Liberation (Remnants of Men)

Chapter 1: Runner of Rat Town

   There were no clouds in the sky, nothing but a grey mass stretching to ends unknown. The last yellow sunshine was seen twenty years ago, he was not born then, but everyone knew the tales of those wonderful rays that would kiss a skin with great warmth.

Those days were memories to some and nothing but a myth to others like Runner. He did not care much for a large ball that boiled with fire, no. All he wanted was to join the well paid guards of Section 5 and that was the reason he was standing before the first dead body he has seen since birth.

He stood motionless and squeezed his face, covering his nose with his hands to keep the obnoxious smell away. It was the body of an elderly woman half burnt by the fierce radioactive storm that swept beyond the domed comforts of MegacityOne at an hour interval. A gun sat on the loose grip of her right hand and on the left was a dead baby with a bullet hole in his head. There wasn’t much investigation to the horrid scene as all connections seemed to be in place.

 A swelling emotion of sympathy grew in him, but he knew that was very much a fate destined for half the folks that lived outside the protective dome of MegaCity One.

His best friend, Troy Decker, hissed, “Come on, Runner, she suffered a better fate than any of us would hope."

Runner tightened the belt that held his gears on his waist. It was hard to be brave when the entire world wants a piece of him. It was even harder to survive a world where air and water could cost a man his life savings, no thanks to Reinhardt Reddit, the tyrant that left half the planet at the mercy of radiation.

He raised his hand and gazed at an old wrist watch that had all its silver coating worn out by time, but it still displayed time accurately.

“Ten thirty a.m., oh my god!” he raised his gaze to the sky, “Oh my god, we have less than five minutes. Move everyone, move.”

Runner turned around to see how many were behind. In the distance, a large storm of dust was raging forward.  He waved his hand and shouted at the top of his voice, signaling them to hasten.

Troy caught him by his beige torn jacket, “We’ve gotta go, man, we-got-to-go,” he stressed the last words.

“Where is the cargo?” Runner asked, but Troy gave no answer.

Runner seized him by the neck of his jacket, “Troy, where is the cargo?”

“I don’t know… I kinda left it behind, you know, the storm and all that shit made me panic.” Troy said woefully.

“What do you mean you left it behind? That’s our ticket to never going hungry again, our ticket to Section 5 and then to the comforts of Megacity, the paradise in this damned wasteland. You know there are people in that truck, human beings, Troy, human beings.”

Runner took another look at the raging storm. Old Max his colony’s mad mechanic had told him once that they were poisonous radiation that could melt a skin in seconds. He didn’t know how true that was, but the melting part of the story, that was definitely certain.

“Give me your cloak,” he stretched his arm towards Troy.

Troy pulled his long black cloak and handed it to Runner. “What do you want with it?”

“Just get the others to safety,” Runner threw the cloak on and made sure no part of his body was exposed.

He used a dusty turban to wrap his head and then put on dark goggles to protect his vivid brown eyes.

“Are you crazy, Runner? I know for certain you don’t have any more stash of Sense pills left. You won’t last a heartbeat out there,” Troy spoke sternly.