1 "Post" Apocalypse
4th of July, 2052
5:04 AM
New Montana
A child is running through the fog along a barely visible dirt trail. He is looking back every few seconds but cannot see anything through the thick fog.
He trips and falls over a rock but quickly picks himself back up and keeps moving until he comes upon an old wooden cabin. He runs up to the door and starts knocking, beating away the silence of the cold night.
*Knock*Knock*Knock*
"Mr. Hunter! Mr. Hunter open up it's me!"
He stands on the tip of his toes and yells carefully into the keyhole so the sound doesn't spread too far. He appears to be in a hurry but before he can knock again the sound of rustling clothes along with the iconic mechanical whirring of the Model 32 Canton rifle comes through before the door is swung open.
A large figure steps out of the shadows side-stepping the boy to stand quietly behind him as cover while aiming the rifle at the churning fog.
The rifle looks like an old Kar98 that was put through the chipper and came out the other side with various alien-looking attachments. Its barrel is much wider and a tad bit longer with small rotating motors on both sides.
His bright blue eyes contract and relax repeatedly like some kind of a camera lens darting left and right looking for a shape within the darkness but upon not finding anything he turns towards the child.
"Max? What happened. Did the settlement get attacked? Tell me quickly!"
But Max suddenly smiled before running into the cabin, leaving Hunter speechless.
"No, but I need to go peepee, hehehe!"
A short moment later the sound of footsteps comes through the fog and another figure comes running up to the cabin. It is a feeble-looking man in his thirties breathing heavily trying to catch his breath.
He stopped a few meters away and looked around anxiously.
"M-Mr. Hunter, did you see Max?"
"Harlan?"
Hunter frowns before giving a quick nod and pointing at the cabin. The sound of a toilet flush rings out and Harlan realizes what has happened. He almost falls over but manages to stay upright. He walks over to Hunter and hands him a small metal dish that he had been carrying all this time.
"Mashed...potatoes, sir. Mary made them just for you, seeing as it's a special day and all."
Hunter took the tray from his trembling hands and gestured for him to come inside.
Hunter was about to follow them in when he suddenly froze in his tracks. His head slowly turned back in the direction Harlan and Max had come from to see another figure within the fog. It is only a meter tall but its eyes glow white within the darkness.
The figure doesn't move and they both look into each other's eyes for a few seconds before it suddenly shifts position. The pair of white eyes start rising until they are almost 3 meters (9 feet) above ground.
Its body is extremely thin with almost no flesh on the bones. Its arms are so long that they are touching the ground. It stares at him for a couple more seconds before slowly backing away and disappearing within the night.
Hunter continues inside and locks the door behind him. Harlan is sitting on a wooden chair on the side trying to light a candle. After a few tries he gets it going and leans back.
Hunter places the dish on the same table and takes the only other chair across from him, his face finally coming into view.
Full of wrinkles, scars both old and new, and several metal bits sticking out from various places along his body. He took off the lid from the dish to peer inside.
There is a layer of mashed potatoes with the letters sixty spelled out on top with peas. Harlan smiles awkwardly and whispers, "Happy birthday, sir!"
Hunter scoops up a bit from the side and puts it in his mouth, tasting it thoroughly.
"Good crop this time. But it isn't my birthday, you know that right?"
So he says but he couldn't deny how good it tasted to eat something made by someone else. It had been ages since he last tasted another person's cooking. Not to mention potatoes of all things, they are always in demand and pretty expensive.
Just this small of a batch would have cost them quite a bit.
Harlan who is a frail-looking man seemed even more delicate sitting across from Hunter. Even at 60 years of age his body is fitter than most 30-year-olds. But looks can be deceiving.
Harlan nodded, "Yes but you won't tell us your birthday so this is the only way we can celebrate it. Wasn't 4th of July independence day of the Old Union? We thought it was a good a day as any."
Hunter finally chuckled which lightened up the mood.
"It was called the United States of America or USA back then. Old Union came after the second civil war. It lasted until the third World War and just before the uprising."
"Ohh, I keep forgetting about the USA. That was such a long time ago," Harlan remarked before slowly realizing what he had implied.
"I-I didn't mean you were old, sir, I just meant it happened when you were very young and-"
Hunter raised his hand to gesture him to stop.
"Boy, didn't your wife tell you to think before you speak?"
"She...did, sir. Several times."
The room was once again filled with an awkward silence until Max finally stepped out of the bathroom and went running up to Harlan.
Elated beyond words, Harlan quickly stood up intending to return home but was stopped by Hunter's intense gaze.
"Wait until the sun comes up. It is not safe right now."
Harlan's expression instantly turned ugly once he realized what Hunter meant. He hugged Max even tighter.
"T-Then if you don't mind."
Seeing as they were staying for a while Max broke free from his father's passionate embrace and started running around until he remembered something.
"Mr. Hunter, this is for you!" he reached into his pockets with wet hands and pulled out a small metal plate.
Harlan again picked up Max in his arms and wiped his hands while explaining what it was.
"Max's test came through. He is qualified to join the school for the gifted and since a spot finally opened and I was called to the capital to register for a place inside the dome. Fingers crossed if everything works out I can finally give Mary a proper home."
"No more cold nights, rationing for food and water, wondering if we were gonna live through the night every time something made a noise outside. And I know you hate going there but I managed to get a one-day pass in case you had some business to take care of. It's not much but...you know..."
Hunter looked at the metal plate which had his name and a very old picture engraved on the top along with some other information.
It read:
[24-hour Day pass: Hunter White.]
[First Wave Synthat]
[1st wave Null Gene]
[Current Occupation: Freelancer]
[Born 1992]
Hunter sighed seeing his year of birth. He really had been alive for far too long. Having lived through a world war, a civil war, the fall of civilization itself, and the world turning upside down.
Harlan saw the reminiscing look in his eye and couldn't help but ask about the past.
"Is it true sir? About the planes and the ships? Did people really used to travel from continent to continent back then?"
Hunter put the plate in his pocket before looking up to meet Harlan's gaze. Max was also looking at him with twinkling eyes waiting for the answer. He smiled inwardly. How long had it been since someone looked at him without fear or hatred in their eyes?
"Of course, it was completely normal back. We didn't have many geomagnetic storms so air travel was how most people moved about. The sky used to be a clear blue and the water clean, well, usually."
"And what about the beasts? Were there no wild beasts?"
Hunter smirked self depreciatingly, "Boy WE were the beasts. We were at the top of the food chain. We used to live in cities that pierced the skies. Now we have to hide in caves and hope nothing big finds us. Even the domed cities that are protected by the great psychics aren't completely safe."
"Around 2020's the climate changes started on a grand scale. Volcanoes, forest fires, floods, earthquakes. Any natural disaster you could think of, we got it. Summers got hotter and winters got colder. Extreme weather patterns all around."
"Even up until the creation of the 'Dark Matter Engine' things weren't that bad. Don't take me wrong, the planet was royally fucked but nothing like this. But once that 'genius' Canton built the engine that was supposed to solve all of our problems things took a strange turn."
"People started to change, exhibiting powers and abilities that were supernatural in more ways than one. It was like a signal fire for all hell to break loose. The earth started to change, new landmasses appearing out of nowhere and old ones disappearing."
"Reports of strange creatures started popping up on the news. No one really believed it at first but after a while, it became obvious there was something going on. The governments tried to hide as best they could, calling them hoaxes and vilifying or even assassinating anyone speaking up about them."
"And then one day we woke up and an entire Island had disappeared. The United Kingdom was swallowed whole by a 'void energy blast' they said. They said it was a terrorist attack at first but we weren't that dumb. How could an entire country just vanish overnight?"
"After that, it was more obvious. Apparitions, men turning into beasts, blood-sucking vampires, windigos, the dead rising from the grave just to name a few. The sea and air travel became too risky after that. Whole container ships would be taken to the depths by unknown monsters."
"So many of us thought it was the end of the world, the apocalypse. And in some sense it was. Civilization collapsed and new powers took over. The 'great human psychics' they called themselves, the age of heroes, hmph."
"But they were all the same. On the outside they claimed to be helping humanity by building their domed cities that 'saved' only those that could be exploited and used, those that would bend to their will."
Hunter paused upon recalling that he had almost forgotten someone, someone that didn't really matter in the end but it was worth mentioning nonetheless.
"There was one that did try to help. Canton, the creator of the Dark Matter engine and the of this rifle," he tapped gently on the rifle, "Canton attempted to rally all the psychics under one flag in hopes of restoring order but for whatever reason, each and every noteworthy psychic turned against him. In fact, I heard rumors he died not too far from here," Hunter looked over to the north-western direction.
