Defiance | Book 1 [EXTENDED]

CHAPTER 3

          When I was younger, there was this man who lived down our street. Warned us that some crazy invasion would kill us all. He was psychotic and I remember my dad telling me not to listen to lunatics like him because they can't prove anything and they spent their time star gazing and smoking pot. I now wish I had listened to him.

I walked across the streets and entered the abandoned building. The old apartment had been my miserable home for two years and had kept me hidden, for now. I wasn't planning on staying here but this is where I felt safe, where I planned, where I slept, where I ate, where I kept all my things. This was my temporary home. Not a proper, fully functional home, but it was good enough and served it's purpose. There wasn't any electricity but I lived on a solar powered lamp that I found, and would keep it by the window in the morning and hang it up on a hook attached to the ceiling at night. For a small lamp it lit up the place pretty well, revealing my cracked walls which were plastered with photos of my family and maps with routes for my escape.

I had a mangy white cat visit me occasionally, technically not my cat, but a stray which I called my own after frequent visits. He probably felt the same way I felt. Scared, lonely, suicidal. I called him Wilson, like from Cast Away. He was my comfort, the only thing that kept me sane.

I emptied a can of tuna into a bowl and gave it to the him which he received thankfully with a purr and a quick leg rub before devouring the whole thing. I pulled out the black sleeved shirt, a fresh pair of undies and the cargo pants from my bag, removing the tags. I walked into the tiny bathroom and shut the door. The small glass shower cubicle was stocked with boxes of necessities; deodorant, 'lady things', old clothes, medicine anything I found, I collected. I wasn't a hoarder, I was a scavenger...they're different.

I took my clothes off and slipped the new ones on, adjusting my necklace as it spun around. I would change in the living room, but I didn't feel comfortable, I felt like someone was always watching me, and I didn't mean the cat.

The plumbing didn't work, instead I had found a way to run a pipe through the wall into a drain outside. My handyman skills were not perfect but  a few days of hard work and several blisters got the job done.

I couldn't shower everyday. The only water supplied was the water collected in the tub. There was a hole in the ceiling above the tub. Whenever it rained the water would drip down and fill it. There wasn't any chances of acid rain in this area, and even normal rain was scarce. That's all I had. Drinking water was too precious to waste, only a few bottles of filtered water would be found at a time. At this time everything I found was valuable and rare, even the basics. Mostly food. I had to scavenge for the last remaining leftovers. The cat was very privileged, it ate better than me.

For an eighteen year old, I was pretty good with my survival skills. I was a girl scout when I was twelve. Quite the experience actually. I kissed my first boy at camp and came home with cooties. Yeah, when I said experience, I didn't mean it in a good way.

I took martial arts after school every Tuesday after school when i was thirteen and broke my arm...twice. I was captain of the girl's cross team when I was fourteen and then at the age of sixteen I was put up against something that changed my life forever.

I walked out of the bathroom tying my hair into a bun, the hair- tie dangling from my teeth. The cat comfortably stretched a yawn on my bed. Oh, how could I forget? My bed. The creaky mattress on the floor I call my bed, gives me back pains every morning. I should be grateful though, compared to the floor it was pretty comfortable. The bed frame was completely broken and it sat in the bedroom with all the other junk. None of the sockets worked so the kitchen was useless as well. So I looted a mini barbecue which I heated my food on, gathering charcoal every month from the gardening workshop, which I found extremely handy with tools and parts. Everything happened in the living room. It's where I slept, cooked, and worked.

I got a good view of the 'things' from my window which had heavy curtains that blocked light. They couldn't see me. I tinted the glass so they couldn't see any of my movement. I looked outside and saw two of them now, walking around the block, their black, armored jumpsuits almost camouflaged in the dark. The cat jumped up onto the window and hissed seeing the men below. I stroked it and it sat, licking it's paws. I opened one of the canned pineapples and stared out the window.

I remember when trees were still alive. The rain now is unsuitable for trees to grow and all that grows here are the population of mutants. I kept a fake plant inside, the only one I could find, it reminded me of Oklahoma. The trees were lush and green. Our neighbors had a tree-house and their boys would occupy it constantly. The tree in our garden had an old tire attached to a sturdy rope that swung back and forth to the wind. I would sit and Dylan would push me, and I would look up and see the green leaves smile down at me.

I was cold, and the sheets were pulled up all the way. Wilson sat near my feet, his body warming my cold toes. I was too scared to sleep, I have always been since that day. Scared that I'd wake in Craig's laboratory. I can't remember the last time I had more than 5 hours of sleep. I was a light sleeper and I kept a baseball bat next to the mattress and my gun beside it, in case. I shut my eyes trying to clear my mind and get some sleep but my mind was elsewhere.

  I could hear gunshots. I was in a room. A bright white light turned on and reflecting off the spotless white walls, blinding me. I was strapped to a chair and couldn't move. A lady walked up to me. Her blonde bob-cut, barely brushing against her white suit. She was followed by three men in lab coats. The three men were unusually tall, they were a different kind of mutant, their eyes were bright blue and dim unlike the green eyed ones that shone like a neon glow stick. They immediately found a place in the room like it was practiced numerous times before. One of them held up an injection, empty. Another, held a small silver box as the third one opened it. The woman had normal, hazel eyes that looked at me the whole time. She turned and reached into the silver box and took out a container containing a blue liquid and used the injection to suck it all up. I was too shocked to move as the turned back to me and gave me a sickening grimace, "I've waited a long time for this, Ms Steine"