Wastelands.

chapter 1

*20 years after the Atomic incident*

I can picture myself standing on the great hill still, teddy bear in my hand. The teddy bear is long gone, and the young boy I was is now among those fallen, and disintegrated into the infinite sands and dust. I stand on that exact hill, and how I got here is out of the question, for all I do is walk where my gut tells me to. My electric battery pistol lay on the left side of my armored thigh. I made everything I wear by hand, even my most intelligent ally, the AI I nicknamed Rubee, after a childhood friend.

"Rubee, any radioactivity in a 50 metre circle around me?" My voice sounds gravelly translated through my mask. Rubee hummed for a second.

"Kay, master - 25 percent to your left, and that's it! Would you like me to set the beacon for emergency crew J.I.C of an accident?" Her voice was painfully alike to the old friend at that moment, and I shook my head.

"No, It's okay. Besides, the authorities that still stand around here want me dead." I replied with

"Fine, but remember - you have always had problems with certain things. I can't keep tasering you." Rubee sighed. I climbed over a fallen statue. I remember this one, it was of my father. I was the one that helped tug the curtain down, though I was four. He was the best mayor we had. All the problems we had were always solved, even if the cost was out of his own pocket. My mother loved him for that. I was a proud son. All that's gone. I bitterly pulled the electronic weapon out, and held it ready at my side. I half expected something, anything to come out with gnashing teeth, but instead, there was a kitten. Imagine my surprise when I saw a weak little creature where the bomb was closest to.

"Rubee, is it harmful?" I asked, picking it up with a single hand. It mewed, and nuzzled my helmet. Rubee let out an electronic sigh.

"No, moron. It's a kitten. Three weeks along, and the runt of the litter. Completely healthy." Rubee said dully. Man, the cat was cute. Sadly, I barely have enough food for me, much less a kitten, for I haven't eaten my rations in a couple days.

"Damn, you must have a little family, or I'd love to keep you." I put it in a pocket I usually keep for smaller knick knacks, and looked around the area. Only more ruined homes, and skeletons of old friends. I remember one of them - Cash. He would throw rotten eggs into the fountain, and the whole place would smell. Man, we got into trouble because of that. The kitten wiggled a bit, and started to purr.

"That's one thankful creature." Rubee laughed electronically, then she abruptly stopped.

"What is it, Rubee?" I asked, and she put on some awful audio. I hate country music, and that's what it was playing.

"Damnit, Rubee, are you trying to make my head explode, or something?" I tried to get her to turn it off, but she didn't

"Not that, but electricity - possible alive people.people, you buffoon! You could trade supplies!" Rubee sounded excited. Maybe she wanted me to turn her in for a week's worth of food rations. I was about to say that, when Rubee threw a map in my visionary screen. A little red bacon emoji appeared on it.

"Seriously, Rubee? A BACON EMOJI? My god, i should of deleted those before i installed you into the software." I slapped my mask/ head in frustration.

"Why not? Bacon's perfect!" Rubee said in response. "I - i mean, sorry, forgot you're not much for eating pigs." The map shrank into the top left corner of my vision. I started towards the marker, and watched a peculiar sight, as a Person wearing bright clothes rode a quad down the broken, and dusty highway while being chased by bandits.

Day 1

Jack's POV

being chased by mercenaries

Not my kind of day.

The quad could barely friggin' steer! I just missed a head of something I didn't even want to know about. Most likely a rotting cow.. Thing. The quad sputtered, and now slowly went to a stop before I could get far away enough.

"Bloody machine!" I yelled, and smashed the gauge that read; No fuel. The Bandits hollered and whooped as they surrounded my vehicle, so I hid a special vial deeper in my clothes that I smuggled from them. The ringleader approached me from his jeep, and grinned, his artificially sharpened teeth gleaming yellow.

"You really need a toothbrush" I said, grinning, and hoping he wouldn't try to kill me, fear making my heart run like it just chugged a couple energy drinks. The ringleader didn't do anything, but pick me up by my shirt's collar, lifting me high in the air.

"Where the hell is it?" He growled, making my skin crawl. I made myself look stronger than I felt, and smiled slyly.

"Why, your head is on your neck" I said. He threw me on the ground, me wheezing, and the vial rolled off into a ditch in the road. It had no cracks on it, thankfully. That's more important than most of the people here. The ringleader watched it,and walked over, picking it up in one hand.

"Why, there it is." He went to stuff it into his pocket, when one of the jeeps had screaming from the inside, and a body flew out the window. The jeep roared to life, and drove in between the ringleader and me. A person in armor popped out the window the same side as the ringleader, and snatched the vial.

"Sorry, pal. But... This's mine, now" He said with a laugh at the end, then closed the bullet proof window in time before he got shot in the face. I climbed in through the opposite door, and he smiled.

"Thanks for the-" I began, but he started the vehicle with a jolt. He laughed as he watched the Leader hop into another jeep, and chase us through paths I didn't think were safe.

"Take the wheel." He said, grinning, and before I could respond, he climbed out the window to the roof, and I heard him firing off a pistol, and some jeeps crashed into a giant rock by the road in a blazing inferno. I grabbed the wheel, and swerved out of the way of a giant wall, and i heard the man skid across the roof, and saw his head hanging off one side, by the front window.

"Dude, you can't drive. Be more careful-" And then bullets sounded from the remaining three of four jeeps. I screamed as we almost toppled to our side making the man on the roof sound absolutely insane with joy.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAAA!" He was laughing as more bullets flew through the air. Then I realised we drove off a cliff, the road acting like a ramp as we sailed through the air. For a split second, everything floated around me, like as if time and everything was halted for long enough to admire the smallest things. I just about smacked my head on the wheel's metal chain top as we landed on the other side of it, time resuming its normal reign.. I sat in silence, as I listened for breathing aside from mine, but all i heard was explosions from the other jeeps not going fast enough over.