When the earth went dark

Home Base

         "Matt, wake up. It's time to go." Said Kaden, shaking me awake. I slowly opened my eyes, half expecting my wife to be there, lay next to me. All I wanted was to see her beautiful blue eyes and her golden hair. For a second I believed she was still there, then I remembered she was buried in the backyard. "Okay, I'm up." I said slowly, yawning while I stretched out my arms. For a few moments I sat there, just thinking. "What're you thinking about?" Kaden asked me curiously. I snapped out of my trance, looking at him. "Just my family. I was never around, always too busy with my job." I told him, cupping my head in my hands.

         Walking towards the exit, I looked into a room on my left. It was my sons. His room had a huge space theme going on, rockets on the wallpaper, a model solar system around the light that created shadows of the planets as it rotated, hell even his bed was shaped like a rocket ship. "Fuck. Kaden, they were taken too soon, they didn't deserve to die like that." I looked at Kaden with genuine pain in my eyes, my hands were trembling and I wanted to break down, "I should have made more time while I had the chance." I said mustering the courage to punch the wall.

         The structure of the building was weak, the sound from the wall echoed throughout the house causing parts of the roof to crumble more. "Matt, I think it's time for us to go. That punch may have attracted runners." Said Kaden, looking around through the visible windows. We exited the house and began down the street.

         We picked up the pace as runners advanced, there were around ten. Taking that many on at the same time would be suicide. Sprinting as fast as we could, we couldn't escape, we knew what we had to do. "Matt, see if you can find anything that could help us." Looking around I saw a car, the doors had rusted shut but it should work. I broke the window and hopped through, breaking the other window with the assumption that I could make it start.

         Beginning to cross the wires, I looked up, getting a glance at Kaden firing shot after shot at the runners. Sparks flew from the wires, then the sound of an engine could be heard starting. "Kaden! Jump through the open window." He turned, running towards the car. Worrying for Kaden, I shouted, "Kaden, hurry up!" Kaden ran as fast as he could and jumped through the shattered window, immediately I hit the gas, avoiding as many runners as I could. Even though I gave it my all, runners were hit, splattering blood and guts on the windows.

         We got out of there as more runners showed up, the car didn't handle so smoothly but we managed to get out of there. "What is this?" Said Kaden, looking amazed and confused at the same time. "This is a mode of transportation, it was known as a car in the before times." I replied genuinely curious at how he lost his memory. "How did you manage to lose your memory?" Kaden looked at me, a little lost at first, then his eyes lit up. "There was this uhh." He paused, nearly punching himself in the head, trying to kick start his memory. "It was on my TV." His eyes lit up, remembering. "There was a warning to get somewhere safe for some sort of event, me and some others went into a nearby cave. The trembles in the ground, they threw us around and we hit our heads hard." I looked at Kaden in silence for a moment before speaking. "Kaden, are you beginning to remember?" He stared at me, looking as if he was trying really hard. "God fucking damn it." He said to me, trying to remember. "What?" I asked him, trying to focus on the road. He started to look sad. "I can't remember who I used to be."

         We both sat in silence as we approached a forest. Parking the car, we got out, "Follow me, stay close." Kaden said, He walked into the forest confidently. Leading me towards where the other survivors had made a home for themselves. Walking through the towering trees, their branches intertwining like a thick rope, we proceeded onward to locate the cave, eventually we found the mountain, a dark hole dimly lit by the light of a fire could be seen on the outskirts of the base. "We're here." Said Kaden whistling a couple of times to let the other survivors know we were here. "Who's he?" Came a female voice came from within.

         "Ayaka, this is Matthew." Said Kaden raising his arms, showing no harm. An Asian woman stepped out from the shadows, she had long black hair with emerald eyes. "Ayaka, that's a cool ass name." Said Matthew, sorta staring at her. "Come on Matthew, don't get any ideas." Said Kaden, slapping me on the back jokingly. Ayaka looked at Kaden, unamused. She sorta eyed Matthew up and down. "Got any weapons?" She asked him, cautiously approaching from the shadows of the cave.

         "Just a knife, it's holstered on my ankle." I said, standing completely still, raising my arms in hopes that Ayaka didn't see me as a threat. "Show me." Said Ayaka, moving to stand close to Kaden. "Ayaka, it's cool." Said Kaden, "He needs a new home, who is better than with survivors." Ayaka looked towards Kaden as if to say that he was insane. "No way." Said Ayaka, still cautious of me. Meanwhile I stood there with my pant leg raised, showing my blade to Ayaka. Kaden and Ayaka were still fighting, "Ayaka, he saved my fucking life, more than once." Said Kaden finally in one last hope Ayaka would let me stay. She looked at me once more before waving her hand, basically saying "fine, follow me." Ayaka walked back into the cave, Kaden and Matthew stuck close together. "She'll warm up to you once she gets to know you Matt" I nodded, staying silent. "Matthew, welcome to home base." Said Kaden, extending his arms.