Myself (J. R. Wagner) and J. Roger Greer of Stones and words and words and stones fame.
Rules:
Each contributor can only write from one perspective in the first person -it cannot be the same person as the other. They do not have to be in the same scene together but must eventually come together.
Each entry must be at least 500 words long.
Try and keep it PG13
Copy and paste the preceding chapter below your entry when writing a new chapter.
okay, so it begins...
1
The city had been abandoned for years. Neither side sent men within the outer limits for fear of the horror that dwelt beneath the concrete and steel shells that once housed millions. I cannot say what drew me into the emptiness even now. I suppose reflection is jaded with emotion and therefore a fruitless effort.
My body ached from the beating it took the day before. I can generally hold my own in a fight but this man was out of the ordinary. My only solace is that toward the end, I managed to cut him with my knife. It wasn't deep. A mere scrape across his ribs -but it bled like a sonofabitch. Just enough to distract him as I punted his crotch up into his stomach. You'd think a man would learn to protect his jacobs by now. Clearly his over-confidence saw to his undoing.
He shouldn't have messed with me anyway. Who picks a fight with a woman on the edge of the outer limits? He was just asking for an ass kicking and I was happy to oblige. Did I kill him? Did I kill him as he lay there like a baby in the street cupping his manhood while tears and snot and blood ran together on the side of his face. I didn't. I couldn't.
I had more important business to attend to. Plus, he had earned my respect. If I hadn't pulled out my knife it would have ended differently. He was nothing to look at. Average height, average build -even a bit on the small side. My god was he fast though. He had my respect as I walked away. I walked on, beckoned by something more powerful than survival.
One thing was for sure, I was headed where no man would follow. No woman either. Even now, as I said, I'm not sure why I listened to that voice that called to me but I did. I climbed over the concrete barriers stacked ten-high marking the beginning of the outer limits. I climbed over the fifteen foot fence topped with razor wire mounted at the peak of the barrier pyramid that encircled the city.
The sun was setting to my right then left as I thew my legs over the razor-wire topping and began the climb down. Blazing orange light threw long shadows when interrupted by what remained of the buildings, long abandoned. No rubble from the destruction littered the streets making the scene even stranger. We all knew why that was -the thought of it sent a chill through my body.
As my feet touched the pavement, the sounds from outside the wall immediately silenced. The hum of the generators, the buzz of the trucks patrolling the districts. Even the wind silenced when I dropped off the second tier of the old traffic barriers. The sound of my boots hitting the ground echoed between the buildings towering above me. I froze. Waited. Looking. Scanning the streets from left to right then the buildings now windowless and open for any sign of movement. Nothing.
Every molecule in my body wanted to turn around and retreat over that wall yet something more powerful pulled me onward toward the center of the city. Toward the heart of the madness.
I had never traveled inside the wall. I don't know anyone who has. Why then, was I being called? Why now? My body began to move. It was all I could do to slow my pace, quiet my footfalls and stay in the shadows as I continued on. It was my body...but I was not in control -and that frightened me even more than what lies ahead.
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