Journey Into The Aftermath |✔

Chapter three: The Bear and the Bow

"So you're the girl that was saved from that bear." My brother Noah realized as he stroked his hand through my soft-toned black hair that was taken out of a ponytail while I was still unconscious.

He was sitting now. "I wanted to see who it was, but I figured that they would be swarmed with people so I just--"

"I get it."

"Now here's the part where you tell me what the hell you are doing here," he demanded. Fair question, I mean, I did almost die trying to reach someone who clearly didn't want to be found.

"I need your help."

"Before we get into that, how did you find me?" he pondered. "I hide myself away in Florida and somehow you reach me."

"That's not important." I tried to avoid the long stories.

"The hell it is!" he yelled. "How on what's left of earth could you have--"

"Dad's in trouble."

"What?"

"Dad's in trouble and I need to find and save him." I clarified for him, but not in great detail. "I can't do it alone; I need your scientific mind to make it anywhere in this world."

"That combined with your insane survival skills that you practically absorbed from uncle..." he trailed off realizing that he was actually considering this. "Wait, no, hell no."

"Noah..."

"How the hell do you know that dad's in trouble anyway and why would he get in any he was a nuclear physicist not some criminal." he debated with me which was not what we should be doing.

"I need to show you something."

He gave me a questioning look as I lifted up my arm about to pull out my wrist phone, but right then, a guy nearly busted through the frail wooden door as he rushed in, trying to catch his breath with his hands down on his knees.

"You have angered the bear!" he shouted. "It's attacking our camp grounds!"

Noah and I both jumped to our feet. Whatever treatment they were using on my scars were extremely effective because they are practically gone and I don't even feel anything anymore.

I already had my bra on so I grabbed my shirt that was next to me and I slipped that on before I reached my boots and jacket by the door that near crushed them both.

Noah told me that he was horseback riding before my arrival and he was still wearing the tights. They had brown leather padding and tan cloth with his long, grey, and almost fuzzy looking cowboy boots.

They fell just below his knees and his light ash grey pea coat with a blue-tinted white scarf tucked inside the coat.

The scarf did an amazing job at bringing out his eyes because they were virtually the same color, especially when contrasted against the grey coat. Had to admit, he looked great.

We ran through the doorway into the night to see a three-ton animal wailing at small structures and fleeing citizens scurrying away at every angle.

Noah took-off to a straw house two houses away from the ones that we were staying at to the left of us.

The entire village was set up like rooms in a really long hallway, but with individual houses and carts of different sorts going down the middle.

I followed him to the house and inside was like a makeshift armory. The whole house was just one large room with weapons lining the walls.

Homemade spears and sling shots and carved rock blades of all shapes and sizes decorated the place. I guess in a village like this, hunting and trapping is like their super bowl.