The Bowl/Issue 1

This is Issue 1 of The Bowl, entitled "Pilot".

This issue is written by Kaffe4200, and has the challenge No Right To Bear Arms.

Issue 1, Pilot
“Be quiet.” Steve whispered, kneeling by a pigweed. Being a former survival expert, Steve Tusk knew excactly what plants were edible and whcih ones weren’t. That was probably why he was the one scavening for food in the forrests. With him was his son, Mark. He was 22, and wanted to learn to survive in the wilderness. Steve was a good father. Well, he considered himself to be a good father anyway. Ever since Mark’s mother died while giving birth to him, Steve had been in and out of depressions. In a short while even drinking. Now he was fine. All right, not fine. It was in the middle of the apocalypse. Around 95% of all humans were either dead or a zombie. “Sorry.” Mark muttered, filling his bag with pigweeds. There were pigweeds all around the military base in which they lived. When the outbreak first began, the government told everyone that it was temporary, and that they shouldn’t kill the zombies. It took three days before the government shut down. Right before that, it was adviced to go to a nearby military base. Steve and Mark went to this one in the middle of Oregon’s forrests. “We should get back soon.” Steve muttered. “It’s getting dark.” Mark just nodded, and looked behind him to see how far away they were. He could see the radio tower from the military base in the background. He estimated them to be one or two kilometers away. The military base was surrounded by a wall, and had a little over 50 surivors living in there. They didn’t officially have a leader, it was more of a democracy. There was one guy, though, who made sure everyone was all right, and everything went as it should. That guy was named Adam. He was one of the few people there that Steve really liked. Adam knew how things were supposed to be done, and Steve respected that. “Yeah...” Steve whispered as a zombie approached them. It was an older man, a former member of their group, actually. Steve had forgotten his name, but he recognized him. “Let’s get back.”

As they got back, the first person they met was Charley, a brunette who Mark had a good eye too. He did, however, think she was too old for him, but everyone could see how he looked at her. It always made Steve smile. “Found anything?” Charley asked softly as Steve and Mark entered the cafeteria. She followed them over to the food distributor. A russian lady called Pelegaya. Everyone called her Peel though. “Of course.” Steve said and smiled. He placed his bag on the counter of the cafeteria. Peel muttered something unhearable, something she always did, and took the bag. She raised her hand so Mark could give her his bag as well. He did so, and without any words, Peel began emptying the bags. “Are you on shift today?” Charley asked, watching Peel cleaning the plants Steve and Mark had collected. “No, I’m not.” Steve replied. A shift on the walls took six hours, and the only thing you were supposed to do while on shift, were to just make sure no kind of enemies entered. In the early stages of the outbreak, raiders often visited the military base. That killed a lot of people. Those raiders aren’t here anymore. “Mr. Tusk.” Peel said, just loud enough for Steve to hear it. Charley figured it wasn’t something she should hear, so she gave Steve a pat on the shoulder and left the cafeteria. “Son, why don’t you go and find that book we were talking about?” Steve said, to which Mark nodded and also left. “How can I help you?” Steve asked. Peel looked at him with tired eyes. “We have a problem, Mr. Tusk.” Peel said with her russian accent. “We are almost out of food. Someone has to go on a run.” Steve ithced his neck. “You do remember the last run, right?” Steve said, looking down. “Of course I remember, my husband died.” Peel said very cold. “But we need the food.”