The Journey to Home

The Aftermath Of Everything

An explosion shook the Bunker. The smoke billowing into the roof cracks splitting the faux pas sky, and the sunlights falling and scattering unto the ground below. Claws came through the cracks in the roofs of the metallic shelter, a shape and figure shining through with each tug and groan of the metal, and with a final groan, the metal gave forth to a creature that fell into the streets of the Bunker. Its body started shifting, the appendages moving into a crawling position. The sounds of evacuation and sirens were blaring, rubble and debris littered the pathway. The creature's head shifted, dazed and confused at its surroundings; it screeched a sound that almost sounded like nails on a chalkboard. The creature shifted, its head now stretching into the sky, the light shimmering from its scales, a majestic creature in a landscape of death. It opened its eye and Joseph stared back at the cerulean eyes, and he screamed in his mind, he wanted to run but he couldn't, his fear freezing his every movement and so he stared at those cold cerulean blue eyes in absolute horror, frozen in the fear of the creature in front of him for how could he stand amongst a world of creatures like this.

Joseph woke up in a sweat, he examined his surrounding, it was just the camp he and his friends created under a small destroyed lot he recalled. He and his friends were quite thankful for the small decrepit lot in the middle of nowhere, as it was the only building with a stable enough roof that they could camp under in safety with most of the buildings they passed in the almost 3-week journey since they had to leave Bunker-30.

"Joseph, you awake bud?" Michael inquired to the dazed Joseph

Joseph tiredly slurred "Yeaah, what time is it?"

"It's almost 10:30 man, hurry and gets ready, we are leaving at 12" Michael stated in an authoritative tone

"Yeah fine, let me grab some breakfast first" Joseph grumbled as he got out of his sleeping bag

He lazily shrugged off his sleeping bag and moved himself to the nearby campfire, seemingly and luckily enough for Joseph, someone had been kind enough to leave a share of what he and his friends considered food for the past 3 weeks. He was starting to sorely miss the real food of Bunker-30,

he thought 'this food really does not hold a candle to the food before the whole... '

Joseph didn't complete that line of thought since he didn't want to ruin his already sour mood of eating the mush, they called nutritionally rations so he took his share and took a seat nearby next to the dying embers of campfire they made last night. He was almost done with his breakfast before a certain person came up from behind him, it was James.

"So your finally awake, was it nightmares again?" James inquired to his friend

Joseph stared at James with a deadpan stare that even some gods would call a bit of an "understatement"

James tactfully responded "That's yes then"

"It was the nightmares again, of course, but I'm not going to talk" Joseph grumbled dropping his spoon in his bowl of "food" in a stressful manner

James in a hushed tone "you know we were all there too, and you can't just keep putting this off, Joseph"

"I know, I know, I KNOW, it's just I'd rather focus on our survival in this fucked up situation!" He exclaimed in a stressed shout

His face was contorted but not in rage, his eyes were filled with grief and sorrow. The bowl of food splattered on the ground, the spoon accompanying it just a few inches away from the bowl. The air in the room felt like it dropped in temperature to the occupants, the atmosphere seemed to fill with tension that seemed so dense that even a freshly sharpened knife could scratch it.

The silence only helped to intensify the tension until...

"Joseph, just get ready to move, we'll move out at 12 remember that" James stated before turning away and moving to pack up his things

Joseph stood there in silence for what seemed to be forever in his eyes but was only about a minute and a half, he started to remember the screams, the pleas of help, and the sounds of viscera...

But he could not let his mind fade into the thoughts of the horror that lay underneath his memories so he brushed them off as he moved to his side of the camp to pack up and preparing to move. He got his wrist-mounted Geiger Counter and attached it to his person as he started to get into his Radioactive Hazardous Protective Personnel Suit Mark VI (RHPPS) or as James calls it the Ripps, the suit was given to them as protection against the harsh environment, it had many features on it with an inbuilt compass and HUD unit on the helmet but despite the many comforts and convenience features like the vitals display on the HUD, the inbuilt alarm feature against highly radiated areas and being completely airtight around the whole body with air filters on the helmet area. The Ripps could not stand a chance against any of the radiation that emits from a Kaiju, with radiation seeming to melt apart the carbon-plastic hybrid material the suit was made of, learning of this from having accidentally walked through a kaiju's walk path a week ago and having to use one of the spare suits for a replacement for Michael.

After packing up his things he grabbed his backpack and put it on, as he walked towards the exit, he thought that this roof might be the only one he would sleep under for a while as across their journey, most of the destroyed structures they came across would usually either be too destroyed or too radiated ending up with them having to camp outside on the wasteland plains for the night but coming across the lot was a godsend for them. Joseph walked up to the exit of the lot, he saw his friends gathered around the exit, all suited in their Ripps and backpacks accompanying them, James seemed to be having a hard time with his Geiger counter with Michael trying to help him, Josephine seemed to be lying on a pillar for support.

"This damn Geiger counter, WHY IS IT IN THIS GOSHDARNLANGUAGE!" James frustratedly shouted

Michael tried to calm him down "Just calm down James, it's easy here let me fix it" as he gestured for James to hand him his Geiger counter to him

James obliged grumbling as he moved his wrist to Michael "You better fix this or I will kill your ass" as Michael started fiddling with the Geiger counter

"There fixed, that should be it" Michael announced with a vaguely proud tone in his voice

Josephine walked up to the duo exclaiming "Finally you two are done, Me and Joseph here have been waiting for you two to move the past 4 minutes!"

"Wait when did Joseph get here?" Michael questioned in a surprised voice

Joseph spoke "Well I have been here since you two started bickering, so are we going to go out now"

Michael and James spoke in unison "Yes" almost sounding like soldiers

"You know I'm sorry about earlier Joseph, it's been a stressful time for all of us" James apologized

Joseph responded "I should be the one sorry anyways, it's just I had another nightmare last night. And you know..." He trailed off

"Yeah, I get it, anyways we should start catching up, Michael and Josephine might accidentally leave us behind" James exclaimed in a tone of excitement

And so, the group walked up the entrance of the lot and saw the blasted wasteland of the earth above, the ground looking blackened due to years of deterioration and radiation, the landscape littered with the rubble of buildings and the remains of civilization. The clouds overhead never seeming to show signs of sunlight peeking through. The wasteland was bleak and bland, the radiation an invisible blanket of death covering massive swaths of the landscape. The final decoration to show against the battered canvas that was the landscape of the surface was the giant footprints and damages showing a history of giant monsters fighting and moving through the landscape.

The wasteland was a frontier that none of them ever wanted brave...

A/N: My update schedule might be very erratic at times and I might not reach the specified time frame for updates so just keep that in mind anyways expect the next chapter to be sometime next week.

A/N:Edits