Today seemed to be colder than the past ones, I'm not sure if it was just because of the dull greenish clouds covering our overly red sun or it was because I knew what the cold brought with it. Here on our medium-sized farm in the middle of an open field surrounded by forest, we feared the cold days and welcomed the almost unbearable heat. Because heat kept the monsters away and the cold brought them out from their hiding places. No one knows precisely why the heat keeps the fuckers away but most of us don't really want to know, we're happy just knowing that it does.
Most of the time when we have cold or cloudy days like this one we'll stay inside and try to stay out of the view of whatever lurks by the nearby trees. But we haven't had a very good crop season and can't risk losing any product to the things that wander by, so on this oh so unforgiving day me, my mom Vivian, my dad deacon and my two friends logan and Lexa are out in the fields picking lumpy slightly purple apples and overly brown tomatoes. unusual colours for those foods I know you can blame the radiation, I know I do. " uh hey logan" I say not even turning to look at the fluffy brown-haired and green blue-eyed synth. I could feel him look at me. I've known logan my whole life, according to mom he helped deliver me. She loved to tell me the story of how they found him in a dumpster in one of the settlements. He had been shut down and was leaking blue fluid, my dad fixed him up and he's been with us ever since. He was apparently a doctor at some point.
" yes Reagan, is something wrong?" I side look at him to see that he had gone back to picking apples. But he pauses when I say " am I the only one that gets a very bad feeling about being out here right now, I feel like we're being watched." he comes closer to me and places one half-skin and half machine hand on my shoulder and the other on my left cheek, his touch was cold but comforting " if I'm being honest with you Reagan, I don't feel very brightly about being out here either but we don't really have any other choice. it's either this or starving." I know he's right but that still doesn't change the rising hairs on my arms and neck and the sick notty feeling in my stomach " I know but still, I have this feeling that something really horrible is gonna come out of those trees" logan seeing my unease pulls me to his chest and hugs me tight for a minute then abruptly let's go at the sound of Lexa barking angrily then whimpering somewhere in the field.
Just as her whimpers start to get louder meaning that she is running in our direction, we hear rustling coming from the near tree line to our right. When Lexa runs straight past me she nearly makes me shit myself till I realize that she'd have to be running from something, she heads in the direction of the house and my parents. I look up at logan and grab his hand before sprinting in the same direction. " MOM! MOOOM! DAAAD!!!" no answer. Shit not good defiantly not good.
I continue to yell and scream their names only to be met with nothing but my pounding heartbeat and rushing footsteps. I hear more rustling but it's coming from close behind both me and logan. We reach the house and I see Lexa hiding under the table, she's shaking. That's not a good sign. I look back at logan and he's watching me with worry in his eyes.
We search the whole house but come up empty, we walk back out to the front porch and look out through the crops. seeing plants being pushed aside like someone is running through them my breathing start to pick up to the point of hyperventilating, and outcomes mom and dad holding hands and sprinting towards us and the house " mo" I was cut short by her yelling " get in the fucking house, go now. their coming!" logan drags me through the front door and pushes me behind him as he watches and waits for mom and dad to reach the door. But they never do.
Out of nowhere two Redhounds bolt towards them, crashing and knocking them to the ground. mom struggles to get the one off her as a third one comes and takes a chunk out of her neck spraying blood everywhere, mom didn't even have a chance to scream. The one on top of her started tearing into her chest. I froze and watched the light dim from her eyes and her body go limp. I go to gather breath to scream or cry but nothing comes out and I drop to my knees as my eyes fill with tears. I can't move or talk, all I can do is watch as the three of them rip apart my parents.
"Reagan come on get up we need to leave, there's more coming. come on please we need to leave!" yells logan but all I can do is watch. I feel logan lift me up into his arms but I can't see anything with the endless amount of tears streaming down my face. He whistles to Lexa then with me in his arms he rushes us to the back door and out of the house and runs towards the river and up a hill. He then sets me down on a rock to look me over. I can see that he's talking to me but his voice sounds so far away, I stare in the direction of the house and see a growing glow coming from where the house is. The leader must not have found anything useful.
"Reagan, honey look at me. you're in shock. I need you to look at me" I turn my head slightly to look at him only to see right past him. The images just keep playing again and again. logan puts both his hands on the sides of my face so I focus in on him, and I feel something soft and fluffy rub up against my leg and move my hand to pet lexa's head. It surprisingly calms me down and I can focus better on Logan's face.
With my tears finally coming to an end I can choke out some words "it's gone, their gone. our home my parents it's all gone." logan pulls me to him and I hug him tightly and say " what do we do now, where do we go?" he pulls back and looks me in the eyes and says" I don't know Reagan, but we can't stay here. it's not safe" I nod my head and he helps me stand "we should follow the river down it may lead to a settlement," Logan says as he gently pushes on my lower back to direct me in the direction we need to go. I whistle to Lexa and we head down the river.
**********
It's been hours and the sun has already gone down, we are walking in the dark with the only light coming from the orange moon. So far we've come across a few headless cows and a giant snail but no place to set up camp, and my feet are starting to hurt which is causing me to continually trip over them. Night brings out the howlers which are like coyotes but they're blind and have two heads, so not really a threat. The giant bugs are what we should be worried about since they love to stay close to the water and well we are walking next to a fucking river. I trip over something and prepare to fall face first when I get caged in by strong arms " thanks logan, when can we stop. unlike you I need rest and sleep." he groans "you humans are so inconvenient " I elbow him in his metal ribs and let out a small giggle " yes, yes we are" he lets me out of his arm cage then points to a fallen tree leaning on a big rock and says " there we'll rest there for a bit, and I'll try to find you and Lexa something to eat." I smile up at him and head over to the rock and tree, I take a seat on the damp ground and call over Lexa who lays down beside me with her head on my lap.
It only takes a few minutes for logan to find something to eat, lucky for him his eyes allow him to see in the dark. " alright I'm back and I found a waga barry bush" "yay waga barriers, who doesn't love unknown radiated fruit" logan gave me a huff and a scowl " hey it's the best I could find and I scanned it's not that bad it's eatable and you won't die or get sick unless you eat like a hundred in one sitting" I crack a smile " thank you logan, I really do appreciate it. it's just that..." I let my sentence drop because I couldn't bear to relive what had just happened only mere hours ago. logan comes to sit next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder and lightly starts to rub my upper arm " I know, it's ok" he hands over the berries and I start to dig in while also giving lexa some as she's probably hungry too.
once done the berries I lay my head on Logan's shoulder and drift off to sleep.
*******
I bolt up to a standing position and form what I can imagine as a poor excuse for a defence pose. "ugh, damn that hurt" still in my pose I turn to look down at logan holding a hand up to the side of his head "huh?" I say not really understanding what happened "you rammed your head into mi.. wait hey Reagan you ok," he says seeing my pose and my sweaty persona, he slowly gets up and closes the space between us cautiously. "hey, hey your ok. we're safe for now. what happened? one minute you were sleeping then you bolted up like yo... oh" he stops short as he looks over my face fully. "you had a nightmare didn't you" I tightly nod my head " it was like we were back there, it was so real. though this time they came for you and Lexa too." a tear escapes my right eye " oh Jesus. Reagan I'm so sorry." he captures my shoulders and cages me to his chest as I try to remind myself that we're safe, for now.
YOU ARE READING
Rotten World
PertualanganShit gets weird when the world is broken Reagan was born in the desecrated and mutated land of what was once known as the city of Calgary. Reagan and her parents make a living by farming the land and trading with caravans that pass by. other then h...
