My APOCALYPSE

Chapter 6

The light from our small fire showed two small lumps, rolled into blankets like sausage rolls.

Unable to sleep, I kept watch over my brothers as they snored. The night was warm, unusually so, but we had built a fire for comfort. To go through the night without light would have been too much to ask from Luke.

I ran my hands through the course river sand, thinking about tomorrow, when my fingers hit something. I dug through the sand, unearthing a sheath with a knife in it. I turned it over and over, wondering why it looked familiar. It suddenly hit me:

This was the knife that had been given to me when I had been going through a medieval stage as a kid. It was unsharpened of course. I unsheathed it, tilting it so that it reflected the firelight. I had lost it a few years back. I assume now that my brothers had found it and taken charge of it. I slid it back into the sheath, clipping it onto my leather belt that I still wore on my work pants. Feeling a tad bit safer, I stretched out on the sand.

How ironic that it was then that we were attacked.

Three shapes leapt out of the darkness. Two came for me, whilst I caught a glimpse of another heading towards the fire. Caught unawares, the two dragged me to my feet. I screamed, and in the moment I saw the other one leaning over Luke.

Something snapped.

I shoved my elbow into the chest of one of my attackers, shoving the other one off of me in a burst of strength. Barely a second later, I threw myself onto Luke's attacker from a running jump. He staggered under my weight before dumping me on the sand. I rolled to one side, narrowly missing being crushed by his follow up attack. Luke was awake and I heard him cry out in alarm. His cry gave me a sort of super strength. I punched my attacker in the stomach, kneeing him in the face when he bent over. He keeled over onto the sand, and I saw the other two come for me.

I unsheathed the knife and glinted it in the firelight.

"Back off!" I yelled at them.

They froze. They had no way of knowing that the knife was unsharpened. I grabbed the hair of the guy on the sand, tilting his head back so his throat was bared. I placed the knife on his pulse.

"You get out of here, and never bother me again." I snapped at them.

"Deal," One of them said. "Let him go, we'll take him and leave you."

I let his hair go. They grabbed their unconscious comrade and left, melting into the darkness. Luke climbed into my lap, tears making little tracks through the grime on his face. Needless to say neither of us was going to sleep. Matt, however, slept on.

And apparently all humans were hostile now. The few of us left.

Such is life.