Room 111

I never understood how it could get this bad. It's 2090 and the streets are still filled with trash and debris, the sounds of constant metal clanking in the distance, and don't get me started on the air. The worst part of it all is the loneliness. My mother always warned me that it's safer to go alone. "Less noise, fewer people to worry about, and you can move faster" she used to say. But I'm 17 for god sake and I don't even know where I'm going. Not to mention having more people with me would make things easier. I'd have more protection and I wouldn't have to talk to myself like I'm doing right now.

Even if I were to go against what she said I wouldn't know where to find anyone else. I know I'm not the last one left in this wasteland but it sure feels like it. Most people are either too scared to come out of hiding which, I don't blame them. Or they're somewhere around the wasteland trying to survive. Going outside is a risk within itself anything could happen to you out here. The amount of things out here trying to kill you is ridiculous. I've been walking for what feels like forever and I haven't run into anything yet as I've been trying to stay quiet and cover more ground quickly. Every few hours I hear something near me, I stop dead in my tracks, hide and stay quiet until the noise disappears.

I don't have any weapons left they all broke after what happened, I'm pretty skilled in hand-to-hand combat but compared to how big all of these things are, I wouldn't stand a chance. So I play it safe I keep my backpack with me at all times and I have the basics in there. Food, decently clean water, and just small tools that help me. I also have my mother's journal, she was a very intelligent woman. She told me she used to live in a world before all of this, she said there was a time where streets were clean, there wasn't anything trying to kill you, and that it was complete heaven compared to how things are now. Every time I want to give up I think of her stories, She used to tell me about how you would go outside and see children playing and laughing. I giggle at the thought of that, seeing people genuinely happy and living without fear that's a future I want.

I realize it's getting dark I settle down and take my backpack off. I found this perfect spot by a tree, there are bushes so I can hide if I need to. I lay down and take off my necklace and examine the heart-shaped locket attached to it. I open the locket to see her face, "Mom" I whisper to myself as I start to tear up. She was so beautiful, She always wore her hair in a neat bun, but for the picture, she let down her gorgeous curls. Her eyes were dark brown like mine and her eyebrows were naturally thick. I stare at her picture thinking of the memories we had together. She's done everything she could to prepare me for this wretched world. For as long as I could remember she'd talk to me about the creatures that roam the darkness and what they can do if they catch you, ways to purify water if you're not sure it's clean, ways to identify if certain foods are safe to eat. Everything I know has come from her, Including Room 111. We planned to leave together one day when I was old enough and go to it. Every time I asked for details on it she'd go on and on about how it's the only safe place for us. About how "There's nowhere else we can go, Room 111 has everything we need Darling. Endless amounts of food, water, and it's safe." I never fully understood how we, how I was gonna get there, Until that night.

We were in our hideout, an abandoned house we stayed in. We were offered a place to stay with a group called "Those who Hide". These people are different than the ones who are just scared of coming out, these people have a community to themselves but there are odd rules to it. Once you join, you can't leave, and as soon as my mom heard that she declined. Yes, they had food, supplies, and more but she was dead set on getting to "Room 111" and wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of that. They didn't appreciate her response and called her crazy for it. from then we decided it would be best to stay in our hideout until it was time to leave. I remember sitting on the floor asking myself questions about Room 111. Where there other people? Is it a room? or is it a place? I wanted to ask my mom all of these but I didn't want to overstress her with them. I trusted her and I knew she wouldn't steer me in the wrong direction. I look at my mother to see that she was in the kitchen cutting up vegetables for dinner, we would salvage off of any we saw in the area of the forest. She knew which ones were showing signs of them being infected and she knew which ones were safe.

There was a knock at the door. My eyes widened as we both knew there weren't other people around here. Her eyes immediately went to me and then the door. I crawled to a corner tucked my legs to my chest and sat there as quietly as possible. My mother quietly walked near the door with the knife. If it was an average creature or maybe it was some people trying to rob us or something I wouldn't be as scared but something didn't feel right. It was dead silent until the thing at the door knocked again "Knock...Knock...Knock" they sounded big and heavy. when listening closely you could hear what sounded like metal scraping against itself. It couldn't have been another human, but why would a creature knock on the door? I look at my mother's face and she looks just as confused, I looked around the room and I saw my mother's journal across the room and quietly began to go get it, My mom saw me doing this and began signaling me to go back to where I was. I ignored her and continued to get the book once I got to it I began flipping through pages to see if I could find anything about a creature who knocks or does anything like that before I could find anything the door was ripped off but there was nothing there.

We were both silent, she runs to me and grabs my hand pulling me into a room. She hands me my backpack and puts the necklace with the heart-shaped locket around my neck. "We're going outside, whatever it was is most likely going to come back and we can't be here when that happens," she whispers to me as she's making sure we have everything. I nod my head and help her, all of a sudden we hear footsteps, big and heavy footsteps. My eyes tear up knowing it sounds close to the room we're in. The house is old and my mom and I both know moving too much would've let that thing know what room we're in. "Don't. Move," she says as she peeks into the living room where it was. I could see the fear on her face just from looking at it She turns around and looks at the ground for a while, I can tell she's thinking. She finally turns to me and whispers in my ear "I'm gonna catch its attention and distract it, I want you to run and keep running".

Tears stream down my face as I realize what she's about to do, "But what about you?" I whisper back She ignores my question and puts a tablet in my backpack "This is going to show you the way to Room 111, follow it and when you get there show them that you have this tablet they'll let you in." I can hear her voice breaking. She kisses my forehead and whispers "I love you." in my ear. She gets up and grabs something off the ground, she walks into another room. I sit there in shock, I didn't know what else to do and even if I did I was too scared to do anything else. I hear her throw the scrap metal on the wall in the other room.

I put my hand over my mouth as more tears come down my face. Then I see it, calling it a monster or regular creature would be an understatement. It was a mixture of flesh and metal, spikes coming out its back and you can hear it dragging its big heavy hands on the floor. Blood was dripping from it. It thankfully didn't see me but it was heading for the room my mom was making noise in, the moment I saw I had a chance I made a run for it.

I grabbed my mom's Journal off the living room floor where I had dropped it and bolted for the door. I saw the forest in front of our house and ran as fast as I could. I heard it growling and roaring followed by my mother's screams. I hid behind a tree flinched and shuddering every time I heard her. Something inside me wanted to see her run out of the house to come to join me but none of that happened. I heard a big crashing sound and then I heard some heavy footsteps in the distance. I sat there until it became dead silent. I decided to go back into the house, I was convinced my mom was still alive so I walked in. I made my way to the room she ran into and I fell to my knees when I saw her. She was covered in blood with chunks of metal stuck in her. I grabbed her head and began sobbing looking at her lifeless face and body. I looked up and saw the big hole that thing made in the wall. I stared into the distance until I saw two big red gleaming eyes looking back at me.

I ran out of the house, I heard those big footsteps so I made my way to the forest again. I hid behind another tree when I saw the creature back around the house. He began circling it looking for me, frustrated that I was not there he began destroying the house, It hurt knowing my mom was still in there and I couldn't do anything about it. I ran away farther into the forest until I could no longer hear him. It's been about two weeks now, the map on the tablet is confusing. So I don't know how far or close I am from Room 111.

"I need to get out of my head" I whisper to myself. It's completely dark now and I see glowing bugs flying in the trees. They're pretty but I know I can't touch them. I read in my mother's journal that they're poisonous to the touch. My mother wrote that them coming to contact with your skin will lead to an extreme burning sensation, I turn to my side and close my eyes, I need to spend the day figuring out how this tablet works. I have enough food in my bag that should last me about three weeks if rationed properly. "I can't be far from Room 111, right?" I ask myself softly. "I have a long day ahead of me. I need to get some rest."