Prologue

   It wasn’t as if it just came upon us like God had just decided to kill off everything and leave the world in a dark, dead hole.  It wasn’t as if it was just lurking around the corner, unannounced and ready to rip into a world without bloodshed.  It wasn’t as if it just came upon us without any signs of warning, like they all had predicted it would.

            Oh no, we could’ve been prepared for this war.

Our beautiful blue sky was the first to go.  It started with our blue, blue, bluer than blue sky that was filled with puffs of white clouds and silver linings.  Because the best always has to be taken from us first.  The sky twisted into a dark, dusty red color that reminded me of a disgusting, dried up pool of blood.  Like a scab.  A disgusting piece of you.  Then our clouds were taken.  They blackened out and blocked out our sun �"our life source�"like a storm was on its way, but oddly enough, it never rained once, which was our second sign.

            Anything that was useful was running low.  Water became scarce.  You were lucky if you had scraps and crumbs of food for dinner.  And if you were really lucky; the kind of person who was blessed and that angels came to in the night, you had medicine to heal you or your family.  But that wasn’t something that regular people got.

            People were dying out.  It was happening so quickly it was scary, and as much as we wanted to deny it, we couldn’t.  Dead bodies littered the streets.  Home became infected with not only sickness and death, but grief as well.  Children were being forced to grow up too fast.  And there was not a thing we could do about it.  Some clung to hope and faith and the so-called God, but then we realized that sitting on our butts and praying to a spirit that didn’t exist wasn’t helping, and we changed.  In good ways, and bad, too.

            The population started to die out before even a year passed.  We were dying out.  And more quickly than anyone could have even predicted.

            The worst thing about this whole dilemma was that no one, not even the precious followers of the Holy Spirit knew what was happening on our poor planet.  This wasn’t something we could wrap our heads around.  It wasn’t something like science, where we could test until we got the bias sort of answers we wanted.  It wasn’t anything of that sort.  It was just nature.  Nature is its own kind.  It isn’t logical, nor is it irrational.  It’s not predictable.  And that’s what killed us, I think.

            But people were still stubborn.  The ones who were still alive ran around, calling for God to help us.  They told us to keep believing, but we were already tired of sitting around and waiting.  We needed action.  We needed to see that we still had hope.  Some lost that faith.  Most lost faith.

            Then, when we were close to giving up, Old Dave came into our lives.

            Dave was some sort of crazy old coot who had to be pushing eighty and had broken blue eyes from years of watching people die.  He said he used to be in the army.  He said he never wanted to unlock those memories.  This little hunched back man came in, out of complete nowhere, and preached to us �"taught us�"how this is the end of the world as we had come to know it.  This was our end.  For now.

            People laughed at that poor old man.  They hooted and shouted and listened with taunting ears of all his stories.  This didn’t faze him one bit, however, and he kept on preaching and teaching and singing to us.  He kept on about what he called the “Apocalypse,” or the “New Beginning,” that was coming our way.  And I was the only one who believed that crazy old coot of a man.

            I was the only one prepared.

 “O, thy Lord,

Can’t you hear me a-singing;

For Lord, I am ready

To lie in thy arms.

O, Lord,

O, merciful spirit,

Please let me lie in thy arms;

O, Lord.”

 

 

            I never once said I wanted a partner.  I never said I wanted a burden to carry behind me through this war.  I never said I wanted to be part of any sort of team, much less a leader of said team, because I was never meant to be a leader.     I never planned to have more people to feed, to supply, to take care of, to make sure they didn’t die, and still watch as they died beside me.  I planned to take care of this war myself.  I planned to do this alone.  All alone, so no one else would be hurt in the process.

            Ava found me in an old shut down grocery and convenience store called “Jerry’s-All-Ya-Need,” that I was using as a hideout to keep me and my junk safe.  It was the only good place I had found roaming The Waste.  It had some food and medicine scattered around that was still good if you had the patience to search for it in all the other expired goods.  There was a bit of electricity; albeit it sputtered between on and off all the time, and there was two or three sinks that still streamed dirty water in the bathrooms.  Best of all, I could hide me and my guns in there.

            I called that building my personal heaven in hell.  It was the greatest thing in this new land, until she came in, acting like the place was hers.

            I do have to admit that when she waltzed in with her dirtied jeans, her copper curls tangled, and her big green eyes bright, I hated her.  But then, I admired her, thinking she was one like me, just trying to make her way around the lands with nobody at her side.  I had a soft spot for her, and I sat her down as she told me about her quest to find her younger sister, then asked her to come with me.  I told her we’d find her.  Together.

            And just like that, I wasn’t alone.

            The next one I met was named Jonathan, and we met on a battlefield only a couple months after Ava.  I was surrounded by wild dogs, rabid with infection and ready to tear me to pieces.  And before I could blink, this man with brown, unruly curls and dark, piercing gray eyes was in front of me.  With one swing of his steel sword, he took them out.  And even though I wouldn’t dare admit it at the time, Ol’ Jonny Boy scared me.  For a long time, he scared me.  He was just that kind of quiet, menacing character you could say.

            For the longest time we stood in the middle of that battlefield, dust collecting around us.  It scraped at my cheeks, and probably his too, but no one made a move.  We stayed there for at least an hour, quiet, just thinking.  Neither one of us spoke, and that became the blooming of a beautiful, silent relationship.

            Before he could leave, I caught him, and asked him if he was tired of scrounging The Waste alone.  I asked him if he wanted a family to hold on to; to look after and protect.  And just like that, we were three.

            Leon, my buddy, was a different story.  We met in a small pub miles away from civilization, though there wasn’t much nowadays you could consider civilization.  It had a dingy old sign that you could barely read out, but said “O’Reilly’s.”  It used to light up with neon colors, but it was now broken, shattered, and dirty, like everything else in this new land.  I had stopped in to trade for some gunpowder, because with my new team we were running abnormally low, and I took a stool beside him.

            He had this weird hairstyle that no one wore anymore.  His thick, dark brown hair was combed and slicked back, with one strand falling to his forehead, almost in front of his pretty blue-green eyes.  He was clean shaven, which was also a weird thing these days, and wore a polo shirt on top.  I thought he was the oddest of the odd, and didn’t say a word to him as he guzzled down his beer.

            And out of nowhere, he mentioned in passing that what I was doing out here wouldn’t cure my depression, and that I was wasting my precious time.  His broken, stuttering speech made me furious to the point that I held the tip of my handgun to his temple, making an indentation in his skin.

            Before I could shoot him down, right there, right then, he asked to help me out.  I immediately declined, but he tagged along with me anyways, much to my dismay, and then he was part of the group as well, which was already bigger than I had wanted in the first place.

            And that’s how we developed into one of the greatest teams in the world.  There are some people who still live, and wait for us to save them.  There are some who fear us, and think we kill any in our sight.  And then there are the ones who hate us, and have no other goals than to slaughter to us on spot.

            But that’s how it is these days.  It’s just us now.  Just us against the world.

Author's Note

Please give me all the advice you can! I need it! Thanks for reading C:

Reviews

[myrto]

I have no advice, I can just simply say that I can't wait for the rest!

[Coyote Poetry]

A very strong opening introduction. I wanted to read more. A good storyline and I like the characters in this tale. I hope to read more.
Coyote

[The Pain Stays Fresh]

Very good. It's very realistic and I love your detail. I think you need to vary your sentence structure a bit though. Most of your sentences are really long with lots of commas. Sometimes, this makes it a bit hard to read. It can confuse people a bit. I love the way you ended it. Two thumbs up. :)