The tire rolled along, carried by the wind. It began to sway to the left, and then it crash down with a mighty metallic thump. It had fallen.
Lucas sat there for a few minutes, trying to process what had happened. He looked around desperately. To the dead trees, to his guardian Angel, and then back to the tire.
He collapsed to his knees beside it. What was he to do now? He had been following the tire for so long. He convinced himself that it would lead him to sanctuary. Now he was in the middle of no where.
What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?
His mind drew a blank. He was lost, just as he always had been. But now, he had been forcibly ripped from his delusion. He saw things for what they really were.
Lucas let himself fall onto his back, and he lay there. Hours. A day. Two days. Three days.
His mind was blank. His dead eyes, red without moisture, stared toward the yellow-tainted sky. Then something made it's way into his vision. It scared him back to his senses. He had seen his guardian Angel. The unfathomable mien it presented scared him awake.
He jolted forward, sitting upright for a moment. Then he saw why the guardian Angel had alerted him. He faced east, and looking down the road he could see something. Something giant. It appeared like a snake, but it's raven scales reflected almost no light from the sun. It was coming right toward him.
He got to his feet, losing balance and falling on his hands. He scratched them pretty bad, and he left a handprint of blood behind. He sprinted as fast as he could toward the gas station. He we blocked by the automated doors, which had no handles to pry them open.
He fruitlessly tried to pull it open. When that didn't work, he started punching the glass and kicking it. He looked east, and the snake was rapidly approaching.
(Lucas: "Come on! Open already!")
He noticed a pile of bricks next to the gas pumps. He scrambled over to them and grabbed one. It was heavy. Sure to break the glass. He got back to the door and began slamming the brick into it. He could see cracks forming. Lucas never realized how strong glass actually is.
In a final effort to break the glass, he backed up. He winded his arm to gain momentum. Then he tossed the brick underhand right into the window. It shattered completely. He ran inside and blocked the doors with anything he could.
It was dark inside. He could hardly see anything, but it was just enough for him to be able to safely maneuver without hitting anything.
Like most gas stations, it was lined with shelves. Most of which were empty by now, scavenged by survivors years ago.
Lucas had a flashlight in his pocket. He pulled it out and tried to turn it on. He clicked the button. Nothing. Twice more. Still nothing. He slapped it against his palm. Pressed the button. Nothing.
Damn batteries. He'd never be able to find new ones. Every battery in the world had probably gone bad long ago.
The was a sudden rumbling. The earth was shaking. Most of the windows had already been boarded up, but there were little slivers of light that still made it through. Lucas peered to one of those slivers.
The rumbling continued. It was coming near. Closer. Closer.
A giant raven scaled snake flew past the gas station. It's long slithering body persisted for a minute, before it tail passed from sight, and the rumbling stopped. Thank god it hadn't seen him.
Lucas could deal with smaller apostles just fine, but larger ones. Ones that could eat him. He had a tough time with those. Not only would he wake up in their stomach, suffering from the blistering acid that resided in there, dissolving his skin and flesh down the the bone. But he also had to wait for them to digest him, and pass through their other side. By then, who knows how far he'd be from where he's trying to go.
He could try to get his guardian Angel to attack the snake apostle, but whether it'd do it or not isn't a guaranteed deal. Sometimes the guardian Angel would blow the head off any apostle that came near him, and other times it'd let Lucas be eaten.
However the guardian angel's system of defense worked, he was sure it was busted in more than one way. Maybe it's just what the guardian Angel deems best for him. Eh, probably not. Apostles work in weird ways.
Lucas investigated the gas station. He looked around. Not that he'd find anything, but it was always good to check.
(???: "[static] -ello, thi- [static] unit twen- [static] -one [static]")
Lucas was shocked. There was a voice coming from somewhere. A radio, a television? He wasn't sure. Suddenly there was a bright flash. It took Lucas a moment for his eyes to adjust. The lights. The lights! The lights are on!!
Lucas's eyes lit up with excitement. He ran over to where he heard the voice. There was a small radio plugged into the wall. The power was on somehow!
(Lucas: "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?")
He spoke into the radio, but there was no response, only static. They could not hear him.
(Radio: "Worldwi- [static] restoration in prorg- [long static] Human Salva- [static] -ssociation [static]")
Lucas repeated what the voice said, filling the gaps. "Hello this is unit twenty-one, worldwide restoration in progress… Human Salvation Association?" Lucas was sure that's what they said.
Human Salvation Association… Human… Salvation Association… Yes. Yes, yes, Lucas had heard this before. He was struggling to remember. It rang a bell but he couldn't remember.
Lucas only remembered very specific things. It had been so long since he probed his brain for information that most of it fled his mind. Now he struggled remembering how he got lost in the wasteland.
He wasn't always lost, he knew that much, but he couldn't remember where he came from.
Unit twenty-one. Unit twenty-one… it sounded familiar. Oddly familiar. But he just couldn't put his finger on it.
Amidst all this uncertainty, Lucas let it all go. He wasn't the last man on earth! He wasn't! He had hope!
New mission: find Unit twenty-one.