Souls and Ruins

Soul and Ruins

It is dark and cold, the air smells of something…. something indescribable, while the ash of the deceased float through the open air. It has been 6 years since the skies lit up with atomic fire, the world stripped down to its brown base and no one to explain what led to it. My name is Jessica Murray and somehow, I survived the complete annihilation of our beautiful planet Earth. I honestly did not think the bunker at my parent’s mansion would work, but it did. Biggest downside my parents were not with me at the time, I have no idea where they were, at a fancy party, runaway to Vegas, it doesn’t matter its all gone now. The only thought now is – CRASH!, I stopped reading and took out my double barrel ‘’who’s there?’’ I said, only to hear nothing but silence ‘’I said who’s there?... I swear, if you don’t come out ill start shooting’’ I moved away from the small campsite that I resided, not knowing what I was going to find. Aiming into the darkness, there was still no sign of life when suddenly BANG! My trigger finger jumped as I did when a dog jumps out of the darkness pinning my body to the floor. His or her breath worse than the atmospheres and its teeth as sharp as kitchen knifes ‘’Ringo? ….Ringo, what are you doing? I hear back in the darkness, It was a woman’s voice. She appeared with rags for clothes and a sunhat with an arrow through the top ‘’I’m so sorry about him’’ she said as she pulled the dog away. I held my gun back up to her, in shock about actually seeing another human being ‘’stay back! Who are you? what do you want? You’re not taking my stuff’’ I said, while she put her hand ups and the dog growled. ‘’WOAH ok calm yourself, I’m not a thief or….murderer, I was just looking around the ruins ok’’ she explained and I slowly lowered my gun, I also looked at the dog with heaps of concern. ‘’I love dogs, but I don’t trust that look’’ I said to the woman before turning towards my camp. ‘’Are you hear by yourself?’’ she asks holding her hand out to me ‘’what does it look like aint exactly overpopulated London anymore is it?’’ I replied sarcastically ‘’ha-ha you got that right’’ she said as she for some reason followed me to my camp. I sat down by the fire putting my journal underneath a ragged straw pillow that seemed to be in a war of its own. ‘’do you mind?’’ the voice was still here, I looked up to see the woman standing on the other side of the flames. ‘’Why not, your probably a hallucination anyway from the irradiated berries I ate a while back’’ I said with a smirk which quickly disappeared within the serious thought of how I could be going insane. ‘’Trust me I’m very real and so is Ringo, we’ve been wandering for a while all the way from Chiswick, you know I haven’t seen a-‘’                                                                                                            ‘’Ok I’m actually really tired so if you don’t mind I’m going to get some sleep, your’e welcome to stay but if you steal anything it won’t end well for you’’ it was a small threat but I think she understood ‘’thank you’’ she said, while putting her hand on the dogs head. I lay my head down with my shotgun by my side and thoughts spread across my mind have I actually met another person? Will she kill me while asleep? Or have I met an ally?

Sleep is the escape into a world of life and joy, which is quickly ripped away with the wakening of the soul. My slumber was broken by the sound of crackling wood and the pleasant smell of food cooking ‘’morning’’ the woman said ‘’want some of this, something we picked up the other day’’ stirring the pan creating an aroma which broke the dark smell of destruction. She poured it into a grime covered plastic bowl ‘’sure’’ I said holding my hand out to take it ‘’thank you’’. The smell was pleasant, not to pleasant but I would prefer it any day over the smell of the new Earth ‘’My names Robin’’ she said, smiling and holding the steaming bowl in her hands. ‘’Jess’’ I replied not looking at her as I was too focused on the food that was so luckily bestowed upon me, the taste like a good steak, of course it wasn’t, but not eating for a large amount of time does change a lot of things. ‘’This beast of mine is called Ringo, I can always imagine people laughing at the fact I named him after Ringo from The Beatles’’ Robin said as she chuckled slightly, feeding the dog some of the meat. ‘’I don’t think it’s funny’’  I said ‘’I think that’s pretty awesome and I believe that The Beatles were The best band in Old Earth’’ I actually managed smirk ,an actual smirk ‘‘How about that I didn’t think I’d ever smile again’’. I moved closer to the fire, to where Robin was sat ‘’I’m sorry….for how I was, you can’t trust this world no more’’ I said while poking the fire ‘’ Don’t , I completely understand, I saw a trader the other day which I hoped to barter, I need some ammo for my 38 but as soon as he saw my boy here he started shooting’’. The strange feeling of socialising with another human being was hard to fight off even being only one person, it was still overwhelming. ‘’so you killed him?’’ I asked quickly so she can move on with her story ‘’ no, the shadows did that part, they came from behind him….ripping him apart’’ her voice turned quiet and her face scared. ‘’I …I thought about helping him I did really’’ I stood up and walked over to her, Ringo growling as I moved closer ‘’but I just ran and ran, leaving him to’’ I sat down putting my arm around her ‘’hey’’ I said ‘’ you can’t save many people in this world, from themselves or the shadows, so don’t go ripping into yourself ok’’. She wiped her eyes which were filled with tears ‘’I’m glad I met someone so nice, you could have killed me straight away but you’re here comforting a stranger’’ she said putting her hand on my arm ‘’well don’t speak to soon I’m still coming up with my evil plan to take you out’’ I laugh, followed by her laughing. ‘’Well it’s morning, think its time to move on’’ I said getting up from the hard floor. I walked over to my sleeping roll to wrap all my stuff into a rucksack ‘’may we come with you?’’ Robin asks. I turned back to face her; many thoughts filled my head once again why does she want to come? Who is this girl? Is she going to kill me? Or maybe I should believe that I did just meet one ally in this lonely world ‘’why not’’ I said smiling.

The sun was directly above us making it a cooker of a day, some of the dead trees would set on fire once again. ‘’ugh I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a hot day’’ Robin said taking her coat off ‘’when your in more built up areas your skin doesn’t start to melt off’’ I tried to make light of the situation but didn’t really work. We made our way across one of London’s bridges ‘’You can’t make light of something that can actually happen’’ Robin said quite seriously, looking at me. I chose not to reply but as I looked down ‘’STOP!’’ I shouted holding my arm out to her and grabbing Ringo’s collar, which caused him to jump and bite me on the arm ‘’OW what the hell!!’’ I shouted at him ‘’Ringo let go of her!’’ Robins only had to move inches forward to change our course completely ‘’NO!!’’ I shouted before the unnerving; quiet sound of a trip wire hits all our ears. One second 2 seconds BANG! , an explosion not too close but created a reaction making the floor give way underneath Robins feet, making her fall down the crevasse once road ‘’Robin!’’ I shouted quickly grabbing her hand, keeping hold as she hung above the irradiated River Thame ‘’I’ve got you, now you have to use your legs to climb up’’. I suddenly felt tugging on my long coat, I looked back to find Ringo helping with the rescue ‘’good boy’’ I said to him, as we used all the strength we had to pull Robin back over the edge. A short time felt like an hour until Robin came flying over the edge, knocking me down and landing on top of me. I held her softly as she lifted her head to look at me ‘’are you alright?’’ I asked her, her face was full of fear, but following my question she lays a surprising kiss upon my lips. The dog trying to lick her face breaks us apart, and the fear leaked from her into me ‘’ok ok Ringo I know you helped too’’ she said to Ringo giving him hugs and kisses. I remained sat on the cold floor with a stupid surprised look on my face, when Robin takes a look over a wall found on the path ‘’ look at that view, Big Bens still standing, just about anyway’’ she said while turning towards me. Her smile faded ‘’what’s wrong?’’ she asks ‘’ you look like you’ve just seen a giant dung beetle’’ I finally stand up and answer ‘’ you just nearly died and your looking at the pretty views’’ annoyed I continue ‘’and I don’t know what that was, what you did but-‘’ I was quickly interrupted ‘’ you mean kiss you? Well I was delirious and scared….and I wanted to say thank you but couldn’t really talk, nobody has ever cared enough to save my life’’ Robin Said. The anger slowly drained from me, I walked over to her and held her hands ‘’I may have only just met you but I can see you being the only other sane person in this dead world’’ I said, thinking to myself that’s something I would never say in all my time on this planet. ‘’Well that was the nicest and probably the darkest thing anyone has ever said to me’’ Robin said her face regaining a glow of pink ‘’now I think we should get off this bridge, because the rest is about to go’’ she took my hand and dragged me away ‘’ come on Ringo’’.

My plan is to get the outside of the city, away from all the shadows and mutations, I’m not sure what Robin would think. ‘’So where are we going?’’ Robin asks, rapping her arm around mine ‘’The outside’’ I answered and received a look of confusion ‘’of the city I mean, its much more dangerous here than out there’’. She agreed of course, from the time we had together we learnt a lot about each other, she somehow survived in the metro tunnels, she used to work as a cleaner in an old folks home and she had no family, which explains the absence of feeling loved and cared for. We stopped to see the road was blocked, having travelled for 2 days many detours had to be taken ‘’let’s go through there’’ I pointed at a building, which held a dark tunnel like pathway ‘’ go through there and where outside of this hell’’ I said smiling at Robin. She looked curiously at the dark which caused her little distress ‘’I don’t know’’ she said, before Ringo walks to the path and growls into the gloomy distance. ‘’See even Ringo doesn’t like it’’ Robin said with even bigger distress ‘’lets find another way’’ she took my hand, but I resisted being taken away from this opportunity. I turned her towards me, placed my hand on the cheek and said ‘’it’s alright, we’ll stick together and if anything attacks us we have Ringo, or you could stun them with a kiss’’ my humour seemed to calm her down a bit. We moved slowly to our path, Ringo still growling at the dark. ‘’Look at me Robin, there is no doubt that there are shadows in there, but they can see us so all we have to do is be quiet’’ I spoke and she took every word in, before taking Ringo by the collar ‘’Ok baby boy I need you to be really quiet ok, quiet Ringo, quiet.’’

Robin nodded ‘’let’s get out of this hell’’ she took my hand and Ringo’s collar as we made our way into the black empty space which was like another kind of hell. Within the building we saw the small light of the outside and he things that we feared, the shadows. Those who had survived the atomic apocalypse turned into zombie like beings with no souls, so therefore turned into shadows. Those who would rip your soul out of you with no hesitation and the only way to prevent that is to stay QUIET. We slowly made our way through closer and closer to the light of freedom, when suddenly a shadow appears right in front of us, stopping us in our tracks. Frozen with fear we both were but I quickly snapped out of it. The shadow finally moved on and we could move forward but Robin was not moving, so I turned to her hand on her cheek again and mouthed the words it’s alright. Pulling her gently towards the light and a sudden feeling of relief came over me, as the warm sun lit our skin up. ‘’come on’’ I said smiling at Robin, walking her over the dirt, not a building in sight. Ringo runs into the distance, while we watch him run around and smile at his happiness and freedom. Robin looks at me and I her as she says ‘’Jess…. we made it’’ we both smile at each other, hold hands and walk towards the desert like landscape that were once the outskirts of London. The world is in ruins, however there is always a chance you’ll find one precious soul to care for.