Roam

Warning: Reader discretion advised.

“Shit. Fuuck!” All she wanted was to start a damn fire! Should have known better. Nyx’s lungs burned, she hissed with every breath of carbon dioxide that re-entered her lungs through her face mask. “Screw this bullshit!”

The sound of an engine revving assaulted her ears. He was getting closer. The thick soles of her boots crunched under the stone rubble in her frenzied escape. Nyx hurriedly took a left into an alleyway. Maniacal laughter sent chills down her spine. “Can’t run forever, girly!” Her pursuer howled in a mocking tone.

C’mon, c’mon. Wasn’t this sicko bored? Her eyes flitted around her surroundings to locate a means of escape. Maybe there was a ladder somewhere. 

“Looks like it’s the end of the road, sweets!” Her pursuer called again, a smirk painted his lips.

Nyx saw what he was talking about. A dead-end. Or so this jackass thought. It was her salvation. 

The hunter’s smirk fell when he saw Nyx increase her pace, running full speed at the wall. What, did she give up and is trying to kill herself via blunt force trauma? No worries, he’d still have use for her body.

Nyx sprinted the last few meters, using one foot to make contact with the wall before using the momentum of her speed to translate into a vertical jump. Her gloved hand found purchase within the grooves of the wall and hurriedly hoisted herself upwards, crouching from time to time before leaping upwards until she successfully scaled the wall.

The hunter looked on in disbelief at what just happened.

Nyx flopped over the ledge and allowed herself to take a few ragged breaths to placate her racing heart. Once she deemed herself fine she stood up and found the man staring up at her from his place on the motorcycle. She sneered.

“Parkour!” She gave a condescending laugh. “Bet you wasn’t expecting that, bitch!” She flipped him off for good measure.

The woman turned around and surveyed the vicinity. Her gaze took notice of a door and walked over to it, trying the handle. It opened.

She carefully stepped inside and slowly walked down the darkened staircase. God, it fucking stunk in here. Nyx finally arrived at what she assumed to be the topmost floor and walked down a hallway, there were three doors on either side. The dark-haired woman checked each door and took note. Two restrooms and four offices. 

Nyx shrugged and entered one of the offices before shutting the door behind her. She removed her facemask and knapsack then sunk into the squeaky office chair. The woman sighed while she rummaged through her bag, retrieving bandages, tape, and a flashlight.

Nyx unbuttoned her coverall and slid her arms out of its sleeves, allowing the top half to pool at her waist. She slowly removed her gloves, eyes roaming to her bandaged arms. They were stained brown, in dire need of changing. The female tentatively unwrapped the cloth and swallowed her whimpers as her burns were exposed to the musty air.

“God, that’s nasty.” She cringed while looking at the second-degree burns that marred her dark-brown skin. One of the blisters popped. Great. Nyx retrieved a bottle of saline solution from her bag and some gauze. She soaked the dressing and carefully cleaned her burned skin before bandaging her arms with new cloth.

“Good as new.” She inspected her work. “The swelling’s gone down a bit. That’s good. Won’t need to chop off my arms.” Her eyes began to droop and found it hard to keep her head upright. Giving in, Nyx placed her head on the office desk and she was out.

 A blinding light. The earth shook. Mushroom cloud. Fires. Children screaming.

Nyx’s body fell and the only thing she could indicate was her agonized gasps. She couldn’t see anything. All was black. She was blind. Her arms felt like someone was cutting her up with a hot knife. “What’s happening?” 

“Mommy? Daddy?” She heard a child desperately cry while running past her still form.

“Somebody! Help!” She heard a man beg.

“We’re all gonna die!” She heard another lament.

The earth quaked again, threatening to rip open its jaws and swallow whoever laid in its wake.

“There’s another one.” The voice was hollow, feminine. “It’s coming.”

Nyx raised her head and turned it in the direction of where the voice was coming from.

“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.”

Nyx blinked repeatedly as colours began to dance at her peripherals. 

“We, your children are not worthy of your mercy. So I shall not ask.” The voice was growing fainter.

“There is no God! Stop praying!” Another woman’s voice viciously seethed.

“But please, God, I beg for forgiveness.”

“Look at yourself! You think God would allow this to happen to his precious children?” The lady was hysterical.

Nyx pushed herself up on her elbows once her vision cleared. The sight before her caused her to tremble. Half of the praying woman’s face was raw. Bits of flesh hung from her profile and Nyx could make out the distinct muscles that made up the zygomaticus major and minor. She tried her hardest to resist the urge to dry-heave. The other half of the woman’s face was littered with blisters of varying sizes and her right arm was charred.

The praying woman turned her head, the movement caused more tissue to part from her face. Her unseeing eyes fell on Nyx. She was dead.

Nyx awoke with a start. She tiredly wiped her brow from the sweat that accumulated there and pushed herself away from the desk. She slipped her arms through the sleeves of her coveralls once again and shouldered her knapsack. ”Time to get a move on.”

Nyx found another set of stairs which hopefully lead to the bottom floor so she could get outside. She fumbled in her steps when her nose caught a whiff of something that made her gag. Shit, her mask. The woman hurriedly fished the object from her pocket and secured it over her face.

Nyx hastened her movements and sighed in relief when she finally made it to the bottom floor. But the pungent scent was stronger. Her eyes scoped the area. It was a large room. No furniture, nothing to be seen. But her heart dropped when she heard crunching and gnashing of teeth, accompanied by laboured breathing.

She didn’t want to know what the hell that was. The copper-toned woman slowly walked forward to what she presumed to be the exit. There’s nothing to see. No investigation was needed. All she had to do was get the fuck out of this funky ass building. The scent of shit was prevalent.

Nyx bit her lip and cursed herself when the noises were closer. The gut bubbling noises of macaroni and cheese stirring in a pot drifted into her auricles. She wanted to vomit every time she heard a squelch.

She broke into a run and almost reached the door but something slippery caused her to fall. The potent scent of iron attacked her nostrils. The world was upside down and she struggled to right herself. Nyx paused and stopped her breathing.

She was locked in a staring contest between herself and another woman who was squatting over a corpse. Some of its entrails hung out of her mouth like uncooked sausages, blood dribbled down the side of her face, reminiscent of spaghetti sauce.

The woman’s eyes widened at Nyx, the innards she had been previously feasting on fell out of her mouth with a disgusting plop. She slurped the excess blood that slid down her mouth and hastily sat up.

“It’s not what it looks like!”

Nyx veered backwards and extended her arms to keep a decent distance between herself and the anthropophagite. 

“Listen, I don’t care I, just want to leave.” Nyx stammered. Her form shook. She wanted to get out before she was this woman's next meal. Her eyes raked the floor to see if she could use anything to ward her opponent off.

“There’s no food, and I was hungry, the person was already dead.” She frantically waved at the dead man. “And the Sectors are always roaming about. I had no choice!” The woman wheezed while walking closer.

“Stay the fuck back, lady!” Nyx screeched while picking up a pipe that laid near her feet.

“I don’t do this! It was a one-time thing! I couldn’t even cook his flesh because I couldn’t start a fire.”

Oh, fuck her! 

“Just let me leave! I don’t give a shit about what you’re doing.” She tried to keep her voice as stable as possible.

The shorter female went silent when Nyx mentioned leaving. “No. No! You’re gonna bring someone back and kill me! Can’t have a known cannibal running around, right?” The lady hugged her sides and doubled over in uncontrollable laughter.

Nyx gulped and rushed over to the door. 

“Oh no, you don’t!” The cannibal ran back to the corpse, her bare feet squishing the forgotten intestines before retrieving a knife from its side.

“I’ll carve you up before you get away from me.”

Nyx was busy ramming her shoulders into the wood, trying to get the door to give out at its hinges when the cannibal’s animalistic snarl caught her attention.

Without thinking, Nyx swung the metal pipe and it connected with her skull. The woman dropped into an unmoving mass. The dark-haired woman took her boot and roughly shoved the psycho away before turning back to the door. With an iron grip on the pipe, she busted through the door.

Finally! She never thought she’d be happy to be outside again. She stretched her arms over her head, groaning in relief after hearing three satisfying pops.

“Time to see if I can find some grub.” Nyx found herself on a six-kilometre trek to find a means of sustenance. There had to be a gas station or convenience store somewhere.

After another twenty minutes of walking and hopping over maimed cadavers and evading pits of fire, she happened upon a bakery but unfortunately, it was collapsed at the entrance. She was barricaded from the outside.

Nyx ran around to the back in hopes of finding a door but no luck. Circling back to the front, she started pulling rubble from the building’s entrance.

“Need help?” She jumped at the voice.

A lanky man walked up to her, he was fidgety. Occasionally scratching his arms and shifting his eyes, looking over his shoulder. His hair was matted and his eyes were bloodshot. Looks like he didn’t get any sleep.

“Are you being followed or something?” She grunted, getting back to her task of trying to get into the bakery.

“Nah. But you never know, you know?” He rubbed his palms together.

The more help the better she supposed. She didn’t know how long she could carry on without eating, so she threw caution to the wind.

Accepting the man’s assistance, they spent half an hour trying to get into the bakery. An additional ten minutes passed before Nyx cried in triumph. “Yes! Finally!”

"Now that's what I'm talking about. You're tougher than you look, miss." The man complimented.

Both parties hurried inside. Nyx jumped over the counter while the man ran to the fridge.

Nyx ripped open her backpack and started shoving bread, cookies and whatever else she could have stuffed into her bag.

Soon she and the man switched places. She ran to the fridge and threw water and soda into her bag. Her eyes practically sparkled when she saw something she hadn’t in a while. “Booze!” Nyx quickly grabbed a can, cracked it open, pulled down her mask, and guzzled more than half of it in one go.

She let out a self-satisfied burp. “Wooo! That hit the spot.” She slammed the fridge shut once she loaded more cans and propped her back on the door, taking lazy sips from what remained in her hand.

“You got no family or anything?” Her companion tried to make conversation.

“Nope.”

“So you’re by yourself.” The main clarified.

“That’s what I just said.” Nyx rolled her eyes. She really didn’t want to talk to anybody.

“What’s your name?” He shoved some bread into his mouth. It was stale, but he didn’t care.

“Nyx.”

“The name’s Kage. It’s a pleasure.” Nyx just gave a disinterested nod.

“Since we both are alone, maybe we can stick together. Two’s better than one, we can have each other’s backs.”

Nyx downed the rest of her beer and threw it to the side. The sound it made was deafening. “Yeah, no.” She stood up and took up her bag. “I appreciate your help for getting in here but I don’t like to work in groups.”

“We’d be a pair. Not a group.” He explained while stroking his goatee. 

“It was fun, Kage. Enjoy your spoils.” Nyx half-heartedly waved as walked out and left the man behind.

How long since she'd seen the sun? The woman craned her neck at the soot-covered sky. The so-called ‘winter’ or whatever should be starting soon. She screwed her mouth to the side and let out a sigh.

The woman walked down the dilapidated street in hopes to find shelter which didn’t look like a deathtrap. 

Soon, she found an abandoned apartment complex. Nyx hunkered down on the floor and crossed her legs.

“I need a damn smoke.” She reached into the smallest pocket of her bag and retrieved a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. 

Nyx let the filter sit comfortably between her lips and brought the flame to the tip of the cigarette. After lightly sucking on the cig, Nyx removed it from her mouth and took a gentle breath, allowing the warmth that caressed her throat to blanket her in a state of calm. 

Unfortunately, someone decided to interrupt her. 

“You shouldn’t be smoking.” A child. A damn child. She couldn’t see them, though.

She took another drag of her cigarette and let out a puff of smoke.

“It's bad for you.”

“Yea, well inhaling all this radiation day in and day out isn’t good for us either, but I don’t see you rolling over and dying. Some nicotine isn’t going to mess me up any more than this contaminated air.” She said in a gruff tone before putting out her cigarette.

She reached into her bag and pulled out the bread she got from the bakery, taking a large bite of it.

 That was when the child moved closer. It was a little boy. He came bounding down the stairs. “Can I have some? Please?” He remembered his manners.

Nyx’s eyes roamed the child’s form. He was practically skin and bones. “Get your own, kid. It’s a dog eat dog world out here.”

The boy’s face fell when he heard those words. “Okay.”

Nyx groaned. Fuck this shit. “Here. Take it.” She gave him her bread. She searched through her bag and offered him a bottle of her water as well. 

The boy grinned before running back up the stairs of the lobby while shouting, “Jake, Travis, Kacy! A lady just gave me food, here!” 

There was more of them. Jesus.

Three more kids in addition to the one she just helped ran downstairs. “Didn’t I say it’s dog eat dog? Christ!” She was bombarded by hugs from the children and rolled her eyes. She fished into her bag and gave them the rest of her bread, soda and cookies, leaving one bottle of water and the two cans of beer to herself.

“Thank you!” They chorused.

“Yea, whatever.” She got up and began walking out the door. 

“You’re leaving?” It was the boy who had first approached her.

“I don’t wanna encroach on your turf.” She gave them a wave and left.

No problem, she could function on what she had assumed was about an hour’s rest or so back at the cannibal’s building. No problemo-

“There you are, sweets! I’ve been looking everywhere for ya!” There was the revving of an engine.

Dammit! It was that guy again.

“Piss off, loser!” Nyx broke into a sprint. How long did she have to keep running? This is bullshit!

The sound of another engine caught her attention. “Great, he brought his friends too! Damn!”

Nyx gasped while she tried to maintain her speed to keep her distance from her predator.

She didn’t think she had the energy in herself to pull any more parkour stunts. What to do. What should she do? Her mind was working a mile and minute until she heard a crash.

Nyx threw her eyes over her shoulder and saw that the man who was chasing her was slammed into a wall. He was between a wall and a car, actually.

She stopped her running and looked on in disbelief. Her rescuer, or what she assumed to be her rescuer, hopped out of the car. And she couldn’t help but laugh. A genuine one.

“Didn’t I say we could have had each other’s backs?” Kage shouted as he ran up to her. “Teamwork makes the dream work!” He presented to her his palm.

She couldn’t deny it. “I thought my ass was a goner.” She gave his hand a clap. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

“Say we can team up and we’re square.”

Nyx shook her head but then nodded. “Sure.”

This was unexpected. She was to be a loner. 

The duo found themselves on top of a building, feet dangling off the ledge of the roof they occupied, sipping on their beer, beholding the glowing city in the distance.

“I’ve always said if the world went to shit, I’d listen to some music. Chill, you know?” She sipped her alcohol.

“What would you like to hear? Ladies' choice.” Kage pulled out a radio from his jacket pocket. 

“Classical.”

The delicate notes of Debussy’s Claire de Lune created a relaxed ambience, greatly contrasting what sat on the horizon.

And so, the world burned.