Broadcast Solitude

Year 2025.

8 am.

"This is Ethan Coleman, broadcasting a message for anyone out there, I have food and shelter, if anyone is out there, I can provide safety, I will be at the museum park every day at eight until noon,"

My voice rings harshly in my ears, I'm alone in a world full of nothing. One year back, the world still had life in it, and every living soul survived every single day, making a living.

I remember the bomb explosion; I remember hiding along with the general I was protecting… but his luck turned when he risked everything to save my ass, instead of allowing me to die saving him.

Year 2018.

The Bayonet Thrust base.

"Sir, we need to leave, something e-exploded…" Our hides shift backward, "Shit, I hope that wasn't the gas facility," I peek at him, helping him off the ground.

"Come on, we need to get you to safety," Green gas surrounds us within seconds, his coughing joins mine instantly, "No fuc-ing way are we dying here, come on, general, run!"

"What the fuc- is going on?" Our bodies slam against the icy tiles, "Not on my watch, Ethan, lift your ass," He throws me into a room, and soon after himself.

I peer at the general sliding against the wall, "Hold on, Ethan, you're getting out of here," I pant shifting my hide against the wall, "We're both getting out of h-here general, no man gets left b-behind,"

Every living creature and human died that day, those that hid, like me, survived. However, the general wasn't so lucky.

They evacuated the cities, but the gas spread faster than they could be safe, hordes of animals were released, chemicals on plants reacted along with the gas, causing a growth in plants and mutations in animals.

Before the world turned upside down, I was a marine; I kept the world safe; they trained me to fight in all kinds of war, but I guess the war I fight now… turned out different from I ever could have imagined.

Midday drags closer and I pack up, I live under strict rules for my safety, to explain how I ended alone isn't easy.

I hardly think about my loneliness, there isn't a point in trying, every single day of my life I live in the same routine, everything I do is to guarantee that I will make tomorrow…

Dealing with humans going crazy, mutating, turning into life's worse nightmare, Oh, let's not forget the mutated animals, mutated mother nature… mutated every-fuc-ing-thing.

Everything in this world grows larger every second. Who can stop mother nature from mutating and destroying everything build around it?

As for the mutated beings on Earth, nothing can stop their population from growling… and the facility that started this went down first, for being morons.

The buzzing of my watch rings a familiar sound in my ears, I lock the house down, and climb the attic uneasily, "Tomorrow is a new day,"

"Mama, papa," "Alfie, please, quiet down," I pluck him into a hug to safeguard him, but he keeps calling their names.

I pull up Alfie and lead to the window; we need an exit fast,

Alfie escapes my arms and yank the door open and before I can save him, mom is the first to grab him and everything shuts down around me…

I jerk my small dagger under my cushion and within moments, they all left dead…

I crouch down, puddles form on Alfie, my baby brother; gone… and I could not spare him.

My eyes join the alarm screaming on my watch… "Damn it," I swing my legs off the bed, stretching my muscles out.

I still remember the day they changed me, as if it happened yesterday… the little boy, their wooden hut. Everything plays in my mind like a movie each morning I wake.

I couldn't save them, I know I shouldn't blame myself, but the accident changed me… physically,

I pull myself on the door frame, exercising the stiff parts, the machinery they inserted in me, was to rebuild me, make me human again, but I always hated them…

I never approved of this… and I never will…

I shift comfortably on the chair listening to the radio's static, "Damn thing…" A small whimpering voice burst through whilst I play with the knob, I retrace the knob.

"Hello… is any… there?" I turn the knob and her voice becomes clearer, "Hello, is anyone… there?" "Hello… this is Ethan Coleman, where are you?"

Her panic voice stresses me, "This is Lixa Fond, I n-need h-help," I might save another life… "Where are you Lixa?" "I-I'm in the… m-mall,"

"I'm on my way, hold on,"

The road to the mall looks more confusing than before, the roads are looking like a jungle… I hope it's real this time, and not some hallucination like before…

I snatch my swords and exit the car, I throw them over my shoulders, "DAMN you," A mutated wolf flies through the mall glass, in the distance stands a figure…

Black long curls, thin figure "LIXA," Within seconds, she jumps from the window in a roll, and sprint toward me, "Come on,"

I follow her toward my old jeep, and she jumps inside, "What are you waiting for? Come on," I glance behind me at the mutated wolves, "Oh, shit,"

I sprint toward my jeep and jump in, "Drive…" One forces itself inside, I punch his nose, and he yanks back in a moan, I step on the pedal and drive away in speed.

I glance at her panic expression and on the road again, I can't go back home, they will follow me for sure, wolves are excellent trackers.

"Thanks, gosh, I didn't think anyone cared anymore…" I once again glance at her blue eyes scanning the chaotic jungle road, "Yeah, no problem, what were you doing there? Everyone knows they hide in the mall,"

She sighs, shifting herself, "I was scavenging," I handbrake the car around a corner to throw them off balance, "Scavenging, in the mall?"

She nods, glancing behind us every few seconds, "Damn, I think we lost them…" "Why were you scavenging the mall?" Her demanding blues gawk at me, "I don't know, Ethan, damn it, can you please stop asking me,"

"Okay, okay, sorry," "How long have you been alone? Surviving?" I glance at her, "One year," She snaps her attention on me, "M-me too…"

I glance at her every few seconds, to make sure she is real, being alone for so long… it feels uncomfortable.

I never thought this day would come where I save another life. Well, technically she saved her own life, I don't know why she called for help.

She threw a mutated wolf through a window. What kind of woman can do that? Maybe the kind like me…

Changed…