Author's Note: Hey guys! This is my first ever story on the site and I'd appreciate if you could drop a review. I'm open to any criticism or suggestions, just let me know.
Cold, wet, anxious, I stood on the precipice of human destruction, rifle in hand. A sea of rotting skyscrapers stretched onward into the void.
"Who . . . what did this?" Alice muttered as she examined the labyrinth of skeletons that lay only feet from us. "My helmet's display is picking up a hundred potential bodies."
"Who knows?" I replied, slowly stepping through the horrific scene. "Come on, a storm's moving in and we've got to find a good shelter before it catches up with us."
"Yeah, definitely wouldn't wanna be stuck in that crap. The stuff'll melt clean through our suits." She quipped while staring up into an obsidian wall of clouds that lingered above.
The two of us moved at a brisk trot down the nightmarish streets of what once was a great city; we looked cautiously at every blown out window or melted car for danger. A thick layer of ash floated down from the clouds, mixing in with the sweat and grime of our radiation suits until we resembled nothing more than a light fog being swept along by a gust of wind.
"You think anyone made it out?" Alice's voice crackled in my helmet's earpiece.
"Out?" I asked
"You know, before the bombs fell."
". . . No, probably not." I sighed "They were built to ensure that."
A long moment of silence followed until we came across a small and relatively intact two-story house. I motioned towards it with my head and Alice readied her rifle; we crept up the front steps and approached a thick oak door.
"Think we should knock?" Alice smirked, "Maybe someone's home."
"I wouldn't doubt it; the place is in good shape, like someone's been taking care of it." I noted while scanning any neighboring windows. A pit grew in my stomach at the eeriness of the place. "Maybe we should reconsider."
"Oh don't be so paranoid. This is the best we'll find out here, and I don't wanna end up sleeping under a truck again." She grasped the doorknob, "Ah hell, it's stuck."
"Not stuck, locked." I whispered. "Turn around, slowly."
"Wha-" Alice turned towards me and saw what I was staring at. A woman clad in rags and leather-strap shoes stood frozen at the bottom of the concrete steps. Alice instinctively leveled her rifle at the stranger's chest.
"Who are you?" she demanded more than asked.
"Al, put the gun down, she's not dangerous."
"Says you. She managed to sneak up on us without so much as a blink from our radar." Alice kept her rifle trained on the woman.
I clicked a button on the side of my helmet, switching to my helmet's loudspeaker. "Ma'am, is this your house?" No response. "Ma'am . . . we're not going to hurt you. Is this where you live?"
"Live?" the woman whispered almost inaudibly.
"Yes, is this your home?"
"No. No more home, no more live. Only run." She rambled. "No name, no one, no house, no home, nothing, nothing, nothing." Her hands began twitching incessantly as she repeated the same word over and over again. "Nothing, nothing, nothing…"
"Woah, woah, woah, calm down. It's alright, you're safe now" I shouldered my rifle in an attempt to defuse the situation and motioned for Alice to do the same. A reached an arm out to take the woman's hand. "Let's go inside, it's dangerous out here."
"What the hell are you doing?" Alice spat.
I turned off the loudspeaker for a moment, "Just follow my lead and get that door open." I continued to motion for the woman to come with us inside. She remained motionless. "Won't you come in?" I asked again.
"No, can't stay, they find me, take me back, the ghosts, they find me and kill good man. Kill good girl to." The woman stuttered as she pointed at me and then Alice. "Can't stop, no rest."
"Who's chasing you?" I questioned, "Who are they?"
"Ghosts!" she was yelling now, "White face come and take me from good man! Take me way, into dark!" Her voice grew louder with every word.
"Shut her up or she'll wake up the whole damn city!" Alice interjected.
"Ma'am please calm down, we can protect you. Please be quiet." I tried to reassure her as I slowly walked down the front steps, my arm still outstretched. "Come with us and we can make the ghosts go away."
After a decade, the woman slowly raised her hand towards mine. She held it for a moment, and fell silent. I began to step towards the house, but the woman's ears perked up as if she could hear something in the distance. "They're here," She breathed, "White face here, no time, run!" She ripped her hand from mine and with incredible speed took off down the ashen road.
"What the hell?" Alice stared down the street.
"I can't even begin to guess." I replied. "Whatever it was that spooked her, I don't want to stick around to find out if it was her imagination or not. Let's get out of here."
"For once, I agree with you." Alice said nervously.
The two of us ventured on in complete silence, still trying to grasp what had happened. An hour passed before the silence was broken, and how I wish it hadn't been…
"Contact 300 meters northeast." Alice reported. "I count one dot on radar, not moving." Her breathing grew heavier.
"I see it. Relax; it's probably a dog or something. We'll wait here and see if it moves on." I murmured.
One hour passed, then two. The dot never moved an inch.
"Maybe we should go check it out." Alice suggested.
"Alright, but stay low." We slunk closer until we could make out what it was, but couldn't see a thing; nothing was there. We stood exactly where the radar reading was from. Nothing.
Slowly, Alice looked up, "It's her. My god it's her." Alice gasped. The woman from earlier now hung from a light post that loomed high over the street. "She's dead."
A bolt of paralyzing fear shot down my spine. "Alice, we need to leave. Now." I stared in horror at the pavement below the body. There was a circular area perfectly clean of any dirt or rubble. Alice looked down and her face turned pale. There on the ground, was a painting of a ghostly white face. At that moment, the one dot on our radar snapped out, and eight more went up behind us.