Utopian Apocalypse

Chapter 3

His arm goes flying off, straight towards the second man, dousing him in his friends blood. The bigger man collapses to the ground, without much of resistance. The child screams and runs, dropping his rifle and disappearing into the alleyways around the corner. The second man runs for the dropped rifle, before I put one of the monster sized slugs straight into his chest. When the smoke clears, I see only a pair of legs, both arms, and lots of blood everywhere. 

I hear the roar of engines of cars start to come into earshot, followed by a louder engine with caterpillar treads. I run into the back alley and run up a ladder on the building directly across, next to the dead bodies, and station myself on the roof, able to see for a couple blocks. I lay the rifle down and head to the other side of the building, watching for whatever is making the noise. I crest the railing on the other side of the building, when a gigantic tank comes into view.

I make a dead sprint for the ladder at the other side of the building, grabbing the rifle on my way, and practically falling down while sliding down the ladder. I hit the ground and run through the maze of alleyways, grimy and dark, that have limitless turns. I run past multiple skeletons and wild creatures, trying desperately just to get back to the tugboat. 

I run into a different street, seeing the back end of a small patrol. I quickly start running the opposite direction from the patrol, looking desperately looking for a sign of the dockyard. I run towards an arch, which displays 11 hanging bodies, all with 585 painted on their foreheads. One of the bodies, still twitching, opens its eyes with a death glare, straight at me. He opens his mouth and tries to say something, going limp before anything is spoken, or gestured. Scared, I continue to sprint towards the docks, before I hear more footsteps around the corner of a near building, causing me to duck into a nearby shop, hiding behind the counter. I slow my breathing, quickly hearing someone else breathing heavily, nearby.

I pull my handgun out of the holster, crawling along the floor, trying to trace the breathing. I clear the first shelf near the counter, nothing. I keep crawling, scanning each row of shelves, carefully trying to not make noise. I make it to the fifth, where I'm grabbed on my shoulder, the heavy breather, bleeding out on the ground. I get up to a crouch, trying to see what's wrong with him, to right my wrongs. He lifts his hand with a wince, showing a gaping hole in his stomach, with intestines partially exposed. I quietly, but quickly, look around the store for first aid, gently shuffling things around to look for some sort of medication. I hear, from a distance, the front door to the shop open, and heavy boots hitting the floor. I peer through a hole in a shelf and see a soldier casually walking up to where the wounded man is. I watch, unable to help, as he casually shoots the wounded man in the head, in the mouth through his respirator. I run around and tackle the soldier, smacking him in the face with butt end of his own rifle, and throwing it. I shove my handgun, with the power of a thousand suns, straight into his mouth, breaking his teeth and busting the respirator wide open, and pulling the trigger. The thick helmet catches most of the matter, while the rest of it blows back into my face. I jump back, wildly wiping the matter off my face, spitting like I had just had acid in my mouth.

I hear more vehicles pull up, keen on finding the source of the extra gunshot. I run out the backdoor of the shop, back into another maze of confusing alleyways. I run throughout the alleyways again, the rifle hitting against my back with every step. I hear heavier running behind me, trying to trace where I am. Going as fast as I can, I fly out into the street at the speed of sound and almost immediately spot the tugboat, undisturbed, floating in the dockyard. I run all the way down the pier, carefully undoing the rope holding the tugboat in place.

As I quickly unravel the ropes on the pier, I turn and look over my shoulder, as three men come running down the pier, bayonets attached to their rifles. I run onto the tugboat and use the outdoor controls to put it in reverse, to try and get away quicker. The boat slowly starts to chug away from the pier, as one of the men lunges for the edge, just barely hooking on the side. The other two stay on the pier, firing shot after shot at me, missing every one of them. The man who leaped gains his composure and gets into the tugboat, yelling as he charges at me with the bayonet. I lower my shoulder and check him into the deck, sending his rifle over the edge of the boat, into the water. He grasps his chest and I pin him down with everything I have. I grab the pier rope and tie his legs and hands together the best I can, constantly slamming his head into the deck to reduce resistance. He is still breathing heavily, not saying a word. His respirator beeping, he keeps his head turned to prevent damage to it.

I contemplate shooting him, but there's no reason to anymore. He's on the ground, looking up at me, probably wondering why I haven't shot him yet. I sit on the edge of the tugboat, watching him struggle to get out of the tie, to no avail. So there he is, tied up on the deck, watching me do everything. From spearing random fish creatures out of the water for the food processor, to throwing waste overboard. I occasionally leave something in front of him, for him to eat, and a portable respirator battery for keeping himself alive.

"Why are you keeping me alive?" He mumbles at me.

"Why would I kill you? 'But why would I leave you tied up here?' you're probably going to say? To be honest, I have no idea. I've killed a few people to get here, and I'm thinking this isn't exactly the right time to execute someone. But I'll do it if you act up." I preach.