No Happy Endings

Rise

Garter started having a panic attack. They had climbed through the caves for almost two hours and didn't even know if they were going in the right direction. How would they know? All they knew was that they were on an upward incline. Sam had found an old map of the caves, and there were faded paint marks that were intended to be trail blazes to guide people out of the bunker and to the surface.

"Breathe in for 8 seconds, then hold your breath for 4, and then exhale for 8. Okay?" Hannah said to Garter. Garter started inhaling as Hannah counted and Sam looked over the map. "One...two...three...four..." Garter continued to use this breathing method as Hannah looked through the purse for Garter's medication. Garter had major panic attacks and anxiety attacks, but they were getting better. Now they were down to just once a month. Garter's breathing was becoming normal again, and her heart pace was slowing down. Hannah gave her a pill and Garter took it. "Better." She said. "Let's keep walking."

The caves were cold, and damp, and dark. They all slipped more than once. At one time they heard bats. How could anything be alive? At one point, Garter shuttered. "What?" Hannah asked her. Hannah then noticed the giant centipede in front of them, crawling along. It crawled along for three minutes without end. The radioactivity affected more than just humans.

They walked for another hour and the map still seemed to say they had another day left. It showed them exiting out of what was some sewer situated under a street called Connecticut Avenue. Garter said there used to be a mural of an amazing woman called Marilyn around there. It would probably be gone by now. Decades of neglect after major bombardment would see most of the city in ashes.

The flashlights had died out by now, and Sam had made a torch out of some torn shirts they brought and a stick Garter had stolen from the farms. The caves were hard to navigate. They had started in a small one that connected to five more, and then to a very thin cave that they were still in now. Now, they were climbing up a steep part. They were in a giant cave now, it was a hundred feet tall and had no end in sight. Hannah walked forward and almost stumbled off a cliff. She was only caught by Sam, who dropped the torch over the cliff. They all watched as the light went down, down, down for six seconds and then hit the ground. It didn't go out.

"Fuck." Garter said through her teeth. "If there's anything in these caves it's going to see that light!" "What's the difference of them seeing it down there and if we hold it!" Sam argued with her. Hannah put her hand up and said, "listen." They were all quiet. They could hear rushing water. And a small pitter patter of bare feet below them. There were three naked creatures. They looked like humans, but even from all the way up where Garter, Sam, and Hannah stood they could see they had giant teeth. "Mutants," Garter whispered. "Get down." They all did, and they watched the creatures squat down and try to touch the fire. One did, and it started screaming loudly. The other two started screaming and they all ran left until none of the three escapees could hear them.

"How much longer do we got?" Hannah asked Sam. "This map says we are at the exit." He said, "but I don't seem to see anything." They looked around and everywhere, and then Garter noticed something on the ground. "That," she pointed, "says exit." They looked where she pointed and saw that at the bottom of the cave there was a sign that read EXIT.

"Dammit how the fuck are we going to fucking get to the fucking fuck? FUCK." Garter said, using "fuck" as both a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb within two sentences. "IS there another way?" Hannah asked. "Lemme see the map real quick." Sam handed her the map and she looked at every part of it. "There," she pointed to a part of the map, "or, above us, is another exit." "Above?" Sam and Garter asked in unison. Hannah pointed upwards and they saw a hatch. It was ten feet above them. "How do you propose we get to that, Mrs. Hopper?" Hannah thought for a second, then she took her backpack out of her purse and opened it up. She rummaged through it, taking out some things, and then finally took out a rope. "If we can get this to some how go through that wheel thing up there, we can turn it and get up there.

Sam took the rope and tied a knot at one end. He then made two attempts to get it up there, and after three he got it up and it went through. Garter started to giggle. "Why are you laughing?" Sam asked her. She giggled a little more and then said, "because it takes you a while to get it up." Hannah made a face like "you are very wrong Garter, the fuck?"

Screams. Screeches? Something inhuman coming from deeper in the cave. "Fuck we gotta hurry." Garter said. Sam finished looping the rope through and pulled. Then the door actually fell, along with the rope. "OH MY-" Hannah was about to scream, and then a ladder came down. Sam motioned for the others to go up first. Garter went up faster than the fall of the United States. Hannah went up right after, and then Sam after her. As Sam climbed up, one of the monsters grabbed his left foot. It's claw clamped down around his ankle. Sam used his right foot and hit it in the face. It fell down and knocked three behind it off the ladder. Garter then yelled down to Hannah and Sam. "THE LADDER IS BRAKING BELOW YOU HANNAH HURRY SAM HURRY!! Hannah sped up fast enough to be an inch below Garter. Sam git over what he saw was a breaking part of the ladder, and the ladder fell down and so did the creatures. The creatures still clung to the broken section of the ladder as it fell over the cliff edge and into the deep ravine of the cave.

Sam, Hannah, and Garter climbed up the ladder until they reached a tunnel. "Smells like shit." Garter said. "This is the sewer!" They kept walking along until they reached a small, 8 foot ladder going up through a hole. Garter went first and pushed a medal disk out of the way. For the first time in 91 years, sunlight entered the old sewer. One by one they climbed out of the sewers into the middle of a large crosswalk, an intersection of four roads. All around them was destruction. Debris, shattered glass, bent poles, a lone column, and fallen buildings were all around.

"Look." Garter said to them. They looked where she was looking and saw a faded painting of a woman. The painting was on one of the only buildings still fully untouched by war and time. "Marilyn Monroe." Garter said.