A lone woman was walking through a lonely, broken down city. She, herself, had short blonde hair with choppy bangs in front of her forehead, and fair yet dirtied skin. She donned a oil-stained white t-shirt, a red and black plaid flannel was tied around her hips, and she had dark blue denim jeans, also dirtied with some oil stains. As shoes, she had maroon and black combat boots. On her back, she had a black string backpack, carrying some metals, accessories, and other miscellaneous items. This woman was a scavenger.

Seven years ago, the nukes had hit the world hard, but her city of Boston was seemingly unaffected by radiation. Skyscrapers still stood high, though some were crumbling, the streets were just abandoned and worn down with cracks, and vines were beginning to encroach onto buildings and the street. The city, despite this, had still fallen to anarchy and chaos after the bombs dropped.
The woman, simply known as Elizabeth, was travelling to a broken down warehouse, which was where she got most of her supplies. Though very dangerous with raiders usually crawling around, she was always fine. She always avoided them when they were there. The blonde approached the building, and she pushed the door open gently.

She walked into the building, doing her daily routine on the area. Look around the area for things she knew she need, or things that the people back at her home needed. When she found whatever she was looking for, she stuffed it into her backpack. Elizabeth went and sat down against a broken wall, taking her backpack off and placing it next to her.

She took from her backpack a passion pink lip gloss and meticulously outlined her lips, using the broken screen from her dead cell phone as a mirror. She had found the lip gloss from the warehouse itself, and in perfect condition. With her phone, she’s just always had it. Elizabeth had to look perfect, even in a post-nuclear world. While buildings fell into ruin, it didn’t mean that she had to. After her lip gloss was perfect, she carelessly tossed it back into the backpack.

She carefully looked around the wall for raiders, who would attack at first glance. She had been lucky enough to avoid them for so long, but she knew that her luck would not hold out. The sun would soon set and she needed to head back to the camp. She got ready to run out but then she heard the ringing sound of gunshots nearby. She winced as she drew out her revolver, preparing for a fight.

Out of the darkness, three men carrying baseball bats, which were adorned with barbed wire, over their shoulders. Two badly burnt Rottweilers followed their companions close by. The dogs paused as they raised their snouts into the air, trying to catch a whiff of any potential danger. The raiders stopped when the dogs stopped. Elizabeth froze at the sight of the party, and began to mentally prepare herself for the fight.

The dogs’ noses didn’t prove very effective, as their noses were also partially burnt. Elizabeth felt relieved by this fact. As the three men grew closer to her location she cocked her revolver, and tightened her grip on the handle. Elizabeth saw a statue near to where she currently was. She took cover behind a fallen statue of a man, hiding behind one of the rocks from the statue. She knew her chances of survival were slim, but she had both range and surprise on her side. Once the trio of raiders passed by her, she started heading behind them, ready to attack. She couldn’t just start attacking, as she needed a plan just in case it didn’t go her way.

It’d be foolish if someone of her stature took on three brutes and two dogs singlehandedly. She began to follow the group as they were conversing amongst themselves. One said, “I could’ve sworn that I heard something.” The dogs paused once again, their stance widening in defense. The men had dismissed the dogs this time, as the raiders knew that the dogs were mostly ineffective. They were just good at fighting.

She took her advantage of the darkness and crept up over a broken wall; the same wall that had hid her from the raiders initially. She shot one of the dog’s legs as she dropped from the wall’s ledge back to the darkness. It whimpered loudly, and the men became alert. “What was that?” One cried, his baseball bat in hand. One swore underneath his breath. The other rottweiler began to bark loudly, with occasional pauses to catch it’s breath. The three raiders dispatched from each other, trying to scan the area for their attacker.

As one grew towards her, Elizabeth gathered up some courage and shouted, “Over here, dumb and dumber!” She fired her revolver at the raider that was nearest to her. She missed her first shot, and the man laughed as he swung his baseball bat towards her. Elizabeth scrambled away to get some distance between them, and she shot at the raider’s knee. The bullet hit it’s mark and the man fell to the ground, groaning in pain. The other rottweiler, which was with one of the other raiders, barked to alert the other two men.
Elizabeth climbed up onto the broken, disheveled wall, where the men and rottweiler spotted her. One of the two raiders ran to aid his friend, who was crying for help. The other ran to the wall, and awkwardly climbed onto it. She, in the meantime, hurried down the wall’s top towards the exit. There was a dip in the wall that she had to pass in order to get to the exit. As she made her way down the dip, the other rottweiler bit onto her leg.

Elizabeth let out a loud cry, and she shot at the dog as an instinct. Adrenaline rushing through her veins, she kicked the dog’s now limper jaw off of her leg, and she hurriedly limped towards the exit. She glanced back to see that the raider who was trying to climb the wall earlier had just gotten up. She tried to ignore the coursing pain in her leg so she could get away.

Blood soaked her pants as she ran, and she felt lightheaded after a while. Breathing heavily, she noted that the raiders had not followed her. It was already dark out, but she knew exactly where she was going. She took this same path everyday. As she limped through the night hurriedly, she saw weakly lit orange lights coming from a run-down part of town down a steep hill. She slowly made her way down the paved hill towards the town, where a few people had spotted her. They waved to her, and one began to run towards her. Elizabeth grinned. She was home.