Chapter 2: Deal

As we soon started to call them, the chimeras came too fast, too unexpected, and too strong. Barely having time for a counterattack, their attacks spread all over the Earth. Appearing all over, some in cities, some in the counties, and a few even in the middle of the ocean, they move fast and within only a few months, entire nations are reduced to nothing more than burning trash.

The chimeras' invasion was fierce. With their spacecraft and advanced weapons, no military in the world stood a chance. Hardly any rest or supply, soldiers were slaughtered like pigs, and very soon, the air itself became a weapon. The chimeras' spacecraft leaking some sort of poison into the air, the people and even the animals that breathe it in were horribly mutated, turning into monsters that attack anything and everything they see. What few of us survived both the invasion and the poisonous air had no other choice but to flee into underground bunkers.

Located in only certain areas, such as in mountains or under plains, the bunkers were quickly built by the governments of the world, toward the end of the fighting, when they were low on soldiers. Gigantic communities with air filters, all survivors, along with small handfuls of military personnel were escorted into them. However, life in the bunkers wasn't much better.

Given very little food, and hardly any drinking water, the soldiers would take out their anger by beating citizens near death when the slightest crime was committed. This had been going on for the last 20 years, but no one said anything. It was either a life in the bunker or a life as an infected. Either way, you are already dead.

Tristan Harlow:

Waking up when I feel someone kicks me in the leg, I look up.

"What," I scream, turning away in my old, dirt-covered blanket. "Can't you see I'm trying to sleep? Go away or I will shoot you."

Kicking me again, I grab my pistol and turn around. Prepare to kill the person, I stop when looking up, I see Rebecca, a "friend" of mine from when I first arrived.

"Hey driftier," she jokes, kicking me again before crossing her arms. "Guess what? I just got us a late-night, early morning job."

"Not interested," I say, putting my gun away and wrapping myself up.

Kicking me again, she grabs and yanks my blanket off of me!

"Hey," I scream, getting up and closing my hand. Preparing to punch my "friend", she tosses my blanket at me before I could.

"Hey to you," she whispers, "Will you lower your goddam voice. In case you forget, we're in one of the sleeping quarters. There are people sleeping all over us."

Pointing to the ground, the ground is covered in people, sleeping sides-to-sides, only a few having old and torn blankets. Looking back at Rebecca, she punches me in the arm.

"Come on," she starts, nudging her head. "Follow me. I'll fill you in on the way."

"Fuck," I groan, rolling up my blanket and shoving it into my backpack. Tiptoeing over some sleeping people, Rebecca and I finally make it onto an empty street. Walking now, Rebecca begins telling me about some news going on in the bunker.

"Did you hear? Zack of Zone 2 was caught trying to break into the cafeteria. The soldiers that caught him beat him before dragging him through the street for everyone to see. No one has heard from him since. That was two days."

"Hmm. I guarantee you he's now under six feet of dirt."

"Hope not. The guy got a wife and kid he needs to support. Also, if my memory serves, he owes me about a pound of clothing. Besides him, did you hear Alfred of Zone 5 was picked to be a hunter?

"Who the hell is Alfred," I ask, Rebecca stopping to peek around a corner. The coast begins clear, Rebecca motions for me to follow.

"Tall guy, sideburns, goatee, brown hairs."

"You're describing 90% of the people here."

"Anyway, can you believe the military picked him to be a hunter? I mean, it's the military's job to go and get supplies, to be hunters. Not us citizens. We have other things to do."

"Oh yeah, like stealing, killing, and God only knows what else."

"Exactly drifter."

"And speaking of God only knows what else."

Stopping and crossing my arms, Rebecca stops and turns to face me.

"You haven't told me anything about this job yet. What the hell is it and why did you have to wake me up for it?"

Rolling her eyes, she raises her arms and points to a massive cut underneath it.

"What the hell," I say, immediately reaching for my backpack. Getting onto my knee, I look around for a bit before finding some alcohol and rags. Applying a little alcohol to the rag, I'm about to wrap Rebecca's cut but before I can, she pushes me away.

"Calm down," she says, backing away. "I don't need any of your shit. This job will give me and you all the medicine we will need for a long while."

"What?"

"Let me tell you a little back story first," she starts. "About a month before you arrived, I got into this fight with this son of a bitch nicknamed Rex. Think he's some sort of crime boss because he got a bunch of pistol-whipping jackasses on his side."

"I don't like where this is going," I state, putting the supplies back into my pack.

"Yeah well too late. The point being, during a deal I had earlier, he and a few of his men jumped me. They stole a big shipment of med from me and I want it back. I've been trying to find him since and lucky for me, everyone here owes me at least three favors. Turns out, the fucker is hiding out in an abandoned truck warehouse the military used to use but stopped after a while. Frankly, I think Rex just brought it out from them."

"Frankly," I yell, "I don't think I can help you. The two of us versus some crime boss and his 'bunch of pistol-whipping jackasses'. The only thing that is going to happen is you and me getting a hole in our heads."

Putting a finger pistol to the side of my head, I then slam my thumb down.

"Come on drifter," Rebecca says. "We got this. As I said, they're just a bunch of jackasses. We are not. We actually know what we're doing."

"Whether or not we know what we're doing, none of that will matter if there are bullets raining down on us. Suck Rebecca, but look like you lost a shipment."

Turning around, Rebecca grabs my arm and turns me around. Punching me across the face, I then wipe some blood from my mouth.

"Now you need some med yourself," Rebecca states, shaking her fist in front of me. "Besides drifter, this is too big a shipment to let go, and I do mean big. Here's what's going to happen. We find Rex, kill him and whoever else 'rain bullets' on us, get my shipment back, and then split it into three: one for me, one for you, and one to sell for ration cards, and then we split those ration cards. Evenly. Now, tell me that isn't one hell of a deal."