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Chapter One (Part Two)
It appeared to River that the walk from their lot had not elicited a lot of attention from the rest of the populace. Whether it was the fact that they were carrying or they’d had the experience of having members of their family end up the loser in gunfights, that they knew to not mess with people who carried their weapons openly and at the ready. River and Haruo had started carrying their M4s at what was called the collapsed low ready position as they walked. That way their muzzles were pointed at the ground safe, but their hands were on the weapon ready to use it if need presented.
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Hunter was busy with pawing around in the dirt, several years of being on his own had made him hardy and able to avoid pockets of fall-out infected ground. It was uncertain as to what breed of dog Hunter was, but he was definitively a mutt. However...it was clear that his genetic background was definitely a Spitz. He was heavy set and big for a Spitz but he carried his weight well and he was fast and aggressive. It was yet another reason why Haruo and River were never messed with. The rest of the populace were well aware that Haruo would unleash his dog on them if they so much as twitched the wrong way.
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Loki was a simple black cat who happened upon them, like Hunter, on their journey to sanctuary. He was very aggressive owing to being a stray who had been hunted by a cougar, just before Haruo shot the big cat saving the little one. He now was a member of the pack, Hunter accepting him. Loki was an efficient hunter being on his own for three years, which was impressive considering that house-cats were being slowly killed off by larger and more aggressive prey. Loki had to be a wild-cat in temperament, helping his survival instincts while being on his own, but reverted back to his housecat temperament, but those three years had done something to him in terms of mental stability. When he slipped out of the bunker to go on his hunting expeditions, he was back in survival mode; a wildcat ready to pounce on whatever prey or attacker that he could, lacerating them to the bone with strikes with claws extended.
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Social norms were a thing of the past. Everyone perceived everyone else as a potential threat; either grasping for survival by stealing or looting or eyeing power by killing others around them so that they became the top dog. All Haruo and River wanted was to be left alone and that meant making themselves as unpalatable a target as possible, which meant they needed to look as if they presented a threat to the rest of the population, strong enough to deal with any potential threat to their safety, which meant going armed at all times and presenting the image that they would deal with anyone who sought to take anything of theirs with lethal force.
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River’s husband; she been calling him that, ever since they’d had to bury Haruo’s father; started working on harvesting the fruits and vegetables once they’d reached the consignment store/community garden. There was a shortage of fresh fruits and vegetables available in the wake of the apocalypse, with a lot of berries and fruits going extinct. Some wanted to bio-engineer them back into existence, however there was no guarantee that they would taste anything like the ones they were used to, if they were even edible.
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Considering how bio genetically engineered a banana was already, the likelihood of getting the same edible banana with the same taste was impossible. The current banana, before the apocalypse that one could find readily in grocery stores, was a result of years and years of man tampering with it to produce a banana that was seedless, sweet and edible. The natural banana that had very little edible inside and jam-packed with seeds was extinct. Even the harvesting ritual had been tailored to preserving the original plant, a eunuch, genetically cloning the plant and picking its fruits over and over again. No more banana cream pies for Haruo ever again, unless someone did the genetically-impossible, which was to bring back the edible banana from complete extinction.
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In this landscape torn apart by the ravages of time and war, the sunsets because of dust kicked up into the air were always still spectacular.
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And it appeared as though some trace of the of the past able to be recovered at least psychologically when one took the time to view the sunset. It almost made this part of Purgatory seem tolerable. Once sunset hit, Haruo and River strove to be back in their bunker, doors locked up tight; a metal bar jammed across the door frame to block people from battering the door in – intruders would make so much noise that the cat would be alarmed, the dog would start barking and the human occupants would be able to be alerted and reach for their weapons. Woe be to any burglar who tried to get in.
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River and Haruo took showers and decided that they would sleep until next morning. Retiring to bed, River cuddled with her husband and they fell asleep, hoping the next day they would be able deal with the rigors of getting a garden going.
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(End Chapter One)
