With the Mayan calendar coming to an end this Friday Dec 21st, and all the talk of the end of the world, I thought it only fitting that I take a short break from The Beast Within and share my own apocalypse story with you. Since it's too long for one post I'll be putting the story up over a series of three separate posts. I hope you enjoy.
Never Alone
I never thought
the end of the world would come so soon. Well, soon for me anyway. At 23 I
still considered myself young. No one knew what caused it. Some said it was God
raining down fire on us for our sins; others said it was a huge rock called an “asteroid”
that struck our planet. Either way, it
didn’t matter to me. Survival is what interested me now.
I
was more concerned about where my next meal was coming from, or how to avoid
the bands of robbers that now roam the wasteland that once was the United
States of America. In a way, I was lucky. I had been preparing for this my
whole life and didn’t even know it.
I
grew up a single child. My father died in the war and my mother had a fatal
fall off of a horse. At an early age, I learned to take care of myself. Now,
while most panicked at losing loved ones or didn’t know how to survive off of
what remained of the land, I had things under control - for the most part. I
couldn’t help but think of that saying, “In the land of the blind, the one eyed
man is king.”
I
was disturbed from these thoughts as I approached a group of people huddled by
the side of the dirt road. A hunched over man was screaming something to them I
couldn’t quiet make out. As I rode on and the distance between us narrowed, I
was able to get a better look at him. He was old enough to be my grandpa and
looked like he hadn’t showered in years. “Repent! Repent from your evil ways! The
Lord is punishing us for our trespasses!”
Michael,
my horse and only friend, tried shying away from the shouting man as we
approached. I couldn’t blame him, I could smell the group’s stench from fifty
yards away and lets just say it was far from peaches and cream.
“Young
lady! Will you repent from your evil ways and follow the Lord?”
“I
have repented.”
“Praise
the Lord we have another sheep in the fold!”
“Praise
the Lord, praise the Lord,” his congregation echoed behind him. There must have
been a dozen of them, a ragtag mix of men and women.
His
wild eyes darted to Michael, “How is it that you have a horse? I haven’t seen
one of those in months.”
He
was right: most anything living had been killed in the First Wave of
destruction and as the rivers dried up and the sun grew hotter each day,
animals and people alike were becoming harder and harder to find.
I
didn’t like the nervous way the man and his followers were eyeing Michael and
licking their lips. I decided to lie to him, “I saved him. We were lucky enough
to be near a deep cave and were protected from the First Wave.”
The
truth was that I had been alone and scared. Michael found me huddled in the
cave crying. Yes, I was crying. I’ll admit to it. I was terrified. I had no
idea what was happening. To be honest with you, I’m still really not sure what
was happening, but I knew I was in a better place after Michael found me.
“My child, it is
the Lord’s will that this animal be sacrificed so that we may live,” He
produced a rusted knife from somewhere in his dirt encrusted garb and took a
step in my direction.
Without blinking I
pulled my 1851 Colt navy revolver from its resting place on my hip. I wasn’t
one for theatrics, but I had leaned at an early age if someone threatens you, they
need to know that you are very willing and capable of doing whatever it takes
to defend yourself. I not only pointed
my handgun directly between his eyes, but pulled the hammer back and gave him a
wild look of my own.
He stopped in his
tracks. The intense sun shone down on my hat and his bald head as time came to
a stand still. Michael’s huge eyes were riveted on our attacker; I could feel
his body tense underneath me, ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.
“My child it is
the Lord’s will that…”
“Do you believe
that I will pull this trigger if you come a step closer?”
He hesitated,
looking me up and down, probably weighing the odds of being able to close the
ten feet between us before I could bring him down. His band of God-fearing miscreants
had risen to their feet waiting for orders from their minister.
“Look at me!” I
screamed.
His eyes met mine.
I stared at him with all the intensity of a lioness willing to sacrifice her
own life for her cub. My brown eyes spoke murder.
“Believe it – I will
kill you. I will kill all of you if I have to.”
I didn’t wait for
an answer, instead I nudged Michael forward and we slowly left the man and his
congregation behind. They didn’t move as I saw their figures disappear behind
us, knife still clutched in the old man’s undecided hand.
I holstered my
weapon and pushed Michael to a comfortable trot, better to put some room
between us just incase Grandpa had another telegraph from God telling him to
follow and kill us both. What hope did this world have now when even those who
followed God were trying to steal from you?
