Hey guys! Sorry it took so long for the next chapter. My arch nemesis, Allergy Season, is back yet again and just got done serving me up a plethora of migraines. All is well though and I'm back among the living. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 3

I woke with a start as Alice lightly kicked my shoulder.

"Rise and shine buttercup," she joked, "Time for another heroic adventure."

Wiping the crust from my eyes, I clumsily stood up and began gathering my gear. Glancing out the window, I noticed that the scenery hadn't changed at all. The city almost seemed stuck in place.

"What's the time?" I asked.

"Hell if I know, can't tell with all these clouds." Alice stuck her head out the window and peered upward. "But you've been out for a couple hours by my guess. You started to kinda stir around and make noises I your sleep, so I thought that it was as good a time as any to wake you up."

"Anything fun happen while I was asleep?"

"Nope, all quiet on center stage." She examined the road and surrounding windows, "No more ghosties either."

"Good. We should get going; hopefully the food bag is still out there." I yawned.

"And if not?" Alice questioned.

"You remember that little settlement we passed on the way here?" She nodded. "W'll stop there and restock. How many caps you got on you?"

Alice plucked out an old leather pouch from her backpack and gave it a good shake. "Around eighty, you?"

Reaching into my own backpack, I pulled out a hefty metal box and peeked inside. "Last time I counted I had like, one-thirty, or something around there. Looks like nothing fell out, so yeah, about one-thirty."

"That should set us up nicely for the trip home." Alice smiled.

"I'd much rather not spend it, if at all possible. C'mon, let's hope our bag wasn't snatched by some lucky wanderer." I stepped out the doorway onto the rubble of the open road. "Follow me; I'm pretty sure I remember where I dropped it."

We traced our steps back through the graveyard city for an hour or so until we came across a rather ominous-looking intersection. We sat down a couple dozen meters short of the crossroads for a drink.

"How much longer are we gonna keep this up?" Alice protested as she clicked off the head portion of her radiation suit.

I tossed her my water bottle and did the same, "It's only been an hour, you can't tell me you're worn out already."

"No way, it's got to have been more than that by now." Alice lazily kicked a pebble at her feet, "Damnit I hate this place; the whole 'no sun' thing is scrambling up my brain." She took a sip from the water and handed it back to me. I took a swig and then stashed it back in my coat.

"Don't worry, we'll search a little longer, then we'll get out of this place." I spat.

At that moment, we both heard something in the distance. The sound of panicked footsteps grew louder as a man bolted into the intersection, a large pack burdened him as he stumbled and fell. He must have broken something in the fall, because he gave out a blood-curdling yell once he hit the ground.

"Oh come on, what now?" Alice startled as I quickly put my helmet back on. I motioned for her to be silent and then held up two closed fists to my eyes; our sign to get the binoculars out. She crouched over behind me and snatched them from my bag. Peering into the lenses, she examined the scene.

"That's our bag," she whispered, "That guy's got our food."

"Lucky us. But what's he running from?" I wondered. "See if there's anything after him."

Alice studied the area for a few more seconds as the man stammered to his feet and tried to limp away. Suddenly, she dropped the binoculars back into my bag and snapped her helmet back into place. Without saying a word, she clamped onto my arm and nearly dragged me behind a car on the opposite side of the road.

"What the hell Al!" I gasped.

"Shut up," she whispered, pressing herself into the ground, "It'll hear you."

"What'll hear me?"

At that moment, the ground shuddered underneath us. Booming footsteps were nearing the intersection. I peeked from behind the car and noticed that the injured man was nowhere to be found, but I noticed a grey lump on the concrete; our food bag had been abandoned yet again. The ground shook ever fiercer with each step until the owner of the noise was in clear view. A massive, monstrous-looking creature stomped its way through the street. Its feet were the size of half a car, and the thing itself was no shorter that a two-story house, with muscles the size of train cars bulging across its body. Setting aside the obvious irregularities, the nightmare loosely resembled a human form, with two arms, two legs, a torso and a head; but that was the only recognizable feature about it. In its massive right hand, an enormous industrial pipe was gripped menacingly. On its left arm, various chunks of metal were seemingly infused into the beast's skin.

"Holy shit." I mouthed silently. Alice and I stared petrified at the demon that now towered over us. We stayed perfectly still for what seemed like an entire day as the mammoth sniffed the air and then continued on its death stroll through the city. Luckily, it went in the opposite direction of where we were headed.

Even after the beast had passed, Alice and I refused to move; unconvinced that it was truly gone.

Finally, Alice broke the silence.

"Was that. . . was that a . . . " she stuttered.

"Yeah," I slurred, "That was a Behemoth."

"But I thought they were only stories, that they weren't actually real." Alice replied.

"Well, I guess we know the truth now. C'mon, let's grab that bag and get the ever-living fuck out of here."

We crept up the street and snatched the food bag. Without even checking it for damage or looking around for the injured man, we bolted for the edge of the city. After a few minutes, we found ourselves clear of the metropolis ruins and its thick wall of clouds. We joyfully jogged our way around the jungle of an ancient suburbia. Originally, we had planned on scavenging the area on our way back, but after the day's events, neither of us wanted to take the risk.

Aaaaaaand cut! Hahaha. Hope you guys liked this chapter; sorry for it so being short, but the only time I have to write is during study hall or in-between classes. I promise that they'll get longer once summer finally rolls around. Remember to leave a review and/or PM me with any suggestions on what to write about in the next chapter. I'm up for just about anything so let me know. Thanks again for checking this out, it really means a lot to me!