I woke up well-rested, which was a rare thing, and quickly put myself to work as Kira just turns around to rest a little bit more, knowing that it would take a longer for us to get out.

            Cheater, I want more sleep too… But the lack of breakfast or lunch and dinner would make anyone awake a little more… alert.

The fire was already dead, so I only needed to gather my things up, as well as having my routine of cleaning myself up; brushing my teeth and cleaning my hands some more.

Once I was almost all covered up I finally go to the exit, happy to see no clouds in the sky, allowing the sun to warm us a little.

Kneading the snow beneath my foot I whistle at Kira, who leaves her laziness behind and perches her ears up, looking at me with intelligent brown eyes as she walks beside me, brushing her side on my leg.

I take a map out of my bag, already knowing most important places by head, but always keeping it up to date with a red marker, making zigzag lines on the blocked roads, or circles at were some camps are, that kind of stuff.

Uhm… We need food, and most common places had been emptied long ago… Sigh, things were getting worse by each passing day, the safe zone; that wasn’t really safe but was the better from the worst; were already empty, and even the medium to almost dangerous zones were dried out by Campers with better equipment and more hands to pocket things.

Which only left the zones all avoided, the red danger zones. I narrow my eyes at that, looking out at the empty street surrounded by trees and snow, thinking. There were a few options then… the big cities were impossible for us, with so many zombies crowded around in one place, it was practically impossible to go by unnoticed.

Too dangerous, even in this dire situation.

But all the medium cities that were in between the dangerous zone had been already looted… what to do, what to do… we, Wanderers as the Campers liked to call us, have no choice but to search for our food, there was no safe place to simply plant nor safety in waiting for it to grow.

So we usually risked our lives into dangerous places just to get a scratch of food… but I tried once and it didn’t go well.

I usually traded with camps, medicine for food, clothes even, anything from the outside that they couldn’t make themselves, but as they grow they set their own search teams.

Plus it was… risky.

No camp was keep nor made of roses and good intentions, it needed hard work and even harder grip on the rules. But not all camps manage to keep some law and order around, some enjoyed the fact that that was lost and took criminals in.

Now now, back to the problem at hand, I did not have anything worth to buy food, as it got more and more expensive for outsiders.

I was getting restless, I had already thought of this problem for a long time, and yet did not find a solution to the problem; 3 years in almost all food had already been consumed, taken or expired.

As I Wanderer that left me in a very dire situation.

I was left with one choice that came to mind… to steal one of the camps.

But that was hardly a good choice, I would be hunted down, lose credibility, with high chances of getting hurt or worse.

But I was running out of options, plain and simple.

I frown, pushing my glasses up and deciding to worry about that later; for now I would travel to the closest city in search for food or something to exchange for it, and who knows, maybe get lucky for once.

I take a deep breath from the icy cold air, preparing myself for yet another long journey, with a wave from my wrist motioning for Kira to follow me, all without uttering a sound.

What a smart girl.

We had ahead of us 12 to 14 km until we reached the edges of the city by foot, with meant almost 2 hours with a quick pace, uhm.

Might as well start with the first step, so I just did that, and another, and another, watching the forest surrounding the streets carefully and with a watchful eye, searching for zombies or people, but only receiving nothingness and a rare broken car.

For some reason; but to which I was thankful for; the zombies were attracted to the cities, hardly staying out in the wild, allowing nature to flourish as humankind perish.

Ironic, very ironic indeed.

But for that reason if you stayed out of the cities you were bound to be safe from them; though you still had to worry about the camps around, which sometimes were far worse than any zombies. Except the Hunters, those were very nasty, or the Stalkers that, for me, were the worse since they were the only kind to stay out in the wild, lying in wait to ambush any unaware human, especially at night, and especially alone.

That was one I really, really did not want to be found by; because you never see them coming until there are up your ass.

One attacked a patrol once, it was… terrifying.

That memory only made me more aware of my surroundings and for the lack of sounds around us, most noisy animals far and about, leaving only the howling of the wind to make us company.

For once it was good, I could hear enemies far away, on the other hand it was terribly boring, nerve-racking and stressful.

But this was the symphony of this new world, so quiet, so peaceful, all the sounds took for granted where now the main music played, all the cacophony from the big cities turned into mere distant wheezing in a faraway memory.

Suddenly a solution came to mind, but as soon as I thought of it and looked down towards Kira and knew it wasn’t an option, I could not simply try to be a Camper once more, try to live in the comfort of a somewhat safe place with farming and food.

Because that would mean leaving Kira behind.

And that would be heartless and cruel, and frankly I couldn’t tell who would, out of the two, get more hurt with the outcome. I could not part with her, I would not.

But at that moment my stomach made his point known by growling loudly, making me unconsciously rub it.

Ok, one problem at a time, I think, but the monotony and the silent walk did bad things to my full mind and empty stomach.

Like they say, empty mind it the devil’s playground… or something like that.

I pass over a gas station, over the convenience store, looking very similar to the one I spend the night at, the dirty glasses reflecting my image as I searched inside for traces of some loot left behind, tired dead eyes curved down from three years of constant fight and unforgiving wild world.

At least I did not have this sick appearance before the apocalypse.

Beyond not being sedentary anymore and having strong hard muscles over my legs, the lack of proper food and rest were the ones that took their toll on me by making me slim and my cheekbones more prominent, somehow making my eyes and lips bigger and more full.

Though my too white appearance makes me look like a ghost. As if my Mysophobia wasn’t enough, I was an albino, with very light blue eyes, soft fluffy cloud-like white hair, as well as my eyebrows and eyelash, faming upon my eyes with a too light color.

To help out my skin was milky white for the lack of sun because of the radioactive clouds that covered ever so present the light, giving the already dead place a more eerie aura. 

I just turn my nose at the sight of myself in the glass, all too aware of my own oddity, physically and mentally speaking.

I sigh. At least like this I wasn’t forced to mingle with society and people, being so different had never done me good…But made me tougher than my fragile appearance let it transpire, and more aggressive in a way, less reasonable and stubborn as a mule.

Believe me, people liked to say so, so I’m very aware of it; not that it matters, people only brought bad things so I could not care less about what they thought of me.

My mind stays like that, half attentive to our surroundings, half wondering and thinking, going back to ponder how I could find a safe place for us; a constant worry of mine I may add; until we could finally see far off a medium-size city, the type of place that if you get lost on a street you end up in the middle of the jungle, yet with enough markets to have some considerable movement in the center of it.

As all cities at this point this one looks stopped in time, the once welcomed safe heaven that humans created now appearing like a dormant beast waiting to pounce on your throats.

  I fix my backpack over my shoulder, looking at what can be our doom or our ticked to one more day alive in hell.

Only one way to find out.

“Let’s go girl.”

   ***

So, I’m studying deeper into radiation and what it does to it’ surroundings, but I’m going to have some liberties in this story, such as:  the radioactive animals and plant lifes, because I add the zombie virus as well (most wildlife would first have a decrease in number then adapt to it)

I watched videos from TED, new york times and discovery, I will comment their links for those who really want to go deep in it hehe.

Domingo Espetacular viajou até Chernobyl, cidade que virou um destino turístico (in portuguese, sorry~)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvS1XzJzZC4&t=573s

Is radiation dangerous? - Matt Anticole TED-ED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI2vRwFKnHQ

The Animals of Chernobyl | The New York Times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG-nwQBBfmc

What Will A Nuclear Blast Do To Your Body? -
Life Noggin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXPFrjp3yF0

Did Chernobyl Create Mutant Animals? – Because Science

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pu934afVrM