Desolation (Boyxboy)

Chapter 1 - Nomads

First chapter!! Yay!!! So this is a bit of a introduction to the main character. The next few chapters will be more exciting, I promise!

By the way, I added a picture of what Maddie would look like, thanks to Annasophia Robb for the inspiration.

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I studied the wild turkey as it drank from the shallow pool of water left over from the rain this morning. The smell of wet leaves and grass filled my lungs and I readied my bow in preparation to strike. I had one shot and if I missed...well, there goes dinner. I had to kill it. It's been two days since my sister and I had any meat and the thought of fresh meat made my mouth water. I can already taste the juicy goodness of grilled meat. Its aroma tantalizing my sense of smell  with its deliciousness. "Turkey...you are mine," I silently muttered to no one in particular. With one final deep breath I let go of the bow. I watched it pierce the air zeroing in on its intended target before it pierced the skin and I heard a soft thud. 

I jumped down to the forest floor from my station up in the tree top where I had stayed for a good 2 hours waiting for any prey to come. I walked towards my prize and crouched down next to it. The turkey was gasping it's last breath, as its eyes darted left and right, looking for any kind of salvation. Sorry turkey. It's either you or me. In smooth motion I took out the bow that had pierced it in a vital spot. It took its last breath and died. I placed my hand over it's face and mumbled my respect. It was the pacifist in me rearing its head. I hated to kill but I had to in order to survive.

Satisfied with the turkey I picked it up and placed it over my shoulder. It was a good 10 pound turkey and I figured this could last us a couple of days if we dried the meat and made some jerky. I was about 20 minutes away from where the camp was set up for the moment. I grabbed my sack and bow and began my journey back. I looked up and brought my hand up to block out the sun. Judging from the position, I'd say it was about mid day. The weather was cool and bearable. As I made my journey back I couldn't help but appreciate the nature that surrounded me. 

It's been 10 years since the Great War and Earth is a lot different than it was before. It's barely recognizable. Social order was out the window. Humans are no longer the dominant species. Now, the supernaturals  are. I can't even begin to tell you how many different type of supernaturals there were, but I can tell you of the two greatest, the vampires and the werewolves. The Great War was a massive battle between the two. Unknown to humans, vampires and werewolves had been waging battles in the shadows that dated back centuries. A catalysts caused the fight to be too big to be kept in the shadows. No one knows what that was but whatever it was, it caused humanity's downfall. First Europe and Asia fell. A few months later, the rest of the world fell. Humans were thrown in the middle and because of that we paid a great price. There were about 1,000,000 humans left in the world. There's no government, no civilizations, no rules. There are some small camps and tribes but none grew to big in fear that it was considered an act of rebellion by the vampires and werewolves. Some became nomads instead of joining the groups. The nomads had different reasons; didn't trust them, didn't get along with them, they were regarded as deviants, more trouble than the worth, etc. Regardless of what you did, humanity had one goal that kept some kind of unity, and that was to survive in this cruel world. 

I tried not to think about the war anymore. It was in the past. I only had the present and future to look for. A future with me and my sister, Maddie. After a few more minutes of walking, I finally made it back to the campsite. I saw my sister cutting some root veggies and had a pot ready with boiling water. She gleamed when she saw the turkey over my shoulder. I dropped it to the ground and began preparations. I skinned it, cleaned it and portioned out the meat. I got as much as I could and I handed her some to make some stew. We were both excited since this will be the night where we'll have a good meal. Plus the weather was getting chillier so some stew to warm us up sounds so good!