The Garlic Hunter

There hadn't been a war. At least there hadn't been a single, all-consuming war. There had been many smaller conflicts. Those combined with other disasters, man-made and natural, to devastate the human race. Over a space of twenty-five years what was considered civilization all but disappeared. The human population was reduced from billions to millions. Those who survived weren't always the lucky ones. Diseases turned many into beings resembling creatures of mythology and fiction....
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There hadn't been a war. At least there hadn't been a single, all-consuming war. There had been many smaller conflicts. Those combined with other disasters, man-made and natural, to devastate the human race. Over a space of twenty-five years what was considered civilization all but disappeared. The human population was reduced from billions to millions. Those who survived weren't always the lucky ones. Diseases turned many into beings resembling creatures of mythology and fiction. Gradually, over decades, the human race started to recover. People were no better or worse than those who came before them. Most wanted to live in peace. Some lived by plundering vulnerable towns and travelers. Others wanted to rule everything and everyone they could bring under their control. Groups of survivors gathered into fortified settlements. Others formed into small bands of nomads. Rarely, individuals traveled alone. The garlic hunter was one who did. A trader who bartered the garlic he found for things he needed, he was content with his life and had no desire to be drawn into other people's struggles. When he entered the settlement of Holdout to trade for food and ammunition things changed. Within days he was fighting for his life and for the lives of people who had become his friends. Someone like the garlic hunter, who looked in his late twenties or early thirties, hadn't lived on his own for over sixty years without knowing how to fight.