End of Days

The Rift

The Rift

  

“Come on, we have to get moving!” I heard the gruff voice of Scott shouting at me. We had only gone a few meters from the house when I had collapsed, legs unable to move as my body gave into the exhaustion. My lungs had collapsed on me and all I could feel was the crushing weight of the pain; I had lost all hope, all will to carry on.   

I knew we would all be at risk if I didn’t move but my body just couldn’t respond. I tried to push myself forward but my anguish had left me paralysed. There was nothing left for me to fight with, there was nothing left to fight for. That’s what I told myself, that’s why I suddenly gave up, unable to cope with the pain to carry on.  

“He’s gone Charlie; don’t let his death be for nothing.” In an instant I was snapped back to reality; he was right, if I gave up then Matt would have died for nothing ad it would be my fault. I couldn’t let him have sacrificed himself for me to die shortly after. That wasn’t who I was, I wasn’t weak, I wouldn’t give up. With renewed strength, I got off the ground and pushed forward. There was something left to fight for and I would fight, fight for Matt, fight for humanity, whatever was left of it.  

For some time after my mind was blank, my legs moved automatically as I continued on autopilot. The others talked about life before and what they’d do when it was all over but I just couldn’t think about anything. What was left for me? My best friend was dead, the town I knew was gone, that’s why I thought of nothing. Nothing but how I was going to kill every last one of those creatures. It was the only thing that kept me going.                                 

The sun had begun to set as the red light washed through the streets, symbolic of those who had passed in the past few weeks, the bloodshed the paths had seen. As dusk set in we stopped, needing some rest and food. Travelling without many supplies and on foot was exhausting, you didn’t even have to be unfit to feel the effects weighing heavily on you.  

I sat there silently as the others talked over the scraps of food we had scavenged; things were as normal as they could possibly be in this dire situation. Silently, I planned our movements, needing something to think about, anything to distract myself. A thought came to me, we were facing an enemy unarmed, easy targets for the creatures. We needed to arm ourselves if we had any chance of surviving this. 

“Weapons.” I spoke aloud causing the others to look in shock, surprised by my voice.  

“What?” Scott asked a little confused, the one word wasn’t quite as self explanatory as I thought it would be.  

“We need weapons if we have any chance in defeating these bastards.” I spoke out but Scott shook his head. I knew he couldn’t be disagreeing with me, he would know better than anyone that weapons would be one of the most important things to get, next to food and water. At least they would be if we wanted a chance to defend ourselves against them. We may still not succeed but our chances would certainly improve compared to the alternative.  

“I checked the police station, it had been cleaned out. There’s nothing left.” Scott held my eyes as he tried to read my thoughts. That may have been true but the police station wasn’t the only place that had weapons, it was just the only legal place. Not that laws were really applicable in this new world.  

“When you live around here as long as I have, you know where to look.” A smile came onto my face and Scott shared it. “Come on, let’s get us some guns.” I hadn’t thought of it before, there was a shop near us, it was a pawn shop but the owner was a hunter as was his son. There would be some there. 

“Who do you think you are? You’re not the boss of me. You can't just come back from your trance and tell us what to do. You're not our leader, just the same as us.” Nina started, face getting flustered as anger built inside of her. Scott rolled his eyes, someone needed to stop her before she started a full on fight which would inevitable alert them to our presence.