User blog:ExdeathsBagel/The Land of the Poison Sun WWYD

WWYD by SpyCrab64: http://monstergirlencyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:693699

I down my last bottle of water, its luke-warm feeling failing to saturate the cold fear bubbling in my stomach. The fear of leaving my house and going out for supplies, assuming there were any left. I live in a simple suburban neighborhood in Maryland, one spared a nuclear annihilation and instead subjugated to a carpeting of different explosive devices. These devices, though explosive in their payload, where not incendiary, chemical, biological, or radioactive. They were something else, something that warped the landscape and environment, turning it harsh and apocalyptic. Why would a warring country make another suffer like this?

Allow me to explain, it is the year 2028, what day or month I cannot tell you as I stopped keeping track weeks ago. Prior to the mass bombings that reportedly spread across the globe before most electronic were taken offline, humans and mamonos lived in peace. I’ll spare you the details, just know that the US and Russia entered a Second Cold War. You’d think the improvement of technology and communications would’ve improved our chances of making it out of this one considering how often faulty tech nearly led to nuclear Armageddon in the first Cold War, but you’d be wrong.

It instead lead to paranoia on an unprecedented scale, panic spread of monitors everywhere, undetectable bombs, and hackings that twisted information. Things reached the boiling point on May 25th of this year when both sides launched their bombs. The first of Russia’s weapons were nuclear, hitting only miles away from Las Vegas. Then came the EMPs that took down nearly all electronics and nowadays it seems like only radios work.

Yet nukes were used surprisingly sparingly on both ends apparently, otherwise how else would I be able to write to you? Instead far more incendiary, chemical, and biological bombs were used, mostly aimed at mamono-centered societies. It made sense, mamonos are powerful beings, making up most militaries if only due to their sheer strength. I don’t know the numbers, but t would surprise me if the mamono casualties far outranked humanity’s.

Society has since unraveled, may fallen victim to the ruthless raiders that have cropped up across the country, travelling in packs and killing and stealing whatever they could find. They are composed of both humans and mamonos, and are utterly merciless. The only silver-lining with them is that according to numerous radio stations across the country, there numbers are small. Despite falling into disarray, most people seem to only want to and help others survive.

Now that that’s out of the way, allow me to inform you of my ever worsening situation, of which I am certain is mostly my fault. My family survived, my dad rushing all the way down from Ohio to live with us, he didn’t want to describe what he witnessed. We had been surviving in our home for a few days and my dad and step-mom went out to get supplies. The supermarket was only a half mile away, my brother and I assumed they would be fine.

They did not return, and neither did my brother when he went to search for them. I am a coward, and did not search with him. Now I’m all alone, in a house running short on supplies. Any neighbors left knocked on my door and called out saying a bus was there, ready to transport any survivors to a safe zone. In my grief I did not listen, now I am trapped in this town and I can hear the raiders whispering to each other, going down each house to pick it clean. The screams the echo night and day tell me others were like me in this foolish decision.

Night is falling, now would be a good time to search the supermarket for supplies. As I pack up and get ready to leave, I hear something bang on my door. I freeze, my backpack is empty and I am armed only with a heat treated bamboo stick I use for martial arts. It’d stand no real chance against a gun or a mamono, but I’d much rather go down swinging. Fortunately, I was on the second floor when I heard the knock, and peaked through the blinds and looked down at the door.

Standing at the door were what looked to be a Harpy and a Holstaur. The Harpy and Holstaur frantically banged at the door again, and while I was savvy enough to know this could’ve been bait for a raider group, their banging would attract a larger group of raiders one way or another. Maybe I could take them on, neither Harpies nor Holstaurs are particularly strong mamono races. I rushed down the stairs and quickly opened the door, they wasted no time practically diving into the room.

As they turned to face me I raised my stick in defense, but instead of saying anything they frantically pointed behind me. Cautiously turning around and looking through the glass on the door, I saw lights emanating from behind the house across the street. I could only assume they were coming from raiders. Two were clearly human, but one, judging from the lower part of the silhouette seemingly extending to the ground, was a Lamia.

I turned back to the Harpy and Holstaur. They were both on their knees, the Holstaur in tears and the Harpy mouthing ‘please’ over and over again. They couldn’t be raiders looking this desperate. I quickly ushered them to my basement, and after moving an empty shelf, into a storage space from behind a door. I followed them in.

The storage space wasn’t very tall but rather long, having to crawl on your hands and knees to get around, with old carpet pieces covering rock wool asbestos and regular asbestos insulation. But for all the hell it’d do to my lungs it was just as good as hiding me, for Raiders, thank God, never seemed to check it. Granted I figured I got luck with the first time, as there wasn’t a shelf I spent an entire day bringing down to cover the door.

The Harpy suddenly spoke, “Thank you! Thank you so much.” She said in a sobbing whisper.

“Yes, if you hadn’t taken us in, they might’ve had their way with us- or worse.” The Holstaur said.

“Do you know them?”

“We-we were with them for a while.” The Holstaur says, as soon as she sees me raising my stick she quickly puts her wings up. “We just thought they were a group of survivors like us-then they started robbing people and killing the ones who fought back.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“We’ve been running from them for days, but they’re always hot on our trail. I think one of them even said they were going to eat us.” The Harpy said, causing the Holstaur to start sobbing, “I hate to bring this on you but, you’ll protect us right?”

<p class="MsoNormal">I simply stared at her dumbfounded. Why would she trust me, a mere stranger, to protect them? I was armed and trained, but a coward. “I don’t think I can. I didn’t even have it in me to look for my parents and brother when they went missing.”

<p class="MsoNormal">The Holstaur broke down, but the Harpy looked deep into my eyes “Have you been on your own for a while?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“A few weeks.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Then maybe you might not be strong, but you got to have some wit if you’ve lasted this long. This is the heart of raider territory after all.”

<p class="MsoNormal">My jaw dropped, “Are you serious?” How could that be, I knew the other houses were raided every few days, mine included, but this was at the heart of a raider territory? It was mostly silent for days, granted that might’ve been the raider and other survivors including myself hiding from the blistering heat, but I must’ve been incredibly lucky if I hadn’t been caught during my nightly runs to the grocery store.

<p class="MsoNormal">Granted I think that luck just rain out, as we all heard the front door open. It felt like we were all holding our breath as we heard them above us. From our position I could tell they were going through the kitchen, taking whatever food I had left. Two sets of footsteps and what sounded like something being dragged all but confirmed the raiders were two people and a Lamia.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I can smell them, taste them.” I heard a feminine voice say, the hard wood and asbestos above us hardly muffling them.

<p class="MsoNormal">“You sure about that?” A masculine voice says.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Where else could they’ve gone? We’ve checked most of the houses.” Another masculine voice says, “Come on May, show us where they are, I want chicken wings and milk tonight.”

<p class="MsoNormal">The Harpy and Holstaur let out a muffled whimper.

<p class="MsoNormal">May giggled, “You know if you want milk you could always ask me.”

<p class="MsoNormal">They quickly made their way down the stairs, and soon I could hear them from in front of the shelf.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Lamia suddenly started gagging, “Fuck! It taste like pure death here! False alarm boys, I think I just stumbled upon something rotting.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“How do you mix up the scents of a Harpy and Holstaur and something dead? Is your Jacobson’s Organ even smaller than your tits?”

<p class="MsoNormal">I heard the a loud bang as the door rattled, “Shut your fucking-hey! Check it out!” I heard the shelf being shoved aside, though judging from the sound, it more so fell apart. “Looks like we found a secret door boys!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Remind me to make fun your tits more often.” A slap echoed from outside.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Isn’t this where you tasted the rot?” The other voice asks. “What good could a rotting carcass have?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Treasures. Shit to sell.” A voice barely managing to hide his pain said.

<p class="MsoNormal">“A meal.” The feminine voice, whom I assumed was May, said. The other two gagged.

<p class="MsoNormal">Everything seemed to slow down as, even in the darkness of the room, I saw the door knob turn. In that moment I turned to face the two monster girls. While the Holstaur looked like she was about to cry, the Harpy was giving me a look of determination, as if she believed in me.

<p class="MsoNormal">As soon as the door was fully open and the three of them shined their flashlight in, Holstaur let out an ear piercing scream that caused us all to jump, but them more so. I threw the asbestos rocks into May’s face, some of the tiny pebbles getting into her agape mouth. She immediately collapsed on the floor, coughing and dry heaving.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Harpy and I charged out and I gave a hard swing to the man on May’s left. I felt sick to my stomach as I felt the impact and heard his skull crack, but gave it no mind. The Harpy delivered a high kick to the other man’s face, her talons slicing it into sections of three. We grabbed the Holstaur and ran out of the house, the Harpy directing us the school only a few blocks away.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I thought you said this was Raider territory?” I asked. She just told me to keep running.

<p class="MsoNormal">Making it to the school I noticed it was heavily fortified with a large barricade topped with barbed wire, and the entrance was blocked by a check point with a military patrol. How I never noticed this was beyond me, as even though I always took shortcuts to the grocery store, I’m going to beat myself up for years now knowing that a military barricade was just outside my street.

<p class="MsoNormal">While the military men stopped us, the Harpy quickly explained the situation and they let us in after checking us for weapons, meaning I lost my now blood spattered stick.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I thought you said this was Raider territory?” I repeated once we were shepherded to a common room made out of one of the classrooms.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Well…I lied.” The Harpy said, rubbing the back of her head with a wing. “But hey, look at what we just did! We managed to get out of that awful situation and see, you’re not a coward after all!”

<p class="MsoNormal">While I was initially stung by her lie, her words stuck with me as I reflected on what happened and realized that she was right. We stayed for a few days, and I learned that while there were raiders prowling about, the military unit here was in short supply, and regularly needed people to go out to look for food, ammo, medicine, practically everything.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Harpy, whom I later learned was named Grace, volunteered me after learning I was one of the few people who knew this neighborhood well and was adept and evading Raiders. She, of course, accompanied me, the Holstaur however, whom was named Belle, would stay behind and take care of the children.

<p class="MsoNormal">These searches with Grace have drawn us closer to each other, and have helped in giving me more courage. Soon, when I have enough supplies of my own, Grace and I are going to look for my family.