The Fallout

Tremor, son of Aires, had finally caught up to the high disciples of Hades. His horde of war-mother descended on the city of Quanox with war's fury.

The city was not far from the Dunn farm, in fact, they lived on the outskirts of it

Tremor and a band of twelve war mothers descended on the city, and they tore it apart, searching for the disciples of Hades who had secretly taken control of the city disguised as wealthy merchants.

The war-mothers snuffed them out but the disciples had with them their armada hidden in plain sight, legion of terror soldiers.

Underneath the city, they had hidden three war machines. War machines were gray giants, reinforced with steel and metal parts to foster their durability and advanced technology embedded into their brains for greater precision. They are a hundred times more powerful than regular gains or titans.

At their heart was a core that powered them, fueling them with hell's fire. They kept their taste for human flesh despite not needing to consume any.

They could be anywhere from three hundred to a thousand feet tall, and they spewed hell's fire from their mouths and her long gray arms with fists the size of a building.

The giant war machines broke from the ground, causing earthquakes and deadly tremors, killing thousands in the process.

The resulting battle resulted in the war-mothers and Tremor slaying most of the disciples and completely annihilating their entire army. The war mothers had destroyed the war machines, with a few falling to them as well.

With the disciples facing defeat, they resorted to their last attack, using the core of the already falling war machines, turning it into a bomb by compressing hell's fire to a point, collapsing it on itself, and leaving it to explode.

The blast decimated the entire city bringing everything to ash in a matter of seconds. The blast spread beyond the city and wiped out people in the surrounding areas, even completely wiping out the Dunn farm.

Lucky enough they had made their way out of the farm before it hit. Mrs. Dunn had had a premonition, and Mr. Dunn never took her visions for granted; he packed what they could, and they all left all six of the m, including their dogs.

The farm and their harvest, everything was completely vaporized, what took years to create and nurture wiped out like it never existed in a flash.

Few war mothers and Tremor survived the blast; they discovered It had only been a decoy for the remaining disciples to escape.

Tremor was particularly disgusted at the whole thing; he trembled with a deep hatred for Hades.

"They're too scared to die for what they believe, but willing to kill as many as they please to keep it so, what cowards"

He screamed to the skies, through his golden skull.

"Where are you, hades? Look what your dogs have done!"

*****

After a couple of months, Mrs Dunn fell sick. It had become very difficult to find food; they couldn't stay around their city anymore; the fall out from hell's fire was twisting, warping the place, and it mutated people into hideous things.

There was nothing left to eat, they had run out of pets and horses. They journeyed far into the borders of the first hell. Where else could they go?

At least in hell, there was hope of getting something to eat, and if you got through it, you would make it to the other side. There was a city there, and they could all start a new life.

He had been watching Estish; she now seemed distant. They had all been quiet recently, but she seemed even more so like she had something on her mind that made her sadder.

He knew all her dreams for a perfect life were gone; the wedding, the farm, the two kids, and a dog all vaporized to nothing. He had nothing to offer her anymore.

He had noticed her sneaking off when they laid down for the night; he followed her once and caught her talking to herself. What seemed even stranger to him was that she spoke like she was in conversation with someone else, asking questions and reacting to the replies.

He could clearly see she was alone and he didn't want to believe she had gone crazy. She would speak with such glee in her eyes like the ones from before the fallout, like the ones those years back when he first met her, and that made him cry.

He didn't want to see her lose that, so he never spoke about it, and he knew he couldn't give her such happiness.

Mr Dunn had been somber recently, but he had taken to making jokes every now and then, to liven up the mood, but every time he did, it seemed disingenuous.

They could tell Mr Dunn was forcing it. But he appreciated what Mr Dunn was doing, he was fighting, trying to stay strong, trying to smile for them.

*********

"No, we can't!" Mr Dunn said, shaking his head with eyes full of tears. "No, we can't eat her."

He and Estiah said nothing. Estiah kept a strong face; she had no tears. She just looked at the body. He had tears and he broke down crying. They were all standing by the corpse of Mrs Dunn. She had succumbed to her illness the night before.

They all looked shrunken and ragged, their faces revealed their bones and were brown from the sun and dust of the wastelands. Their eyes were sunken and their lips crispy.

"Dad! We have to," Estiah said with a cold intensity. He turned to her in shock

"Come on Estiah, it's your mother "

She kept the strong look, he eyes had turned red and she tried to hold back the tears, it felt bitter to say but she said it anyway,

"It's what she would have wanted, she wanted us to survive."

" But?"Mr Dunn muttered.

"Get real already with can't make it out here if you two cry over eating horses and puppies"

"What are you talking about? This is your mother, not a puppy. We can't do this to her"

"Why don't you get it! What haven't we eaten? It's not the first time we'll be eating a corpse, is it, Dad? We ate that mutant. A bloody mutant! And you're complaining over this, this is..." She calmed herself and spoke in a lower tone, "You said we'd do anything to survive."

"Stop twisting my words Estiah!"He yelled." at least speak with a bit of compassion, this is your mother we're talking about here. I don't know what gotten into you"

He looks away from her, turning towards the wastelands of hell. Estiah walked off.

Mr Dunn turned to him and said

Hey, son, let's go bury her.

************

They got some shovels and started digging deep into the dry, hot earth of the wastelands, out in the heat and amongst the putrid air.

They had eaten their horses and now they pulled their own cartridge. They were planning to trade it when they made it to the next city, but it was still too far, and they had to pull it all day, every day.

They were exhausted, and when they dug a shallow grave shy of three feet, they were tired.

"Come on, son, let's bury her here. He said in a tired and weary tone

"Really like this?" he said. "Wouldn't trolls dig her up?"

He sighed in frustration seeing the reason in his words,

"Alright, come on, let's dig a little more."

So they dug to somewhere just above five feet, and they got the body. When they manage to put the body in the grave, Mr Dunn felt tired and exhausted, he felt he'll die, he turns to him and says in a defeated tone,

"Do we have any rations left?"

"No"

His stomach grumbled

"Do we have any firewood or hay?"

"Yes"

He dropped his head into his hand and cried a little then he whispered under his breath, "Forgive me, Melissa."

He raised his head up and said to him, "Go get the wood."

"What?" He was confused, then Mr Dunn said,

"I figure if we burn her well enough, it wouldn't be so bad, you know. It wouldn't look like her much, so it wouldn't feel as bad eating her."

Mr Dunn's words sent chills down his spine. For the first time since that rainy day, he felt scared of him. He backed away from him but his back hit the walls of the grave then Mr Dunn yelled at him,

"What are you still doing, yar boy? Go, go get it and tell Estiah to come eat."

As he ran away from the grave, he thought of her. Mr Dunn now seemed so much like the people he grew up with, so much like his parents, so much like the lord, and that terrified him.