Emily Against The World
Emily woke up in a bed that could fit at least three people, but she managed to stretch her body across the entire thing over night. She snuggled into the covers and smiled, enjoying the feeling of waking up somewhere comfortable for once. She got up, stretched and looked out the window into the bright sun. The sky was blue and checkered with clouds, “Beautiful” she thought. That’s what Oldtimer would’ve called it. He taught her many Words of the Old World and that was one of her favorites, but it seemed she rarely got a chance to use it. She placed her palm on the glass to feel the warmth of the sun, a split-second later she quickly pulled her hand away. “Fuck! It’s gonna be another hot one!” She exclaimed.
Oldtimer had also taught her all the curses of The Old World which she found many occasions to use. “Damn that shit hurt” she said looking over hand. Then something caught her eye in the corner of the room, something she didn’t notice when she stumbled in last night. A person sized mirror stood next to a large dresser. She didn’t come across nice clean mirrors like this one very often. Most of the reflective surfaces she found were broken or dirty so she couldn’t see “The whole picture”. She could see the whole picture in these ones she found in Oldtimer called them “rich people” houses. She straightened herself out and walked up to the mirror looking her reflection up and down. She put a hand through her hair which she thought was probably getting too long stretching down to her lower back. She had heard the phrase “fiery redhead” before but never thought it applied to her, “My hair is darker thanany fire I’ve seen.” She thought Blood Red was much more appropriate. She noticed the same clothes she wore yesterday and must’ve fallen asleep in, like usual. There was so much dirt and whatever else stained on her dark blue T-Shirt that you could barely see the faded logo that was once so prominent. It was of some band that Oldtimer loved but she couldn’t quite remember the name. “Something about metal, it was either in the name or it was a type of music, or both.”
She noticed that she did manage to take her backpack and forest green over shirt off. Where she threw them would be a question for later. Her fingers picked at a new hole in her skinny jeans, one more to add to the collection of tears and rips from walking in them too long or from some close calls and some not-so-close calls. Once her steel toe boots were kicked off, she could examine the state of her socks which had more holes in them than her pants. She would have to look for some while she was in the house. “Socks are very important” Oldtimer used to say.
It didn’t take her long to find a clean pair in the bedroom dresser. Once they were snug on her feet, she looked around the room for her backpack and her shirt when she found her Bulldog lying on his side on the floor still asleep. His lip was quivering as he breathed heavily in and out without making any noise. He was trained not to snore, a very important trick for their lifestyle where silence meant safety. When he slept like this he almost looked like a normal dog. You could barely see the various dark green patches on his body where TheDisease infected him, including one on his head that spread to his eye which made it twice the size with a bright purple pupil. Just one example of the mutations left behind by The Disease, an alien infection that hit the world so long ago. Oldtimer said it hit the children first and then spread to everyone else. The mutations affected everyone differently, but they were only one of the side effects. Oldtimer taught Emily math so she’d know how much they lost, “87% Dead, 11% Mutated, 2% Immune.” He said that they were lucky, but he never told her what that meant.
At least her dog’s mutation wasn’t too bad. She thought it could be kind of cute sometimes and it could definitely come in handy in tight spots. It also earned him the name Stink Eye, but he could also be referred to as “Stinky”, “Stink”, and on a few occasions he’s been called “Hey Stupid Fucking Dog” when he’s caught not backing Emily up in a fight because he got distracted by something to eat, smell, or crap on. He didn’t notice when Emily nudged him with her foot even after she put her boots back on. “Fine, stay there you lazy ass.” She said.
On a nearby chair she found her over shirt, which she tied around her waist, and her backpack next to two 16-inch sheathed swords. She picked up the swords and strapped them securely to her back and then swung on her backpack which also sheathed a dagger on the right side. All her blades were clean and sharp when she looked them over before sheathing them again and walking out of the room.
She decided to take a look around the house since she was too tired to do it last night.She remembered walking through the dark abandoned neighborhood looking for a suitable place to sleep when she finally chose this house mainly because the whole thing was still standing. When she looked through the kitchen downstairs, she found a refrigerator full of rotten food and cabinets full of canned food. If it didn’t have to be fresh, food was never hard to come by since all the people who got deathly ill stopped eating and the ones who mutated got a different kind of appetite. She grabbed what she could carry and moved onto the next room where she found a large bookshelf full of books. She took a few moments to look through them and read the backs of some of them. After much deliberation she took a worn book out of her backpack and replaced it with a new one from the bookshelf. A large thud suddenly came from somewhere in the house, “What the fuck!?” She looked over to the where she thought she heard the noise and saw a door.
She slowly walked over to the door she figured might lead to the basement. She grabbed her dagger out of its sheath and held it steadily out in front her with the blade facing out toward the door and then slowly opened it. The stairwell down was pitch black, so she reached in her backpack and took out a pencil sized flashlight and clicked it on. The light reached out 4 feet in front of her illuminating the stairwell. After doing a couple of sweeps with the flashlight she carefully put one foot down onto the step in front of her, she stepped down three more when she heard something move from one end of the dark basement to the other. She whipped her flashlight aroundtrying to catch whatever was moving around but couldn’t find anything. As she went deeper into the basement, she could hear whatever it was stirring like it was getting ready to make a move.
“Alright whatever you are. Come on out so I can stick this dagger in your face.” As soon as she said it, she heard something drop to her left making her swing around with the flashlight and saw something hiding behind a few boxes. The light barely touched it, but she could see it was some kind of creature around 3 feet long with at least 4 legs. She got a little closer to get a better look when the creature’s head popped up and its silver eyes shined in the light of the flashlight. It let out a sharp screech and then dashed at Emily hitting her full force in the chest and knocking her down sending the flashlight flying across the basement. The creature crawled up to Emily’s face and started biting at her. She tried to hold it back and reach for her dagger that had fallen next to her on the ground. With each bite the creature came closer to Emily’s face until it finally scratched the edge of her nose, drawing blood which the creature started hastily licking up. “Owwww! Get the fuck off me, Thing!”
Emily strained her arm to grab the dagger and she swung at the creature chopping off one of its legs. The creature screeched again and ran up the stairs as black blood gushed from its new wound. Emily quickly got up and jumped up the stairs catching the creature by its other back leg. The creature struggled in her hands causing blood to spray her in the face. She tried to jump up the stairsfurther, but the blood made the steps too wet and she slipped, lost her grip and knocked her head on one of the steps. “Fuck me. I am going to kill this thing.” She thought as it ran up into the stairs. Emily threw her dagger as she entered the main level and it hit the ground next to the creature. She groaned and then unsheathed one of her swords. “Hey!” She shouted getting the creature’s attention. Once she had it, she gave herself a small cut on her thumb and stuck it out. “Want blood? Get you some.”
The creature tensed up its legs getting ready to bolt. Emily kept her eyes on it gripping her sword in her right hand. The creature bolted towards her and jumped up 5 feet in the air. Emily ducked down swinging her sword up towards the creature. At the end of her swing the creature hit the floor in two halves and the sword splashed its blood all over a nearby table that had some framed pictures sitting on it. One of the pictures stuck out to Emily, it showed a man and woman holding a baby, about 3 feet long. Emily froze, “It hit the children first” Oldtimer said. “Put it out of your head. Put it out of your head, it’s time to move on.” She stood up straight, cleaned off her sword, sheathed it, and grabbed her dagger. She yelled upstairs to Stink Eye “Hey Stink wake up, time to go!”
Stink Eye walked out and headed down the stairs towards Emily, his purple pupil bounced a little bit in his eye with each step. When he arrived at the bottom, he looked at the two pieces of the creature lying of the ground and then he looked upat Emily and tilted his head to one side. “Yeah that’s right I got it all by myself. I didn’t need your help.” She said.
In response he groaned and shook his floppy ears dismissively which shook his purple pupil around a little. “You ugly bastard, I love ya. Let’s go.” She opened the door and they both ventured out into the world once again.
As soon as Emily stepped out of the house the bright sun hit her right in the face. She quickly threw her hand up to shield her eyes. “Fuck You” She said with disdain.
Next to her Stink Eye caught the scent of something. Emily took a whiff, letting in the summer air. Her expression dropped as soon as she recognized the smell, Human Meat. Stink Eye slowly followed the scent with Emily behind him. Around a corner the street stopped in a dead end surrounded by houses. In the middle of it all was a barbecue pit. Six men with different and varying mutations stood around the pit. The severed bits of human that weren’t being cooked on the barbecue were stacked in a pile nearby. Emily watched them from afar with a look of disgust and hate and then confidently approached the group with Stink Eye close to her growling.
“Hey Assholes!” She said in a shout. The whole group looked over at Emily. The leader of the group stepped closer.
“Another healthy one. This neighborhood is like the delis of old. You look like a particularly good cut of meat.” He said with slime seeping from his mouth.
“Oh I am. But unfortunately, you’re all gonna be too dead to enjoy all my savory flavor.” Emily retorted.
“Oh, is that so?”
“It is.”
The Leader spoke to two other Mutants in the group. “Fellas, get me my meal.” The twoMutants walked up to her and Stink Eye began to growl again until Emily silenced him. They approached her on the Left and the Right about to put their hands on her when she grabbed the arm of the mutant on her Right and kicked the knee of the Left so hard it snapped back and made his body lunge forward. Emily then snapped the Right Mutant's arm making the bone pop out of his skin allowing Emily to grab it and plunge the exposed bone into the Left Mutant's eye. She then took the head of The Right Mutant into her arms and twisted it until it broke. The two mutants dropped dead at Emily’s feet and the rest of the group looked at her in shock and Emily looked right back at them. “Looks like you’ll have to work a little harder for this meal.”
A smile creeped onto the Mutant Leader’s face. “Okay then. Boys!” The leader shouted and about a dozen more of his men came out of the surrounding houses. Emily watched and got riled up. “Yeah Mother Fucker get everyone out here!” All the mutants formed across from Emily ready to fight. The Mutant Leader stood to the side so he could watch.
“Okay Stink, now!” She looked down at Stink Eye after nothing happened and she saw him hard at work licking himself. She gave him a kick with her boot and he finally looked up. “Need your help here, idiot.” Stink Eye looked over at the large group of mutants and stood up. Then with his back paw he gave himself a few scratches behind the ear looking for a specific green spot. As soon as he hit it, he transformed into a larger beasty version of himself with sharper claws and teeth andmore visible green and purple patches. He immediately charged at the group of mutants making a hole and taking them into a house behind them. The house was then destroyed as Stick Eye finished off the Mutants inside. The remaining mutants looked at Emily who unsheathed her swords with a smile on her face. “Well come on!”
The group charged at Emily and she sliced through them all without leaving the spot where she stood then looked over at the Mutant Leader with fresh blood on her face. “Well looks like you can have me all to yourself if you still want me.”
The Mutant Leader looked back at her infuriated. “You bitch! You think this is all of us? We are an army. You have no idea…” Emily interrupted.
“Are you going to keep running your mouth or are you gonna come over here so I can cut your head off?”
The Mutant Leader gripped the axe in his hand getting ready to go after her. “I’m gonna kill ya.”
Emily stood there waiting “Well then come on.”
“I’m gonna kill ya!”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I’m Gonna KILL Yaaaaaagh!”
“Oh, are we yellin’?”
The Mutant Leader continued to yell so Emily started yelling back. Finally, the Mutant Leader ran at Emily and she charged back at him. As they met the Mutant Leader swung his axe at Emily who spun around him and lopped his head off with one swift motion. The Mutant Leader’s head fell to the ground and looked up at Emily with a frozen look of surprise. Stink Eye approached her back in his normal form and gave the head a sniff. He then panted heavily before dropping to the ground exhausted. Emily looked down at him and smiled “Awe there’s my tired little monster. Thank you, buddy.”
She scratched him on his nowexposed belly then looked up and noticed something on the roof of a nearby house. A man was on the roof standing by the chimney. But it wasn’t a human man, and he wasn’t infected Mutant. This was nothing like the alien infections she had seen, this guy just looked straight up Alien. As Emily stared at him, she noticed he was staring back. He raised one hand in the air as if he were waving. Emily raised her hand to reluctantly wave back when she noticed there was something in The Alien's hand. Something he was throwing at Emily. Suddenly a sharp silver blade like nothing she had seen before planted itself in her right shoulder. “Ow! What the fuck!?” She looked back at The Alien enraged and in pain just in time to see him drop something down the chimney of the house then jump away out of sight. Seconds later the house exploded knocking Emily back and unconscious.
Later Emily woke up in a daze. She opened her eyes and saw blurry images of three Mutants standing above her and looking her over and felt one of them tugging on her backpack. The Mutant turned her over on her stomach and started pulling at the bag shaking her around. After a few seconds of shaking Emily closed her eyes and mustered some strength to spin her body hard forcing her out of the Mutant’s arms much to his surprise. “This one’s alive!” The Mutant exclaimed.
Emily jumped to her feet and shook herself off giving the three surrounding Mutants an intense look of displeasure. One of the smaller Mutants spoke up. “Sorry, we thought you were dead.”
The Big Mutant next to him growled at the small one. “Don’t apologize to her we’re just gonna kill her andtake her shit anyway.”
“No, you’re not” Emily stated with confidence.
“See I just find her more convincing and we just seen how she killed the other fellas.”
“Wow never met one of you with any logic.” Emily said with genuine surprise.
“You little shit we oughta kill you ourselves after we’re done picking our teeth with this bitch!” The Big Mutant threatened.
“Where’s my dog?” Emily asked.
“Your dog? You mean that wild beast that took down the house?” The Small mutant responded.
“Yeah that’s him. How did you see all that? Everyone present except me was killed quite mercilessly.”
“We can see a lot from Lady Mercy's base in the mountains.”
“Hey! Shut the fuck up! Stop divulging all of our damn secrets!” Big Mutant warned.
“Lady Mercy's Mountain Base, is that where they took the dog?” Emily asked.
“Probably.” Small Mutant’s head was suddenly smashed in with one swing from Big Mutant’s hammer. His headless body fell to the ground with some of his green and purple laced brains spilling onto the road.
Emily threw her hands up. “Awe man, what the fuck?”
“Enough chat. More Kill!” Big Mutant yelled and stormed forward at Emily raising his large hammer to the sky. Emily just waited for him and nonchalantly reached back for her swords that she discovered weren’t actually there anymore. Her eyes raised as the Big Mutant got ready to come down on her with his hammer.
“Fuck me.” She said as she crouched and rolled under the Big Mutant's legs and caught a glimpse of the third Silent Mutant who has her swords in his hands. “Son of bitch!” Emily rushed at him and grabbed her swords before Silent Mutant can even start to swing them. She then tackled him to the ground, got on top of him and began stabbing him in the chest with both swords. “Comeat me with my own fucking swords! I don’t fucking think so!” She only stopped stabbing when she realized the Big Mutant was back and about to take her head off from behind. She ducked and the Big Mutant raised his hammer up high and then swung it down towards Emily who rolled forward as the hammer landed on the dead body of the Silent Mutant who's stomach exploded due to the impact and sprayed all over the Big Mutant’s face. He began to yell trying to scratch the gore out of his eyes and off his face and Emily saw her moment to strike. She ran at him and sliced his left knee then his right which brought him to the ground. She cut his right wrist which caused him to drop his hammer on the ground. Then with all her strength she pushed her leg off his chest to launch herself into the air and back down plunging both swords into his eye sockets right through the back of his head. She stayed there for a moment struggling to pull her swords out of the Big Mutant’s face. Once she freed them, she got back on her feet and ready to go. She looked up into the mountains and whispered to herself “Mountain Base. Lady Mercy. Here I come.” From a distant cliff The Alien was once again watching Emily as she ventured higher into the mountains.
It didn't take Emily long to find the house she was looking for. Mutant lairs this large could be heard and smelt from miles away. She had never seen a "Rich People" house like this one, the whole thing was a three-story circular structure with very little widows. After scoping the place out from a few different perspectives, she had a prettygood idea of what was waiting for her inside. She remembered Oldtimer always saying, "Never enter a fight until you know how to win it." From what she could see there were around thirty Mutants in the house, roughly ten on each lever. She had also caught a glimpse of a cage on the first floor which is where they were likely keeping Stink Eye. The only information she didn't have yet was which one of these Mutants was the leader, Lady Mercy. Emily was sitting below the outside deck of the house which came out of the third floor when the sound of arguing caught her attention. She looked up and through the deck cracks saw a large Mutant woman dragging another Mutant outside by his ear and cursing at him. The Mutant was pleading and begging with her until the moment she tossed him off the deck onto the rocks below. His head hit a boulder with a loud Squish. Bits of his skull hit Emily's boots and his jawbone bounced off the rock and hit Emily right in the face. Emily let out a sigh and thought "You'd think I'd be fucking used to this by now" as she wiped what blood she could off. She looked back up at the deck and noticed that across from it was another mountain cliff with only about eight feet bridging the gap which brought a smile to Emily's face, "jumping distance." She now knew how to win this fight, there was only one thing she was missing.
She soon found what she needed in a nearby house, Oldtimer used to call it Booze, he had taught her many uses for it, but her favorite was to light shit on fire. He also said people used to drink it which sheknew wasn't true, he just said stuff like that to make her laugh. She packed a couple of the bottles up and made her way upwards to the top of the cliff across from the patio. On her way up she stuck long pieces of cloth, about two feet long, in the tops of the bottles. As she arrived at the cliff, she set the bottles down, and took out an old zippo lighter that had an image of a blonde woman flashing her breasts on it. She lit the end of the pieces of cloth and let them burn as she approached the edge of the cliff. As soon as she got close all the mutants on the patio across from her noticed. Lady mercy caught a glimpse and barreled her way through her men to the edge of the patio to confront Emily.
"Who the hell are you!?" Lady Mercy shouted with enough spit that it nearly reached Emily across the eight-foot gap between them.
"You have something of mine." Emily said calmly.
"Yours!? Everything you see here is Lady Mercy's! And that's Me bitch!"
As Lady Mercy spoke Emily looked at the ten Mutant's surrounding Lady Mercy. They all looked like the Mutants she always came across, ugly and stupid just waiting to be chopped up. As she scanned the crowd one Mutant did grab her eye. A skinny idiot with a slimy green tongue hanging three feet out of his mouth slightly panting. Emily had seen a lot of mutations but something about this guy just really rubbed her the wrong way. She tried to put her focus back on Lady Mercy.
"You have my dog."
"Awwwwwooohhh So you're the girl with the dog causin' the trouble. Well let me tell you something little miss killin...."
Lady mercy continued on her rant, butEmily couldn't pay attention because she couldn't tear her eyes away from the Mutant with the nasty dangling tongue. Eventually Emily interrupted. "Hey You." Emily motioned towards the Tongue Mutant. He looked over at her. "Yeah you." Emily said. "I am going to rip that Fucking Tongue right out of your Goddamn head." The Tongue Mutant looked back with a worried expression as Emily just stared at him and nodded. "Oh yeah." Lady Mercy started to laugh and got Emily's attention back.
"You really think you can take all of us out and rescue your poor pup?"
Emily looked back at her confused. "Rescue? No. This isn't a rescue I'm just meeting him here." Emily then put her fingers to her lips and whistled. On the bottom floor of the house Stink Eye jumped awake in his cave and noticed the situation he was in. The two Mutants guarding him looked back at him with concern before being promptly torn limb from limb by Stink Eye's beasty form. Everyone on the patio heard the chaos below and Emily reached down and grabbed both bottles whose burning cloths were now just inches away from the top. She tossed the bottles onto the patio hitting a Mutant on both sides. They both exploded in flames and Emily grabbed her swords from her back and lunged off the cliff onto the patio driving both swords into the shoulders of Lady Mercy, pinning her to the wall behind her. She then swiftly killed a couple of Mutants without her swords before getting to the Tongue Mutant. She grabbed his long slimy tongue and kicked his legs out from under him, on his way down she pulled her arm up and ripped the tongue out of his head. He hit the ground and she threw his tonguedown hitting him in the face, then knelt down, grabbed his head and bashed it on the ground until its contents spilled out. Just then the rest of the Mutants on the patio came at her. She grabbed one sword out of Lady Mercy's shoulder to the kill a Mutant then grabbed his weapon and puts that back in Lady mercy's shoulder. She then did the same with the right shoulder and another Mutant. She then had both swords free and Lady mercy was still pinned to the wall. This allowed her to kill the rest of her minions on the third floor and leave Lady Mercy to slowly burn to death in the spreading fire.
Emily went to the bottom level of the house to find a mess of blood, organs, and body parts. Among the left-over carnage in the middle of the room lie Stink Eye fast asleep. Emily smiled at the sight, even though she knew she'd now have to carry his fat ass for the next few hours. In this moment she was just happy they were back together. She plopped down on the floor next to him and started to affectionately pet him before eventually heading back out with him in her arms.
As the sun started to set Emily was looking for a good place for them to rest for the night. She was in another neighborhood with houses in varying states of decay all around her. None of them really stuck out until she saw movement inside the top floor of one house nearby. The second floor of the house had no roof and just one standing wall with a window in it. Through the window she saw movement again and caught a glimpse of what she believed was The Alien from earlier. "Motherfucka." Shethought to herself and then headed to the house. She gently laid Stink Eye down on a couch in the living room and then quietly proceeded upstairs. She snuck up the stairs keeping an eye peeled ahead until she spotted The Alien then stomped up the rest of the stairs making her presence known. When she reached the top, The Alien looked over at her expressionless.
"Hey asshole you dropped something." Emily grabbed the Alien knife that he threw at her earlier and held it out. The Alien looked back with interest.
"You returned it. Perhaps you are worthy."
"Oh well, good for me!" She said sarcastically than tossed the knife back at The Alien who dodged it like it was no problem but looked back to see Emily charging at him full force with swords drawn. Before she reached him, he stretched his arm out and grabbed her by the throat stopping her in her tracks. Emily coughed and swung her swords frantically trying to slice at the Alien but not reaching anything while she was in his grip. She finally swung one sword at his arm forcing him to let go of her and dodge the blade. She then swung her left sword at him which he blocked with such force it caused her to drop her sword which The Alien then kicked across the room. Emily jumped back for a moment and then shot forward running her sword right through the torso of the Alien. The Alien spun as he was stabbed and pushed Emily to the ground leaving the sword stuck in his body. The Alien looked down at it, slowly slid it out of himself, tossed it away, and looked down at Emily as if he was bored.
"Okay. So, you just want a good ol' fashioned ass whoopin'.That's cool!" Emily kicked with all her might and snapped one of the Alien's knees backward then shot up off the ground with a strong uppercut. The Alien was barely phased by it and came back down hard crashing his head into Emily's. Emily tried to shake it off quickly and respond with a series of punches that were blocked. Then the Alien started to punch back, and they traded a long series of punches and deflections. Every hit The Alien landed on Emily felt harder than the last as if he were getting stronger by beating the shit out of her. Meanwhile every punch she threw was weaker than the one before. Finally, The Alien grabbed one of Emily's arms and twisted it behind her back. With a slight flick of his wrist he snapped Emily's bone and she cried out in pain and dropped to the ground. She looked over her arm which he had released and saw that the bone hadn't come through the skin yet, but it was close. The Alien stretched out his broken leg which fixed itself must Emily’s surprise and then he began to circle her looking down with disappointment.
"Shame. I thought you'd be different than the rest of the useless creatures of this world." He said. "I thought we could join in the Long Hunt together. But how could you? You're weak."
Emily watched The Alien circle her and waited until he walked near the edge of the building then she let out a yell, charged towards him and tackled him sending them both off of the building and down through a first floor window of the house next door. The Alien hit the ground first with Emily on top of him who proceeded to punch him in the face as much asshe could with her good arm. The Alien then sliced her leg with a hidden blade, pushed her off him and got to his feet. Emily looked at him and the blade in anger and disbelief.
"Slippery fuck we were doin' no weapons!" She grabbed her dagger out of her jeans and jumped at The Alien slashing his chest three times. "Cheating Mother Fucker!" She then plunged the dagger into his neck and stabbed the same spot a few more times as he fell to the ground. She stood over his bloody body and watched him gurgle a little before going still. Emily let out a large sigh "fuck." She looked back at her broken arm and the pain crept up on her again. "Fuck!" She grabbed a nearby wooden chair and broke one of the legs off it. She cut it down and tied it to her arm as a splint. When she was done, she looked back at The Alien's body and saw only a pile of black blood. She let out another sigh. She exited the house on her way back next door. It was now dark out and the moon was full and shining bright. Emily looked up at it and noticed something on top of a nearby house. The silhouette of The Alien. She couldn't see his face, but she knew he was staring right at her and then the next moment he jumped away out of view. Emily thought to herself "The Long Hunt huh? Super."
She came across Stink Eye where she left him lying on his back in the exact same spot snoring in his own silent way, it made Emily smile. She dropped all her gear on the floor where she stood and then sat down on the couch next to StinkEye too tired to even take off her shirt or boots. She was exhausted and in pain, but she had survived another day. For that she knew Oldtimer would be proud of her. She curled up to Stink Eye as much as she could while keeping her broken arm straight. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep; she would need her strength for whatever the world had waiting for her in the morning.
End.
Emily woke up in a bed that could fit at least three people, but she managed to stretch her body across the entire thing over night. She snuggled into the covers and smiled, enjoying the feeling of waking up somewhere comfortable for once. She got up, stretched and looked out the window into the bright sun. The sky was blue and checkered with clouds, “Beautiful” she thought. That’s what Oldtimer would’ve called it. He taught her many Words of the Old World and that was one of her favorites, but it seemed she rarely got a chance to use it. She placed her palm on the glass to feel the warmth of the sun, a split-second later she quickly pulled her hand away. “Fuck! It’s gonna be another hot one!” She exclaimed.
Oldtimer had also taught her all the curses of The Old World which she found many occasions to use. “Damn that shit hurt” she said looking over hand. Then something caught her eye in the corner of the room, something she didn’t notice when she stumbled in last night. A person sized mirror stood next to a large dresser. She didn’t come across nice clean mirrors like this one very often. Most of the reflective surfaces she found were broken or dirty so she couldn’t see “The whole picture”. She could see the whole picture in these ones she found in Oldtimer called them “rich people” houses. She straightened herself out and walked up to the mirror looking her reflection up and down. She put a hand through her hair which she thought was probably getting too long stretching down to her lower back. She had heard the phrase “fiery redhead” before but never thought it applied to her, “My hair is darker thanany fire I’ve seen.” She thought Blood Red was much more appropriate. She noticed the same clothes she wore yesterday and must’ve fallen asleep in, like usual. There was so much dirt and whatever else stained on her dark blue T-Shirt that you could barely see the faded logo that was once so prominent. It was of some band that Oldtimer loved but she couldn’t quite remember the name. “Something about metal, it was either in the name or it was a type of music, or both.”
She noticed that she did manage to take her backpack and forest green over shirt off. Where she threw them would be a question for later. Her fingers picked at a new hole in her skinny jeans, one more to add to the collection of tears and rips from walking in them too long or from some close calls and some not-so-close calls. Once her steel toe boots were kicked off, she could examine the state of her socks which had more holes in them than her pants. She would have to look for some while she was in the house. “Socks are very important” Oldtimer used to say.
It didn’t take her long to find a clean pair in the bedroom dresser. Once they were snug on her feet, she looked around the room for her backpack and her shirt when she found her Bulldog lying on his side on the floor still asleep. His lip was quivering as he breathed heavily in and out without making any noise. He was trained not to snore, a very important trick for their lifestyle where silence meant safety. When he slept like this he almost looked like a normal dog. You could barely see the various dark green patches on his body where TheDisease infected him, including one on his head that spread to his eye which made it twice the size with a bright purple pupil. Just one example of the mutations left behind by The Disease, an alien infection that hit the world so long ago. Oldtimer said it hit the children first and then spread to everyone else. The mutations affected everyone differently, but they were only one of the side effects. Oldtimer taught Emily math so she’d know how much they lost, “87% Dead, 11% Mutated, 2% Immune.” He said that they were lucky, but he never told her what that meant.
At least her dog’s mutation wasn’t too bad. She thought it could be kind of cute sometimes and it could definitely come in handy in tight spots. It also earned him the name Stink Eye, but he could also be referred to as “Stinky”, “Stink”, and on a few occasions he’s been called “Hey Stupid Fucking Dog” when he’s caught not backing Emily up in a fight because he got distracted by something to eat, smell, or crap on. He didn’t notice when Emily nudged him with her foot even after she put her boots back on. “Fine, stay there you lazy ass.” She said.
On a nearby chair she found her over shirt, which she tied around her waist, and her backpack next to two 16-inch sheathed swords. She picked up the swords and strapped them securely to her back and then swung on her backpack which also sheathed a dagger on the right side. All her blades were clean and sharp when she looked them over before sheathing them again and walking out of the room.
She decided to take a look around the house since she was too tired to do it last night.She remembered walking through the dark abandoned neighborhood looking for a suitable place to sleep when she finally chose this house mainly because the whole thing was still standing. When she looked through the kitchen downstairs, she found a refrigerator full of rotten food and cabinets full of canned food. If it didn’t have to be fresh, food was never hard to come by since all the people who got deathly ill stopped eating and the ones who mutated got a different kind of appetite. She grabbed what she could carry and moved onto the next room where she found a large bookshelf full of books. She took a few moments to look through them and read the backs of some of them. After much deliberation she took a worn book out of her backpack and replaced it with a new one from the bookshelf. A large thud suddenly came from somewhere in the house, “What the fuck!?” She looked over to the where she thought she heard the noise and saw a door.
She slowly walked over to the door she figured might lead to the basement. She grabbed her dagger out of its sheath and held it steadily out in front her with the blade facing out toward the door and then slowly opened it. The stairwell down was pitch black, so she reached in her backpack and took out a pencil sized flashlight and clicked it on. The light reached out 4 feet in front of her illuminating the stairwell. After doing a couple of sweeps with the flashlight she carefully put one foot down onto the step in front of her, she stepped down three more when she heard something move from one end of the dark basement to the other. She whipped her flashlight aroundtrying to catch whatever was moving around but couldn’t find anything. As she went deeper into the basement, she could hear whatever it was stirring like it was getting ready to make a move.
“Alright whatever you are. Come on out so I can stick this dagger in your face.” As soon as she said it, she heard something drop to her left making her swing around with the flashlight and saw something hiding behind a few boxes. The light barely touched it, but she could see it was some kind of creature around 3 feet long with at least 4 legs. She got a little closer to get a better look when the creature’s head popped up and its silver eyes shined in the light of the flashlight. It let out a sharp screech and then dashed at Emily hitting her full force in the chest and knocking her down sending the flashlight flying across the basement. The creature crawled up to Emily’s face and started biting at her. She tried to hold it back and reach for her dagger that had fallen next to her on the ground. With each bite the creature came closer to Emily’s face until it finally scratched the edge of her nose, drawing blood which the creature started hastily licking up. “Owwww! Get the fuck off me, Thing!”
Emily strained her arm to grab the dagger and she swung at the creature chopping off one of its legs. The creature screeched again and ran up the stairs as black blood gushed from its new wound. Emily quickly got up and jumped up the stairs catching the creature by its other back leg. The creature struggled in her hands causing blood to spray her in the face. She tried to jump up the stairsfurther, but the blood made the steps too wet and she slipped, lost her grip and knocked her head on one of the steps. “Fuck me. I am going to kill this thing.” She thought as it ran up into the stairs. Emily threw her dagger as she entered the main level and it hit the ground next to the creature. She groaned and then unsheathed one of her swords. “Hey!” She shouted getting the creature’s attention. Once she had it, she gave herself a small cut on her thumb and stuck it out. “Want blood? Get you some.”
The creature tensed up its legs getting ready to bolt. Emily kept her eyes on it gripping her sword in her right hand. The creature bolted towards her and jumped up 5 feet in the air. Emily ducked down swinging her sword up towards the creature. At the end of her swing the creature hit the floor in two halves and the sword splashed its blood all over a nearby table that had some framed pictures sitting on it. One of the pictures stuck out to Emily, it showed a man and woman holding a baby, about 3 feet long. Emily froze, “It hit the children first” Oldtimer said. “Put it out of your head. Put it out of your head, it’s time to move on.” She stood up straight, cleaned off her sword, sheathed it, and grabbed her dagger. She yelled upstairs to Stink Eye “Hey Stink wake up, time to go!”
Stink Eye walked out and headed down the stairs towards Emily, his purple pupil bounced a little bit in his eye with each step. When he arrived at the bottom, he looked at the two pieces of the creature lying of the ground and then he looked upat Emily and tilted his head to one side. “Yeah that’s right I got it all by myself. I didn’t need your help.” She said.
In response he groaned and shook his floppy ears dismissively which shook his purple pupil around a little. “You ugly bastard, I love ya. Let’s go.” She opened the door and they both ventured out into the world once again.
As soon as Emily stepped out of the house the bright sun hit her right in the face. She quickly threw her hand up to shield her eyes. “Fuck You” She said with disdain.
Next to her Stink Eye caught the scent of something. Emily took a whiff, letting in the summer air. Her expression dropped as soon as she recognized the smell, Human Meat. Stink Eye slowly followed the scent with Emily behind him. Around a corner the street stopped in a dead end surrounded by houses. In the middle of it all was a barbecue pit. Six men with different and varying mutations stood around the pit. The severed bits of human that weren’t being cooked on the barbecue were stacked in a pile nearby. Emily watched them from afar with a look of disgust and hate and then confidently approached the group with Stink Eye close to her growling.
“Hey Assholes!” She said in a shout. The whole group looked over at Emily. The leader of the group stepped closer.
“Another healthy one. This neighborhood is like the delis of old. You look like a particularly good cut of meat.” He said with slime seeping from his mouth.
“Oh I am. But unfortunately, you’re all gonna be too dead to enjoy all my savory flavor.” Emily retorted.
“Oh, is that so?”
“It is.”
The Leader spoke to two other Mutants in the group. “Fellas, get me my meal.” The twoMutants walked up to her and Stink Eye began to growl again until Emily silenced him. They approached her on the Left and the Right about to put their hands on her when she grabbed the arm of the mutant on her Right and kicked the knee of the Left so hard it snapped back and made his body lunge forward. Emily then snapped the Right Mutant's arm making the bone pop out of his skin allowing Emily to grab it and plunge the exposed bone into the Left Mutant's eye. She then took the head of The Right Mutant into her arms and twisted it until it broke. The two mutants dropped dead at Emily’s feet and the rest of the group looked at her in shock and Emily looked right back at them. “Looks like you’ll have to work a little harder for this meal.”
A smile creeped onto the Mutant Leader’s face. “Okay then. Boys!” The leader shouted and about a dozen more of his men came out of the surrounding houses. Emily watched and got riled up. “Yeah Mother Fucker get everyone out here!” All the mutants formed across from Emily ready to fight. The Mutant Leader stood to the side so he could watch.
“Okay Stink, now!” She looked down at Stink Eye after nothing happened and she saw him hard at work licking himself. She gave him a kick with her boot and he finally looked up. “Need your help here, idiot.” Stink Eye looked over at the large group of mutants and stood up. Then with his back paw he gave himself a few scratches behind the ear looking for a specific green spot. As soon as he hit it, he transformed into a larger beasty version of himself with sharper claws and teeth andmore visible green and purple patches. He immediately charged at the group of mutants making a hole and taking them into a house behind them. The house was then destroyed as Stick Eye finished off the Mutants inside. The remaining mutants looked at Emily who unsheathed her swords with a smile on her face. “Well come on!”
The group charged at Emily and she sliced through them all without leaving the spot where she stood then looked over at the Mutant Leader with fresh blood on her face. “Well looks like you can have me all to yourself if you still want me.”
The Mutant Leader looked back at her infuriated. “You bitch! You think this is all of us? We are an army. You have no idea…” Emily interrupted.
“Are you going to keep running your mouth or are you gonna come over here so I can cut your head off?”
The Mutant Leader gripped the axe in his hand getting ready to go after her. “I’m gonna kill ya.”
Emily stood there waiting “Well then come on.”
“I’m gonna kill ya!”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I’m Gonna KILL Yaaaaaagh!”
“Oh, are we yellin’?”
The Mutant Leader continued to yell so Emily started yelling back. Finally, the Mutant Leader ran at Emily and she charged back at him. As they met the Mutant Leader swung his axe at Emily who spun around him and lopped his head off with one swift motion. The Mutant Leader’s head fell to the ground and looked up at Emily with a frozen look of surprise. Stink Eye approached her back in his normal form and gave the head a sniff. He then panted heavily before dropping to the ground exhausted. Emily looked down at him and smiled “Awe there’s my tired little monster. Thank you, buddy.”
She scratched him on his nowexposed belly then looked up and noticed something on the roof of a nearby house. A man was on the roof standing by the chimney. But it wasn’t a human man, and he wasn’t infected Mutant. This was nothing like the alien infections she had seen, this guy just looked straight up Alien. As Emily stared at him, she noticed he was staring back. He raised one hand in the air as if he were waving. Emily raised her hand to reluctantly wave back when she noticed there was something in The Alien's hand. Something he was throwing at Emily. Suddenly a sharp silver blade like nothing she had seen before planted itself in her right shoulder. “Ow! What the fuck!?” She looked back at The Alien enraged and in pain just in time to see him drop something down the chimney of the house then jump away out of sight. Seconds later the house exploded knocking Emily back and unconscious.
Later Emily woke up in a daze. She opened her eyes and saw blurry images of three Mutants standing above her and looking her over and felt one of them tugging on her backpack. The Mutant turned her over on her stomach and started pulling at the bag shaking her around. After a few seconds of shaking Emily closed her eyes and mustered some strength to spin her body hard forcing her out of the Mutant’s arms much to his surprise. “This one’s alive!” The Mutant exclaimed.
Emily jumped to her feet and shook herself off giving the three surrounding Mutants an intense look of displeasure. One of the smaller Mutants spoke up. “Sorry, we thought you were dead.”
The Big Mutant next to him growled at the small one. “Don’t apologize to her we’re just gonna kill her andtake her shit anyway.”
“No, you’re not” Emily stated with confidence.
“See I just find her more convincing and we just seen how she killed the other fellas.”
“Wow never met one of you with any logic.” Emily said with genuine surprise.
“You little shit we oughta kill you ourselves after we’re done picking our teeth with this bitch!” The Big Mutant threatened.
“Where’s my dog?” Emily asked.
“Your dog? You mean that wild beast that took down the house?” The Small mutant responded.
“Yeah that’s him. How did you see all that? Everyone present except me was killed quite mercilessly.”
“We can see a lot from Lady Mercy's base in the mountains.”
“Hey! Shut the fuck up! Stop divulging all of our damn secrets!” Big Mutant warned.
“Lady Mercy's Mountain Base, is that where they took the dog?” Emily asked.
“Probably.” Small Mutant’s head was suddenly smashed in with one swing from Big Mutant’s hammer. His headless body fell to the ground with some of his green and purple laced brains spilling onto the road.
Emily threw her hands up. “Awe man, what the fuck?”
“Enough chat. More Kill!” Big Mutant yelled and stormed forward at Emily raising his large hammer to the sky. Emily just waited for him and nonchalantly reached back for her swords that she discovered weren’t actually there anymore. Her eyes raised as the Big Mutant got ready to come down on her with his hammer.
“Fuck me.” She said as she crouched and rolled under the Big Mutant's legs and caught a glimpse of the third Silent Mutant who has her swords in his hands. “Son of bitch!” Emily rushed at him and grabbed her swords before Silent Mutant can even start to swing them. She then tackled him to the ground, got on top of him and began stabbing him in the chest with both swords. “Comeat me with my own fucking swords! I don’t fucking think so!” She only stopped stabbing when she realized the Big Mutant was back and about to take her head off from behind. She ducked and the Big Mutant raised his hammer up high and then swung it down towards Emily who rolled forward as the hammer landed on the dead body of the Silent Mutant who's stomach exploded due to the impact and sprayed all over the Big Mutant’s face. He began to yell trying to scratch the gore out of his eyes and off his face and Emily saw her moment to strike. She ran at him and sliced his left knee then his right which brought him to the ground. She cut his right wrist which caused him to drop his hammer on the ground. Then with all her strength she pushed her leg off his chest to launch herself into the air and back down plunging both swords into his eye sockets right through the back of his head. She stayed there for a moment struggling to pull her swords out of the Big Mutant’s face. Once she freed them, she got back on her feet and ready to go. She looked up into the mountains and whispered to herself “Mountain Base. Lady Mercy. Here I come.” From a distant cliff The Alien was once again watching Emily as she ventured higher into the mountains.
It didn't take Emily long to find the house she was looking for. Mutant lairs this large could be heard and smelt from miles away. She had never seen a "Rich People" house like this one, the whole thing was a three-story circular structure with very little widows. After scoping the place out from a few different perspectives, she had a prettygood idea of what was waiting for her inside. She remembered Oldtimer always saying, "Never enter a fight until you know how to win it." From what she could see there were around thirty Mutants in the house, roughly ten on each lever. She had also caught a glimpse of a cage on the first floor which is where they were likely keeping Stink Eye. The only information she didn't have yet was which one of these Mutants was the leader, Lady Mercy. Emily was sitting below the outside deck of the house which came out of the third floor when the sound of arguing caught her attention. She looked up and through the deck cracks saw a large Mutant woman dragging another Mutant outside by his ear and cursing at him. The Mutant was pleading and begging with her until the moment she tossed him off the deck onto the rocks below. His head hit a boulder with a loud Squish. Bits of his skull hit Emily's boots and his jawbone bounced off the rock and hit Emily right in the face. Emily let out a sigh and thought "You'd think I'd be fucking used to this by now" as she wiped what blood she could off. She looked back up at the deck and noticed that across from it was another mountain cliff with only about eight feet bridging the gap which brought a smile to Emily's face, "jumping distance." She now knew how to win this fight, there was only one thing she was missing.
She soon found what she needed in a nearby house, Oldtimer used to call it Booze, he had taught her many uses for it, but her favorite was to light shit on fire. He also said people used to drink it which sheknew wasn't true, he just said stuff like that to make her laugh. She packed a couple of the bottles up and made her way upwards to the top of the cliff across from the patio. On her way up she stuck long pieces of cloth, about two feet long, in the tops of the bottles. As she arrived at the cliff, she set the bottles down, and took out an old zippo lighter that had an image of a blonde woman flashing her breasts on it. She lit the end of the pieces of cloth and let them burn as she approached the edge of the cliff. As soon as she got close all the mutants on the patio across from her noticed. Lady mercy caught a glimpse and barreled her way through her men to the edge of the patio to confront Emily.
"Who the hell are you!?" Lady Mercy shouted with enough spit that it nearly reached Emily across the eight-foot gap between them.
"You have something of mine." Emily said calmly.
"Yours!? Everything you see here is Lady Mercy's! And that's Me bitch!"
As Lady Mercy spoke Emily looked at the ten Mutant's surrounding Lady Mercy. They all looked like the Mutants she always came across, ugly and stupid just waiting to be chopped up. As she scanned the crowd one Mutant did grab her eye. A skinny idiot with a slimy green tongue hanging three feet out of his mouth slightly panting. Emily had seen a lot of mutations but something about this guy just really rubbed her the wrong way. She tried to put her focus back on Lady Mercy.
"You have my dog."
"Awwwwwooohhh So you're the girl with the dog causin' the trouble. Well let me tell you something little miss killin...."
Lady mercy continued on her rant, butEmily couldn't pay attention because she couldn't tear her eyes away from the Mutant with the nasty dangling tongue. Eventually Emily interrupted. "Hey You." Emily motioned towards the Tongue Mutant. He looked over at her. "Yeah you." Emily said. "I am going to rip that Fucking Tongue right out of your Goddamn head." The Tongue Mutant looked back with a worried expression as Emily just stared at him and nodded. "Oh yeah." Lady Mercy started to laugh and got Emily's attention back.
"You really think you can take all of us out and rescue your poor pup?"
Emily looked back at her confused. "Rescue? No. This isn't a rescue I'm just meeting him here." Emily then put her fingers to her lips and whistled. On the bottom floor of the house Stink Eye jumped awake in his cave and noticed the situation he was in. The two Mutants guarding him looked back at him with concern before being promptly torn limb from limb by Stink Eye's beasty form. Everyone on the patio heard the chaos below and Emily reached down and grabbed both bottles whose burning cloths were now just inches away from the top. She tossed the bottles onto the patio hitting a Mutant on both sides. They both exploded in flames and Emily grabbed her swords from her back and lunged off the cliff onto the patio driving both swords into the shoulders of Lady Mercy, pinning her to the wall behind her. She then swiftly killed a couple of Mutants without her swords before getting to the Tongue Mutant. She grabbed his long slimy tongue and kicked his legs out from under him, on his way down she pulled her arm up and ripped the tongue out of his head. He hit the ground and she threw his tonguedown hitting him in the face, then knelt down, grabbed his head and bashed it on the ground until its contents spilled out. Just then the rest of the Mutants on the patio came at her. She grabbed one sword out of Lady Mercy's shoulder to the kill a Mutant then grabbed his weapon and puts that back in Lady mercy's shoulder. She then did the same with the right shoulder and another Mutant. She then had both swords free and Lady mercy was still pinned to the wall. This allowed her to kill the rest of her minions on the third floor and leave Lady Mercy to slowly burn to death in the spreading fire.
Emily went to the bottom level of the house to find a mess of blood, organs, and body parts. Among the left-over carnage in the middle of the room lie Stink Eye fast asleep. Emily smiled at the sight, even though she knew she'd now have to carry his fat ass for the next few hours. In this moment she was just happy they were back together. She plopped down on the floor next to him and started to affectionately pet him before eventually heading back out with him in her arms.
As the sun started to set Emily was looking for a good place for them to rest for the night. She was in another neighborhood with houses in varying states of decay all around her. None of them really stuck out until she saw movement inside the top floor of one house nearby. The second floor of the house had no roof and just one standing wall with a window in it. Through the window she saw movement again and caught a glimpse of what she believed was The Alien from earlier. "Motherfucka." Shethought to herself and then headed to the house. She gently laid Stink Eye down on a couch in the living room and then quietly proceeded upstairs. She snuck up the stairs keeping an eye peeled ahead until she spotted The Alien then stomped up the rest of the stairs making her presence known. When she reached the top, The Alien looked over at her expressionless.
"Hey asshole you dropped something." Emily grabbed the Alien knife that he threw at her earlier and held it out. The Alien looked back with interest.
"You returned it. Perhaps you are worthy."
"Oh well, good for me!" She said sarcastically than tossed the knife back at The Alien who dodged it like it was no problem but looked back to see Emily charging at him full force with swords drawn. Before she reached him, he stretched his arm out and grabbed her by the throat stopping her in her tracks. Emily coughed and swung her swords frantically trying to slice at the Alien but not reaching anything while she was in his grip. She finally swung one sword at his arm forcing him to let go of her and dodge the blade. She then swung her left sword at him which he blocked with such force it caused her to drop her sword which The Alien then kicked across the room. Emily jumped back for a moment and then shot forward running her sword right through the torso of the Alien. The Alien spun as he was stabbed and pushed Emily to the ground leaving the sword stuck in his body. The Alien looked down at it, slowly slid it out of himself, tossed it away, and looked down at Emily as if he was bored.
"Okay. So, you just want a good ol' fashioned ass whoopin'.That's cool!" Emily kicked with all her might and snapped one of the Alien's knees backward then shot up off the ground with a strong uppercut. The Alien was barely phased by it and came back down hard crashing his head into Emily's. Emily tried to shake it off quickly and respond with a series of punches that were blocked. Then the Alien started to punch back, and they traded a long series of punches and deflections. Every hit The Alien landed on Emily felt harder than the last as if he were getting stronger by beating the shit out of her. Meanwhile every punch she threw was weaker than the one before. Finally, The Alien grabbed one of Emily's arms and twisted it behind her back. With a slight flick of his wrist he snapped Emily's bone and she cried out in pain and dropped to the ground. She looked over her arm which he had released and saw that the bone hadn't come through the skin yet, but it was close. The Alien stretched out his broken leg which fixed itself must Emily’s surprise and then he began to circle her looking down with disappointment.
"Shame. I thought you'd be different than the rest of the useless creatures of this world." He said. "I thought we could join in the Long Hunt together. But how could you? You're weak."
Emily watched The Alien circle her and waited until he walked near the edge of the building then she let out a yell, charged towards him and tackled him sending them both off of the building and down through a first floor window of the house next door. The Alien hit the ground first with Emily on top of him who proceeded to punch him in the face as much asshe could with her good arm. The Alien then sliced her leg with a hidden blade, pushed her off him and got to his feet. Emily looked at him and the blade in anger and disbelief.
"Slippery fuck we were doin' no weapons!" She grabbed her dagger out of her jeans and jumped at The Alien slashing his chest three times. "Cheating Mother Fucker!" She then plunged the dagger into his neck and stabbed the same spot a few more times as he fell to the ground. She stood over his bloody body and watched him gurgle a little before going still. Emily let out a large sigh "fuck." She looked back at her broken arm and the pain crept up on her again. "Fuck!" She grabbed a nearby wooden chair and broke one of the legs off it. She cut it down and tied it to her arm as a splint. When she was done, she looked back at The Alien's body and saw only a pile of black blood. She let out another sigh. She exited the house on her way back next door. It was now dark out and the moon was full and shining bright. Emily looked up at it and noticed something on top of a nearby house. The silhouette of The Alien. She couldn't see his face, but she knew he was staring right at her and then the next moment he jumped away out of view. Emily thought to herself "The Long Hunt huh? Super."
She came across Stink Eye where she left him lying on his back in the exact same spot snoring in his own silent way, it made Emily smile. She dropped all her gear on the floor where she stood and then sat down on the couch next to StinkEye too tired to even take off her shirt or boots. She was exhausted and in pain, but she had survived another day. For that she knew Oldtimer would be proud of her. She curled up to Stink Eye as much as she could while keeping her broken arm straight. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep; she would need her strength for whatever the world had waiting for her in the morning.
End.
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