Roleplair

His tale among the tales

It's 6AM much like any other morning. The clock goes off and he rolls over and slamming his hand down onto the buzzer much like any other day would start out. The same old schedule and the same old run of the mill day. He pulls himself from the warmth and inviting nature of his blankets and bed and shuffles his way across the room. The coldness of the wooden floors help waken his body a little more and ease him into the day, but all it made him think about really is just how much he hated it and wished he installed carpet. The daily struggles within his mind.. Was it sad that the biggest struggle was the flooring of his apartment? He shrugged it off and turned on the bathroom light. The sound of the humming flourescent lighting overhead mixed with the sudden yawn escaping his mouth. 

 

He turned on the water in the sink and even though his body told him no, he knew that he needed a fresh bit of crisp cold water splashed upon his face. He cupped his hands and filled the water up the best he can. It was a half-assed attempt for sure with most of it just making a fool out of him and running out of the sides of his hands, but he managed to splash enough of the water onto him to do the job. His eyes widen and all he wanted was to put on some coffee and take a nice shower. He moved towards the kitchen and turned on the radio. Odd.. There was nothing but static hanging to the speakers of the small kitchen radio that sat perched upon his bar. 

 

He gave it a little love tap and still nothing. Station to station, nothing worked. It was all just dull and almost hypnotizing static. Almost wanted to lull him back to sleep. He shrugged and shook it off. The most he needed was a new radio at best. The coffee machine roars out it's call of hot water and fresh coffee beans as it started to brew with the press of the on button. Atleast that worked.. He sat down for a moment trying to pinpoint the exact moment that his life turned to crap. A dead end job.. A single parent.. Everything a guy could ask for right? 

 

He sat there within his quandries when the lights started to give a flicker. Another issue? What a way to start a day. Suddenly the lights go out and the coffee machine hisses it's demise as it powers off. No power.. Great.. The sun still asleep.. The lucky bastard.. He goes over to the big apartment window and peered out over the city. Even this early, the hustle and bustle of the city was in full force. The city never sleeps. Just pulses away with life, but something was wrong. The lights were out all over. Traffic lights, building lights.. What the hell was going on. 

 

He stood there for a moment not understanding anything that was happening until it all seemed to fade. Something was falling from the sky. What the.. A helicopter!? Off in the distance, he could also hear a plane losing altitude fast. Was the sky falling!? He didn't think any longer. He ran to his son's room. He grabbed his 7 year old son and didn't even say a word to him. He grabbed nothing at all. He ran out of the apartment and down the hall. No one else seemed to know what was going on outside either. Most of the tenants standing out in the hallway asking the same question on his mind.. What was going on? 

 

The hallways was dark with no light coming from anywhere. You oddly forget how dark things would be with no light when you are always used to such a thing. He rushed down the flight of stairs with his son still tight within his grasp. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew he had to run. He didn't quite know why, maybe it was just human instinct perhaps. The boy was still half asleep and didn't seem to care much about what was going on. His slumber was still the most important thing to him. 

 

They get to the lobby and there are groups of people in the lobby shouting and demanding to know what was happening. Anarchy was already beginning to fall upon the city. The yelling and fighting came to a grinding hault as the helicopter he seen struck a side of a nearby building. The sound of metal blades ripping into the building and the sound of it's engine failing miserably as it smashes into the building entirely. It almost felt like it was heard in slow motion. Debri and carnage fell to the streets below and could be seen from the lobby.

 

Soon after, a larger impact and shake passed through the city with a great rumble of ground and a sound you'd never forget. The sound of a plane hitting the ground and blowing up upon impact. The sound of hundreds instantly gone from this earth. He didn't stick around to see what else was happening. He rushed outside and everything was stopped. Traffic was completely gone. All that was left were cars that seemed to not start and just sat there in the street. People fighting in the streets already over the traffic. He didn't know what to do.. Transportation was no longer an option. He hurried down the street, his son now alert due to all the explosions going off.

 

A terrorist attack!? He thought. That's what it had to be. People attacking his country! How? Why? Anger and confusion surged through him as he continued to find something.. Anything that would help him. He knew soon, people would be rioting and calling it the end of the world. He could hear more explosions going off in the distance. It could've been more metal falling from the sky for all he knew. Part of him really didn't want to know though. He just wanted to find some non-existant destination. A safe-way.. His son trembled in his arms and he tried to reassure him. "Son, it will be alright.. I promise you," his father told him. The man wasn't sure if he believed those words himself, but there he was.. Telling that to his son. Maybe we all lie when the time is right. We reassure eachother no matter the cost..

 

They get to the entrance of a parking garage and they were about to enter when two men stopped them. "Give me your money!" one of them shouted out towards him. The man put his son down and went to reach for his wallet, but he remembered that he hadn't grabbed it. "I.. I don't have any. I just ran from th......." in one swift motion, one of the men pulled a knife and slit the kid's father right across the throat. The men ran off and left the kid there. His father fell to his knees and looked at his son in the eyes. He knew he wouldn't be seeing his son again.. This was it. The man bled out quickly. He couldn't even gather his voice to say his goodbyes or simple I love you. He just motioned the words and the son could read his lips. "No! Dad! No!" the kid screamed out as his father fell to the ground. He rolled him over and pounded on his chest as the rest of the blood left his wound.

 

"Dad, please.. No!" the boy cried out as tears fell from his face. He seen movies pound on the person's chest to bring them back to life. He tried it over and over with tears pouring from his eyes and the sound of crying relevant coming from him and into the air. People passed them in panic and fighting, but no one stopped to help the little boy. The boy sat there for the longest time.. He didn't understand why the world was cruel. All he knew is that he lost he daddy. He lost the only person that cared for him. He watched his dead father there on the pavement and he curled up next to him and hung onto him for dear life.

 

All his father wanted was the day to be different. The same old day to be gone, but not like this.. Not at all like this. If for one more moment in time, perhaps he would have wished for that same old boring life back. It was gone.. The life from his body was gone. He was just cold and lifeless, but the boy stayed there hugging his dad.. He didn't know what else to do. A man stopped and took the father's shoes. Some stopped to see if he had a wallet on him, but none of them stopped to see if the boy was okay. None.. The boy made himself a promise that he'd live on for his father.. He'd survive somehow reguardless of what was happening. He'd be one of the ones that would live on. That's how to keep his legacy.. That's how to keep his dad with him..

 

                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~

17 years later...

The boy no longer a boy.. He had forgotten his real name. He wasn't sure how.. Maybe his mind blocked it out like he tried to do so much else. He called himself Gambit and friends called him Gambino most of the time even though he hated the nickname. Now 24 years old, he is a man. The world is a very different place now. The night everything happened wasn't a terrorist attack. It was an experiment gone horribly wrong. An experiment that left the world cold and dead. Many more planes and helicopters fell from the sky that night all over. All the power of the world was long gone and the world never was the same. People didn't rebuild the way you would imagine. Groups would always try to rebuild and set things right, but a bigger group would come along with a different plan and destroy it all. Everyone always had a different plan.

 

The metal shower from that night wasn't even the worst part of it all. A chemical agent was released that brought the dead back to life. It meant the dead would rise again and feed upon the flesh of anyone still among the living just trying to survive. This caused even more people to become agressive due to not knowing who had the virus. People became untrusting and civilization fell apart and crumbled even more. Places were raided, millions were killed, buildings were claimed or destroyed.. It was a much different, but somehow the boy grew up and kept his promise to survive. He somehow had a family at some point in his life. It was a complicated mess much like anything else in this new world, but it worked.

 

It worked until he lost his lover. Someone he called his wife even though there were no papers to make it official. There were no documents anymore. The new world didn't believe in it. Not at all. This was a "do what you want" type of world and you most just took what you needed from it. His wife couldn't bare the pain or raising their child in this kind of world. She killed herself when their son was only 2 years old. It somehow reminded him of his father even though the circumstances were different. Every death brought that memory back to him. Hell, just the sight of blood brought it all flooding back to him..

 

He learned to tolerate and accept death and seeing blood. Afterall, he had to adapt to this new world.. This new life. He had to keep his promise to himself all those years ago. His son was now 8 and for the most part, understood how the world worked. He never grew up in the old world so this was all he knew. They became quite the inseperable pair and they bonded with everything they went through. This was no world for a kid, but damn if they weren't making it. Everything was looking up and brighter regaurdless of all the hell and torment they had seen and went through. They always found a way..

 

They had a broken down house all to themselves. It wasn't the best but it worked for their needs. It kept the dead out and didn't look worth raiding by anyone so it was their place that was home. The day was much like any other day. The kid was playing in another room and the father was planning their moves for the week. Scavenging was a necessary evil in this world and they had to meticulously plan it all. The map was drawn up and Gambit was just going over it to see exactly what places they haven't reached yet. Glass shatters in backroom and a scream rings out. The son comes running into the room and stands behind his father.

 

Gambit suddenly sees one of the undead come into view. It must have seen the boy playing as it passed by and really wanted a meal. Gambit kicks it and it goes falling to the ground. It hissed and moaned at him as it snapped it's teeth towards his flesh. He grabbed the pistol that hung in a holster on his side and slammed the pistol into it's skull.  Most of the things were almost like mush now and it didn't take much to take them out. It was like a softened eggshell, but they smelled absolutely horrid. The smell of rotten flesh, the sharpened smell of copper, and every other dead thing you could possibly think of all rolled into one.

 

Everything was fine once more though.. It was all back to normal. The worst possible part of it all seemed to be the window now broken. It took him forever to find another solid window that would fit there. Now it was shattered.. Oh well. He shrugged and moved back to the planning of it all. "Stay in the room with me," he told his son, not wanting another situation like that one again. He could no longer concentrate so he decided to take a breather. He smiled at his son. "Want to take a walk with me?" he asked. With a nod from the little boy and a flashed smile, they head outside.

 

The scenery wasn't great and the air was thick and not something you'd want to typically breathe, but it was all they had. The sun was blocked out by all the pollution and dust that hung thick within the air. The sky mostly just stayed the same dull color again and again. It was often hard to tell whether it was night or day.. Did it really matter anymore? You slept when you were entirely exhausted and you woke up when the nightmares didn't allow you to sleep any longer. That was the life these days.

 

The little boy held onto his father's hand tight. They came to a towering piece of concrete. It was a corner of a building that still stood somehow. Every other part of it had fallen. They both called it their tree because that is what it resembled to Gambit atleast. His son never had the liberty of actually seeing a tree except for old magazines and books that they occassionally came across. "Daddy, do we all die?" the son asked. Gambit wasn't really sure of an answer. He wasn't going to lie. It wasn't the kind of world where you told those kind of lies to protect the ones you love anymore. "Sure, everyone does eventually. It's how life works," he told his son as he watched him. The son just hung his head down.

 

He knew his boy knew about death. They seen it way too much to not understand it all. He looked at his son with confusion washed across his face. "Why the sudden interest in this?" he simply asked him. "When those monsters bite, do they kill the people?" his son returned. Gambit's face turned a pale white color, resembling the whitest of chalk. He glanced over his son and there was a bite mark on this wrist. Tears instantly fall from his eyes. All the scenarios run through his mind like a freight train. He didn't know what to say or do. He just nodded the answer, unable to find the words. The lump in his throat battled any words he could've tried to get out.

 

He knew his son was going to turn into one of those undead things. He couldn't even bare the thought of it, but even worse.. He couldn't bare the thought of losing his son. The undead chemical would've already travelled throughout the little boy's bloodstream. It was too late to take any action that would save his life. Gambit slams his hand into the ground over and over again. "No, No, No!" he yells out in frustration and every other emotion that he can fathom. Tears form in the sons eyes at the action. "Daddy, what did I do wrong. I didn't mean it!" he boy calls out, knowing that things are now different. The little boy didn't understand enough to accept his fate and Gambit just couldn't bare the loss of his son. Not the last person he loved in this world.. Not again..

 

"Just give me a hug," Gambit tells his son. Tears streaming down both of their faces. After all these years, he still had tears. How.. Why did the pain have to be so real.. Why did the world have to be this way. It wasn't fair. Why his boy? Every question he could have ever asked swam through his mind in an instant. He knew what had to be done, but he was shaken. His son embraced him with a hug between them both. Gambit slowly pulls the gun from his holster. He just wants to remember the hug.. Not what has to be done.

 

He cocks the pistol and places it against his son's head. "Daddy, please don't," his son cried out. This just made Gambit sob uncontrollably. He dropped the gun to the ground and held onto his son tight. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Gambit repeated over and over just sitting there rocking his son back and fourth. He could feel his son start to twinge from the pain starting to take form within his body. He picked up the gun once more and placed it to his son's head. "Daddy, will I see mommy?" the boy cried out. "Yes," Gambit somehow got out of the lump in his throat. The gun went off and his son went limp in his arms. He dropped the gun to the ground and nothing at that moment mattered. He just cried and held the lifeless body of his son.

 

"I'm so sorry.. So sorry," he called out as he patted his sons back and held onto him. He watched everyone he ever loved die right infront of him. His soul was restless. He wanted release.. He picked up the gun and placed it within his mouth, the gun's barrel was still hot from firing it before. He said his goodbyes and closed his eyes.. "click" the gun was out of bullets. He had no more.. It was cruel and he figured it was somehow torture for something he had done.. For not saving his father before.. and now not being able to save his son. He just screamed out in agony of his soul.

 

He screamed, hoping one of those undead things would come and rip his throat out and save him from this horrible broken world he no longer wanted to be apart of. He just wanted to die.. To see his wife.. his little boy. He wanted nothing more than to be with them, but the world had other cruel intentions apparently. He sad there and cried for the longest time, but no undead ever came. He buried his boy through his blood, sweat, and tears. He deserved a proper burial and not to be eaten up by the undead that roamed the savage world. He buried him as deep as he could dig.

 

He stoof there and made a cross out of rocks that were scattered about the environment. He said a prayer for them even though he didn't believe there was a god anymore. No.. God would never do this. Everything was dead to him. Days past and he just sat there with nothing but the broken promises on his mind. He didn't survive or thrive in this world. This wasn't living. He didn't want to. More days came and went by and he scavenged just to take his mind off the pain. Soon the pain dulled, but it was still fresh and not forgotten. He just.. survived like he always had and made himself a new promise..

 

He promised himself to never love again. To just survive until he was inevitably killed by whatever was out there waiting for him. He didn't care much anymore. It was all too far gone for him. He found a gas station to live in. He couldn't bare to go back to the house.. He still roams around and lives within the confines of the gas station, but everyday he knows that he failed. That he isn't living.. Not one bit. He is just simply existing.. Maybe that was how it had to be.. Supposed to be. This was his life now whether he liked it or not.