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| Consequences; A short story about a post nuclear apocalypse | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 22 2010, 08:22 PM (61 Views) | |
| CamB | Sep 22 2010, 08:22 PM Post #1 |
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Newbie
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CONSEQUENCES - Avery Avery poked his head around the corner with fear in his eyes. He clenched his spear with both hands and crouched down. He heard leaves rustling down the deserted hall. He pulled his head back around the corner and sank down to his knees. There were no place for tears; they would only blur his sight. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. When he opened his eyes he decided to take note of his surroundings. The hallway was lit dimly from cracks in the ceiling. There was wet grass, mold, and mushrooms covering dark spots in the floor where moisture gathered. When he had run into this building for cover from that which hunted him, he vaguely remembered looking up and seeing a large red cross. “Must be a hospital.” He stated surely to himself. He knew no one else was around for miles but he liked to say it out loud to reassure himself. He was clad in ripped jeans and a dirty red t-shirt stained with blood and dirt. He rarely wore shoes anymore; due to looters there were rarely shoes to be found. But he remembered shoes fondly, not having worn them in six years. He stood slowly closing his eyes taking another breath. Then he heard the sound again, the sound of twigs breaking. Avery decided his next plan of action should be getting into an open area. He knew by the loudness of the crack from the twig and the amount of time it was staying hidden it was likely a cougar. Since the war Mother Nature took the wheel once again and man wasn’t the top of the food chain anymore. Avery took step by careful step looking down each time to where he was placing his foot. He knew the floorboards would squeak and give away his position so he had to walk on the wet, soft, and moldy patched that covered patched of the floor where rain leaked through. Avery eventually reached a set of rusted double doors; the windows had long since shattered and the metal wire inside reinforcing it had rusted away from the center out. The giger counter he wore around his neck was quietly vibrating telling him that the radioactive particles in there air were rising. Avery stepped forward pressing his right palm on the door, He pressed hard expecting resistance and fell through stumbling through the doorway. Falling on his side he quickly collected himself looking up. Just an inch or so from his face was a skull with what looked like highlighter fluid dripped off his. He didn’t scream, he had seen many corpses in the last few years. He paused for a second and studied the skull and body attached. It had been burned horribly by nuclear fires. The joints in between the bones had been fast caramelized causing them to retain their shape as if they were one set in stone when burned. The walls around him were black and charred which vivified the luminescent liquid dripping from the skull. Avery remembering his giger counter quickly shot his hand to it feeling it vibrate violently. He looked up seeing the nasty reddish yellow ooze above him. He as if he was shot, leaped to his feet dropping his stave as he did. He didn’t care about the cougar anymore. He had seen what high radioactivity did to people. It warped them, burning their skin, making them hard and barely alive. Few of them lived past what survivors called ghoulifacation. This is when so much radiation corrupts the skin that there entire body is warped into ghouls. These creatures are closely looking like zombies. There are many who retain their minds and can survive fine just like humans speaking, thinking, talking, and walking. Although they begin losing their hair and nails. But then there are the ghouls who lost their mind and become what people call feral ghouls. Feral ghouls are ghouls who not only lost their humanity but become almost like animals. Eating anything that breaths and lives, these are old fashion zombies from old horror stories, and they didn’t stop until they were full. Avery gasped for air as he stood outside at the door of the hospital. He leaned against the wall panting as his eyes adjusted. The sun was up and the world around him was alive. The city of Seattle was taken by trees and grass. He smiled slightly as he caught his breath. The world was so beautiful compared to the world years ago covered in barren lands and lifeless wastelands. His smile died as he heard a low growl next to him, slowly growing louder from the door of the hospital. When he slightly moved his head to pear towards the form he saw a humanoid figure casting a shadow through the door. This was not a sentient ghoul. No this definitely was feral. Its clothing just old clothing it had worn before it had become a monster. A majority of it was ripped off or unthreading. Its eyes were white and the color on its iris had been worn down and hazed over. Avery, weaponless due to his fright earlier now knew what had been hunting him. He was surprised the ghoul had been hunting during the day when it didn’t have very good vision. But he was in a deserted section of town so his scent must have overpowered its urge to wait. He eyed the ghoul up and down decided he didn’t have a clue either to take it on or just to try to out run it. Avery made his decision and nodding to himself bending his legs slightly eyes full of assurance. He knew the ghoul would easily catch him if he decided to run. Unlike him the ghoul was very cold and had little need for sweat to cool it down. The ghoul would have nothing stopping it from pushing itself to the limit to devour him. Avery however shackled by his human instinct that forced him to slow down when he was tired or to catch his breath when he was running out of it. The ghoul would press on until Avery had stopped. So with this decided Avery moved his leg around so he was now facing the ghoul leg slightly bent. When the ghoul turned its head to Avery it let out a bone chilling scream. Avery let out a loud yell of not only rage but fear and lunged at the ghoul. The ghoul’s teeth were sharp from years of eating mainly meat and they were definitely its strongest weapon. Avery knew this and right off the bat tried to wrestle the ghoul to hold it down. The ghoul thrashed and bit at Avery like a dog and threw its weight in an attempt to get free. Avery’s determination for survival was winning the fight though. Through years of living in the destroyed after effects of a nuclear holocaust he had needed to stay fit to survive. His fine toned muscles quickly, pistons in an engine, pinned the ghouls arms down laying it on its back. Avery sat on the ghoul’s stomach holding its arms out to either side. The ghoul threw itself around biting at him but had no luck. Avery, remembering the small knife he has in his pocket, moves the ghouls arms up over its head and grabs both of the ghouls arms in one hand seeing as the ghouls forearms were both thin from lack of food and flesh being burnt off. His arm quickly went to work finding the knife and he pulled it out of his pocket skillfully opening it with one hand. He held the knife in his hand tightly and pulled his arm back. He looked down at the ghouls eyes still madden with hunger, a mouth only a few inches down snapping open in closed. Did he really need to kill it? He knew it had once been human just like him and wasn’t blessed enough to know the dangers of radiation. At 16 he hadn’t a lot to go on moral wise, living in a world where if you didn’t step on someone else’s head to get up then they would step on you to. After the war when he was the few people survived the massive nuclear war between Russia and the USA. Avery survived however, for six years on his own. Fighting for food, his life, and to stay irradiated. So far he had been winning this fight but looking down at this ghoul he had thoughts on if this ghoul could be saved. If there was a way that somehow he could right the wrongs two civilizations had committed. Looking down on this savage beast he vowed that he would find a way to save humanity, to help it grow and survive once more. But he knew if he let go of this ghoul all it would do was chase him down and stop him permanently from reaching this goal. Sacrifices had to be made, but his life was not one of them. So pulled back with his arm, knife clenched in hand, he stabbed the small pocket knives blade into the ghouls throat. After feeling the vibrations of the ghouls final scream he pulled back his arm and stood. His life now had a meaning past survival. His first steps to fixing the broken home he now had to live in, begin now. |
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