Silver Flame

One of the remarkable things about life is that it's never so bad that it can't get worse.
I grabbed the shotgun. Why was I carrying a shotgun, you may be asking? Because I couldn't just walk into Food Lion and buy groceries. Also, there were things like the ants that had been mutated by the radiation.
Fire was a brave dog, but there were at least six or seven humongous ants rushing down the hill after him. I ordered the kids to stay behind me and turned to face the ants. The tide of ants was coming fast... way too fast...
There was barely time to shoot, but I managed to dispose of about half of them. One of the remaining ones jumped up onto my leg and bit. I felt an unbelievable searing pain from the bite and collapsed. The last thing I saw was Vanessa grabbing the shotgun out of my hands. Then everything went black.

I regained consciousness a little at a time. When I'd been in the hospital at Yashiville, a town, I had been asleep and then awake in a blink of an eye. Now, I could hear Vanessa and Melissa before I could see them. Slowly the blackness slid away and I opened my eyes and sat up. The pain in my leg wasn't as bad as before. Glancing down, I saw that Vanessa had bandaged it.
"Thanks," I said.
"No problem."
I looked around and saw that all of the ants were dead. Fire was sleeping on his back, his paws waving in the air as he dreamed of chasing something. Or maybe being chased by something.
I stood up, wincing as I put weight on my leg. I sat back down and undid the bandage. It wasn't as bad as I thought. It had already stopped bleeding.
"Nicole?" Melissa asked. "I'm kinda hungry."
"Me, too," Vanessa added. "Can we, uh, can we eat the ants?"
"I have no idea. Might as well try." I dragged a huge, disgusting body closer to us and started a fire with the matches I had also bought at Yashiville. A few minutes later we were eating ant. Tough as leather, but not as tasty. I forced myself to smile another burnt mouthful. At least they weren't fire ants. Fire ants literally breathed fire. I'd encountered them once before. The day that Mom died. Suffix to say, I have a huge grudge on ants.
I stood up, faced the east, and squared my shoulders. We had to keep moving. I turned back to smile at the kids before setting off. They followed me. Fire followed them.
It was kind of like a video game, ya know?