Dark Apocalypse: A Post-Apocalyptic Family Saga

by Gabriel Alexander

“We’re grateful for that,” Bill said, “but that doesn’t answer her question.”

  “How do we know you won’t try anything with us later?” Sophie asked.

  “If we had this kind of intentions, you would be dead already. We are friends. We are enemies of your enemies, like you can obviously see.”

  “Nowadays, the definition of friend is someone who wants something from you, buddy. So what do you want from us?” Sophie said.

  “Nothing. Just to help you. We are men who love others and value their lives, that’s all.”

  “Oh, so you’re some kind of saints or something, is that it?” Bill asked.

  “No, sir, we’re not saints. Nobody nowadays is a saint. We’re just concerned citizens, that’s all. Look, your son is wounded and bleeding. Come with us to the colony and we will treat him. We have the tools for that. We’re trustworthy, you’ll see.”

  After a few moments of thinking, Sophie put her M-16 on the shoulder and said:

  “Okay. Where is your colony?”

  “Follow us!”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  After about an hour of walking, they reached the colony’s gates. Both the gates and the walls were made out of tree trunks, which were sharpened at the top. Two guards were patrolling each side and four towers with snipers in them were at every corner.

  “They’re here! Open the gates!” a guard on the wall yelled at the gate keeper.

  The gate keeper complied and the gates were opened. The four family members got inside along with everybody else. Just as they got in, they were amazed by how advanced this community seemed to be. Farms with chicken, cows, pigs and other animals were on every side of the community perimeter, the roads were filled with asphalt, the houses were big and tidy, and the people inside looked pretty decent, in more than one way. They couldn’t help but wonder if this community was just as the last one for a moment. But their fears quickly faded when they entered deeper and saw happy kids playing around or even reading next to a torch and happy adults who seemed to enjoy life. Everybody was minding their own business, but they didn’t seem sad or frightened at all. They didn’t have that terrified look in their eyes to betray the fact that the utopia they were living in was in fact a dystopia. They were all smiling and laughing and enjoying life at its best.

  “Okay,” someone in the crowd said, pointing at Thomas, “you follow me to the nurse’s house to treat that nasty thing on your shoulder and the rest of you go inside the house next to you, which is mine, and get some sleep. You will need it. And when the sun will come up, we’ll get you to our leader and introduce you to the rest of the community.”

  They did just that. Thomas went to the nurse’s house and Sophie, Bill and Julie entered their house and went upstairs for some rest.

  They opened the door to the bedroom and the first thing they did was to jump on the bed, without even bothering to take off their clothes. They fell asleep instantly.

  ***

  The sun finally came up. And Bill was the first one to realize that. He was awakened by the powerful light of the star which humanity was now cursed to see extremely rarely. He opened his eyes and got up from the bed. He went to the window and looked outside. The warmth of the sun touched his face. It was a sensation which came rare in those days, not only for him, but for the entire humanity. Needless to say that he was taking advantage of it.

  About a minute later, Sophie woke up as well. She opened her eyes and saw Bill in front of the window.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Enjoying the sun.”

  She got up from the bed and joined him next to the window.

  “You’re right!” she said. “It is enjoyable.”

  “Do you remember when we used to enjoy it twelve hours a day?”

  “How can I forget?”

  Suddenly, they heard footsteps coming toward their room. They grabbed their weapons from next to the bed and pointed them at the door. When the door opened, they saw a young couple, both of them aged about twenty to twenty-five. She was brunette, with blue eyes and extremely thin. He was also brunette, with green eyes and he was a bit fat. She was wearing a blue dress with white dots and high heel shoes in her feet. He was wearing black shoes, black pants and a black shirt. They both got scared when they saw Bill and Sophie pointing their guns at them, and she almost dropped the tray of breakfast in her hand.

  “Woah! Easy! You don’t need those,” the man said.

  “Sorry!” Bill said, lowering his gun. “It’s just that we spent so much time out there, that this became a reflex.”

  “It’s okay. We understand,” the woman said. “I’m Margaret and this is my husband Jim. We own the place. And since you are our guests, we thought about bringing you breakfast in bed, to make you feel more welcomed.”

  “I’m Bill and this is my wife, Sophie. It’s an honor to meet you. Thank you for the breakfast. We really appreciate it.”

  “No problem. The honor is all ours. Where do you want me to put the tray?”

  “You can put it on the bed,” Bill said.

  Margaret put the tray on the bed.

  “Enjoy!” she said. “And after that, we will give you a tour of our community and introduce you to our leader. Now, if you’ll excuse us…”

  “Hold on a second!” Bill said. “Where are our kids?”

  “You mean that adorable little girl and the young man with the wounded shoulder?” Jim said. “She is still sleeping in the next room and he is at the nurse’s house, getting his wound fixed.”

  “Well, we would like to go to the nurse’s house first,” Sophie said.

  “Sure!” Margaret said. “But first, you will need your calories.”

  After saying that, both of them got out of the room and closed the door behind them.

  “Friendly people,” Sophie said.

  “Yeah. Too friendly,” Bill said.

  “You really have to be suspicious about everybody, don’t you?”

  “We live in a suspicious world.”

  They sat down on the bed and started eating their breakfast, which consisted of French toast, fried eggs, fried bacon, orange juice and apples.

  “These are pretty good,” Bill said. “I think it’s from the farms we saw while entering the gates.”

  “Yeah, I noticed them too. I noticed this whole place is too good to be true.”

  As they were eating, someone else opened the door. It was Julie, who came in with a smile on her face and ran toward her parents. She jumped on the bed and hugged them both.

  “Did you eat something?” Bill asked.

  “Yes, I did,” Julie answered. “Two nice people brought me a tray full of biscuits and a jar of jam in my room. Boy, they were good.”

  “Okay. In that case, get ready. We’re going to see your brother,” Sophie said.

  “Yay, yay! We’re going to see Thomas!” Julie yelled, excited.

  The three opened the door and walked into the pleasant daylight. It was a perfect day, with no clouds on the sky. The sun was free to show itself in its full strength in the following three hours.

  Our trio looked around and realized they weren’t the only ones enjoying the sun. Everywhere around them, people were busy doing various stuff. Kids were running around, giggling, some playing hide and seek, hiding behind houses and wagons. The adults were working, some were carrying wheat crops, while others were cutting sheep meat, and some were repairing their houses or their cars.

  Once they entered the center of the community, they could see a huge green space, with an old wooden church in it. The three couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

  “Look at them,” Sophie said. “Look how excited everyone is. They all seem so… happy. How can this be?”

  “The perfect community,” Bill said.

  “Let’s not get carried away.”

  “Trust me, I am the last person on Earth to get carried away.”

  “You, folks, seem pretty lost,” someone said.

  They turn
ed their heads to the right. A man aged about sixty, with glasses on his eyes approached them. He wore a cowboy hat, a red shirt and blue jeans. He had leather boots in his feet.

  “We’re new here,” Bill said.

  “Well, that explains everything. I’m David.”

  “I am Bill, this is Sophie, my wife and this is Julie, my daughter.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you all!”

  “The feeling is mutual,” Sophie said.

  “We could use some directions, David,” Sophie said.

  “Sure. Where do you want to go?”

  “The nurse’s house.”

  “Is one of you sick?”

  “Our son. He is not sick, he’s been shot. And we would like to see him.”

  “My God! I’m sorry to hear that. Follow me. I’ll take you there right away.”

  They started walking toward the nurse’s house. As they were walking, Bill suddenly said:

  “You got yourselves quite a paradise here, David.”

  “Not exactly. In paradise, there is no need for work. There is also no pain, no suffering… This is no paradise. This is what we’re trying to do to get to paradise. And we also have our own problems within these walls. Problems that don’t exist in paradise.”

  “Yeah, I suppose you got that right.”

  “May I ask who shot your son?”

  “A group of rebels who keep chasing us,” Sophie answered.

  “I think I know who you’re talking about,” David said. “I ran into some problems with them too. Scum of the earth, who steal and plunder instead of working for a living. God will punish them, I tell you. They won’t go to heaven. Hell is what’s awaiting them. Oh, yeah.”

  “From your mouth to God’s ears,” Bill said.

  They eventually reached in front of the nurse’s house.

  “Well, folks, this is it,” David said. “I hope you’ll find your boy feeling better.”

  “Thank you. We hope so too,” Sophie said.

  They got inside and they found themselves in front of a living room, with wooden floor. “Hello? Is anyone here?” Sophie yelled.

  Steps could suddenly be heard on the stairs. A woman aged abut fifty, with dark hair and green dress came toward them.

  “Hello! How may I help you?”

  “We’re looking for a boy who was shot in the shoulder. His name is Thomas. We’re his parents,” Bill said.

  “Yes. Follow me upstairs.”

  “Thank you!”

  “No problem!”

  Bill and Sophie followed the woman upstairs, until they reached Thomas’s room. Once there, they stepped in front of the door and they could see Thomas lying on a bed. However, he didn’t look too well. He was sweaty, which means he had a fever, and he looked like he had no energy at all. He kept rolling his head left and right.

  Bill and Sophie approached him. Sophie put her hand on his forehead.

  “He is burning up.” Sophie said.

  The nurse then entered the room.

  “What is the matter with him?” Bill asked her.

  “His wound got infected. If we don’t treat him right away, he will die.”

  “Jesus, no!” Sophie said.

  “And I’m afraid that the bad news don’t end here,” the nurse continued. “We’re out of antibiotics. And those are vital for him now. We need them right away, if we want to treat him.”

  “Where do you get your supplies from?” Bill asked.

  “From a pharmacy which, unfortunately, is deep inside rebel-controlled territory. Few of us have the guts to go there and even fewer who did returned.”

  “We’ll go. Anything to prevent our son from dying. Besides, we’ve handled these assholes before. All we ask you is to give us some guides to take us there.”

  “I know just the men for the job. I’ll go talk to them. In the meantime, let’s go outside. Your son needs his rest.”

  “Absolutely. By all means.” Sophie said.

  ***

  Bill and Sophie were standing on the house’s doorstep. The nurse approached them, accompanied by two other men. One was young, at about thirty, the other looked well in his fifties and had a beard. They were both carrying Kalashnikovs.

  “Bill, Sophie, these will be your guides to the pharmacy,” the nurse said. “This charming young man here is Ted, and the who looks like Santa Clause is Russell.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Bill and Sophie said.

  “The honor is all ours,” the two guides said.

  “The sun will be down soon,” the nurse said. “You’d better hurry!”

  Julie was right behind them. Sophie looked at her.

  “Honey, this nice young lady will take care of you while we’re away. Be good to her, okay?”

  “Okay, Mommy.”

  Sophie looked at the nurse.

  “It’s not a problem, is it?”

  “Of course not,” she said, smiling.

  “Okay, people,” Bill said. “Time to hit the road.”

  ***

  The gates closed behind them. They walked in silence, with their weapons ready, in case they needed to wreak havoc. After about five minutes of silence, the younger guide, Ted, started talking.

  “So, I heard you are being chased by the rebels.”

  “Yes, we are,” Sophie said.

  “May I ask why? I mean, it’s not in their nature to chase people. They capture them, they rob them, and then they either kill them or let them go. What makes you more special to them?”

  “I put a bullet in their leader’s brother’s head,” Sophie said, in a bragging tone.

  “I figure you had a good reason to do that,” the other guide, Russell, said.

  “I did. We were walking silently on the road when, all of a sudden, we heard their cars coming toward us. We started running. They started firing at us while chasing us. They shot me in the back, causing me to fall down to the ground. I was holding my daughter in my arms, so I fell on top of her. You can imagine how pleasant that was for both of us. Bill and Thomas stopped and tried to help me. Then, the rebels pulled their cars over and came toward us. They started hitting us and pulling our hair. They took our backpacks and helped themselves from them. ”

  Tears started flowing on her cheeks.

  “Then, the sons of bitches pulled down my pants. I knew what was gonna happen. I started struggling, but… Bill and Thomas were just a few feet away, pinned down in their turn by those scumbags. All they could do was watch.”

  “Jesus Christ!” Russell said.

  “Somehow, I managed to take the gun from the one on top of me and shoot him. Then, I got up, grabbed their leader and used him as a human shield. In doing so, I managed to get them to release Julie, Thomas and Bill as well. Then, we slowly backed away, until we hit some woods. I hit their leader in the head with my gun and we ran toward it. That’s how we got away. A few days later, we hit a community, where the leader agreed to help us after helping the locals gather the crop for the winter. They gave us new clothes, food and weapons in return. Then, we left, and, two weeks later, we encountered one of the rebels’ camps by accident. I couldn’t help it. I took my rifle and shot a few of them from a distance. One of them turned out to be the leader’s brother.”

  “You wanted to take your revenge on them.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Don’t you know that violence begets violence? And vengeance begets vengeance?”

  “Yes, you are right. But what would you have done if you were us? Turn the other cheek?”

  “Probably not. But I wouldn’t have sought vengeance either. Because I would have known that if I leave them alone, they will leave me alone too.”

  “That’s way beyond the truth,” Bill said. “Rebels leave no one alone. Whenever they get the chance, they will rob, pillage, rape, kill and destroy anyone and anything. They don’t know what peace is. War is in their blood. It has been so since The Alignment.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Russell said. “Eve
rybody keeps saying that the world was better before The Alignment. I disagree. The world was just the same. Same wars, same thieves, same rapists, same killers. Same, same, same.”

  “Except now, we have to live in an almost permanent darkness,” Bill said. “That’s the bad part. The good part is that we no longer have politicians.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Russell said.

  They kept walking for another half hour, until eventually, they saw a small building one hundred yards away from them, on the side of the road.

  “There it is!” Jim said, pointing at it. “That’s the pharmacy.”

  The building looked horrible. Some windows were broken, others had boards nailed on them. The paint was peeled on some parts of the walls, and the door was pulled out of its hinges. From the inside, it didn’t look like it had much inside.

  Bill, Sophie and their guides picked up the pace.

  “We’re deep inside rebel territory now, so prepare your weapons,” Ted said.

  The four took their weapons from their shoulders and started paying extreme attention to their surroundings. They ran toward the pharmacy. When they reached it, they leaned on its walls and started looking around.

  “I think it’s clear,” Jim said. “Let’s go in, cautiously.”

  “Got it!” Bill said.

  They headed toward the door. Jim got in front. He removed the door, which was off its hinges, and got in, with his Kalashnikov pointing forward. The rest followed him.

  “All right, what are we looking for?” Sophie asked.

  “The medicine we are looking for is called Augmentin. It has a red box,” Ted said. “Jim and I are going to look here, on the shelves. You two go to the storage area.”

  “Okay,” Bill said.

  Sophie opened the door leading to the storage area and entered with her gun pointing forward. Weird enough, the place was stacked with hundreds of boxes on tens of shelves. After making sure the area is clear, she called Bill inside too. Then, they started searching for the medicine that will save their son.

  After about thirty frustrating minutes of searching, Bill eventually found it in a box.

  “I got it!” he told Sophie. “I got the Augmentin.”

  “You got it? That’s great! Let’s get out of here.”