Rose and Mason have always lived in a world that was post-apocalyptic. A plague had ravaged the land hundreds of years before leaving only the sickly survivors and those with the will to live behind. What happens whenever Rose is captured while trying to just make it through the rest of the winter? Who is the tall, dark leader of the people that have taken her and what do they intend to do with her? Set with the VA characters but not in the VA world. OC. Rated M
Chapter 1
I've had to fight all of my life. There was never a day that I wasn't hungry, cold, or fighting to stay alive. Although, I suppose that it could be argued that everyone that was left had to fight in order to stay alive. Roaming the vacant lands of what use to be some grand land I let my mind wonder to what might have been here before the plague. Was it one of those stone towers that I heard about that were scattered through the lands once? Could it of been a place for meeting people? Or was it always a dry piece of dirt that held almost no life to it whatsoever?
"Rose?" Mason flagged me down, it was still early in the morning, the sun barley hitting over the line of trees in the horizon.
"Come on Mase, hurry up. We can't stay out in the open like this for long." Being in the open, being seen was a problem. Not in any of the free cities that they had built to hide from the plague. But out here, out in the outlands, no-man's-land if you were seen alone, you were captured. Mason rushed up next to me hitching his backpack back up on his shoulders and tried to slow his breathing. His red hair and baby blue eyes were rare. Showing just how much the muck of brown that I had on my face and head were common. Mason stood out, his hair, his eyes, and his personality. Everything that Mason was or had you knew. And that was dangerous.
"We need to find food. We haven't eaten in three days. How's the water?" I looked to my right as he grabbed the canteen. It was a poor beat up little thing. Whatever color it had once been painted had been peeled off over the years, leaving only the smooth cold metal on the circle.
"We're almost out. I say once we hit the tree lines we split up, hunt, look for shelter or make it. We're not going to get through here if we don't keep a low profile." Mason took a small swing of the water and passed it my way. As I drank, the cold liquid running down my throat felt like a slice of heaven. My throat was dry, my face hurt from the wind. Even though we were coming out of the winter and into spring the weather and the climate was still harsh.
We walked in silence for the most part. It was odd, we grew up together, our parents on the run from whoever for most of your life's. It wasn't until a little over a year ago that my mother and his past away. I was told that they both use to live in the free cities, that they were welcomed and loved. But then my mother fell pregnant with me and was turned out on her own. Arranged marriages were a common thing in the free cities. My mother was supposed to marry someone that had a lot of means to protect her from sickness and hungry. But she had met someone, a tall, dark and handsome man I've ben told, swept her off her feet and gave her the gift of a child born out of wedlock. I never knew what happened to my father, my mother never talked about him and Mason's mother never brought it up. And rather than see her friend turned out to die with a new-born baby in her arms, Mason's mother took her and her five year old son and followed my mother into the outlands. Mason had told me that he remembered fragments of his life back in the free cities, but this life out here was all I had ever known. My mother and Mason's told us stories of the homes that they lived in. the life's that they had had back in the free cities, but never once did they say that they wanted to go back. That life in the free cities was so much better than trying to survive out here in the wild. We needed to find new clothes. The olive green coat that I wore was tattered and did little good to fight away the wind and cold. The boots that I wore were falling apart and the poor thin blue jeans that I had found had the knees worn out. I wasn't even sure of the color that they were because of the dirt that was caked on the thighs. Mason didn't look any better. He had a flannel shirt on that had holes in it under his jacket, boots that were falling apart and the jeans that he wore were in worse shape than mine. The knife that was strapped to the side of his thigh showed how tiny his legs were.
Mason was right. We needed to find food and we needed to find it fast. Mason and I kept walking until the sun was finally peaking over the tree lines. My feet were use to the throbbing from walking but today they were really hurting. Once we reached the tree lines Mason took out his knife and turned to me.
"I'll hunt for food, I'm faster on my feet than you are. Go find water, and try to find a place we could make camp." He gave me the water canteen and fastened his belt around his hips.
"We'll meet back here in three hours, when the sun is," he turned his head and pointed to a spot in the sky. "There. If I'm not back in that amount of time don't wait for me."
"Mason shut up and kill something other than a possum." I rolled my eyes as I took the water canteen. Mason was a better killing the small animal but whenever I had arrows for my bow we ate like kings.
"Be careful, Rose." Mason took my head in his hands and kissed my forehead.
"You too, Mase." While Mason and I had never acted like anything other than brother and sister, I knew that he wanted more. He thought that one day I would just wake up and realize that I loved him as much as he loved me. I don't know if I knew what love was. I loved my mother but I knew that it was a different feeling whenever you experienced it through a bond that wasn't family. I hadn't felt that feeling yet but I knew that has soon as I felt it, I would know: a memory of a dream that I often had made its way to the center of my mind.
It was dark, why was it always dark? I was in a tunnel that had stagnant water in the bottom. There was a warm calloused hand holding mine but I could never make out the face of the man that was guiding me. But I knew that he was tall, he towered over me and his head almost hit the ceiling of the tunnel that we were in. but I knew that his presences made me feel safe, it made me feel loved the way that Mason wanted me to love him.
"Don't worry, nothing is going to happen to you." He whispered as he turned back and kissed my forehead. His voice was like gravel being crushed. I twisted my free hand around his arm. The strong muscle of his upper arms shivered under my touch.
"I love you." I whispered into the darkness. Pulling me closer to him and wrapping me up in his arms he whispered back.
"I love you more."
Mason crushing leafs under his boots brought me back to the current world. He said that he would head east then took off into the trees and faded into the shadows. I kept heading north. We hadn't been in this part of the outlands before and I was kicking myself for letting my last arrow go. I would feel a lot more comfortable walking through this forest with more than just a knife in my hand and another strapped to my ankle. I closed my eyes and tried to listen to the sounds of the land. I heard the wind blowing through the trees, birds chirping, and if I really strained my hearing and reached out I could make out the sounds of faint water rushing.
"Bingo." I whispered to no one. I headed in the direction of the water. Keeping my eyes open for anyone or anything that might try something. The forest was a thick brush with little or no room to walk. I wondered how Mason would make it through without making to much noise.
We probably wouldn't get to eat tonight if I had to rely on Mason being stealthy. While he was right about being able to move faster than me, I was able to move without being detected. Close to the source of the water I saw the small creek that had a small waterfall if it could even been called that. I gathered Mason's canteen and the extra one from my backpack and kneeled down next to the creek. My bare knees hit the cold, wet ground, the wetness sweeping into the fabric of my jeans around my knees. Placing the canteens under the steady stream of water I filled both up and placed them both back in my backpack. We needed to stay close to water but if there was anyone close by that's right where they would go. I decided that I needed to move up hill to get a better look at where we were and what type of landscape we were really in. Hopefully there was a fallen tree or a cave that we could crawl under for the night. As the temperatures dropped the best thing that we could hope for was a night that it didn't snow or rain on top of the cold wind biting at our skin.
"An abandoned shack would be nice" I forced my legs to climb the steep hill. It had been a few weeks since Mason and I got lucky enough to find an abandon shack to ride out the winter in. we had a few people try to come and take it from us. That's where most of my bloody arrows had gone. I broke one trying to pull it from one mans chest, the other snapping whenever I only managed to hit him in the arm with it. I could still picture the look, as he knew he was hit. He took the end of the arrow and snapped it in half leaving only the arrowhead and a small amount of the shaft behind in his body. If we were smart we would've stayed there. The land had plenty of deer and there wasn't a day that we didn't get at least a small amount of meat from the animal. Putting the meat in the small hole that we had dug in the frozen ground kept the meat frozen and easy to cook over the open fire almost all winter. But it was too open; the little shack would have been perfect if it was in the tree lines or even back in the woods a little bit. But the little house was settled in the middle of a meadow right out in the open. It left us vulnerable and being vulnerable wasn't good in this kind of world. I couldn't imagine it being good in any type of world. Maybe before all of the sickness and the collapse of the society that it destroyed it was okay to be vulnerable around people. To let people see your weaknesses. But any notion of a land like that was lost on me. My mother had often told me about things that the past generations had done and known. It was almost unimaginable to me. Living in a world where you weren't hunted or hunting. In a world where you thought that you were safe and warm in a bed at night. I never thought that I would get to experience that. Although the straw bed that the shack had was the most comfortable thing that I had ever slept on. Mason was always taking up more than his share of it. But with the cold slipping through the cracks in the walls it was welcomed.
I started gathering dry logs and sticks for a fire that would need to be built. While I was looking and scouting for a place to make shelter I came across a handful of fallen trees that had moss growing and leafs falling on top of them making a natural type of roof. The years the trees had laid there was unknown but it was enough time for foliage and other greenery to grow over-top of the tree trunks and connect to one another. I placed my backpack under the small underpass of the trees and started to gather more logs and sticks. Finding medium sized rocks from the creek bed I placed them in a circle to keep the fire whenever it was lit later tonight. I was praying that Mason found a rabbit or something. My stomach rumbled louder with each minute. I reached into my backpack and grabbed a trap to drape over the fallen tree trunks so that no more water could seep through the moss and drip unto where we planned on sleeping tonight. I looked up at the sky and saw that I should start to head back to the meeting place Mason and I agreed on. Throwing my backpack up on my shoulders I started in the direction of the tree lines.
Alright guys let me know what you think! I really love how this story is playing out in my head and in my thoughts. Please leave a review and let me know what you think is going to happen and what you thought of the first chapter!
Have a great day and I'll see you next time I update!
Who do you think is the tall dark stranger form the dream that Rose has? One can only wonder ;)