The suburbs surrounding the city were silent and deserted, as expected. She shouldered her pack over her AK, brushing the pink strands out of her face and green eyes.
The sun was setting, and Sakura crossed to one side of the street to a modestly sized house, pushing open the already open door. The entire place was covered in a thick layer of dust, and she pulled up the bandana around her neck up over her nose and mouth. She grabbed her pistol, holding it firmly in both hands as she traversed through the house.
Her boots thumped across the wooden floor as she searched through the house in an attempt to secure it before bunkering down for the night. Her breath caught when she heard sounds coming from the kitchen, and she tightened her grip on her gun as she turned the corner.
With the scarce light coming in from the window, she saw a giant, hairless dog digging into a pile of food, its breath coming in gasps as it wolfed down its meal. It paused, sniffing. Sakura bit her lip and pointed the gun, aiming down the sight.
The dog turned, its red eyes meeting her green ones, and it growled, its muscles tightening in preparation to leap. Just as it rocked back in order to gather strength into its unnaturally strong hind legs, Sakura squeezed the trigger.
The dog crumpled to the ground, its head blown away by the force of the pistol. Wrinkling her nose, Sakura approached it, grabbing its front legs with gloved hands to pull it out of the house.
She dragged it across the tile floor, out of the house before shutting the door of the house behind her, locking it. Returning to the kitchen, she reached into her back pocket to grab her Geiger counter. She picked up a can of beans, waving the device over it to ascertain its level of radioactivity.
Overall, it was a relatively low count, and she rifled through the drawers to find a can opener and spoon. Setting her pack on the ground and leaning her AK against the counter, she hopped up onto the counter, opening the can and digging in to eat the cold food.
Her stomach growled savagely from the lack of food she had experienced in the past month since leaving the vault, and she wolfed down the beans as savagely as the dog had been tearing into the food.
After finishing the food, she tossed the can onto the ground and found a bowl in the cabinets. She ran water into the bowl until it was full. Rifling through her pack, she found a RadAway tablet and dropped it into the water. It began bubbling like dry ice in water, and she sighed, staring intently as the tablet slowly dissolved. She drummed her fingers on the counter impatiently, having to wait for the tablet to fully dissolve before she could trust the water to be safe to drink.
Once the tablet had full dissolved, she tipped the bowl to her mouth, greedily drinking the water. One benefit to the nuclear winter was that water was always cold.
Sakura grabbed her things and moved to the living room, where a fireplace was installed with wood remaining in the hearth. She started a fire and settled down in front of it, warming her frozen fingers.
The sun had been down for nearly an hour when she heard gunshots out on the streets. Sakura's heart began pounding, and she quickly grabbed her gun and pack, scurrying out of the living room and into a bedroom. Her breath came in short gasps as she heard the whining of direwolves dying before the gunshots stopped.
Ever since she left the vault, no one she had met had been friendly, but now that she was closer to the city, maybe things would be different?
The door to the house rattled, and Sakura checked the state of her ammunition on her guns. "Looks good." She breathed to herself, just as the front door was kicked in.
Fuck.
"There's a fire running. Someone's been here." A man's voice said. Steeling herself, she lurched into the living room, pointing her AK directly at the man.
"Put down your weapons and kick them here." She growled, narrowing her eyes. Two men immediately dropped their AKs, their arms flying up.
"Shit, it's girl." One said in wonder. They were both outfitted in some kind of military outfit.
"How does she have that kind of firepower?"
"Must be a rebel."
"Shut up!" Sakura snapped. "Who are you?"
"We're with the military. Identify yourself."
There's a military?
What the fuck.
The people in the vault had always said that no life remained outside of the vaults, and now she had run into a military?
Lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice one of them reaching behind until it was too late. He whipped a handgun out and pointed at her. Sakura hit the floor just as he fired, and she quickly rolled to the side, firing off a round and nailing one of the men in the head before quickly shooting the other.
"That went well." She muttered, getting to her feet. She crossed the room to the two bodies and began to loot. The first thing she found were RadAway pills along with extra ammo for their AKs.
"Bingo." She murmured to herself, quickly shoving the extra ammo and pills into her bag. "I guess I better get out of here."
With that, she went out into the frigid night, moving towards the city.
Only then did she notice that the city was lit up.
They have power?
AN: Andddd chapter 1! Please leave reviews :)