The Day of Reckoning

Chapter 3: Rory Jackson

Ell mews on my shoulder as we walk through the street. "I know, buddy. I'm sorry I woke you up so early," I say, lightly scratching his head. "We had to move, though. That building wasn't safe."

He mews again, rubbing his head on my face. I chuckle from his show of affection. He's such a cute kitten.

As we enjoy our post-apocalyptic stroll to Sam's Club, a random sheet of paper comes our way, courtesy of the wind. I grab it and read what it says. "RAMIL WAS HERE,".

"Ramil? Weird name," I grumble. I ball up the paper and put it in my pocket. "I need to throw this shit away,". I keep my eye out for a trash can, hoping that one shows up quickly so I can trash this paper.

Just because it's the end of the world doesn't mean it's suddenly okay to litter.

Ell and I finally find the Sam's Club warehouse. "Let's go find you some food, buddy," I say to him. He mews and kneads my shoulder as I approach the door. I try to open it, but it's locked. I groan and look at the glass. It looks sorta thick, but not anything I can't break. I blow on my fist before winding a punch and swinging at the glass.

The glass shatters, making an opening for Ell and I to get in through. We walk towards the pet aisle, and I begin my search for a box of wet cat food for Ell. I walk up and down the shelf, but nothing turns up. The darkness of the warehouse doesn't do any favors. "Where the hell is that stupid ass box?" I question.

I squat down to look for the wet food at the bottom of the shelf. Still no luck. Ell jumps from my shoulder and onto the shelf, which I assume is for him to look for the food, too.

"H-Hey, can you hear me?" someone suddenly asks from behind. I look over my shoulder to see who it is. The guy freezes, so I stand and turn to face him. He's shorter than me, as most people are. There's a makeshift spear on his back, as well as a satchel stretching over his chest.

He's got red hair like me, and his eyes are a purple color that I've never seen before. "O-Oh, uhm..." he stutters.

To be honest, he looks kinda cute. His eyes pop against his light brown skin in a way that's somewhat intriguing. "Who the hell are you?" I ask him.

"Uh, I'm--"

He and I freeze as I spot a Reaper sneaking up behind him. He starts to turn and reach for his spear, but I wrap one of my arms around his waist and yank him back towards me. My free hand grabs my hammer, and I swing towards the Reaper, knocking it into the shelf. "Fuck you!" I shout at it, backing away.

"Ah, l-let me go!" the guy asks. I let go of his waist and apologize. "Sorry, didn't mean to grab you like that," I say.

"It's fine," he says, pulling out his spear. The Reaper gets up from the shelf and screeches. I lift my hammer and prepare to swing as it runs for us, but the guy pulls out a small bottle with some kind of yellow juice and chucks it at the Reaper. It pops and gets in its eyes, and the guy stabs the Reaper between its armor, killing it.

"What the hell was that?" I ask him.

"Citrus grenade," he answers. "Helps to distract them,".

This guy seems to be competent. I wonder how many of those things he has in that satchel. The guy shakes the blood off his spear and says, "We need to be careful, then. There could be more Eldtritch here."

"Eldritch?" I question. He looks up.

"Uh, yeah. That's what I call them," he explains. "Do you have a different name?"

Before I can answer, we hear another screech not too far from us. I grab Ell off the shelf to protect him, and the guy says, "Aw, that's a cute kitten!"