The Salvation

Chapter 3

|Felicia|

The sun was hardly shining, it's dull rays battling the thick brown clouds to break through. Brown was the dominant colour in this new world, the ground was brown, the sky was brown and the plants were brown. Felicia remembered all the beautiful green grass, the flowers Candice had planted in every corner of the town and the beautiful trees that would grow fruits in the Spring, be a gorgeous green in the Summer and litter the ground with colourful leaves in Autumn. The plants were dead, the grass replaced by cracked and rocky brown ground and the trees were just tall husks, their bark falling from the trees. The sky had no blue, only the thick clouds blocking the sun and everything behind them.

Felicia looked at all the houses. They were wrecked, still standing, yet wrecked. The paint all chipped and peeling, bullet holes covering the surface of each house in a sad pattern of death and broken windows. The cars were trashed (if not destroyed) and on the ground there were thousands of spent bullets. Felicia held back her horror when she saw the first body. It was a man's, a soldiers. He wore a uniform unknown to her. Then she saw a neighbours decaying body. And when she walked passed Candice Houda's house, she saw the gossipy woman on the porch with a broken wine glass tightly gripped by her bony fingers, the skin hanging tightly.

Felicia turned to her own house, the pretty green one she decorated with Melanie Brown, the skinny blonde woman she shared coupons with and went shopping when both their husbands were looking after the kids. The paint was pale and peeling from the house, the bullet holes left visible peep-holes from the outside and all of the work she had done with sweet Melanie Brown had been destroyed. Felicia tried to open the gate, but at her touch it fell from its hinges to the ground. She walked in, Joshua struggling to free himself from her arms.

Felicia had dressed in a black singlet top with denim jeans, sneakers and her favourite chocolate-coloured cardigan, but she intended to find more of her clothes. Inside was just as disappointing. The furniture looked decent, despite being ripped and dirty with the occasional bullet hole. Her kitchen was trashed, the appliances fried and all the food rotting, apart from the preservatives. She made a note to come back for them. When she flicked the light switch all she got in response was an embarrassing excuse for a spark and then the bulb burst, if it hadn't already. Upstairs was another mess. Her bedroom was messy and wardrobe filled with dirty, ripped or disintegrating clothes. The children's room was the same issue. In the bathroom there was a dangerous amount of shattered porcelain, so Felicia didn't bother going in and risking a cut.

Outside, Andrew tied Shale to a light post and carried Kersti around, inspecting the town. It was deserted. Felicia stepped out of her house, not bothering to close the door. The town was desolate and littered with bodies. It seemed they were the last people alive. Malcolm emerged from his house with another bag. His face was long and annoyed, a familiar sight in regards to Malcolm Howard, yet this time Felicia suspected he actually had an excuse to look like an angry old man all the time. In his hand was an unopened bottle of whiskey that managed to survive the scuffle. It was dirty and the label had vanished through the grime, but the glass bottle still held together rather well.

Malcolm waited for Andrew to before he pulled the lid off. "So anything else down there?" Malcolm asked as he took a hearty swig from his bottle.

"No... Just death and destruction... I seen a wild dog, but it didn't see me." Andrew informed, taking the bottle from Malcolm to drink some. "Felicia, Melanie Brown and that other woman, what was her name? Doesn't matter, they're both gone."

"Gone as in left? Or are they gone gone?" Felicia asked, hopeful.

"Gone." Andrew answered sadly. Felicia didn't reply, but instead took the bottle from Andrew (as Kersti tried to reach for it) and took a sip of the whiskey. It burned her throat as it went down and she coughed, but it helped. "Anyway, I had thought I'd seen a tank, but it was an M1127 Recon Vehicle, similar to the ones we drove a few years back." Andrew spoke mainly to Malcolm now.

"So the military was here... Why would they leave a vehicle like that behind?" Malcolm asked.

"I'm not sure, I didn't get too close but if it's empty then I think I could get it going again with my tools."

Felicia rose her eyebrows. "Don't count on the tools Andrew, most of our things are stuffed." Felicia said. "But we've got a few packets of food that's still in date and may of survived?"

Andrew cussed under his breath and handed Kersti to Felicia. Felicia carried the babies inside their house and placed them on the floor, trapping them in the lounge room. Malcolm joined her, and he bought Shale in with him. Andrew was out in the shed, digging for whatever tools he needed. Felicia rummaged through the cub boards and pulled out some chips, a packet of biscuits and generally anything that hadn't expired. The food tasted bland, but it was still food.

When Andrew returned, his face was red and he frowned angrily. He wore a pair of black cargo shorts, dark steel capped boots, a white t-shirt and a black and white bomber jacket. Andrew dropped onto the lounge, nearly breaking it, and sat back to let Shale jump up onto him. After a good five minutes of silence and eating, Shale began to growl. Felicia sat up and gulped. The German Shepard jumped off Andrew and began towards the door. Malcolm reached into his bag and pulled out a handgun, the one he often made certain to show off. It was an FNX 45 in a colour Malcolm said was 'Flat Dark Earth'. Shale approached the door, now with Andrew by his tail and Malcolm peering through the window.

Felicia stood back with the babies, but could see what stirred Shale. Outside were two scraggy, bone thin, wild dogs picking at the scraps of people left behind. Andrew opened the front door and Shale sprinted out, Malcolm behind him and Andrew behind him. Shale took one by surprise, but before the other could help his companion a gunshot rung through the town. Malcolm's shot was precise and hit the wild dog through the skull. Shale was on top of the other dog, easily overpowering it and then clamping his jaws over its throat. Shale ripped back and the wild animal was no more than just another corpse now.

Andrew brought Shale back inside, his muzzle wet with blood, yet the idiot dog remained as happy as ever. Felicia had always hated that about the dog, when she purposely punished him he'd still be cheery and happy afterwards and try so desperately for her love. Andrew was beaming at his dogs kill, playing with him and rolling him on his back for a belly rub. Felicia wanted to argue his reward for death, but she knew Shale's help was necessary. Malcolm came back inside, his gun now in the brim of his pants for ease of access.

"Perhaps we should move. It's not safe here." Malcolm suggested.

"We could make for the city? Closest one is about forty-five kilometres from here." Felicia said.

Malcolm nodded. "Could be a good idea, but there's some obstacles in the way..."

"Like what?" Felicia asked.

Malcolm shrugged and said, "That's the troubling part. I don't know." He coughed and sipped his whiskey. "Could be days before we reach the city, if we reach the city..."

"Than what other options do we have? We can't stay here!" Andrew added. "We could check surrounding towns?"

"We could that on our way to the city," Malcolm got up, "We'll be sleeping outside quite a bit..."

Felicia sighed and rolled her shoulders. "I'll pack a tent."