A Heavy Price

Just a week ago there were four of us, a small band of survivors in the dissolving mess of this town, Kyle and his girlfriend were the first to fall. Kyle openly carrying a rifle was taken down by two shots to the chest, Katie was killed moments later as she tried to save Kyle from the inevitable. Both held hands as they bled to death together, Josh was captured by the killers, a gang of thugs who had no trouble overpowering Josh. Binding his hands and feet they took him away to their hideout to torture and eventually kill him when they got bored of toying with him. Had I left the safety of the house we had ventured out from then my fate would have been little different but in their delight at finding someone to slowly torture to death they didn’t suspect anyone else was watching. While they took Josh away with them, rage consumed me and I became something very different in this abandoned and hopeless world.

Out here the biggest danger was from stalkers, lone wolves that exist and hunt alone, the reason I feared them so much was that until a few weeks ago, I was one. Stalking prey through the barren wastelands of the houses and streets of this place, until they finally made a small mistake and without any warning the stalker would strike. Shadowing the gang back to their hideout they happened across a girl, ruthlessly they robbed and beat her, watching as I was about to leave them to kill her when her screams changed. Having taken all she owned they were about to take her dignity from her, as one guy held her down the other started to remove her trousers. Her petrified screams as a group of four tackled a lone girl and I couldn’t walk away from that and the first warning that the four thugs got that they were being watched was as my first shot found a home.

My first round buried itself into the chest of the man trying to remove her trousers, giving just enough time for his assistant holding her hands to look straight into my second shot as it smashed it’s way through his head. Their two comrades now showered in their fallen friends' blood soon made a hasty retreat while the girl laid on the floor screaming in both fear and utter confusion. Slowly I made my way to her side to help her up and give her back what little dignity she had left, initially scared once the adrenaline fell away she cried and thanked me for saving her. Introducing herself as Anja, like me she was now being driven purely by revenge, they had taken a heart shaped locket from her and Anja was determined to reclaim it at any cost. While the gang fled with Josh and the locket we began to pick our way through the largely dead town to their hideout at an old theme park just outside of the town.

During the day this town was foreboding but at night it was truly haunting and terrifying, solar power made the town eerie at night and kept lights flickering in the gloom of the darkness. These odd glimmers of hope were an almost constant reminder of the formerly bustling life of the now almost dead town. Thugs now rule this slowly eroding wasteland of hopes and dreams, formerly home to around twelve thousand but now maybe just a hundred or so survivors battling to just exist in this desolate place. Every house and street was home to voices and sounds that were just memories now, joy was non-existent and terror ruled above all else. Gangs were the sole source of power now and they wrought havoc upon anyone they targeted as they controlled the dust in the gloomy shadows of this once happy place.

Together we slowly shadowed the gang back towards the old theme park, moving through houses filled with glimpses and signs of past happiness but now slowly being turned to grey with ever falling dust. Driven equally by revenge we slowly stalked the gang through the town, moving cautiously not to give away our presence, like predators hunting our prey we planned our strike with precision. Periodic joy was a byproduct of stalking, as nerves overcame our prey and fear got the better of them especially when they were alone against the blackness of the night. Hours passed as we stayed in the shadows and found ourselves at the front of the old theme park and the home of the thugs we would be slaying during the following evening. Hidden away in the attic of a nearby home we watched over what was once a source of happiness and excitement but now a slowly decaying and derelict home for torture, death and sheer terror.

Watching from a window we could see the gang toying with Josh, beating him and attaching him to the ferris wheel so that they could mess with him freely. However deep his cries of pain cut into me, I couldn’t take a shot and risk giving ourselves up, we wouldn’t stand a chance if we let a bullet fly. Knowingly we were unlikely to be alone out here, other stalkers would be around and just as likely to take us down as the gang would be once they knew our location from the single sound of that one shot. Turning away I threw up as the leader of the gang took a sledgehammer to Josh’s legs, his cries soon stopped as they grew to be bored of toying with him and just caved his skull in with that hammer. Dangling lifelessly above a pool of his own blood, my drive to avenge him grew even greater and Anja was just as willing to die as me this evening. Patiently we both waited for dusk to descend and darkness would gift us the only hope we had to overcome the might of this powerful but stupid group of miscreants.

Sunlight was fading as we began to scoot around the outer limits of the theme park, lurking amongst the shadows and the gloom of night as the gang played with the hanging corpse of Josh. Like a pack of dogs they messed around with him, hitting a lifeless body with bats and kicking it just to savour that one moment as his life fell away from him. Rage was simmering within me as we slipped past them to make our way to the head man's getaway hideout at the far end of the park. After all the fun rides that were in the park at the far end was a fun house where the gang's leader reserved solely for himself, away from the safety and protection of his slaves here is where we would both seek our revenge. Possibly the most ironic setting for both a battle to the death and the home of a psychotic and degenerate leader who saw rape, torture and death as entirely normal.

Watching him from the shadows we patiently watched as he sent his henchmen away, fear had never entered the mind of this man as he proudly twirled Anja’s heart shaped locket round in the air. Anja’s eyes followed every single motion of that locket as he carelessly shoved it into his pocket and entered the fun house oblivious to the danger he now found himself in. Wrapping the muzzle of my gun to deaden the sound if I needed to unleash its lethal fury upon his skull Anja however merely had a knife to bear down upon her foe. Skulking through the darkness and in silence we found the rear entrance to the fun house and quietly entered to meet our fate, whatever the outcome we would both live or die together.

Carefully we began to quest for our vengeance, moving slowly but silently through the rear portion of the building, pausing and laying on our stomachs everytime we heard a vaguely ominous sound. Careless footsteps above us revealed the location of our foe, delicately Anja ascended a rope ladder and offered me her hand to help me follow in suiting style. Moving slowly through a hall of mirrors the silence kept our pulses racing and our palms sweaty when a moving shadow in a mirror set our minds into a downward spiralling terror. Anja went to the ground and rolled to the side and tucked herself against a wall as tight as she could, I knelt down and tucked myself into a corner. Adrenaline surging through me filled me with sheer terror as quiet thuds warned us both that the shadow was stalking us in the blacklight illuminated room. Anja had vanished into blackness but my exposed stomach was glowing deep blue with the petrifying light being cast from those bulbs, anxiously waiting for the shadow to appear in the doorway as we both made ready for the fight of our lives.

Suddenly and without warning a heavy impact hit my skull and a large piece of cloth was forced into my mouth, falling forwards as the impact drove me face first to the ground. Violently shuddering as my head was pulled back with extreme force but the cloth muffled any screams or shouting I could have even thought to let out. A sinister and menacing grin illuminated in deep blue as my assailant forced me to the ground and rolled me onto my back. That piece of cloth wrapped around me so tightly that I could barely breathe as like a python he pulled that soft noose ever tighter and with each twist that of his smirk grew larger. Against the blackness of the room his now glowing teeth and eyes were a haunting reminder that I was now the prey and with a single blow he had taken any chance I had to fight him off.

Pinning me in place his hand began to wander down to my crotch and he let out a single sadistic chuckle as he found the fly of my trousers. Chilling me to the bone as he grimaced “The other one would have been better but you will do” in a deep and terrifying voice, my muffled cries were unheard by anyone but me. Slowly he began to trying removing my trousers with an ever deepening grin and chuckle as he now purely sought to add insult to injury and seal his victory before he no doubt would torture and kill me. Looming over me he leaned down to take a look at my fearful face when suddenly a drip landed on my forehead. Letting out a gasp he rose back up as drops began to rain down across my face and chest, his eyes became wider and his mouth began to gasp for air as I noticed a blade poking out of his throat.

Keeling back up he tilted his head back to take a look at his killer only to find Anja ready to drive the knife back into his chest. Anja threw him aside and rolled him over and sat upon his chest watching him clasp at his throat as she rummaged through his pockets to claim her prize. Dangling that heart shaped locket over his wide and transfixed eyes, she leaned down and whispered something into his ear before sitting back up and driving that blade straight into his heart. Leaning down she pressed her nose against his and grinning wildly as she twisted the blade and watched his last signs of life fade away.

Lifeless hands told Anja she had successfully sought her revenge and she came to help me back to my feet so that we could make our hasty but silent retreat into the darkness. Dwelling amongst the gloom together both fulfilled by avenging our fallen loved ones and lived to stalk for just one more day in this dying world.