Title: Welcome to the New Age Chapter 1
Author's Note: For disclaimer, see the prologue.
Author's Note 2: Two things before we head into the story: (1) Your reviews and encouragement are so awesome. They make me have some sort of complex and give me a big ego and make me strut around my house like a peacock or something. So thank you for that. And (2) I don't actually watch The Walking Dead (because zombies, that's why) or Revolution. So any similarities are actually an accident.
Author's Note 3: This story will closely follow Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". Some parts may be eerily similar. I don't own the rights to that book, but I highly recommend it.
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Chapter One
Interior – Cabin, Harrison State Forest, Ohio – Morning, Day 42
When she wakes in the cabin in the dark and the cold of the night, she reaches out to touch the woman sleeping beside her. Her hand rises and falls with each precious breath. She pushes away the blankets and carefully climbs out of bed. She quietly walks toward the window and pushes aside the sheet they hung up the morning they arrived at the cabin. She looks toward the east for any light. There is none. She nods.
The chair across from the bed is rickety and the cushion is falling apart. Olivia sighs as she settles herself into in. She closes her eyes and lets her mind wander back to the day of the impact.
Interior – Olivia's Apartment – Morning, Day of Impact
Alex's laugh is carefree and wonderful and Olivia can't think of a sound she likes more than that laugh. The sounds makes her look up from the newspaper in front of her in time to see Alex dumping the contents of the frying pan into the trashcan.
"What did you do?" Olivia asks, standing to wrap her arms around the blonde.
Alex leans back into her detective's embrace. "It was a bad egg."
Olivia chuckles, her breath tickling Alex's ear. "A bad egg, huh?" Alex nods. "You burnt it, didn't you?"
"It's not that bad."
Olivia steps away to look at the egg in the trashcan and before Alex has a chance to miss the warmth of her body, she's back. "Not that bad, Alex? It looks like you threw it into a fire."
"Don't be so dramatic, Liv."
Before Olivia has a chance to respond, there's a deep rumbling sound and the apartment starts to shake. The power flickers a few times before shutting off completely and car alarms blare from the street.
Olivia pushes Alex to the ground and directs her to stay underneath the kitchen table. When the shaking subsides, Olivia stands up on unsteady legs to survey the damage.
The apartment seems to be fine, apart from a few broken trinkets that fell off of shelves. However, when she looks out the window, she has to gasp. "Alex," she says, "you have to see this."
Alex's light snoring fills the cabin and pulls Olivia out of her thoughts. She stands up, stretching out her back, reveling in the cracking, and peeks out the window again.
Spotting the first gray light of day, she grabs her knapsack and leaves Alex sleeping, and inspects the area immediately surrounding the cabin, gun in hand the entire time. When she's sure it's clear, she makes her way down to the road and studies the path to the south. Barren, silent, godless. She glances at her watch, thankful the battery hasn't dies yet. 6:47 am. The wind blows and it's cold and crisp and Olivia knows there's no way they'll survive the impending winter unless they move south.
As soon as it's light enough, she pulls the binoculars from her bag and studies more of the surrounding area. In the valley below, charcoal-covered trees litter the landscape and ash floats through the wind. Adjusting the binoculars, Olivia zooms in on a pile of bodies, all burnt and very much dead. She gasps and fights the urge to vomit by reminding herself that she'd seen much worse as a New York City Detective. She spits into the dead grass by her feet and wipes her mouth with her wrist and looks out at the valley again. Then she just sits there and watches the gray daylight congeal over the land. At this moment, she knows only that she has to keep the woman sleeping in the cabin safe.
When she gets back to the cabin, Alex is still asleep. Olivia pulls the extra blankets off the bed, folds them, and places them into the cart in the corner of the cabin. She walks back to the bed with their breakfast – mugs half-full of cold soup. She places the mugs on the bedside table, sits on the edge of the bed, looks down at the sleeping woman, and frowns. Alex's shirt had risen throughout the night to reveal the small, pockmark scars dotting her back and shoulders.
Interior – House, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania – Early Morning, Day 33
The dead lay scattered over the land, like victims of a bombing. Olivia does her best to keep Alex from looking at them, but even infected, Alex is stubborn as all hell.
"Don't leave me like them," Alex says, looking out the window. Her voice is quiet and strained and Olivia knows that it the Virus has spread to Alex's throat and it won't be long before she suffocates.
"You're not going to die," Olivia says from the kitchen. She opens a cabinet door and is relieved to find a number of pill bottles. Anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, beta blockers, and pain killers – one by one, Olivia takes the bottles out of the cabinet and sets them on the counter. Finally, she comes to the bottle she needs.
"What are those?" Alex asks, walking up behind her.
"You should be resting," Olivia responds.
"I'll rest when I'm dead."
Olivia frowns and hands Alex one of the pills from the bottle. "You're not going to die."
"What's this?"
"Antibiotics."
Alex turns in the bed and looks up at Olivia. "Hi, Liv," she says.
Olivia smiles. "I'm right here."
"I know."
An hour later, they are on the road. Olivia pushes the cart, and both women carry knapsacks. In the knapsacks are essential things – one blanket, five meals, extra water, medications – in case they have to abandon the cart and make a run for it. Clamped to the handle of the cart is an old motorcycle mirror Olivia uses to watch the road behind them.
Alex shifts her pack higher onto her shoulder and looks out at the wasted country. Below them, in the valley with the bodies, is a river – motionless and gray. Along the shore, a number of dead forest creatures. The Virus must've gotten them too, Alex thinks.
"Are you okay?" Olivia asks, taking Alex's hand in her own. Alex nods. She is now.
Making it down into the valley, the cross the river by an old concrete bridge, and a few miles on, they come across a roadside gas station. They stand in the road and study it.
"I think we should check it out," Olivia says. "Take a look." Alex nods.
They push through overgrown weeds that fall around them and cross the broken asphalt to the tank for the pumps. The cap is gone and Olivia drops to her elbows to smell the pipe, but the odor of gas is only a rumor, faint and stale. She stands and looks over the building. The pumps standing with their hoses oddly still in place. The windows intact. The service bay is open and Olivia goes in.
A standing metal toolbox against one wall. A diagnostic computer against the other. Olivia and Alex search through the shelves and drawers, but there is nothing there that they can use. Good half-inch drive sockets. A ratchet. They stand looking around the garage. A metal barrel full of trash. They walk into the adjoining office. Dust everywhere. A metal desk in the corner. A counter. A cashregister. Around the front of the counter is a stockpile of stale gum. Alex loads some of it into her knapsack. Olivia crosses the stained linoleum to the desk and stands there. Then she picks up the phone and dials a number she's so familiar with. She waits, desperately hoping for a miracle to make the phone ring.
"It's not going to work," Alex says, coming up behind Olivia and wrapping her arms around her.
Olivia sets down the phone and leans back into the embrace. "I know," she says. "How are you feeling?"
Alex rolls her shoulders. "Sore."
"We can rest."
"We've been resting for a week."
"Another day won't hurt."
"We need to find Elliot and his family."
Two hours later, they make it to the far side of the valley, where the road passes through a stark black burn covering the land. Charred and limbless trunks of trees stretch around them on every side. Ash moves over the land in the slow wind.
"A forest fire?" Alex asks.
Olivia shrugs. "Could've been set purposely."
"To cover the bodies?"
"You saw them?"
Alex nods. "I've seen worse, Liv." Olivia's silent. Alex takes her hand. "I'm not a child."
Olivia gives Alex's hand a squeeze. "I have to protect you. I promised I would."
Alex leans over and kisses Olivia's cheek. "I love you."
"Love you more."
Olivia looks into the distance. In a clearing not too far away is a burned house and, beyond that, a barren meadow. Farther along are billboards advertising motels and restaurants and theme parks. Looking at the sign, Olivia feels, for just a second, that everything is normal, that everything is okay.
Olivia's stomach rumbles and Alex stifles a chuckle. "Hungry?" she asks.
"No," Olivia answers seriously.
"Liv."
"Alex, I'm fine. We don't have enough food for me to eat every time my stomach rumbles."
"Have you been skipping meals?"
"What? No!"
"Olivia Benson," Alex says menacingly.
Olivia sighs in defeat. "You were sick."
"You can't skip meals for me," Alex says. "I need you to live." She slides her knapsack off her shoulder and rummages through it. Finding a pack of gum, she takes a piece out and hands it to Olivia. "Eat this. It'll help."
"Alex-"
"Eat it."
With a stern look from Alex, Olivia takes the gum. "Happy?" she asks. Alex nods.
As they approach the house, Alex gets a strange feeling in the back of her mind. "What's wrong?" Olivia asks, noticing Alex's changed demeanor.
"I think…I think we're being watched."
Olivia doesn't take things like this lightly. The last time she had…well, it'd been disastrous. She reaches for the holster on her hip and pulls out her gun. Directing Alex and their cart to an embankment on the side of the road, she whispers, "Wait here."
"Where are you going?" Alex asks, grabbing Olivia's wrist.
"I'm just going to check the house. I'll be right back. Is your gun in your bag?" Alex nods. "Good. Take it out and keep it in your lap."
"Why?" Alex asks, taking the gun out of its holster in her knapsack.
"Just in case."
Alex pulls Olivia to her and presses her lips to Olivia's. "Just in case," she whispers.
Olivia nods. "I'll be right back."
Less than ten minutes later, Alex hears two gunshots from inside the house.
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A cliffhanger! Until next time...