shrieking in rage as it took on more shots. It raised a misshapen arm and swung it violently at him.   

Her helmet flashed red again showing her vitals. She didn’t have enough time to analyze them before another Warped One, smaller and more ashen than the first, crawled out from behind another building towards her. She ran, pumping her arms wildly as the Warped One followed her.  She looked back only to see it’s split jaw dripping with sickly green fluid, while its deformed legs moved in a spider like pattern. She took in air with short gasps, the air, the air wasn’t as easy to breath. She must of damaged a purifying valve on her mask. She could barley think. Her pistol, she lost it. Her mask was damaged and she was possibly injured badly. Shale was in trouble and she wasn’t there to save him. She ran blindly into the ruins, the thing closing in. It gripped her leg, knocking her over with a grunt, and dragged her back. She dug her fingers into the ground, clawing for life.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a pole smashed into the Warped One’s grotesque head. Her rescuer grabbed her by her right arm and pulled her into the dank ally he had come from. She shrieked in pain. He gripped her shoulders his mask inches from hers. It was tinted so darkly, she could’t even make out a face. Her breathing came in short gasps as her helmet flashed red, reading that she was losing air, and fast! He slowly rose a finger to where his lips would be and darted over to the corner of the wall. He Peeked around the corner, his head snapping left and right. 

Dynasty slid down against the wall. Her head was swimming; she tried to control her breathing. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She was the one who was destined to protect Shale, not the other way around. She had to go back and save him. The air was toxic inside her helmet. She tried to focus on something, anything, so she could stand up and get back to him. Her foggy gaze centered on her rescuer. He was wearing ripped cargo pants with a dirty white tank top along with a grimy jacket. His tank top gave away several deep scars on his chest. Dangling limply from his neck were two dog tags. She noticed his filtering helmet design was different, more advanced. Who the hell was he? He gripped a machine gun ready to fire. Her thoughts muddled and her lungs burned with toxins. Her readings were at less than fifty percent and faltering. He stiffened then lifted up his gun and fired a entourage of deafening shots. He grabbed her hand and tore towards the end of the ally. Stumbling with each step, she looked back at the crumpled form of the Warped One. Her mind panicked, where was Shale? Who was this stranger that helped her? Could she even trust him?

In all of her panic she had let go of the stranger’ s hand and tripped. Her mask’s left eye lens cracked under the hard impact. 

“Shale.” she weakly called out. Dynasty could barley breath. She heard the sound of another Warped One and another round of machine gun fires. She rolled on her back, her vision growing dark. Why did she go into that building? If she hadn't they would’ve been driving back to Fortify and she could be testing her plant samples. Why did she run away instead of throwing herself into the fight? 

  “I’m sorry Shale.” she whispered. 

She felt horrible, Shale was gone. She had no idea where he was. She didn’t even know where she was. Frantically she convulsed, trying to get her feet. She had to go back and save Shale! She had to get him back to Fortify! The fuzzy shadow of the stranger came back. He motioned for her to stay down. She shook her head and desperately failed to get up. She had to get to Shale! She gaped like a fish. She couldn’t breath. She checked her vitals, three percent of her clean air remained. She tapped her mask, trying some way to let this stranger know she was going to die without help. This guy was her only hope for survival. Her only hope to find Shale. 

“My….m…mask. I..it’s….bro..broken.” she whispered breathlessly. 

He stared down at her seeming to not understand. 

“Please…..help.” 

She could say no more. Her vision faded as she felt the stranger lift her limp body off the ground. She wanted to say, no, Stop! But all she could do was gasp for air. Her thoughts swam in her head, where was he taking her? Will she die? Where. Is. Shale? She closed her eyes and lost consciousness.  

Author's Note

This book is still in the editing stage. There may be overlooked grammatical errors