Monday, June 23, 2014

Moonlight Sonata Apocalypse: (excerpt), Final English Paper

“After all these years and shit we’ve been through, how can you still believe God exists?” Camille asked in a condescending tone. “How can I not believe in God with what we’ve been through?” Kain retorted. “What do you believe in then?” he asked. “Just you, me, our guns, food and water,” she said. She then snatched a book from his backpack. “Let’s see what the good Lord says today…” she giggled. “Genesis 1:31, And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good…” “You see this bullshit around us, Kain? Behold! We are in his glory!” she laughed. “Just stop, you wouldn’t understand the complexity of the faith.” Kain said in an offended tone. “Look even though the world is in shit, I see the works of God every day. The world is shambles because of the greed and injustice that ran rampant in it. Instead of helping each other and working to benefit our neighbors, we want to make a name for ourselves.” Kain lectured. “It was the greed of the elite few who darkened our skies with those hydrogen bombs. It’s their fault that those Bug Brains got out of control.” Camille then angrily retorted, “To be selfless means to be dead, Kain! We can’t help anyone with the shit we are in.” she continued, “We don’t have water and we don’t have any bandages!” Kain then snatched his Bible back and stuffed it in his pack. “Let’s just get down from this damn ruin.” he said brokenly. Slowly they made their way to a ladder, Kain started clambering down the ladder and the steel ladder groaned. “Let’s get off this rusty ladder and quickly,” said Kain, as he climbed down the ladder. Camille understood what he meant as soon as one of the steps of the ladder just crumbled away as she pressed her foot on it. “After many years of the acid rain, I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise the Empire State Building is crumbling,” she remarked. Kain held the grimy, rusty ladder firmly in place and waited for Camille to descend. As she descended, a loud roar of engines was heard. “It sounds like Harleys,” said worriedly Kain, “We really need to leave….Now!” Kain and Camille finally reached some solid floors and started taking inventory of all their equipment. Kain strung his bow, unhooked the strap for his knife, counted 13 arrows, and two full magazines of 7.62 x 39 for his AK and 18 rounds in the magazine well. Camille grabbed Kain’s Glock 20, unstrapped her rusty machete, counted 55 rounds of 10mm, and 13 cartridges of .308 and 9 rounds of 7.62 x 51 for her Remington 700. Kain looked at Camille, and with a thumb up, signaled he was ready. Camille nodded, and placed an ear close to the floor. “They’re three floors down, in the lobby, doing donuts with their bikes,” she whispered to Kain. Cautiously but swiftly they made their way down the stairs. They were careful not to step on broken glass, and avoid brushing their feet on any debris. Before they reached the last flight of stairs, Kain saw the fire escape. Making a split decision he signaled Camille, they were not fighting, and he pointed toward the fire escape. Camille and Kain stacked on opposite sides of the exit. “I’ll take point if you can silently open this door,” whispered Kain. “Remember what I taught you, it’s just like slicing a pie.” “Hey let me use the AK this time, you can take your Glock back,” Camille requested. “Are you sure? You know the AK is a little heavy,” Kain rebutted. Camille nodded and they traded. Kain drew his knife with his left hand and locked his left wrist under his right. Camille opened the door quietly, and Kain observed a silhouette of a tall man with a Mohawk leaned against the rails. Thinking he didn’t need his Glock, he holstered it, but the click of his holster lock alerted the sentry. The sentry pointed his M92 handgun at Kain, racked the slide, and pulled the trigger three times, but all that was heard was three clicks. This stunned both Kain and Mohawk sentry. The sentry threw his pistol at Kain, but just barely missed him. While Kain dodged the handgun hurled at his head, the man pulled a tomahawk from his belt. “Kain!” cried Camille. Kain saw the gleam of the tomahawk’s edge rushing towards his face. Kain dropped to the ground, and the tomahawk just barely missed him. “Mother-fucking-bitch!” shouted the sentry and he started to charge Camille with the tomahawk. Before the sentry got any closer to Camille, Kain slashed the man’s Achilles tendons. The sentry crashed to the ground. Kain grabbed the man by the hair, and with the serrated spine, sawed at the man’s throat. Choking and gagging from his own blood, the bandit had expired. Kain breathed the sigh of relief. He picked up the M92 pistol and inspected it. Camille held out her arms and sobbed. “I thought you were going to die,” she sobbed, “I am so sorry, I froze.” Kain assured her everything was fine. He took apart the pistol and found the cause of the firearm’s failure to operate. The internals of the gun were pitted with rust through years of neglect. However what surprised them the most was the bullets used were carved from concrete. “I guess after ten years of this bullshit, bullets are finally running low,” Kain scoffed. Kain then remembered the sentry’s tomahawk. He picked up the blade and was amazed by the craftsmanship of the implement. The edge was honed to a convex edge, and the spike was beefy, but needle sharp. The handle was made of Dynawood and wrapped with parachute cord. Kain was ecstatic to have such a great work of art added to his arsenal. Kain and Camille looted the body and found several bandages and several canteens of water. “Oh Hells yeah, we hit the payload!” exclaimed Camille. Suddenly the motorcycle engines ceased their roars. A scream was heard from within the lobby. Kain and Camille rushed off the building and into the ruins of building across from the Empire State Building. Kain peered through his binoculars and Camille looked into the scope of her Remington. There was a woman and child in the center of the motorcycles. The woman’s face was stricken with despair and anguish. The little girl seemed to have been shot in her upper torso was fading in and out of consciousness. “Oh God have mercy,” whispered Kain. On two of the bikes were a few chains. On one bike was a man’s lower torso, and on the other bike was a headless torso. Suddenly a lone biker came cruising at a distance. Camille quickly turned her attention towards the biker. “What the hell…?” she said with a tinge of fear. The biker was wearing a spiked helmet with a man’s head impaled through the spike. “These are damned marauders, and he must be the chief,” scowled Kain, “These fucks are cannibals too.” Camille and Kain watched as the head marauder dismounted his bike and strutted towards the woman and little girl. Kain felt he should do something, but he knew they were outmatched. His and Camille’s hearts grieved to watch what happened. A bandit tossed a large maul to the chief and it was caught. The monster savagely beat the woman and finally her head was crushed. The monster then turned to the little girl. His face filled with anger and started stomping on her. The little girl didn’t even react to the beating. It seemed as if she had already passed. “Those fucking monsters!” seethed Camille. Suddenly a loud shriek was heard and a large mob of shambling silhouettes advanced toward the lobby. “We need to get out of here. Those fuckers made too much noise, and now they have a hoard of those infected Bug Brains coming their way.” Kain said in a rushed tone. Kain packed his binoculars, but Camille, with her Remington 700, peered into the lobby. One by one the marauders were being ripped apart. The Chief was flailing around as one infected launched its head towards him and clamped on his jugular with its gaping maw. “Death is too good for them,” Camille whispered. She then aimed her scope on a motorcycle’s gas tank, and squeezed the trigger. The bike then exploded and the explosion from the bike ignited the other bikes as well. Kain came running back and frantically asked, “What did you do?!” Camille pointed to the scene of Hell. Kain and Camille watched as the marauders were being burned and eaten alive. Then suddenly the building started to collapse. Kain and Camille ran from the collapsing ruin. As they both ran, Camille turned her head to look one last time at the inferno. “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” she whispered.