Special Thanks:
Sorry this took longer than expected guys
Stuff came up lol
Higanbana milk tea by Vane
Oh mY gOsh guys- (it's me the editor) I'm yeeting my new favorite series at you it's called Good Omens (100/10 recommend peeple watch the series; it's a helluva good show) okay happy reading :)
Sorry if my descriptions of churches or the south aren't accurate, I'm not christian and only seen the south from an airplane but I assume it's just the midwest but everyone's russian
Anyway lets fucking start!
Chapter Four - Blaise
Alena drives and we travel on together, under the blue sky for some time. I gaze out the open window and I let the warm breeze run past my face and the car, until I snap to attention as the sun is blotted out by a dramatic shadow, and the sound of the wind is replaced by that of a giant motor running, and... music. At least I assume it's music, the presumed song is in Russian, but it's so distorted that I can't quite make out what is being said.
"Alena what the fuck is that?" I ask
She pokes her head out the window and the car swerves.
"Eyes on the road!" I order, shoving my own head outside the window instead.
"Hit the gas." I demand, my eyes growing wide, checking twice to see if my vision had fooled me.
"What is it?" She asks.
"Helicopters, a whole fleet of them." I hiss, clambering around the car, desperately searching for the pistol.
"How? I thought bandits didn't come this far north!" She stresses, swerving the car again past an abandoned motorbike left in the road.
"I don't KNOW, try and find somewhere to escape them!" I yelp, grabbing the dash and her seat as we swerve. I squint ahead of us to see the ruins of a church in the distance.
"Keep going!" I shout, Alena seems to have seen the same I had. She makes a sharp turn, hits the gas, and starts speeding towards the church. The helicopter's path leads straight over the church from the opposite direction. I could hear the music getting louder and louder.
"I don't think we're going to make it!" She yells.
"We have to!" I shout back. "HIT THE GAS- RAM THROUGH THE FUCKING WALLS IF YOU HAVE TO- WE'RE MAKING IT."
Alena seems to take it and snap into focus, racing full speed towards the church, safely breaking at the last minute possible. We run through the front doors and slam them closed. Alena sits on the floor and I lean on a bench.
"What do we do now?" She asks, catching her breath.
"Wait for the helicopters to get bored of waiting and go away I guess." I sigh, muttering back, realizing that we left all our equipment in the car. We'll just have to wait 'em out. Eventually night falls and the sounds of the helicopters rotors fade away. We search around the church for resources and manage to find some blankets and water.
"Do you think we should set up camp here?" Alena asks when I return from checking to see that the car was safe and functioning.
"Sure." I say, tossing her the keys.
"This place looks really old, do you wonder if it's from before the war?" She wonders, studying the walls.
"It's so old I'd assume it was all like this before the war."
"No, I mean the great war. The one against the machines." She says, clearing her throat carefully after saying "machines" like one might appear at the mention.
"Oh. What do you think it was like before? The old world." I peer thoughtfully.
"Free- I suppose..." She says after some thought.
"It must have been amazing. They say back then people could cross the oceans all the time." I comment, setting down my sleeping bag.r's down about a foot away from mine. We lay for a minute.
"I heard they used to be able to send people into orbit." Alena says, staring out a stained glass window which disorients the stars outside into colorful dim shining swirls. I pause and glance at her, then sigh and shake my head, slightly smiling.
"I doubt that's true. I'm gonna get some rest now; you should too." I say. My sleeping bag rustles and I turn, shifting away from her. I close my eyes and before I know it, it's the morning. The sound of helicopter blades has been replaced with birds singing in the breeze. I wake Alena and we head outside. We're packing our stuff back into our bags when I hear Alena mutter something.
"Huh?" I say.
"What's that?" Alena asks as she points to a large concrete platform near the church.
"I dunno." I say, suddenly looking at her and smirking. "Wanna go check it out?"
She snorts and runs off. I run after her and we race and shout all the way. On closer inspection it looks like some kind of trapdoor or bunker entrance. I lift the heavy door by one of its rusted iron handles and see a stairway leading down into darkness.
"I'm going down there." Alena says impulsively. I look at her like she's crazy. She sort of is.
"There could be some food or supplies!" She explains when she sees my face. I sigh. Logic enough. We descend into the darkness. When we reach the bottom of the stairs a dull light flickers on.
"Holy hell."
I have no idea which one of us said it, but we both were thinking the same.
Before us is a room that could be described as any traveler's treasure trove. Rifles line the walls and there are piles of body armor and preserved food and water. We grin at each other which quickly turns to fear as we both stand up straight.
"Hands up." A voice comes from behind us.
We both put our hands in the air and slowly turn around. I can tell Alena's trying to stay still but she's shaking. As we turn I shuffle slightly in front of her. Before us stands a woman wearing a padded coat and gasmask holding a shotgun.
"I bet you bandit fuckers thought you could sneak in under our noses and not get caught."
"We're not bandits!" I hiss at her defensively, trying, and clearly failing to sound calm. We were not dying somewhere where we'd never see the sun.
"Really?" The woman asks sarcastically.
"You're talking about the people in the helicopters right? They were chasing us earlier." Alena stutters, offering an explanation. I nod, backing her up.
"Well you should've known better than to go for a joyride in the middle of no-man's land." The woman retorts, scolding us.
"We didn't know- We're not from here!" I argue back.
"Well thats pretty fucking obvious. Come with me, I'll take you to the nearest rest station." She sighs, leading us away.
"Why would you help us?" I block Alena from following, the woman looks back to see us unmoved.
"I don't want your deaths weighing on my conscience. My name's Lili." She says, offering a hand. I look back at Alena and she shrugs. I shake Lili's hand.
"Blaise." I reply.
"Alena." She nods from behind me.
We grab supplies from the bunker and Lili leads us to her vehicle, a beat up pick-up truck. I hop in the back and we start driving. However I soon hear a faint sound in the distance, not helicopter blades but horses hooves.
Suddenly Lili shouts "Get down!" and I see what looks like a dozen people on horseback, wearing white body armor and holding rifles. I pat my backpack to realize I never found where I put the pistol.
"Give me your gun!" I call to Lili.
"You sure you can hit 'em?" She shouts back.
"It's our only shot!" I say, probably with less confidence than she'd like. Nonetheless, Lili reluctantly hands me the shotgun. I fire once, hitting a man in the chest. A few bullets whiz at the car but the shots miss me. I fire again and the horses scatter. Only a few of them are still chasing us, and one more shot is enough for them to decide to find someone easier to rob.
"Nice shot, kid." Lili teases from the front. Alena punches my shoulder lightly.
"Thanks." I say, grinning.
We arrive at the rest station just as I see a train pulling away, most of the train cars empty, or only with two people inside.
"Where are you two headed?" Lili asks as we exit her car. I go around to the front. I pull out our map, open it across the front of the car, and show her the path Alena and I had made.
"Looks like we're heading in the same direction." Lili grins at us. We smile back and head up to the station. It's pretty much quiet after we take our seats as we wait in silence until the next train pulls in. We board it and set out on the next leg of our journey.
End of Chapter Four