Families of Blood and Water

The heat of the afternoon melted away as the sun set behind the trees that surrounded Daniel Goodwin. He sifted through the last of the once filled garbage bags, counting and recounting what little supplies they had left. Daniel and his brother had been on the road for almost a year since the outbreak, three hundred and fifteen days to his brother’s count. This can’t be everything he muttered under his breath. The sweat was dripping from Daniel’s brow, faster than his hand could wipe. It stung as it snuck into his eyes. He burrowed deeper and deeper into the trunk of the car, with the occasional check over the shoulder to make sure Leo hadn’t snuck up behind him. Daniel was not short, but he was not tall either, he had messy light brown hair, short enough so it didn’t cover his eyes or ears. His face was mostly smooth, but he did have patchy facial hair here and there. He gave up a long time ago to grow any sort of facial hair as Leo could. We barely have enough fuel left to last out the fortnight, and that’s with minimal travel. Daniel knew his brother would be returning soon, gloating with the amount of food he was able to hunt. Leo was always better than him at survival, it was as if his personality suited the new world more than the old one. He enjoyed hunting for food, where at first Daniel could not stomach the thought of killing an innocent creature. Hunger along with the lack of edible vegetation forced Daniel into killing, but it was strange, he did not feel bad about it when he ate it. Maybe it was because he was starving to the point it felt as though his stomach was eating itself, or maybe he was just simply adapting to the new world, either way he knew he was only killing to survive. Leo is going to want to do another raid. Daniel hated raiding other camps, even though he knew there was little choice. It always ended the same, Leo would threaten to raid the camp alone and Daniel would feel forced into going along. Either his brother would be killed all alone or he would likely be made to kill people in order to protect himself. Daniel had but one rule. No one is killed, unless it is absolutely necessary. “How’s the gathering going little brother? Hah.” Daniel bumped his head on the roof of the trunk startled from his brother’s voice. I am not gathering. “Seems like you had a better time hunting.” Daniel rubbed his head from where he had struck it. Watching his brother as he walked over, he had small carcasses hanging from his shoulder with Darwin strutting on behind him with a bone of some animal in her mouth. Darwin was their adopted dog, a mix of many breeds by the look of her. She was a scruffy thing. With shaggy long deep brown hair knotted all over. They had found her half starved to death, locked in an abandoned house. She had almost clawed the door down when they found her. “The food you got there, plus what we have here should get us by for some time. However our fuel is low, we have little to no medical supplies. Ammo is low, I will have to make some more arrows if we can’t find some bullets soon and we need to find some sort of fresh water.” Daniel shook his brother’s hand as they approached each other. Leo always had a firm hand shake. Daniel thought it was to assert his dominance being the elder brother. Leo Goodwin had a full face of neat brown facial hair down to his neck tattoo of a howling wolf. The colour of the stubble matched that on his head which was about the same length. Leo was more muscular, where Daniel was lean. Leo always made time to keep his hair at a controllable length. Their time on the road since the collapse of society had given him a rugged look, but beneath it all Leo had deep blue eyes, so calm and peaceful. “You see a problem, where I see an opportunity. I know a place where we can find all the supplies we need to last us through the next few months.” Leo bent into the trunk and pulled out an apple, biting into it Daniel could see the juice escape his mouth and fall into his beard. Puzzled, Daniel bent over and gave Darwin a pat behind the ears, she liked that. Her tongue hanged out of her mouth and she started panting, tail wagging behind her. “Enough to last us that long? Really? Even our most successful raids haven’t given us the supplies to last a couple of weeks, let alone months.” Leo grabbed the keys, biting into his apple once more, this time he smiled, more of the juice flowed into his beard. Daniel had not seen his brother smile in a long time. “Brother, I have stumbled across something, maybe it was luck, maybe it was God finally answering your prayers, but I found it.”