Chapt 1: Returning to the Present

Arriving, what would have been called in the past, before the world was plunged into what seems like eternal darkness, fashionably late, now it was just dishonorable to show up even a few minutes behind schedule, a band of warriors not much different from us, but each one was in their own right extremely unique. Each person on either side of the battlefield trying desperately; to not show off their strengths, or worse, their weaknesses to the other competitors. To remain inconspicuous, and to find out how they could survive with the least amount of damage done to their now precious bodies. Before this day so many other brave or not so brave warriors fell by my hand, and so many more will today, tomorrow or when ever Australia tells me to. They looked like those across from me at this exact moment but they are also so much different than them. I don't remember how many fights I have been in since Hell on Earth started, but I do know that this will not be the last, and that I can not give up now, it's just not my time to die. Not today, not tomorrow, and not in a few years.

I feel sorry for our enemies, well for anyone who has to face us. Our skills are refined and we know how to play off each others strengths, but by the look of these guys, we will not need to strain our selves on these rude and overconfident fucks. At least these dicks gave us time to streach before the battle, something they will not have the luxury to enjoy. Now limber and ready for battle, blood lust shone in my clan's eyes, while the eyes of our enemies seemed to be clouded, bored, and distracted. Their misconception of how easy my team… awww hell, my friends and I are. We'll be their down fall, the death of them; I will make sure of it.

"Ah-ha-ha-ha, look at the puny one, can't Australia take us seriously, why can we never be put against a team with some skill? Pitting us up against a… a… a band of ragamuffins and a midget, this will be quick and easy." The sound of one of our enemies disrupted my train of thought.

"I will make you eat your words large one." I said in a voice that was barley loud enough for my team to hear. Why waist energy on talking to buffoons when fighting is inevitable.
"What, what did the puny one say?" The same obnoxious man yelled across the battle field, a look of amusement on his face. "I didn't hear what you said; speak up small one, ha-ha-ha-ha."
"He said; I will make you eat your words large one." One of my newer… friends informed our very rude enemies, wiping the grin from his face.

BEEP The match was about to begin, two more beeps and we would run loose, creating a few widows, and removing some very annoying, rude, and obnoxious enemies from this hell hole that we call earth. I don't know if we will be doing them a favor or not, but I do know that I want… no, need to survive. I need to do something with my life, something I cannot do if I die.

BEEP

The second beep resonated in our ears, the adrenalin was already pumping through our veins, we got into our fighting stances, gripping our weapons, and praying to what ever higher power we believed in that he would not take our soul, that we would live just another few days, that hopefully we would die of old age… somehow.

BEEP

And so it began the blood bath that would deprive me of some of my friends, and many of my enemies. Running full tilt at the annoying lummox who decided that I would be the best candidate for his bullying… He thought wrong; I would show him what a "midget" could do. I will show him in his last few seconds that size does not matter much in this day and age… Well in reality it never did, I will show him that my katars are not just decoration. I will show him why I am the leader of this band, why I am feared, and why we have never lost.

My dual katars felt light as a feather now, it's been years since I've removed them from my body, I've never needed to and most likely never will. Now they are as much a party of my body as my eyes, arms, legs, or feet. These two metal claws attached to my hands and arms with long leather straps and a grip in each hand, the three two foot long prongs on each hand were my only weapon, all I needed, all I will ever need. They are my best friends, now in my time of need they are the only things that I can truly rely on. Arriving at my destination in front of my target, his smug look replaced with one of fear. He realized his mistake of picking on someone who appeared weaker than he far too late. He could have never known that years of being exposed to radiation mutated me, giving me more speed than any human being should have. He finally realized that he picked on the wrong person, that I would really make him eat his words. Slamming my two feet on the ground, jumping up onto his shoulders, my two feet digging into his flesh, my right hand pulled back ready to strike at the mans unprotected neck, I lean forward and whisper into his ear.

"This midget just stole your life away lummox" As my claw shoots forward into his large neck. Shredding his neck while severing his wind pipe and jugular in one quick swipe, hearing the satisfying gurgle of a man unable to breathe and drowning on his own blood, a smile slowly creeps onto my face. Why I do not know, but it just seemed right to be happy over my kill. The sound of the battle around me droned out by my own heart beat, the realization that his life would soon be over showed in my enemy's eyes, on his face, tears begin to form in his eyes. Slowly and painfully I remove my claw from his neck, a cry of pain reaches my ears as his mouth was twisted into a horrible shape showing his excruciating pain. The only other sound I have heard since I rushed my nameless opponent was his bloodcurdling scream. This his last act before his meaningless life ended, not leaving any time for him to react, the restriction of blood to his brain leaving him paralyzed as his life gushes from his neck. The blood soon dyes the ground around him crimson. A layer or red ooze covers my body; I lick the blood from my katars as his lifeless corpse slumps to the ground, victory. Not wasting any time gloating over my easy kill, I rush to one of the other enemies hassling one of our newer, younger, less experienced members. Although everyone could hold their own, there was no sense in taking unnecessary risks, plus killing was fun, there was nothing else to do now.

The enemy who Kurtis was engaged with was already impaled on his spear, lifeless. His enemy's blood was every where, his vital organs slightly protruding from the exit wound on his back. Kurtis was now 5'5, his bright blue eyes seemed didn't match his personality. His eye's seemed to be full of happiness, seemed to be full of compassion, but in reality he was as cold as everyone else that was here. He never would cut his long black hair even though it wasn't strategic to have something the enemy could grab onto. His skin now a golden brown and some how he could keep his goatee groomed properly even without a razor. His weapon of choice a crescent spear, a foot long slightly curved blade upon a 5 foot long wooden pole. Eyeing his kill hungrily, most likely Kurtis was wishing that he could tear into his enemy's flesh, eating his fill at this exact moment in time, but knowing that when his kill's flesh is cooked it will taste so much better than when it was raw, so much sweeter and so much less metallic. He refrains slowly removing his spear from his prey's body. Licking the blood from the blade getting a small rush from the metallic liquid, Kurtis' eyes glaze over slightly and a smile replaces the frown he usually wears. Slowly he comes back to reality and drags the lifeless corps of the fallen warrior to the pile of others.

Sadly the uneventful battle ended quickly, the other team was skill less, although a fight without any losses is better than one with, I was hoping for a challenge, something to do, this wasteland is so boring with no females to fuck or electricity for me to waist my time with anything electronic, I just wished for something to do, now Hell on Earth just seemed like a chore, the rush was gone. Carrying what ever enemies we could, which was of course most of them, back to our camp for the rest of the people there to feast on with us. We will celebrate another victory, we will celebrate that we had no losses, and we will celebrate to honor our gods and pray that we would find some females soon. Soon we picked up the pace, not wanting the meat to go bad in this hot sun, at least not before we had a chance to eat it, or at least preserve what we could, also we wanted to see what our prize was for such a pitiful fight, most likely very little since it wouldn't have been much entertainment for the master race but at least we won something. Something is better than nothing, and everything is worth something that is what we've learned by now. At markets you can trade anything for just about anything, be it weapons, armor, clothes, human flesh, people, food, anything, even hair that has fallen out is worth something, you don't throw out anything, if you can't eat it you use it, if you can't use it you trade it, if you can't trade it then you keep it until it is useful, or can be traded, its just how life is now.

X X X

Slowly we made our way back to camp, our bodies covered in blood, liquid life making it hard to hold onto the bodies of our fallen enemies, like their last wish was to spite us. Our blood covered hands kept slipping making it a harder trip than it should have been, a slower trip, a more boring trip then it should have been. We walked in silence back to our camp, we didn't have anything to talk about; our troubles, problems, wants, needs, ambitions, worries have already been known to each and every person who was our ally, nothing ever changed, or almost nothing. So soon no one talked about anything since there wasn't anything to talk about, at least when we get back we could talk about the fight, at least it would waist a couple hours.

It was time to switch carriers, the current warriors tired from the battle and having to trek so far carrying so much, their legs must have felt like lead bricks by now. Fred Takes Kurtis' place holding the feet of our newly acquired, large amount of food. Fred one of the scariest people I have ever met, thank god that he is on our team. Fred is a 6 foot, 18 year old man. His skin is black, we don't know if it was from the sun, a burn or just part of his mutation. 6 foot and 110 pounds, he is a lean mean fighting machine, using dual katanas his fighting style is scary even to his own team, not taking anyone else into effect he whirls his katanas in a tornado of death killing anything and everyone who gets in his way. Although a formidable opponent he is still a great friend and an even better ally. He was loyal, a little quiet and rough, but still a great asset, something I couldn't say about everyone.

Many wordless hours had passed since the end of the battle, we just wanted to get back to the camp, rest up and clean up, no one likes being covered in blood. We all had already cleaned up what we could, trying to drink as much of the blood as we could, no one could get enough of it, it just tasted so good everyone loved it.

We were close to home; I could see it in the distance. Thank god, I didn't want to spend another second in this sun. Also we were moving our camp today, we were moving further south. We wanted to settle where Florida used to be. We didn't want to go through another Canadian winter; with no winter clothes many people would die we just couldn't afford to loose as many people as the winter would take. "Hey Jacob, that big fuck really got u riled up didn't he? Ha-ha," Kurtis was just trying to make small talk I knew, but his word's confused me a little, I didn't get angry, not at all.
"What do you mean?" my reply was sincere I didn't know what he meant,

"Well you know, usually we wait for them to come to use, it's safer. This time you ran up and attacked them… and u went as fast as you could to that big un' and well… you are usually the calm one so…" Slowly he trailed off,
"Kurtis, I just wanted to end it quickly; they were no match for us as you could see. I just wanted to get back as soon as possible so we could leave this place." He seemed to be satisfied with my answer.
"Well, it's your lucky day, because we're back."

Slowly we moved back into camp, people rushed over to see who was lost. The people were amazed that everyone came back practicaly unharmed. The other members of our camp came over to give us a hand, taking away some of the bodies, taking them to be bled and dried out so they wouldn't go bad as quickly. The armor and weapons that we brought back were placed into a pile. Anything useful we would used, the rest would be melted down to make something useful, be it a weapon, some armor, cutlery, plates, boxes to carry food, what ever we needed. Everyone knew that tonight there would be a feast, but right now we had to sort and prepare everything for the move, but first us, the returning warriors would go and see our prize.

Slowly we moved to the unopened wooden crate in the middle of everything, dropped off here most likely by helicopter but untouched by anyone's hands. The people in our camp knew that we had won it, and it was our right to open it, they had no right to touch it unless we said they could, also they knew the consequences of touching something that wasn't theirs. The owner would challenge them to fight for it, and seeing as we are the warriors and they are not, we would win. Arriving that the crate quite quickly, It was a large wooden crate, opening it carefully making sure not to damage the wood. Inside the crate were some of the most beautiful things we had ever seen.

Inside the crate here was Bottled water, oh god, fresh water it had been so long since we had fresh water to drink, something we didn't have to boil something that was relatively cool. Not only was there water but there was fruit and vegetables. We could eat something with our meat, something that could add more flavor to what ever we were eating; carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes. We were all so happy to see fresh produce and water; we hadn't seen either of those in months. Slowly we picked up the crate and carried it back to our make shift tents. We would have to pack up to leave soon; luckily we still had the crates from each prize we won.

It didn't take too long for the camp to get packed away into the crates. A new journey began, we were moving south into unknown territory, we didn't know what we would see, we didn't know who or what we would encounter but we did know that we would survive, we had to, that was all there was left to do.