After Tomorrow

Happy Bullets and Nightmarish Creatures

Chapter 4-Happy Bullets and Nightmarish Creatures

We traveled for what seemed like forever, until I noticed the sun going down. “Hey.” I mumbled, Duke grunted in response.

“The suns going down.” I stated.

“So?”

“Shouldn’t we do something about it?”

“Like what?”

“Set up a camp or something?”

“With what? A magic tent I pull out of my pocket?”

“Very funny.”

“Fine, let’s find some flat land and try to find something to make tents out of.”

It took us a while to find some flat land, we couldn’t find anything to make tents out of but we stole some mattresses in a big metal thing like the ‘jeep’ and set up camp. Duke made a fire and I pulled out my 9mm. He stared at is as he polished his sniper rifle. “What?” I asked breaking the silence. “You have a gun?” he raised an eyebrow. “Yes. Why do you ask?” I mumbled, checking the clip, fully loaded. “If you had a gun why didn’t you just pull it out and shoot those punks that beat the crap out of you!?” he yelled. “I can’t just shoot people!” I whined. “Yes you can!” Duke denied. “No, do you have any idea how much the Sheriff would hate me after I shot twenty people?!” I yelled at him. He grunted and laid on his mattress that was on the other side of the fire; mine was on the opposite side. Everything was quiet, I put away my pistol and laid down, I could see Dukes head. “So, what do you do for a living?” I asked. He almost looked surprised I was talking. “What?” he asked. “What do you do for a job, you know, money?” I repeated. “I’m a sniper. I shoot any monster mutants or ruiners that try to come in.” he told me, “What about you?” he looked at the sky. “Well, I was about to move out of my dad’s apartment when he ran off. I was going to be a security guard, I learned all of the moves but I never got a chance to get around.” I looked at the sky; it was filled with stars and far galaxies. It’s amazing, why didn’t anyone take pictures of this sky in the past? “How old are you kid?” Duke asked me, “Nineteen.” I answered. “Wow, you’re pretty young kid. And you took out a good deal of those punks at the town. Good job.” He nodded a bit.

I heard something snarl in the distance, I sat up looking around, aware. Duke looked at me as if I was crazy, “What are you doing kid?” he asked, looking up at me. “I heard something.” I stated, standing up. “It was probably your imagination.” He mumbled, sitting up. “No, I’m sure I heard something.” I started walking around; close enough to the fire to have some light to look out in the distant sand dunes in front of me, I heard thumping of feet and snarling that was getting louder by the second, I reached for my bat and swung. I hit air; something tackled me and tried to bite me. I quickly shoved it off and attempted to get up but it tackled me again, it felt human, I looked up at it and saw it was human. It was a Ghost, a human that’s been around radiation for too long. He was trying to bite me and infect me with the radiation. Suddenly his head exploded, I closed my eyes and pursed my lips. I stayed in the position until I heard Duke running for me; he grabbed my arms and dragged me over to the camp site. There I opened my eyes and looked around, “What just happened.” I mumbled, “Are you okay?” Duke asked me. I nodded. “He didn’t bite you did he?” Duke started looking at my neck and my arms. “No.” I mumbled looking for my bat, I wasn’t holding it. “Good. Now I don’t have to shoot you to.” He went back to his mattress. I got up and went looking for my bat, I knew Duke was watching me, there’s a chance I might get tackled again. I found it and put it back in the arch on my jacket. I went back to my mattress and took out my gun, putting it by me while I slowly drifted off into sleep.