by Black, John
“Donovan, do you want to lick the blender?” Mercedes asked. He came running into the kitchen. He loved it when she would actually make from scratch, a chocolate cake with icing, “yes mommy,” he said eagerly.
She had purposely left extra on the blender for him, taking it in hand, a drop of icing fell on his shirt. They both laughed.
A screen popped up on the counter. “Mercedes they are coming!” came Benjamin's voice.
In the distance they could hear sirens, dropping the blender, she gathered Donovan in her arms and ran down into the basement, where she then punched in a code in a remote she had dangling from her chest, “get down here and don't move or say anything till I come back,” she warned.
“MOMMY!” he cried.
“Hush, mommy will be right back.” She closed the secret door with her remote.
Waking he lifted up in bed, making the lights come on. Gasping for breath in his fear he checked his shirt, but saw no stain, but it was so real, he could taste the chocolate! He felt his mouth, and lips for any evidence. Was the dream part of his past, was he remembering more? He laid his head back on the pillow and the blue lights flickered off again. A tear ran down the side of his face, “mom?” he called out. Who was after them, what had happen, he sighed at the fact these were unanswered questions.
Rising from bed, he watched the lights come back on, he began preparing for a day of travel. Taking a backpack he loaded it with several bottles of the VS-771 and several containers of water. He wasn't going to risk taking the water purifier with him. Finding a compass and packing his gun, he set out towards the entrance. Closing the door behind him, he realized it was still night, however this didn't discourage him from going anyway. Staying alert keeping aware of his surroundings, there was nothing out of the ordinary. The stars did shine brightly, perhaps there were millions of them. Unaware of how long he had been walking, a hint of light began to appear on the eastern horizon.
He took more and more breaks from walking. He wondered just out of shape he was, what was the real endurance of a man his age, but yet he had no idea how old he even was. Weary of the latest assault of questions, he stood, once again walking a southwestern direction. There were no clouds in that part of the sky, in fact there were no clouds anywhere. The terrain got a bit more rocky and hilly. He pulled out one of the pills. How long had mankind eaten this way? What was in these little packages? Remembering his dream had people stopped making cakes? Licking off the blenders. Then the horror ending of the dream came into mind. Swallowing the pill he took a sip of the water. He then drove out of his mind, the scared feeling of that nightmare.
Seeing the steep hill, he decided that was the best course of action to always see what was ahead. Climbing to the top, he looked about. “Great more hills,” he said to himself, however to the west he could make out some sort of structure, about ten feet in front of it was some sort of path, with faded yellow stripes. Climbing down he grew a bit cautious. The building was heavily damaged, and part of it was charred.
Making his way down the slope, he begin sliding down uncontrollably, and the final few feet, tumbled several times. Dust swirled into the air from the violence. Rising up he was quite embarrassed at himself, chuckling at his own lack of balance. Dusting himself off, he approached the house with caution. “Hello?” he called out.
Stepping onto the path, he noted it was a road, was he still in sector seven? This was the first sign of any type of civilization, he grew eager wanting to find someone, but at the same time didn't. How crazy was that thought? Stepping into the house, the ceiling had caved in, and was badly burned. Broken glass and debris broke under his weight. Stepping into a hall, he looked in the first doorway on his right. Peeking in, a bed on three legs dominated the room. More broken pieces of furniture littered the room. When he looked on the floor beyond the bed, he let out a slight gasp of a small skeleton. The skull was crushed, but by what, he wondered. Catching himself from getting sick, he backed out of the room.
“Maybe you're better off,” he whispered sadly. Walking farther down the hall, he noted several large bullet holes in the wall and door. He promptly pulled out his own pistol, the last episode with the gun, he nearly shot his own foot off, using more care this time, he wondered why all of a sudden he felt as if he was now trained to handle a firearm? Was this a survival program he learned while in stasis? Peering in the room on the left, two adult skeletons were laying face down with several holes in their skull, kneeling down, he noticed they were covered deeply in dirt, and sand. How long had they been dead, he wondered, years, centuries? Who knows, perhaps he had been the only person to even see them since their demise. Nothing seemed disturbed in the settled fine sand and dirt, that had created dunes in the house. Walking back to the road, he looked north and south, the routes the road offered. Donovan choose north and he began following the road, it was nearly covered in top soil. Large cracks ran along the once strong pavement. Maybe this was the road, his parents use to drive back and forth to town. Climbing back up the ridge, he wanted to get a good look around to make sure he was not walking into any kind of danger. So far his own clumsiness was his only enemy.
Seeing rocks jetted out of the ridge offered a good shade for him to rest under. Climbing and making his way closer to the rocks, for the needed rest, he saw sand blowing in the breeze as if disturbed by some thing or someone!
Chapter 3
Looking about he concluded no one was around. Resting for a while, in the shade, he wondered about his next move. Follow the road was his only choice. What would he find, more skeletons with empty skulls staring at nothing. The breeze offered little comfort from the stinging onslaught of sand.
Making his way back down to the road, it was a faster way of travel. He was sure he couldn't tolerate being condemned to solitary confinement in this desolate world. Could wondering around be any better then staying in that one room, listening to images, whose eyes were just has empty has the ones laying dead in the building?
“Do you love this world you put me in doctors?” he shouted. Spying a cropping of rocks, he crawled into slight concave formed in the rocks. Using the backpack for a pillow, he tried to get some sleep. Watching the sun descend in the far western sky, he could feel the temperature dropping. Surprisingly he did not feel that chilled, furthermore he fell asleep.
Waking up, it was still night, the wind had stopped, and the stars were extremely bright sparkling, making their existence known. Grabbing his pack and slinging it on his back, he took off down the road, after seemly long time, pink hues raced across the sky creating a grand scene of natural artistry. Climbing up the slope he noted clouds were forming to the east. “Am I the sum of your audience?” he asked. Looking about he spotted two buildings, both had long since caved in on itself. He noted they both were heavily damaged on the north east end. Thinking back from where he was, recalling the only other building he saw was damaged on the southwestern end. Did that knowledge hold any clues? Did it matter at this point, it certainly didn't to the poor victims.
Sitting down to his meal that would only take seconds to consume, he wondered how long it had been this way. He recalled the image of that cake being made. He felt himself fall into a trance like slumber.
“You can have a piece after supper,” she told him.
“Oh mom, please,” he reached to poke his finger into the finished cake, to get a bit of the white frosting.
Slapping his hand, “son I told you no,” her tone quite firm. He watched her pull out a roast from silver color oven. She took a spoon and basted it with its own juices. “Go and see if your father is home yet, he should arrive shortly.”
“OK mom,” not knowing he was conned he ran to the living room, and once he reached the wall, it rolled back on itself into a oval shaped window. “Round shape,” he commanded and the opening changed into a round configuration. “Square,” he then commanded, and instantly it changed to a square image.” He loved playing with the windows. “figure eight,” and he watched
it quickly change shape. He giggled at his new creation.
“Your not playing with the windows again are you?” came his mom's voice from the kitchen.
“No mother.” 'BANG' he jumped from his labored sleep. 'Bang' came the noise again. Jumping up, he quickly realized it was the wind slamming a squeaky hinged object somewhere out of view. He did relish the few moments of perhaps a point in time of his childhood, was he regaining his memory, he questioned to himself?
Working his way through the rubble, he found nothing of interest or clues of any recent activity of life. He walked to the back yard, staring at amazement the view that presented itself. For miles running north and south was a section of land made of fine sand and just beyond the dunes, was a gigantic looking pit. Its boundaries seem endless. What was that? he questioned to himself. Scratching his head, he carefully made his way to the sandy area. He didn't dare get to close to the edge, its drop off was a extremely deep. What had created this massive abyss? Walking about two hundred yards to the south he saw wreckage. Looking down this sloped area it was about twenty feet down. He was to afraid he would not be able to climb back out. The structure looked like it came to a point on one end, the center of the wreckage was about twenty feet across. On the bottom of the opposite end of the bow were two shafts with propeller looking objects, they were twisted mangled mess. “Hello, anyone there?” he called out.
Seeing something shiny buried in the sand, he walked to it and began scrapping off the sand. “Swim at your own risk,” he read the words. Had this been some sort of containment for water? He sighed at his lack of knowledge, nor the ability to recall any memory.
All right he thought to himself, he would go back and try to collect enough patience to watch a few more of those chips. He was nearly out of water anyway.
By the end of the next day, he found the hill that was his clue he was close to the entrance. Placing on his sunglasses the door could now be seen. Nothing looked disturbed, but he had been hopeful he would met someone. However meeting someone might be dangerous, for his parents had left him a weapon, maybe people couldn't be trusted. Wouldn't that help the odds of survival? He questioned to himself.
Sealing the door closed behind him he made his way to the familiar room he now called home. Placing in the forth chip, he watched Dr. Benjamin, start talking about his surroundings.
“Son, to the west is the Pacific Ocean, its approximately 63 million square miles, beyond the ocean was China and Japan, which turned into sectors 140 through 750...”
He was not sure he could handle a geography nor history lesson, losing interest of the never ending flowing of useless information, he gazed about the room, then a startling realization hit him, that huge void must have been the ocean mentioned in the chip, and if it was, what had happen to it? Was it possible for the nuclear war to have changed the shape of the earth, maybe it was the physical process of time? He took out the chip and inserted chip 3. This time Dr Mercedes appeared.
“Hello son, by now I'm sure you have found the VS-771 pilules. In the desk you'll find a pistol, with 3 magazines of ammunition, a compass. The far wall unfolds into a nice bed. To your left you will find a room fitted with a water condenser recharger, in short its like a shower, for you to bath and clean yourself. The condenser collect water, send it through a purification, and stores it for future use. I'm not sure how well it'll function in your time period, if it does at all. In the wall behind you along the left corner is two drawers, containing a sleeping bag, and a first aid kit...” He watched her pause look away then turned back towards the recording device. “Son listen to me, your father thinks your better off staying put, but I firmly believe you should take what you can carry and travel south. I have strong reason to believe alliance in sector 7 will survive. The town we were from is Northwest of your current position. All along the north, they build huge deep complexes to survive even a direct hit of nuclear explosions. The east was hit extremely hard to the point the alliance was not willing to expand that direction, the ocean of course limits their growth west, so south would be the only direction they could expend. I'm not even sure what you'll find, but know I love you very much.” she placed her hand softly on the recording devise has if to try and touch him one more time.
He watched the chip end with a younger version of Mercedes holding a baby, softly rocking him in her arms. She gently sat in a metallic looking chair that conformed to her size. She smiled at the camera, and placed her finger to her lips.
Donovan felt tears form in his eyes and he placed his own hand to the image only to watch it form waves of being disturbed.
Unfolding the bed, he laid down to relax, and formulate a plan. Locking his fingers together, he laid his head on the cradle his fingers had created. “All right, I will go visit that town,” he said to himself. He had to see if there was any survivors, or if it was really a dangerous place, if it was he would head south, if not, then he would use this place has his own head quarters, and adventure out different directions in a attempt to find someone anyone.
Chapter 4
Waking up, he continued to lay in bed. He was not sure how long he slept, it didn't really matter. Walking to the wall that hide a shower he found a lever, pulling it, the wall slid open to reveal a small chamber.
Studying it, it seem to lack power, so using one of the power cells he inserted it in the infusion generator and suddenly the entire room seem to come to life, including the shower room. After several minutes a light on the condenser turned green. Was it ready he thought? He stepped up to a control panel. “Basic shower,” he read on a screen. A sudden steady mist of water begin to soak him, he quickly removed his clothing. Quite angry at himself, he stepped out of the mist to remove his clothing.
“Your cycle time has not been completed,” came a voice.
“Oh shut up,” he answered.
“Your cycle time has not been completed.”
Throwing his clothing on the floor he stepped back into the relaxing shower. It did feel good. He noticed laceration on his legs, what was that from he wondered.
After about ten minutes the mist stopped and the machine began to power down. The water on the floor was suctioned into some tiny ports in the floor, and a low hum could now be heard under the floor.
“but mom, I can bath myself,” he cried.
“When you can prove you can correctly bath yourself, then maybe you can do so on your own.”
He did enjoy the scrubbing and massage she gave has she tenderly bathed him. He looked up at her. Her smile was warm and loving. This was comforting to him and better then the machine, which sometimes scared him. He was actually terrified of it, and maybe she knew it, but he still had to make a fuss, even if it was pretend.
Donovan smiled at the memory, “I bet she knew all along I was faking my argument,” he said to himself. More and more he begin to believe they were his parents, but it didn't ease the pain of living in such harsh conditions. He then removed the power cell, to conserve the energy.
Closing the door behind him, he once again trekked the same path he followed previously. Using the buildings has land marks he turned more northward. He knew the once mighty Pacific Ocean was not much farther to his left. Two days had passed, has he traveled towards the north, in the distance he saw a steep ridge. Sitting down and pulling out one of his water bottles, he only took several sips. He had to use care, he was down to six containers of water.
Once he had received enough rest he made his way to the ridge, observing the ground it was a black, glass like substance, it crunched under his boots. What was all this material he was walking on? He thought to himself. Walking to the top became work for he would slide partly back down, so he bent downward, using his hands to help in climbing the final few feet of the ridge. Straightening himself he looked from his vantage point. For miles he saw the remains of a very large town. Stunned at the number of buildings that were destroyed, he couldn't comprehend it. Only a few buildings still stood showing they once were mighty skysc
rapers. Off in the distance the destruction didn't seem so bad. Could anyone have survived this? His hope was crushed.
Exploring the first few buildings, he found nothing but rubble and unusable debris. There was still no sighs of life. Some of the buildings he didn't bother entering, for the better part of the day he looked and searched. Stopping he found a suitable place to sleep.
The next day he took his supplement of food, with several sips of water. “All right if I don't find anything by tomorrow, I'll head back to my shelter.” He wished there was someone that could have heard him.
Moving on, he continued his search and moved towards the center of town. Then off in the distance to his left, he heard the faint sounds of something, with keen interest he began moving in that direction, using caution.
***
Rachel ran across the street, frantically searching for somewhere to hide, but there was no place of concealment. The rape gangs were easy enough to get away from, but the alliance stalkers were relentless. She turned long enough to see three of them leap over the wreckage. Their bodies were slender, but massive with muscle tissue. Each of these stalkers had a series of lights about their body. They didn't have the skin texture to cover the fabricated human bodies, giving them such a sinister appearance.
They began closing in on her. She ducked into a tunnel and began crawling quickly. She felt the lead stalker grabbing at her feet. “No, no awwww,” she cried, with a panic. Her flesh was cut, but she ignored the sting of pain and blood. She reached the other end of the tunnel. She was about to exit, when she felt her foot being once again grabbed. Kicking and screaming, Rachel freed herself from the hold of the stalker's hand.
She began running across the abandon land that was once a baseball field. She realized the mistake of trying to cross the field, if she could only reach the old tunnels on the far side. She was now extremely panicked. The led stalker took out his man catcher. Pushing the lever it extended itself into a pole five feet long, the end had a barbed leather noose. With a over hand thrust his wide circular noose missed.
