Post by Commissioner Warrior™ on Sept 8, 2010 10:20:05 GMT -5
The night fluttered away as dawn approached. With the rising of the morning sun, we said goodbye to all of the trials and tribulations since that fateful night we went to the shelter. Since we broke ground on a new world. As if someone had shaken the Etch-A-Sketch of Earth. This is how things were now, for better or worse. For richer or for poorer. In sickness and in health. In...sorry, got carried away there. Things are different though, whether we like it or not. The world we all once knew and loved is gone. For as much as we struggle to make this one our own. As much as we strive to rebuild this one in the image of the last. It will never be our old world. And the best way to approach that absolute fact, is to embrace it wholeheartedly. That's exactly what we're going to do.
The wind whipped up a dusty breeze through the one-night shelter. Kendra felt some sand in her eyes, quickly waking up and struggling to clear it out. Warrior struggled awake a few moments later, calming her as this simple annoyance was beginning to get to her. He brushed her hair out of her eyes, giving a chance to have a moment to adore the daughter he so loved for the first time since this catastrophe. It was a simple luxury, but one that seemed to be getting more and more rare as the days passed by. “I couldn't have hoped for a better daughter than you. I love you Kendra.”, he said. A simplistic “I love you too Dad.” is said back. Yet, it would've knocked him off his feet had he been standing. Warrior smiled back after enjoying this moment for the short time he could, before getting to his feet. Kendra followed suit, and then the two of them grabbed their things and prepared to head out.
We decided to head south. After hearing of Yellowstone, I have a feeling that North and West are both bad bad ideas. The last thing we need is to head in any way towards that chaos. We ended up heading more south than east. Either way though, we had a general direction and got going. Things got tough from time to time. Occasionally we would stray from the highway both to shake things up, and in hopes we might find something useful off the beaten path. As much as we always hoped for this, it only happened on occasion. Our current supply of food lasted a decent amount of time, but sadly did eventually run out. Once it did, we looked for more abandoned rest stops or buildings and found rations here or there. A few times even, we decided to go old school and hunt what few animals seemed to stray in our area.
The first place we passed into was New Mexico, keeping a general southeast direction, still more south than east. We bypassed some of the more major cities, venturing in only when we needed to scavenge supplies from abandoned areas. Things certainly got interesting though when we hit our next significant event on our journey. We found ourselves smack dab in the middle of Roswell, New Mexico. 'Alien Country' had a whole new meaning.
We strolled into the town, completely unaware of what we were passing through. With a glance up, I noticed the odd coloration of the sky. While the sun was mostly overhead, it was only a few hours after noon, the clouds blocked it here and there. It was extremely cloudy, but simply enough to provide occasional shade. Any time sunlight passed through a cloud though, it turned the cloud an artsy form of green. As if someone had taken a blue cloud and bled some yellow sunlight into it, providing a nicely mixed green.
It looked as if most buildings had been abandoned. Several had fallen down, though it wasn't clear just what had caused everything. Occasional gusts whipped sand up into the air, and our response was simply donning the goggles we had in our bags. I began to wonder a few moments later if something had gotten on the goggles, because they appeared to be giving everything a green tint. I took mine off for just a moment to realize the goggles were clear as day. Except, everything around us had a green tint. It was as if someone had put a green overlay on everything within sight.
We both became cautious as to anything going on around us, but there were still no immediate signs of danger. We drew weapons, but nothing attacked us. Still careful, we stepped forward and suddenly noticed something out of place. Something was growing a little brighter about forty yards ahead of us. Slowly but surely, we neared it and looked down into what appeared to be an enormous crater. I wasn't certain, but it looked to be several hundred yards in diameter. Could I be exaggerating? Of course, you would too. I do know though, exaggeration or not, that thing was huge.
Neither of us could tell exactly what was in the center of the crater, whether it be from distance or something else I'm not certain. That's when the most amazing but frightening moment of our lives occurred. Suddenly, I saw Kendra begin to wobble as if she were about to faint. My immediate thought was to grab her, but just as I went to I felt the same. She turned, and we glanced into each others eyes for only a moment. With that final gaze, we both passed out at the edge of the crater.
I couldn't tell you how long we were out; it could've been minutes, it could've been days. Either way, when we woke up we both felt different. I knew it myself, and I could see it in Kendra's eyes. We didn't immediately recognize just what had happened, but then again, how could we? I got to my feet, quite slowly, and gained a solid footing. I felt a little dizzy and not exactly all there, but one thing felt amazing. I didn't know why or how, but I felt more durable. I just felt like I could take anything. That nothing could harm me. I turned to Kendra, curious what she was thinking, and asked her.
“I feel fast Dad. Like, faster than ever. Quick, throw something up in the air. Change, throw a bunch of coins up in the air.” I giggled at what she said, but did like she asked. We never really found a use for any of it, but we kept a bit of change and small amounts of money around just in case. I pulled out some spare change, some quarters, some pennies, even some nickels and dimes. I got some in my hands and threw it all up as high as I could. What happened then was nearly impossible to follow. In what felt like the blink of an eye, Kendra drew her pistol and began firing at the coins while they were still in the air. Before I knew it, each came down to the ground with a nice revolver-sized hole in the center. Well, some of the smaller ones looked more like they had a bite taken out of them, but a center hole would have practically made the coin vanish.
I picked them all up, initially expecting that amazingly my daughter had shot six coins out of the sky in a split second. I noticed though once I had them all picked up, there were not six but seven. I asked Kendra to let me see her revolver for a moment. Simply curious, I center out to see how many rounds were in it. Out of the six slots, five were loaded. I could barely believe my eyes. Not only did Kendra shoot all those coins perfectly in that tiny time frame, she shot six, reloaded, and shot a seventh all in that period. Then I got an urge to do something I still think seemed insane.
I took Kendra revolver, and put it up against my left forearm. With it aimed directly at the bone, I pulled the trigger, effectively shooting myself point-blank in the arm. I didn't scream, I didn't even feel it. Yet I saw that part of my arm break, and fold over on itself dripping in blood and looking just horrific. I waited a few moments, and within ten seconds or so, my entire arm had repaired itself. Without any scarring, any pain, anything at all. As if it had never happened. I turned to Kendra and remarked simply, “Things have just gotten very interesting.”
The wind whipped up a dusty breeze through the one-night shelter. Kendra felt some sand in her eyes, quickly waking up and struggling to clear it out. Warrior struggled awake a few moments later, calming her as this simple annoyance was beginning to get to her. He brushed her hair out of her eyes, giving a chance to have a moment to adore the daughter he so loved for the first time since this catastrophe. It was a simple luxury, but one that seemed to be getting more and more rare as the days passed by. “I couldn't have hoped for a better daughter than you. I love you Kendra.”, he said. A simplistic “I love you too Dad.” is said back. Yet, it would've knocked him off his feet had he been standing. Warrior smiled back after enjoying this moment for the short time he could, before getting to his feet. Kendra followed suit, and then the two of them grabbed their things and prepared to head out.
We decided to head south. After hearing of Yellowstone, I have a feeling that North and West are both bad bad ideas. The last thing we need is to head in any way towards that chaos. We ended up heading more south than east. Either way though, we had a general direction and got going. Things got tough from time to time. Occasionally we would stray from the highway both to shake things up, and in hopes we might find something useful off the beaten path. As much as we always hoped for this, it only happened on occasion. Our current supply of food lasted a decent amount of time, but sadly did eventually run out. Once it did, we looked for more abandoned rest stops or buildings and found rations here or there. A few times even, we decided to go old school and hunt what few animals seemed to stray in our area.
The first place we passed into was New Mexico, keeping a general southeast direction, still more south than east. We bypassed some of the more major cities, venturing in only when we needed to scavenge supplies from abandoned areas. Things certainly got interesting though when we hit our next significant event on our journey. We found ourselves smack dab in the middle of Roswell, New Mexico. 'Alien Country' had a whole new meaning.
We strolled into the town, completely unaware of what we were passing through. With a glance up, I noticed the odd coloration of the sky. While the sun was mostly overhead, it was only a few hours after noon, the clouds blocked it here and there. It was extremely cloudy, but simply enough to provide occasional shade. Any time sunlight passed through a cloud though, it turned the cloud an artsy form of green. As if someone had taken a blue cloud and bled some yellow sunlight into it, providing a nicely mixed green.
It looked as if most buildings had been abandoned. Several had fallen down, though it wasn't clear just what had caused everything. Occasional gusts whipped sand up into the air, and our response was simply donning the goggles we had in our bags. I began to wonder a few moments later if something had gotten on the goggles, because they appeared to be giving everything a green tint. I took mine off for just a moment to realize the goggles were clear as day. Except, everything around us had a green tint. It was as if someone had put a green overlay on everything within sight.
We both became cautious as to anything going on around us, but there were still no immediate signs of danger. We drew weapons, but nothing attacked us. Still careful, we stepped forward and suddenly noticed something out of place. Something was growing a little brighter about forty yards ahead of us. Slowly but surely, we neared it and looked down into what appeared to be an enormous crater. I wasn't certain, but it looked to be several hundred yards in diameter. Could I be exaggerating? Of course, you would too. I do know though, exaggeration or not, that thing was huge.
Neither of us could tell exactly what was in the center of the crater, whether it be from distance or something else I'm not certain. That's when the most amazing but frightening moment of our lives occurred. Suddenly, I saw Kendra begin to wobble as if she were about to faint. My immediate thought was to grab her, but just as I went to I felt the same. She turned, and we glanced into each others eyes for only a moment. With that final gaze, we both passed out at the edge of the crater.
I couldn't tell you how long we were out; it could've been minutes, it could've been days. Either way, when we woke up we both felt different. I knew it myself, and I could see it in Kendra's eyes. We didn't immediately recognize just what had happened, but then again, how could we? I got to my feet, quite slowly, and gained a solid footing. I felt a little dizzy and not exactly all there, but one thing felt amazing. I didn't know why or how, but I felt more durable. I just felt like I could take anything. That nothing could harm me. I turned to Kendra, curious what she was thinking, and asked her.
“I feel fast Dad. Like, faster than ever. Quick, throw something up in the air. Change, throw a bunch of coins up in the air.” I giggled at what she said, but did like she asked. We never really found a use for any of it, but we kept a bit of change and small amounts of money around just in case. I pulled out some spare change, some quarters, some pennies, even some nickels and dimes. I got some in my hands and threw it all up as high as I could. What happened then was nearly impossible to follow. In what felt like the blink of an eye, Kendra drew her pistol and began firing at the coins while they were still in the air. Before I knew it, each came down to the ground with a nice revolver-sized hole in the center. Well, some of the smaller ones looked more like they had a bite taken out of them, but a center hole would have practically made the coin vanish.
I picked them all up, initially expecting that amazingly my daughter had shot six coins out of the sky in a split second. I noticed though once I had them all picked up, there were not six but seven. I asked Kendra to let me see her revolver for a moment. Simply curious, I center out to see how many rounds were in it. Out of the six slots, five were loaded. I could barely believe my eyes. Not only did Kendra shoot all those coins perfectly in that tiny time frame, she shot six, reloaded, and shot a seventh all in that period. Then I got an urge to do something I still think seemed insane.
I took Kendra revolver, and put it up against my left forearm. With it aimed directly at the bone, I pulled the trigger, effectively shooting myself point-blank in the arm. I didn't scream, I didn't even feel it. Yet I saw that part of my arm break, and fold over on itself dripping in blood and looking just horrific. I waited a few moments, and within ten seconds or so, my entire arm had repaired itself. Without any scarring, any pain, anything at all. As if it had never happened. I turned to Kendra and remarked simply, “Things have just gotten very interesting.”
