From Behind the Rock

[Griffin]

It was dawn. Or at least, he thought it was dawn. With all the radiation in the air distorting the sky he really couldn't tell what time of the day it was. Jason Cooper walked alone along a chard old road that was broken in some parts, and melted in others. The ground next to him was muddy, and gray. He had heard there was a settlement not too far from where he was where he could get food, and possibly shelter. He had been walking for a few hours with sweat dripping down from his jet black hair. He was getting shaky. It had been hours since he last ate, and his blood sugar was getting low. He had diabetes and he needed to keep a close eye on his sugar, if he wanted to keep going. He decided it best to take a break and check it. Plus the red backpack he was wearing was getting heavier with every step.

He spotted a big rock just a few feet away where he could sit down to take his sugar. He took off his backpack and sat down on the rock. He unzipped his backpack to get his sugar supplies: a finger prick, a box of needles, strips to put his blood on, and a sugar reader you put the strips into. He put in a strip into the reader, and put on a new needle. Jason held the end of the finger prick to the tip of his index finger and pressed a button, which shot the needle in and out of his finger faster than you could say "hi". He removed the finger prick and watched as his finger began to bleed. Jason quickly turned on his reader and put his pricked finger up to the strip, where his blood quickly went inside it. He waited a moment for the devise to tell him a number. 87. That's too low, he thought. He needed to eat something. All he had in his bag was a couple of bottles of water and one pop tart. Jason had been saving the pop tart, but he decided with his sugar so low that he needed to eat it.

Jason was half way through his pop tart when he heard voices. He looked around and saw just in front of him and to his right two men were walking in his direction. Seeing that they hadn't seen him yet, he ducked behind the rock, listening intently.

"-and I thought 'bout it for a while, and I's come to the decision that 'ey were no use to me anymore. So I aimed me gun, an' they was all like, 'help us, no please!'. But I's didn't listen. So, I shot them ol' rebels for discooperation." He heard the first man say in a loud, victorious voice. Jason looked up from the rock to see the men were in uniforms, and carrying weapons.

"Ha, that's a funny story Ben. Good job." The second man said.

"Thanks me boy." The first one said. Jason made a confused face. Why had he told him good job from a story?

"Where did you say this camp was?" The second man asked.

"Ah, jus' up this ridge here. The boss tol' us ta take some pictures for some intel," There was a period of silence. Jason looked up and the two men had stopped, and were now smoking.

"So," The second man said as he let out a big puff of smoke, "you think the boss is planning an attack?"

"Ere's no tellin' with him, boy. He could jus' wanta send 'em a Christmas card for all we know." The second one said just before he let out a big puff of smoke, then coughed.

"Yeah..."

"Well, we'd best be gettin' to that base up dare," The first man said.

Jason heard footsteps and peeked back over the rock. The men were now walking away from him, still smoking.

Jason finished his pop tart, and followed.

[Sky]

The radiation in the air was so thick that it was hard to tell what time of day it was. The trees were slowly dying, and the whole countryside of western Colorado was seemed to have lost its beauty. Radiation seemed to have warmed the air, even at the top of a mountain. A camp was set up on a mountain, near the top, but not above the treeline. A young teenage girl was sitting on her bedside in a tent still trying to decide if this was real or not. Amber Venom stood up, stretched her aching muscles, then started to cough. Oh great. she thought, then took her inhaler and inhaled some of the medicine. Ahh, much better. Now, the girl decided to go and look outside and see if she could see the sun. Halfway from the entrance of her tent, she stopped and decided that she probably wouldn't see the sun yet. It was only a few weeks after WWIII. So Amber sat back down on her bed and picked up the picture of her parents, looked at it for a minute, then set it back down. Just realizing that she is tired, Amber fell asleep on her bed.

"Amber. Amber! AMBER! WAKE UP!"

"Wha..." Amber woke with a start. "What's happening?"

"Nothing, unless you don't want to eat. Come on, it's ready." Said the cook's voice outside Amber's tent.

"Oh... okay, coming." Amber stumbled out the entrance of the tent and followed the cook toward the food. The meal consisted of ham and cheese sandwiches, water, and peaches. Amber ate, then looked up at the sky. No sun. The air still has too much radiation. Sigh After eating, Amber walked back into her tent to mull things over. After a while, there was some commotion outside the tent. She rushed out to find that the camp managers had recruited a new kid. He looked to be about seven, and was very dirty and sweaty. The seven-year-old was moaning about food and Amber felt sorry for him. She walked over to the main manager and talked to him.

"Who's that little boy? Where did you find him?" Amber started the conversation.

"Oh, we found him a few miles from here. Nobody knows who he is yet." The manager replied.

"Okay then, I'll be back in my tent." Amber walked away and headed toward her tent, so that she could be alone.

[Griffin]

He was crouched, trying to walk as quietly as he could behind two Enclave troopers. They had said they were going to take pictures of a camp up the hill. It so happens that this was the same camp that Jason was going. He hadn't heard much about the camp, but he knew he could get food there.

"Ya think it'll be highly populated?" One of the men said as he was walking.

"I don't know. Do you think the boss would have us take pictures of a camp that wasn't highly populated?" The second man said.

"'Doubt it. But ye never know wit' him. He's a weird feller 'dat one."

"Yeah, he has some issues. But you have to, to run a country in a shape as this." The second man stopped, "Do you hear something?"

Jason ducked behind a bush, and covered his mouth. Had they heard him walking? He thought he was being pretty quiet. He saw the first man look up, listening intently.

"Nah, it's probably jus' da wind."

"Yeah, your probably right." They both started walking back up the hill. Jason uncovered his mouth and started quietly walking behind them.

After about twenty minutes they reached the top of the hill to find a large steel fence that looked like it had been burned. He could hear many voices from behind the fence. It sounded like they were having breakfast. About every thirty feet in the wall was a machine gun sticking out of a small square that was cut out of the wall. Jason crouched behind a rock and saw one of the Enclave members looked through the hole.

"They're eating. So none of them are at their posts." He got out a very small silver square and stuck it through the hole. There were a few small clicks. Jason assumed this was a military camera because it hadn't been like anything he had ever had at home.

"Alright," the man with the camera said, "I got them. Let's get out of here!"

"Right."

Both of the men took off down the hill. Jason watched them run; one of them stumbled and almost fell. But he leveled himself out and continued running.

As soon as they were out of sight Jason walked around the fence to the gate. Jason took a deep breath, and rapped at the steel gate.