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Chapter Seven: Reunion

"Daddy!" She yelled.

"Hannah!!" Ellie screamed as loud as she could, and she rushed forward, grabbed their daughter through the gibbet cage, and hugged her as hard as she could. "Hannah, how did you get out of that? How did you survive?"

"The overpass!" She said. "One of the overpasses had a door that led into a tunnel, and I just took from a nearby taco truck. I tried to come back to the house, but there were some strange people around, so I had assumed you left. I went to the town to get help"

"Oh honey!" Ellie said, ripping open the gibbet cage and taking her out of the cage. "God you're so smart! I love you sweet heart!"

She hugged Hannah again as Rodney wrapped his big, strong arms around both of them, and they stayed there for a moment, in the mud and blood of the raiders, listening to the birds singing around them, and in the serenity, they began to cry. Their daughter truly was safe, and that was what mattered the most to them.

"Alright honey, there's a town not too far from here. You said you went there, right? We have to go back there. There's people,a and maybe we can even send you to school there."

"Noooo, I don't want to go to school!"

Immediately, Ellie gave her the "no argument" look, and Hannah backed down instantly. She knew better than to argue with mom, especially when her mother just killed six people in cold blood. They looked around at the carnage all around them, staring at the dead raiders, most of the laying face down in the mud, and it began to rain. They laughed a little bit at the timing of the rain, and they began to walk back towards the motorcycle. He hoped they would all fit on it, when Hannah suddenly spoke.

"Dad, are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah I'm okay." He said. "I've just been worried about you, sweetie."

She smiled up at him, then back up at her mom as she walked in between them.

"Did you guys meet Elite?" She asked. "He's really nice, and he has a camel! He warned me it might spit on me though."

"It probably would have, kiddo." He said, and was about to speak again, when he was cut off by a roar up ahead.

He stopped, putting his hand over Hannah, and way up ahead, near their motorcycle, lay the biggest, most disgusting bear that he'd ever lay his eyes on. It was horrible, having been burned by the bombs, and it had blood pooling around its eyes, bits of its skull showing, and its tongue hung out of his mouth, horribly scarred by cancerous growths. It was terrible to look at, as it lumbered towards their motorbike, and Ellie grabbed her husband by the shoulder.

"Shoot it." She said. "That thing is gonna kill all of us."

"Alright, stand back."

"Daddy, don't kill the bear."

"Honey, I have to." He said. "It's gonna attack. The radiation could have made it more aggressive and I'd rather not find out."

He looked back at the bear, at is pink skin that was burned up by the radiation, and he knew that they couldn't take any chances. He racked the shotgun, aimed it right at the bear, and fired, blasting a huge hole right through its heart. The bear roared, confused and hurt as blood poured out of the wound, it after just a moment, it dropped down, dead.

And Hannah began to cry. She sobbed right into her mother's arms as he bear let loose a sad groan, and he knelt down.

"Honey, look at your father." Ellie said, her voice gentle and soft. "It's alright. The bear had to go."