Waste land Rambler

Hank rode slowly through the vast sea of emptiness that stretched out endlessly before him underneath a blistering sun set high in a cloudless sky. As Hank rode, he thought about the last time he had seen a cloud. Had to be before the war he thought. Everything had changed after the war. The water had all but disappeared, food was scarce, society had fallen apart to be replace with bandit warlords who ran everything, and worst of all the world was overrun with fierce undead creatures that were the unfortunate by product of the war. Ever since the war had ended Hank spent his time rambling from place to place trying to avoid interaction with any other beings living or not, but occasionally he had to find settlements to resupply. That was the errand he was on today. His water stores were getting dangerously low.

Hank sat high in his saddle atop his mule scrutinizing the small town that had come into sight in the distance. The town consisted of a handful of small rundown buildings set on either side of dirt road that went straight through the middle of town. “What do you think Joe?” Hank asked the mule. Joe blew out a big breath of air and shook his head like a dog would shake himself when getting out of the bath. “Well old buddy doesn’t look like we have much of a choice in the matter right now. Let’s get going.” Hank said to the mule as he kicked him into motion.

The sun baked earth cracked under the mule’s big strong hooves as they rode toward the town. The town looked deserted, but Hank knew better than to trust appearances. He had come across many towns like this in the past, and he was sure that this town was not only inhabited, but that he was also being watched at this very moment. If Hank was being watched then whoever was watching was probably looking at one of the most shocking sights they had ever seen. Hank was a big man with an athletic build. He was wearing a long black trench coat in spite of the heat that was covered with dust. His hat was an old black cowboy hat that had definitely seen better days. He wore the hat low over his remarkably green eyes to keep the sun out. He had shoulder length hair as black as a raven’s wing with a matching full dense beard covering his face. Most shocking of all was Joe the mule he rode on. If you saw his face from the left side he looked like a normal bay mule except for the fact that his left ear was missing however if you saw the right side of his face it was completely void of all skin and flesh down to his neck line. Joe’s body was cover in random large patches where some had no covering at all, and others had various degrees of rotting flesh and hide hanging from them. Joe had the unfortunate luck of being bit by one of those undead creatures causing his slow deteriorating from his once fine form, but being a vegetarian he posed no threat to Hank though he now hated the undead and had proved to be a valuable ally in a scrape.

As Hank rode into town he noticed a building in the middle of town that was a little larger than the rest of the ramshackle buildings, and had a few thin horse tied out front. Being as those horses were the only sign of life so far he figured this was the place to visit first. Hank tied Joe to the post with the two horses and strolled through the swinging doors on the front of the building. The room was dark and dusty with a stale smell to the place. At the back of the room there was a long bar with a short old man wearing an unfriendly look and an old stained dirty shirt. He was wiping down some glasses with a filthy old rag, and didn’t even bother to look up from his work when Hank walked in. Hank strolled up to the scarred dust covered counter and placed two large Canteens along with a gold coin on the counter and said, “fill them up.” Hank watched as the old man went on with his mundane chore without acknowledging his existence. Hank slowly reached into his pocket and placed another gold coin on to the countertop. As soon as the second coin hit the counter the old man grabbed one canteen and took it to the faucet where he filled it with a thick mud colored fluid. Hank winced at the sight of the fluid. It wouldn’t be the best quality beverage he had ever had, but it was better than nothing. As soon as the old man finished filling the second canteen, he placed it on the counter taking the gold coins and went back wiping glasses with his filthy rag without saying a word. “Thanks for your time” Hank said sarcastically turning to leave the establishment.

As Hank was retracing his steps to the front two dirty unkempt hard looking men entered the room. “You the fella with that undead mule out here?” The biggest man with the yellow teeth asked. “Yes” replied Hank shortly. The old man in the back disappeared behind the counter. “We don’t take kindly to you trying infect our horses” the smaller man said in a high pitched nasally voice. Hank knew there was going to be trouble. “He won’t infect your animals. We will be moving on presently.” Hank said. “Not with our water you won’t.” The big man growled. “Yeah we don’t share water with your type.” The smaller man chimed in. Hank tighten his grip on the canteen straps a started walking forward again without a reply. As Hank drew up level with the pair the big man reached out a giant paw of a hand and gripped Hank’s shoulder in a firm grip saying, “Did you hear what we said boy?” In a loud aggressive voice. Hank instantly reached up and grabbed the big man by his wrist pivoted and threw him headfirst in to the side of the building causing a shower of dust to rain down from the rafters. Before the smaller man could recover from his shock Hank landed a big right hand on the point of his jaw causing him to fall like a sack of potatoes to the ground. Before either man could recover Hank moved on outside and mounted up on Joe turning him to leave town.

“Why does there always have to be trouble at every town?” Hank asked Joe. “Let’s get out of here before something else goes wrong.” Hank said kicking Joe into a trot. Hank had spoken too soon. At that very moment, a rider came racing down the street shouting “They’re coming! They’re coming! Run for your lives!” Hank turned Joe to cut off the rider’s path. The rider was forced to pull up hard causing his horse to come to a sliding stop. The rider in a complete panic. “Out of the way! Out of the way!” He shouted frantically. “Hold on there” Hank said. “Who’s coming?” He asked the rider. The rider’s eyes were wide with fright as he responded “a group of about ten undead soldiers, and they are headed this way. We have to run!” He cried as he jerked his horse around Hank to continue his flight out of town.

Hank rode out to the flat open ground in front of the town and watched the cloud of dust that was stirred up by the coming band of undead soldiers. “This may not be a good town, but it doesn’t deserve to be overrun by the undead. We better do our part and make a stand.” Hank said to Joe. Hank watched as the group came slowly into sight. He reached under his trench coat and pulled a long machete out by its hilt.

The band of undead came closer and closer until Hank could start to see some details. He could see the old dirty rag tag uniforms hanging from their grotesque bodies. It was hard to believe that these were once men. They were basically walking skeletons in different degrees of decomposition. Their eyes were a sold mass of foggy whiteness. Hank could see they were all armed with either swords, clubs, or a few of the bigger ones had battle axes.

Hank’s green eyes became alive with the flame of rage that burned deep down inside of him. Waiting for this band his mind was transported back in time before the war started to the events that put things on track to end up the way they did. It all started with a respiratory virus that started in China and quickly spread around the world killing millions. This resulted in mass panic around the world causing shortages on several necessary items starting with toilet paper of all things as people prepared to hole up in their homes to try and keep their family safe. About a year after the original out break the news leaked out that the virus was actually man made as a weapon and had been released into a small controlled group, but it somehow got out and then spread like wild fire before they could get it under control. This news caused a lot of tension between the world powers. Then the first mutation showed up. A man in France died of the virus and was buried. A week later he arose from the grave and began viciously attacking any person he came across trying to consume them. It appeared that the mutation of the virus caused individuals to become undead, cannibalistic, and this version was spread through saliva rather than the air. Soon after the first case several more showed up and spread quickly through out the civilized nations. This was the final straw that caused world war three. The nations bombed one another and dropped armies of the undead on one another. They liked to use the undead soldiers because they not only spread the disease, but they all were tough to kill because the only way to kill them was to cut off their heads. Hank remembered the destruction and carnage he witnessed in that war. His furry was for the greed of those who were in power that used their power to create this wasteland out of God’s bountiful earth. In the end the ones in power lost everything, but so did all of humanity.

The undead were finally coming close enough to attack. Hank knew this for sure as their distinctive smell of death and corruption rolled over the vacant ground between them and assaulted his nostrils. Hank kicked Joe into a run and charged over the one hundred yards that separated them. As Hank closed in on the group, he stood in the stirrups machete held high. He could feel the excitement of the battle begin to surge through his veins. Joe had his one ear pinned flat as he raced towards the tight knit group of undead soldiers.

The soldiers had no idea what hit them as Joe plowed into them. He hit them with such force that he shattered the group sending bodies flying everywhere. Hank lashed out violently with his machete and decapitated 3 soldiers in the first pass. After passing through the group Hank spun Joe around and charged again. This time the group was more spread out, so the collision was less impactful. Hank managed to decapitate two more soldiers before he was hit by a club and knocked out of the saddle. The undead were unnaturally strong, but they were not very fast. Hank quickly arose and chopped the arm off of one that was coming at him with a sword. The sword fell with the arm and Hank kicked him in the chest knocking him to the ground. Turning Hank faced the next foe who grabbed a hold of Hank and was trying to sink his teeth into him. Hank was able to get his hand on his attacker’s neck at the jaw line to keep his teeth away from his flesh while he tried to maneuver his arm with the machete for a disabling stroke. The one armed soldier was start to rise up when Joe came rushing in. He reared up on his rear hooves and came down striking the one armed soldier in the neck with his fore hooves decapitating him. Hank was able to cut a leg out from under his opponent and deliver a blow on his way down that removed his head from his body. The head rolled on the ground settling so that the foggy white eyes were staring up at Hank.

That left three more opponents facing him. Hank quickly dispatched one of them that had a club, but the last two opponents were literal giants wielding battle axes. The two soldiers began circling Hank slowly. Hank was trying to keep both of them in sight. Hank reached into his trench coat and quickly brought out a foot long Bowie knife that he threw into the skull of one of his combatants. With that one temporarily out of the fight Hank charged his companion hitting him in the chest with his shoulder knocking him to the ground. Hank quickly followed up with a stroke from his machete severing his opponents head from his spinal column. At the very moment his machete struck home his other opponent had regained his composure and delivered Hank a mighty blow in the shoulder with his axe biting through flesh and bone. The blow sent Hank to his knees. The soldier brought his axe up for another blow, but Joe came in from behind and bit him right on the collar bone and lifted him off the ground tossing him to the side. Hank rolled out of the way and jumped up delivering a mighty swing with his good arm to put an end to his last enemy.

Hank stood there panting for breath looking down on his vanquished foe. His put his machete back in its sheath and walked over to place calming hand on Joe’s neck. Blood was dripping down his arm from the wound in his shoulder, but Hank seemed oblivious to his injuries. He swung up in the saddle and took a deep drink of the hot silty fluid from his canteen. He swallowed the fluid a spit out a mouthful of mud. “At least it was wet” Hank said aloud then he turned Joe’s headed back out into the vast emptiness of the waste land.