Ground Zero
You might be absorbing more rads than usual now, but heading to the city would just be retarded. You'd probably die of cancer just going near the place; everything there would be contaminated anyway. You don't even want to see what the survivors might look like assuming there were any. You head for the general store, that's at least a safer bet.
You drive your Van to the general store not very far from your house. You remember the old guy who ran the place; Billy. He was always alright with you. Whenever you went in to buy food, he was always talking about how bad the state of world was getting and how he was going to be prepared for when the nukes started flying. You're guessing he probably invested in one of those Ground Zero Survival Shelters you always saw for sale on TV and took himself and his wife to it. The last time you saw the place it was all boarded up and looked closed up for good, still it's a start.
You arrive at the store which is still all boarded up like the last time you've seen it. You always found it weird that Billy bothered to board the place up, if he was going to abandon it. Surely he couldn't have thought things would be restored so quickly after a nuclear exchange that he'd be able to return some day.
You get out of your van and study the store more closely which you never bothered to do before, the windows are boarded up from the outside, but upon closer inspection the door hasn't been boarded up at all. You try the door, but it's firmly locked. Nothing else for it, but to bash it down. You begin prying, slamming, kicking and everything else to the door, but its not budging and you only succeed in bruising your shoulder. In frustration you pull out your pistol and finally just shoot at the lock and then try to open it, which it does slightly, something else is barring the door from the inside though. You're going to have to start ramming the thing again to shove it open enough to get inside.
Suddenly you hear some noise from inside and the click of a shotgun, it's also only just then you realize that Billy's pick up truck is still parked by the side of his store. He's obviously still here and you were oblivious to the fact.
"Goddamn it Martha, hasn't been a month yet an' we already got scum tryin' ta loot the place!"
It's Billy. You thought he left, but apparently not. He just made it look like he did and barricaded himself inside.
"Alright you looting shit stain, you better just get the fuck outta here right now, 'fore you find yourself with a new hole in your chest!" Billy says from inside.
"Whoa Billy it's me! I used to shop here! Come on open up, I'm not a looter!" you reply.
" (sigh) hold on, and back away from the goddamn door."
You back away as Billy presumably moves whatever was still blocking the door. When he finally opens it up, he stands in the doorway still pointing his shotgun at you.
"Damnation boy, I coulda blown your head off! You fuckin' destroyed my lock! What the hell are you wearin'?" Billy asks looking at your silly form of protection.
"I'm sorry; I thought you abandoned this place."
"Oh and that gave you the excuse to break in? What're you think yer doin' anyway? Why aren't you in your shelter or something?"
"Cause I don't have one that's why! I was going to see if this place had any supplies and maybe stay here, if it wasn't in bad condition."
"Oh. Well, sorry to crush yer dreams, but this place is still occupied and OWNED by me. You're gonna have to skedaddle. Just enough supplies for me and my wife."
"But "
"No buts! Now you were a good customer an' all, but this is a new world and the rules have severely changed! It's all about survival now. And it's not my fault your ass didn't prepare for somethin' that was comin' for a long time! Now if you don't leave now I'm gonna be less understanding about this lack of judgment on your part. Bye and good luck."
"No wait!"
At this point Billy slams the door shut mumbling about the lock being destroyed and going to have to fix it. Billy must have some sort of private bomb shelter of his own, if he barricaded himself inside his own store. One that must be stocked pretty well to sustain him and his wife for a good amount of time.
An idea races through your head that you never thought you'd consider, well not before the nukes hit anyway, but Billy's statement of "This is about survival" rings true. It IS about survival, and not just his.
You don't really want to do this, but you feel like you have no other choice.
Billy is still trying to barricade the door, when you take another forceful charge into it.
Your attempt is successful this time as it flies open causing Billy to fall and drop the heavy box he was going to place in front of it. The box half lands on Billy causing him crushing pain while he struggles to grab his shotgun from the floor. You're quicker though and point your own pistol at him.
"Don't grab that shotgun Billy I don't want to kill you." you say
"Goddamn sonofabitch, you ain't taking this "
"Billy what's OH MY GOD!"
When you hear Martha's outburst, it startles you during this already tense moment, you end up turning around and firing. You hit Martha square in the chest; she looks down briefly in shock before falling over dead. You're a little in shock yourself.
"MARTHA!" Billy screams, causing you to face him once more, he's now actually grabbed the shotgun, and you begin babbling.
"Oh God! Oh man! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that! She came up and Billy don't do that I don't want to please "
You fire again, hitting Billy in the head, splattering his brains all over the floor and killing him instantly.
You feel sick and promptly run outside to vomit. You've never killed anyone before, though you don't think it was that, that made you sick. It was the fact you murdered two people who were really innocent. You were the trespasser and when you couldn't get what you wanted, you took it by force. You acted like a criminal even if there's no such thing as "law" anymore. You sit down in a daze for a few minute trying to take all this in, before realizing you have to take care of some clean up first.
You remove the bodies of Billy and Martha from the store. (You also remove your silly "protection wear", well except the dishwashing gloves for moving the bodies) You wonder where you're going put them, but eventually you decide to just dump them in the wilderness nearby, you figure nature will take its course.
You go back to the store and re-barricade it. The store itself is empty, but in a back room, you discover a trapdoor. You descend and discover a large shelter with a treasure of food and water supplies, along with other useful items like first aid kits. Looks like Billy was more prepared than you could've imagined. One necessity you're glad to find is a bathroom facility with a sink and toilet, there's a little bit of water seeping from the cracks of the walls. Billy must've hit the jackpot and found an underground water source and built a crude plumbing system. He's also installed a small hydro generator which would explain how come there's dim lighting down here.
Finally you see some survivalist books Billy had on a small bookshelf by a bed and a couple of hunting rifles along with ammunition for them and the shotgun you've recently acquired as well.
Well you're certainly set up, and all you had to do was kill an old couple. As you lie down on the bed you think about your actions in greater depth now. You're not sure how to feel. Part of you wants to feel bad, but somehow you can't make yourself feel as bad as you probably should. In fact you're already starting to rationalize your actions. The first murder was a mistake, and the second one was self-defense.
"And this is survival." You say and fall asleep.
The next day you wake up, you feel the most refreshed than you have in a long time.
Something has changed within you. You don't recognize immediately, but as a few months go by you begin to.
Granted you were never a big one for human contact, anti-social and reclusive even, but this "line" you've crossed recently, your continued isolation, and the absence of civilization have made you become a little unhinged.
You also start becoming paranoid, about other people stumbling across your new place and attempt to break in and take it like you did. Using the knowledge you've been getting from the survivalist books, you start setting up traps, inside and outside the store. One time, you spend just about a whole day doing that. When the darkness approaches you go back to your underground haven to descend further into quiet madness, before you fall asleep.
Suddenly in the middle of the night you hear a noise and a scream from above. Sounds like it's coming from outside and from more than one person. You immediately grab your shotgun and head upstairs.
After going through the typical routine of taking down the barricades, you open the door and see a family in panic. A man is lying on the ground yelling in pain from the snap trap that has obviously broken his leg. A woman and a little boy are screaming frantically and totally clueless of what to do in this situation.
Looks like your traps work.
The family hasn't seen you yet and don't know your intentions, come to think of it, you aren't even sure of your intentions
You drive your Van to the general store not very far from your house. You remember the old guy who ran the place; Billy. He was always alright with you. Whenever you went in to buy food, he was always talking about how bad the state of world was getting and how he was going to be prepared for when the nukes started flying. You're guessing he probably invested in one of those Ground Zero Survival Shelters you always saw for sale on TV and took himself and his wife to it. The last time you saw the place it was all boarded up and looked closed up for good, still it's a start.
You arrive at the store which is still all boarded up like the last time you've seen it. You always found it weird that Billy bothered to board the place up, if he was going to abandon it. Surely he couldn't have thought things would be restored so quickly after a nuclear exchange that he'd be able to return some day.
You get out of your van and study the store more closely which you never bothered to do before, the windows are boarded up from the outside, but upon closer inspection the door hasn't been boarded up at all. You try the door, but it's firmly locked. Nothing else for it, but to bash it down. You begin prying, slamming, kicking and everything else to the door, but its not budging and you only succeed in bruising your shoulder. In frustration you pull out your pistol and finally just shoot at the lock and then try to open it, which it does slightly, something else is barring the door from the inside though. You're going to have to start ramming the thing again to shove it open enough to get inside.
Suddenly you hear some noise from inside and the click of a shotgun, it's also only just then you realize that Billy's pick up truck is still parked by the side of his store. He's obviously still here and you were oblivious to the fact.
"Goddamn it Martha, hasn't been a month yet an' we already got scum tryin' ta loot the place!"
It's Billy. You thought he left, but apparently not. He just made it look like he did and barricaded himself inside.
"Alright you looting shit stain, you better just get the fuck outta here right now, 'fore you find yourself with a new hole in your chest!" Billy says from inside.
"Whoa Billy it's me! I used to shop here! Come on open up, I'm not a looter!" you reply.
" (sigh) hold on, and back away from the goddamn door."
You back away as Billy presumably moves whatever was still blocking the door. When he finally opens it up, he stands in the doorway still pointing his shotgun at you.
"Damnation boy, I coulda blown your head off! You fuckin' destroyed my lock! What the hell are you wearin'?" Billy asks looking at your silly form of protection.
"I'm sorry; I thought you abandoned this place."
"Oh and that gave you the excuse to break in? What're you think yer doin' anyway? Why aren't you in your shelter or something?"
"Cause I don't have one that's why! I was going to see if this place had any supplies and maybe stay here, if it wasn't in bad condition."
"Oh. Well, sorry to crush yer dreams, but this place is still occupied and OWNED by me. You're gonna have to skedaddle. Just enough supplies for me and my wife."
"But "
"No buts! Now you were a good customer an' all, but this is a new world and the rules have severely changed! It's all about survival now. And it's not my fault your ass didn't prepare for somethin' that was comin' for a long time! Now if you don't leave now I'm gonna be less understanding about this lack of judgment on your part. Bye and good luck."
"No wait!"
At this point Billy slams the door shut mumbling about the lock being destroyed and going to have to fix it. Billy must have some sort of private bomb shelter of his own, if he barricaded himself inside his own store. One that must be stocked pretty well to sustain him and his wife for a good amount of time.
An idea races through your head that you never thought you'd consider, well not before the nukes hit anyway, but Billy's statement of "This is about survival" rings true. It IS about survival, and not just his.
You don't really want to do this, but you feel like you have no other choice.
Billy is still trying to barricade the door, when you take another forceful charge into it.
Your attempt is successful this time as it flies open causing Billy to fall and drop the heavy box he was going to place in front of it. The box half lands on Billy causing him crushing pain while he struggles to grab his shotgun from the floor. You're quicker though and point your own pistol at him.
"Don't grab that shotgun Billy I don't want to kill you." you say
"Goddamn sonofabitch, you ain't taking this "
"Billy what's OH MY GOD!"
When you hear Martha's outburst, it startles you during this already tense moment, you end up turning around and firing. You hit Martha square in the chest; she looks down briefly in shock before falling over dead. You're a little in shock yourself.
"MARTHA!" Billy screams, causing you to face him once more, he's now actually grabbed the shotgun, and you begin babbling.
"Oh God! Oh man! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that! She came up and Billy don't do that I don't want to please "
You fire again, hitting Billy in the head, splattering his brains all over the floor and killing him instantly.
You feel sick and promptly run outside to vomit. You've never killed anyone before, though you don't think it was that, that made you sick. It was the fact you murdered two people who were really innocent. You were the trespasser and when you couldn't get what you wanted, you took it by force. You acted like a criminal even if there's no such thing as "law" anymore. You sit down in a daze for a few minute trying to take all this in, before realizing you have to take care of some clean up first.
You remove the bodies of Billy and Martha from the store. (You also remove your silly "protection wear", well except the dishwashing gloves for moving the bodies) You wonder where you're going put them, but eventually you decide to just dump them in the wilderness nearby, you figure nature will take its course.
You go back to the store and re-barricade it. The store itself is empty, but in a back room, you discover a trapdoor. You descend and discover a large shelter with a treasure of food and water supplies, along with other useful items like first aid kits. Looks like Billy was more prepared than you could've imagined. One necessity you're glad to find is a bathroom facility with a sink and toilet, there's a little bit of water seeping from the cracks of the walls. Billy must've hit the jackpot and found an underground water source and built a crude plumbing system. He's also installed a small hydro generator which would explain how come there's dim lighting down here.
Finally you see some survivalist books Billy had on a small bookshelf by a bed and a couple of hunting rifles along with ammunition for them and the shotgun you've recently acquired as well.
Well you're certainly set up, and all you had to do was kill an old couple. As you lie down on the bed you think about your actions in greater depth now. You're not sure how to feel. Part of you wants to feel bad, but somehow you can't make yourself feel as bad as you probably should. In fact you're already starting to rationalize your actions. The first murder was a mistake, and the second one was self-defense.
"And this is survival." You say and fall asleep.
The next day you wake up, you feel the most refreshed than you have in a long time.
Something has changed within you. You don't recognize immediately, but as a few months go by you begin to.
Granted you were never a big one for human contact, anti-social and reclusive even, but this "line" you've crossed recently, your continued isolation, and the absence of civilization have made you become a little unhinged.
You also start becoming paranoid, about other people stumbling across your new place and attempt to break in and take it like you did. Using the knowledge you've been getting from the survivalist books, you start setting up traps, inside and outside the store. One time, you spend just about a whole day doing that. When the darkness approaches you go back to your underground haven to descend further into quiet madness, before you fall asleep.
Suddenly in the middle of the night you hear a noise and a scream from above. Sounds like it's coming from outside and from more than one person. You immediately grab your shotgun and head upstairs.
After going through the typical routine of taking down the barricades, you open the door and see a family in panic. A man is lying on the ground yelling in pain from the snap trap that has obviously broken his leg. A woman and a little boy are screaming frantically and totally clueless of what to do in this situation.
Looks like your traps work.
The family hasn't seen you yet and don't know your intentions, come to think of it, you aren't even sure of your intentions