The Decay

Chapter 3 - Attack

3

...The Present...

Mike had celebrated his 21st birthday 3 weeks ago. He had grown up into a fine man: standing at close to 2 meters, he was rather tall. He had an athletic body, the result of frequent running and hunting for food. His hair was dirty blond, medium in length and combed to a side. He had a short Van Dyke-style beard and blue eyes, much like his father. “Are you going to hunt soon, son?”, asked Arthur. “Yes dad. I'm just sharpening my knife. Don't want it to go dull.” he replied, not removing his gaze from the sharp blade clasped in his hands. “When you go, take Christy with you. She keeps asking me to ask you.” said Arthur. “You know I don't like the idea of bringing anyone with me. Fine, I'll do it. She needs to learn how to hunt eventually anyway.” said Mike, biting his lower lip.

Christy was young. She was 15 and an inexperienced hunter. She had long auburn hair, brown eyes and several freckles. She was shorter than Mike and a bit more plump, but she was very agile.“Tell Christy to meet me outside my room in 5 minutes.”, Mike said. Arthur left the room, shutting the door behind him.

“Christy, are you ready?”, asked Mike. “Yeah Mike, I can't wait!”, she replied, eagerly jumping up and down, a broad smile on her face. “I have no idea what you're so excited about. Hunting is dangerous, so stay close and do what I say.”, said Mike, raising an eyebrow. Christy's smile faded briefly, but it came back quickly as she replied, “Yeah, don't worry, Mike.”.

Together, they moved North towards the ruins of Belmont Country Club. Mike had found a couple of rodents there last time and had dispatched of both of them with ease, dragging their carcasses back home. “It's clear.”, said Mike. “Let's go West, but stay away from the hospital. I don't like that place one bit.” he said.

It didn't take long before they spotted a coyote. It was walking among ruins of what appeared to have been a university campus. Mike signaled to Christy and they ducked behind a broken pillar. “Quiet now. Sneak around from behind and get ready to stab it.”, he whispered. Christy did as she was told and moved towards the coyote, in a crouched position. She grazed a low wall. A quiet sound, but it was enough. The coyote looked up suddenly, directly at her, and snarled. Soon after came a loud bark, and the coyote was on the move, running at full speed against Christy. Panicking, she closed her eyes and lifted her arms to protect her face. It leaped into the air and – all of a sudden, the coyote let out a cry and landed hard on it's side, not moving. Christy lowered her arms and saw an arrow stick out from it's chest. Mike came running from her left. “Are you alright Christy?”, he asked. “Yes... I... I think so.”, she answered, her voice wavering, her body visibly shaking. “This is why I don't like the idea of bringing you out hunting. Like I said, it's dangerous. Small mistakes can get you in trouble.”, he said, trying to give her a stern look, but failing as sympathy gleamed in his eyes. “Thanks for saving me Mike, I'll be more careful next time.” “Let's go home. I'll take the coyote.”, said Mike.

Back home, Arthur had started preparing a fire. “Ah, good to see you two. How did it go?”, he asked. Mike briefly glanced sideways at Christy. “It went well. She did good and we managed to kill this Coyote.”, he said, pointing at the dead animal now in Christy's hands. “I'm glad, Mike. Well done, Christy. Throw it over here. I'll clean it and cook it.”, he said.

After eating, Mike was unusually tired. “I'll head to sleep dad. If you need anything let me know.”. He said. Arthur was too busy talking to one of his friends to notice.

Mike woke up a few hours later to sounds of gunshots. First, he heard 2 shots. Then a loud bang, followed by screams and more shots. He jumped out of bed, grabbed his knife and his bow, quickly placing his .45 Colt in his belt. As he opened the door to his room, he saw Anders, one of his friends, running past as fast as he could. A gunshot later, Anders flew forward, blood exploding from the back of his head. “Anders!”, shouted mike. With an agile movement, he crouched and rolled out into the corridor and, with a precise throw, launched his knife at the shooter. A raider.

The knife struck the man square in the chest, who fell to the ground gasping. Mike ran up, grabbed the knife and pulled hard. The knife came lose. With a quick slash, he cut the man's throat and was up again, running as fast as he could to help the others.

As he exited the building, his eyes grew wide. At least 10 raiders, all armed with pistols or assault rifles, had invaded their camp and were quickly killing everyone. A tear ran down his face as he saw his father's body lying ahead of him, together with 2 other friends of his. A raider spotted him and shouted out whilst raising his rifle to aim at Mike. With quick thinking, Mike ran behind the nearest corner of the building and kept running, never stopping for anyone or anything. He could feel the adrenaline in his body, heart beating quickly, as he ran faster than he had ever before, bullets shooting past him at dangerously close distances. He kept on running until he no longer heard shots being fired. He collapsed on the ground, crying and out of breath, gasping for air.

After a few minutes had passed, he realized that his bow was gone. “Must have fallen when I was running”, he thought out loud. Looking back in the direction he had come from, and all he saw was fire. A big, menacing fire, engulfing what had been his home for all this time. His family, his friends, all dead. Gone. With only a knife and a pistol, he knew he didn't have much of a chance surviving, but he had to at least try. For Christy, for Arthur, he couldn't allow himself to die without putting up a fight.