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[Aufeis]

Just as the trigger pulled and the earth shattering pop erupted from his mind, Vik was waking him up. He didn't jump, but he had definitely been caught by surprise. He sighed with relief and sat up, massaging a crick in his neck, "Yeah. Yeah. I'm up. You go ahead and sleep." he said, sitting up and stretching a little. Sleeping on the floor all the time did a number on your back, but at least tonight they had been able to sleep on a makeshift cot mattress thing the previous owners had moved down here.

[Darkpriest]

Vik didn’t need any more encourage meant, he said ‘See you in 5’ then he was down and out.

Black, a warm black, it when as far as you could imagine in all directions. Vik liked the black, it wasn’t cold or empty, not it was warm, close and safe. For would could have been a second or could have been forever he floated in the nothingness.

But all good things come to an end. Dreams started.

Vik was at in a field, a green field, bird in the sky, a blue sky, a tear ran down his face, was that in the dream or the real world? He didn’t know, but he looked at the sun, the seldom seen sun, that long missed friend.

He looked around him, he same friends, family, allies, people that hadn’t aged, that hadn’t survived, that hadn’t changed.

[Aufeis]

It seemed he wasn't the only one having dreams of the past. A tear ran down Vik's face as Jake began to meander around the basement. There wasn't really anything to do down in the basement, but on one of the shelves he found a moldy crossword puzzle book. After tearing a few bad pages out, he found the few that had managed to survive. He sat down with it and began to test his newly re-sane mind.

"One: A flock of Geese." He said, looking at the five letter answer. He would have said 'Gaggle', but it was too long. So instead, he wrote down, "Skein. Geese are something I haven't seen in a long time. Never liked them when they were alive, but cooked right and they were really good." He said, his mouth watering a little. He shook the thought away and zoned out a little.

[Gabs]

Charlie trudged into yet another village, it was dark and she needed somewhere to sleep. She sighed peering into houses through the broken windows. She knew she wasn’t going to find anything here, nothing that she could use anyway. The village was dead, bits of glass littered the road from desperate people smashing windows to gain access to food and shelter. There was also an assortment of bones in a corner, looks like someone had a fest not too long ago, and she reminded herself to stay alert. That was another irritating thing about being alone, the knowledge that you could wake up burning and dressed for dinner…someone else’s dinner.

Her cold, hard eyes stared behind her, along the path she had travelled. Seven days. Seven days since Mike died, Seven days of walking between their bodies, or what was left of his body, someone had probably found it by now. She snapped her head around, what a stupid thing to think about, he’s gone, end of story, the end. She pushed her hair under a hat that she’d found on a dead girl yesterday. She had looked so cold, covered in a blanket of ash, her eyes closed in a sleep that she would never wake up from. She wouldn’t need her hat anyway, so Charlie had taken it, pushed her hands into her pockets and carried on walking.

Memories seemed to follow her like ghosts these days, that’s why she preferred talking to herself; at least if she was talking then she didn’t have to think. Unfortunately she couldn’t talk in this village, for even though she was looking for people she didn’t want to find someone who would rather kill her, eat her or take away her things. That wouldn’t be good. So silence it is.

She peered at things, sight becoming more difficult as it got darker, eventually she found a house that looked stable enough and walked in through the window. It even smelt of death in here, but these days not smelling death was a miracle. She carefully checked every room checking for hidden people or something that might be useful. The only good thing was the broken bed upstairs, well it was only a mattress but Charlie couldn’t believe her luck. Not caring about whether or not it was a trap she took off her bag and hugged it close as she lay down and dreamed of the horrors she’d seen.

[Darkpriest]

Vik was sat at the table, there were gunshots in the distance, it was dark, the windows were boarded, the sounds of chanting could be heard in the distance, the cultists were out under the full moon. The baby started to cry, it was hungry again, She woke up from the sofa and started to quiet the baby, she gave him an evil look, they hadn’t spoken in a week, it had been 2 weeks since her farther had left, she blamed Vik for not trying to stop him, but Vil knew food was becoming a problem, so did her Farther, her mother had already died, her farther said he was going to look for help, he would be back he said, he wouldn’t be back, Vik had said it after a week, she said she would stay, Vik didn’t like it but remained as well. As vik stood and walked into the other room, the store room, into the darkness.

Vik flicked on the light switch but was no longer in that room, or that time, he was stood in his office, around him were the people he had worked with, they were watching the tv, on it the new was flashing, pictures of the clouds blocking out the sun in a distant place. One of Viks friends had been confident ‘its just a storm, that’s nothing, so what if some crops fail, give it a month everything will be fine, that cloud wont spread.’

Vik turned away and saw he was no longer in his office, he was at home, stood looking out the window, she was stood next to him, only slightly pregnant, they were holding hands watching the sky through the window, the cloud was spreading over the city, on the window sill were a pair of cloth masks the government had provided, she had said soft words, comforting herself ‘they say it will have all fallen in a few weeks, only a few weeks.’ A shadow fell across Viks face as the sun started to disappear under the sun ‘yeah, just a few weeks.’ Vik replied, but he didn’t believe it, once the sun was gone, they turned away, ‘Maybe you should get your parents to stay with us, just for a little while.’ Vik said. She nodded and went to call her parents. Vik looked again at the window, it darkness had spread, slowly the street lights flickered on. The last sunset.

Vik turned away and was absorbed by the warm blackness of sleep.

[Aufeis]

Jake was zoned out, staring at utter nothingness. He was dreaming of his own past, his own days before the storm.

Day 56 Year 1.

People are starting to get nervous. The government said it would have fallen by now, but it's still up there. The damn clouds. I have a sinking feeling they're never going away. I have a feeling there isn't going to be a sunrise, tomorrow or ever. Sierra wants to go to her parents house south of here. I told we should stay, in case Todd needed help with the office. We're trying to stock it up with food and other supplies, so we can all head over there in case things get really bad. The supermarkets are running low on food, and the crops are dying. We still have those newer indoor farms, though, so we should have enough food for the next year. Got my old man's revolver out of storage. I've even got a box or so of ammo, in case shit really hits the fan. On a more positive note, I'm almost done with the manuscript for The Second Man, Recovery. I'm going to send it to the publishers soon. I've got a few copies laying around, so if this "storm" ever dies down, maybe someone will actually read it. Carlos is crying, the darkness scares him. Poor kid, I remember when the only thing you had to worry about was an atom bomb coming down on your house.

[Gabs]

She didn’t like to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes the horrors made her open them again. They had been worse recently, which was why Charlie had chosen not to sleep. She had no choice now however, she was already dreaming.

Charlie was sat at home, sitting on Mike’s lap and he was stroking her hair as they watched the sun disappear.
‘I’ll miss it’ she whispered, neither were stupid they both knew that this wasn’t going to be over soon.
Charlie looked up and screamed, cold hands were gripping her too tight as she stared into a face with dark cold eyes and a dead smile. She kicked outward and dropped to the floor at its feet. As she crawled backwards it changed, the body was still dead, in the way that bits of his flesh were missing and yet his eyes, his gorgeous blue eyes, they were Mike’s, they were real and filled with pity, sadness and horror.

Charlie’s own eyes snapped open, at first she thought she was blind but soon realised that it was tears making her vision swim. She rubbed them from her eyes angrily and fumbled in her bag for a blanket. She wrapped it around herself and could still feel the water dribbling down her cheeks as she drifted back to sleep.

Now she was outside again and Mike was lying down with his head in her lap. He was dying. She knew he was dying.
‘I’m so sorry’ he murmured, reaching up with his hand to stroke her check.
‘I’ll follow you, as soon as I can.’ She said the words strongly; she knew there was nothing for her in this world without him.
‘No!’ he almost shouted it before having another coughing fit from the effort, ‘no, promise me…you will fight…you must flight’ he held her as tightly as he could, which made her cringe because he was really weak now. He pushed himself up, slumping his hands onto her shoulders to keep him steady and stared into her eyes. She had never seen him cry before and it was this emotion that made her promise. He nodded and collapsed onto her breathing heavily. She bent down to kiss the top of his head,
‘I will fight,’ she kissed him again, ‘I promise.’

The image of the girl holding the dying man swam before her eyes as she seemed to drift backwards from it. Charlie tried to reach out, tried to stay there but it was to late images of empty roads now filled her vision. Empty apart from the odd pile of bones and layers of ash to remind her how easy it would be to break her promise.

[Darkpriest]

Viks mind swam in the darkness, for a time, it might have been forever, it might have been only a second, but to soon the pictures started again, the dreams returned.

He was stood in a crowd, shouting, angry, he had gone for food but the army weren’t providing it, they locked the doors and stood within watching us, they had given a statement, rationing was in force, they would provide us with more food tomorrow, be we were hungry. Some damn clever fool started to ask questions, what about vegetables, wouldn’t they rot? The troops didn’t look hungry, they were looking plump in fact? Had those trucks in the morning been taking food away rather then bring it?

These questions shouldn’t have been asked, the answers were already known, we just didn’t believe it, yes the army was well fed, yes they were emptying rather then filling this super market, yes they were going to run south very soon. Well we made them leave sooner, the crowd stormed the building, they set it on fire forcing the army out then pounced on them, beating them with clubs. Most of the army guys made it out alright, they opened fire on the crowd but we were to man y and they to few, they ran, taking some vehicles they left.

The crowd poured inside, grabbing anything then holding it tight and running like hell to get the ill gotten goods to safety. The populous split here, some wanted food, but weren’t willing to fight for it, they were going to die first, others fought for food and got it, the survivors, and others just fought, picked up the weapons the army had abandoned and shooting people with food, or just shooting, the raiders, it was this moment when groups started forming, I saw my neighbour and a friend from work, together we grabbed a few crates of tins, one man loading, two defending, we headed home together.

Far to fast were weren’t just helping each other, we started living closer to each other, sleeping in shifts, stealing, looting, it all started from the moment we force the army out, civilization didn’t fall, it was pushed.

[Aufeis]

Jake shook his head. How long had he been staring at the wall, blankly? At least two hours already. He sighed. it was amazing how quickly time passed when you were remembering things you no longer had. He instead turned to the crossword puzzle had had been clutching the whole time and began to fill in the spaces. He was actually doing the puzzle pretty well, considering how long her had been insane. But perhaps it wasn't true insanity. Perhaps it was only an extended mental break. Who knew anymore? The world had gone to hell, and they had all been dragged along with it.

[Gabs]

Charlie woke up and stared straight ahead of her while still in her dreams from last night. After a few minuets she sighed and looked around, nothing had changed and no one was there. A small amount of relief washed over her, she had chosen a good place to sleep. She slid off the mattress and took a sip of water from her supply before folding up the blanket and placing it gently in her bag, patting it down.

Swinging her pack onto her back she took a second to survey the area around her with a grim expression before taking a deep breath and walking out of the room.

Before she left the building she peered around outside, all was silent, that didn’t mean that it was safe, but hell who cared? If she was set upon then she would fight like promised. She couldn’t deny that death would be a happy ending, with this in mind she walked through the window, looked up and down the street, shrugged and carried on walking down the road.

[Darkpriest]

Vik returned to the sound blackness of sleep, without consideration of the world around him and without fear from the dreams which had disappeared for the moment the dreams which haunted him at night, by showing him a world that was dead, a world he would never return to, with people he would never see again and worse these dreams showed him how the world was lost and what he had done, which was basically nothing, to stop it. He sleeping mind knew time was short and gained what rest it could knowing that soon he would be awake and once again on edge and on the defence.

[Aufeis]

Jake finished up his crossword puzzle and tossed it over his shoulder, letting it flutter to the ground. He was bored beyond belief, but there was nothing to do in the damn basement. He opened his book and flipped to a series of pages at the back where he was writing another book. It didn't have a title, but her had started it back before Sierra and Carlos has died. When they disappeared, his ability to write did as well. He reread over everything he had written and began to writing again, checking his watch. There was still about an hour left to Vik's sleep. He wasn't going to be gone long. He went out around the back and relieved himself. He made his way around the front of the house and paused to look up at every cloudy sky. He longed to see the sun again. But he knew that it probably wasn't going to happen in his lifetime. Or anyone's lifetime.

[Gabs]

Charlie hummed to herself as she walked, it wasn’t exactly light but she guessed that it was pretty early. There had been no point staying in one place being eaten by thoughts especially while alone. She heard a noise and spun around one hand gun immediately in her hand. Nothing happened. Silence folded around her while she stood still, simply staring and alert. Noise didn’t happen for no reason these days, there wasn’t anything to make any, other than humans. She bit her tongue, I’m fed up of this, she thought to herself, aiming her handgun. She stepped forwards and whatever had made the noise made it again, but from further away. She ran after it, tearing through the dead trees, using her frustration and anger to keep her going, then suddenly she purposefully ran if a different direction. If this person was running then they could be running towards a large group of people, she kept changing directions for a bit before walking instead. She didn’t want loud footsteps to draw people close, that would be really stupid. As soon as she was sure no one was following she picked a direction and panting slightly started walking again.

[Darkpriest]

Vik’s sleeping body rolled over as his mind stirred, unfortunately the cot wasn’t particularly well balance. Which a crash he landed on the floor. Opened his eyes in the gloom, Vik’s immediate reaction was to start swearing. He sat up cursing gravity, the floor, his dreams. He rubbed his head and back, nothing broken, just pissed off.

He started coughing, his mouth was dry, the air these days was dry, like it was dead, he found a bottle of water next to the bunk and took a long drink. Once he finished he started swearing again as he got to his feet , a quick view of the room showed that Jake wasn’t about, Vik paused to listen, but couldn’t hear anything so he continued to stumbled outside.

[Aufeis]

Jake nearly ran into Vik as he came back in from his bathroom break, "Hey, aren't you supposed to be sleeping? Didn't think I pissed that loudly. Anyway, looks clear all up and down the road. Haven't taken a very hard look, but there's nothing in the immediate vicinity. You wanna go back an sleep the last hour, or you wanna just go?" He asked, blowing into his hands. It was still chilly as hell out here if you stood in one place for too long. At least the bunker was warmer.

[Darkpriest]

Vik stumbled back as he almost fell over Jake, he was still rubbing the side of his head, ‘I don’t sleep so well any more, I don’t think another hour will help much.’ Vik looked up the sky was still dark shade of grey, the sun was one its way up, you could tell from the lightened patch of grey where the sun was. Vik muttered to himself ‘bloody dreams, if only I could forget the sun.’

He started to shiver ‘lets go inside, light a few candles and eat some thing, by the time we are ready to go, it will be a little warmer. It would be good to get a full day in; I think the snow it catching us up.’

Vik looked in the direction of the road, then away from it, towards the countryside, part of him was going to miss the road once they we off it, sure it was dangerous, and he hated it, but in away it had kept him safe this far, but maybe it was time to go, getting a supply dump like this, and someone to travel with, that had to be a sign.

Vik wandered back into the bunker, it was warmer, lighting a candle, and then using that to light the others, got to save matches after all. He sat on the bunk and started looking through the cans.

[thedawg199370]

I walked through the urban wasteland, I'd been wondering through the wrecked city of Newhill for three weeks now, searching for supplies, shelter and hopefully a gun and some ammunition. Anything to defend myself from the looters, or the cannibals, or the rabid dogs. I heard a terrified scream from behind a bus. It sounded female. I ran to the other end of the bus and saw a cannibal grabbing a young looking woman. The woman was struggling and pushing a jagged machete away from her. I stepped in the cannibal's way and then pushed the machete towards him. He growled kicked me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I stumbled into the side of a wrecked car, desperate to catch my breath. The cannibal walked towards me, growling with anticipation to kill me. He smiled and growled "When I kill you I'm gonna eat your heart and skin you, I'll make your flesh into leather and turn you into a jacket. And I'm gonna love this." The cannibal got closer, gripping his machete, smiling, growling. He raised it over his head. Before He could swing it back down and kill me I ducked down. He got his machete stuck in the top of the car.
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!!!" He yelled angrily, tugging at the machete to get it out. I grabbed a piece of lead pipe off the floor and took a swing for his head. The blow was solid and it knocked him off balance. While he was stunned I swung again, this time, in the ribs. He crumpled to the ground and gasped for air. I stood over his body, watching him gasp in pain.
"You sick fuck." I muttered as I slammed the pipe down onto his head, fracturing his skull. He was dead.
The woman looked at me. She was blonde, tall and slim, she looked about 22 years old. I was 20. She wore a dirty shirt that's left sleeve was torn and she wore filthy black jeans.
"I see you how to handle yourself in a fight," She said. "Are you one of Hound's men?" She asked, there was a slightly worried look in her eyes.
"Who's Hound?" I asked.
"Hound is the crazy bandit freak who claims he owns this city." She explained, sounding slightly disgusted.
"Oh, I hear that from a lot of men." I replied.
"I presume most of them were nuts?" She smiled.
"Nah, they uhm...." I trailed off.
"Oh, they......." We both nodded, we both got the idea.
"Anyway, thanks for helping me out. Guess I'll be heading on my way." She smiled and turned to walk away.
"Wait." I dunno why I said that.
"Hm?" She looked back at me.
"Uh, where you heading?" I asked.
"Just looking for shelter." She continued walking.
"Hey, me too" I smiled. "Hey, maybe I could tag along, you know, strength in numbers."
"That sounds good, but, I'm low on supplies as it is, sorry." She looked at me sadly then walked away.
(well, Jacob the super-stud your shitty skill with girls just lost you the only girl in about a thousand miles, good job) I thought to myself.