“Don’t blow on it, you’ll put it out.” Al said, crawling toward it in the darkness to place his hands centimeters from its warmth. “Ah, that feels good.”
“Don’t muffle it, you’ll put it out.” Tim quipped
“Hah.” Al smiled and laughed mockingly. Then his face, highlighted in red from the embers, turned serious “Shut up.” he said, returning his gaze to the miniature flames that periodically billowed from the embers.
Twenty or so meters from the washout, Mathew and Mackenzie sat in a hasty observation post that looked out toward where they had crash landed the Cessna that brought them over Lake Ontario. This was the only position they could see clearly east and west, and there was also the possibility that Russian soldiers could come from an amphibious vehicle to the north of their position. Somehow they both doubted to see any Russians, they hadn’t yet, other than the jets.
“The night is coldest before the dawn.” Mackenzie stated, putting his weapon back together before cleaning the inside of his gasmask. He took a deep breath of fresh air and satisfyingly watching the steam of his breath float out before him.
“It’s actually coldest an hour or so after sunrise.” Matty said, as he too was cleaning his gasmask.
Mackenzie smiled. “Whatever, so long as it’s cold I’m happy.”
They had discovered early on that the spores in the atmosphere floated higher depending on how hot the day was. They also discovered that on a cold enough night, and particularly nearing dawn on such a night, the spores would drop to the surface and latch to it, forming a layer of mold. This mold would, in the morning heat, spew more spores into the air and the cycle would continue. However, for now, the air was near freezing and safe to breath. The group took the time to clean as much of the spores off of their apparel as possible. If it were light enough, they would have expected to see the pink layer of growth on everything around them. It was particularly depressing when the nights were warm, and they were forced to keep their masks adorned, such as last night.
“I miss music.” Mathew said, forcing the cloth deep into the tight creases of his gasmask.
“When’s the last time we heard music?” Mackenzie asked.
“Well, there’s that time you played the guitar in that abandoned music store in Peterborough, although I wouldn’t call that music.” Mathew said, smiling.
Mackenzie laughed. “Heh, if I recall that well, you were singing along to A Horse With No Name pretty passionately.”
“Yes, I was.” Mathew admitted in a sigh as he looked to the stars above. “I have to agree, it was a pretty moving moment considering we hadn’t heard music for quite a while until then. I never thought it could be so powerful.”
Mackenzie peered up with him. “We took it for granted. We took a lot for granted before the Cordyceps came.”
“No interference.” Mathew said, staring at the glistening sky.
“Yeah, the sky is perfect.”
As they peered up, the rumbling of an engine became audible in the distance.
Mackenzie looked in the direction it came from. “Ah shit.”
“Hurry, let’s get back to the leanto.” Mathew said, picking up his gear and moving back in a quick jog, followed closely by Mackenzie.
“We hear it.” Tim said,
Al was putting his gasmask on but was nodding at the same time to confirm that he too had heard the sound.
Mathew got on to his stomach. “Let’s just lay still and hope whatever they’re dropping doesn’t kill us.”
“We’re relatively safe in the washout. I think.” Mackenzie added.
“Let’s hope so.” Tim said, his hands over his head.
The roaring of the engine became louder, and that’s when Mathew made the realization. “Those are propellers, not jets.”
“Helicopter?” Tim asked.
“No, Helicopters make a chopping sound.” Al said.
“Exactly, this is a buzzing, and listen, there’s an oscillation.”
“A what?” Al asked.
“It means there’s two or more engines.” Mathew said, getting up.
Mackenzie got up too. “They wouldn’t be bombing or dropping anything from prop plane, let’s go check this out.”
As they four made their way into the washout, the early morning rays just began to slice across the landscape. The roaring engines of the mystery aircraft had become increasingly loud and were nearly upon them.
“Low flying.” Tim remarked.
“There it is.” Alain pointed.
“Holy fuck, it’s an Osprey.” Mathew exclaimed, “Wave damnit it’s either survivors or the military.” He said as he threw his arms up.
Mackenzie climbed out of the washout and ran into the field, “Come on spread out.”
They were all standing in the field, thrashing about when they noticed the door slide open.
Mathew stopped waving. “That might not be good.” He said. Looking more closely he saw a figure lean from the side of the sliding door and empty the contents of some kind of drum.
Mackenzie cocked an eyebrow, “What the hell is that?” he said as he looked up at the cloud of objects that tumbled out of the drum and danced in the air.
“Papers.” Tim said, waiting impatiently for them to float down to him as the Osprey screamed overhead, passing them by.
Mathew watched as it passed, it was close enough now for him to make out that the person in the doorway was a woman, wearing a flight suit and a harness. Her long hair swirled in the wash of the engines. An MP5 slung on her shoulder dangled over the edge of the aircraft as she waved at him,. He could barely make out her face but Mathew could have sworn he saw her smiling. “I think I’m in love.” He muttered, waving back. The papers she had dropped finally made it to him and fell past him as he stood still waving, caught in a slight trance. She was still waving back at him before the Osprey dipped behind a tree line. “Wow.” He said, his heart swelling with an uncontrollable energy.
“Hey man, wake up! Did you see this?” Tim said, running over to him with one of the flyers. “Check it out.”
The flyers were all similar, although the smeared ink and offset print made it obvious that they were printed individually by an old press printer. There was a graphic in the top left hand corner of a persons fist in the air. Centered to the right of the fist, the words “You are not alone!” crossed the page in oversized bold lettering. The next word addressed all four of them “Survivors!” Beneath this there was a paragraph:
Do you seek shelter from the horrors of disease?
Do you seek protection from the fires of war?
Then Join US! Come to GENESSE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
TRACK FIELD in MEDINA NY
to fulfill your destiny in the construction of a NEW NATION!
Our community can provide for all basic needs.
We are waiting for you!
A WARNING TO INFECTED!
All infected persons will be shot on sight!
If you do not end your own life we will do it for you.
It looked a lot like an old world war two flyer, perhaps it was a template from that time and all they did was change the words. However it seemed as though it was simply the style of the artist. The location names had been stamped in by hand and centered at the bottom of the page, a circular crest. The crest had the words “Necessitas non habet legem” encircling it. Within the crest was the same fist as at the top of the page, but it was placed within a shield.
“What should we do?” Tim asked.
“I think we should go.” Mathew said, already turning to make his way toward the camp.
“Where’s Median.” Mackenzie asked, frantically searching through his pocket for a map they had found in a home the day they crashed in the woods near the shores of Lake Ontario
“Let me see.” Mathew said turning back around to reach for the map.
Mackenzie pulled it away from him, staring at him with angry eyes though the gasmask. “Give me a fucking second why don’t you.” He said, putting the map down on the ground and opening it up. “Medina.” he repeated.
“Where are we exactly?” Al said.
“We tried to figure that out two days ago didn’t we?” Tim asked.
“Yeah, but we didn’t have much to work off of, now we know we crashed in a park of some sorts.”
“Right there.” Mathew said, I remember seeing that delta on our way in, and it’s right next to a Golden Hill state park, that’s where we crashed yesterday.”
“Jesus that was just yesterday?” Al said.
Tim nodded, “Yeah... yesterday felt like a long day.”
“Well, we crashed early morning yesterday.” Mackenzie said.
Mathew shook his head. “Would you three stop calling it a crash? We made an emergency landing in a very short forest clearing.”
“Seemed like a crash to me.” Al said.
Mackenzie looked up to Mathew, “I think a crash is when you hit things. We hit many things.”
“I mean, I’m pretty sure we lost both wings.” Al added.
Tim took his turn. “I think if there were fuel in them we’d have died a fiery painful death. Luckily we were completely out of fuel.”
“We didn’t crash! What do you not understand about an emergency landing?”
Alain thought for a moment before talking, “I think an emergency landing is a landing that you do quickly because of some kind of problem, and that after rectifying the problem, you take off again.”
“Yeah.” Tim said. “ I totally agree with that, and since we had no wings, no landing gear, no fuel and were thrown from the aircraft.”
Mathew pointed his finger at Tim. “Hey, I wasn’t thrown from the aircraft, you bastards never wear your seatbelts.”
Tim stared at Matty with wide eyes. “Well I was thrown from the aircraft Matty, and it was painful. I think I still have leaves up my ass.”
“Ok, we don’t need to hear that.” Al said, looking back from the map.
“Here.” Mackenzie said, pointing to the map. “This is where Medina is, and we should be somewhere around here, if that’s the case there’s a road just a few hundred meters past the tents and we should be able to figure out exactly where we are once we know the name of that road.
Tim turned his attention to Mackenzie. “The name of that road Mac, might be at the very end of it, and look how long that road is.” Tim said. “I just said I still have leaves in my ass, I don’t care what the name of the road is and I definitely don’t intend to walk any further than I already have to. If it’s there we’re pretty much where you said we were.”
Al nodded. “ You know, he’s got a point. We really don’t have to walk all the way down that road just to know if we’re on it. It’s a road, that’s indication enough that we’re pretty close to where you think we are.”
“I hate being unsure when it’s just a few hundred meters to prove something.” Mackenzie said, looking at the map still.
“Ok, we really don’t have to walk to the edge of the road Mac. Look, we crossed one road when we raided those houses right after the crash.”
“Hah! You just called it a crash!”
“Shut up Tim. Now, if we crossed one road and we came straight south from the crash site.” Mathew glared at Tim who was pointing at him victoriously. “We have to be somewhere in this square. That’s about as easy as it gets.”
“He’s got a point you know.” Al said.
Mackenzie punched Al on the shoulder. “Would you stop saying that?”
Al laughed.
“Alright, well I suggest we get moving. We’ve got.” Mathew peered one last time at the map, judging the distance by eye. “We’ve got about twenty kilometers to walk.”
“That’s going to take all day.” Tim said, his expression uneasy.
“Not to mention we probably have to deal with the locals of Medina, who are probably mostly all infected, hopefully not all raging lunatics.” Al said getting up off the ground.
“Yeah well, we’ll burn that bridge when we get there.” Mackenzie said, folding the map and putting it back into his pocket.
Mathew turned and began to make his way back to the washout. “Alright, let’s pack up the leanto and get moving.”
“Wait.” Tim said. “We’re supposed to be going to St-Catharines to see about my family.”
“Yes Tim, I know.” Said Mathew who had stopped and turned around. “But if they’ve got an Osprey they could probably help us out if we barter with them a bit. St-Catharines is not all that far from here by air.” Mathew said, returning to the direction of travel.
“He’s got a point-”
Mackenzie and Tim both turned to Al with coarse stares, even Mathew had stopped and turned around to peer at him in irritation.
“- you... know.” Al said... finishing the line.
Mackenzie broke eye contact and began to walk, “Alright, let’s get a move on.”
They took down the leanto and organized the supplies they had gathered the day before. The majority of the things they had taken from the campsite was canned food and sealed bottled water which was a godsend considering the fear of infection. They traded these safer consumables with less reliable ones for space in the pack. The unwanted goods were left at the shelter as they kicked out the remains of the fire and began their trek toward Medina New York.
The landscape was spotted with farmhouses, and so the group had to remain vigilant incase the occupants had fallen victim to the disease. They took turns to break trail through the farmland that was covered in the seasons first months of unchecked growth. Since the land had not been prepared for harvest, wild grass dominated the landscape. They could take the road, but risked detection by unsavory sorts. They were not only worried about the infected, which were usually easily fooled and dispatched. They were more so concerned about raiders, marauders and all other types of none-infected people who would risk a lot for the quality of equipment the four of them carried.
They took turns navigating as well, making sure that they checked the map periodically, especially when a road was in sight, to ensure that they could find the safest location to cross, one away from houses. There were several occasions where they reached the edge of a tree line and found themselves looking into the backyard of a farmhouse. They would inspect visually to see if there was anything worth scavenging, but avoided entering a danger area for nothing short of a necessity. If there was a case of bottled water sitting outside someone’s door they’d risk it, but for anything else it wasn’t worth the trouble. When they were in Canada they often procured transportation by motor vehicle, however they soon discovered that it attracted the infected, and stopping to syphon gasoline from other vehicles made it very dangerous when a mob was on your trail. Not to mention that getting anywhere near an urban center in a vehicle was nearly impossible. The majority of roadways were littered with abandoned vehicles and navigating them in any vehicle other than a motorcycle became a daunting task. Motorcycles had their own problems as well. Mathew had survived the majority of his time in Sudbury by navigating the dead city streets with his motorcycle. He learned the hard way that the infected had no qualms about using themselves as crash test dummies. Avoiding one was simple, but a wall of them was bad news at any level.
Mackenzie was sitting at the edge of the wood line. “What do you think?” He asked to Al.
“Well, the way I see it. We’ll move a lot faster if we get a vehicle and follow this road here down to Jeddo. It’ll save us hours of walking, and I doubt we’ll run into anybody. This region seems pretty quite.”
“So far yes, it does.” Mathew agreed. “But you don’t want to be driving sixty miles an hour down a dirt road and have a dozen of them scramble out of the ditch to say hello.”
“I don’t want to risk that.” Mackenzie said. “I vote we continue on foot. It’ll take longer but we’ve already been through a lot, I’m still feeling the effects of whatever it is the Russian jets dropped on us. I don’t need a concussion and a steering wheel bruise in my chest to make things worse.”
“If things go the way they have in the past you wouldn’t have to worry about that Mack, you, Al and Tim would be ejected out the windows while the truck rolls over. Then you’d probably all be unconscious as a horde of infected rush into the truck and beat me to death while I’m trapped in the truck by my seatbelt.”
“That’s exactly why I never wear mine.” Tim said, smiling.
“I guess you’ve convinced me.” Said Al, “Let’s get going then. We’ve got to move around this yard.”
“Alright.” Mackenzie said, as he turned around, slapping the map and compass into Tim’s chest. “Your turn.”
Tim rolled his eyes. “Jee thanks Mack.”
Mathew looked at the house more intently for a moment, feeling some unexplainable urge to take a closer look. “Wait.”
Mackenzie stopped and looked at Mathew. He didn’t know what was on his mind but trusted his friend enough to know that if something was up it was worth paying attention. He turned quickly and threw a small stick to Al who was out of reach. He motioned him to come back once he had turned around, irritated at the way he had gotten his attention.
“Alright, what’s up?” Tim said, after the other two had returned.
Mathew pointed to the structure across the barren field. “Look at that hangar type building.” he said.
“Yeah, looks like a garage for large farm equipment.” Tim said.
Mathew shook his head. “Do you see that on the side of it?”
“Something crashed into the side. Yeah I see that.” Al said looking more intently.
“It’s some kind of vehicle.” Mackenzie added, “Where are the binoculars.”
“I don’t need the binoculars Mack, it’s an ambulance.” said Mathew as he knelt.
Mackenzie nodded his head. “Shit that’s good news, we’re low on autoinjectors since that pellet attack. We should check it out.”
“My point exactly.” Mathew got up and started to walk down the edge of the forest that lead toward the roadway that the building faced.
“Alright, let’s go.” Tim said, following him.
They made their way along the side of the yard, staying hidden in the tree line. The only problem was that the protection of the tree line brought them to the opposite side of the structure of where the ambulance had crashed. Once they arrived at the end of the woods they had to stop and plan their advance. They didn’t know how many of the near bye buildings would be able to observe their movement across the open ground, and they wanted to minimize this to avoid any kind of interaction with people, infected or otherwise.
“Alright.” Tim said, looking at the structure. “I’d suggest we take the corner there. I’ll go first since I’m not as stupidly fast as you guys, and I can hold it until you’re there. Give me the machine gun Al, I’ll run just as fast with it as with my rifle, but I’ll have more to put down if something hits the fan.”
“I agree.” said Mathew.
“Alright, here you go.” Al said, switching the M249 for the M16A2.
“Ok, get going, I’ll be right behind you to cover the wall.” Mackenzie said.
“Then we’ll make our way to the far side and move along the wall to the ambulance.” Al added.
Mathew nodded, “That does seem like the safest idea.”
Tim got up, “Ok, I’m going.” he said as he stepped out from behind the tree line and began to run to the corner of the building.
“Alain watched toward the road while Mathew kept an eye in the other direction.
Mackenzie took his turn and burst out of the tree line at full tilt.
Alain got ready and took his turn shortly afterward. The dash reminded him of a moment in his past. It was a fifty meter run. Alain and Mackenzie had been teamed up in the Texas exercise, before they had gone to Afghanistan for their tour. There, during the training, they had been labeled as the fastest runners of their platoon from a comical episode where Mackenzie outran his section to a building they were supposed to be clearing. He was given the signal to make his way to the building, and did so, but when he reached it, he turned to see that his section was not even half of the way. Later in the exercise, Alain and Mackenzie were teamed up to run a several hundred meter distance toward a building where they would provide cover for another element of their attack. Mackenzie went first, and to his surprise, Alain was directly behind him the entire way as they both lunged over tall cacti and deep ditches, keeping a constant quick pace the entire way to the building. This was the same during their tour, where they were forced to run a large distance in open ground to rendezvous with another call signs during a firefight. It was a suicide run, and if they hadn’t made it they would have been considered foolish. However they did make it, and they brought with them the quick clot packs that saved the lives of several people, and so they were not fools, but heroes. Funny how it goes, Alain thought to himself as he slid on his knees into the cover of the structure. “Alright.” he gasped, taking a few breaths before continuing, “Matty’s on his way.”
“Can see that.” Tim said, as he lay in the prone, the machine gun trained skillfully toward the road. He had seen Mathew burst from the tree line with his peripheral vision. He soon heard the hard footsteps as Mathew bolted past them, making his way to the far end of the garage where Mackenzie was waiting.
“What’s it look like?” Mathew asked as he leaned against the backside of the garage, watching Mackenzie who was leaning slightly around the corner.
“Looks clear, but you never know. There’s a house about forty or so meters to the south, looks abandoned, but you-”
“You never know, yeah I get it.” Mathew interrupted. “Let’s get moving.” He said, turning back and Signaling to Al that they were moving up.
Al nodded, turning to Tim. “They’re headed to the Ambulance.”
“Right.” Tim replied.
Mathew moved forward behind Mackenzie as they made their way toward the ambulance cautiously. They were worried about the house to the south, hoping that it was truly abandoned and that they wouldn’t have to deal with the possibility of its inhabitants ruining their day.
Mackenzie was out of breath, he stopped for a moment and dropped to a knee. “I’m sorry Matty. I don’t think I should have started moving so quickly after that incident yesterday. I’m still feeling pretty lousy. You’ll have to take point, I need a second.”
“Alright.” Mathew said, moving past him slowly, shotgun at the ready. He stopped a few feet forward of Mackenzie and waited, looking back for a moment to see if he was alright. “Good to go?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Mackenzie said, using the wall to support himself as he stood up. “Let’s go.” He was breathing hard.
Mathew simled, “You’ll be alright. It’s the residue of the Atropine that’s causing your discomfort.”
“Yeah, let’s hope so.” Mackenzie said, moving up behind Mathew. “Alright, keep going.”
Mathew began to move forward again, making it to just a few feet from the ambulance. The back end of the ambulance hung out of the hole it had crated in the side of the corrugated steel wall, the doors were open and swung slowly in the light breeze of the morning.
“Which way do you want to go in by?” Mackenzie asked. “The back of the ambulance? Or between the ambulance and the wall?”
“I think the wall is a better choice since going to the back of the ambulance will make us more visible to anyone or anything across the street, we’re already taking a chance by being in view of that house of there.” He said, nodding toward the south.
Mackenzie looked in that direction for a short moment, the lenses of his gasmask having fogged up a little bit from his sharp breaths earlier. “Yeah, I’m really hoping we don’t have to deal with anything but the problem of finding enough space for the shit we’ll want to take from the ambulance.”
“That’s if there’s anything useful in here.” Mathew said, taking a step up on the destroyed corrugated steel wall. He slid himself between the wall and the ambulance, keeping his weapon pointing toward the inside in case he had to blow anything’s head off at short notice. “I’m in.” He said, once he stood on the other side.
“Coming.” Mackenzie answered, taking his turn to climb between the wall and the ambulance. As he made his way through, Mathew was already a few steps ahead and was clearing the driver side of the ambulance. The door was left open, blood was smeared all over the inside of the vehicle, however it was old and coagulated.
“Pretty.” Mathew said mockingly, to the smears that canvassed the windshield. He began to climb into the driver side, “Cover me.” he said, while throwing Mackenzie the shotgun. It would be useless in the tight confines of the ambulance.
Mackenzie caught the shotgun and slung his M14, bringing the shotgun to bear. “Check.” He said, letting Mathew know he was ready.
Mathew drew his pistol and made his way to the rear of the ambulance. There was a lot of blood, enough for more than one person to have bled out, or perhaps blood packs had exploded during the crash. It didn’t matter. Mathew got busy looking for anything of use. He saw some Epinephrine autoinjectors in a case and quickly snatched them up and stuffed them into his bag.
“Matty.” Mackenzie said, from the driver side.
“What?” Mathew said, as he continued to grab other useful things from the stores within the ambulance.
“I’ve got a slow one here.” Mackenzie said, as he watched a corpse wearing a paramedic uniform slowly rise from behind some farm equipment. “Hopefully he’s alone.”
“Well I hope you don’t make any loud noises.” Mathew said taking the last of the useful contents of the ambulance and making his way back out toward the driver seat. As he climbed into the front of the vehicle motion caught his attention and his head shot to the right. Out the passenger window, a woman stood watching him. White spines dangled behind her head, they had grown through her clothing. Her face was swollen on the left side, and partially missing on the right, spherical fungal structures attempted to fill the hole in her face unsatisfactorily. “Got one on the passenger side of the door too Mack, don’t know if she’s slow yet, she’s just standing here.” he said, his pistol trained on her forehead in case she pounced.
“Best thing would be to get rid of them quietly.” Mackenzie said, sliding the Kukri out of its sheath.
“I agree completely.” Mathew said, reaching to Mackenzie to have his shotgun returned to him.
Mackenzie saw his outstretched hand in his peripheral vision and handed it back, without even looking in his direction. “Cover me from the second one, I’ll take this guy out.” Mackenzie began to walk toward the shambling corpse who in tern made its way toward him. He raised an arm and prepared to strike when the hurried footsteps echoed from behind him. He spun around, anticipating the other. Instead he witnessed Mathew strike the woman in the side of the head with the but of his shotgun. She collapsed to the floor. Mackenzies attention returned to the one before him who had only taken half a step in the time that had passed. His arm, already at its apex, fell toward the creature. One strong stroke had the blade cleave cleanly into its skull. The softened tissue split open easily, revealing the intricate sponge like structure of the Cordyceps fungus that had consumed the majority of its brain.
Mathew struck the woman several more times in the skull before it split open, grey matter spewing out on to the concrete floor. He then looked up at Mackenzie, who had already dispatched the slow one. “Ready to go?” he asked.
“Very much so.” Mackenzie replied, wiping the filth from his blade. As he turned to make his way back to Mathew, the familiar burst of a machine gun resonated throughout the garage.
They both looked at each other for a very brief moment before they broke into a sprint toward the hole in the wall.
The machine gun fire continued as they hastily jumped through the way they had come in and ran toward the corner of the building. When they turned the corner they saw both Alain and Timothy firing down the side of the building toward the street.
Mackenzie turned to look behind them, he didn’t even bother verbally warning Mathew, but instead raised his weapon and began to fire into the mass of bodies that flowed toward them along the wall.
The bodies began to fall, but Mackenzie couldn’t stop them all, and the faster ones were closing in.
Just as he ran out of rounds in his M14, one of them raced up toward them.
Mathew turned the corner and opened fire, sending pellets hurtling toward the closest runner. The side of its face exploded into a mist.
“Reloading.” Mackenzie yelled as he dropped the empty magazine and loaded a new one.
“Let’s get moving!” Mathew yelled to the other two. He watched as Alain picked up the fire with the M16A2 while Timothy got up from the prone and began to run in their direction.
“Go go go!” Alain yelled as he stopped firing and sprinted toward them.
“To the house!” Mackenzie yelled, “It’s the only option!”
Mathew fired another sell into the crowed, downing four, of which three returned to their feet. They were too far for the buckshot.
“Run!” Alain yelled, switching weapons with Timothy.
The four ran toward the home, a trail of infected close on their tail.
Somewhere in the distance, the rumbling sound of an aircrafts engines was audible, but for now, all the four could hear was the sucking of air through gas masks, and the explosion of gunpowder.
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