Scavenger
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I stepped through the broken glass of the front door of my store, and flicked on a flashlight. I wasnt sure what I was looking for, but here I was, looking anyway ....
The place was a wreck, whether from looting or an outbreak, I wasn’t sure. Still, I had nothing else to do with myself but try and see what I could find here.
I had managed to sleep through the apocalypse. Now, I had to somehow stay alive until order was restored....
The best I could learn, the outbreak only had affected men. They went bath-salt crazy until their hearts would burst from the exertion.
I managed to miss out on the fun because although I am male, I had been in transition to womanhood, and apparently it had been enough to save me, although I went into a brief coma for a couple of days or so. Even so, I must have had a super-dedicated nurse who kept me going once the power went down. In fact , she had taken me to what I assume was her home, and she was there when I woke up to fill me in on the bare bones of what had happened.
Too bad she went out for supplies and never came back, or I could have thanked her...
Shaking my head clear of the memory, I continued my search of my store, looking for whatever supplies I could find. I decided to check upstairs, remembering all the days I had climbed those stairs to put my stuff away before work.
It was clear there had been an outbreak up here. Things were a mess, and there was blood on some of the walls. Rather ironically, someone had left a bloody handprint on the sign that said how many days since the last injury-accident ...
A quick look through the staff room let me know there wasn”t likely to be anything to salvage here, so I went back downstairs to finish checking out the store proper. I paid special attention to the pharmacy, the canned goods aisle, and just in case, sporting goods for weapons, and I got enough supplies to load up a small backpack before I headed for the broken door.
I heard someone else come in before I could get there, so I dodged behind a shelf and tried to stay out of sight. I hadn’t seen a lot of survivors, but everything I had learned from zombie films told me that just because whoever it was wasn’t infected didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous ...
Unfortunately, I hit the shelf when I tried to hide behind it, and a pile of plastic cups fell off.
I heard a shotgun cock, and decided I better try diplomacy.
“Please dont shoot, I’m not armed.” I shouted.
“Then come out where I can see you.”
I stood up and came around the corner with my hands in the air.
“See, not armed.”
She looked closely at me, and I cursed the fact I hadn’t bothered to shave since I had woken up ...
“Who are you?” she asked of me nervously as she pointed the shotgun at me.
“My name is Dorothy, what’s yours?”
“Chloe. You’re .... a girl?”
“Kinda, yeah. Its ... complicated.”
“I think you better come with me.”
I shrugged, and kept my hands up as I stepped over the broken glass of the door, and out onto the street.
A couple of blocks walking later, I found myself looking at a what I think was once a sorority house. My captor had me kneel down while she knocked on the door in some kind of code, and soon another woman had opened the door and I was ushered in.
There seemed to be about fiveteen to twenty women inside, of varying ages from children to grandmothers. One of the “grandmothers” came up to me, and asked for my name.
“Dorothy.”
She raised an eyebrow, and then said to the others, “All right. Sandra, Jessica, stay here with our ... guest. The rest of you have work to do.”
Slowly, the group cleared out, and I was left with just the older woman, a middle-aged woman, and the young woman who had escorted me here.
“My name is Abigail. Let’s go to the kitchen. Would you like some tea?”
“Sure, its getting pretty cold out there.” I said.
We went into a large communal kitchen, and I sat down while Abigail went to make me some tea. Once we all had our teas, she sighed, and said, “Okay ... Dorothy. Why don’t you tell us your story?”
“I ... am transgender. I was transitioning when all the craziness started. I’m not sure, but I think the hormone treatments I was taking saved me from going nuts like all the guys did. So what about you guys? How come you have power?”
Abigail said, “My husband had a portable generator. And they’re working on the grid, hopefully its back online within days.”
“I wondered if civilization was gonna make a comeback. That mean anybody has hope for a future?”
“Only time can tell. There are sperm banks, so women could become pregnant, and if this ... plague has really passed the children would grow up normally.”
“Sounds good. So what else can I tell you about me so you can pass a verdict?”
Abigail smiled, and said, “Can you pull your weight?”
I smiled back, and said, “I can sure try.”
And so I joined their group, and we survived, thrived, and prepared for a better tomorrow.
Together.