Kyle West - Apocalypse

“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, 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 cheap kind. If you could 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?”

“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, then maybe this is some weird way to make it up.”

“No. There’s nothing you can do, so don’t even try.”

I didn’t want to talk to her, and I wanted her to stop talking to me. Yet, she did have a point. I knew nothing about surviving out here. Going with her would give me something to do, even if I hated her guts. Hate was better than emptiness. It would give me a reason to go on.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll go with you. Where are we going?”

“Don’t know. Somewhere far away from them. Maybe Oasis. It’s a walled settlement, so if I can get you in there, you’d be safe. It’s run by a man named Ohlan, who I’ve met. You might be able to buy your citizenship there with your share of the batts.”

“Do we have enough food?”

“Just what we have in the pack. You have a name?”

I eyed her up and down. I guess if I was stuck with her for the next few days, names might be useful.

“…Alex Keener.”

“Makara Angel.”

She lifted her own pack, putting it on her shoulders.

“Come on. If we’re fast enough, I know a place where we can shelter before sundown. Keep an eye out. I can’t look everywhere at once, and raiders can be thick in this area. It’s cold today, so most of the rats will be hiding in their holes. That’s good for us. If we hurry, we might make Oasis tomorrow.”

Makara headed for the mouth of the cave. The raiders would probably be very close by.

I followed her outside.