In The Beginning

The apocalypse was both an ending and a new beginning.

Contest Prompt

"The Writer's Cramp" Story in reverse order, third person, action adventure genre'

“In the beginning, God created the world.” Ed set the Bible down. The last seven days were at an end. It felt like he had been tasked to create a new world order in not much more than that amount of time.

“You all right?” Jan asked under furrowed brows. The action had been harder on her. She set her bow and clutch of arrows down, sat down beside him, and lay her head against his chest. “Heart sounds all right.” Her hands went up to pull his head down.

“You taste like chocolate. I remember finding it last night. That stray cat almost scared us out of our skins.”

Ed rocked her slowly into his arms.. “You checking on the others we’ve gathered along the way?”

She nodded, eyes glazed, staring at the open fire. “Feels strange it being safe enough to have one of those visible to both earth and sky around us.” The last few days held both danger and excitement as rescue after rescue had taken place.

Each one was easier than the last, as the strong hearts of strangers turned survivalists had become a working machine. Jan was usually the bait, drawing out the evil leftover dregs of humanity letting free the screams of pain in the voices of those they’d captured.

Each conflict had its own puzzle to be solved. The worst had been a week before, when the gang of miscreants terrorizing a lost group of college kids revealed a backup of skilled ex military storming into the fray. “Has Amstrum’s and Ginger’s wounds begun to heal?”

Ed and Jan’s small sized group had almost lost the two. “Gaining Matt weeks ago, with his veterinarian medical skills looks like its making the difference. We won’t be able to move far for awhile, like we planned.”

“I’ve finished scouting around . The ex-military group we met a month ago is still hanging around. We just scared them off. They didn’t know where your arrows were silently coming from.”

Jan remembered how they'd met. Her bow notched an arrow as she stood, instantly alert to the danger of an approaching shadowy figure into the edge of firelight. “Careful,” the low rumble of the ex-military leader urged. “I’m carrying a white flag. Can we talk? We’re out of ammo. You’ve got food. May I come in?”

The ancient instinctual habit kept down throughout the ages of welcoming anyone needing help to one’s fire and sharing a cooking meal stirred yet again. “Tell the others to come on in. You’ll be watched, of course.”

"Of course." We ate in silence, measuring the uneasy calm.

It happened suddenly, but they acted like the moment was planned. they stood as a group, each facing outward with Ed and Jan in the center. Knives and guns drawn. "I think you should come with us, Jan. We're better trained and able to take care of you. Don't fight it, just come."

Their plan to use her as a hostage, putting them ultimately in charge of both groups did not go unmet. Jan raised her arm. Over a dozen arrow drawn bows appeared as if by magic. Men popped up from chosen spots in the ground, wielding their own weapons targeting ex-military throats. "Maybe not." Jan's laugh was harsh.

Ed moved a step forward getting into the commando's face. "Don't take our welcome as weakness. You may go, this time. If there is a next time, your blood will coat the ground you step on."

The silence grew heavy as the lead of the outfit spoke. "Just checking how good you are. You'll do." And with that, he motioned his men to leave with him. At the last moment, he turned. "We'll take the east side of the Home Depot. You take the west That way there will be no mistakes made on who owns where."

“We don’t want to join you, but I think we can live together in harmony and as backup forces when those left over Hell’s Angels get together. They’re slowly headed this way, have been for months.” Both groups had taken out Hell's Angel's scouts wandering into killing traps. A few victims had lasted long enough to warn about the oncoming danger.

This time when knives were drawn, skin cut into weeping blood, and palms slapped together to seal the bargain. Ed said, “We’ll make the Home Depot the place where messages can be left for each other. Who knows, maybe we’ll start trading something besides death.”

When the ex-military personnel left, Ed and Jan talked about the meager hope for a future. “We know how many ex-military are left., what shape they are in,” Jan suggested, poking the coals of the fire. They wouldn’t be able to stay here, now that they’d been exposed.

Even before meeting the ex-military the habit of traveling like the Indians had been followed. They moved in a wide circle, so as not to overly scare or decimate the wild animals and food worthy plants along the way. Ed remembered pouring pine nuts the group had gathered into the clay pots, and motioned for them to be put in an earthen pit. They’d cover and disguise it, instant food for when their never ending journey brought them back.

One of Ed's first memory's of the group was watching the packs be lifted onto backs. The group had split in two, those with weapons fading into shadows encircliing the pack carriers. It seemed like an eternal sense of how to protect themselves while traveling.

The moon’s eye blinked out from behind a cloud, older than mankind, it watched time pass in its silent quest from the past into the endless future.

WC 972