I trekked through the night, listening carefully for any noises that might betray any potential predators. The radiation from the wars is now long gone, but it has had drastic, permanent effects on the local wildlife. Innumerable mutations occured across the globe, many resulting in advantageous characteristics.

The thought made me recheck my ventilation mask. If I caught a disease, I'd be dead. The bacteria and viruses have become untreatable, far beyond the capabilities of what medicine we recovered. Humanity is almost at the bottom of the food chain.

I arrived safely at my safehouse. In reality, this was just an old, abandoned concrete fallout shelter which I had slowly stocked up with supplies as I became more and more disillusioned with the Authorities. I had enough there to be able to survive out in the wilds.

Suddenly, my heart skipped a beat.

The door was open!

How did they know? How could they have followed me? Was the game up already?

Calm down, calm down. They can't have got here before you. Easy.

I slipped my knife out of its sheath and slipped silently through the door.

A dark figure was crouched over the food supplies, rummaging through. Its nostrils flared, and it spun and charged at me. Astonished by the speed, I barely had time to react, diving out of the way to avoid having my chest opened by the wickedly sharp claws it had on its arm. My tardiness resulted in a deep slash right down to the bone in my knife arm, causing me to drop and lose it in the dark. The creature spun around for another charge.

A flash of light and roar of sound assailed my senses. Flying pieces of warm wet flesh, hit me full in the face and body, before a heavy weight landed on my legs. The blood loss from my arm was casuing my vision to fade. The last thing I remember was a humanoid shape crouching over me.

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