Redemption (any kind contest)

An old lady, alone in her house sitting and rocking in her dusty hardwood chair, an expression of sadness across her sullen face; she knew everyone else was dead, well, at least she hoped they where rather than suffering a fate more horrible than any torture or death; mutation. Her house was dark, gloomy, and whipped with cobwebs as if it were a cotton candy machine spinning furiously to create enough string-like sugar to rot the fairgoers teeth.

Creaking sounds coming from around her made her look aimlessly into the swelling darkness that she knew was her own pitiful soul. It was so full of sins and regrets that it has strangled her. She let out a blood curdling scream as a small black rat with blood-red eyes scurried across the barren hardwood floor. “Why must I suffer?!” she screamed into her hands as she collapsed to the ground, her mouth still open to take a breath as she fell to the hard floor. The wood strained and creaked as the dead weight fell; dust flew through the crevices. Her face was wild; her expression was of a wild beast, ready to kill.

She was remembering a past that was, but was not hers. She could see herself much younger and agile. The lady sat there blinking dumbly as thoughts and images flooded her mind, causing confusion in the dwindling gray matter that remained. The images were versatile. Creatures; hideous ugly creatures which limped and flopped toward this brave ‘young’ lady, who she recognized ... as herself! She was moving with speed and grace, none of which this old lady ever had, her arms moving almost fluidly through the air. Nothing was stopping her, creatures falling and collapsing moments after her arms passed them. She saw the sword in her hand, gleaming in the sun, which was almost blocked from the petrified flesh and the dust flying from the corpses. Attempting to regain the control of her own rotting mind, she yelled, and an eerie echo replied, as if returning its owner’s pained cry. Her face was distorted and almost faded with the shadows.

Those mutants she saw, where they the aftermath of nuclear warfare with Korea? She sat there thinking to herself, her mind dwindling as long as it could, until a sound, so blood chilling, caught her attention. No more than twenty feet from her house, were those same versatile creatures, limping and swaying as they walked. She screamed as she saw them, her mouth open. They reached the window and with a CRASH!, a severed head came crashing through the window. She backed away as the eyes followed her every movement. Its glare was penetrating her every thought, and as she ran from the ghastly yellow eyes, she darted into her room to avoid it.

As she rushed through the doorway she slid and fell at the foot of her bed, much faster than kneeling. She groped blindly under the bed, whose covers were keeping her from seeing, and found her late husband’s shotgun. Something foul-smelling lifted her, knocking her against the bed rails as it did. The bed tipped and collapsed on its side and she could feel where it had hit her hard on the side. The immortal power turned her to face it. The beast was ugly and foul, its mouth sewn shut and its eyes were yellow and blank, like a deer, staring into a light.

The creature, this bugaboo; a monster of unknown qualities stared at her. Its eyes where just so…chilling. As she ignored the pain in her side, she brought the shotgun around hard and smashed the stock into the creature’s head. As petrified flesh flew from the impact of pure blunt force, the monster let her go and she fell with a dull thud that raised even more dust into the air around them. As she stood up, the beast looked as if it could really feel pain instead of just being reanimated flesh. It writhed on the floor, screaming in agony and pain, and she felt what she thought was pity on the poor creature. She held the barrel of the shotgun to the beast’s head, and released the shot. As the gunpowder imploded inside the gun, heat came out with the shot, and as soon as the bang was heard the creature was dead. The decayed flesh withered with the heat released from the combustion in the shotgun.

She found more shells under her bed and reentered the room where the severed head still lay. The ghastly yellowing eyes followed her movements as she strode through the room. The moment it was out of her line of vision, she heard a nasty plopping noise and a soft ‘patta patta patta’ on the hard floor behind her. She turned around to see those same yellow eyes following her. They gave a feeling of such uncertainty yet, felt oddly comforting. She saw a happiness she knew so well; her granddaughter. It was her eyes, following her movements and she felt younger, more energized. She knew she was alone in all of the United States, and it would not matter one bit. Mutation only seemed to be isolated into that one area. So she was the only human still left on the continent.

She sat there, breathing hard and wondering what to do. She screamed upward toward the dusty ceiling, knocking dust from the ceiling which fell in a grainy blanket at her feet. As she paused, a loud crash came. The beasts had broken the remaining pieces of her fence. She took a deep breath and left the house. The smell was overwhelming. She could feel death and smell burnt flesh. She looked back at her house and was surprised it was still standing. Boards were sticking out at odd angles and windows were boarded and busted. It gave the house almost a monstrous look. She faced the crowd of impending doom, and as they approached, she lifted the gun and shot. One of the beasts fell, and with him another one, followed by powdered organs that the shotgun blew apart.

She was surrounded, now in the midst of this angry mob of hateful creatures, yellow eyes shining like bright flashlights in the twilight. As they approached she shot one by one, until there was but one remaining shell. There was only one beast left now, so it seemed. As she prepared to shoot, sharp, rotting teeth sunk into her back. She let out a piercing cry as they penetrated her flesh. Smacking the monster off her back with the stock, she saw in its hand a knife, and she shot the beast. As it screamed in agony, she pried the knife from its dying owner’s grasp. As the other monster waddled dumbly toward her, she held it close to herself and prepared to parry its attack. The beast swung its arm clumsily and she hacked it clean off.

The beast screamed a blood curdling scream. She thrust the blade through its ribcage where a heart should have been, and it fell down, gasping and thrashing around. She knelt down beside it and held the knife to its throat, saying, “Back to hell, you poor damned soul.”

With that, she beheaded the monster, and stood poker straight. She thought, ‘I am dead, unless I want to suffer what these creatures had to. I am not safe.’ She looked at the knife, held it up to her chest and forced it through her ribcage, piercing her rapidly beating heart. She felt the pain, hot around the wound; stinging, then pleasant. As her body shut down, she saw the light as she floated happily up, as if she were dreaming some happy, random dream, without creatures created from mass amounts of radiation. She dreamed of a world without sky-high taxes and discrimination. She floated happily, seeing the cosmos and the earth, and looked down upon its brilliant exterior.

The USA was now grey, instead of a blend of lush green and snowy peaks and wastelands. It no more looked like an artistic pallet, but instead like storm clouds, graying and dangerous. As she arose, farther and farther, she saw a bright light. She saw the gates of heaven, her family behind them, all waiting for her. When she went through the gates, her granddaughter gave her a hug and said, “You did well grandma, I was watching you.”

“I know sweetheart, I felt you fighting from inside me”.

Ten years passed. Although the world was not yet at peace, Europe rebuilt America, a replica of what it used to be. They put a memorial stone for the old lady, whose name only family knew…because she was alone; alone in the world.