Wednesday Whatever! ~~ A Short Story

Hello, People!

Today for Wednesday Whatever! I’m doing a short story that came about after I saw the picture below when I was looking for something else. You know how that goes. Go searching for something on the internet and come up with something else. Like grocery shopping!

This picture that was done by an amazing graphic artist just spoke to me. Almost immediately I came up with an idea for a story piece. I know it’s been a long time since I posted something that had to do with creative writing. I’ve been going through a bit of a dry spell. I think it’s raining words again and the dry spell is broken! Hope you enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

The crouching figure shifted slightly to the left and one hazel eye peeked around the building’s corner. Nothing was moving on the cracked sidewalk except a few overgrown weeds that swayed in the breeze that whistled down through the empty streets.

The figure shifted back and settled itself more comfortably in the darkness of the shadows. Fingers dug inside the backpack next to them and pulled out a chocolate bar. Peeling the wrapping off of it the figure bit a piece off and savored the slightly bitter taste on its tongue. Chocolate was getting harder and harder to come by.

With the devastation of dozens of major natural disasters after some fool world leader pushed that damn red button because he wanted to show other leaders he was the biggest badass around; a lot of things became harder to come by. Including clean water, food and civilization. Now it was everyone for themselves. The ones that were left anyway. Which weren’t many.

She was one of the survivors.

Her ears picked up movement close by. She froze, listening intently, hand hovering over her weapon. She saw something move and relaxed. A rat. A big one, but just a four-legged rat. Not the two-legged variety. It must have smelled the chocolate. With that thought, she wrapped the candy back up and stuffed what was left in her backpack. She’ll save it for later.

She settled back into the shadows and thought back on how she got to this point. Alone. Waiting for a stranger that left word they knew where some of her family were. Her hand settled on her weapon as she put it in her lap. She chuckled soundlessly. Her, with a gun. Before all this happened to the world she didn’t even know how to load a gun, much less shoot one. Now she could take one apart and clean it in the dark, load it in seconds and shoot with deadly accuracy. Strange how life turns out. World disasters will do that. And wanting to survive.

Mostly wanting to survive.

It had only been a year. One short year since the world was blown to bits and those who were left had to survive best they could. The world changed a lot since then. The weather was different also. You never knew one day to the next what was going to happen. It could be ninety degrees one day, then change to twenty below the next week and then back again. How can a person grow anything in weather like that?

No electricity, no running water, no conveniences. What few people who were left you couldn’t trust. Well, most of them. She had met a few good ones. They came and went in her life. Just as she came and went in others. She never stayed in one place too long. That was dangerous.

When the disasters struck she had been on vacation. She had gone on a retreat. She had always wanted to do that. After her divorce, she decided she deserved it. So off she went.

Then everything went to hell. She still didn’t know why she survived when so many others didn’t. There were many days she wondered what the point was. Then came the first time she almost was killed and she found out quickly…She didn’t want to die!

As her mind went back to that terrifying encounter with those two strange men she heard footsteps slowly approaching her hiding spot. Her mind quickly left those black memories as her hand tightened on her weapon.

She quickly looked around the corner of the building and spotted a large bald man. He had stopped about a quarter of a block away. He stood under a wide leafy tree. He didn’t look her way. He just stood still under that tree and waited.

It looked to her as he was listening to something or someone. He nodded his head once and then looked straight at her.

His dark brown eyes stared into hers as she rose from her squatting position. His face remained passive as she stepped from the shadows.

“Hello, Marisa. It’s time for you to join me.”