The Last Flower on Earth

Emma's First Venture

"Emma let's go over the do's and don'ts again." I move my goggles down over my eyes, Emma follows suit. "Do you remember them?"

"Rule 1, When inside of a building always hug the wall.

Rule 2, Avoid heavy things, if the floor isn't broken, it will be broken.

Rule 3, If you hear a noise, get the hell out of the building."

"And rule 4." I add, "Don't lower your guard under any circumstance, something is out there and whatever it is it sure as hell wants us dead. And it sure as hell can."

Emma's arms are crossed and ready to draw her knives. "Could you remind me what that something is?"

"I call them Hate Demons, they somehow escaped purgatory and got here. I have no idea how to kill them, but we'll experiment." Emma gazed blankly into the wall, a thousand-yard stare. "Let's get out there and scavenge."

The lift slowly rises, the blaring winds and bellows are nowhere to be heard. I take a couple of deep breaths before raising the faded red scarf across my face, Emma does the same with theirs.

The roof opens to show the barren wasteland around us. "Never go north, it's a giant wind tunnel and at least eight feet of Danow."

"Danow?" Emma asks, I suddenly feel stupid.

"Dust, Ash, Snow. I combined them into Danow as saying all three grew repetitive."

"Why would you be saying them?"

"Because I speak aloud when on scavenges, can we keep going?" Emma nods and I keep walking.

"North is the wastelands, I can't remember what's north of that and I'm too afraid to see it for myself. West is primarily suburban buildings. South is all urban rubble, which was once skyscrapers but has deteriorated over time, the concrete jungle is where I get most of my belonging. West is what I call 'The Entertainment District', as maps said there is a mall, arena, that kinda stuff. But beyond that is the Industrial District, a bunch of factories." We continue walking towards the ruins.

"I have one question-." Emma yelps as she trips over something. She stands herself up. "I have two questions now. What did I just trip over?"

"Probably a dead body." She stops instantly.

"You said that far too casually."

"I've seen hell Emma, all the worst parts of man. I've seen unspeakable actions that can only be described as hellish." She keeps walking right behind me.

"I've seen hell as well then. I've seen something which I can't even explain." She stops speaking for a moment, "Something I wish to never explain."

I respect her privacy and walk in silence. Looking back Emma is holding herself, I can only imagine all the horrors which could be done to her. And I hate each one equally.

We still have a little way to the ruins. "If you don't mind me asking, did any memories of your old bunker come back?" She shakes her head.

We reach a road, the streets are clearer than the field because of the buildings acting like wind tunnels, forcing the crap out of the streets and into the wastelands.

"This is just a quick sweep to give you a bit of experience while not risking us staying up here past the mark." She looks confused again.

"To translate: this is a trip to get you experienced with the surface, and if we're up here during the night we're dead." She realizes how high the stakes are.

"You do this every day? How do you know we'll die?" She has a fearful expression written right across her face.

"If the Hate Demons don't kill us, the negative 50 Celsius nights will. The first time I got caught outside during the night I almost died, and the bonus of the Hate Demons trying to kill me doesn't help. And I only do this about every other day, sometimes it's more of a long walk and others it's just scavenging for fun. I have enough food in the bunker to last numerous lifetimes, and with a bigger garden, it could last numerous generations. Then again, I doubt the generations thing will work out."

Emma smiles at my story. We walk a bit further. "Here's a lesson, how many stories up do you think is safe?" Pop quiz time for Emma, who simmers the question for a while.

"Floor 4 max?"

"Correct, you should cap out at floor 4. If it's a stable building you can maybe do floor 5, and if it's a six or seven-story building you might be able to do floor 6, but I wouldn't recommend it unless it's really sturdy, which it rarely is."

She thinks a bit longer. "What about basements?"

"Never ever go into basements. Ever." I give in the most monotone voice possible. My strictness freaks her out.

"W-Why?" She shakes a bit.

"The S.C.S.S produced a lot of radiation when it went off, leading to the few surviving species to become irradiated and mutate. One time I went into the basement of a building and found a massive 4-foot cockroach feeding its babies."

"FOUR-FOOT COCKROACH!" Emma was paralyzed in fear at the thought of the giant insects.

I turn around to face her, "I couldn't get the cleanest view, but I'm pretty sure there were at least 5 roaches in that one building. Imagine the sewage pipes under the road and how many could be right below you right now." I maniacally grin while she stands there in fear.

"Cockroaches... four feet." I think I pushed it a bit far.

"Don't worry, I made it all up." Her expression turns from fear to anger. "The reason you shouldn't go down in basements is if the building collapses you're stuck down there with no way out."

Emma was fuming. "You got me to believe super cockroaches existed!" I shrugged it off and kept walking.

We walk for a couple more minutes before I choose a stable-looking building. "This one looks safe enough." It's only a three-story and appears quite stable compared to the others. I think I've scavenged the first floor before but ran out of time.

"I'll head in first, follow close." The two of us head into the dark building. I keep my head turning, analyzing every creak and crevasse, Emma does the same. "I believe I've swept this floor before, so I'll head up while you double-check."

She switched her flashlight hand and pulls one of her knives. "Gotcha."

We split off, I open the stairwell door and head upstairs.

I grab a couple of important things, important to me but not important enough to mention and head back to the ground floor. Emma sat on a decrepit armchair with her findings on a cracked glass table. "Anything of use here?"

"You tell me, anything interesting?" She got up and began filtering through.

"I'd assume this place was an independent restaurant before closing down. The main floor was for dining while the upper floors were for living. I found my fair share of expired stuff which I didn't bother bringing out. But I did find some wood. And some medicine, it's old though, so I don't know if it's still safe to consume."

"Medicine maintains about ninety percent strength after five years and after ten it still has some juice to it, and since it's a giant freezer out here it's preserved to an extent. So, we'll take it, I'm surprised I missed that."

Emma holds the back of her neck. "Thanks, I broke a mirror for them."

We pack everything up and head back to the bunker.

"So what kind of drug is that?" I ask.

"It said Provigil."