Suzy’s Strange Saga

You wake up to a noise in the distance. At first you think it’s something trying to cause you harm and you sit up with pistol in hand, but then you realize there isn’t anything near you.

However upon looking around you do notice something in the sky when even with your half sleepy eyes.

You step out of the truck and stare towards the westward sky in the distance and see the remnants of a mushroom cloud.

“They finally went and did it…” you say to yourself.

You guess that it might’ve hit Security City (Good thing you drove east). Who and why it was dropped is unimportant at this point, but you’re not really surprised given how things seemed to be going to shit here and the world in general.

Probably was a small one, since you’re not feeling any aftershocks or anything, but you are somewhat concerned if you’re within a lethal radiation zone. You suppose you’ll find out in the days to come, but that leads you to your more immediate concern of survival, namely you’re hungry and thirsty.

You check what those rednecks managed to load up on the back of the truck and hope that not all of it needs a can opener.

You see that a lot of it is cans, but fortunately some of them already have ring pulls on them. Other cans have suffered damage from the bullets that went through them. You suppose if you got desperate you could always suck out the remaining soup through the bullet holes.

You do find a couple bags of beef jerky, which is as quick of a meal as anything. You look to see if they loaded up anything to drink, but all you’re finding is cheap beer. You’ve actually never drank alcohol before, but beggars can’t be choosers so you sit on the tailgate eating your jerky, drinking your beer and pondering your potentially grim future.

While it’s good you have some sustenance, it’s not going to last long. Your truck only has around a half a tank of gas and the ammo you’ve got is what’s left in your respective weapons. Hell you don’t even have an extra set of clothes anymore.

You have no idea where you’re going to go. You suppose continuing east might be your best bet, but. this isn’t even taking into consideration the sort of people you’re possibly going to run into and if those infected freaks aren’t running around elsewhere.

With all these variables weighing on your mind, things aren’t looking so good right now…

“Hey! Hey miss! Did you hear a loud noise?” a voice shouts.

You spin your head to your left with your hand instinctively reaching behind you to pull your pistol, but you see a male and female couple probably a little younger than yourself wearing large backpacks. They’ve just come out of the “wall of trees” and they don’t look threatening, but you never know. In any case they don’t seem to realize you’ve got a pistol behind you, though the fact that you’re partially covered by the pick up truck’s walls along with some bags might help.

“Sure, it woke me up. Where are you coming from?” you ask.
“Oh, we got a campsite nearby. We’ve been sort of roughin’ it for about a week. No technology like cellphones or laptops. It’s been sort of liberating in a way.”
“Hm, yeah you never know when you might need to know how to get along without the creature comforts. Where’s you vehicle though, you couldn’t have walked all this way and I don’t see any roads leading off into the wilderness nearby.”
“Sure there is, look in front of you a few feet away.”

You look and sure enough the man is correct, there is a little dirt road that leads into the trees. You probably didn’t notice it last night because you were tired and you didn’t notice it this morning because you were more focused on the nuke that went off in the distance.

“Yeah, it doesn’t go very far in, but it was a good place to pull into so as not having to park on the side of the road. Anyway we’re going to be heading back to Security City soon, we both got classes starting on Monday.” The guy says.

You take another bite of jerky and drink of beer before breaking the unfortunate news to them.

“Yeah well I don’t think that’s going to happen. That noise you heard? A nuke just got dumped on Security City.” You say flatly.

At this point the couple look at each other in disbelief.

“Bullshit, that didn’t happen.” The guy says.
“Look, you don’t need to believe me, but I’ve got no reason to lie about something like that to two complete strangers. You said you’ve been fairly isolated from the world for the past week, well there was some serious shit going down this week. I should know I had to deal with it. Trust me, if things had been different I wouldn’t be stuck out here in the middle of nowhere eating jerky and drinking beer. I’d be in the comfort of my basement.” You say.

At this point the guy still isn’t sure whether you’re telling the truth, but the girl starts to break down a bit.

“Oh god…every time we tried to listen the car radio, all we got was those fucking Ground Zero shelter ads! She’s probably telling the truth! Oh shit! No!” she exclaims and begins hyperventilating.
“Honey, calm down we don’t know…”

At this point the girl begins to cry about her friends and family while her boyfriend attempts to console her. It isn’t working.

“Well look at it this way, you avoided getting nuked and you’ve probably got still got some supplies left over and you’ve got all that really useful wilderness gear right?” you say eating the last bit of jerky.
“Huh? Yeah, look just don’t talk to us anymore.” The guy says still trying to calm his crying girlfriend.

You throw away the bag and down the remaining beer from the can.

“How much gas does your vehicle have?” you ask.
“WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP?! This is a fucking nightmare!” the man says while his girlfriend continues to be weak.

You crush the can and toss it in the middle of the street. You briefly think about not doing it, but then you think this is survival.

“Yeah, well it’s about to get a whole lot worse for the both of you.” You say and pull your pistol and shoot the man in the chest.

He falls to the ground and the girl now goes from crying to screaming though she’s so terrified she doesn’t attempt to run.

“Bitch, stop your goddamn screaming RIGHT NOW before I shove this gun in your mouth and shoot a load so hot down your throat that it’ll be the last time you ever give head again.” You say walking towards the scared girl.

Your colorful threat works and the girl just stifles her screaming to annoying whimpers. You look down at her boyfriend who is most certainly dead. You don’t feel anything about it either. You don’t feel joy, but it’s just nothing.

“Okay, you’re going to take your backpack and throw it in the truck, then you’re going to take his pack and toss it in the truck too. Then we’re both heading to your campsite where I’m going to take whatever I think I’m going to need. And if you’re lucky, you might come out of this alive. Now come on.”

As you bully your new captive into doing your bidding, you think if this is how things are going to be from now on. In your mind you justify your actions as ones of survival, though you were still pretty quick to shoot her boyfriend.

Maybe you’re just having a bad week and something had to give.

In any case things are starting to look up… or at least for you they are.