Life was great. Wonderful. The end had been such a blessing! The wicked and awful had died, unable to sustain themselves in a much harsher life. But those who were the perfect blend of smart and horrible were alive, mixing among the dead and doing their work for them. Noah had stayed quiet, holed up with weapons he needed until the gunfire outside had ceased. And then he began his play in the world’s final game of chess.
The teenager slipped from shadow to shadow, avoiding every possibility of human contact he could. He knew the fates of those who were cursed enough to meet someone with both a mind and a rifle with a handful of malice or a bone to pick. Red. So he kept to himself, with no existing alliances to hold him down. All ties had been cut long ago, but some strings trailed the child. Shreds of humanity were left, he’d silently pass food to the needy he passed. But anything further than that was left untouched- he’d nod at them and commit their look to memory, but no more. The boy couldn’t save someone with half of their head missing, not in this day and age.
Noah approached a walker with bent knees, and struck like a cobra. One hand clamped around its throat, yanking it back and downwards in a sickening arch as its spine snapped, but the horrific thrashing continued. With his left hand, the teenager produced a rusted KA-BAR knife, and drew a crimson smile across the walker’s throat. It fell, soul trapped within its hell freed at last. The teenager glared at a shard of glass embedded in the curb. He wore black glasses, and a faded grey bandanna was knotted around his jaw. Blood was splattered on the stormy color, looking like some sociopath’s impression of a smile. He looked like a criminal or murderer, but those who didn’t approach him stayed far away. Some tried to fight him, only some. But accuracy was his specialty. A quick disgusted shake of the head, before he silently stepped over and through the glass edges of a shattered and burned-out window. Presumably a store of some kind.
Pristine black combat boots didn’t so much as squeak, moving cleanly across the contrasting nearly black tile. The place was cramped, too much so for a machete to be wielded. Noah’s preferred weapon was then useless, so he drew a more practical weapon- the shorter KA-BAR, same as before, albeit significantly redder. A footstep. Noah lunged, and tackled a walker from behind, one arm forcing it forward from behind and another held the head forward and down. Before it could hiss, the teenager rammed the monster’s head into the ground, producing a dull and hollow noise not unlike beating a two-by-four against a pipe. It stopped moving.
The boy rose yet again, facing a shelf with two items left on it. Two small metal cylinders, only a few millimeters in diameter and roughly two inches long, bound by dog-tag chain. They were horribly rusted, but nothing a good file couldn’t fix. A fire starter. Noah gasped, and grabbed at them, and then the second item. A pack of cigarettes- he didn’t smoke, but they made for good inconspicuous and delayed fire starters and excellent distractions or traps. Few could resist one last pull of their addiction. Grinning, the shadow-like boy slipped the two items into a desert colored backpack, already prepared at his side. Moments later, the pack was righted and Noah was ready to move on.
And then a command was spoken, clearly and with no mistake. A few things could be immediately deduced: the speaker was a woman, not too much older than he. She was not afraid to kill him.
Noah didn’t turn, knife in one hand and nothing in the other. He knew her seeing the bloody grin across his bandanna would be a death sentence. It was horrifying, even to him. His jaded self.
"No, no. Not bitten, although I suppose I have escaped some that were." He mused coolly, choosing his words carefully. Although the words were muffled by the cloth, he was just as clear as she was, they were all quiet, calm, and not at all alarming, considering the circumstance. Noah wanted to survive this encounter. "I’m going to plead the fifth for my name, I don’t really care to reveal that. I came through the broken window at the other end. I can ensure I’m not a threat. Care to tell me the same for yourself?"
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