As mentioned, the way between Jason’s hideout and the eastern gate belonged to Valhalla, trees were sprouting out of the grounds and grass was growing everywhere. I’m still not used to all the green, but at least I’m not like Glenn, who’s fawning over every plant as if it had been his long forgotten cat.

I guess war does make people sentimental. Some. I couldn’t imagine Thomas with his robust body fawning over a green leaf.

We were running together, and had backwind. Birds and insects flew away before we neared, even the ground was smeared, our powerful steps kicked up the dirt, Even the ants were on alert, if their absence amid the ant hills were any indication.

“Where are the monsters? It’s way too quiet!” I yelled to Jason running next to me.

“Ouch! Why did you yell into my poor ears?” Jason said completely ignoring my question. Hey!

“WHERE ARE THE MONSTERS?”

Jason just ran off to Glenn and whispered something like ‘inconsiderate’. I think he’s just as confused as I am.

Soon the trees cleared and we arrived in the middle of a clearing. Heck yeah, this is where monsters will swarm us from all sides. I could delay the travel a bit. I have no intention to go under the control of her Robos again.

Unfortunately no monsters appeared. On the other hand I could see some monster corpses at the edge of the clearing. When I ran closer to inspect them, the wind blew and I could hear the faint sound of something surring. The corpses themselves had traces of being shot at everywhere.

Oh, damn, sis, how the heck did you do this.

I ran on to the eastern gate.

The trip was really quiet, not a single monster disturbed us on our way. I faintly saw other traces of monsters, some showed signs of being cut and burnt together.

She couldn’t have completed her laser experiments, right?

I really don’t want to go to her anymore.

Not even half a day and I already arrived at the eastern gate of Manhattan. Things really get a lot quicker when you don’t have to be afraid of monsters.

From this distance, I could already see the amount of destroyed houses. Damnit, didn’t I tell uncle Stan to pay attention to her when I couldn’t? How did it escalate so quickly?

I saw Uncle Stan sitting on top of a mechanical dragon laughing madly and holding some bottles of beer. The head of the mechanical dragon was made out of glass, I could even see some of the controls inside the cockpit, and even more important, I could see my sister inside.

The mechanical dragon had been built by her in our basement using a lot of materials from god-knows-where. Of course I knew that, and I made her promise to not take the robot outside until something very serious happened.

Firespitting flying monsters are NOT serious, if anything her rocket launcher would make charcoal out of the dragon.

“OY SIS, GET DOWN HERE AND GIVE ME AN EXPLANATION!” I yelled to the cockpit.

She walked over to me, nearly stomping me in the progress. Jason just stepped back, fear evident in his eyes, and Glenn sat huckepack on Jason since whenever and just hugged Jason.

The robot heaved one of its arms and smashed it down, the sound of metal grinding together sounded, and then went still.

My sister waved her hand towards me.

“GET OUT.” I shouted.

She still waved her hand at me.

Ugh, this just reminds me of picking her up 10 years ago.

It had been a cold snowy night. The lights were already out, the windows all shut. Nobody wanted to make their cold go worse than it had already been. Yet I still walked outside, packed in jacket and more. Because now was the perfect time to hunt for mutants. The cold also affects most, except for some of the undead, so it was the perfect time to gather meat for us, despite what they all say.

Despite the cold Harnock running around.

I shouldered my backpack and my spear, eager to fill our bellies. Mother and Father were both sleeping, and brother was absent this night. Certainly I’ll give them a surprise tomorrow.

Tomorrow. Today. Midnight struck, and with this my hunt commenced.

First I went into a dark cave within the dry desert. There probably has been a river here before, but it got all stuffed with sand and other trash. But sometimes I’d look at a stone and imagine the water running through it, crystal-clear non-radioactive bleached-drinkable water. None of the crazy radioactive water, the one you now had to distill and add dirt into it.

Some kind of crazy chemistry, but anybody not following that usually dies. No matter how many people die to dirt.

But this cave was different. A mutant inhibited this cave, so obviously there were scratch marks everywhere, more of them meant the mutant has been staying there for a long time, slowly going crazy with the pain and loneliness.

But there were a lot of scratching marks, more than I’ve ever seen. And there was also blood. ‘Weird.’ I had thought at that time. ‘Blood. Hopefully no Dracula or their blood-relatives.’

I chuckled. Usually I chuckled seldom, but this time I really couldn’t help myself. It just had been too long, sitting around at home and doing nothing, just helping with menial tasks. No, I wanted to hunt too, I wanted to earn our keep also!

I went into the cave. There I met my sister, inside this rotten stinking cave. She was valiantly fighting against two Ghouls. Quickly I grabbed my spear and stabbed into them. At that time I didn’t know what to do with this girl in front of me. She was just all tatters and all bones. Nobody would like her. Being disheveled means being dead. And if anything, nobody wanted to be dead.

I scrunched her up.

She scrunched me up.

I then said: “You can have the ghouls.”

She just replied: “I don’t need them. You should have them.”

While saying that, she waved her hand, as if she was sending the ghouls away, as if she truly didn’t care about the ghouls. That’s when, I decided to bring her back with me.

The same wave greeted me now. There in the giant robot, she waved her hands, shooing me away.

And just like the fangs of the cold Harnock entering through my back, I felt the presence of another monster the presence of the one I couldn’t fight against.

“HIDE!” I yelled and ran towards the robot arm.

Jason followed behind me, Glenn was still on the back of Jason, setting something off. Was that dynamite? I couldn’t care less.

Glenn threw the dynamite behind us.

BOOOOOM!!!!!

The explosion was beautiful and satisfying, even though it threw a lot of smoke up. I really hoped whatever was behind me was dead, because if it wasn’t, then we’re going to have a bad time.

A really bad time. That happens when you have a Death Bringer Dragon. Or a mutant sandstorm. This also happens when you are fighting against a thundering cloud.

The dynamite in Glenn’s hand shot back to us, never set off at all. And I truly realised what we were fighting against.

The forces of nature, the thunder cloud, actually just water vapor, but if the black centre in the middle of the cloud, or if the inexhaustible zapping of the cloud was any indication, just inching closer to us whilst threatening us to zap at any time.

The robot in the basement wasn’t enough for this pile of vapor shit.

___

(Yes, actually people die of that. Can die today too if they drink too much distilled water. DISTILLED. Your cells will explode, since you are not a plant, because water keeps entering your cells. babies actually died of that, truly a gruesome death.)

_Sole writer of this chapter, 1 is too busy with his biting nephew and stoned sister._ 0

_Tired as well. Forgive me for any inconsistencies or point them out._ 0

[Hi, just gonna say (if my families reading this, which I hope to GOD, BUDDHA OR WHOEVER, you’re not) I was just joking with him XD] -1

[Rule 1 for every guy, be scared… no, TERRIFIED!!! of your mother, that’s all i’m saying…] -1

[Also, I just got here XD... what's going on, oh... the chapter's done!] -1