The Town By the tracks

Renton was a quaint town, found at the edge of the former demolished train tracks, it's known as the warren of secrets to the populace warranted the name for its underground tunnels. The town had underground tunnels, cellars that thousands of travellers and townsfolks used to transport illegal merchandises, during the 2048 war. The united militia of the people (UMP) had used the tunnels to move around the country undetected by the authorities, their deeds were honourable carrying food, medicine and water bottles to stranded locations. The fallout caused the death of millions, half of the European population wiped out in a single night. Renton resides on an island once known as Britannia or England, no one cared anymore and no one knew much of the past.

Renton was also labelled as a fallout shelter by the thousands who received beds and medical support after the bombings, before that it was the nation's capital producer of military weaponry and farming, now it's no more than rubbles of stones, shattered mechanics and radiated infertile lands. The one source of food that plucked out from the ground were worms and slugs you could pick off, only if the vultures didn't shred your fingers off. If you were lucky and had familiarity with gardening, you could grow onions under a greenhouse but most were either too stupid or too lazy to do something about it. Renton may have been a quaint town, a remnant of once a rich city but it didn't lack character and spectacles. Under the saturated sunrise and the cool breeze, a figure of a girl freshly into her adolescence huddling her stomach.

I coughed and sputtered out blood reddening a bruised lip, clutching my stomach heaving heavily I fell on one knee. Blood was pouring out of the tattered tank top, crimson red seeped through my calloused fingers. My eyes welled up and I hiccupped, I can't stay here could not stay here, they'll find me and probably skin me on the spot. My stomach churned, I can feel an acidic vile travelling up my throat. "Dammit come on the tracks are right there", I mutter to myself. The tracks looked hot with steamy evaporating into the cold air. I couldn't hear any snarky remarks or threats for a good hour now but I knew they were coming so I might as well suck it up and hurry to the tracks. Limping towards the tracks, I craned my neck towards the hills and see flickers of orange and red and my heart rammed against my ribcage. I gulped before the molten metal, "can't be worse than having a knife stuck in you", hesitantly I lifted the helm of my shirt and laid my wound right on the tracks. Skin fizzled as I chewed on lips until the cut felt clogged and no blood spluttered out.

"that'll keep them from following me", I said tying the shirt from the back and then leaped over the tracks for the forest clearing. I staggered to the oak tree and dug the ground, dirt bunged into my fingertips. Surely enough the I felt something moist and doughy, I let out a sigh of relief and hurriedly pulled my jeans down and shoved a handful of wet dirt into the other wound below my waistline. I got stabbed twice, one didn't cause much harm a slash across as I tried to run for it and the other a full knife plunged into me. For a few moments I sat still behind the tree, patiently waiting for dirt to heal me. The yellow, purple wound pumped as pus and black worm like insects wriggled out.

"bloody disgusting things", I cursed. No matter how many times I had those come out of me I still withhold the urge to gag, I squashed the wound and dug the dirt deeper as worms wriggled out in haste.

"Maybe they lost me?", I crooned to myself licking whatever sweat poured down my face tongue to my lips bruised lips. After a while, the pain subsided and the wriggling inside lessened. "looks you were right again uncle", the dirt resided a few feet under the roots of certain oak trees with sap rouge sap dripping out like broiling oil in the outlines of the Renton forests, about an hour walk from the tracks, the sap itself would burn but blended with the mud abetted the pain and jettisoned all kind of radiated insects.

I rose up and laid against the tree feeling the air on my red face, from my positioning I could see the town from here behind it the sun was settling and dusk approaching. Renton's location was odd, the area had trees, mountains and rivers if you dwelled deep enough, circulating the town- It was positioned right in the dead zone, a patch of land where nothing grew. The ground dusty and hard, with houses hammered in together at times one house uses the same wall and some even used the same kitchens and bedrooms as their neighbours. The townsfolk, well I didn't have much to say about them. Greedy pack of hounds, Renton seldom meets with other towns and abhorred newcomers unless one was loaded then they'd welcome the person with open arms and rob him in the middle of the night, now why doesn't the man just go the authorities? An honest and rich man doesn't come to Renton for forthcoming business prospects nor raise a family nor come for the landscape, he only comes because Renton is unknown and overlooked crap of a place. You stole some money? Come to Renton! You killed someone? Come to Renton! You stole a goat? which is usually the case, Come to Renton! The authorities in Renton were a couple of drunks but had a few bobs working so they'd arrest you then rob you then restrain you and drag you towards the forests and leave you there and no one knows you even existed, even the authorities from neighbouring towns because even they don't want to come here for their stolen money, goat and murderer.

I felt safe and calmed my beating heart down now, the guys probably had enough of chasing me around through the forest and heading home by now, I decided to stay a little longer and wait for the guys to appear out of the trees just so I could satisfy my ego. Specks of orange and red flickered in the outlines and my mouth morphed like a Cheshire cats, in the lead Greg marched with a scowl and broken jaw with three others in the same condition behind as he gripped a machete and a couple of rabbits in his right hand, my eyes trained on Greg's left hand it was swollen and fingers awkwardly flinched without his approval.

"Good. Deserve that for stealing my rabbits", I muttered feeling the urge to run out and snatch the machete and rabbit out of his hand. The rabbit I spent hours meticulously setting traps for, the machete I got from my deceased uncle was for self-defence against rabid and radiated animals I should have just slashed the pricks throat and been done with it, if only I didn't hesitate heck I could have still had those rabbits with me. "Bugger", I snorted before turning on my heels.

This town and its people really repulsed me bunch of thieves and murders trying to seem civilised but under the civility was a whole new person, I realise now why my uncle was adamant that we didn't live in this place, sporadically I trudged through the town market for nothing in particular just curiosity as well to inflate my sense of self and position, the old world was gone for the town, modern machineries like phones and light bulbs were hard to design and harder to find. Unlike these doltish folks we had electricity, running water and radios, obligations to my uncle of course. Back to the town, so the town wasn't particularly modern, a small group of folks at dawn stride for the forest for hunting, a group of cleaners surround the fountain slapping shirts against the aging stone and some set up stalls for selling whilst children and teenagers hang around, and I didn't like them particularly Greg.