The pain in the cold - Short Story

She was sitting in her car, breathing heavily. The engine was running, but the windows were still frozen and covered with snow. It was freezing cold outside and she was waiting for the car to warm up.

She knew it would be faster to scrape the windows clean, but with outside temperature being -30 Celsius degrees, she didn't care to stand out from her car. Running the engine to heat up the car was spending more gas than she should use, but she had a gas station nearby.

One of those which were left and still operating.

She was going to drive to the next town to deliver some fuel, goods and messages. The winter made trading more difficult, but it was crucial to keep the connections going. She had promised to be driving the car through the winter, as she could get some easier tasks for the next winter.

The windows were finally open enough and the air was starting to feel warm, so she could open her jacket a bit and drove off. She would be driving for most of the day, as the roads were in bad condition and she had almost 80 kilometers to drive.

When we say the roads were in bad condition, they were the ones still we were able to use. So they were the better roads - and they weren't good even in the summer, without the snow.

It could have been easier to live in warmer areas, but then again they were almost too hot to live in. Even if we all would be able to travel there. The countries which had been great before are now dangerous due to radiation and.. other dangers.

After the war broke out, those who survived have ganged up. The whole world is devastated. There weren't that many nukes, but a single one is already too much.. and the nukes weren't even the worse thing.

Most of the damage was caused by.. something else. Or someone.
Most of us had only heard rumors, as we couldn't connect with others as well any longer. To a certain point, Internet and phone connections were working quite well, but currently they are useless. At least around here.

She however had been close when it started. When all of this happened. She had not seen what it was but...but she's one of the few who got it.
She had to keep it as a secret. Everybody who would understand were left back in the south as she had ran back north to her family.

Every time she drove the same route she had too much time to think. It had already became a routine route and as she was the only one on the road, so she didn't need to focus on driving.

However when she was closing in to the town.. she noticed something was wrong. Nobody was there to greet her as usual. The town was quiet and only in the grand hall she could see some light coming out. A bunch of snow scooters and jeeps were parked outside and it seemed that people had gathered in the grand hall.

The grand hall wasn't big enough for all the people in town - which meant something must had happened.

She parked her car outside the grand hall and stepped outside. There were loud voices coming from the inside. She approached carefully and she was hoping she would have a weapon to make her feel safe.

She opened the grand hall door and let a loud gasp from her mouth.

The hall was filled with people who she didn't recognize. There were some bloodstains on the floor, but no corpses were visible. The men inside had weapons close to them and they were talking, eating and drinking inside.

"Hey boss, someone came!" shouted a young man sitting next to the door, holding a rough looking spear.

People in the hall fell silent and stared at the door.

"Welcome girl.. I wish we would have been able to prepare you a proper greeting, but I hope this will do."
The fat man stopped to laugh and the others were laughing with him.
"I suppose you brought at least a new vehicle to us with you.. even though I've been missing a new girl to entertain us."
The men laughed harder and couldn't get their eyes off her.

She was in a shock. It didn't take that long to understand these men were raiders who had most likely killed all.. or most of the people from the town. Just to get some food and shelter from the winter.

She was furious and now she was glad she didn't have a weapon.

"How can you talk like that?" She was shouting and walking towards the fat man.
"Don't you understand that now as the world has collapsed, we need to work together. Otherwise there will be nothing left of us in the end? Her eyes were in tears, both from anger and sadness.

The men seemed silent and confused.

"Even though we all should work harder than in the past to be able to live..while every evil deed you do hurts us far more than it would have in the past. You are stealing the future this world has!"

She had already walked all up to the fat man. He was still quiet, but had a faint smile on his face.

"I lost it all when all of this happened."
The smile vanished from the fat mans lips.
"I cannot see a future for this world. It's all but pain or pleasure and I've had my fair share of pain. Now I'm doing all these people a favor, they do not need to suffer and I'm getting some pleasure when I'm still here."
The fat man started to grin.
"And you girl.. you'll get both pain and pleasure. You seem brave, but that bravery won't help you here."
He stood up to reach for her, but she stepped back from his reach. The fat man was still grinning as other men gathered around her to block her way.

"Bravery won't help me... but this'll help me."
She took her glove off and lifted her arm at the fat man. She pointed her finger at him and searched for that feeling inside her..
The feeling she had felt years ago on the day of catastrophe.

A burst of flames flew from her hands at the fat man. In a blink of an eye, the fat man had time to go from confusion to fear, as he shouted for almost an second before he died.

"I'm so sorry"
Her sound was nothing more than a whisper, as she turned around to face the men in the room.
Now she waved both her hands, throwing a great rain of fire on the men.

Only few had time to react, but it didn't help them. It was only a few seconds and all of them had fallen down, burning. She was holding back tears and walked past the burning corpses.

Standing outside, she let the tears fall on her face. She could feel the tears freezing on her face while the burning hall was harming her back.

This was the terror which had destroyed the world.

Years ago in the south, someone had found magic and released it.
Something mankind had only been dreaming of.

However all the power went to the people at the site. The few men and women. The sealed magic found the people, only to be released on death.

This is which caused the world, all the societies to collapse. People who wanted more power for themselves.
Governments with traditional weapons couldn't do anything as the world was torn apart by magic. The nukes launched were aimed at them, but it turned out to be a poor choice.

She wasn't one of the first ones. She got her powers afterwards.
It could have only meant one of the first ones had died and the power had spread. She was one of the lucky ones who got a piece of it.

It was just a fragment of the first ones.
They had the power to tear a continent apart. Even though she couldn't do it, the power was terrifying and thus she kept her power as a secret.

As she was afraid both of her powers and the greed living inside of her.
All the things she could get without any work.

All she would need is to force others bend to her will.

_{All images are from Pixabay!}