Radiation Point

Two

Mia's sharp gasp pulled me from my thoughts and brought my focus back to the present. Mia looked like a deer ready to bolt at the sight of the Contaminated that blocked our path.

He was sitting an arms length in front us, perched like an amimal on all fours; glazed eyes scanning the forest. A monster in a man's body. Oozing sores covered his extremities. What was left of his tattered clothing revealed rotting, dead flesh beneath it.
He was just another victim of the chemical war. Contamination first taking hold of his mind, then his body, and slowly killing him from the inside out. He was breathing from his mouth with a low hiss; foam dripping around his lips. With my knife held tightly, I rushed across the forest floor, slitting his throat before he had time to register what happened. He lay gurgling for a few long moments on the forest floor, before he finally went quiet. I grimaced at his sticky blood, which covered me.
Mia cowered in the brush, with her long, blonde hair covering her face as a shield. I turned away from her. I hated the fearful look she gave me after a kill. That was all the more reason she had to learn to kill the contaminated on her own. She couldn't afford to be afraid.
"There's a river not far from here," I said quietly, starting towards it.
I didn't turn to see if Mia had followed me, instead, I began to strip at the waters edge and lowered myself in. I scrubbed the blood from my skin, and began to ring my clothes in the river to clean them.
Since the bombing, we were told that the only risk of future contamination came from radiation alone, but I wasn't willing to take that risk. Not when I had Mia to take care of. It seemed silly to fear blood contact, but it made me feel more human to be clean as well.
"Where did you learn to kill?" Mia asked quietly from the shore.
"From Dad," I said, not meeting her eyes.
"Will you teach me?"
My head snapped up at her words. She had known we were going hunting; that she must learn to survive, but never upon request.
"Yeah, tonight I'll teach you how to hunt a deer."
"No, I need to kill one of those things. We'll find another one and this time, I won't freeze."
Her lips were quivering, tears threatening to overflow from her eyes.
"Absolutely not. You never go looking for the contaminated, do you understand me? We kill to survive and that's it. The point of this is to keep you alive," I said, sounding harsher than I intended.
"And you?"
"I haven't felt alive in a long time."
Without giving her a chance to argue, I climbed out of the river and began to put on my sopping clothes, cringing as they stuck to my body. "Is it bad that this is the worst part for me?"
Rustling behind us cut Mia short from answering. She stiffened, only her eyes turning to the source of the sound.
I gripped my knife and mouthed, "Your kill."
Her eyes widened, but she didn't move. With a sigh, I turned to the brush. It was kill or be killed. There was no time for hesitation. Seeing me step forward seemed to snap Mia into action. She pulled out her knife and spun to face the brush. I inched closer to her, ready to step in if necessary.
"What are you doing out here?" a very human voice called from the other side of the brush.
My heart flew into my throat and I was the one to freeze this time. In all my time of hunting, another human had never been a good thing. The brush began to move as a figure emerged; Mia looking at me for direction.