The Wasteland

Chapter Two: The Journey

I stood by the entrance with my hunting rifle strapped on my back and a dagger on my waist. I had my hands to my side and the gas mask on, covering up my face. The gas was starting to let up but it was still to early to take off our masks.

Sam and Cadence came out of the bunker about three minutes after I had gotten out. "Ready?" I asked without looking back. We each had some prewar ear pieces so we could communicate with each other through the masks.

"I'm ready, are you Cadence?" Sam said turning towards him. He was excited to finally head west. He talked about it constantly. He turned around "Damn right I am, now let's go already" he said with more excitement than a child on a Friday afternoon.

I looked around to get my bearings. I saw a building and reached into my coat pocket. I pulled out an old compass. I looked at it and back at the building. "Come on, follow me"

On my left arm near the wrist, facing outwards like a watch, was a place I could attach the compass so I don't have to keep pulling it out and that way I'd have both hands ready just in case. I latched the compass in place. "We'll set up camp on the hills about 20 miles from here" I said over the ear piece. "Copy" they said in unison.

We had to reach the valley before nightfall. If we didn't. We would most likely die. Comforting right? We walked for hours with all of our equipment Sam packed up for us. Our backs were killing us. We needed a break.

"Stop, we'll rest here and eat, in one hour we need to double time it out of this city" they sighed and dropped their heavy bags and grabbed some food from their own bags.

Sam looked over at Cadence. "Cadence, can you tell us a story? Ummm what's a good one?" She paused to think. "why exactly did humanity decide to ditch Earth again?" Sam always enjoyed Cadence's stories of the old world. She would often have him tell her stories of the old planet. "About 2,687 years ago, in the year 2574, humanity was on the brink of total extinction. War raged on for years" he paused to take a bite out of his bread. "They fought over everything, water, resources, food, money. It was horrible" he took another bite.

"Around 2578, humanity launched project God's light. The project aimed to make a space ship that could save 1/8th of the population and send them to a planet capable of life. Of course it worked and by 2615 humanity inhabited about 125 known worlds orbiting around about 99 stars" he stopped thinking his story was over. He took another bite of his bread and put the rest back in his bag.

"Come on Cadence, tell us about the disaster on site 46B. Please?" Sam pleaded. Cadence smiled and shook his head. "Maybe once we reach our new home, I will" Sam grunted in disapproval and then nodded in agreement. We all sat in silence for awhile eating and resting. We still had a few days left in our journey.

"You guys should get some sleep, I'll take first watch" I said while standing. "You guys need it"