When the earth went dark

Expedition

Waking up, I rubbed my eyes, once again expecting to be lay next to my wife again, those couple of seconds lay there feeling like nothing happened before I wake up realizing my life is gone, straight to fucking hell. First awake and lonely, I heard a noise coming from deeper within the cave, like a growl. "Kaden, Ayaka." I said, shaking them both awake.

"What do you want, Matthew?" Said Ayaka, opening her eyes, another growl could be heard quietly echoing through the cave, bouncing off the walls, Ayaka's eyes widened, "We should really check that out." She said standing up, "Here take this." She said, handing me a torch after lighting it on the fire.

We advanced towards the noise, Kaden continued to sleep, both of us had weapons raised as we walked closer and closer towards the noise still bouncing off the walls, getting louder and louder as we drew closer. Eventually we reached the sound of the noise, it was within a giant cave, a pit, dropping a torch down into the cave. It illuminated the bottom, revealing hundreds of runners. "We can't deal with this, there are way too many." I said to Ayaka, backing away.

Heading back towards Kaden, we heard the growls of runners up at the top of the cave. "Fuck this, Ayaka, that hoard, its drawing straggling runners from outside." I say holding my blade in a more defensive position. Ayaka gave me a look of relief. "Damn it, thank god you got here when you did Matthew. If you didn't show up with Kaden when you did, I would be, no. We would be dead right now." She said embracing me, tears falling from her eyes. "I-" she stammered. "I'm afraid to die..." She admitted, continuing the embrace for a longer than usual period of time.

"Ayaka, we won't let you die. We are all going to make it to the end, together." I said reassuring her, returning the hug, "and truth is, Ayaka. I'm also afraid to die, but it's strong emotions that keep us going, knowing that the people we lost are up above, giving us strength, it's like armor, protecting us from failure and while we have each other's backs when needed, we will make it out alive." I told her, wiping the tears from her eyes. She nodded, agreeing with me, putting on a brave face as we walked back towards Kaden.

Arriving back, the clear sounds of a runner was coming from the outside of the cave. "Wow, that barrier was a real lifesaver." Said Ayaka, breathing rapidly, trying to calm herself down. Taking Ayaka by the shoulders, I could feel her shaking, trembling with fear. "Ayaka, wake up Kaden, I'm going to get rid of this stray runner." I told her, pointing towards a sleeping Kaden.

She approached Kaden and I looked back one last time, climbing over the little barrier, jumping off it, rolling out of the way of the runner who had turned its attention to me. The faint voice of Ayaka came from within the cave, in a stern voice she managed to muster up she said, "Kaden, get your lazy ass up now, we need to help Matthew, he's out there protecting us." I smiled, holding my blade up high. The mutant human got closer and closer with every second. I struck, missing, slicing through the runner's arm severing it, the same green ooze dripped from the limb of the runner.

"Shit." I said aloud, accidentally. Looking past the runner who had slightly retreated, to attack from another angle, I saw the barrier fall. Kaden and Ayaka came running out, Ayaka, struck the runner from behind, cracking its skull. "One more good hit to the head will send this fucker back to the depths of hell." Kaden pulled out his blade, clearly the best fighter of us all, piercing the runner straight through the skull. It fell to the ground.

"Okay, let's put the wall back up then go on this expedition, we are way behind schedule." I said Walking towards the wall picking up a corner, "Hey, Kaden, Ayaka. Come help me with this." They both got a tight grip on the other corner of the wall picking it up, putting it back up against the cave entrance, securing it in place.

Walking back out of the forest with the others, back out of the tall, intertwining branches of the trees, I suggested an idea to the others, "Why don't we look for a new place to call home, put up walls around the new base and we stay there." The others turned to me, looking excited. Kaden spoke up, "I'm in, let's do it!" He said, overjoyed. Ayaka, was next to speak up, saying something I didn't expect, "It's a good idea, but there are two more of us, currently on a trip, should be back any day now."

Emerging from the forest, we arrived back at the car. Getting into it, I started the engine once more. We went on the road, searching for buildings to loot, or gather from. Eventually we came across a little neighborhood, in the middle of nowhere. It looked unlooted but just as run down as the rest of the world, however this place looked more barren, the radiation hadn't reached here. "Stay sharp everybody." Ayaka said to us as the car came to a stop. "Ok let's take two houses each." I replied, Kaden nodded as we all got out of the car. "Matt, be careful, you're not the best fighter so if you need help, shout. We will come running." I nodded my head, pulling out my knife.

Approaching my first building, I was away from Kaden for the first actual time, I was alone for this one. "Fuck, I hope I don't die here." I thought to myself. Peering into the window, I didn't see anything. Tapping on the door, I listened closely, waiting. "Must be clear." I thought to myself slowly opening the door. I took a step in, suddenly my nostrils got a thick scent of death, "Shit, maybe not." I thought, walking through the building cautiously.

Approaching the kitchen, I opened the door, slowly, half expecting to be jumpscared by a runner who had learned to stay silent. Thankfully that wasn't the case. Rummaging through the kitchen I opened the fridge, finding the motherload of water, soda and rotten milk, I cleared out the water and soda, placing it on the table, I continued my search, opening the cupboard, finding lasting snacks, potted noodles, crackers, bread. "How did it all survive?" I thought to myself. The last cupboard had a lock on it, looking around, I figured I could use the toaster to break the lock off. I raised it, striking the lock hard, it basically shattered like glass and the cupboard opened slowly, revealing a small handgun and 2 magazines of ammo, full. "Gun owners. Nice." I said aloud, taking the gun and ammunition from its wooden safe. I raised the gun, looking at it, inspecting it.

Continuing to search through the building, I found a rather large backpack. "Yes! This will help carry the supplies back to the car. I brought the bag back to the kitchen, loading it with all the water, soda and other supplies I found. Exiting the building, I heard Ayaka scream. Drawing the gun once more, I ran in the direction of the scream, Ayaka was cornered in a room with four runners blocking her in. Without a second thought I raised the gun, making sure the safety was off and fired a shot into the air, drawing the attention of all of them. "Thank fuck I'm so glad I learned how to shoot when I was younger." I thought as they ran towards me. Aiming in I pulled the trigger, It pierced the runners skull, ripping right through it, the runner fell to the ground.

"Ayaka, get out of there." I shouted, firing another shot, then another. Runner after runner fell until there was only one left. Ayaka saw me and the runners and ran from the kitchen, back into the open, with more places to escape to if needed. I put the gun away. "I've got this, I can't waste too much ammo here." I thought charging the runner, jumping on top of it I closed my eyes and stabbed, continuing to stab even after it stopped moving. "Matthew!" Ayaka said, "Matthew, It's dead, you can stop." Finally snapping out of it, I opened my eyes, the runner had been even more mutilated beyond the initial damage to the body.

"Where did you get that gun from?" She asked me, relieved that I got there when I did once again, "This is the second time today that you have saved my life." Reassuring Ayaka that it was nothing I told her, "I found it in the house I was in charge of looting, I was about to bring the supplies in the bag on my back to the car when I heard your scream, I came running as fast as I could. Just then Kaden came running around the corner.

"What the fuck is going on here?" He said, looking at the four dead runners on the ground, full of gunshot and knife wounds. "Well-" I began to say when Ayaka cut me off, "Matthew saved my life, again." She said, Kaden patted me on the back as a sign of respect. "Good work Matt, how about we stick together and come back another time. We all agreed, taking what we found back to the car, returning back to the cave to spend a couple more nights there before coming back and taking this place as our new home. "That was rough." Said Ayaka, "Yes it was, but it certainly was a good expedition." I replied as we drove