Whisper, Not A Bang

[Miss Murder]

ooc:

Rules
001. No perfect people. Everyone has flaws, and after a nuclear war, your character is lucky to have SURVIVED, and don't forget that. They're not going to be drop-dead ***y, in fact, they're going to look like hell. Don't forget that.
002. Don't god-mode or power-play. This means play your own character ONLY, and remember your character is not god.
003. Keep things realistic.
004. Have fun c:

Plot
The whole world knew that this day would come. The animals could sense it, and the people read about it daily on the news. But so few were ready when it finally happened. Nuclear war. No one knows who delivered the first strike - America or Russia - but it has ceased to matter. Many things have ceased to matter - money, politics, who the girl down the street was screwing.

Now, what is left of America must rise again, they must prove that they can live and survive in the wastelands that used to be the land of the free. A disease is spreading called the Job's Mask. It starts with black warts on the face and spreads to a large mass that overcomes your head. But that's the least of your worries.

The true terror is what lurks in the outside world. The nukes changed people more than just physically. The world is filled with mutated animals, plants, and people... People who have become something different, something... Sub-human. But there's something even worse - a man, a creature with a million faces called the man with the scarlet eye.

The game is set. Choose your side. Do you want to join those trying to save what's left and re-create, or do you want to build an army and rule this post-apocalyptic world? Can you survive in a world created when we had a love affair with fire?

(If you've read Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon, it's based loosely off of this book.)


My introduction will be in the next post.​

 

[Miss Murder]

Once upon a time was always the best way to start off a good fairy tale story. Sadly, this was not a fairy tale. It was a grim reality that had to be faced. It had seemed like years since she had first seen the news start talking about the possibility of war. Somehow, because the war wasn't in her front yard, she hadn't truly cared about it. Why should it matter to her? At that point, her life hadn't been changed in any way from this possibility. None of her immediately family was enlisted in any form of the military, and her friends were few because she spent most of her life at work. Honestly, she couldn't say that she would have cared much about the war even if it were happening in her front yard. She was hardly home anyway, so why would it matter to her if an empty home had its yard wrecked?

The young woman shook her head, a shaky hand reaching up to rub at what was left of her hair. If she hadn't need to go to the basement to get some old files, she wouldn't be alive right now. Living in itself was a blessing to her. Fear had locked her in this room, because she knew what would be out there. She'd seen so many shows on television that talked about what would happen in the event of a nuclear war. What she would see up there... It was something she was sure that she could take, even though she knew she could take a hell of a lot. Those people, those poor souls... No, they weren't the poor souls, her mind corrected. She was the one who was the poor soul. They had died fairly quick and painless, but who knew how Lily would die. There was a chance that the radiation would kill her off. Or maybe she would kill herself when she saw what was out there. Or maybe one of the blisters on her skin would get infected. She didn't know much about taking care of a burn... Hell, now that she thought about it, she didn't know much about anything, really. This world was going to be something completely different. Changed in ways that she couldn't think of. She didn't have the imagination or the want to.

But as much as she dreaded her trip into the outside world, she knew that it was inevitable. She permitted herself only a few more minutes in the fetal position, letting tears cleave paths through the ash on her cheeks. She thought of the life that she was leaving behind, thought of how she should have spent more time with her family, how she had missed out on possible chances at being more happy than she was before it happened. She should have accepted her brother's offer to hook her up with a friend of his. She should have checked something off of her bucket list. She should have... No more. Something inside of her was strong enough to put a cap on the "should haves" and opened up inside of her one that was "would have". She would have to leave the shelter of this room, with its charred contents and cracked walls. She would have to find someone else because she couldn't make it on her own. She would have to find water - clean water - to drink, and something to eat. Her hands, no longer shaking, wiped the tears from her cheek, feeling blisters burst beneath her touch. Lily forced herself up to her feet, her steps unsteady at first but growing confident as she neared the staircase.

Every step seemed to take more energy than the next, and she could see dirty light at the top of the staircase. It didn't look like the light that came from lightbulbs, and it certainly didn't look like sunlight at all. It looked... Diseased. When she reached the point where she could see beyond just the staircase and the surrounding walls, she took a sharp breath in, her eyes growing wide. What had been a fairly large city was reduced to charred foundations and ash. Fresh tears welled in her eyes and she tried to hold them back, her eyes taking in the rest of the damage. Bodies littered the streets like a demonic child's charred playthings and cars were unrecognizable from anything else made of metal. The air smelled foul, a mixture of charred human flesh, burning rubber, radiation, and god knows what else. The light had proved to be sunlight, filtered through dirty clouds that looked as bad as the city did. They hung low, grumbling softly and promising rain soon. A shiver ran through her spine at the thought of what type of rain would come from those clouds. They said pollution in the water created acid rain. What would radiation in the water cause?

Lily forced herself up the stairs the rest of the way, feeling like her legs had gained fifty pounds in just moments. She strode cautiously out of what had been her workplace, her arms clutched tight to her chest, her hands holding each other nervously. Did she dare even call for someone? Would anyone have survived something like this? An old T.S. Eliot quote rang through her mind, about how the world would end. He promised a whimper instead of a bang. Boy was he in for one hell of a surprise. Lily's lips opened, her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth. Her heart pounded in her chest. The words were there, but fear had captured her once again. She closed her eyes, feeling ashamed of herself. She had been changed so much by something that had lasted only a few minutes. Before, she had been bold, always speaking her mind. She had been a good person to have on your side, but not at your back. Now, she was too scared to even call out for someone? She chided herself internally, trying to insult the strength into herself. Her tongue unstuck and she called out, her voice wavering and scared, "Hello? Is anybody... Out there?"

Her voice sounded almost like that of a child who had lost their parent. It showed her weakness, her fear, and her hope. She stepped more into the street, repeating her call. In the corner of her eye she saw movement, her heart leaping. Sadly, it was only her own reflection in a badly cracked mirror. Things had definitely changed. Her hair, which had been in beautiful golden curls, was pretty much gone. In its place, she could see stubble and blisters from where she had been burned. Her face was similarly covered with injuries, her green eyes watery and wide. Her eyebrows were burned away, making her look like some sort of freakish alien. Her business suit was burned and torn horribly, but she had already known that. Her fingers reached up, feeling the skin where no blisters were. All gone. All of the beauty she had prided herself in. Gone. Her nails dug into her skin, her eyes welling up with tears. Lily tossed her head back and wailed to the sick sky, her voice carrying through the charred remains. She screamed until her lungs gave out on her, her chest and throat screaming at her in pain. But she felt better. She was by no stretch of the imagination okay, but she was... Better.​