Divided We Thrive

Before the storm

Talno made a good life for himself in his newfound home. He learned how to use the gun, and hunted his food with it. He found a way to filter the water from his underground spring. He was eighteen now, and still he missed his twinkies. Even more than twinkies, he missed human contact.  He had fabricated friends for himself from the debris in the building, but eventually he saw the futility in them. After that he managed to get one of the littler scavengers of the wastes to stay around him by feeding her every night. Her name was Twinkie and she always stood close and protected Talno, if only to get her next meal. He was surviving, but was he really living? He had explored the ruined building he resided in, and concluded it was some sort of place of healing, based on all the rusted splints he found. The sign read hospital but he had no idea what that meant. One day on his eighteenth birthday (even though he hadn't been keeping track) he looked around and thought that in the long haul, that he hadn't really made a difference for anybody, anywhere, and that if he died, the only person who would be sad is his pet, and even she would probably feast on his rotting flesh. He declared that tomorrow, when the sun rose that he would take all the food and water he could and go out there to make a difference. However, he was interrupted by a long rumbling on the horizon, that shook the very earth.