Entry 106:

  Date: August 10th, 2061

  I remember staring at her, thinking I'd made a grave mistake. She looked pissed. Like she wanted to smash my head into a thousand little pieces just for having to look at me, and there was no doubt about it: she could. I'd never seen a woman this strong before. I'd heard that the radiation in this area had caused some mutations in the locals, but I'd assumed they were talking about three arms or ugly lumps, not pure muscle that looked like it had been called upon by the best of steroids. It didn't look like a mutation; it looked almost...natural, like it had taken years of training, not years of breathing in chemicals.

  She’d shoved me against the wall, her hands trapping me there. One to the right of me and one pressed over my chest with a bruising force. It was making it hard to breathe. I gasped a bit, but she didn't care if I suffocated; if anything, I felt as though that would have just meant less work for her. I remember asking myself how the hell I got there, but I knew the answer. I had run there, trying to get away from the horrible things that kept chasing me.

  The radiation hadn't mutated me; I was one of the "lucky" ones who got underground before the bombs. When we were forced to emerge, it was a hard realization that the world we had left behind was gone. Now, everything wants you dead. Since then, I've spent every day running to survive.

  I'd made sure to avoid this place in the past. Like all the other survivors, I'd heard the rumors. But I had forgotten to look where I was going this time, thanks to the amalgamation of legs and gangly flesh that chased me all the way into this province. I just ran, ran straight into the woman before me. It took all of my energy to force the adrenaline down from my brain to let my eyes focus on the predator that knocked me to the ground on impact. She seemed more animal than human as she grabbed me and threw me against the wall of a ruined home.

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  She was speaking, but it wasn't a language I was familiar with. Perhaps speaking isn't the right way to describe it; she was yelling in a hushed tone like she wanted to tell me something, tell me how she was gonna kill me, I assume, but didn't want to attract any unwanted attention. I'd never heard this language before, even before the war; it wasn't native to around here or anywhere else I know, not that I am any language expert. But still, it felt strange in my ears.

  As she yelled, I caught a glimpse of something flying toward me. I didn't have time to react; all I did was close my eyes and wait. I thought at least it'd be a quicker death than what she would do to me. When nothing hit me, I opened my eyes and saw her holding the mystery object. It was a buzzard; she had its neck in one hand like a baseball. The bird's razor-sharp teeth still snapping toward me. I flinched each time its mouth snapped shut.

  She kept speaking in her jumbled language, but now she seemed more angry with the bird than me. Her anger made the forearm that pressed into my chest firmer, and another forced wheeze left my throat. This time, she let up a bit in reply. I'm not sure what changed in those few seconds. But something must have. She went from planning how to kill me to saving my life. Even then, I thought she must have just done it out of reflex, and any moment, she would let it tear me to shreds. Instead, in one solid thrust, she slammed its head against the brick wall only a few inches away from my head. Its neck made a shriveled crunch before she let it fall lifelessly into the dirt. Crimson painted the brick next to my head and began to stain the tip of my boot.

  Her hand should have broken from punching the wall so hard; the thud alone had made my entire body start to shake even more than it already was. I was terrified she'd punch me next. Yet, when her attention focused back on me, it seemed calmer and gentler than before. I felt her lean her weight off of me, watching to see if I'd make a run for it; even I was smart enough to know that would be suicide, so when I didn't move, she seemed content. I thought that maybe she was actually going to let me go. The hope that fluttered across my face sank the moment she grabbed my wrist and started pulling me through the woods.