Chapter 1: Eli?

"Eli!"

Ugh. It hurts. Stop shaking me so hard.

"Eli! Wake up! Please!"

Lucas felt his shoulders being tightly squeezed, bony little fingers digging painfully into his upper arms. Someone was violently shaking his body. And the offender seemed oblivious about their fingernails, which might as well be tiny little knives, piercing into his exposed skin, as they continued throwing his torso around like a dog shaking it's favorite toy during a game of fetch. His head whipped back and forth, causing his long hair to flail wildly around his face, tickling his closed eyelids and getting caught in his open mouth, making him cough and gag as he breathed a few strands into his throat.

"Cough cough! Uuuhhhhh...."

Groaning from the strain of pulling air into his heavy lungs after coughing out his own hair, Lucas became acutely aware of the throbbing pain in his eyes. Sharp bursts of intensity made the pain rise and fall in time with his pulse. He scrunched his already closed eyelids together even tighter, as if trying to shut out the source of the ache. At least the shaking finally stopped. Dammit, now his neck was sore from the erratic rocking of his head. Lucas struggled to raise one weary hand up to his face, covering and rubbing eyes with his palm.

"Eli! Thank god! Eeellliiiiiii!"

The vice-like grip on his shoulders was released, only to be replaced by arms wrapping around his back. Someone pulled him into a desperate embrace, burying their face in the crook of his neck. They were crying now, sobbing really, a wet spot growing on his skin from what he hoped was only tears, and not mucus. Lucas wiggled his arm free from between them, removing his hand from his face. Exhausted and sore beyond belief, his arms hung limply at his sides, hands lying on the hot dirt in which he was sitting.

"Vivi! Get Eli out of here! Now! I'll be right behind you!"

Prompted by the shouts of a nearby woman, Lucas opened his eyes just enough to see what was going on. The unwelcome light only served to increase the pain in his eyes. Eyelids blinking rapidly, his vision gradually adjusted to the brightness around him. Just as he was regaining his sight, the hug he was trapped in broke loose, but that damn shoulder shaking picked up where it left off.

"Eli! Hey! Look at me! We need to run!"

Lucas raised his head to look at the person holding him. His thoughts were cloudy and slow, much like a bad hangover he once experienced after a night of drinking with his buddies at a college party. What a mistake that turned out to be. As he focused on the face in front of him, his currently dumbed-down brain could only process one thing.

"So cute."

An adorable little girl, with wavy golden blonde hair, stunningly clear blue-gray eyes, a slightly upturned delicate nose, and pouty, full pink lips. Tears were smeared down her face from all the crying, but her expression was a mixture of anxiety and panic. Lucas raised a hand to her face. He softly wiped the tears and blood from her cheek, feeling compelled to offer comfort to this distraught girl.

Wait. Blood?

"Come on! Let's go!" She urged him. She grabbed his hands and stood up, pulling him to an unsteady standing position along with her. Sliding an arm around his back, hand on his hip, she pulled his left arm up over her left shoulder, half-carrying him as she began walking.

His consciousness slowly returning to him, Lucas could now hear the distinctive sounds of scuffling, grunting, dull slapping, and yelling that typically meant a fight was going on nearby. What was that metallic clanking sound though? He looked toward the noise to his right. Huh?

One against three. That was his first assessment. A lone blonde woman, with her back to him, was facing off against three other female opponents in the center of a wide open room littered with the dilapidated remains of ornate wooden benches. Beams of sunlight streamed through broken stained-glass windows, and clouds of dust danced through the light, the only movement amide the tense stillness which had settled among the combatants. The three assailants were hunched in low, wide stances, holding hunting knives, aiming the blades at the blonde fighter standing between themselves and Lucas. Is she protecting us from them? It certainly seemed that way at a glance. The blonde woman wielded a machete in each hand, with one arm poised in front of her and the other outstretched as if to block anyone trying to move past her.

Blood dripped from the machete held out at her side. He looked down to where the blood fell and saw a pair of legs sprawled out on the floor, the upper body hidden from his view behind one of the overturned benches. A pool of crimson liquid was seeping out from underneath the bench.

"Mom! We're going!" The little girl called out as she dragged him toward a nearby doorway. The blonde warrior turned her head to the left just enough to look back at Lucas. Her opponents weren't stupid enough to let such an opportunity slide. They all rushed forward, obvious murderous intent distorting their faces into rage-filled scowls. He was rushed through the doorway before the first blows were traded. More screaming, grunting, and metallic clanging noises echoed into the corridor he and the girl were rushing through. Ahead of them, at the end of the short hallway, was an incredibly old wooden door hanging loosely on rusted hinges. The door was in such piss-poor shape it fell away from its hinges entirely when the girl pushed on it, clattering down into the reddish-orange sand outside.

"This way. Mom said to wait in the roller after we got you out. I have the keys, we can lock the doors and be safe inside. You're safe now Eli. It's over. You're safe." She lead him around the back of the building, which he now realized was a decayed old church of some kind. Faded, peeling white paint, broken siding planks, crumbling roof, and the steeple, which had fallen away from the main building at some point, lay in a busted heap perpendicular to its original base. Looking around, Lucas noticed all the buildings in the area were in a similar state of disrepair. Many were much worse. And every visible surface bore a thick coating of the red sand they were walking on.

"Where are we?" Lucas asked, noticing how severely dry the air was as he spoke.

"The Wastes. We tracked those bitches for three whole days trying to find you. I was so scared, I thought you might be gone forever." Lucas looked up at her face and noticed her bottom lip trembling. The poor girl was holding back her tears, trying to be strong in front of him. She's so tough for someone so young, he thought. "The roller's hidden behind that building. We're almost there Eli, just a little more. Mom will finish them off and then we can leave this horrible place."

The pair made their way behind the building she previously pointed out. What awaited them was a car that didn't quite look like a car. Boxy design, oversized wheels, black-out tinted windows, steel plating riveted to the sides and doors, reinforced luggage racks on the roof, high-powered LED bar lights outlining the entire thing, and an oversized front-end grille guard. This thing was clearly made to handle some serious shit. The deep scratches and cuts all over its exterior were proof it had been through some of that serious shit already. Maybe a few times. It looked like someone bought one of those stupid electric trucks designed by an eccentric billionaire and tried converting it into an urban assault vehicle, but with more lights. Honestly, it looked pretty fucking awesome to a redneck from rural Arkansas. Especially the camouflage paintjob. It blended right in with the rusty red landscape.

"Badass ride." Lucas mumbled as the girl opened the back door and helped lift him up into the seat. She prodded him further into the vehicle, climbed in after him, closed the door, and locked them in. 

 "We made it." She pulled him into another tight hug and started stroking the back of his head. "I'm so sorry Eli. I should have noticed you were gone sooner. I shouldn't have let you out of my sight in the first place. Mom always warned me. I knew better. I'm so, so sorry." She was crying again, on the verge of a full-blown emotional breakdown. Lucas reciprocated the hug and lightly patted her on the back.

"Hey, sshhhh. It's okay. I don't know what's going on, but you're alright. You said your mom is here, right? Is she that blonde with the machetes? You look just like her. She seemed like she can handle herself just fine. You'll feel better once she gets here." Lucas' thoughts were still a little hazy, so he had no clue what was happening, but he quickly told the girl whatever he thought would get her to stop crying on his shoulder.

"Eli?" She said as she pulled away from him to look into his eyes. "Why are you talking like that? What do you mean is she that blonde? You didn't recognize our mother?" Anxiety crept onto her face once more.

"Our mother? What? I think you're confusing me for someone else. I........don't have a mother, or siblings. You keep calling me Eli, is that who you were looking for? Is he in trouble? I'll help you and your mom find him as soon as I figure out what's going on. I just need a few minutes to collect my thoughts. I must have taken a nasty hit to the head or something, because everything is so confusing right now. I don't even know how I got to......well, wherever this is."

As he spoke, the little girls expression changed from anxious to bewildered, back to anxious, and finally settled somewhere between fearful and sorrowful. She threw her arms around him and began wailing, clearly mourning the loss of something or someone. His heart was breaking for this brave child experiencing so much trauma. It reminded him of his own sorrows at that age, the loss of his family. He wished he could take away her sadness somehow.

*tap tap tap* A light tapping against the window drew his attention.

"Vivi, Eli, it's mom. Open the door. We need to leave while the sun's still high." Came a feminine voice, mostly muffled through the tinted glass.

Lucas reached out behind the inconsolable girl clinging to his chest and pulled on the door's latch, opening it for the girl's mother. The door swung outward and Lucas finally got a good look at the woman. His brain stopped working and his mouth hung slightly open. This was, without question, the most beautiful, alluring, sexy woman he had ever seen. The sunlight behind her gave a halo effect to her flowing golden hair. A face nearly identical to her daughter's, with slightly larger eyes and an added charm only maturity can provide. She wore a cut-off white tank top which exposed her perfectly toned stomach muscles. Her lightly tanned shin glistened with sweat dripping down her abs, neck, and arms. Her shirt was straining against the force of the most perfect, pert, perky round breasts he could ever imagine. Sweat from her throat trailed down into the ample exposed cleavage, the sight of which made him salivate with lust. The shorts she wore managed to cover the important bits, but not much else. Thick, firm, plump, smooth thighs just begging to be touched, to be squeezed. Wide hips that tapered off into a slim waistline. An ass so round it could make a basketball jealous. Truly, this body was made to drive men wild. Pure sexual temptation.

"My baby boy! It's okay now, mommy's here." She practically dove into the vehicle and caught both Lucas and the girl up in a suffocating embrace. With his face buried firmly into her enticing cleavage, it took all Lucas' willpower to control his lust. He was there already, why not just give them a little lick? You don't push a marinated steak in a hungry dog's face and expect him not to eat it, right? The urge to get a taste of the delicacy pressed against him was nearly overwhelming.

What the fuck is wrong with me? These ladies are in some kind of serious trouble. Get your head out of the gutter, dammit! Aren't you a real man? A good man? My old man would be so ashamed of me if he knew i was thinking this way. Hurry up and help this woman already!

Lucas leaned back, a little sad to be away from the soft pillowy embrace of her breasts, and spoke to the gorgeous woman. "Umm, I don't know the details, but you two are in an emergency, right? You're looking for someone named Eli who apparently looks like me or something, I'm guessing? I'll do whatever I can to help. I need to figure out how I got here, and what happened after that bomb hit, and if the old man is okay, but all that can wait. Whatever is happening to you seems far more urgent right now."

Oh shit. That's the same look the little girl had before-

"Aaahhhhhhhhh! No! My baby! Please, no! Why!" And the amount of wailing in the vehicle suddenly doubled.