By Ourself

Chapter 1

AN: Every chapter will contain a set of songs that you can listen along to as you read. These songs will set the tone as you read. The songs are sorted to match how the tone of the story fluctuates. I would recommend to listen to them in order. For example; this chapter is roughly 15 minutes long which should match the length of the playlist but your reading speed may differ. All of this is 100% optional. Enjoy.

Set of songs:
Couple Coins - Puzzle
Drinking Age - Cameron Winter
Gymnopédie No. 1
Ride - Twenty One Pilots
Everything She Wants - Wham!

Italicizing = Dramatic/sarcastic tone

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WALKING in a radiation zone is one of my favorite things to do. Actually... not really. I'd much rather lay down and relax but it's life or death out here.

You know how most governments are pretty murky? Well, the sketchiness finally reached the limit and now all the major superpowers have completely left Earth in a rocket they've been building and spending all of their money on since 2025. To put the cherry on top, they went ahead and bombed every city to ensure that we couldn't survive. Although... a lot of us did.

It's been ten years since they left in 2040 and the world has just been chaos since the major governments left. Some people have been making clans and their own governments to make up for the anarchy. Despite the general belief by everyone that the formation of groups is restoring our world, I do believe its more for competition than peace for the whole world. If you've ever took a history class though, you would know that this isn't too new. For centuries, it's been continuously fought over who controls what part of the world. I would say it's not too different now-a-days other than the fact that it's no longer a controlled government but literal crackheads in majority of these groups. Oh! Right. You can't forget the lingering radiation.

I'm Lennon Mickey and I'm twenty-four years old. I know that this is an awkward introduction and I'm aware I have a goofy last name. I'm also aware I'm speaking into a void but this is a good way to keep myself sane in a world where societal unity doesn't exist anymore. Since the world went to shit, I've been traveling around the world with anything to protect myself against the rebellious clans that are spread around and grabbing supplies. My main goal? Survive as long as I can and, hopefully, have a part in fixing this insane world.

I used to be with other people, and they were all older than me at the time. The first group I was able to get in was with five other people. I was fifteen, a year after the chaos started, and all of the people in this small group were starting to get into their twenties. It was all new to us. We were all trying to figure out how to adjust to the new world that we had forcibly been put in. No one cared about trying to fix anything because the number one problem was trying to survive the deadly environment and anarchy the world contained.

Weird thing is, I can't remember how I ran into the group and how I even managed to join it. In fact, I can't even remember when I was the ripe age of fourteen whenever this all first transpired. Whatever hell was let loose on the world, the very beginning of the apocalypse is a blank in my memory. Although, I'm able to vividly remember some memories after I joined the group.

One day, while bunking in an old cabin in a forest one winter, we were doing what we always did. Searching for supplies and shelter. We were rummaging through boxes and crates to find anything that could help us getting through the harsh winter.

Ever since the nuclear blasts, when it came to seasons; weather, temperature, you name it, it was outlandishly different compared to Earth before 2040. It felt like -30 degrees Fahrenheit during this particular winter season. If I recall correctly, our group was in the south part of Tennessee which pre-bombs, barely got even 1 degree below in the winter time. Don't even get me started on summer. Getting through the wasteland is like scavenging the devil's lair. It forever surprises me that the humans, including me, that still roam this wasteland of a planet manage to survive and adapt to these terrible conditions.