CHAPTER NINE

Earth had ground almost to a mutilated standstill after the main Fallout nearly a decade ago. Most species were wiped out in the cataclysm of our own doing. I was one of the fortunate people who remember seeing most of the animals in their natural habitats. One of the perks of my previous employment you could have said.
The pleasant moment of reflection was short lived as the splashing water to my right reminded me of my dire situation. As far as I could tell the two alligators in front of me, almost guarding the only exit, were accompanied by the one thrashing fallen Mexican.
Taking a deep breath, I needed to compose myself for the next few moments at least. The woman who tried to speak to me earlier was on the other side of the two adult reptiles, I still wasn’t sure where she was from, and probably couldn’t trust her even if I did get the chance to talk to her. One thing was for certain, there was no way past the two killing machines that lay ten feet away from me. A pang of guilt crossed my mind at the thought of shooting them for my own survival, but in fairness there was no other way, unless some miracle occurred right this second then it was a race against who would attack first.
Do I sit here in the darkness? Or do I make the unfortunate choice of using my newly acquired weaponry.
“What do we do?”
That was what I heard wasn’t it? The voice was quiet, almost like a thought to me, but it was definitely from the female, she raised her hand ever so slowly and backed off, obviously noticing the to lithe figures in front of her.
A thought had occurred to me as I stood perfectly still in the darkness, a slight hint of optimism crept into the back of my mind. The fact that there was a limb floating in the water as I waded through meant that these animals may have had their fill. Maybe they weren’t going to be as aggressive, it was a long shot.
Then something touched my foot.
I glanced down and panicked at the thought that the other adult alligator had come from the water to silently take a nibble from my right leg. But relief swept over me to see that crawling over my foot was a juvenile alligator, around ten inches long. To my right just at the slope leading into the watery depths I noticed others leaping and rolling around playfully.
There are juveniles in here!
It was exciting that after all that had happened in the world that the most primeval of creatures that still remained on the Earth, albeit in small numbers, had found the capacity to breed in this darkened arena. The thought occurred to me that this room may be purpose built for these creatures.
There are babies in here…
Slowly and surely, the dread crept in. There were juvenile alligators in this room, still at the vulnerable stage where…
The parents would aggressively protect there young from any danger.
It was a solemn moment for me, made all the more potent by the slow, lethal movements from the nearest monster. Beads of cold sweat dripped from my brow as I made the decision that I knew I would never forgive myself for, I pulled the pistol from my holster and pointed. Judging where the most damaging shot would be, the ripple of water to my right made everything all the more important that I move quickly.
As I depressed the trigger, the shock of the recoil rippled painfully through my right arm, the muzzle flash exploded through the darkness and lit the room briefly. The roaring of the creatures and the explosion from the water beside me was all I could recall as I continued firing and ran towards my only exit. I had no idea what the other human occupant was doing, if anything. Three yards from the exit when the farther of the two lizards made a move for me, I fired blindly in its direction as I made a leap for the doorway. If the door opened inwards my actions would be short lived, literally. If it opened outwards, then I may very well survive this episode.
My body floated through the darkness, to my surprise the door gave little resistance as my aching body flew through.
Hitting the ground surprisingly well, I managed to roll over and point my pistol towards the open doorway. The creatures luckily didn’t follow my trail.
I had maybe just killed one of the endangered reptiles as I passed through the doorway into another corridor filled with darkness. For all my luck so far it wouldn’t have been surprising to find a Jackhammer waiting to smash my brains in here. After gasping for breath, more through panic than any other reason, I slowly got to my feet and spun around with my gun in the dark, looking for any other surprises that may have wanted to make themselves known.
Nothing.
I moved quickly towards the door and pushed it closed, without a care as to what happened to the woman in the makeshift terrarium. Ideally I would have liked to have had her on my side, but the way things are at the moment, survival of the fittest – and better armed – was paramount. I hoped deep down that she would make it out of there.
There was the sound of a rock falling in the distance, not in the room that I had just come from, but somewhere down the corridor. The noise echoed in the darkness but I could tell that it was lower than me, perhaps there were stairs nearby.
The copper smell that filled the air rapidly cleared in the dark confines of this corridor, another smell replaced it, it stirred me inside and I couldn’t understand why.
There was a brief sensation on my left hand as the magazine release was pressed, the top chamber was pulled back in one flowing movement and the gun removed from my grasp. The magazine hit the floor and echoed loudly before silence filled the air again. I said nothing and felt helpless as a warm hand grabbed my wrist.
“As I said… What do we do?”