Good Night: An Apocalypse Story

As Stephanie and Harley rode toward the raider camp, they recalled the information they had extracted from the raider they interrogated the night before. The camp was small, with about fifteen members, but after the ambush, only ten remained. The raider had also mentioned that the camp held valuable weapons, rare supplies, and plenty of ammo—exactly what they needed.

When they arrived close to the camp, both women dismounted their bikes and crouched down to strategize. Harley suddenly had an idea, though she didn’t immediately explain it. She disappeared for a moment into the woods and soon returned with a lone Freak, which she had incapacitated, keeping it under control with her iron grip—one hand on its neck, the other gripping its arm to prevent it from attacking. Stephanie, watching from a distance, realized Harley's plan as she led the Freak toward the raider camp.

Harley approached stealthily, dragging the Freak until she was close enough to the camp. The few raiders that were there didn’t notice her at first, thinking it was just a lone freak being annoying. She released the Freak just inside the camp, stepping back to observe the chaos unfold. As expected, the Freak charged at the closest raider, its primal instincts driving it to attack. The four raiders nearby quickly surrounded it, shooting the creature until it collapsed in a heap.

But as they gathered around the fallen Freak, thinking the danger had passed, Harley took her chance. She pulled out a Molotov cocktail, lit it, and hurled it at the group of raiders. The bottle smashed at their feet, igniting a fiery explosion that set the four men ablaze. They fell to the ground, thrashing and screaming, desperately trying to extinguish the flames.

Amid the chaos, another raider rushed out of a tent, raising his weapon to respond to the threat. Before he could fire, Stephanie had already drawn her bow, her movements swift and precise. She released the arrow, and it flew through the air, hitting the raider squarely in the head. He collapsed instantly.

A second raider, hearing the commotion, came running to investigate, but he too fell victim to Stephanie’s bow, the arrow striking true as he collapsed just outside the camp’s main tent.

“That’s six down,” Harley muttered, glancing around, her eyes scanning for any movement.

Stephanie nodded, her eyes sharp and focused. “The last four must be out hunting or patrolling. We need to move before they come back.”

With the camp mostly cleared, they moved swiftly toward the raiders' supplies, gathering up the weapons, ammo, and any rare items they could carry. The fires still crackled in the background as the camp lay in disarray.

After raiding the camp, Stephanie and Harley quickly went to work. They found several pistols, a shotgun, and plenty of ammo for each. They also came across a few bows, though none were as good as Stephanie's own, but they grabbed them anyway, knowing they could sell them at camps for credits. In addition, they discovered some electronics and bike components—valuable items for trading or upgrading their own bikes.

As they moved back to their bikes, a few lone Freaks, attracted by the noise and smell of the burning camp, stumbled toward them. Without missing a beat, Harley pulled out her machete, cutting them down swiftly before they could become a real threat.

Once the area was clear, Stephanie got to work, scrapping the raiders' bikes, taking parts and any usable fuel from the tanks. She worked quickly, her hands moving with practiced efficiency, draining the fuel into containers they could use for their own bikes.

With everything they could carry loaded onto their bikes, they glanced back at the smoldering camp one last time before revving the engines and speeding off into the wilderness, leaving the scene of destruction behind.

Some time later, the four raiders who had been out hunting returned to the camp, only to find it in ruins. Six of their comrades were dead—four burned, the others killed by arrows. Their bikes were scrapped, their guns stolen, and the camp's supplies completely ransacked. The scene was one of total devastation, and the remaining raiders could do nothing but stand there, stunned and enraged.

As Harley and Stephanie sped down the highway, the wind whipping past them, Harley couldn't help but playfully swing the shotgun she had taken from the raider camp. Her grin was wide, clearly thrilled with their recent haul. “We got some good stuff today,” Harley said, admiring the weapon in one hand while keeping a casual grip on her bike’s handle with the other.

Stephanie, smiling despite herself, glanced over at Harley but quickly warned, “Hey, careful with that. You’re going to crash if you keep playing around.”

Harley chuckled but obediently placed the shotgun across her lap, gripping the handlebars with both hands again. “Alright, alright. Don’t want to crash before we get to spend all this loot.”

As they drove farther, the silhouette of a city slowly appeared on the horizon. The tall, old buildings were unmistakable. They had arrived at the outskirts of Oradea, a city with a once-beautiful mix of historic and modern architecture. From a distance, the remnants of the city’s old charm could still be seen—faded domes, crumbling bridges, and abandoned streets that had once been bustling.

Oradea, located near the Romanian-Hungarian border, had long since fallen into disrepair after the collapse of society. Now it was little more than a ghost town, with Freaks likely roaming its abandoned streets and raiders lurking in the shadows.

“Looks like Oradea,” Stephanie said, pulling her bike to a stop at the side of the road. Harley followed suit, and they both gazed out at the city from a safe distance.

“We’re not going in, right?” Harley asked, her voice more cautious now.

“No, too many unknowns in there,” Stephanie replied, scanning the horizon. “We’ll go around. Cities are crawling with Freaks, and I’m not in the mood for getting cornered in tight streets.”

Harley nodded in agreement, the sight of the towering buildings and the silence that enveloped the city enough to send a chill down her spine. The last thing they needed was to be trapped in a sprawling urban maze with a horde of Freaks bearing down on them.

After a bit of driving, Stephanie and Harley came across a neighborhood of large, once-luxurious houses on the outskirts of the city. These homes had clearly belonged to the wealthy, standing far apart from each other with sprawling yards. Most of the buildings had been swallowed by time, with nature reclaiming the land. Trees had grown wild, weeds stretched high, and the structures looked on the verge of collapse. But one house, though worn and weathered, seemed stable enough to serve as a temporary shelter.

They pulled their bikes into the yard, where the tall grass and overgrown plants stretched up to their knees. Harley, not one to waste time, drew her machete and started hacking her way through the weeds and undergrowth, clearing a path to the front entrance. Stephanie helped push back some of the smaller plants, and soon they had a clear way inside.

The house, like the others, had been ravaged by time. The walls were cracked, and a layer of dust and mold covered nearly every surface. The once-beautiful home had fallen into disrepair, with furniture scattered and broken, windows cracked, and nature creeping in through the gaps. Despite its worn condition, it was better than staying outside, and they needed a secure place to rest.

"This place has seen better days," Harley muttered, eyeing the decayed walls as they ventured deeper into the house.

They explored the ground floor quickly, finding nothing of value, and decided to make their base in one of the rooms upstairs, which seemed the most intact. They cleared out most of the old, broken furniture and debris from the room and made a space they could use for the night.

As they worked, Stephanie glanced around, noticing the heavy layers of mold that had overtaken parts of the house. “Good thing we’re Nocturnis, or this mold would probably kill us,” she remarked, a hint of dark humor in her voice.

Harley chuckled. “Yeah, not much bothers us anymore, huh?”

The next morning, Stephanie woke up alone, the room bathed in the soft light of dawn. Stretching and getting to her feet, she began wandering through the quiet house, curious to see where Harley had gone. After a bit of searching, she found her in another room, sitting cross-legged on the floor and examining something closely.

Stephanie walked over and sat beside her. “What are you looking at?” she asked, her voice still a little groggy from sleep.

Harley glanced at her and held up a strange-looking device. “This,” she said, her voice carrying a mix of nostalgia and amusement, “is a PS5.”

Stephanie tilted her head, confused. “What’s a PS5?”

Harley chuckled softly. “It’s a game console.”

“A... game console?” Stephanie repeated, clearly not understanding. She stared at the device with curiosity, but no recognition sparked in her eyes.

Harley blinked in surprise before realizing the gap in their experiences. Stephanie, being only 19, had been just a toddler when the apocalypse hit—too young to know about things like game consoles and all the technology that had been part of the world before everything went to hell. For her, that life was just a distant memory.

With a patient smile, Harley began explaining. “A game console is... well, it’s a device you hook up to a TV, and you can play all kinds of games on it. It was really popular before everything fell apart. My father promised he’d buy me one before the world went to shit, but, well... you know how things turned out.”

Stephanie’s expression remained curious but blank. “So, it’s just for games?”

Harley nodded. “Yeah. Games where you can pretend to be someone else, go on adventures, fight battles, solve puzzles... whatever you want. It was... fun.” Her voice trailed off slightly as memories of her time playing games with her father or friends on the PS4 came flooding back.

As Harley reminisced, Stephanie was both interested and curious, but not in the way Harley expected. “I’m more interested in scrapping it, to be honest. I want to see its components—how it works. Maybe I could use it for something.” Her eyes gleamed with the excitement of someone who loved tinkering and taking things apart.

Harley laughed at that, shaking her head. “Of course you would. But it’s more than just wires and circuits—it was a part of my childhood.”

Harley then picked up some games she had found scattered around the house, showing them to Stephanie. She pointed out the ones she had played with her father and friends, a wistful smile on her face as she remembered the simpler days. “I used to play this one with my dad all the time. We’d stay up late, trying to beat up each other for hours. And this one... this one was my favorite. I’d play it for hours.”

As Harley spoke, her enthusiasm was infectious, and Stephanie couldn’t help but be fascinated—not just by the stories, but by Harley’s expressions. There was a light in her eyes, a warmth that Stephanie found... cute. In that moment, Stephanie realized she was more interested in Harley than the tech. The way Harley’s face lit up as she explained each game made Stephanie's heart skip a beat.

Stephanie smiled softly, leaning a little closer. “You’re really cute when you talk about stuff like this, you know?”

Harley paused mid-sentence, surprised by the comment, her cheeks flushing slightly. “Oh, shut up.”.