Surviving the Collapse

Reika panted as she ran through the forest, her strawberry colored hair flowing behind her in the wind. She had been running for what felt like an eternity, her legs felt like jelly and as if she would fall over at any moment. She was running on pure adrenaline, that and her basic survival instincts. She ran and ran and ran and kept running, refusing to stop despite her aching lungs and sore feet practically begging her to take a break. She refused to be caught, she’d survived far too long in this world to just give up now.

It had been six months since the collapse began. It started out slow, just a few people getting sick, then a few dozen, a few hundred, a few thousand, until over half the population had been wiped out. Those who remained grouped up, everyone knew the whole ‘safety in numbers’ saying, but honestly, Reika couldn’t care less, more people, means more noise, and more noise makes it easier for other groups to find them and wipe them out. This wasn’t about preference or not wanting to talk to people, it was about survival, and Reika was not one to give up.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pain shoot through her left leg, she fell to the ground with a yelp. She looked back at her leg to see a knife sticking out and blood oozing out of the fresh wound. Reika growled in anger and quickly moved to get up, leaving the knife in her leg to prevent her from bleeding out and dying. She ran and moved as fast as she possibly could with the injury, trying to avoid being seen or caught at all costs. Black spots were beginning to form around the edges of her vision.

“Crap…” she muttered to herself. Despite the obvious signs that she would soon lose consciousness, Reika kept running and continued to ignore the gushing wound on her ankle. Soon enough she fell to the ground with a small grunt. Unable to move due to the combination of her exhaustion and the blood loss. Black dots were now filling her vision. And a pair of black combat boots were the last thing that she saw before slipping into unconsciousness, the world fading to black, and all sound coming to a halt.

When she awoke, she found herself leaned up against a large oak tree. Her leg had been bandaged up and no longer had the knife stuck in it. In front of her was what looked to be a campfire and what looked to be equipment and a rather large foot supply, as well as three sleeping bags.

“So, you’re finally awake.” a hushed voice said. She did not recognize the voice fully, but it did seem slightly familiar.

“Who are you, why did you help me?” the person in question stepped out from behind a tree. They had dirty blonde hair that reached their shoulders, and wore an olive green hoodie and blue jeans, as well as the combat boots that she saw before she passed out.

“My name is Oliver, and this is my camp,” he male said. “I brought you here because you were injured and looked to be in need of some assistance.” Reika nodded. She looked around the camp again. And then realized that there had been three sleeping bags, rather than just one.

“What’re the other sleeping bags for? I assume that there are others with you? No one person needs this much food.” she questioned. Oliver nodded.

“The other two sleeping bags belong to my friends, I think they’re out collecting resources right now though. You’ll meet them later.” he said. ‘So he has friends with him,’ Reika thought. ‘This will be interesting’ Oliver looked like he was about to walk away for a moment before he turned back to her.

“I uh- I didn’t catch your name.” he said timidly. “I didn’t throw it.” Reika responded, laughing slightly as Oliver face palmed. After a moment he sat down on a nearby log and started fidgeting with some twigs and leaves that were nearby. They sat there in a comfortable silence for a while, Oliver playing with his sticks, and Reika just sitting there looking around and trying to ignore the throbbing pain that still overtook her left leg.

“I told you not to just rush in! But no, you decide to do it anyway and get us discovered! You’re lucky they didn’t follow us, or else you’d be dead meat!” an angry female voice sounded. It seemed to be coming from about twenty feet away, and it was obvious that whoever the voice belonged to was not happy in the slightest.

“I said I was sorry! And I didn’t mean to get us caught. I just thought that if I just went straight in it would be faster and we could get out of there.” a male voice responded. Reika could tell that they were getting closer, she guessed that they were the other two inhabitants of the camp, either that or they just didn’t know it was here and were about to stumble upon it.

Soon enough two people came out of the trees and into the small clearing that had been made into a base camp for Oliver and his two companions. One of them had chocolate colored hair, one of their eyes was brown, while the other was a shimmering gold amber-ish color. They wore a ruffley white button up shirt, and a brown skirt that reached about to their knees, they had dark brown leather fingerless gloves, and matching boots that had three brass gears running down the front of each, and the toes and soles seemed to be made out of some sort of metal. They also had beautiful gear shaped goggles resting on top of their head. they seemed to be made out of brass as well, and they had green tinted lenses.

The goggles seemed to have multiple dials and buttons on it, most likely to help with night vision and other sight related things. The person standing next to them looked a lot different, rather than gears and working parts, they had modern looking equipment. They had dark brown hair, almost black, and bright blue, almost neon looking eyes. They too had a set of goggles on their head. But instead of being mechanical and looking old, they are a sleek black color with some spikes protruding from the rims. They had pale blue lenses and glowing neon blue stripes along the rims in between the spikes.

“Karoline! Alex! You’re back. How did the supply run go?” Oliver asked. ‘Huh, so they're his friends.’

“Well it would have gone well if someone didn’t blow our cover!” the female, who was most likely ‘Karoline’ spoke.

“Come one Kara I said I was sorry! Would you just drop it!?” the other, who Reika guessed was Alex replied.

“Okay, didn’t go well then, did you at least get some more food and equipment?” Oliver questioned the two, his blue eyes narrowing at them as a glare formed on his face.

“Yes, actually. We got a few cans and some frozen stuff that we could cook over the fire, as well as some weapons.” Alex answered him, fidgeting slightly with the hem of his blue sleeveless hoodie. He then put a bag that had about twenty cans in it if she had to guess, as well as a few knives, daggers, an axe, and a sword down on the ground.

Reika wondered where they got all of that stuff, as well as how they’d managed to get back here unscathed and without being followed. It was quite the impressive feat. It was a relatively small group, much smaller than others that she’d seen, only three people. But she still couldn’t stick around. Despite only knowing them for a short amount of time, she could tell that they were a rather noisy group. And while she would need some help getting around for a bit, it would probably be best if she left as soon as she was able to.

While Reika was lost in thought, the other three were discussing their plans and what they would do with Reika until she was healed. It wasn’t a very deep wound, so it would only probably take maybe a week or so before she’d be able to walk properly and protect herself again. After a bit of discussion, the group decided that it would be best that they help her out and protect her until she was healed and able to take care of herself.

“Hey.” Alex said. “How about you stay with us for a bit? Just until you’re healed of course, after that you can do whatever you wish.” Reika was about to respond, until they suddenly heard a twig snap. Immediately, they all looked in the direction of the sound. It had come from nearly ten feet away, maybe less. Nevertheless, they had been discovered, and given the fact that Reika could hardly move, they were game for whatever group had found them.

“Wait! Wait wait wait! Please don’t attack me!” A male voice called out. Followed by a boy with nearly black, shaggy hair came out of the woods. He wore a deep red hoodie, and black jeans. “I’m sorry for intruding on your camp, I just got lost and stumbled upon this place.” he said. Reika had reached for a knife, which had been lying on the ground near her, and the others all had their weapons in their hands and ready to attack if necessary.

“How do we know this isn’t a ruse and that the minute we lower our weapons the rest of your group won’t come out and take us down?” Oliver asked, his deep blue eyes narrowed with suspicion. The new male looked around, before his eyes eventually landed on Reika’s bandaged leg.

“Her leg, it’s injured. I can help! I have a lot of medical experience, I could have her patched up and able to walk in about three days.” he said. “My name is Rain, and I mean you no harm, I simply want to help, I’m honestly pretty weak, I’ll never be able to survive on my own-”

“Did you say that your name was rain?” Reika cut off his hasty explanation. Something about the boy seemed very familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite place what.

“Uh, yeah? Why?” He seemed quite confused. But Reika didn’t care, she wanted to figure out if she knew him or not, and if so, how.

“Do you happen to recognize this necklace?” her amber colored eyes were filled with hope. She thought she had figured out how she knew him, but she needed to confirm before she decided for sure though. She pulled out of her pocket, a small, silver heart shaped locket. Rain inspected it carefully, before looking back over at Reika.

“Yeah, I do. Where did you get this?” he asked. “I gave this to my sister as a birthday gift years ago.” Reika carefully got up from where she sat.

“You gave this to me exactly twelve years ago today.” she watched as his eyes went from confused, to shocked.

“Reika? Is that you?” he asked. A glimmer of hope and happiness in his emerald toned eyes. Reika smiled and nodded. However the world around them began to glitch, and distort. Everyone’s expressions immediately turned dark, they knew something was wrong. And suddenly the “forest” that had once been surrounding them disappeared. In its place was a giant gate far off in the distance, and other groups of people soon became visible.

“What in the world?” there were shouts and murmurs of confusion from within the small group, as well as many of the surrounding ones. Reika looked around. They had been trapped. All of them. Everything that they’d ever thought? All lies. Just a simulation.