Snow Fall

Whisper · Aug 19, 2010

This is a short I made a number of years back. I have newer stuff, but those I showed this to usually really liked it so I chose this to be my first story to share. This wasn't the final version as that was lost a long time ago. I cleaned it up the best I could, but keen eyes might find typos and grammatical errors. I hope you like it and please give your thoughts after reading.

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[FONT=&quot]Snow Fall[/FONT][FONT=&quot]<o:p></o:p>[/FONT]

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It had been nearly three hundred years since the world was turned into a wasteland. How or why it had happened had been lost, but theories still lingered about a war which brought upon this age of endless winter.

Humanity was almost wiped out, as one would expect. But we remained vigilant and made our homes in the warmest parts of the world, deep underground in shelters. However, these places were only that - shelters - not made to sustain a population. So humanity was forced to return to the surface.

Lucile was one such individual. Maps were mostly useless, because entire cities had vanished underneath the ever present snow. So the city she was in remained just another nameless ghost land…a term used because of the noise the wind made when it blew through the buildings, howling like a ghost.

Breathing was always hard on the surface, there was plenty of oxygen, but because it was so cold, one's lungs would begin to freeze without protection. Lucile knew this all too well, but had learned how to breathe properly in this harsh environment.

Sitting there, propped up against the side of a once tall skyscraper, now only half of its original height, collapsed under the weight of snow. Her eyes were covered by large black goggles, to help prevent snow blindness. Her nose and mouth were covered by a two inch cloth, wrapped around her head. The top was the large hood of her jacket which revealed animal fur that interfered slightly with her goggle's field of vision. But keeping out of the cold was essential for survival.

Her body was covered with a large hooded coat with several layers underneath as added protection. Her pants were also made of the same thick material to further insulate her body. And her feet were concealed by what looked like combat boots modified to keep her feet from freezing over with frostbite.

Strapped around her body and down across her chest was the MA-12 assault rifle. It was really just a modified version of the MA-11 so it would function in the frigged atmosphere of the surface. Along her right leg was also a knife which she could use for a multitude of tasks. At first it had seemed like an unnecessary burden to carry a weapon, but as they explored further out in the world, they began to realize the full extent of what three hundred years could do.

As she laid there looking down the street, her breath could be seen flowing out from between the threads of her protective gear. She lifted her right arm to look at a black watch which also told the temperature. Today promised to be a rather warm day at negative twenty-four degrees Celsius. Her arm dropped and she lifted herself off the snow, grunting slightly with the effort.

Lucile had been feeling groggy for the last two days, so every action and thought was forced. As she walked, her boots sank a few inches into the snow and made that familiar crunching sound. She was ever wary of her surroundings. She had been sent out to look for gasoline or propane - anything which could run some of the generators that powered their underground world.

She was one of the more experienced scavengers. Locating an old gas station was always the best option, but because they were usually hidden beneath the snow, it took some ingenuity to locate them. Being extremely lucky also helped.

The howling of the buildings was getting louder as she approached a small supermarket that had a large hole in the side where the wall had failed. At least, that was how it appeared at first glance. But she had seen this before. All of the bricks had fallen inward, as if something had bashed into it. She slowly removed the rifle from his clips which held it to the straps on her body and lifted it while pressing the butt of the gun into her shoulder.

Her body lowered as her knees bent. Her steps were now shorter and took longer for the next to come. Her gun was trained on the opening as she drew ever closer. But as she did so, the snow was getting deeper, so what she was looking at was actually the second floor of the store. It was just about up to her knees when she stopped once more.

Lucile's eyes were peering into the darkness. Because of this, she started to get tunnel vision. It was as though her eyes were zooming in on the opening that was now about twenty meters away. The opening seemed to become larger and larger, as though it was drawing her in. Her glove covered finger pressing lightly against the trigger. Her breathing becoming shallow as her body froze entirely. All of her senses were placed upon that single opening.

And out from the darkness, piercing her goggles, were the silver eyes of a feline. Shivers ran up her entire body, before she could send the signal to her finger to pull the trigger. The end of the rifle flared up as each round was fired into the darkness and cartridges were launched off to her right. As this happened, a dark beastly figure with long brown hair ran on all fours towards her.

Her firing trailed along, just behind it as she tried to keep up with its fast movements. It dove to the right and her finger released the trigger for just a moment so she wouldn't use up all of her ammunition. And with that split moment, lined up the rifle with the beast to only continue firing. The animal like being which exhibited feline characteristics dove to the left this time and had already closed the gap so she didn't bother to release the trigger.

Now upon her, with both hands, pushed Lucile's rifle which was being supported with both of her arms, up above her head, and then lunged at her exposed stomach. The air was knocked out of her lungs as she was forced several feet down into the snow. 'Thank god,' she thought, as the beast scratched at her protective gear she was wearing. It was so thick that the claws hadn't penetrated it.

She brought the rifle back down and hit the animal on its head once before it grabbed onto it. This close, she could see exactly what was attacking her. It was a mountain dwelling beast which they called half breeds, breeders, or more commonly, Menji. They were called half breeds because they have a human like appearance. But really, it was more of a wild animal then that of a human being. Its hair was so long, it covered its entire back, appearing more as a mane then anything that a human would have. The Menji's bodies were usually tan from either dirt or natural skin tone. They even had tails which grew out to about two to three feet. Their bodies only grew to about four or five feet. They didn't have a nose like ours, but instead had a feline's facial features, whiskers and all. The rest of their bodies were human enough, their nails are like a feline and so were their teeth. And to top it all off, their intelligence was sub-human, which was why they acted as beasts instead of humans like some believed they used to be.

Its tiny body had a lot of strength in it as it pushed back down against her rifle. She needed to do something quickly, but her head was getting foggy as her heart raced. She pulled the trigger which sent hot cartridges out at its face, burning it slightly. It instantly recoiled which gave her time to bash its stomach with the butt of her rifle before getting up.

Lucile stumbled to her feet. The Menji regained its composure and began to charge at her once again. This time she turned the rifle sideways and twisted her body as it ran into her, which caused it to land hard into the snow on its back with her still standing above it. Her rifle quickly turned and its barrel forced up against where the creature's heart was.

It was all she could do to keep it from getting to her. As it thrashed around trying to get up and its claws waving in the air between them, she let out a sigh…and pulled the trigger. A single round was heard as it penetrated its heart.

Blood spilled out the back of the wound and a little from the front, but quickly froze over as it meet the open frigged air. Its body continued to thrash around, but not as violently as before. Its eyes looked fiercely at her while its mouth tried desperately to breath. As it weakly took in its last gasp of air, it slowly sank back into the snow and its eyes closed for the last time.

Lucile knelt down, knowing the beast was dead. But her body was at its limit. Her head was so clouded she couldn't think straight. She was having trouble moving her body. Her core temperature was getting lower, even though she had just been in a fight. "Damn… I'm too low on plasma." She groaned while setting her rifle to the side and pulled the beast closer to her.

Lucile removed the protective cloth covering her mouth and drew closer to the Menji's neck. As she opened her mouth, two sets of fangs appeared. She bit down hard into its neck and began to suck violently upon the wound. For what felt like a minute, she drank what she could before its entire body froze over.

She pulled away and wiped the excess blood from her lips. As new plasma began to run through her veins, her body began to warm up and move properly again. Her mind was slowly being lifted out of the fog as she regained her composure.

Three hundred years had also taken its toll on humanity. A hereditary mutation or virus had reduced their body's production of plasma. To survive, they would have to obtain new plasma every month or so, depending upon how active they were. It was kind of sad, humanity reduced to an advanced form of parasite. The mutation or virus which caused this had also changed them physically, making some of their teeth into fangs, and veins were grown deep into their fangs which suggested that they would ultimately obtain new plasma through them. It was the doctors who had to drill the holes and make it so they could perform such an act. It felt like humanity was becoming some sort of real life vampire race. Only a small percentage of the population wasn't heavily infected, but even they will eventually vanish as more and more people were born with what has been dubbed, Retro-Vampirism, because it's believed to be a retrovirus and people had already resigned themselves to the fact that they were becoming vampires.

As Lucile returned her face protection, something dawned on her. She had been told this many times and seen it for herself, but in her previous state, had overlooked the cardinal rule about Menji.

They always moved in packs.

She remembered this as her eyes crept over to look at where she had placed her rifle. She noticed an ever growing shadow from behind her as a Menji slowly stood up from underneath the snow. Another came into focus as it crawled along the side of the building which was now in front of her. Lucile's hand slowly reached for the knife on her leg. As she pulled it out, she saw the beast's reflection off of the metallic surface. Its eyes were red, that of the most dangerous clan of Menji.

The howling wind blowing through the buildings and the snow storm rolling in was all that could be seen or heard. <o:p></o:p>[/FONT]
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KurzonFayt · Aug 20, 2010

thats actullay a pretty good storyline and start. would they end up finding out what happened and what the menji are?

Whisper · Aug 20, 2010

KurzonFayt said:
thats actullay a pretty good storyline and start.

KurzonFayt said:
would they end up finding out what happened and what the menji are?

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Snow Fall

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