Playing God

Chapter 6 Déjà Vu

Somber silence makes up the most of our journey. We are supposed to get to a military base that could be abandoned. During training I heard that all communication systems were mysteriously broken when the power company arrived a few months ago. Then we ran out of power, and now here we are.

Quinton hobbles around ahead of us to the top of a hill, to get a better look at the landscape, "There!" he points. I look to where he is directing us, a fire pit with chairs and tents. I help Quinton walk down the hill and we scavange what we can. Carl grabs some ammo, I get some bandages and replace the one I already put on Quintons leg.

Carl enters the first tent and comes out with a revolver and a peice of paper, "Guys look a note." He says as he hands it to me. I unravel it and read it,

"You will die in 3, 2, 1, boom!" I say, I stand up a look around, Quinton drops to the floor. I don't see anyone near. "I guess they left, lets finish searching the tents before the writer of this note does come back." I command. We all get our own tent to search, I enter mine and find a body. A hole right in the back of their head prooves the guy who wrote this note ment business. I search the body but find nothing.

We regroup and count our supplies. I found an ammo clip and and a fresh apple. Quinton retrieved a machete and a few matches. Carl comes out with a crate thats labeled 'Last Resort'. We open it and seen an axe, frozen meats in a small cooler, and eight bottles of water that were also in the cooler. "Tonight, we dine like kings!" Quinton screams triumphantly. We parade out of the camp with our loot.

When night falls we light a fire with quintons new matches and boil some of the extra water we had before the crate. It was turning stale so we used it to make a broth. We added meats and carrots we found. But our little victory lap was ended by a loud obnoxious roar coming from the way we were supposed to me heading. We got up and finished our food so we could pack it away. We started walking again but the noise ended with 3 flares firing in the distance, maybe to signal other travelers like us.

The closer we got the further away it seemed. We reach the spot where the flares were lit and we see them on the ground. They must have took a hard fall from the height they were at. I see a pole with a note strapped to it, Quinton reads it aloud, "If you are reading this the nearest point of hospitality is the Grinbar Military Base located 3 miles east of this point."

"Thats where we are headed!" Carl announces. We all continue the journey as our legs get weaker. The moon drops and so do our spirits, then I reconize something. I get a feeling like I just read a sad book. The sunrise mixed with the wasteland reminds me of something I read as a kid, a poem I think. I can't tell whats real but I keep walking. I have seen this image before, but not by someone showing me. I saw it in my head.

We keep walking east and before we know it Quinton drops. He tries to get up but he can't. I catch up to him and try to help him. Hes trying to say something, I don't know what though. We haven't driken sense dinner and we didn't drink much. I get his bottle and give him some water and help him up. He points ahead and I ignore his gesture as Carl walks up the hill. His jaw drops open. I look where Quinton was pointing, I see a mishapen wall with scattered objects filling in the spots where there is no wall. People in wooden towers and walking around by the base. It looks like a basic military base during an apocalypse. "Ain't that a sight for sore eyes?" I ask.