Urban Decay

[Omi]

Lukas swore foully. The jungle seemed to go on forever, and he wasn't having any easier a time of it. He'd had to tap vines for water while inside the leafy prison, and he was beginning to suffer from dehydration. It was mild for now, but still debilitating. Not only that, but he was sick of bear meat. He'd never heard of it being eaten, and now he knew why. It was crap when charred clumsily over a hastily built campfire. It was probably crap no matter how well it was cooked.
He'd thought himself lucky to find a village during his trip through the jungle, but that hadn't really gone well. The previous inhabitants weren't quite as gone as he'd thought, and when they caught him filling his bags from the box they kept their supplies in, they hadn't been too pleased. Lukas winced at the recent memory, rubbing his leg. He'd been lucky to take only one bullet in that little escapade, and he'd emptied both his clips of ammunition during the ensuing firefight-slash-retreat manoeuver. Still, at least the extra tablets he'd acquired would prevent his cells from going all wonky and giving him a bad bout of radiation poisoning.
He muttered darkly, still unhappy at his situation. This planet was the most inhospitable habitable planet he'd ever been on. The universe as a whole would be better if one day the atmosphere suddenly evaporated and it became just another unremarkable barren rock; but as long as it had a (reasonably) breathable atmosphere and (reasonably) stable temperatures, it looked like it was here to stay.
"I hate New JiangXi," he said to nobody in particular to accentuate his point.

The trees had been getting less and less thick, and suddenly his knife cut through one final layer of vines and brambles to reveal a shaft of bright light. He stepped out, shaking off the clinging remnants of plant life which still stuck to him and gazing upon the terrible beauty of New Hangzhou. Like a shattered gemstone, the city was a metaphor for "what could have been". The rust-scarred buildings still held echoes of their former majesty, and the sight was almost poignant. Almost, but he really wasn't in the mood for architectural or cultural appreciation, and was more interested in exactly which way south-west was. Having located the right direction from the sun's position, he headed off out of the jungle without a backwards glance. If by some miracle he actually got off this nightmare planet, he'd treat himself to some of that old Rheinland Schwarzbier. He'd saved a tiny bit of his supply as a kind of motivational pre-reward, and he was really starting to look forward to it.

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