The End

Bandits

"You okay?" asked Myles concernedly as we continued to walk slowly down the beaten road. "You sort of went wild back there" he said, a hint of worry and what sounded like fear in his voice.

"Yeah I'm okay" I replied avoiding Myles's gaze "it's just that...back at my home settlement..." a lump rose in my throat "my father was killed by mutants in an attack and...I don't know, from then on I turn into an animal whenever I fight these abominations that have populated the surface."

Myles looked genuinely sorry at this sentence and said "I'm sorry about your father Jason". I smiled at the obvious sincerity of his sentence and said "thanks Myles, that means a lot to me". "Don't mention it" he replied waving his hand dismissively.

After a minute of walking Myles asked "Don't you think that was strange just now?" "What was?" I answered. Myles pondered for a moment before saying "well, the fact that there are malakists so close to salvation city, and the fact that the first malakist I shot had a bullet wound in it's shoulder".

"Why would a bullet wound be strange on a malakist?" I asked in confusion. "Well" continued Myles "as you know by now malakists travel in packs and if they had attacked a previous wanderer or trader they would most likely all have wounds, but only one had a wound and it was still able to walk." "what does that mean?" I asked, my confusion rising along with an increasing feeling of unease.

"Well the thing is" answered Myles "if a normal bullet hit a malakist in the shoulder the bones would be damaged or snapped and the muscles too, meaning it wouldn't be able to use the limb properly." I nodded, my confusion still gradually turning into unease.

"But since it was there I'm beginning to suspect that something was injected unprofessionally into the malakist's shoulder recently, explaining why it was still alive rather than dead and also causing it to become infected and swell, making it look like a bullet wound". The possibilities of what could've been injected, or who injected it, Swirled in my mind. "Well I'm not sure about this" said Myles "but I still have a bad feeling about that last encounter." "Agreed" I nodded.

As we continued to walk further out to the suburbs I began to notice a change in the environment. The bushes seemed to be lighter in colour and the trees less dead looking. "Hey Myles" I called. "Yeah?" came the lazy reply. "Is it just me or are the plants getting healthier looking?" Myles laughed "My my Jason, aren't you observant; yeah the plants are getting healthier. When the apocalypse happened and the bombs fell, not all of London was hit and the further out you go the healthier the plants will be, but not necessarily the creatures or people.

I sighed at that "shame" I muttered. "It is" agreed Myles and we continued to walk on. The breeze was gentle here and a sweet scent of... What was it? "Can I smell flowers?" I said out loud. Myles stopped and sniffed the air. "..No" said Myles his face focused as he tried to put a label to the scent "from what I know I think that smells like weed". "Weed?" I asked, I had never heard of such a thing. "Well" started Myles, "weed is a sort of cigarette I guess, but a bit more special than ordinary ones." "How so?" I asked feeling curious about 'weed'. "Well" smiled Myles "it gives you a sort of fuzzy happy feeling for a while and it's a good way to escape reality for a bit." I smirked at that "it was a plant grown before the bombs fell and personally I don't like it" Myles shook his head with displeasure at a past memory "gives me a headache and I can't remember things".

I laughed and Myles grinned "I know it's funny but I wouldn't recommend it, it can kill you and it's not very good for you". I sobered up a bit after that, "anyway that means there's someone smoking the weed nearby so lets be cautious", Myles raised his AK and moved up the road to the intersection there.

He looked back at me and I readied my gun before nodding. Myles whipped round the corner and I ran after him to see... I blinked, and stared, there in the middle of the road sat a large balding man next to a large camping tent and a burning campfire.