Decay

"Uggghhhhh....."

You opened your eyes slowly. The sky. You hadn't seen a blue sky like that for a long time. Puffy white clouds drifted lazily as you sat up. You were in a small clearing in a woods. Large evergreen trees cast shadows on the soft woods floor. It would have been beautiful if not for The fact that you had no clue where the fuck you were. You had no idea if a WD was lurking somewhere in those shadows. You checked yourself over. Combat knife and your handgun were still on your belt. You spotted your bag at the other end of the clearing. You walked over to it and slung it over your shoulder.

You had to find out where you were roughly. You scanned the horizon for the tallest tree. You spotted a pine that looked about 100 feet tall. You started walking.

-

You grunted as you hoisted yourself onto the top branch of the pine tree. There was nothing but woods in front of you. You looked the other way, and saw a mountain range. There was a small stream in the same direction. "Well isn't this a fucking paradise..."

Just to rub it in, you happened to look up and see a particularly vibrant rainbow cutting across the sky. "Fuck that.." You spat angrily. "I should be fucking dead right now and instead i'm in this fucking piece of shit woods, fucking meandering streams and rainbows and shit, what the fuck?"

You thought over that previous statement. "Then again, i haven't seen a single WD since i've been here... Guess that makes sense. No population. How the fuck did i get here anyway? Those fucking dickheads from that town must have fucking abducted me and dumped me here. But i still have all my gear..."

You suddenly remembered something. You checked your side where you felt certain that you had been shot. There was no wound.

You looked up. "And this fucking place is nowhere on the earth i know.." You remembered dark, ashy skies and the acid rain. After the outbreak, there had been all manner of shit going wrong with the ecosystem. The nuclear meltdowns and toxin spills did not help.

You scooped up your bag and headed in the direction of the stream. You could use a drink, and the water here seemed fresh enough.

As you walked through the woods, you began to notice the eerie silence.  No birds chirped, no branches fell, and no Wind blew. It was a dead silence. This might have unnerved you at one time, but after the things you had seen a dark quiet forest just meant a safe place to scale a tree and catch some sleep. You continued your hike for another few minutes before you heard it- a branch breaking. It was the first sound you had heard in your entire time here. In one fluid motion you drew your handgun and had it pointed at the source of the noise.

"What the fuck?"

A pair of yellow eyes leered at you from the shadows. These were no eyes you had ever seen. WD eyes were glazed over and didn't shine. Animal eyes- well, animal eyes didn't look like this. You made an informed decision to squeeze off a round at the thing. You heard what sounded like wood snapping and a whimpering noise. The eyes disappeared. You heard heavy steps moving away. You considered pursuing, but you assumed you had showed it who was boss. "Don't come back unless you want another round to the dome, asswipe!" You yelled into the blackness.

You picked up the pace to the stream and kept your pistol drawn. At last you reached it. The water was crystal clear. You didn't even care enough to try to purify it- you had a drink. It was the most delicious thing you had ever tasted in your life. You took another big gulp of the water before rummaging in your bag for the canteen. You dumped out the stale old water and filled it with the stream water. You noticed it was getting dark out. Getting your rope, you ascended a tree. You hung your bag from a branch and settled into the crotch of the tree. You cushioned yourself with your hoodie, tied yourself in with rope, and fell asleep.

You awoke to something you had not heard in a long time. Voices. You untied the rope and slung it around your shoulder. Taking out your bandanna you tied it around your face and put your hood up. You drew your handgun and crept down the tree. You crouched low as the voices approached.

The voices were feminine and seemed rather small. You looked around. Nowhere to run. Not without crunching through too much undergrowth.

You decided you had to be offensive, not defensive.

You racked the slide, and jumped around the tree, legs bent, weapon up.

One of the quadrupedal creatures in front of you screamed. The others recoiled back.

You all stood there for a second. Studying each other. After a few moments, one of the creatures stepped forward to say something, but before it could another shot forward and attempted to strike out at you. Your honed reflexes allowed you to dive to the side and roll. When you came up you already had your knife out and in a Cqc stance. The creature who had assaulted you seemed ready to attack again, and you were ready for it this time. As the creature let out a growl and shot at you with seemingly supernatural speed, and you sighted in on it's center mass, you found yourself unable to move. You moved your eyes and saw that you were enveloped in a strange purple glow. The creature who had attacked you was also suspended, by the same purple glow. The source of the glow seemed to be another of the creatures. It stepped forward.

"What are you?"