Her father chose her name from a book written in the old language. She never knew what book or what it meant but she was fond of her name as her father passed so soon after her birth. Mina was finally coming of age, expecting it would soon be her turn to go with the rest of the chosen ones to retrieve the precious fire fuel from the looming and quite frightening buildings a few days from their permanent camp.
Mina was thin, almost malnourished as most of the children were. The food was sparse. The lands did not provide well, and portions of food were meagre at best. The only meat was the livestock of pigs they kept, but even those were hard enough to feed to get any weight on them. Luckily for them, it was an excellent way to dispose of the deceased as hogs would eat anything.
She spent all night fire polishing her spear to get it fire-hardened. It was a trick she learned watching the warrior caste prepare for battle. As morning came, she donned her thick pig hide leather jerkin. It was the only protection she had. Some of the other children with wealthier parents had full body suits made. This didn’t bother her much. She wasn’t expecting to get into any war while they were out. It was a simple run to get some much-needed petroleum. The excitement of finally being able to leave the confines of the camp was twisting her stomach into knots. She heard stories of how easy it was to get petroleum before the so-called “End of Days” when a massive cosmic EMP blew out every conceivable electronic device.
She had heard stories of flying machines, people being able to talk to each other from long distances with plastic rectangles, and massive amounts of free knowledge from glowing boxes. It all seemed like magic to her, but they made for great stories. But then again life a couple of hundred years ago was probably a lot different than it was today. Even the stories of people being so fat that it was a problem, she couldn’t even fathom eating that much food.
And there were the stories of the savagery. When the “End of Days” happened people lost it. Wars broke out, bio-warfare, dirty bombs, and people even resorting to cannibalism as their food vehicles could not provide any longer.
The time had come. Each of the young adults was given a twenty-litre canister to hold the precious fuel and a small backpack with simple hardtack, clean water, a length of rope, a small knife, and some other odds and ends they may need for this adventure of sorts.
Where they headed was something that was once called an “Oil Refinery.” But to all that saw it, it looked like some wicked ghost town of machinery and buildings. On the outskirts of the area was massive tanks of raw petroleum and pitch that they used for torches and the forge of the smithy.
The reason for the weapons and simple armour was that some group of people lay claim to the area. It seemed as if every time a group went to retrieve fuel a different group had planted their flag and called the space their own. Every team that went and returned, and not all returned, told a different story as to who they had to fight to get what they went for.
Stomach still in knots, Mina was as ready as she was ever going to be. There were four other young adults in the squad being sent out. Some of them she knew as childhood friends, others she had never seen before. You could tell the family’s wealth based on the clothing some of them were wearing. Mina had never seen a before end times pair of shoes until that morning. Some of them even had spears with metal tips. All Mina had was the fire-hardened piece of wood she made herself.
There was no ceremony, no big production, no crowds of people. Simply an elder gave them directions and wished them luck. They were told that it should take them no longer than five hours to get there and that they would be able to return by the next dawn.
They had just begun walking, and already it was surprisingly hot. Mina had never put the jerkin on until that morning, and it was making her sweat profusely. Dehydration was now a worry on top of whatever it is they may encounter. They were given only so much potable water that she was now concerned about how to ration it.
Being the first time she had been out of their small complex, Mina was taking in all the scenery, what little there was even to be considered scenery. A few hours in and she could see the enormous complex, the buildings that made up the refinery. To her, it was frightening. If the others were scared, they were not showing it, or at least hiding it well.
“Won’t be long. Hope you are ready for whatever may come our way, you are after all just a little girl” one of the older boys said smugly.
And he was right, Mina was the only girl in the group, but she didn’t see what that mattered. She was just as capable of defending herself as the others were. Granted she didn’t have the nice shoes or the full body armour that some of the other boys had. She was confident with her pointed stick. She was sure she could stand her ground.
Midway there Mina spotted something in the distance. It looked like a pack of feral dogs, or wolves, or something of that sort, and they were eating something.
“Maybe we should give them a wide berth,” she said almost under her breath.
“I think we could take them, plus whatever they are eating is probably better than this damn hardtack. I say we kill them and take their food.” chimed in the same boy that called Mina a “little girl.”
As they approached, they could see that it was three very mangy, skinny, sickly looking dogs and they were eating a deer, or what was left of a deer.
“There is five of us and three of them, I’m positive we can take them.” one of the younger boys stated confidently, but you could hear the crackle in his voice. He was just trying to sound tough.
“Everyone ready? On the count of three, we charge with our spears; it will be over in a blink of an eye.”
And that is exactly what they did. But little did they realise that it was not going to be that easy. Sure the spears went in deep and for the most part should have been lethal, but one of the dogs didn’t give up that easily. He bit the oldest boy on the arm, deep. So much blood. He panicked. The dog took another bite, this time, locking his jaw. This was going to leave them in a dangerous place before they even got to the tanks. Of the group, Mina reacted the fastest and stuck the dog deep into his neck. His grip on the boy's arm loosened and finally died.
At this point, Mina froze. She had never killed anything. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. It wasn’t a good feeling. At best she was dumbstruck, and her nerves were rattled.
“We need to bandage that arm; you are losing a lot of blood. Does anyone have bandages in their sacks?” said the meeker younger kid.
After everyone looking, no bandages to be found and since most of them were wearing leathers, Mina had to tear a leg off of her breeches. She even gave up a little of her water to clean the wound before bandaging it. Probably not the smartest idea as hot as it was and there was the return trip.
The injured older boy suggested they take a small break and cook what was left of the deer carcass. Everyone agreed to this would be the best meal they have had in months.
After the food was eaten and digested, and the wound as bound as best it could be they set off again. They were only about an hour away and started speculating what kind of resistance there would be. It quickly turned into horror stories and ghost stories, something to pass the time.
As they approached the tanks, they could see people milling about back and forth, probably some patrol. The small group was severely outmatched. As they got even closer, their fears became somewhat less as they could see what they were up against.
Radiation had taken it’s toll on these people, on top of that the inbreeding was more than blatantly obvious. So they were not all there in the smarts department.
The group of five laid low and watched for a little bit to see if there was a pattern to this patrol. They discovered that if they were quick enough, they would have six minutes to fill their canisters and run.
“Okay, each of us will fill a canister while the other four of us watch.” ordered the older boy, who now believes for some reason or another that he is the leader.
They waited till the patrol left and ran up and began filling canisters. Two of them got theirs done when the patrol returned. He was coming up on Mina’s side. Fight or Flight kicked in. Every bone in her body told her to run, but she knew what she had to do. As he rounded the corner, she thrust as hard as she could. It impaled the inbreed. Unfortunately, it was deep enough that he was able to stab her twice, right under the jerkin. His shiv went deep into her abdomen, twice. She was bleeding profusely. Black blood, he must have hit an organ. Then his body went limp.
She did everything she could to put pressure on the stab wounds. She was positive she wasn’t going to make it at this point. The rest of them filled their canisters, and the group took off running as fast as they could carrying twenty litres of petrol each. They got a few hundred yards, and Mina collapsed.
What seemed like an eternity passed. Mina finally woke up to see the younger boy stitching her wounds.
“Good thing you were passed out. The cauterisation would have hurt tremendously,” he said concerned.
“This should hold you till we can get to the village elders and one of them can patch you up properly.”
The pain was indescribable, but she mustered on carrying her canister of petroleum. Only a four or five-hour walk now.
At this point in the day, the heat was beating down on them. Mina tore off her jerkin and threw it into the wild. A lot of good it did her anyway.
They trudged on at a much slower pace than that of going there. Twenty litres is a lot heavier than any of them realised. In the end, it took them a little over six hours, but they were back home before nightfall.
The town was grateful that this mission had been a success, far too many go and never return. There was no celebration, not even so much as a thank you to anyone of them individually.
The elders did apply healing herbs to not only Mina’s wounds but also the older boy’s dog bites. On the upside, now that their task completed they were given proper rewards. They were adults and proven themselves worthy, each of them was given a shelter of their very own. No longer were they under the thumb of their parents or guardians. Also per custom and not one that Mina was at all happy about, she was to be married off to the “leader” of the mission they were just sent on. She did not like that man-boy in the least. But, strong as she is, not much you can do to break tradition.
Original Story by Michael Garcia a.k.a. @TheCrazyGM