The Spark

The bunker: An introduction

My name is Elijah, and I have lived a normal life. I was born and raised in this bunker, I did alright in Education getting C grades from the start and have a simple labourer role in the safety of the bunker. But I feel empty, meaningless, like I'm not important, I'm of course reassured that its not like that. But no matter what others tell me I long for more. You see we've made contact with others outside of this horrendous place, people from the stars who we've been taking to for a while. There's a war going on and we're losing, brutal scavengers attack our patrols and try to take all we have, killing our children and murdering our old. These people from the stars are our only hope and they can't even do anything. From what we know we exist in a bubble, this bubble can usually be entered through something called "The rift" but the parasitic growth here stops anything physical from getting in, the roots need to be severed from the planet to let the outsiders in. Any group that was sent went missing as soon as they got close, we don't know if they are dead or in an even worse state, but it looks quite grim. We stopped trying recently, we're losing to many men but if we don't get rid of it they'll overrun us soon enough.

I've decided to take it on myself, I have a theory that the roots sense movement on the surface, the less people there are and the less vibrations they make the harder it is for that thing to sense you. I've taken a revolver from storage as well as a single clip for it and a suppressor that fits. Its all I could take without them noticing. I've hoarded rations for a little bit with the hope it'll last me the trip, I put on all the gear I have, my simple puffer jacket and some boots I have for work with my normal clothes as well, I take the first aid kit off my rooms wall and shove it into a backpack I have, as well as a flashlight and some rope just in case I need it. I also grabbed my dad's old compass he had from when he was a scout for the order and died on duty. I waited for lights out before I stood up off my bed, it was time.

I shoved the revolver into the holster that came with it before making my way out the door of my quarters and walking down the hall, each step was nerve racking, the thick metal floor made loud clanging noises as I took each step and I almost thought I'd have alerted the guards several times, and what would I tell them? I was going for a glass of water with a gun and a first aid kit. But each step was one step closer to my goal, as I reached the entrance of the bunker, I looked at the door, opening this would alert the guards, after this there was no coming back anymore. But I had made my choice as I flicked the switch to the door and it slowly started to creak silently, before a loud screech came from the door as it opened, as soon as I saw the light for the first time the sirens started blaring and I ran right through the now open vault door into the wasteland and all its murky green rubble, it was just like how they said it was and I was starting to have second thoughts. Maybe they'd understand I was trying to help? No, I have no choice but to do what I started, so early on in my adventure and I was already at the point of no return. Now I know what I signed up for, this wasn't going to be a walk in the park and the chances are I wouldn't be making it out the other side, but at least I'd have a honourable death and a legacy to leave behind, that's more then anyone else can expect here.

The smell hit me before anything else, the air was stale, worse then that, I can only describe it as decaying, the ground was soft and quiet, each step was a squish and I saw thick fleshy veins all over the ground, I tried my best not to step on them, the ground was so wet yet the air around me felt humid. The scariest thing of all is that I couldn't hear a thing, the silence was almost defining, all I could hear was the squish f my boots hitting the ground as I moved forward into the green mist.

After walking for what seemed like hours I came across some rubble of what seemed to be a city, pulling my silenced revolver from my holster as I slowly approached it, I made sure to step lighter into the moist ground as the structures got closer and easier to see. When I finally got close my ears perked up as I heard some squishing behind me, out of fear I turned and raised my revolver to see a man with a gas mask and a combat knife less then a meter away from me, I was shook on how he had gotten so close to me without making a sound, suddenly the man bumped into me and sent me to the ground. The gun was knocked out of my Paw, noticing this I went to reach for it but changed my mind the man Paw jumped onto me, trying to pin me to the ground while he raised his knife, I raised a Paw to grab his arm to stop him from plunging it deep into me, my free arm of course went for my revolver, but retreated to hold the knife above me as he put more weight onto it, I saw a look in his eyes, it was a look of pure desperation, he was going to kill me, I held him there for a second before realizing I needed to act or I'd run out of energy, I swung my leg up into his stomach, making him groan in pain and forcing him to roll off of me, I immediately grabbed my gun and stood up. As I got up, I turned to see him standing there with the knife and in reaction I raised my gun to aim for his head as a warning, but he charged at me anyways and I pulled the trigger.

I'd never seen someone die before; it was insane. I thought it'd just be a small hole where the bullet impacted but it went right through his skull, causing a bloody mess to escape out the other side of his head where the bullet left and he dropped dead, just like that his life was taken away from him by a single pull of the trigger.

After I'd come to my senses I walked up to the corpse holstering my weapon before kneeling down and going through his pockets, I took his knife, a Simple KA-BAR combat knife, he had a can of beans on him witch I also took. The gasmask had a bullet hole in it now so it was of no use to me anymore and he also had a lighter. After going that I stood up and dusted myself up, looking at the blood skull bits on the ground made me feel sick, so I left the corpse and continued into the city. Each step was heavier from before, I really just shot a man, dragged down to his level in a matter of moments, but I never had a choice it was me or him.

There must be others around here, he couldn't have been on his own so I continued to scavenge through the ruins but this place was empty, for what felt like hours I was looking around for anywhere I could crawl into and hopefully find something of use, until I came across what looked like a scrappy fortification of what seemed to be a partly standing building, I knew it was against my better judgment to approach it so I turned the other way before I heard a sound that sent shivers down my spine and made me freeze on the spot, a screech far from human, and its scent of rotting flesh hit me from afar, so again I turned around and decided to take my chances with the encampment that looked seemingly abandoned, I know I can't go through the main entrance or I risked taking a bullet to the face, so I thought I'd instead stab a hole through the scrappy shield wall and peek through, I know this mightn't be the best idea but what else can I do. Surprisingly enough it was empty so I took the front gate in and closed it behind me with a loud clang, there wasn't much furniture in here, aside from around 4 sleeping bags and nothing else but a lamp and a primitive looking bow on the ground, I've seen compound bows used by scouts at the bunker but never seen one that looks like this, it must've been thrown together with random bits. The main support of the bow or the Pawle was rebar, and the string was weak, as well as the arrows nearby being too made from rebar. How it works I don't understand. I didn't get to much time to think about it anyway as I heard the gate open and turned to see two men and another humanoid animal staring at me, all of witch where wearing gas masks and sported the same black uniform as the scavenger I had shot earlier, one of the men who was around the same height as me was holding wrench, the other human who was slightly taller then me was sporting a large spade and the Humanoid who I believe is a wolf holds what seems to be a military spear or at least some sort of modern one. As soon as they entered I pulled my combat knife I'd taken from the last man, wanting to save ammo on my revolver before I realized how many there where. From what I saw they had no weapons and I could see the wolf eyeing my revolver. We where at a standoff for around ten seconds before I heard that screech again, much closer this time then before, the three scavengers turned their attention to the gate as I pulled my revolver, a knife in one Paw and with my gun in the other I was feeling better about my chances of success now, until I heard a bang on the gate, we all stayed silent, I could smell it now, it had to be right outside.