The Hero’s Conundrum/Chapter one

I have started writing this journal because someone need to make sense of this madness. To be honest I don’t even know if this is the beginning of my journey, I really don’t know, maybe this is the end, when you read this, maybe you’ll understand or maybe get more confused. Well for starters the year is unknown since all history records have been eradicated with the war, what we know, we’ve learned it from the elders of the faction we are in. The elders on my faction say that the world is a very different place now, USA is in ruins and filled with radiation, but. . . no, never mind that.

After the war, different factions have risen and there are many powerful men trying to rule what is left of the world. There is no running government or military, there are only small factions and independent militias, in this anarchy people were living either hiding in fear of being attacked or being themselves the attackers. Our faction is a small camp with a small militia, but we do not attack anyone we only defend ourselves and whenever we go through a village or another faction we go in peace. Not every time it works out, sometimes we have to fight but we always end up triumphant. We have earned a name, and that is a bad thing, because now people who are trying to rule, started noticing us. Some may want to join forces some may want to take us out.

We are a group of about two hundred people, everyone including kids must contribute in order to survive. We do not encourage people to have kids for many reasons, the keep getting snatched at night and they slow us down, we have very little medicine and only one nurse, etc. None the less people keep trying to make families in this hostile environment. The only upside of a kid being born in this time is that if he survives to be 21, he is going to be one though motherfucker. We never stay in one place, we need to keep moving if we want to survive. We once tried to stay in an abandoned school, but we kept getting attacked and we lost many men, so now we stay on the move. Is sad to see villages and camps destroyed along the way, men, women and children on the floor, dead, no one left to bury the dead.

Among all factions there is one that is succeeding in ruling all, because in that faction they also have a militia and there is one man that everyone fear the most. We may have earned a name, but he became a legend, he is the boogieman. He is known by many names, but he is mostly known as Bansao. There are many stories about him and there was a rumor that he had developed powers due to all nuclear radiation he has been exposed to. The saying was that if you see him and he didn’t see you, you hide or you run away, you never confront him. Some say he had died countless times and the radiation around keeps bringing him back, more powerful each time.

Of course, those are only legends he may have a large militia and skilled people, but he is just a man there is no such thing as the supernatural.

Some people that claim to have seen him and survived, tend to tell different stories and different descriptions of him. Some say that he is missing an ear, others say he is missing a hand or other extremities. One of our guys said that he saw him and he have only one eye, that he wears an eyepatch and moves like a shadow. I’m sure that in the heat of the moment and the fear, the mind can trick you into seeing all sorts of things. He is feeding on the fear of people and the legends they say about him to influence others and promote fear. At least that’s what I thought, that was until last week. Many people claim to have killed him, but last week I saw him and we dared to confront him.

We found him and some of his men while scavenging an abandoned village. We sneaked in and took out some of his men easily, but when he noticed he started taking out my men one by one. Everyone started shooting at him but, it was almost like he was unharmed by the bullets. In the middle of the shooting, I was injured but I manage to hide merging with some of the dead bodies, what was left of my men started to do the same, we noticed there was no way we were going to win. Who the hell is this Bansao guy?

The shooting stopped and I waited hiding in silence, not for him to leave, but for him to die. He was getting close, then I heard the click, he stepped on a landmine that I managed to place before I hid. The explosion blew him to pieces and fatally injured some of his men leaving my ears ringing. The rest of his men ran away in fear and confusion, me and what was left of my men returned to our camp spreading the news, I managed to kill him, I saw him die with my own eyes.

But . . .

The next morning one of my men arrived at the camp gravely injured, saying that Bansao is coming our way now.

Next: Chapter two - Bansao