Chapter 22

Pulling himself off the sandy river bed, he got to his feet. Looking around, all he could see was a dry, and desolate land. The riverbed looked like it had only recently dried out. With all the trees following, shortly after.

There were no other signs of vegetation around, other than the sad silhouettes of the dead forest. These trees gave off an eerie impression, like a lingering desire to resist their demise, even after death, still refusing to fall, even now. Fortunately, after throughly examining the area, there were no signs of human life here, at least. Putting on his necklace, he turned invisible, staying ahead of future problems.

Looking to his left, he could see an incline, where the land dropped off into a cavern. Following it, gate like boulders appeared, stopping the way of anything larger than water, or small animals. From the small gap, it was apparent that the cavern went further in. "Is this where I came out from? If this is the entrance to hades, am I in Greece?"

Putting the stray thoughts out of his mind, he continued, marching onto the rocky mountainside. Finally reaching the top of the mountain, and above the black smog, he discovered that he had landed on a peninsula. Standing atop of the mountain, he could feel the wind, and even taste a slight saltiness to the mist.

The ocean usually smells, and tastes, salty, but here, it barely registered. "Maybe I’m overthinking it, and cant taste, or smell it, this far out? Either way, I’m sure I'll find out sooner or later, for now I need to find a cave, or something that I can hide in for a while."

This was a bad situation. If not for the constant smog, and his good luck, he was sure, he would have been discovered by some survivors, or worse. The problem was that the entire peninsula had been stripped, thoroughly. There were hardly even any dead grasses left here, let alone a forest for him to hide in, and the only cave for him to possibly hide in, looks to be the one he just came from, and he would rather not run right back into Zeus!

Thinking, he noticed a small home on the mountainside, a few miles farther inland. The house appeared to be fairly old, and looked to be in disrepair, but the part that interested him, was the grain silos next to it.

It looked like the property used to be a traditional farm, before they switched, or were bought out. Regardless of what happened, the silos looked to be big enough for him to fit inside of, and rest for a while.

There were three silos. The one he was going to use was the center one, standing a few hundred feet tall, and a hundred feet wide. It was a monster of a silo, allowing him to lay down inside. He also shouldn’t have to worry about damaging it, if he accidently rolled over, as it looks to be made from three or four inch corrugated sheet metal.

"Jackpot!" He quickly surveyed the area, looking for any signs of people, or anything else, living nearby. Looking around, he saw some tracks of people, but there was little he could do right now. He could only hope they could not find him with his necklace on, and hidden in the silo. Twisting his pouches, to not damage their content while he was sleeping, he sat down, leaning on the silo, and immediately passed out from exhausted.

"Sissy! Come on, hurry up! We are going to miss it if you keep taking your time!" A young blonde girl playfully berated her younger sister, as she clumsily stumbled through her room. Gathering the necessary items for her younger sister to get dressed, and leave the house .

Complaining, her younger sister cried out. “Why are we doing this? I don’t wanna go again! We’ve been there six, different times! Every time as soon as we get there it stops. I think old man Granson is right, and it’s the gates of the underworld opening.

You felt that huge earthquake too, just like everyone else. I think the whole planet felt it! Besides that, you saw the news before the internet went out, monsters are coming out because the end of the world! Plus, you know….mom”

"Shut it Sissy!" Not letting the little girl finish her thoughts, she spoke to her with an angry, and nervous tone. "It’s not the end of the world, and even if there are monsters, monsters are just animals and things we haven’t named yet. Before anyone went to Africa, everyone heard tales of ferocious monster cats roaming the whole country!

Now that we know what they are and can even kill them, we don’t think of them as monsters anymore, but animals. Don’t let the monster talk scare you! I think that someone is up there with explosives and mining equipment, and if they are putting in this much effort then it can only be for a few things, but I think it’s an underground aquifer.

Think about it sissy, we could try and grow our seeds again! Maybe we could finally eat something other than the synthetic bar of dredge that we are given every other day. We can’t give up sissy, we owe him far too much for us to do that."

The two girls looked saddened at the mere mention of their predicament. However, after hearing her sister’s encouragement Sissy quickened her effort to change, and they both quickly left their home. Sprinting and laughing their way up the mountainside, to the top of the ridge.

There they followed the ridgelines into the neighboring mountains and into the old dried up river bed and a dilapidated home, next to the three newer looking grain silos. The two girls had been tracking the rumbling for the last two weeks and had investigated the entire archipelago. Every time the rumbling had started, it was triggered here first.

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Looking at the dilapidated home in front of them, the two little girls turned to face each other, each asking the other why it had to be in the home their family had died in. Hand in hand, they walked into the house full of broken memories and sadness.

Walking through the front door to the family home the two girls were flooded with the emotions from their former lives living here in happiness. They remembered their father being so happy that their farm was taking off and how they were finally able to afford the silos needed for winter storage, and how the tractors and animals were all on track it felt like paradise to the small four person family. Walking up the rickety staircase to the second floor, the stairs squeezed, and squealed like a mad piglet as Kristina made her way to her old room.

Dust and destruction is all that remained after the missiles launched onto this tiny archipelago with no military targets in sight, destroying nearly everything. The only reason we have even a semblance of life right now is that the mayor of the city found a production factory, and somehow made it work again.

This allowed a few hundred thousand people to receive a government subsidy of one bar of food per person, every three days. Apparently this was done so they could save as many people as possible. Meanwhile, as they held off starvation by a hair, others may find a new source of food for us to eat making the whole situation less critical. A lot of people have starved.

Actually, more people starved to death than were killed in the bombings. The bombings were horrible, especially the radiation, mutations, and the constant madness seeping into everyone from the whispering’s and mutations. Looking through the ransacked room there was nothing left. Just as she was about to leave, another tremor hit the house shaking the area and dislodging a book trapped in the rafters of the house and landing on her shoulder.

Looking at the book, she gasped in shock! "This is the book dad used to read to me. I thought we lost it!" Tears rolled down her cheeks as she could no longer hold her tears back from reality. Sobbing alone, and quietly in her once beautiful house with her once complete family.

Taking the book with her Kristina ran downstairs as she met her younger sister carrying something in a gunny sack. Sis, look at this! Without so much as a response to recognize her sister’s efforts at all, she used her drill Sargent voice ordering her to search the premises and outside areas at once.

Moments later the two were back in front of the house with nothing to show for their effort. Looking at her older sister, sissy tried once again to show her the treasure she had unearthed. Taking a beautiful, and deadly, crossbow, out of a burlap sack, she unpacked a bundle of extra bolts for ammo, and a new string in case one broke. She then unpacked a puller, to set the tension in the string, making it stronger than it would have been by hand only. It was so fast it could even pass through some lesser plate armors. Seeing the crossbow, Kristina aggressively asked, “Where did you get it from sissy, tell me the truth!?”

Surprised and insulted, Sissy replied. "What? You think it’s stolen? It’s not! Just so you know mom told me where to find it yesterday! Slap! Kristina, looking shocked at her arm for moving, and slapping sissy looked mortified as Sissy began to run into the distance."

Worried, Kristina replied. "Sissy, come back!! That thing is not mom!! Please come back let me talk to you please! Yelling at the top of her lungs Kristina shouted herself horse as she attempted to follow her younger sister, only to find that she was exceptionally fast. It mattered little though as she already knew where she was going. Quickly, she hid the new weapon in the grain silo, and took off after her sister.

Managing to reach the area her sister would most likely come to, she started searching. This area used to have a river that flowed into a waterfall, and created an unreal, pale blue lake, that they used to play and swim in, with their mother. Now, the water had dried up, and the plants all died, the only spot with any life remaining was the center of the river where the water used to bubble up from the spring underground. A tiny, 1' by 1' pool of water, barely a half an inch deep, was all that was left.

"Three years ago, before the missiles devastated our area and lives, my mother used to love swimming here. She would swim here every day, walking from our house. She loved the seclusion, being by herself, and the amazing scenery. One day we got a visit from the mayor and deputy, offering us their condolences as our mother’s body had been found in the waterfall pool. She was bruised, beaten, and abused, in almost every way possible.

Our father went mad searching for the culprit, but it was around that time that a strange creature began visiting my sister and I. This creature claimed to be our mother, and she looked exactly like her, sounded like her, and even acted like her.

The only difference between her and my mother was that she had the gills of a fish, hidden behind her ears, by her hair. She would spend hours upon hours combing her long hair with a golden comb on the shore of the nearby beach or the lake, enabling her to charm anyone who would see her or hear her sing.

For a time we were happy again, but deep down we knew that this, creature, was not our mother. I do not know why this creature chose to pretend to be our mother, but I do not think she had bad intentions to our family. The creature visited my father as well. At first he was frightened, and then in his grief I believe he just shut his brain off and decided that he could not do without her.

There visits were infrequent, as I think the entity wanted to help him let her go and comfort him in her own way, but even that did not last. It was around that time that the pillagers came by the old house and began to ransack everything. My father tried to defend our food and protect us from their men.

They took everything they could that wasn’t bolted down, and wanted to kill us, and do worse to me and sissy. Father shot and killed some of the pillagers so that we could flee, and after he was killed, we began to starve. The creature began to leave food for us again after this horrible event. Bringing us food from the sea or other villages, and always leaving us something at our doorway. While asking for nothing in return.

But that’s the biggest problem. No one does something and asks for nothing in return. Especially in a world as destroyed agas this one. Every bite of food she has given us is one less for her to swallow. There must be a reason she is saving us.

As I walked farther out from the inland waterfall and towards the sea I spotted my sister walking into the sea towards the outstretched arms of the entity! Is she trying to take my sister? Is this the reason why she has been so kind to us? My heart began to race as I started sprinting towards the sandy beach. “SISSY!!!! STOP!!!!” I shouted as my throat began to burn and I could feel the tears slipping from my face.

I cannot lose my only family left. I don’t want to be alone!! “PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME SISSY!!!!” Despite my passionate pleas to stop, they did not appear to hear me, or if they did they did not give any indication, as they continued towards the water. Finally the being had Sissy hang onto her shoulders as she dove into the water disappearing completely.