The day after the end

Adapt to survive

I was on the edge of Sacramento with some blind guy that I've never met before, walking away from a nuclear wasteland, so I guess you could say that I was having an eventful afternoon. While walking and talking to the man I had met earlier that day, I had learned that his name was John, he was sixty seven years old, and that he had no family or friends. As I walked with him, I considered my situation. Having a blind man accompanying me would be somewhat of an inconvenience and would slow me down, but I can't just let a fellow man stumble around into his inevitable death, and having any other human around gave me comfort. (This I would soon realize, does not always apply.) halfway Down the path I realized something, I needed water. I'm so stupid, I forgot to bring water and I could feel my throat start to dry.

One mile later and I could hardly breathe, my throat ached, I had a headache and it was starting to get to me. As I looked over at the old man I was helping guide, I could see that he was in the same predicament. He was wheezing and sweating profusely, he walked with an ungracious limp, and I could see that he was in a bad way. About two more miles and a large fence materialized in front of us. We eventually worked are way up to it where we could get a better look. I don't remember this? when did they have time to build a fence?

I could see that it was strung up with barbed wire and secured tightly. There was a plastic tent built behind it. I had only seen one of these in a movie where they quarantined sick people and decontaminated them. I could see men with hazmat suits patrolling the border, spraying the line where the fence touched, with a bad smelling chemical. There were more men with gas masks standing at the ready with rifles. Behind them were many people lined up, some with suit cases and some with only their pajamas. As we approached, the man with the rifle immediately spotted us and raised his gun, "You're two days to late son" he said. "What" I said, "all evacuations ended two days ago,You've been exposed to radiation for too long, we can't let you out".

No wonder I was so thirsty and weak, I had been out for two days. "There must be something you can do I said". "James"! he yelled over his shoulder. Another man came out of the plastic tent holding a few water bottles and some packaged food, as well as a first aid kit. He walked up to the edge and tossed them over to us, "good luck" he said and disappeared back into the tent. I yelled at them for fifteen more minutes or so but they didn't acknowledge me anymore and just looked away. seeing as there was no way to climb the fence, and they had guns, I backed off. John, who had been oddly silent this whole time, collapsed behind me. I ran over to him, he must have had a heat stroke or been to dehydrated. I looked back pleadingly at the guards, who just shook their heads and looked away. I tried resuscitating him with the water bottles I had been given, but the combination of his old age, heat stroke, and dehydration, and he was gone in minutes. A sick feeling fell over me as I had the sudden realization that I was all alone in this horrible place. With nothing else I could do, I decided to head back into the city to find supplies. I headed for a few untouched houses that I saw in the distance.

The first house I came across had all of the siding peeled off and some broken windows, but other than that, looked relatively untouched. I wouldn't have any trouble from the owners, seeing as everyone had been evacuated two days earlier. I found some canned foods but no more water, and the fosset didn't work. I moved on to two more in the span of an hour. But on the fourth house something happened. I was scooping out canned goods and getting ready to leave the fourth house, when I heard a noise. I turned around to see someone in the doorway, they were wearing a paintball helmet to cover their face, and had a baseball bat with some nails through it in the other hand. He looked like something out of a bad zombie movie, this guy has defiantly watched do many apocalypse shows. He looked at me and said " give me all of your supplies or this will get ugly, I know enough movies to know how this goes. I'm going to need those supplies more than you do". This guy has obviously lost it and is thinking irrationally. " think about this man, we can work together" I said. "I've seen the movies, you'll stab me in the back" he said. I suspected in an environment like this, some people couldn't take the pressure and would go slightly crazy, but there was no reasoning with this kid. " just let me out and I'll be on my" *suddenly he swung the bat at me, lodging it in the side of my arm*

I cried out in pain, as blood gushed, when he pulled the bat from my arm. I instinctively struck him with a left hook, sending him off balance, into the wall. He wildly swung back with no control whatsoever. I ducked down and elbowed him in the back of the head as he passed. He slid forward into the kitchen counter, sending dishes flying to the floor, he turned around and struck me in the face with the base of the bat. I fell back dazed and held my nose, where blood was pouring out. I stood up suddenly and smeared the blood on my hand, across his mask, blinding him. He swung at me with all of his might but missed, seeing as the blood had blinded him. I stuck my foot out and tripped him, he sailed at full force onto the kitchen counter. He landed directly on an upturned knife in the drying rack, he cried out with a yelp that was quickly silenced as he lurched and then slumped back off of the counter and crumpled to the floor, a knife in his chest.

I stood back in shock of what had happened, I had killed a man. It felt like an eternity but in reality, it all took place in a matter of about ten seconds. I looked at the blood on my hands, shoulder, and then to the boy lying limp,on the floor, with a knife in his chest. Blood oozing out and making a puddle underneath him. I fell to my knees, I had killed a man! No a boy, he couldn't have been older than eighteen. Little did I know that this was only the start of the horrors to come...

A/N was It good? Leave a comment to let me know, i have plenty of ideas
So tell me if you want me to continue. Leave a vote and thanks for
Reading my story.