Pandemic!

Chapter one

     Felix opened his eyes and stretched before flicking on the lamp next to his cot. He grabbed blindly for his glasses, and pushed his frizzy red hair out of his face.

"Lola?" he whispered, still half-asleep, "Lola, what's on the radio?"

      His vision cleared as he adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses on his face, and he could see the silhouette of his twin sister, sitting on her cot,  hunched over the radio.

"Lo-"

"Shh!" she interrupted, adjusting the knob on the small, hand-crank radio, "I'm just getting a signal!"

     The radio buzzed and beeped before a muffled voice was finally audible over the static.

"Atlanta, this is 97.1 AM, It is 10:30 A.M., on August 14, 3035. This is Minnie G., your creeper-reaper seeker. creepy count since last night is zero, they seem to be dying out. Prime looting hours. Watch out for loomers, they've still got rays for days. keep your 'ogglers and musk masks on and your laser-daggers handy, unless you wanna wander." The voice began repeating the message, but could not finish before Lola tossed the radio down and pulled on her tall socks and lace-up boots. 

"Lo', if you're going out-"

"I intend to," Lola said, pulling on an old, moth-eaten flannel shirt over her equally moth-eaten tee-shirt, "I need to find Minnie."

"I'm going with you," Felix said, fumbling for his boots.

Lola clipped her belt, and double checked that her ray gun and laser-dagger were in their holsters on either side of her waist. She tightened her brass goggles over her eyes and adjusted the straps of her gas mask.

"Better get ready then," she said, tying her hair up with an old scrap of fabric, "I'm heading out soon."

Felix found his old leather satchel, and in it were his brass goggles and his gas mask, still wrapped up in the bandana Lola had brought them back to the bunker in. they hadn't been used since Lola snatched them off of a wanderer the first time she ventured out of the bunk. That was the first of many missions down to Peach Tree Ave. Jericoh, a friend of hers, had set up a loot shop in the botanical garden, where Lola would go to pick up extra provisions and supplies, and encounter the occasional wanderer, whom she would bully and steal from.

It didn't matter either way, as the wanderers often couldn't fight back or otherwise didn't care enough to.

    Felix pulled on his well-worn, patched up denim jacket, and attached his ray gun to his leather belt. He tightened his mask and pulled his goggles down over his glasses. He slipped an extra laser round in his bag and fastened the buckle back. Lola tossed him a helmet, which had been modified to accommodate the smallish, round goggles and bulky masks. She pulled the same kind of helmet on, and forced open the first layer of bunker doors, and held them open, only long enough for Felix to join her in the tight space between the two layers.

"I'm going to grab my bike first, and check for creeps. When I give the all-clear, grab your bike and close the doors. J and J rigged them so I can lock them remotely," Lola said, banging her elbow on the wall next to her, causing it to open to the cabinet where the dirt bikes were.

"Won't the bikes make noise and attract creeps or looters?" Felix asked in a whisper, as Lola grabbed her black dirt bike and turned the heavy lock on the door on the ceiling of the tight room.

"No," Lola said, "J used a laser sound diffuser he snatched off a dub' to make the engine silent." 

Lola pulled the sliding door ajar, and poked her head out, sitting on her bike for height. She wrapped her legs around the bike and pulled herself up and out of the hole with her bike, and disappeared for a moment before returning to give the all-clear. Felix grabbed the bright orange bike out of the cupboard and handed it up to her, careful not to make any noise. He hoisted himself out of the hole, and for the first time since 3025, he saw daylight.