A Savage Life

Chapter 6

I burst through the double doors just to find two familiar faces waiting for me. Darrel and Anastasia stood at the door that could lead me to the outside world. Their faces grimaced at my presence. Their smiles were small, their eyes barely reached mine.

"Were we not appropriate escorts?" Darrel asked nervously. Anastasia watched the walls as if she was expecting Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th descend out of the metal. Darrel looked cross between regretful that I was leaving and ready to pee himself.

"No." I answered back. Darrel and Anastasia flinched simultaneously. Their smiles melted off their faces. Good, maybe they'll step aside and let me through.

Suddenly, this laser came out of a latch in the ceiling and an orange beam of light grappled Darrel and Anastasia, holding them deathly-still like an invisible hand. Darrel grunted and Anastasia tried to scream as his and Anastasia's heads were paralyzed; their mouths clasped closed in horror, their eyes begging for their life. Anastasia had even been crying as a few tears were frozen to her face. Their arms were stuck into place and then they were sucked into the laser beam as black ash. Their bodies disintegrating like tiny little pixels.

I knew that I had killed them for doing their jobs, which isn't a nice feeling, but I had too. They would have never let me leave.

A few seconds later, the floor opened up and an Asian woman with blue eyes and what looked to be a man of western European descent stood in Darrel and Anastasia's place. "I am Cindy," said the Asian woman with the same grin as Darrel. "And you are not allowed to leave."

I didn't care. I just pushed them over and bolted out the door. I ran out onto an airway and carjacked a guy riding a motorcycle. I didn't stop till the motorcycle ran out of gas and then I knew that I was in trouble. It was nighttime and I had no idea where I was. And if the people of this time had been experimenting with animals, who knows what laid in the shadows. I kept walking, ignoring the fear in my gut, till I found a small underpass underneath a dying tree and I rested there and thought out a plan in my head, even doodling it out into the small patch of clay in front of me.

I knew that it'd probably be less than a day before the cops were on my trail for carjacking a guy and escaping some sort of scientific facility, so it was probably in my best interest to remain anonymous. Second of all, I don't know anything about the wild fruit of this place, so I don't know what's edible and what will drop me after I complete my snack from nature. Third, I need supplies and a gun. I'm on the run and I need food, water, a frying pan, can opener, and a tent and blanket to survive. Maybe not in comfort, but it might pull me through the night. Which means I should probably hit the market and steal a book bag and some supplies (I have no money, and I don't know what the currency is) without being seen, which sounds impossible given to the technology I've seen so far.

But first, I might want to ask someone where I am and get to know who's on my side or not, if anyone at all. But who can I trust? It's not like I have much of a choice, and I doubt this post-apocalyptic scene is gonna contain merry, rosy-faced cherub impersonators holding hands and dancing to songs that never quite leave your head, but who, and how?

In Alaska, generally, you could trust your neighbors, and maybe those darned wolves that tried to steal your chickens and eat your garbage. Not many people are two-faced, but then again, not many of them were desperate for survival either, like it's going to be like here. Desperate to eat. Desperate to breathe. Desperate to betray me because likely, the people in that scientific facility had money, and from my experience, money makes people crazy and stupid, so I'll be on my best guard and never let it down. Or so I thought.

And thus I soon found myself walking on and on through the spooky darkness of this accursed wasteland with its haunting sounds that kept my adrenaline on a treadmill the whole time, until I finally saw the life-giving, sigh-of-relief lights of a town.

The town looked very rundown, and you didn't have to stand in it to tell. The entrance to the town looked like it could fall at any second, the walls gave me splinters just looking at them, and there was no sign attached to this nameless town. Regardless I didn't wait around for a parade to carry me there like some king; instead, I made a desperate dash towards the exterior walls of the town and slowed my pace from there.