The Art of Death Vol I

Chapter 4

  I fell asleep hard. I woke up to screaming ringing in my ears. 

 "It's time to leave, now!" I heard Elias yelling at me. I finally opened my eyes, and got up. I saw him panicking. 

 "What's wrong?" I asked.

 "Look outside!" He yelled at me. I opened the door, and peered outside. Multiple Beasts broke in last night. The gate door was wide open. 

 "We have to go!" Elias hollered. I grabbed my gun that I left next to me before I fell asleep. 

 "Do you have a gun?" I asked Elias. He lifted up his shirt and revealed one on his side." You had one the entire time?" 

 "No. I found it this morning in a drawer. I found bullets too," He explained, then handed me about ten handgun bullets. 

 "Do you have any?"

 "Yes, I split them in half, found twenty, plus this thing is loaded already!" We left in a rush. There were a few Beasts outside waiting for both of us. One was outside the door. I shot it after the door slammed into The Beast, and made him fall. I shot the thing in the chest, and blood splattered all over. I kicked the corpse out of my way, and walked towards the gate. Another Beast saw me, and screeched as ran towards me. I aimed and shot it in the legs and kicked it in the face while it was down on one knee and it landed against the fence, electrocuting it. 

 "Elias?" I asked. 

 "What?" He replied.

 "The electricity is still on, how did they get in?"

 "Beats me, but I guess maybe they knocked the lock loose after slamming on it." He assumed.

 Then, I felt something from behind grab me by the arm. I yelled out as I saw it was a Beast. It was an above average one that was taller, and very fat. 

 "Oliver!" Elias screamed, shooting the thing in the arm, knocking it off. I got up and ran a few feet away. "Damn spitters!" He yelled, and unloaded two bullets in its face before he went up and uppercutted it. The thing fell to the ground and he put a bullet in the back of its head.

 "What the fuck is a spitter?" I demanded. 

 " Spitters; they are advanced Beasts that plan an attack on their target. Like Dusks. Except Dusks typically run in packs like wolves. These guys are a bigger, fatter, slower version. They spit acid out that can blind you if you're not careful." 

 "Well yeah. The Beasts did kill billions of people." I sarcastically replied, then added, "How are we going to get to Canada, genius?" 

 "Survivalists always find ways, my dear Oliver." I couldn't help but agree with him, but going into the unknown, trying to find a safe way to travel, was next to impossible, but we are two people. Two brains. So, I figured there would have to be a safe way to get there. I still had my doubts about it. 

 My brain was fried. Out of everything, I had to live in this god forsaken time period. I swore, if I ever got bitten by one of those things, I would end myself. Luckily, I got this far, so what could there be to lose? Nothing. 

 We were walking out of the fenced in area. Through grass, and through woods. Closer to the city it was a lot of desert. 

 "Oliver?" Elias called my name. 

 "Yes?" I responded. 

 "What would the time be at this moment?" I looked at the sky. The sun was beating hot, and it was in the center of the sky.

 "About midday, or 12-1 in the afternoon." 

 "Good, that means we have five or six hours before the sunsets." It was the dead end of winter, so the sun still sets early. 

 "Where are we going?" He had yet to tell me his plan and how we would get there. 

 "I assume San Fransisco, or what's left of it. There are abandoned buildings, hopefully we can stay in one of them for a few days until we find some type of ride to get us to Canada. I know how to repair some stuff, but not cars, because cars are not built to last. I know one thing that might work though." Going to Beast infested San Fransisco didn't sound like the greatest idea, but if he can repair something, I'm sure we can get out of here. 

 "So what will we travel by?" I asked. 

 "Most likely by train," he answered. Makes sense, they are built to last because they weren't commercial. They were used for transportation of goods. Even when we advanced so much, we still kept railroads.

 "So what would we need to repair the train?"

 "Depends, really. It's Much easier than preparing a car. There is no way to jumpstart them anymore since there are no more wires. So, if we don't have a key or it was sitting for a while, it won't start. Not to mention the computer system for theft protection. So, you would need a pin and I.D. to start it. The problem is that there's no chance of finding out a pin for a specific car and the matching I.D card. The biggest shortfall being the inventor put everything on one network, which, naturally, we have no way to access it." 

 "How do you know this?" 

 "Self-taught, I had a lot of time on my hands. Plus reading newspapers from 2097 and before, and countless written records." 

 "Do you keep them?" 

 "Only a few at a time. I don't want dead weight to bring me down." 

 "So I guess you don't have any right now?" 

 "Nope, but there's bound to be some in San-Francisco. Maybe a library, and a record building. I really haven't checked that far yet."

 "Okay, I guess," I softly spoke, slightly disappointed. That stuff interested me. I looked around. We were surrounded by trees. I've never been through here- a shortcut maybe?

 "What time is it?" Elias spoke up. "Hmm..." I hummed. I studied the sky for a second. The sun moved down a little, then I added, "About 2:00 or 3:00."

 "At least three hours," he guessed. "Good, enough time."

 "How long until we get there?"

 "Well we have three miles left, I reckon. So about an hour, hour and a half. If we spend time looking for shelter for an hour, we might just make it. Dusks come out at night, not at dusk. Which is ironic, but we probably have twenty minutes past seven until it's almost night out. Another ten until all light is gone."

 "Guessing?" 

 "Yep, but I learned I'm not far off from learning, reading, and other stuff." I shook my head. I misjudged this man. He had great survival techniques. He was smart and brave.

 "I have to apologize," I suddenly spoke up.

 "For what?" He asked quizzically confused.

 "I misjudged you. You are smart and brave." I admitted. "It's ok," He sighed, "You have to be smart and brave in these times. You have to protect yourself first. I can't blame you."

 "True, but still," I sighed in relief myself. I looked around, and saw light at the end of the woods. It was about a quarter mile away. I knew we were almost there.

 We walked out of the woods and saw dozens upon dozens of cars just sitting there; covered in moss, dirt, and other things Mother Nature did.

 "We haven't encountered a Beast in awhile," I noticed. 

 "Yeah, because most are in the city," he explained, "Very few travel far enough to get to the woods, without nature getting to them first." I shook my head, and saw a sign that said: "San-Francisco, two miles." We were close. I knew it.  

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