Do or Die, Exist or Survive
Hey everyone,
New story out! This one has been written for a while but I'm only just getting around to posting it. Thanks for reading.
Summary:
I'm not sure when they came; only that it resulted in death and a fast promotion. Will my life ever go back to normal after all I've seen and done?
-o0o-
It was midnight when I woke up suddenly from a dreamless sleep. After letting my eyes flicker open I noticed the 'on' light for my air conditioner was flashing, indicating a recent power outage. Brushing it off as one of the frequent break downs at the Casuarina power plant, I just rolled over in my bed.
Curious as to what had awoken me; I listened carefully to see if it was a loud noise or an animal scrambling around in the roof. At first I couldn't figure out what it was that woke me, until I heard screaming in the distance. The real noise must have been deafening if the sound could be heard inside a cyclone proof house.
Scrambling out of bed, I padded over to my door in order to go into my parents' room and see if they had been woken up. As I reached my bedroom door a sickening crunch could be heard, directly over my head. In a moment of panic I dived away from the door and deeper into my bedroom.
It's a good thing I did so as the roof collapsed in a pile of plasterboard and sparking wires. Dust from the plasterboard coated my face as I scrambled to my feet and scurried towards the wall-one of the stronger areas of the room. I wasn't sure what had made the roof collapse; the only thing I knew was that the roof was more susceptible to collapsing now.
The earth trembled as the sound of extremely heavy footsteps came to my ears. Pressing against the wall I hoped that whatever was going on outside would be subsided quickly. Part of my wish came true as the footsteps receded; however, my gut instinct told me that whatever was going on outside wasn't over.
After spending two minutes squashed against the wall, I crawled over to the cupboard and pulled out a pair of running shoes before yanking them onto my feet. Shifting to a standing position, I cautiously clambered over the pile of debris from the collapsed roof before entering the hallway.
However, the hallway wasn't a hallway any more. It seemed that the entire house except my room had collapsed only moments before. Twirling towards my parents' room, I scrambled over the rubble to get to where their bed usually stood. Instead of a bed resting up against a wall, jagged pieces of wood poked out between the debris.
Hoping against hope that my parents were still alive, I desperately shoved the plasterboard and sparking wires out of the way in order to get to them. It took fifteen tiring minutes to get beneath the rubble and the reward for all the effort was seeing my parents' eyes staring lifelessly back at mine.
I didn't burst into tears like all the people on TV shows do; instead I was in a state of shock. Nothing sunk into my mind, neither the loss of my family nor the destruction of the house. My brain must have kicked into a 'fight or flight' mode after spending ten minutes in a numb state of mind.
Regaining my feet, I surveyed the surrounding neighbourhood. The immediate houses around me were all in the same state as mine, the whole structure demolished, while the suburbs on either side of Marrara had little to no damage.
Off in the distance, towards Casuarina, I could see bright lights cutting through the night sky, illuminating that section of the city. Thankfully Marrara was still dark and easy to hide in. For the first time since I woke up I realised I was still wearing my pyjamas. Knowing they wouldn't be suitable clothes for whatever lay ahead, whether it be more hardship or cleanup, I decided to put some other clothes on.
My gut instinct was telling me that it would be hardship ahead, not cleanup. The bright lights in the distance may have been cleanup crews starting to get to work but I seriously doubted it. Instead my mind was leading me to believe it was whatever had caused the buildings to collapse. An earthquake couldn't have been the cause because the whole city would have been taken down; instead it would have had to have been something more isolated.
Somewhere in my head a little voice was whispering Decepticons but the more rational side of my brain was telling me that the Transformers were a movie and definitely not real. Despite the rational side of my brain, some part of me believed it might have been the Decepticons.
The first time I watched Transformers I was only seven. The obsession had started with Generation One before being rekindled five years later with the live-action remakes. Since then I had watched all seventeen discs of the Generation 1, both movies and their animated cousin, The Transformers: The Movie. However, being obsessed with the Transformers didn't make me delusional; they were fictional characters, not real life sentient beings.
Climbing back to my room I slide the wardrobe doors open with some effort. Thinking that darker clothes would be better suited to staying hidden I surveyed the contents of my cupboard. From inside the closet I pulled out a pair of cargo pants, a khaki coloured T-Shirt and a jumper. Pulling the T-Shirt and pants on I wrapped the jumper around my waist in case I would need it.
Snatching my hairbrush off of the bench next to the wardrobe I quickly pulled it through my dark brown hair a couple of times before using one of the hair ties on my wrist to pull my hair into a ponytail. It only took a couple of flicks of my hand to have my ponytail twirled into a bun shape before I pulled the second hair tie off my wrist to wrap around the bun.
Deciding my running shoes would be too flimsy for the debris around the city, I exchanged my runners for a pair of black boots in my cupboard. Knowing that I wouldn't be home for a while and would need to be able to look after myself while I roved around the city, I decided to get together a rudimentary survival kit.
Digging through the pile of camping gear in my room, I retrieved a small water proof container to put things in. Inside it I placed a pocket knife, Ziploc bag, rope and a flint stick. I also grabbed a few extra items including a camelback, a small head torch and a personal sized Bushman's insect repellent, with the latter being shoved inside the camelback's pocket.
I took one last look around my room before walking over to the kitchen and prying a couple of flattened fruit bars from a crushed cupboard. Scrambling over to the area which used to be the side of the house, I started to dig through the debris.
After only five minutes of hard work, I unearthed one of the full water containers which had been sitting down the side of the house since the start of the cyclone season. Heaving the water container up onto a flat piece of brick in front of me I unscrewed the cap and filled my camelback.
Two litres of water wouldn't last me an overly long time but it would be better than nothing. Besides, it wouldn't be hard to set up a solar sphere the next day when the sun would be hot. Along with the solar sphere, if I hide the two water containers, one of which was still full and the other three quarters full, I would have a reliable source of water.
A safe assumption to make would be that any intact buildings would be raided for water and food supplies. Instead, the rubble of one of the nearby houses would be less likely to be searched for supplies. My room was still intact, most likely making my house a likely target for scavengers. Instead, the next door neighbours' house was fully flattened and I planned to take advantage of that fact.
Crawling over the rubble of the neighbours' house, I made my way to the centre of the building. Feverishly pulling away the bricks on top of the pile of debris I made two recesses in the tough construction material before shoving the water containers into them.
Making quick work of covering up the containers, I scrambled away from the fallen building. Just as I was about to leave, a soft whine floated to my ears. Turning in the direction of the sound, I noticed that it came from the shell of my old house.
Thinking that it could be my dog Natayo, I crept over to where the sound originated from. Pushing away a couple of large bricks, I opened up an opening in the thick layer of construction materials. Out of the hole came Natayo, a streak of gold fur. A smile graced my face for a matter of seconds before I got the rope out of my survival kit and used it as a leash for Tayo.
Taking one last look around the rubble which used to be my home, Tayo and I slunk out into the night, prepared to do what it takes to not only exist, but to survive.
Hey guys,
This is planned as a chapter story however I may or may not continue it, depending on the response I get from readers. Going to need around ten reviews to get me to update it. I don't have the next chapters written but I have a plot in my head.
RnR people. Have fun reading! :D