• As Phillip reached up and turned on the radio, a thin layer of dust flew off the top. Every few weeks, Phillip tried in vane to find some other survivors. Just in case, Phillip kept the small radio with him whenever he moved to another "safe zone." In a sense, to Phillip, it represented hope, that there might be another person out there.
    For days now, the only other being he had seen were the mutants, growing more common by the day. No matter where Phillip went, they seemed drawn to him like a moth to a light bulb. It had been over a month since he had last seen another human besides Bonita...
    And even then, it had been under worse case circumstances.
    Phillip walked through the deserted city of Rockford, careful to keep quiet, to avoid the mutants. He had heard over one of the last broadcasts that mutants had finally infiltrated Rockford. Phillips only goal in coming here was to find some more supplies, maybe even another surviving human (besides those rovers)...
    As light began to disappear from the sky, Phillip felt his adrenaline spike. Nighttime... The witching hour... The time the mutants come out...
    He could already see distant shadows broadcasting onto the remnants of the skyscrapers.
    Phillip's goal was already embedded in his mind. If he could find the medical storage area, then the risks would be worth it. Nowadays, medicine was by far the most valuable item out there. With it, Phillip could survive for months, by trading with some of the rovers.
    The Medical Storage Area would probably be located towards the center of the city, so to be the farthest away from a possible assault...
    Already, Phillip could see the collosal building that would almost certainly house the medical supplies. He pulled out his staff, preparing for the worst...
    Phillip sprinted from the shadow of one building to the next. He caught glimpses of mutants, guarding it. They must know somewhere in their primitive minds that someone would come for the supplies.
    Caught off guard, Phillip ran straight into the middle of a back alley, coming face to face with a mutant. This one had grown a scaled tail, and it's face was mutilated in a mask of hatred. With scales covering it's body, the "Chameleon" as it was called, was a common foe. Able to blend in with buildings, these creatures were most dangerous at night, when their foes couldn't see them...
    Phil lowered his staff, and let off a blast of green light, illuminating the Chameleon. With the creature now visible, Phil swung his staff over his head, and with a dull thunk, brought it down on the Chameleon's scaly head. The creature dropped to the ground, either knocked out or playing dead. Phillip didn't really care which.
    Phil began a desperate sprint towards the medical supply loading bay. Since the Chameleon's could communicate primitively using telepathy, the mutants would be swarming around the base any moment now.
    Running across the open stretch of asphalt that lay between him and the bay, Phil leveled his staff and let off another blast of green light, illuminating about ten more chameleons hiding in the dark corners of the building. Momentarily blinded by the bright light, the creatures could do nothing to stop Phil from vaulting over the low fence, and into the facility. Stopping at his first door he found, Phil slowed to a stop, and entered. The room was lined with rows of medical shelves, with papers from research. Though this would be useful, Phil knew he had no time for them.
    Sprinting past the rows of folders, Phil finally came to the shelves lined with the medical injection pieces. Phil grabbed as many as he could, stuffing them in his pockets, and filling his beat-up backpack with as much as could fit. Having studied the layouts of these types of buildings thoroughly before the war, Phill knew that the exit lied somewhere ahead. As he ran though, he could make out the distant noises of a crying child. Phil stopped in his tracks, and turned towards the source of the noise. There, sitting against one of the many shelves, was a small human girl.
    She was a small girl, with light blonde hair, bairly visible in the darkness. The girl sat in the lap of her mother, who also lay there beside her. It was obvious that the women had been in a rough fight, because her clothes were ripped, and torn in several dozen places.
    "Is someone there?" Came the women's weak, pleading voice.
    "Yes, I'm here. Don't worry, I'll take care of you." Whispered Phil, desperately hoping that there was some way this woman could be saved.
    "No, don't mind me. I'm not worth the effort. I've been poisoned by Scorpion (another type of mutant) venom, and I doubt I'll last the night. But please, take care of little Bonita. Please..." Came the woman's final wish.
    "I'll try to, but please, you must make it. Just keep trying, something here must work!"
    "If you've managed to survive this long, you already know that there's no cure for a Scorpion bite. Just please, take care of my baby..." Then, the small flame of life glowing in the woman's eyes went out.
    "No, please, come back..." sobbed Phil, desperate for another human to talk to. But Phil could hear the mutants coming now. They moved noisily down the aisles towards him...
    Phil scooped up little Bonita out of her dead mother's arms, and raced through the exit...
    "Oh no, baby, don't cry," wined Phil, as Bonita awoke him from his flashback.
    He reached into his backpack, and tried to find the container of baby food he had traded for just yesterday. Having no such luck, he flipped on his flashlight and began rummaging through the backpack, until he finally came to what he had been looking for. Phil pulled out the large container of gerber baby food, and set it down next to him.
    Reaching over to the other side of his make-shift tent, he pulled out the mess gear, and found a proper sized sthingy.
    But as he leaned down to grab it, he heard shuffling outside the tent.
    "Oh #$&^!" muttered Phil under his breath. Phil grabbed is staff from beside him, and turned as quietly as he could to face the door. He slowly crawled out, and peeked around the corner to see what was out there. A pair of "Zombies" were poking around the side of the tent.
    Their glowing bodies made it hard not to miss them. The radiation had somehow gotten into their skin, causing them to glow. Reduced to no more than mindless puppets, the Zombies could still prove a threat. Especially when in pairs...
    Phil rolled out of his cover from behind the tent, and let out a blast of green fire from his staff, which flew straight into the chest of one of the zombies. Yet, nothing happened.
    "Shoot, I should have expected this," Thought Phil, as he threw up a quick shield to block the semi-automatic weapons firing from the zombies towards him. Phil had never met Zombies who had been given full body armor before. Somebody out there must really want him dead...
    Using his staff for support, he pole-vaulted over the zombies heads, letting out a constant stream of green fire as he went. If he could just find one weakness...
    Then, suddenly, one of them crumpled to the ground, after taking a blast of fire to the unarmored back side of the neck. Seeing the mutant fall, he raised his staff, and stabbed the other mutant also in the back of the neck. With both dead, Phil knew he would have to move the tent soon. More zombies would come, mindlessly driven to avenge their fallen comrades...
    Phil rushed back inside. Throwing together all the items that he might need, either for trading or eating, into his backpack. Wrapping Bonita in his only blanket, he shoved her under his arm and belted outside, knocking over the Gerber baby food as he went.
    Already in the distance, he could see the glowing faces of dozens of Zombies coming closer.
    Phil pulled his staff out of his bag, and let out a blast of fire that burnt to a crisp the remains of the tent. "If I can't have it, neither can you." Thought Phil to himself.
    Phil took off running towards his destination, and so happening, away from the zombies. He had heard that there were other humans out in Chicago, if he could just manage to get there...