Spoiler Chapter: You are now leaving Hollywood
April 18th, 2035 8:00am
The rays from the sun indicated that a new day had dawned. Light flowed into the city as water would through the cracks in a street. The city had once been my home for the past few months; all that remained were ruins devoid of hope. Over this past week, everything changed. I had learned that there were other survivors out there and some were building new communities. This comforting information came from someone I had thought long dead; my own brother.
I had been walking lifelessly down the barren streets of the city I had once called home thinking of nothing but death. A small quarrel with a group of people, if I can even call them that anymore, the night before had ruined my clothes and I was ravenous with hunger. That first missile changed everything—and everyone in the city. It altered their appearances and their minds. The friends I used to know, the men and women who had once walked the streets, had all become one with the dead. No life could be seen in their eyes—only a thirst for blood.
That same missile decimated the buildings that made up the city and killed all those inside—and miles around them. What remained was an assortment of charred wood and mangled metal. Rubble still burned in the streets and dead littered the ground where the homeless had once begged. The lights that once gleamed with pride now stood shattered and broken looking down on the lifeless streets before it. I used to enjoy looking inside the store windows and seeing what was for sale but now all I could see was emptiness. The trees lining the roads had burned down and the grass no longer existed. The city looked more like a desert then anything else. I missed the birds that used to sing songs as the bustling crowd went back and forth. I missed the chatter of those same people, and even their constant yelling at each other. I now truly understood what it was like to have nothing and for the first time; I realized what I had taken for granted all these years.
To survive in this new world required more then just physical strength. What one needed was street smart. I knew when to run, when to fight, and when to not get involved at all. The most important necessity was a weapon. On my person, I currently held two. One was one of my father’s antique knives that he had given for me as a graduation gift and the other was a small pistol I had scavenged from one of the dead on the street. It had only six shots and so far, I only had to shoot one. No matter how deformed, these people were still people and still knew exactly what a gun meant. Only one person dared see if it was loaded and he found out when he got too close. I had seen others with weapons roaming the city. Every time however, I witnessed either a suicide or a murder. The world I now lived in belonged to gangs, theft, and mutations. Minorities of people were only affected lightly and were slightly misshapen. These were the normal people now and the people who had began to create communities where they could live in piece. Even a smaller portion, like me, was not mutated in anyway. The worst we got was some unknown illness that did nothing visible or painful except cause pain to the head and stomach areas. The fully mutated souls who received the worst of the blast only stayed with one another and killed anyone who approached to closely. The most common characteristic of these people was rotting flesh that fell of their bodies in small bits like dandruff. Just the site itself could make someone with a weak stomach knee down and vomit. All the food in the city was gone with the exception of some canned goods that you could find in the rubble of old grocery stores. This was the only neutral zone in the city. It was here that no one fought, and no one was killed. For safety, most survivors lived in these stores, close to the food and the safety it provided. What puzzled me more though was why did those who were mutated not stop to eat? I did not find out until last night what they ate…
I had just finished my own meal of canned beans and a few Twinkies when I saw one of them pass by the store. He kept his distance as if it did not want to be seen. It was a reasonable reason but my curiosity had exceeded my common sense. I crept out of the store and followed him a few yards behind. He dressed oddly and unusually rich. He wore a red gown embroidered in gold linen. A large hood completely hid his face. He made my old jeans and t-shirt look like rags. After what seemed an hour, the man came across an old, injured, and dieing victim propped against a crumbing victim. He said a few words to the man and a smile came across his face. The man allowed the robed figure to pick him up and sling him over his shoulder. He carried the man for another ten minutes walking distance before he stopped in front of a large building. The building looked like an old corporate head quarters and appeared to be several stories high. Most of the windows had been shattered and the top of the building was falling apart at an alarming rate. The robed man dropped the old man on the ground. He looked confused and stared at the robed man. I almost did not notice but at that moment, he blew a small whistle that was concealed under his garments and a crowd of people bustled out of the building. I watched in horror as the mutated humans tore the man’s limbs off and carried him, in parts, back inside. The robed one followed the trail of blood like a red carpet.
Keeping my distance, I slowly followed them into the building’s interior. Inside was something I did not believe when I saw. The robed man now stood atop a dais, which luxurious items surrounded. Gold littered the walls and velvet embroidered the seats. Everything seemed stable and under control which is not the story the building seemed to tell. The robed figure blew a small silent whistle and three men hefted the limbs onto a bloody table. The group then set fire to the parts and the rest of the room began to hum an eerie tune. The mere thought of these people killing and burning people for what seemed some crazed religion sickened me. I turned to leave the building and I tripped over a wire on the floor. My face hitting the floor echoed through the room. In unison, the people in the room turned around and screeched. The noise was so painful I quivered on the ground covering my ears. After what felt like an eternity, the robed man pulled out his whistle and blew it again. This time they all grew silent and stared at me. One moved forward and with another blow of the whistle, the rest swarmed him. I watched in horror as I saw the agony of another man being torn apart limb by limb. As quickly as possible, I jumped to my feet and ran for the exit.
A bolt of lightning lit the room and rain began to pound outside. Noise came from behind as I bolted for the door. Another flash lit the streets long enough to see that more were coming in from the streets; they had me surrounded. I was not able to count them all and they seemed to be multiplying. I turned around and recoiled in fear to see that the ones behind me had finished with their victim and wanted another sacrifice… Without any other option, I escaped up a flight of stairs. One…two…three flights, I kept on climbing stairs never stopping. Destroyed offices passed my vision in instances. Dead bodies, limbless and skeletal, littered the floors. Some held their sides and a few held children long dead. Pieces of wall were constantly falling off and it puzzled me how the building had withstood the blast in the first place. By the time I reached the top of the building, I was out of breath. I could hear the people catching up to me. There were no doors to board up. There were no desks for cover. I had run into an empty office room, devoid of any furniture. Small pieces of wood boarded up the windows. Most of the windows were shattered and the useless wood that could not stand the blast was scattered in splinters across the room. The people of this building never stood a chance. My attention shifted as one of them reached my floor. It was the first time I had truly seen what the radiation really did to these people…
The man was approximately 6’2’’, much taller then myself, and looked very muscular. His tongue hang limp from his mouth as his jaw was missing. He wore no short and a chunk of his right side was missing and bleeding. Flesh dropped from his body in sickening plops and he stank like a landfill on his own. His hair had half fallen out and his left eye was hanging from its socket. He limped towards me slowly and did not make any threatening motions. More noise came from the steps and two more stepped into the room. Each of them was different in each aspect. All three of them was missing flesh and smelled horrible but were deformed differently. The second one who came up had an enlarged his right side of his face enlarged and was missing his arm from the elbow on. Both kneecaps were torn open and he tripped with every movement. The other was a woman who was shorter than both men were but looked just as cruelly misshapen. Both legs were skinned and bled, all her hair had fallen out and parts of her face had began to decay off. She was missing both eyes and croaked as if she could no longer talk. They all advanced on me slowly but steadily. As more and more crept up the stairs, I began to see that I could not survive in a fight. More then anything though I wanted a quick death if one was inevitable. Knowing I would slowly be torn apart in agony, I decided there was only one more option¾jump to my death. I backed up too one of the broken windows and looked down. It was a good way down. I was sure that this would be it. I smirked at the creatures coming at me. “You want a meal? Well you’re going to have to fetch it.†Without another thought on the matter, I leapt from the building.
The fell felt like an hour. Most people saw their lives flash before them as they fell, I saw nothing but an approaching ground. As I neared my death, my legs sprung out by instinct as if to try to stop my falling. As soon as it had begun it ended, the results however were not as I expected. My feet were first to touch ground. My legs buckled and I was sure they were going to be crushed to bits but they did the impossible¾they absorbed the shock. Pain sprung through my body as the force traveled upwards and was eventually released in a scream of agony. I collapsed onto my knees and clutched my legs before I realized that I could clutch my legs. I stared at my hands and pinched myself. I was alive. It all seemed impossible to me and yet I did it. I did not have time to think things over as more people came from the building. As I got up to run, I saw a figure, then two, and finally a third, fall from the top window. The ones I had run from had followed me to my death. They, unlike me, were not as lucky. Their bodies blew apart on impact. Limbs scattered across the ground and blood splattered my clothes. I wanted to throw up but I did not have the time. I did not stay to watch the men and women scavenge the dead bodies, I ran. I ran long and hard for a good mile before I stopped. Buildings buzzed by and my legs gave way. I collapsed in the middle of the road and felt my mind growing unconscious. As I lay there, I thought to myself “After all of that…I’m still going to die.â€
©Ryan Jakuboski 2006
