"Come on baby girl, come on over."
This younger man had been following me through the hell hole of a city that had been named in old fashion: Survivor. Survivor was a fall out town on the edge of the desert.
I felt his hand on my wiry bicep, the dull dig of his dirty nails. The touch sent a chill of disgust snaking up my spine and I unintentionally flexed, giving him the wrong impression. After death, the virus, and the aftermath of both- everyone who walked the dark alone quickly learned to carry a knife. As do I. Soundless was my knife as I flicked it out and touched the tip to the young man's hand. Soundless, the tip of my knife drew a thin red line on his hand.
"I am not your baby girl. I am no-one's baby girl." I pinned the man to the collapsing brick wall of the alley, smoothly moving the blade to the man's neck, seeing the ever so faint pulse move around the edges of the metal. "Now what do ya got on ya?"
"P-Please, I only wanted a good time." The man quivered under my dagger, held perfectly in my left hand.
"That's funny, because i don't care. Now I believe I asked, what do ya got on ya?" I plunged my free hand into his pockets and found poker chips, a switch blade, and most importantly- blank cards.
After the virus, people are required to live in these cities and carry cards to prove they weren't infected. I am not infected, but I don't live in any city and therefore don't have a card assigned to me. Everyone needs a card to get into the inner city. This is why I was in the labyrinth of alley walls outside the city, not inside with the food and the warmth of a hearth on my skin.
I wasn't totally willing to kill the man though, I didn't hate him, and he had never actually done anything to me. Plus, I am not a fan of human males, so I couldn't help but scrutinize him. He is just a scavenger, like me. Although he wasn't looking for the same things I was. For me- I was looking for food and warmth and safety. He however was in search of young women for play things.
'Suppose we both found what we needed.
Wind and cold caressed my threadbare back and I shivered under the breath of the dying earth, knowing that it would get far colder before the daylight shone. I'd have to do something so this man wouldn't retaliate as I was soon to take what I wanted.
Sighing, I flipped my blade back upon itself and kneed the man hard in the stomach, taking a blank card and the switchblade. For good measure I snagged his fleece coat and went running toward the city, shoes sinking into the bone chilling sand.
My new coat was heavy and I wasn't accustom to the weight of it upon my back and the restricted movement of my torso and arms as I ran. This unbalance caused me to sprawl into the earth. Sand filled my mouth and hair but in a reflex I had shut my eyes as therefore they were safe. Spitting out the gritty matter, I scrapped my tongue clean with my nails and flipped the hood of my new coat up. The landscape around me put a dark damper on my spirits. The sky was black and pollution was covering the stars, like they had been since before my grandfather was born. But I cannot mourn the loss of something I'd never had. The colored sand around me glowed sickly with the shine of the murky moon. A faint clatter of bats could be heard in the dark as they flew to Survivor, the warm heart of humanity and life out here. I suppose I could have avoided Survivor all together and headed toward closer cities- like Stamina, or Determination, or Austere. But I knew that even though they were cities with better reputations that Survivor was the safest. This doubt floated through my being as cold bit at the end of my nose. I closed my light colored eyes and dared not fall asleep, praying to no-one that the infected were far away.
Sleep was quick and dangerous out of a city, and I couldn't afford it. And hunger would take me quicker than the infected would at the moment.
But not tonight, tonight I heard a faint push of sand and an uncivilized soft squeal. It wasn't the infected, it was a rabbit. This was a chance of food that I could not afford to pass up at this juncture and I wasn't planning on letting it get away from me.
Slowly, oh so slowly, I drew my knife with my left hand from my sleeve. The rabbit didn't know I was here yet. Unluckily, the rabbit wasn't by one of the crumbling walls of the used-to-be labyrinth so I couldn't trap it. But I [i]needed[i] it. I couldn't entirely see it, just hear its steps and see its faint shadow. The knife left my left hand spinning, embedding itself in what I hoped was the rabbit.
It was. But I had no fire. So reluctantly, after I skinned and somewhat dressed it, I ate the rabbit raw.
All people who wandered the night had to live in fear that the monsters we once made were surrounding us, were watching us move. Which is why I could not tempt myself fire starters, as the infected were out there and would be drawn to a fire like moths.
Is this what I've been subjected to?
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