River, Sun, Freedom

chapter 1: Run, run as fast as you can

hey everyone, 

I'm a new writer here at wattpad, so I thought I'd upload a story I started and see how everyone liked it. If I think enough people like this first chapter, I'll upload more. Not yet though, cos I have exams, but if enough people comment before the Australian summer holidays begin, then, yeah, i might just continue.

I started this as a draft for school, then continued on with it later

Let me know what you think!!

tigerLily_x

p.s. I know it says science fiction, but this story is more like post-apocalyptic, but since there isn't a category like that....

Chapter 1; Run, run as fast as you can

The shack was made up of flat boards of rusted metal, a rough hovel not fit to even be called shelter, nestled just within the edge of a temperate forest. The light rain that had started not a few minutes ago was seeping slowly through holes in the “roof”. The air was cold and musty, occasionally ringing with the dry coughs of an old woman, lying in a moth-eaten bed. This woman looked so small and close to death, it was hard to believe she was all that was left of a strong courageous lady who had spent the last ten years of her life protecting her grandchildren from “all the evil” that had happened and was still happening.

                By her side a young boy of eleven sat, holding her hand and stifling sobs that were tearing away at his thin chest. At the other end of the room, sitting at a tiny desk was a girl, older than the boy by several years, but just as thin. She was fiddling with some large, unrecognisable pieces of metal. They clanked together, loudly, almost drowning out the wretched coughs of the old woman.

                Suddenly, she stood up, and left the shack and stood outside in the rain. She looked beyond the trees to the horizon where columns of smoke rose towards the sky, blackening it. An ordinary bushfire it seemed, but she knew it was something else. A nasty smell filled the air around her, like sulphur, only stronger, more pungent. It was a smell only they could bring.

A light breeze blew from behind her, bringing with it a sheet of paper. It settled at her feet, facing upwards. She looked at it and realised it was a newspaper article. The title cried “END OF THE WORLD; THE APOCALYPSE” and a picture of a deserted street was beside the article. The date read September first 2040, over ten years ago, exactly on her seventh birthday, the day after the “evil” began.

Uninterested, she kicked the article away; it couldn’t tell her anything she didn’t already know. Out of the shack the boy came toward her. “Jodi.” He called.

She turned at the sound of her name and answered with his. “Yes Jake?”

He sniffed, and put his arms around her waist. “She’s dead” he half whispered.

The shack behind them was completely silent now. She put one arm around him and squeezed, slightly, but she was too tense to give him the comfort he desired. He looked toward the smoke and glared at it, his young dirty face now full of hatred. “They’re coming closer now, aren’t they, sis?”

“Like we always knew they would, little brother.” She answered. She let go of him and walked back into the house, emerging a moment later with two jackets, two black rucksacks and the unrecognisable piece of metal, with could now be recognised as a huge gun, about the same length as her arm. Tucked into her thick leather belt was a machete knife and around her chest was a thick band of leather to which was attached bullets about the size of a baby’s fist, with the explosive power of a small bomb. This was just as well, because though the gun was very large, it could only hold five bullets and shoot one bullet at a time.