Walkers Of The Waste: A Post Apocalyptic Story

The Boat

We walk for four days before we reach the coast. The time being spent listening to Russell and Lucy talking about everything and anything. Those two together and you never get a moment of silence. I stare out over the green waters, a salty smell hitting me. Russell leads us up the beach to a small river where a small raft is tied to a fallen log covered in a piece of brown cloth. He unties it and we get in, he rows the boat out into the ocean, past the crashing waves and into the calm. A large island comes into view and Russell stare us towards it, as we get closer I see a large old war military ship. It's grey colour is contrasted with bits of orange rust. Four large cannons line one side, each seems to be undamaged and in perfect condition. We pull up beside the ship, four pieces of rope hanging down the side. Russell attaches one to each end of the raft. He tells me to help and grabs the third, I grab the fourth. As we pull the rope, the raft lifts up out of the water. We continue pulling till we reach the deck of the ship. Russell tells Lucy to grab the side and pull the raft over so it's hanging above the deck. Russell and I let the rope go slowly allowing the raft to fall onto the ship. I get out and help Lucy up. She looks around in awe and instantly runs towards a small winged vehicle that sits in the middle of the large deck.

"She's a beauty, ain't she? There were more, but I sold several awhile back, that and one fell overboard somewhere in the pacific." Russell states with a laugh, motioning for us to follow him as he makes his way to the structure with windows near the end of the ship. We enter through a steel door and he leads us up the many stairs. We reach the top and he pushes another door open to reveal a large room, with windows over looking the entire ship, a wheel is located in the centre and a large table between it and the windows. Several technical desks, with small windows that look into darkness and buttons and dials and other things, line the walls. Russell moves to one of them and flicks a switch. Sudden light seems to pour from the ceiling and blinking colours appear on the desks, the small windows start to light up with green writing. I hear Lucy let out an audible gasp. "It was hard to find a way to power everything, but eventually I found enough nuclear waste to be able to pilot this thing for another fifty years or so. That reminds me, if you do get lost, which you will. Follow the red lines painted on the walls and floors, that'll lead you back to here. Also, don't enter any of the rooms with a yellow cross on the door, those contain radioactive material and will kill you almost instantly from exposure. There are hundreds of rooms, so pick what ever one you want, as long as it's unused and use that as your bedroom. Oh it's great to finally have company. Other than that pesky Triraptor in the lower levels, but as long as you don't annoy him he won't eat you. Actually, I don't think he eats, at least, I've never seen him eat. Food. I forgot you guys need food." Russell goes on ranting about this and that, I start to tune him out, letting my attention drift to the giant windows and the ship below. "I think there's enough MRE packs that are still good to last you two at least a few years. And we can stop by land and scavenge for food there. Brilliant, now where do you wanna go? I have a map that shows where I have explored, hold up let me find it." He rushes about the room, before making a triumphant noise and bringing over a piece of old parchment. He lays it out on the table and points to a spot along the west coast of a large land mass labeled 'North America'. "We are here. Anywhere you want to go?" Lucy and I look over the map, it's not like the prewar maps I had seen on occasion, parts are missing, and some parts are new. There's a large land mass in the centre that looks mostly unexplored, 'Africa' is scrawled out over it in messy hand writing. Lucy points to a gaping hole in the middle of a bit of land with 'Russia' written on it. I nod my head at her decision.

"How about Rusea?" She asks, Russell looks amused.

"Russia it is then. We'll be leaving in three hours, I just need to check over some things, feel free to look around if you want." Russell walks out of the room and down the stairs. I smile at Lucy's exhilaration as she runs after Russell. I stay standing in the room, looking out over the deck of the ship. Russell stands by the winged vehicle, throwing ropes over it and attaching them to the deck. Lucy standing only a small bit away watching him work. After a while I make my way outside also. I take to standing by the railing, looking out over the ocean and to the sandy land that lies beyond. Large black and white birds swooping down into the water, but never straying too far from the shoreline. One dives into the water and re-emerges moments later, a large creature in it's beck. The creature thrashes around, trying to remove itself from the birds grasp. It throws one of it's long limbs over a wing and twists it. The bird, either in pain or shock, opens it's jaw, letting the creature drop back into the water with a large splash. The bird then flies back to the shore, closing it's wing in on itself and stands staring at the water. Moments later another bird emerges out of the water carrying the same creature. This time the bird drops it on the beach, the creature swinging it's limbs around as a dozen of the birds attack it. The creature stops moving, and it's ripped apart by the birds, leaving it's mutilated carcass scattered over the beach. I turn away from the scene, moving my view to watch Russell work. Having finished tying down the vehicle, the man makes his way around the deck securing other things. Lucy runs around helping him, moving to assist when called upon. She seems to like the man immensely, hanging onto his every word. I let a small smile as I continue to watch them work.

"Don't you think this is going to be fun?" Lucy asks, rushing to stand by my side. "I didn't even know that there was a world outside of the wastes, now we get to go see it." I nod at her words, understanding where she's coming from. A large gust of wind blows over the deck of the ship, causing the two of us to stumble forward slightly. Russell looks at us and smirks, the smile devious on his lips. He makes his way over to us, not once letting his eyes leave us, until he stands looking over us.

"She's all ready to go." The man tells us, moving away to reenter the sheltered part of the ship. We follow, making our way through the twisting halls to the room with the wheel.