Status: In Progress
Risk
One.
I woke up in a cold, dank room that reeked of rot. I was lying down on the concrete floor, a frozen lake of stone. My head throbbed with heavy drumbeats and I pressed my hand to my temple to try and suppress it. Everything was grey. I could see the dust in the one sunbeam, the one shaft of light shining through a grime-coated window. It was a wretched and disgusting place to have entered, let alone slept.
It was one of the only safe places left in the world.
I sighed and stretched-- my shoulders gave loud pops, my neck sharp cracks as I rolled my head around. I flipped over onto my belly and pressed my palms to the icy floor and started my Wake Up Routine of twenty reps of push ups.
One. Two. Three.
Today was the day to go out in the open and try to find some more food. I was down to five and a half cold cans of refried beans. Cheers to the inventor of preservatives or I would have starved. Maybe I would dare venture a little into the woods for a deer, cook myself up some venison…
Ten. Eleven. Twelve.
My mouth watered-- pff, dream on. The woods? Talk about a death wish. Nah, I’d make my way around and find another rabbit in the grass. Another rabbit. Thank God those fuckers were… well, fuckers, otherwise I’d probably be the cause of their extinction.
Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen.
Funny. I’d been a vegan three years ago. But belief in anything gets thrown out the window when crisis arises, eh? You do what you have to do to survive.
I pushed myself up to my feet. Backbend and my spine crackled. Christ, I needed to raid an old furniture store or something. Maybe there was one upstairs. I couldn’t remember. Point: I needed my sorry self a fucking mattress or I’d be a hunchback with scoliosis before I hit twenty.
Making a mental note to check later I walked to the corner of the room and picked up the AK, throwing the strap around my neck. A yawn came out. Ugh, my mouth tasted fucking horrible. What I’d give for a toothbrush and a shower…
There’s a ridiculous thought, too. Ranks up there with the woods thing.
I went to the desk in the corner and picked up my watch. Five twenty six in the morning. Safe? Ah, worth a shot, I needed a drink to rinse my mouth out.
The doorknob screeched with rust and abandonment when the door creaked open. One hand on the AK I strode out and up the stairs. Good, the padlock was still in tact on the steel doors. I spun the code in and yanked the lock open-- the click echoed in the empty basement.
With a deep breath I swung the gun to my front side. Flipping off the safety I wrapped my index around the trigger… and pulled the heavy door open.
I didn’t even have to do my usual three sixty. Twenty feet away at twelve o’clock, there was one of them.
It heard the door. It turned. It saw me.
Fuck.
It charged. Damn, this one was fast.
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”
I put the AK up and aimed it at the skull, dead center. I pulled the trigger.
It went down in an instant, skull exploding, brains and blood flying everywhere. It fell on It’s back about five feet in front of me.
I strode up next to It and looked down, making sure It was dead. When It gave a twitch I shot It in the face. Then It was completely still.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
My name is Risk. Or at least it is now. I live in an abandoned mall in what I now consider the deepest depths of hell anyone can ever imagine. I put my life up to chance every day in a hopeless attempt to survive. Why I do I can’t explain; there’s really nothing to live for. Like the rest of the world I’ve lost everything, including myself. I’ve gone from a well behaved, well raised teenage girl to a murdering, hard-hearted shell of a human being.
From what I know… the last living human being.
This is my story.
It was one of the only safe places left in the world.
I sighed and stretched-- my shoulders gave loud pops, my neck sharp cracks as I rolled my head around. I flipped over onto my belly and pressed my palms to the icy floor and started my Wake Up Routine of twenty reps of push ups.
One. Two. Three.
Today was the day to go out in the open and try to find some more food. I was down to five and a half cold cans of refried beans. Cheers to the inventor of preservatives or I would have starved. Maybe I would dare venture a little into the woods for a deer, cook myself up some venison…
Ten. Eleven. Twelve.
My mouth watered-- pff, dream on. The woods? Talk about a death wish. Nah, I’d make my way around and find another rabbit in the grass. Another rabbit. Thank God those fuckers were… well, fuckers, otherwise I’d probably be the cause of their extinction.
Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen.
Funny. I’d been a vegan three years ago. But belief in anything gets thrown out the window when crisis arises, eh? You do what you have to do to survive.
I pushed myself up to my feet. Backbend and my spine crackled. Christ, I needed to raid an old furniture store or something. Maybe there was one upstairs. I couldn’t remember. Point: I needed my sorry self a fucking mattress or I’d be a hunchback with scoliosis before I hit twenty.
Making a mental note to check later I walked to the corner of the room and picked up the AK, throwing the strap around my neck. A yawn came out. Ugh, my mouth tasted fucking horrible. What I’d give for a toothbrush and a shower…
There’s a ridiculous thought, too. Ranks up there with the woods thing.
I went to the desk in the corner and picked up my watch. Five twenty six in the morning. Safe? Ah, worth a shot, I needed a drink to rinse my mouth out.
The doorknob screeched with rust and abandonment when the door creaked open. One hand on the AK I strode out and up the stairs. Good, the padlock was still in tact on the steel doors. I spun the code in and yanked the lock open-- the click echoed in the empty basement.
With a deep breath I swung the gun to my front side. Flipping off the safety I wrapped my index around the trigger… and pulled the heavy door open.
I didn’t even have to do my usual three sixty. Twenty feet away at twelve o’clock, there was one of them.
It heard the door. It turned. It saw me.
Fuck.
It charged. Damn, this one was fast.
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”
I put the AK up and aimed it at the skull, dead center. I pulled the trigger.
It went down in an instant, skull exploding, brains and blood flying everywhere. It fell on It’s back about five feet in front of me.
I strode up next to It and looked down, making sure It was dead. When It gave a twitch I shot It in the face. Then It was completely still.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
My name is Risk. Or at least it is now. I live in an abandoned mall in what I now consider the deepest depths of hell anyone can ever imagine. I put my life up to chance every day in a hopeless attempt to survive. Why I do I can’t explain; there’s really nothing to live for. Like the rest of the world I’ve lost everything, including myself. I’ve gone from a well behaved, well raised teenage girl to a murdering, hard-hearted shell of a human being.
From what I know… the last living human being.
This is my story.