Liberation (Remnants of Men)

Chapter 19: Prince of Scavengers

Day 8

    For a whole day, he rode without a break. He wanted nothing more than for everything to be over. But with every minute, every second that passed, it only became clearer that there might be no fresh water lake and all his sacrifices would've been for nothing.

Every stream he had encountered was dried up, the rivers were contaminated. What ever happened to destroy the world before must have been so devastating that after three decades, water bodies were still undergoing what the scholars from the Citadel of Science called a radioactive decay.

Runner sped through a long line of dead trees. He glanced at them, what a sight they made. The tree trunks had the colour of red earth. Each stood tall, almost leafless and the quietness that surrounded them was sinister that he almost lost control of his bike. They were once a conglomerate of different species that formed a massive forest, but now, it looked like they never recovered from a wildfire that swept ages ago or so it would seem.

No birds to whistle sweet melodies. No squirrels to rustle tree leaves. The only wind that swept came with death. Nature was truly ill.

He rode past the last tree at the forest border and squeezed the throttle to slow his Rat bike down. Something was gnawing at his stomach walls. It was the great enemy, hunger. No food or water has touched his tongue for an entire day, but he has to go on. Surely, he can’t stop and eat his own flesh, for that was the only thing edible in his immediate surroundings.

Runner sank his hands in his pocket and brought out the map each member of his group was given. He placed it on the dashboard of his Rat bike and opened the map.

“Where are we now, Runner,” he said to himself.

He traced the lines on the map with his finger, “University of…” he muttered and looked up.

In the distance he saw a large structure with a half its body hidden amongst other smaller structures. On one half of the roof, he could see the bold words, UNIVERSITY. But the rest like every other thing has washed away with time.

The hot airless atmosphere began to grow cold with a sudden breeze. It wafted an odious smell towards Runner’s nose. He had grown too familiar with dead bodies that he could tell there was one around. Runner turned his neck, scanning in all directions with his eyes.

“Found you,” he said with his gaze cast upwards.

It was the body of a middle aged man. A noose was around his neck, hanging from a rail as his feet dangle from the sudden gust of a cold wind. He wore a brown trench coat with a red band around one arm, carrying the symbol ‘S5’.

“What brings a Ranger of Section 5 to this place of death?” Runner muttered.

Something hung from the man’s neck. Runner moved closer to see. It was a signboard with the words ‘DEATH IS SALVATION,’ scribbled in blood.

Runner spat, “I thought Rangers are supposed to be tough.”

No one goes that far from MegacityOne, not even to loot copper wires. Runner stared at him for a moment. He drew a knife from the side of his belt and cut the Ranger loose. The body fell on the ground, raising dust in the air.

“Forgive me, cowardly Ranger,” he said and began to remove the trench coat from the corpse, “I’m pretty sure I need this more than you do.”

He stood up and put the dead man’s shirt over his naked torso. “At least there is no blood on it,” he said and then proceeded to wear the trench coat.

Runner gazed at the insignia of Section 5 on his arm and nodded. He always wanted to be one of them, but now, he would settle for their outfit. He mounted his bike and continued towards the university.