The Con of Man

Chapter 4: Long Overdue

2008-08-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

Alain sat uneasily on the back of the ambulance, his legs hanging over the edge. He looked back curiously at Mathew who was inside, pulling pieces of grenade shrapnel out of the side of the biker. Alain cringed as he looked back at his foot which was being tended to by the infected woman with the small portion of medical supplies that Mathew said he wouldn’t need for the biker. She had taken off the blood soaked bandages that had been set hastily early that morning and was now cleaning out the wounds. It was easy to understand why Alain was nervous, the spines on her arms were clearly visible now that she wore only a tank top, attempting to cool down from the hot afternoon temperature. He feared that she could easily infect him, and was quite adamant about not letting her treat his wounds regardless of her experience as a nurse. However, she mentioned that several none-infected persons lived with them for extended periods of time without ever becoming infected. If he didn’t want to lose his foot completely, it would be worth trusting her. A very short, yet effective set of imagery of himself limping away with a stump for a leg prompted him to agree with her. “So what’s your name anyway?” He asked her as she poured some disinfectant on his wound.
She looked up at him, with an almost questioning glare, and then returned to her work. She took a strip of gauze and started to absorb the excess fluid when she finally spoke. “Cordelia.” She said, solemnly. Her British accent accentuating the name.
Alain was sincerely surprised at how the sound of her name touched him in that moment. It’s as if in hearing her name he finally saw her as a true human being. Having killed many people who carried the same symptoms, they had become expendable husks, walking corpses, unimportant facets of reality that simply existed as obstacles to their goals. But now, before him, one of them knelt, and carefully, gently washed his damaged limb. She was undoubtedly human, and for a very short moment that realization threatened to give consequence to all the others that he had killed in the past, but he knew he could not let that thought overtake him. He could not blame himself for ending the lives, of those who had fallen victim to the disease. He looked at her as she worked so diligently to make him better. He hated cliche’s but couldn’t help it. “That’s a beautiful name.” he said, as sincerely has he could.
“Thank you.” She said, smiling to herself for the first time in weeks. “There, that should be good, the swelling will go down in a few days, you’re lucky you didn’t get infected with anything.”
“Luck.” Alain thought to himself, “ Is that what this is?”
“What’re we doing Mack?” Tim said quietly, peering over his shoulder toward the ambulance as he leaned his back against a car. “How are we going to get picked up by these people in Medina if we’re suddenly siding with infected?”
“Look Tim.” Mack answered sternly. “By helping them out we honestly have a better chance at making it to the field”
“But once they know we plan on joining their enemies do you think that these people are going to just let us through?”
“Since we helped them out, yes, maybe they will.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Tim.” Mack said, putting his hand on his shoulder. “That’s when we start shooting.” he said as he began to walk toward the ambulance.
“Uh huh... you’re getting sloppy Mack, we have no idea what we’re getting into.” He said to him loudly, making sure that Mackenzie had heard him as he gained distance. He didn’t reply.
“So, Cordelia, how far is this blockade you were talking about?” Mackenzie asked.
“Hey, how did you already know her name?” Al asked.
“She told me?” Mackenzie answered in a quip.
“Well, the blockade exists within the outskirts of town at all entrances, this was only one of them.”
“So you mean we don’t have anything else to contend with on our way into Medina?”
“Well, not exactly.” She said. “There is still the fact of the people living within the city.”
“You mean the infected?”
“Yes, and I fear they will be difficult to negotiate with.”
“Well, we’ll see when we get there.”
Mathew sat up and slid the latex gloves off of his hands, turning them inside out as to avoid the blood that dripped from them. “Well, from what I can tell, none of the shrapnel hit anything particularly important. He should be fine, but I don’t have the tools necessary to be sure. Not to mention I’m not a doctor.”
“I was going to ask.” Said Cordelia, “How is it you know so much about these kinds of wounds?”
“Thanks mostly to these guys, and the internet, while it was still running.”
“Yeah.” Alain laughed, “We gave him the problems, the internet gave him the solutions.”
“Actually, I took out my first bullet in Sudbury, from a stranger that had stumbled into my apartment complex already bleeding. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this stuff wasn’t exactly as difficult as it seemed. Or maybe I just had a knack for it. I started doing more complex operations when we got our hands on some actual medical supplies at the hospital.”
“Well I’ve watched doctors and surgeons work, and I must say that you could have fooled me into thinking you had a Ph.D.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I also heard you’re a pilot, a jack of all trades are we?” She said to Mathew.
“Some would call me that, I would say that I’m simply learning things by necessity. We needed to fly a plane, I happened to have a small bit of experience in doing so. As for the bullet, I had to do it to save the mans life and I figured that I couldn’t do too much more damage.”
“I didn’t complain when he took the shotgun pellets out of me.” Alain said, putting his foot back into his boot with care.
“Yeah, that was probably the most difficult one considering how deep some of them had gone, and how many times I had to make new incisions to get to them.”
“Well, I was too drunk to care. Mind you I’ve never thrown up so much in my life after that.” Alain remarked, looking up in nostalgia.
“I remember that.” Mackenzie said, we pumped you full of pain killers and Vodka, was a really dumb idea, but it seemed to have worked.”
“Painkillers and Vodka? Are you insane?” Cordelia said, “I can’t believe he didn’t have a heart attack.”
“Well, we had epinephrine nearby if he would have gone into arrest I think we could have gotten him out of it with a good shot of adrenaline.”
“Well, thank you for showing me the amateur side of your talent Mr. Dionne.”
“I’ll... take that as a compliment too.” Mathew said.
“We should get moving.” Mackenzie mentioned. “Where’s the other biker?”
“He left with the boy on the bike, his burns weren’t that bad.” Mathew said, sitting up and looking into the driver seat of the ambulance for keys.
Cordelia shook her head. “There’s no use, the roads are far too congested with abandoned vehicles to use this as a means of returning to Medina, we’ll have to roll him on the stretcher. It’s only six kilometers to the checkpoint in Ridgeway, and then another five or so to downtown Medina.”
“That’s not a bad idea.” Mathew said as he made his way out of the ambulance and started pulling the stretcher out. “Al, help me extend the legs.”
“How far is it from here?” Mackenzie asked.
“There will be a checkpoint near the entrance to town. Hopefully Trevor does not betray us in some way by convincing them to fight us. I somehow think he looked up to your efforts to help us though, we shouldn’t have a problem.”
“What should I do with the LMG Matt? We’re out of rounds for it.”
“I thought you said you still had a few left?”
“I did, but there were only twenty, so I unlinked them and gave them to Tim.
“Alright, hang on to it for now, we might be able to get some more from the people who want to pick us up.”
“About that.” Cordelia started, “I’m not sure how you’re going to get there without strong resistance from the group that took me in. They’re very serious about not letting anyone into this place, they’ve already killed dozens of uninfected. My word is not worth very much either, I may be able to get you into the city safely, but after that you’re on your own.”
“We understand.” Mathew said.
Mackenzie nodded. “Then let’s get a move on”
Alain press checked his pistol and holstered it, nodding to Tim who had done the same with his rifle, ensuring there was a round loaded into the chamber.
The group walked off, leaving the ambulance behind. Mackenzie walked with Cordelia in the rear, Alain and Mathew pushed the stretcher and Timothy led with his weapon resting on his chest.

It took about an hour to reach the checkpoint, and when they arrived it seemed that Trevor, the other biker, had said kind words. The small group of young men standing at the entrance to Ridgway were concerned, but not a threat. They were glad to see Cordelia, and apparently grateful for helping the biker. The young men pointed the way to a large farmhouse on the outskirts of Medina and told them to meet their leader there, and also mentioned it was there that they wanted their wounded friend to be brought. The group continued through the city. The outlying buildings were still abandoned, but in the next half hour of their trek, they began to encounter more and more people inhabiting the houses. The mood had changed drastically, and now the four knew they were not in friendly territory. The young men at the checkpoint obviously knew the biker well, and were grateful for that reason alone. The majority of the inhabitants of this town however, did not care for the work they had done on the biker and appeared to be leaning toward a hostile demeanor. On several occasions during their walk, vehicles drove by with groups of armed people in them, all occupants stared at them intently. The fact that their mouths were all covered seemed to intensify the stares they received from passers by.
After nearly an hour of walking, they arrived at their destination, without once being offered a ride by those who had working vehicles.
“I will come in with you.” Cordelia said.
“Well I hope so, shit you walked this whole way didn’t you?” Mackenzie said, slightly nervous about the situation they had gotten themselves into.
“Let’s get this over with.” Tim said, his mood bitter.
Mathew and Alain picked up the stretcher and lifted it up the set of stairs to the front doors of the large home and they made their way inside.
Once inside two men retrieved the wounded man from them and without a word, pointed them to a set of doors at the top of a staircase. One of them pointed toward a large rectangular bin to the right of the door. “Drop your firearms in there, you will be searched afterward.
Mackenzie and Mathew looked at each other for a moment and silently communicated their concerns.
As Mathew took his revolver and placed it in the bin he turned to Cordelia. “Cordelia, could you please introduce us, so that we don’t seem as invaders to this place?”
“Very well.” She said, making her way up the stairs.
“She talks weird.” Tim whispered to Al as he dropped his weapons in the bin as well.
“Shut up, this isn’t the time to joke.” He replied, as he looked around, noticing that there were several figures, hidden in the hallways that connected to the lobby-like room they occupied. “We’re being watched constantly.”
“I’d be afraid too... we’re badass.” Tim said, obviously trying to lighten the mood.
Alain couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the last comment.
“Alright, game faces on.” Mackenzie said as Cordelia opened the doors.
They stepped through into a short hall were they were frisked, afterward they entered the second set of doors which lead to a large dining room.
Several men walked toward them, all of them armed with swords. They wore black dress pants and black long sleeve turtle neck shirts.
“I count nine.” Tim said, leaning toward Alain so that only he heard.
“Same, all with horrible fashion sense.” Alain replied.
“We can do nine.” Mathew started.
“If we play this right we won’t have to.” Mackenzie followed.
Ahead of them, a man entered the room from a set of doors on the opposite side. He wore a robe with a priests collar. He walked briskly and wore a stern expression on his unmasked face. “I am Reverend Osbourne. Firstly I would like to thank you for helping my young soldier, actions such as this have won you a very short audience. Speak now, ask what you will of my people and then be on your way, but know this: You will not be allowed anywhere near the college campus.”
Cordelia stood forward and as she did so the nine men who surrounded them moved to compensate for her advance, their blades pointed at her.
“Hey! Mackenzie said, moving toward them quickly to protect her from what harm they may pose. He pulled her back softly with one arm and moved forward. “Don’t touch her.”
“Yes, of that.” Osbourne started, “Since you have decided to disobey Trevor in his attempt to have you come with him, you Cordelia Watts, are no longer part of this community and will go where they go when they leave. Of course that further strengthens the fact that you will not go near the campus, because they will shoot her on sight. As I can see you are already protective of her and therefore this will not be a problem. Nevertheless I owe you one small favor, now be quick of it and leave my sight before I change my mind and have you killed.”
The four were stunned, they weren’t in the slightest bit of control. The situation was completely in the Reverends hands and it seemed they could do nothing short of violence to win over the situation.
“Sir.” Mathew started. “I have good reason to believe that the people who requested us at the college can be negotiated with. I can tell from how you are living that all you want is to be left alone, and perhaps we can come to an understanding if we are capable of coming to some kind of mutual agreement with them.”
Tim moved forward. “Sir, you have no idea how much hope you’ve given me.” He turned and looked at the others. “Ever since the world fell to pieces we knew we’d have to be constantly on the move but we needed destinations, and so we decided that we’d attempt to find our parents first.” He fell silent for a moment, and when he continued, his voice was lower, laced with emotion. “But... all we found were empty, destroyed homes. It’s my turn out of the four of us. My parents lived in St-Catharines, it’s the first big city we’ve had to get into for some time and we need help. Before now we thought we’d only be going there to find out what happened to them, how they died. But now that I know some people can survive infection, I have hope to find my parents alive! Do you have any idea how much that changes things? We need the help of that faction, they have an aircraft that will make it a thousand times easier to get into the city, and if we can make it easier for you to live here, near them, then we all win.”
“Young man.” the Reverend started, stroking one of the cordyceps spines that grew near his chin. “Your plights are your own. I will not deal with the men from the prison. We have tried, and they’ve done nothing but fire on us. They’ve killed hundreds of us. I will not try to deal with them, and I will not allow you to meet them and strengthen their numbers.”
“Is it a war you want?” Alain started, “Because the way you’re talking it seems, you hope for armed conflict, and I can tell you that they’re far better equipped than you are. If you fight them, you’ll lose. If you let us talk, you don’t lose anything.”
“I don’t?” He replied. “I’ve already lost something, Cordelia was a great asset to us, and now she’s been condemned by your actions, into exile. You have taken her from me, and I will not allow her to be killed by those men if you attempt to meet them. My men will not hesitate to kill you if you go to that campus.”
Mackenzie shook his head in frustration. “You make no sense, we didn’t take her from you, you’re the one who made the decision to send her into exile, you could just as easily take that back.”
“No, you insolent fool. There are rules to be followed and they shall be followed. I must follow them just as she should have, I’ve already been kind enough to give you my time and now you’re wasting it by challenging my authority, I should have you shot for your transgressions.”
In that moment the left side of the reverends head exploded, the shot rang out so loudly within the room that the guards nearly fell to their knees holding their ears. The reverends body hit the floor and the contents of his head splattered across the hardwood as smoke rose from Mathew’s compact USP.
Mackenzie still had his mouth open and his arm up ready to gesture the words he meant to reply. He shut his mouth and lowered his hand. “Well... so much for diplomacy.”
Mathew walked forward, pistol whipping one man in the side of the head., “I was tired of his bullshit.” he said, picking up the sword.
Another one of the guards reached for his sword and attempted to get up but Mathews shot him in the top of the head. A sickening crack ensued as he fell to the floor, a corpse.
Mackenzie turned to the door behind them, the guard there was also stunned from the shot. He moved quickly in order to take advantage of the moment. He elbowed the man in the side of the head, and kneed him in the face as he fell sideways, sliding against the door. When he hit the ground Mackenzie had pulled the blade from its sheath and parried an attack from another nearby guard. He blocked the incoming blade at an angle that forced the overpowered blow to slide over him, opening the side of his enemy to attack. He stepped forward, adding his movement to the thrust as it entered just below the ribs.
The man attempted to scream, but his diaphragm had been punctured and rendered useless. He fell to the floor, the blade sliding painfully out of the wound. He was suffocating and drowning in his own blood.
Timothy turned quickly about, smashing his palm into one guards face before thrusting his knee into the other. They both fell to their knees.
“Here.” Mathew yelled, throwing Tim the sword he had.
Tim caught it and beheaded one of the men at his feet, the other ran backward on his hands and feet, horrified at the sight.
Alain had drawn the sword of the guard in front of him who raised his hands.
Unbeknownst to Alain, the guard behind him was recovering from the shock of the first shot and raised his sword.
Mathew put a bullet in the side of his head before he could do any damage.
Alain turned around with lightning speed but only to watch the body fall to the ground.
“No!” The other guard screamed and tackled him from behind.
Alain quickly grasped his forearm and threw the man over his shoulder, stabbing him in the neck as he lay on the floor.
When the only remaining sound was the blood gurgling from a slit throat; four of the guards were dead, one was unconscious, three held their hands up with no will to fight, and one wept uncontrollably in the corner. “Very well.” Cordelia said, obviously shaken from the ordeal. “Now what are we supposed to do?”
Tim looked around the room, realizing now that they had a small town filled with angry infected that knew how to wield weapons and drive vehicles. “This is the part where we run like hell.” he said.
Mackenzie turned around. “We need our weapons.”
Just as he said that a man burst into the room from behind him screaming. He held the M249 in his arms and bore a crazed expression on his face. “Ah! You’re all gonna die!”
“You’re kidding me.” Alain said.
The man pulled the trigger and heard nothing, not even a click.
“Nice try pal.” Mackenzie said.
He looked at the weapon and then back at them, his expression had changed, it was a mixture of embarrassment and terror.
Mackenzie pulled the machine gun out of his hands by the barrel and stuck his blade into the mans stomach.
He grunted in pain, falling over as blood coursed through his shirt and onto the hardwood floor.
The five of them walked out of the room and into the short hall. Mathew guarding those men who were still within the dining room until they closed the door and locked it.
“Obviously these people have no idea how guns work.” Mackenzie said as he opened the door to the lobby where their weapons were kept. “Don’t move!” He yelled to the people in the next room. “This is a big gun, which means it can do a lot of damage, let us be and you won’t end up dead like everyone in the room behind us.”
The men in the lobby stayed hidden in the hallways and doorwayd.
Mathew returned the compact USP to the hidden holster at the small of his back and then picked up the remainder of his weapons as the others did while Mackenzie covered them with the empty machine gun.
Mackenzie continued. “Is wear, I’ll blow a hole the size of a bowling ball into your chest if you so much as think about attacking us.”
Tim was picking up his pistol when he turned to Mackenzie. “Is that five, nine or ten pin bowling ball size?” he said mockingly.
“Shut up, you’ll blow my cover.” Mackenzie said, almost laughing.
“Not like it matters, we’ve got the working guns back now anyway.” Alain said.
“Alright folks, we have to run. And for that reason, I’ll be giving you this.” Mackenzie said, throwing the machine gun to the floor. “‘Cause it’s just too damn heavy.” he turned quickly and ran past the others, picking up his Kimber 1911 and rifle as he spoke. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Which way?” Alain asked.
Mackenzie had already entered the short hall with his gear. “Through the door that guy came from, hurry let’s go!”
The men in the room finally caught on to the ruse and began leaving the shadows.
“Come on, the creepy cult people are coming we don’t have much time!” Mackenzie continued, holding the door for the others. “Cordelia, do you know this house?”
“Yes.” She said as Mathew stepped up to her while Tim and Alain closed the doors to the short hall.
“Do you know how to use this?” Mathew said to her, drawing his compact USP.
“Yes.”
“Jee you don’t say much do you lady?” Tim said, walking past them heading toward the other door.
“Here.” Mathew gave her the pistol, “Hopefully you don’t have to shoot anyone you know, god knows I’ve done it.”
As Timothy and Alain unlocked the next door they hear screaming.
“Ah shit.” Alain said, “That’s never good.”
“They’ve changed” Cordelia whispered.
“Well, let’s change them again.” Tim said.
Alain shook his head. “That was really lame, I hope you know that.”
Tim sighed, “Just open the fucking door.”
Tim and Alain opened the door as Mathew and Mackenzie walked through, their weapons at the ready.
Since Mackenzie had a lot more 9mm rounds than 7.62 he drew his pistol for this short range encounter, the M14 remained slung on his back.
Mathew on the other hand had the perfect weapon for this range, and his shotgun was brought to bare. He turned the corner to see the three they had left in the room defending themselves against the corpse of Revrend Osbourne. “If I shoot I’ll hit them.” Mathew said.
Before Mackenzie could answer, Cordelia had fired her weapon and took off the other side of Reverend Osbournes head.
“Well, that takes care of that.” Mackenzie said. At his feet stirred one of the corpses. It was shaking as if having a seizure. When the convulsions stopped, it began to rise slowly. Mackenzie shot it in the head, killing the man for the second time in ten minutes.
“See, this is why we should just lob all their heads off, the one I killed isn’t coming back to life now is he?”
“The man has a point.” Alain said, turning around after having closed the door behind him. “This door doesn’t lock from this side, we should get moving.”
“Through there is the Reverends quarters.”
“I don’t want to know how you know that.” Tim said.
“He has concubines, I was one of them for a time.”
“I just told you lady, I didn’t want to know how you knew that!”
Mackenzie shook his head, “Tim, shut up!”
“Well shit, I mean I just told her.”
“Seriously, shut it.”
“Alright.”
Alain frowned, “Don’t you mean he had? Past tense?” he said as they made their way across the dining room.
“It’s strange to think of him as gone, only moments ago he was speaking to us.” She said, looking back at him as she continued walking. “ I suppose his death was long overdue, much like the most of us.”
“I second that.” Mathew said. “I only knew the guy for a few minutes and knew his death was long overdue.”
They opened the doors to Reverends chambers to find four half naked women huddled in a corner.
“Don’t worry, we’re not here to hurt you, we only need a way out.” Tim said,
One of them stood up, “You killed him didn’t you. Cordelia.”
“As a matter of fact I did.”
“You killed him!” She screamed, running toward the group with a crazed expression twisting her face.
Her expression didn’t last long as a loud shot rang out and her head flung backward followed by the rest of her body as she became airborne.
Mathew had drawn his revolver and fired it from the hip, striking her in the forehead and destroying the majority of her head. He stood with the shotgun in his left hand and the revolver in the right. “Anyone else care about the Reverend, because I killed him the first time.”
The other three women stayed huddled in the corner speechless as the rest of the group continued into another room.
The next room was filled with loot, objects that may have been worth something when the world still worked the way it used to, but now they were nothing but objects. Gold plated silverware, crystal chandeliers, useless artifacts of a world that had since died. The only valuable things in existence at this point were things that kept you alive.
They continued forward, not even stopping for a moment at the treasures the reverend had accumulated from his people. It only took them a few minutes through narrow halls to make their way out of the large house.
Cordelia pointed to the south. “From here it’s about an hour to walk to the campus, but there are a few obstacles. We have to cross the river, and there are other checkpoints around the city. Word will spread fast that the reverend is dead, which can be advantageous considering there were many who wanted his position.”
“We need a vehicle.” Mathew said.
Cordelia shook her head. “I don’t think that would be good.” We can avoid people much more easily on foot.”
“I agree with her.” Alain said, we should get away from this house as quickly as we can first.
“This way.” Cordelia said, breaking into a sprint to the east.
They crossed the street and entered a wooded area that they continued through for about five minutes before reaching a river.
Cordelia drew into the sand at their feet. “We can follow this to the dam, and then continue toward the bridge relatively unseen. There’s a large basin after the dam, if we follow it around we can get to one of the smaller bridges that crosses the canal and make it into town from there. It’s a few kilometers.”
“How many is a few?” Alain asked. “My foot is killing me.”
“It’s about four.” she replied. “If we stay against the shoreline the whole time.”
Mackenzie wondered, “How do you know all this?”
“The reason I’m not a concubine anymore is because I escaped too often. Instead of have me shot he put me on sentry, hoping I would be killed perhaps.”
Tim smiled. “Well obviously he didn’t expect us to come ruin his party.”
“Alright. Let’s get a move on we’ve got a while to walk, stay cautious and stay low.”
The group continued, hugging the side of the river. When they reached the Dam they waited for a few moments to make sure no one was searching in that area before they continued toward the campus. After two or so kilometers they stopped to take a break. Alain’s foot was swelling up and Cordelia insisted on looking at it.
“Come here.” she said, moving toward him. “Ugh!” she yelled, grasping her arm. She had scraped herself against a broken tree branch.
“Looks like it’ll be me taking a look at you.” He said, reaching to lift her sleeve.
“No. Stop.” she said. Moving away.
“What’s wrong?”
“I know this pain, a spine broke.”
The other three turned to her from their watch.
“What does that mean?” Tim asked.
“It means a spine broke dumb ass.” Mackenzie yelled, his insult sounding metallic from the mouthpiece of the gasmask.
“It’s nothing, I just can’t help you anymore, the spines carry spores. I can’t risk infecting you through the wounds on your feet.”
“Come here.” he said, taking her by the arm and pulling her closer. “Mathew, get me the first aid kit.”
Mathew took the bag off of his back and moved toward them. “Here.”
“Let me see.” Alain said.
“I’m not... comfortable with this.” she said.
“Hey look.” Alain replied. “I let you fix my foot earlier and I wasn’t comfortable with it so it’s time to repay the favor.”
She looked at him, her eyes were smiling. “Alright.” she said quietly, letting her arm limp in his grasp.
Alain lifted the sleeve slowly. The spines grew in a line, following the large veins a few centimeters apart. They were longer near her elbow and shoulder. It was one on her elbow that had ruptured. “Here it is, does it hurt?”
“Only when they break, now the pain is subsiding.”
“How do I clean it?”
“You should try and remove what’s left, at the base, and then it’s like any other wound.”
“That makes it easy.” Mathew said.
Alain looked at him. “Maybe you should do this considering it involves cutting.”
“Alright.” Mathew said, switching places with Alain. “Here we go, let me know if it hurts.”
“It shouldn’t hurt too much if you only get the fungus.” She said, watching him cut into the base of the spine.
“There, gone.” Mathew took the disinfectant and rinsed out the wound, then applied a aloe cream and wrapped her elbow in gauze. “Better?”
“Thank you.” She said.
“Wow Mathew, you were almost paternal there.” Mackenzie said.
“Almost.” Alain added.
Mathew laughed as he got up. “Whatever, pass me the black light.”
“Why?”
“I want to see how many spores came out of that spine.”
“You can see them with black light?” she asked.
“Yeah, it’s what we use when decontaminating each other or to check if a building is safe to take our gas masks off in. There’s always some, but if the air isn’t saturated it’s alright to breath.”
Alain passed him the black light and he turned it on.
Her sleeve was covered in it, some of it was still visible in the air, but the majority was caught in the sleeve when it ruptured.
“That’s what I expected, it’s all caught in the sleeve, they’re bigger than I thought.” Mathew commented.
“What do you mean?” She asked.
“Well, it seems like the more you’re affected by the disease, the smaller the spores you produce. The smaller the spores, the better chance they infect, because there’s more, and if they’re really small they’ll go through anything you’re covering yourself with.”
Mackenzie started, “Not to mention if they’re small enough they can get into your body through other means than just your lungs.”
“Yeah, you can get it through the ears, eyes, nose.” Alain said.
“Any orifice really.” Tim added.
Mackenzie shook his head. “That sounded wrong.”
“Of course it did, Tim said it.” Alain quipped.
“Alright. I’m clean so I’ll take a look at your foot and then we’ll be on our way.” Mathew stated as he made his way toward Alain. It only took him a few moments to replace the bandages, and before long they were on their way.
As they turned another bend in the river Mackenzie took up the rear guard, waiting for everyone to pass. Cordelia was the last and he began to walk with her once she came near.
“So, what’s your plan once you get to the campus?” She asked.
“Well right now it’s kind of in the air because I’m not sure how we’ll convince them that you’re with us and not a threat. But the idea is to ask them to use their aircraft to help us get to St-Catharines, like Tim said in the farm house earlier.” Mackenzie looked up, “Speak of the devil.” He said, as the thunderous sound of a planes engines echoed in the distance.
Cordelia looked up to the sky, searching for it. “I’ve never been in a plane before. I came here by boat when I was a little girl. I’ve always had a thing about the sky though, there’s just something about the clouds, makes me want to touch them.”
“Heh, if only you could. I know what you mean though. Where are you from?”
“Wales.”
“Ah, I’m from up north. Canada.”
“I know, you have a strange accent.”
Mackenzie laughed. “Heh, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should.” she said, “Because it was.” she walked on, passing Mathew and moving toward Alain.
Mackenzie smiled to himself, he enjoyed that conversation, it had been a long time since he had been attracted to a woman.
An hour passed when they finally reached a bend in the river that Cordelia identified as their destination.
Cordelia stopped and pointed. “The wall to our right belongs to a cement factory. On the other side of this factory is the bridge we need to cross the canal and get further into Medina. When we turn the corner of the wall you’ll see the bridge.”
“Alright, let’s get going.” Alain said, “hopefully no one’s waiting for us.”
“If they are, I can take them out from here and we’ll get across the bridge as quickly as possible and then try to disappear in some buildings or something.”
“I’ll go take a look” Tim said, moving up against the wall carefully.
The others watched him as he made his way to the end of the wall. He peered around the corner as slowly, and returned behind cover even more slowly.
“Someone’s there.” Mathew said.
“Yup.” Mackenzie replied, moving up past Alain who was nodding at Mathew’s statement. “Follow me.” he said.
The three followed Mackenzie as he made his way up to Tim and then dropped into the prone. He slowly crawled forward until he could see around the corner and set himself in a firing position. “Alright Tim, move up with them. I’ll shoot the first one who notices you guys, try and get the second one if you can. If not I’ll try and take him out.”
“And if he gets to cover?” Tim asked.
“Then you keep his head down and I’ll move up and try to flank.”
“Alright.” Tim looked around the corner slowly once again. “Here we go.” He signaled to the others and all four of them made their way across the street and toward the bridge.
The two men in question sat in a vehicle in the middle of a three way intersection on the other side of the bridge. Their vehicle pointed south east, away from the bridge, which was lucky for the group. This created the possibility of crossing the bridge unnoticed, although very unlikely. Surely enough, as Mackenzie watched the men in the truck, one of them cocked his head quickly toward one of the rear view mirrors and then leaned forward, turning the ignition of the truck.
Mackenzie waited until the driver put the truck in gear before he squeezed the trigger.
The shot was loud and echoed through the city as blood splattered on the inside of the windshield.
As soon as he fired, Mackenzie peered over the sight and watched the truck roll forward down a slight slope. He could see the passenger frantically trying to gain control of the vehicle. “That ought to do it for now.” he said as he got up and ran as quickly as he could to the bridge.
Tim was walking slowly along the bridge when the shot went off. He watched the passenger recoil away from the bloody mess Mackenzie had created in the truck, and then watched his confusion when the truck began to move. He smiled under his gasmask and turned to see Mackenzie running full tilt toward them. “Let’s go.” he said, and started running as well.
It didn’t take long for Mackenzie to catch up to them. He got to the far side of the bridge at the same time they did and continued running until he was halfway into the street. He knelt in the street and raised his weapon. He could see the passenger clearly against the backdrop of blood. The passenger had managed to step on the brakes and the truck stopped.
“Thanks.” Mackenzie said to the passenger, having made his shot that much easier. The trigger clicked and the firing pin struck the base of the round, sending a 7.62 hurtling through the air a hundred meters before crashing through the rear window and, ultimately, through the head of the trucks passenger.
Mackenzie got up just as Mathew passed by, he waited to watch the truck begin to roll forward again and then followed.
Tim opened the gate to a residential property and they made their way through the yard.
Cordelia pointed the way toward the campus as they continued.
They jumped another fence and turned into an alleyway that lead behind a business. Nearing the exit of the alleyway Tim stopped and slid to the side.
Soon afterward, the others knew why, the sound of a vehicle became audible.
“They must have heard the shot.” Alain said.
Mackenzie moved up, “I wouldn’t doubt it.”
Mathew came up beside him. “They’re not very close, we should keep moving.”
“Agreed.” Mackenzie said, signaling with his hand for Tim to keep moving.
They crossed an intersection and made their way through a funeral home parking lot and into more residential yards before finally reaching a set of houses across from a train station.
Cordelia moved up beside Mathew, “The train tracks signify the boundaries of the infected. We don’t cross them, the faction has armed personnel near the campus and they fire on people they recognize as infected.”
“Do they recognize you?” Alain asked.
“I think they would.” She replied.
“So what, we just leave her here?” Tim asked.
“No. I can’t do that.” Mackenzie said, peering across the street to the train station.
“Let’s go then.” Mathew said, standing up. “We have to be quick.”
They got up and started for the train station. As soon as they began to run across the street, a truck turned the corner and opened fire on them.
Mackenzie stopped in the street and knelt, firing one round before getting up and continuing as quickly as he could toward the train station.
Mathew fired his shotgun at the door several times as they ran toward it and struck it with his shoulder once they arrived, barreling into the room as the door broke into splinters. The others followed.
The truck squealed to a stop at the door and the man in the box opened fire with an automatic weapon.
Mackenzie rolled into the doorway, sliding on the dusty tiles as he fired back through the doorway. “Move!” He yelled, getting up and running the length of the station toward the western exit.
Cordelia ran in front of them, leading the way.
The wheels of the truck screamed as it began to move alongside the building. Rounds rained through the side of the wall and columns of light sprang forth from the holes.
Mackenzie dropped to the prone as did the others. He looked up to see Cordelia hit the ground as well. When the firing stopped he got up and continued running. “Come on Cordelia we’ve got to move.” He said, taking her arm.
“Leave me.” She said, forcing the words through clenched teeth.
“What?” Mackenzie looked at her more closely, blood began to pool beneath her. “No.” He said, “No, you’re not dying here.”
“Mackenzie, please.” she said, blood leaking from the canisters on her mask. “Don’t do this.”
Alain caught up. “What happened? Is she hit?”
Mathew reached them and slid to her on his knees, taking off his backpack as he slid. “Guy’s cover me.”
“Right.” Mackenzie said, getting his head back into the firefight.
Alain picked up the shotgun and moved toward a window while staying low. He peered over the sill to catch a glimpse of the truck. “They’re turning around.” He said. “I’m going to the door.” Alain ran while remaining crouched toward the western doorway.
The truck came alongside the building and slowed down, the occupants were trying to see through the windows.
Mackenzie was looking at them trough one of the bullet holes in the wall. “Al, shoot at them from that doorway when they turn that way Tim and I will open fire.”
“Got it.” Alain said, firing the shotgun and taking the handle off the door. He kicked it down walked outside and turned around the corner before firing at the truck.
Tim and Mackenzie stood in the window as they turned their attention to Al and opened fire.
Tim fired in semi-automatic, picking his shots as three of his rounds punctured the passenger side window and traveled across the cab, striking both the driver and passenger in the shoulders and head.
Mackenzie fired two shots at the man with the machine gun on the back of the truck. Both shots hit him in the chest as he fell backward off the truck which sped off, the drivers corpse having pressed harder on the peddle.
They watched as the truck flew down the road, smashing into a building at the end of the street just outside their view.
All three turned back to Mathew who had removed Cordelia’s shirt.
She lay bloodied on the concrete, with only her bra on they could see the extensive fungal growth on her chest and abdomen, there were small spines following every vein cluster on her body.
“How is she?” Alain asked.
Mathew turned her on her side and lifted her braw to get to the wound. A round had gone in just between her ribs. “She’s most likely got a punctured lung and is bleeding internally I’m sure of it.”
“Just leave me...” she said, taking the gasmask off her face and coughing blood onto the concrete.
Mackenzie saw her face for the first time, she was beautiful. “I can’t let you die here.” He said. He picked out a pack of quick clot from the backpack and poured it on the wound. “This will hurt but it’ll keep you alive.”
“That was a bad idea.” Mathew said, “If her lung’s punctured.”
“I know Matt.” Mackenzie answered, “She’s already lost too much blood I just need her awake.”
She grunted from the pain. “Mackenzie, my death too, has been long overdue. Just let me be.”
“I owe you something, and I’m sure you’ll last long enough to get there. Just hang in there.” He said as he picked her up. “Come on let’s go, we’ve got a plane to catch.”
They left from the west doorway that Alain had blown away and ran south toward the campus. A truck turned the corner as they made their way past the tracks, they fired a few rounds before a loud thud rang out from toward the campus.
“Sniper!” Tim yelled, as a second round whizzed by them. “It came from the school.”
“I think they’re on our side.” Mathew added as they continued to run.
The truck had stopped near the tracks and turned around with a flat tire and a broken windshield.
Mackenzie slowed to a walk, “Alright I have to slow down, I can’t keep this pace.”
“It’s alright we’re in the clear” Alain said.
“Until they notice her that is.” Mathew said in concern.
They continued walking for another block before Cordelia pointed to the right, they made their way down that street until they saw a baseball and football field.
“Cross through there, past that grey building is the track field.” she said.
Her breathing had increased and Mackenzie was worried. “Hang in there. We’re almost there.”
The snipers from the school were visible on the rooftop now, they waved at them, pointing in the direction Cordelia had told them to go in.
They continued to the grey building. As soon as the Osprey came into view Mackenzie got the energy to run again and broke into a jog. “Come on, stay awake. Talk to me.”
“You’re insane Mackenzie.” She said, as she held on to his neck her head resting on his right shoulder.
“Almost there... wait.” He stopped. Mathew, take the blanket out of the bag, we can wrap her up, there aren’t any spines on her face they won’t know she’s infected.”
“Alright.” Mathew said, stopping and pulling out the blanket.
Mackenzie got to a knee and wrapped her with it before getting back up and continuing on his way.
There were men on the ground near the Osprey, they were signaling for them to hurry, the Osprey had already been prepped and was ready for take off.
“Hang on Cordelia, just a few more moments.”
Cordelia smiled, but it quickly died away “I see it now.” she said, “I know what you’re trying to do now. You truly are insane. I could have just as well died in that train station.”
“You don’t know that yet.”
A man near the door to the Osprey hurried them in, “Get on quickly, we can get you to our medical facilities as quickly as possible. Welcome to the Faction.” he said, helping them on to the plane. There were others already inside, Mackenzie sat near the ledge, holding her in his arms. As Mathew held on to him to ensure they didn’t both topple over the edge as the Osprey took off.
“We made it.” Mackenzie said, smiling.
The Osprey took off quickly, the pull of the engines yanked the floor against them as they rose into the sky.
“Look at it.” He said to her.
She turned and looked out of toward the sky as they climbed higher. “It’s beautiful.” she said, reaching out with one hand. “But you know you have to do it.” She said, her arm still out of the aircraft, touching the sky.
“Do what?” Mackenzie asked as he held her.
“You have to let me go Mackenzie.” she said, turning back to him. “You can’t save me, and they’ll never help you if they know what I am.”
“You can take your masks off if you want.” Yelled one of the planes crewmen, “The cordyceps doesn’t come this far up.”
Cordelia pushed Mackenzies mask up off his face and let her hand glide down his cheek as it returned to his shoulder. “Thank you.” she said, as tears began to stream down her face, being pulled wildly in every direction from the gusts of wind entering the plane. “I’m glad you didn’t let me die in the station, but you have to let me die here, you have to let me go. My death is now truly...”
Mackenzie interrupted, “I know Cordelia. Long overdue. Look at me.” He said.
She stared into his eyes. “I’m ready.”
“I’m not.” He replied.
“Then I’m sorry.” She said as she came close and kissed him on the lips. “Goodbye.”
Mackenzie took in a deep breath and loosened his grip on her. She rolled herself away from him and fell from his grasp.

The crewman yelled something and grabbed Mackenzies shoulder, but his eyes were still closed and he heard nothing over his sobs as tears fell into the blanket that remained in his clutch.
The Osprey flew on into the evening twilight over the landscape littered with abandoned vehicles and homes, abandoned hopes and dreams, abandoned lives.

Chapter 3: A Special Occasion

2008-06-19T22:24:00.001-07:00

Glass exploded into the room as Mathew rolled through the window and rose to his feet in one fluid motion. His shotgun, firm in his shoulder, swung it’s business end briskly toward each corner while machine gun fire rang loudly from outside. Glass shards thrown from his clothing fell glittering to the floor as he cleared what he discovered was a childrens bedroom. Once satisfied, he turned to the window, slung the shotgun on his back and leaned through the opening. “Let’s move!” He said, putting his arm forward to help pull in the others.
Mackenzie and Tim hung precariously from a pipe housing electrical wiring as Alain remained on the ground, firing into the oncoming crowd of infected.
Mackenzie extended his arm. As they locked their forearms in each others grasp Mackenzie could see Mathew’s eyes squint through the gasmask lenses. Even though his face was hidden, Mackenzie knew the exact expression Mathew bore at that moment; one of physical strain and mental stress. He could almost hear the curse words that Mathew was no doubt reciting in his mind at this very moment.
Mathew fell backward into the room as Mackenzie rolled awkwardly in, both of them grunting in deep labored breaths from the strain of their recent activity. “Fuck man!” Mackenzie complained to himself as he returned to the window to help Timothy. “Take hold!”
Tim knocked the shards of glass off the bottom of the window frame and pulled himself up with Mackenzies help. He then sat, straddling the window frame. “Al, move your ass!” He yelled, reaching down with his free arm, his other being held by Mackenzie so that he could reach as far as possible without falling.
Alain fired one last burst before rising to his feet. He threw the machine gun up to Timothy’s waiting hands.
Tim’s eyes widened. “Ugh! Fuck!” He yelled, as he caught the machine gun by the red hot barrel. He quickly grabbed it by the carrying handle and ignored the pain for the moment. He pulled the stock into his shoulder and fired a bust but the stream of bullets ended abruptly. “Stoppage!” Tim yelled, flipping the feed cover over and ripping away the belt.
Alain had climbed up the electric meter and was halfway up the pole when the firing stopped. He turned his attention to the infected racing toward him, now unabated. “Fuck man, hurry the fuck up!” He yelled, struggling to climb the last bit of the pole that had no real leverage. “Give me a hand!” Alain said as the infected reached the base of the pole and began scratching at his feet. “Fuck!” He yelled fearfully.
Mackenzie leaned over window frame, Tim taking this opportunity to use his back as a rest for the bipod. “Take my hand.”
Alain reached up for Mackenzie and grasped his forearm. Just as he did so he lost grip of the pole and swung from it, hanging freely just below the window sill. His eyes were wide open, and he held his breath in fear as the infected fumbled with their fingertips at his feet.
Tim fired rounds into the ever growing mass of infected and hot brass fell into the room and down the back of Mackenzies pants. “Someone, help!” Mackenzie yelled, pulling as hard as he could on Alains arm.
Mathew turned from his watch on the door and latched on to Mackenzies legs just as he dipped forward and began to fall.
Alain dropped almost a whole foot. “Oh shit oh shit!” he exclaimed as the infected could finally grasp on to his feet with a full hand. “Pull damn it pull!” he screamed, while giving strong kicks to the heads of the infected in his range.
Mathew fell backward until he was sitting on the ground and then braced his legs against the wall. He pulled backward with both his arms and his legs, yelling from the sheer strain as he did so.
Alain began to rise, but just as he moved further than their reach, his shoes was ripped violently from his right foot.
Timothy stopped firing and was pulled into the room when Mackenzie and Alain were dragged past him.
All four lay on the glass littered carpet, gasping frantically for air.
“Again.” Alain said shaking his head. “Why am...” he said between deep breaths. “Why am I the only one who always loses footwear. Where’s that grenade we’ve been saving, I want to fucking drop it on them.”
“No.” Matty said. “I’m keeping that for special occasion.”
“Really, you got that occasion planned?”
“Maybe.” he replied, looking at him from the ground.
The crashing sound of a window breaking was heard below and as if it were a queue, all four of them rose quickly to their feet.
“Alright.” Mackenzie announced. “This isn’t going to be easy.”
“Is it ever?” Mathew said, walking past him.
Alain took his machine gun back from Timothy who reluctantly gave up the extra firepower and brandished his rifle. “Let’s try and keep quiet.” Alain said as he automatically took up his position near the door.
The four had cleared multiple buildings in the past, and although Mathew had not been in the military, it took him a very short time to learn his place in the equation that was fighting in built up areas.
Mackenzie stacked up behind Alain and Timothy behind him. Mathew moved to the rear with his shotgun and squeezed Tim’s tricep. The motion follwed forward and once it reached Alain, the door flung open and the four rushed into the next room.
Within the span of seconds Alain had already communicated lowly that the next room was a hall way and the other three adjusted their movement accordingly, each taking one side of the hallway to ensure no backs were turned to a potential threat. Once the movement had stopped, there was a moment of silence and all four knew it was safe to move forward. To the right was a staircase and they moved toward it in the previous order, “big gun in the front.”
They made their way down the stairwell cautiously and found themselves into an open concept ground floor. This posed a serious problem as there was no real cover, however it also made it very easy to find the steel door that most likely lead to the attached garage.
Alain stopped and signaled to the others that they were moving in its directly. They automatically changed their formation to a makeshift diamond, Alain still in the front, while Mackenzie and Timothy took the sides and Mathew in the rear with the shotgun.
They crossed a dining area and made their way perpendicular to the kitchen. They dropped down a single step where the hardwood turned to ceramic tiles and Alain took sight of a shoe rack.
“Cover me.” He said as he put the machine gun down and took off his one sneaker. He rummaged through the shoes before finding a suitable pair of construction boots that looked like they would fit well enough. He slipped his left foot into a boot first, as the right was bleeding from having stepped on broken glass in the bedroom. “Tim, take the C9, I need to check my foot.”
“Not the best time Al.” Tim said as he took the machine gun back once again.
“Better time then any.” Mackenzie said as he slung his rifle and moved to Mathews back.
Mathew stood watch and stared intensely forward, his posture shifting to and from as Mackenzie dug into the bag.
By the time he had the first aid kit out and was kneeling beside him, Alain had already removed the majority of the glass that had embedded itself into his foot. He took a few moments to inspect the rest by flashlight before removing a few more shards with a pair of tweezers.
He took a small piece of bandage and turned to Alain, “Tell me if you feel a pull.”, he began lightly gliding the bandage over his foot. Although he picked up a lot of blood, Alain didn’t complain of any other shards of glass protruding from his foot. He took a larger piece afterward, cleaned and bandaged it as quickly as he could before helping Alain fit his now swelling foot into the boot. “You’ll be hurting for a while, but it’s better than losing it right?”
Alain frowned, “Any longer and I’m sure they would have torn it off.” he said, disgruntled, as he rose to his feet with a limp. “Alright.” he said, extending his hand toward Tim.
Tim looked at his hand with a pitiful stare and then returned his gaze to the machine gun. “Aww, man. Can’t I carry it for a while.”
“No.” Alain said, with bit of anger as he grabbed on to the carrying handle and pulled it out of Tims arms.
“Well you don’t have to be a dick about it.” Tim said, returning his rifle to the high ready once again.
“Stack up.” Alain said, ignoring Tim. He placed himself beside the steel door and got ready as the others fell into place. He reached for the knob and tugged at it to no avail. “Breacher up.” he whispered.
Mathew made his way to the door, cocking the shotgun as he went, taking out two of the buckshot shells. When he got to the door he loaded two slugs and then turned to Alain and nodded his head.
“Your show man.” he replied.
Mathew raised his weapon to the top hinge of the door and fired. Even before the first pieces of the top hinge hit the floor, he had already dispatched the second one and was in the process of forcing his boot into the center of the door. As it flew backward Alain followed, stepping on it before it had completed its fall. Mackenzie and Tim were directly behind him, taking up their positions in the room as the dust settled from the shotgun blasts. Mathew came in last, walking nonchalantly as the silence of their weapons already told him the room was clear. Timothy and Alain turned and watched the doorway behind them. As they made their way inside, the garage door began to shake, the banging of an unknown number of infected tracking the noise they made when Mathew “unlocked” the door.
In the center of the garage was a maroon Expedition. Mathew made his way toward it and pulled on the handle. “Locked” He said. “Look for keys.”
“No time.” Mackenzie said, walking up to the window and thrusting the but of his rifle though it. He opened the door and sat in the driver seat. He used the but of his rifle again to break apart the housing around the steering column and then crouched down and got to work with the wires. “Looks like this might take some time.” he said.
Alain shook his head, just beside the door where he was watching for more infected, there was a set of keys laying on a shelf. He took them and made his way toward the passenger side of the S.U.V. He unlocked the door and sat in the passenger seat as Mackenzie ignored his presence and continued working with the housing of the steering column. Alain put the key in the ignition and looked down. “Hey Mack, why don’t you just hold down the break there so I can get this thing started.”
Mackenzie looked up at him and through the lenses of the gasmask he could see that Alain was smiling wryly. “Smart ass.” he said, moving out of the driver seat.
“Ugh. Guys?” Tim inquired before popping off a round. “We’ve got company.”
Mackenzie moved up beside Tim and took aim with his M14, firing as soon as a dark humanoid shape darted across the living room floor.
The shape dropped to the floor and wailed from the gunshot wound.
“These ones are pretty fresh if they can still feel pain.” Tim said, firing a few more rounds as the shadowy figures darted in and out of their line of sight.
Mathew was on the other side of the door with his shotgun, waiting patiently for one to get near the “fatal funnel” of the doorway.
Alain had started the Expedition and was waving the others in. “Let’s get moving!” He closed the driver side door and put the transmission in to revers.
The other three piled in, Timothy and Mathew in the rear and Mackenzie riding shotgun.
Alain took the machine gun by the carrying handle and dropped it in Mackenzies lap. “Reload me co-pilot.” He said, with a hidden grin.”
“Cheers.” Mackenzie said, turning back to Mathews bag and digging into it for the last box of ammunition they had for the M249.
Alain looked up at the sun visor and noticed a garage door remote. He jokingly pressed the button.
Mackenzie looked up at him from reloading the weapon and gave him a stern stare.
Alain laughed, “Whatever, you never know. Alright hang on to something.” He looked back and hit the gas as far as it would go. The Expedition moved backward the few feet it had before smashing into the garage door. The Expedition stopped abruptly. “Well that didn’t quite work.” Alain said, driving forward as far as he could.
As he reached the farthest point of the garage he heard a yell come from the inside of the home and he turned his attention to the garage door. A flood shadows lumbered through the home and came into view. Alain grabbed the machine gun from the center console with one hand and dropped it against the window sill of the drivers side and opened fire. Brass flew into the steering wheel and all over the dash as the flash of the muzzle dominated the dark garage. Each shot froze a frame of vision for the four of them. The infected fell at the doorway, and Alain couldn’t help but imagine the scene as a strobe light flashing at the most wild mosh pit he would ever witness. Once the fallen had become a large enough hindrance for those still rushing in, he stopped firing and pulled the machine gun in. “Here Tim, bust out the back window. Watch the barrel this time.”
“Jee thanks, ass.” He said as he took the machine gun and rested it on the backseat, it’s steaming barrel facing the back window. Tim fired a short burst to weaken the window.
Mathew also turned and got ready with his shotgun.
“Alirght, here’s take two.” Alain said, hitting the gas.
The Expedition slammed into the garage door a lot harder this time and the door began to buckle. Alain moved the vehicle forward once again.
He struggled with the selector for a moment and had to look down to see if it was in reverse. Mackenzies hand slammed into his chest and pushed him against the seat before his rifle thrust out the driver side window and fired off a round. The deformed corpse of an infected plunged forward and smashed into the hood of the car as it fell from a full sprint. “Alright Al, get us out of here.” Mackenzie said, sitting back into his chair once again.
Alain drove the vehicle backward into the door once again and it fell from its hinges onto the roof of the car. He moved forward once again to free the vehicle from the garage door, and in doing so the door fell to the ground, letting in the sea of infected which awaited them.
The machine gun burped to life as Tim thinned out the crowd with the periodic help of Mathews shotgun blasts.
Alain reversed again and smashed into the crowd but was slowed by the thickness of them. One infected rushed the driver side door and its arm slashed into him, ripping at his clothes and gasmask. Alain pulled the hatchet swiftly from its holster and lodged it into the deranged face that yelled and sprayed fungus filled spittle at him. He used the door as leverage to remove the hatchet from its skull as it fell to the ground. He moved the vehicle forward again into the garage and quickly returned to reverse with a few extra feet. The vehicle plunged through the crowd that had been thinned from Mahew and Tims efforts.
A moment later they were barreling down the concession with nothing but the wind at their ears, although they probably couldn’t hear it over the ringing.
Al turned to Mackenzie “So isn’t this where we weren’t supposed to end up? Rushing down a narrow rural highway?”
“Well it wasn’t the ideal situation to end up in, but I suppose nothing’s really ideal at this point.”
“At least we’ll get there faster” Tim added, “Hey, I still don’t see why we don’t just go straight to St-Catherines and look for clues of what happened to my parents, we’re like half an hour away by car.”
Mathew turned to Tim. “The thing is, all big cities are cluttered with infected and stopped vehicles. We’d never get there with the car, we’d have to stop and start on foot and then we’d be vulnerable again. These people that want to meet us have an Osprey. If we’re lucky we can ask them to drop us off on a rooftop near your parents place and we’ll be that much better off.”
Mackenzie laughed. “They’re going to think we’re insane. Wanting to be dropped into the middle of a city.”
Alain started, “Well, whatever, everyone but Tim’s found out what’s happened to his family so we owe it to him.”
“Mind you, he is the only one who’s family happens to live in a major urban center. We haven’t dealt with something that big since Ottawa and Toronto, and if I remember correctly, those weren’t exactly the best experiences we’ve had.”
Mathew sighed. “Honestly since I’ve met up with you three I haven’t had any good experiences.”
“You’re still alive aren’t you?” Tim asked.
“I’m starting to wonder if that’s a good thing.” Mathew said.
“Now come on Matty, don’t start that talk.”
Mathew laughed. “I guess blowing disfigured people to pieces just isn’t what I thought my college education was going to lead to.”
The four of them laughed for a moment and then once again silence came. It seemed as though anytime something funny or lighthearted came along they were almost forced to remind themselves of the harshness of their situation. Every laugh was priced with the unavoidable drop into reality, and the inevitable pull of depression that quickly followed. But Mathew was spared; just as that pull came, his sprits were once again lifted as the smiling face of the woman on the Osprey shunted into his mind. “How far are we from that school?”
“Not far” Mackenzie said as he looked at the map.
“Left here right?” Alain asked.
Mackenzie looked at him. “That was just confusing. Yes, turn left.”
The Expedition shifted to the right and the sound of broken glass tumbling across the pavement accompanied by the squealing of tires echoed through the countryside.
“Welcome to Jeddo.” Alain said, looking at the deserted cars on the side of the road near the sign. “Welcome... I somehow doubt that.”
“Yeah, let’s keep an eye out. Try and avoid the -”
“You want to fucking drive?” Alain said to Mackenzie, cutting him off. “Cause I’ll pull over right now.”
“That would be a bad idea Al.” Tim said, pointing to a small crowd of infected that seemed to just be standing in the middle of the street.
“Um.. There’s not enough room to go around them.”
“Speed up a bit and brace yourself.”
“That’s a dumb idea, a body can do a lot of damage to a car.”
“Not as much damage as I’ll do to your face if you don’t get us the fuck out of here.”
“I’m sure you’ll have other things to worry about if I don’t get us out of here.”
Tim and Mathew looked at each other in silence as the two up front continued their banter.
“No, go left, there’s a weak spot.”
“I swear to god Mack, I’m going to pull over.”
“Just go left.”
“I’m not going left, there’s a car right behind that guy.”
“That’s not a guy, it’s an old woman.”
“Looks like a guy to me.”
“Well let’s find out, plow into the bitch and I bet you it’ll be a woman.”
“Seriously man, it’s better on this side.”
Mathew shook his head.
“Yeah tell me about it.” Tim sympathized.
“Fine do whatever the fuck you want.”
“I fucking will!” Alain said, hitting the gas and veering slightly to the right as they reached the small crowd.
The Expedition jolted from the impact as the bodies were thrown into the air, none of them made an effort to avoid being hit. Their bodies simply smashed against the vehicle, leaving each a mark of their own on the aluminum body. One of them smashed the passenger side windshield and left a heavy stain of blood.
“Great, now I can’t even fucking see.”
Alain laughed out loud and in exaggeration, “Ah Hahahah! Sucker!” his laughter stopped abruptly and they kept driving, navigating through the abandoned vehicles. “You think I can squeeze through that?” Alain asked.
“I don’t know Al, I can’t see shit!” Mackenzie complained. “You fucking jackass.”
“Hehe, you’re so bitter.” Alain said as they scraped both sides of the Expedition fitting through a narrow space between two vehicles.
“Alright, Scott free, now we just have to get to Medina.” Alain said, smiling beneath his gasmask.
The four continued unchallenged down the small country highway before reaching a traffic jam of abandoned vehicles near the edge Medina.
“Looks like we’re going on foot from here.” Alain said, slowing the vehicle to as stop.
“Fun.” Mathew said, turning to Tim who had fallen asleep. “Wake up, we’re walking.”
“Wha? Huh?” Tim looked about, disoriented, adjusting his gas mask that had slid a little in his sleep. “What’s going on?”
“We’re walking.” Alain said, stepping out of the vehicle and curiously inspecting the damage that the infected had left behind. “Man, I really smacked those fuckers eh?”
“I’m not going to forgive you for missing that fat lady.”
“It was a man, get over it.”
“Want to walk back and take a look?”
“Be my guest Mack, you’re welcome to go check. I on the other hand want to make it to this god forsaken track and field place and get a lift to someplace where I don’t have to have eyes out the back of my ass every second of the day.”
“You have eyes out the back of your ass?”
“Guys.” Mathew interjected, walking between them. “Could I please ask for a moment of silence?”
“Sure man.” Alain replied.
Mackenzie nodded, “Yeah, sorry.”
“Thank you.” Mathew walked off.
“Jerk.” Alain whispered beneath his mask to Mackenzie who laughed and punched him in the shoulder jokingly.
The four walked between the vehicles, periodically checking for anything of use. The highway was littered , many of the vehicles had been pushed off the side of the road, perhaps by people attempting to make their way in, or out of the city with their own vehicles. Others were obviously driven off the road by accident, and were stuck in the ditch. Without anyone to retrieve them they were abandoned by their previous owners, who, unfortunately for Mathew and the others, were probably still wandering around near bye. Whether alive or dead didn’t really matter, the fact that they could pose a threat was the only concern for the four who carefully continued forward.
Mackenzie and Alain continued their banter once Mathew was far enough ahead, while Timothy walked between Mathew and the other two, taking quick glances into vehicles at the dead or at potential supplies or equipment. He had just picked up what he thought was a can of food that turned out to be empty when he noticed that Mathew had stopped and was kneeling. He turned quickly to Mackenzie and Alain who were being rather loud and threw the can at them.
“What in the world would make you believe that- Hey? What gives?” Mackenzie turned to see Tim giving them the hand signal to drop.
Both of them dropped to a knee and raised their weapons. It only took them a few seconds to consolidate on Mathew, who was silent and still, staring like a hawk down a small gradient at the vehicles below.
“What’s up big guy?” Tim asked, coming up behind him.
“Movement, I think it’s just scavengers.”
“That’s no good, armed?”
“I don’t think so.” Mathew added, “Can you take the binoculars out of my pack?”
“Yeah sure, here.” Tim agreed, digging through the bag for a few seconds before pulling them out.
“Thanks.” Mathew peered through them, leaning against the car to his left to steady his arms. “There’s definitely someone there, we’re going to have to move up to get a better look.”
“Do you think we should stay on the road or hit the tree line?” Mackenzie asked.
“The bush will be louder, we can move up more silently between the cars.” Alain interjected.
“I agree with Al.” Mathew said, returning the binoculars to Tim who put them back into the bag.
“Alright, I’ll take point.” Mackenzie said, “Matty, you stay in the middle with Tim, Al in the back. Any objections?”
“Nope, sounds good to me.” Al said, moving back slightly to give the other three more room to maneuver. “I’ve only got about half a belt left though, and it’s our last box, so if shit hits the fan you’ll only have me for a short moment.”
“I’ll make the best of it.” Mackenzie said, smiling.
Mackenzie moved up, remaining crouched and behind vehicles as he did so. The others followed suit in the organization they had agreed upon, and slowly but surely they made their way toward the unknown once again.
Mackenzies back came up against the sliding door of a blue van and he peeked through the window very slowly. After being satisfied that he hadn’t seen anything suspicious he waved Tim forward.
Tim came up beside him and knelt. “Nothing?” He whispered.
“No, I’m not seeing anything. I’m moving up.” Mackenzie dropped to his stomach and looked beneath the cars to see if there was anyone near bye hidden behind a vehicle. He saw nothing, so he returned to his feet and continued forward, slowly and with his weapon at the ready. He came up to an overturned car that had been burned to ashes and slowly peeked around the corner. A charred human arm hung from the back window at his eye level, he crouched slightly to see past it. Timothy came up behind him. “Nothing.” He said to him, moving around the corner and walking up to the trailer of a semi. He crouched and walked along the semi, keeping an eye out from beneath it as he made his way toward a hatchback Volkswagen. He noticed a few shotgun shells sitting on the dash, so he reached in cautiously through the window and picked them up. When Tim came up to his position he handed them to him, knowing he’d know to pass them to Mathew when they had their turn to meet up. “Alright, I’m out.” he said, squeezing between the Volkswagen and a truck before making his way up to another vehicle.
Timothy waited for Mathew to make his way up to him and handed him the shells. “Here, Mack found them in a car.”
“Sweet.” Matty said, looking at the date on the back, “They’re lead, good for long distances compared to the newer shells. I’ll keep them for a special occasion.” he said, sliding the four shells into the breast pocket of his jacket.
Tim nodded and took his turn to meet up with Mackenzie.
Mathew sat, waiting for Alain who was walking forward with the machine gun up in his shoulder. “Do you see someone?” Mathew asked.
“No, just checking my range to that other car.” Alain said.
“Alright, see you in a bit.” Mathew moved out.
Mackenzie stopped and knelt, thinking for a moment that he had seen movement. But when he lowered his weapon to get a better view there was nothing. He moved cautiously toward the closest vehicle and waited for Tim. It didn’t take long for him to arrive. “It think I saw someone up by that blue cavalier, but I’m not sure.”
“I don’t like this not sure shit man, it reminds me of bad horror movies.”
“Well, we’ve got guns and we’re not separated so even if it is a bad horror movie we’ve already got the slip right?”
“Sure.” Tim said, unsure of how to answer the question.
“Point is I think we’re getting close, I’ve got the range with the M14, either you take point, or we swap weapons here.”
“Hmm. Let me think. Yeah I’ll swap.”
“Ok.”
“Shit man I’m just kidding, I’ll take point.” Tim said laughing, you think I’d leave you hanging like that? Man I can’t even shoot that thing worth a damn, she’s yours.”
“Heh, alright, get moving and stay quiet.”
“Yes boss.” Tim said jokingly into Mackenzies ear.
Tim moved forward slowly, his weapon at the ready.
Mackenzie moved up to a near bye vehicle and took up a supported firing position, waiting for anything that might pop out. He watched Tim with his peripheral vision, and when he stopped moving he turned to see where Matt was.
Suddenly a shot rang out and the mirror directly beside Mackenzie shattered into pieces, plastic and glass shards everywhere. Mackenzie dropped to the pavement and searched for feet beneath the cars but couldn’t see anything. He heard Timothy return fire, although he wasn’t sure if Tim knew where the enemy was, or if he was simply firing to keep their heads down. Footsteps alerted him and he spun around to see Mathew racing toward him. “Jesus you scared me.”
“Really? I thought that mirror blowing up would have scared you more.” He said peering through the window as he spoke. “See em?”
“No, not yet, but I’ve got to get to Tim.”
“Alright, I’ll keep an eye open.”
“Tell Al to wait, don’t let him waste that belt until we know where they are, we’ve got enough cover here anyway.”
“Sounds good.”
Mackenzie leapt forward and ran at top speed toward Tim.
Tim turned back and was startled, “Jesus where’d you come from?”
“Nice to see you too.” Mackenzie quipped as a round bounced off the car.
“What do you think it is?” Asked Tim.
“Sounds like high powered rifle, probably a hunting rifle, a .308 or something.” Another shot bounced off the pavement beneath the car and whizzed passed them with that stereotypical ricochet sound. “Good thing he’s a bad shot.”
“See, I don’t get why they just started shooting, Why not talk?”
“Do we usually talk?”
Tim was silent for a short moment. “Good point.”

“Alright, I told Al not to fire the LMG yet, because we just don’t have the ammo. We’ll wait until we get a GRI on this guy and then we’ll pummel him with about a hundred or so rounds in a second.”
“I like the way you think mister.”
“Ok, I’m moving up.”
“Covering.”
Mackenzie darted forward, swaying from right to left and then left to right in random fashion to make it that much more difficult for the shooter to hit home. A shot was fired, but Mackenzie was too concentrated on his running to pay attention to where the round splashed. He smashed his shoulder against a white Sedan and popped his rifle over the edge to fire a few shots for the sake of scaring the shooter. As they went off he saw Tim make his run. He then realized he may have a chance and took up a proper firing position, waiting for the shooter to take a shot at Tim. He spotted movement to the right, in the tree line, and a muzzle flash. The round skimmed the hood directly to his left and sparks flashed into his eyes.
“Ugh!” he grunted, taking cover behind the car, temporarily blind. “Tim, three hundred meters on the right in the tree line. There’s a bright blue van at around the same distance.”
Tim took a peek. “Man I see a white van, but no blue.”
“Well maybe that’s the one, I got flashed by the ricochet, the colors may be off.”
“Alright, let me take a look.”
“I’ll cover you.” Mackenzie yelled, dropping to the prone and taking aim at the person in the tree line. They were particularly well hidden, the muzzle flash had given them away the last time but now he couldn’t locate the person anymore. It’s then that it came to him. “They’re flanking” He thought to himself. “Tim!”
“What?” Tim yelled.
“Watch your sides man I think there may be more than just this one guy.”
“No shit sherlock. I kind of had that idea going a while ago. But nice try.”
“Jee, way to make a guy feel useless.” Mackenzie said, firing a pot shot at the tree line.
“Got him?”
“No I think he moved.”
Mathew came running up behind Mackenzie. “Saw one on the right.” he said, huffing air. There’s more though.”
“See I figured.” Tim said from the car ahead.”
“What?” Mathew asked confusedly.
“Never mind him, Where’s Al?”
“He’s on top of a van further back, watching.”
“Good, that’s perfect.... do you hear that?”
There was a strange whining sound in the distance and it was getting louder by the second.
“That sounds like a -”
“Ugh guys, we’ve got motorcycles.”Tim yelled,
“Yeah we know.” Mackenzie yelled to Tim, “Damnit I was just about to say that.”
A short burst from the machine gun burped in the distance and a splash of rounds came up on the right side of the tree line.
“We’re in business!” Mackenzie said as he made his way to the right side of the highway to find the lone sniper.
Mathew turned to get up and realized that one of the bikers was much closer than anticipated. He raced by, between the cars, wielding a Molotov cocktail which he threw toward Mathew.
Mathew fired a shot at him but missed as the bottle passed just by his head and erupted on the ground behind him. He ran to avoid the splash and growth of the flames.
“Holy fuck! Tim said, holding his fire in fear that he would hit Alain who was in the prone on the top of a van somewhere in the rear.
The second biker whizzed by on the opposite side of the highway and Tim was about to fire on him when shots came from the left Tree line. Tim rolled backward as the rounds splashed up against the pavement in front of him.
Mathew turned. “This is starting to piss me off. Tim, take care of the left tree line, Mack’s got the right one, I’ll deal with the bikers.”
“Gotcha.” Tim said, making a run for the tree line as Alains machine gun fire splashed up against the ditch near the enemy on that side.
Mathew got up and walked slowly forward while loading his shotgun. The bikers had turned around to avoid exposing themselves to Alains machine gun fire and were on their way back to Mathews position.
Mackenzie dropped into the ditch and ran up the side of the hill toward where the machine gun fire had splashed. He ran round a tree on the left side of a truck and stopped, listening for movement. He heard the machine gun fire and peered to the left to see it splashing against the other ditch. Just then he heard rustling to his right, the shooter was trying to get a glimpse of Alains flash. Mackenzie turned the corner and aimed his rifle at the person behind the stump.
“Stop.” He said, squeezing the trigger slightly, knowing that he may only have milliseconds to react.
The person swung about, surely enough holding a bolt action hunting rifle. But something was not right.
Mackenzies eyes widened.
She wore a painters breathing mask, her hair was brown and long but tied into a bun, she seemed thin but the loose clothes she wore hid her frame. Her eyes were a dark piercing brown, nearly black, and as she stared at him in fear he lost all will to fight. His rifle dropped from his shoulder and he stood there, silently as gunshots rang out in the distance.
Tim ran up the side of the slope as Alain fired him in, the machine gun fire splashing only a few feet ahead of his footsteps. As he reached the top he could hear the person crying. He crested the hill to find a distraught young man. He had dropped the rifle on his side and was cradled in a fetal position beside it, hands covering his ears. Tim stopped, dropped the rifle from his shoulder and made his way slowly to the boy as Alains machine gun fire still splashed accurately against the hillside, making sure that the kids head was down as Tim came in for what he thought was a killing blow. Tim knelt beside him, pushing the rifle away, dirt rained on them as he reached out with his arm. “Hey kid.” He said, touching him on the shoulder. The boy looked up, staring at him in fear, half his face covered with a breathing mask. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”
Mathew walked down the highway, the bikers making their way back to him in haste. They both had newly lit Molotovs. He had time. He dropped the pack on his back and dug into a special pocket, pulling from it the grenade they had saved for several months. “Today’s a special occasion” Mathew thought to himself.
The bikes came screaming by and he dodged the first Molotov, throwing the backpack to safety behind another vehicle as the flames engulfed the position he had been standing in previously.
Alain watched as Mathew took the grenade out. “That mother fucker.” he said, his weapon only had a few rounds left and he wanted to hold on to them in case someone desperately needed assistance, but he couldn’t fire on the bikers in fear of hitting Matt.
Mathew slammed his back against the van and waited for the second bike to pass. He pulled the pin on the grenade and rolled it past a few of the vehicles as the bike that just passed turned and began to make his way toward him. He stepped forward and out from cover, firing a shot at the biker who hadn’t passed yet. The shot shattered the bottle in his hand and he lit up into flames. Mathew aimed a second shot at the front wheel and destroyed it as the bike flipped forward flying past him. The second biker had sped up when he saw his fellow biker being lit into flames and Mathew turned to face him just as he drove past the grenade. Mathew was still loading new shells into his shotgun when the grenade exploded. The bike was torn into two pieces and the debris bounced across the pavement, toward him. The biker slid on the asphalt just before the debris, his unconscious body grinded to a halt beside Mathew who took a slow step to his left as a large portion of the bike flew past him and smashed into the van behind him, exploding into a ball of flames.
“Jesus christ!”Alain screamed, leaping from the van and running toward the smokey remains of the bike. He ran past them and into the haze that surrounded the van Matt had been standing near. “Matty?” he yelled, “You alright?” He turned the corner to find Mathew loading his last shell and pumping the shotgun’s action.
“I’m fine.” Mathew said, “These guys on the other hand.”
“How the hell do you pull that shit off? That’s like the third time you’ve nearly been taken out by some flaming object.”
“I don’t know.” Mathew said nonchalantly. “Where’s Tim and Mack?”
Alain turned to his right and left, but saw no one. “ I don’t know. Let’s check up on them.”
“I’m not going to shoot you.” Mackenzie said, lowering his rifle.
She screamed as an explosion erupted behind him.
Mackenzie turned to see a bellowing flame and the silence of the motorcycles. “Ah shit Matty, did you use the grenade?”
“Why are you here?” she said, crying.
Mackenzie turned back to her. “We’re here to look for a friends family, we’re trying to get to Medina to meet up with an organization that dropped these flyers.” He said, revealing a folded copy of the flyer. “Do you know who they are?”
“They tried to kill us.” She said, sitting up now.
“Why?” Mackenzie asked.
She looked at him, and then raised the sleeve of her shirt to reveal a series of Cordyceps spikes leading up her arm.
Mackenzie fell backward against the tree. “Oh no.” he said, sighing. “You’re infected.”
“You don’t understand.”
“No, you’re right. I don’t. I’m not infected.”
“No, it’s not that simple. I’ve been infected since the beginning.”
Mackenzie looked at her inquisitively. “That’s not possible, you’d have become a host by now.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Me and the people I am with have been infected since the beginning and we haven’t changed.”
“Why are you wearing those masks then?” He asked, “If you’re infected, you have no reason to fear the fungus.”
“We’re still afraid of the fungus, it could make things worse if we keep breathing it. But the planes dropping gas bombs are what we’re really afraid of. When we die, that’s when the change occurs.”
Mackenzie remembered the pellets that had fallen on him in the washout a day earlier. “I’ve seen these gas bombs, they’re nerve agents. I was affected by some of it the other day but I had help.”
“When we die, the fungus continues to grow, but so long as we’re alive it can’t continue.” She said, “But everyone still wants to kill us as though we were already changed.”
“That’s because most people lose their minds only a day or so after being infected”
“Well we’re not like that.”
“You’re probably still contagious though.”
“Only if the spines break.”
“That’s reason enough to want to kill you for most people.”
“Are you most people?”
“Obviously not.”
“What will you do?”
Mackenzie thought for a moment. “Firstly, come with me to the street, your friends on the bikes will need your help, if they’re not already dead. I hope Tim didn’t kill the other shooter, I understand your predicament, but I don’t know if I can help you.”
“I don’t know if I want to go with you.”
“Well, where will you go if you don’t come with me?”
She looked about the woods. “I don’t know, there are a few more of us down the road, they want to stage a blockade to Medina, I was recruited because I can shoot, but I don’t want to kill people for that reason.”
“So you’re telling me those weren’t misses?”
“If I wanted to kill you, you’d have been dead before you started sneaking around.”
“I see. Do you trust me?”
“You’re uninfected and I just met you, no I don’t. But I really have no other choice. I’ll go with you.”
“Alright.”
Mackenzie extended his hand, and she took it nervously. He helped her up and she stumbled into him.
“Sorry.” she said, her mask pressed against his.
“It’s alright.” He said, backing away.
Tim held the boy by the shoulder and sat him up. “What’re you doing out here man?”
The boy simply looked at him in fear.
“Come on kid, I’m not gonna hurt you, why were you shooting at us?”
The boy looked down at his arm. Tims grasp had lifted his sleeve and the effects of infection were visible. Tim followed his eyes and saw them.
“Oh boy.” he said, slowly releasing the boy and walking backward, his hand instinctually went for the pistol grip of his rifle and as he did the child cringed looking away. “Oh, no, no. Don’t worry man I’m not gonna shoot you, I’m just... well you’re infected. I don’t know what to say.”
Tim saw movement to his left and noticed Mackenzie coming out of the tree line with the other shooter. “Alright kid, let’s get going. Your friends are down there waiting for you... well at least one is.”
Alain lowered the burnt biker to the ground as he groaned in pain. “Yeah well, that’s what you get for throwing Molotovs at this freaking guy.”
“Ugh..” he grunted. “You killed my brother.”
Mathew looked at the biker who slid up to him. “No he’s not dead, but he will be if we don’t get him some help soon.” Mathew had put him in the recovery position and had noticed the shrapnel wounds that littered his body. “If we can get to a hospital I can probably take out most of the shrapnel, but I don’t have the tools to help him now.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you just kill us.” he asked.
“Well, we usually don’t shoot people unless there’s good reason. Being shot at is good reason, but now that the threat’s gone, I really don’t have any reason to shoot you do I?”
“Matty, I saw an ambulance up ahead, I’m not sure if there’s still anything in it, but we might be able to help them there.” Alain said, pointing down the highway.
“Tim and Mackenzie are on their way, once they’re here we’ll make our way toward the ambulance.”
“Why are you doing this?” The biker asked.
“Because we can, and because you may be able to help us. We aren’t here to kill anyone, but we’ll defend ourselves when needed. I’m sure there are more of you, and if we take care of you here, then we may be lucky enough to ensure you treat us the same way if your men win the next firefight.”
The biker sat there for a moment, looking into Mathews eyes, wondering what could possibly drive a man to care so much about honor in a world like the one they now inhabited. What could possibly drive a man to care for his enemy’s wounds and give quarter after they threatened his life. He did not know what it was that drove the man who stood before him, all he knew is that at this moment he wanted nothing more than everyone in the world to have that drive, that will to be honorable and just. If only.

Chapter 2: You are not alone!

2008-06-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

A thin haze of smoke filled the top of the leanto as Tim nursed the embers of their fire to keep it alive, but not let it grow too large and give away their position.
“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.

Chapter 1: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

2008-05-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

“Over there.” Timothy pointed, his voice muffled slightly by the gas mask he wore.
Mackenzie peered through the thick goggles of his own gas mask and attempted to make out the subtle light that glimmered from recently extinguished fires. “I see it. Pass me the binoculars.” he said, his hand outstretched behind him.
Mathew dropped the small pack and reached inside, pulling out a pair of binos and handing them to Mackenzie. “Have fun seeing anything in the dark.” Mathew said.
“Just want to count the fires.” He said, observing the embers through the binos for a short moment before handing them back to Mathew. “There’s about seven. How many people are needed for seven fires?” Mackenzie asked, as he turned to the others.
For a short moment, his mind reacted to the sight of his three friends as though nothing had happened, as though the world was still making some form of sense. That version of him in his mind, that once existed when things were normal, recoiled in fear from the view he beheld of his close friends.
They all wore weathered clothes and gas masks, the majority of it salvaged from stores or persons who had passed on and would no longer need them. Mackenzie, like Tim and Al, wore a military gas mask. He wore a leather biking jacket with reinforced shoulders and elbows, underneath it was a CadPat flack jacket, just like the one Tim and Al wore. He cradled an M14 rifle in the crook of his right arm. Attached to the belt that held up his black nylon pants was a thigh holster that harbored a Tactical Pro II Kimber 1911. On his left hip hung a Kukri.
Timothy stood to Mackenzie’s left. He wore a 3/4 length khaki poplin jacket on top of his flack jacket. The 5.56 ammunition for his M16A2 rifle was located in his pack, but a few magazines rested in makeshift pouches built into a belt that bore the Royal Canadian Regiments eight pointed star as the buckle. The belt held up a pair of black cargo pants, knee pads firmly strapped on just above a pair of combat boots. Holstered to his thigh was a browning 9mm pistol.
Alain was sitting on the slope they stood on. He wore his flack jacket on the outside, on top of a dark cotton hooded jacket, his hood was pulled over his head, covering those parts that weren’t protected by the gas mask he wore. He rested an M249 on his thigh as he sat watching the embers glowing in the distance. His hands were protected by tactical gloves, and he wore a pair of black light weight nylon pants with reinforced knees. They nearly hid the pair of running shoes he had on his feet. A hatchet hung from a jimmy rigged steel ring threaded into his belt on his right hip, and a P225 Sig pistol rested in a holster that had been sown firmly into his flack jacket’s left breast.
Mathew stood out with an out of date, yet still functional cold war era Russian style gasmask wrapped at the neck with a camouflage patterned scarf. He wore an olive drab cotton jacket, blue denim jeans and a pair of worn combat boots. At his hip was holstered a silver Smith and Wesson model 625 revolver. A Remington 870 Police entry gun with a fourteen inch barrel was cradled in his crossed arms as he stood waiting to move, an overcharged pack at his feet. He pondered. “How many people for seven fires.Well, that’s a really tough one, I suppose we could just guess that each fire has at least two people and that there’s at a minimum fourteen people to deal with.”
“From the distance the fires are at I’d say there’s probably more than two per fire.” Al said, breaking his silence. “Maybe five?”
“How many is that?” Mackenzie asked, “Five times seven... I suck at math.”
The other three turned to each other, if they hadn’t been all wearing gas masks you would have been able to watch them all silently mouthing numbers as they calculated, except for Mathew, who quickly responded.
“Thirty five, for christ sakes, multiples of five are supposed to be easy.”
“Hey I was just about to say that.” Tim said, borderline disgruntled.
“Thirty five.” Alain repeated. “That’s a lot, if things go bad we can be in a world of hurt.
Mackenzie looked at the dark silhouette of the horizon, it was nearing dawn. The light of the sun was visible as a pink haze in the distance, although this pink haze was not that of an ordinary sunrise.
All of them knew the signs of spore saturation in the atmosphere. The microscopic fungus was thick in the air, and if it weren’t for their gas masks the parasitic organism would be spreading through their lungs; trudging relentlessly to their brains before causing an irreparable chemical dysfunction. If they were lucky, they would lose their minds and become slaves to the fungus before being devoured by it. If they were unlucky, they would remain conscious, and be capable of living normally until nearing death where the fungus would gestate to maturity and begin to consume all none-essential soft tissues. They had run into many settlements like that which they were about to enter. Often these places were populated by survivors who didn’t understand exactly what had happened. They had not protected themselves from the parasite, and were in the throes of gestation, not knowing why their bodies hurt so badly, as they were being eaten from the inside out.
Regardless of the danger these settlements posed, the quartet had no choice but to move in. They were dangerously low on food and water, which would have to be purified before consumption.
“Well, shall we move on?” Mathew suggested, picking up the pack and sliding it onto one arm. “We should get there well past sunrise, and I fully intend to have breakfast for once.” he said, walking past Mackenzie and making his way down the grassy slope.
“Cheers to that.” Mackenzie said, following his lead.
“Is it just me that thinks this is a bad idea?” Timothy asked, still standing were he was.
Alain had gotten up and was making his way past Tim when he turned to him “Guess so!” he said excitedly, running past him to catch up to the other two.
Tim swung his head back, sighing in discontent. “People are bad news!” he yelled, as he took a step forward. “Bad news.” he said again, this time under his breath, probably not even loud enough to escape the gas mask.

“Look I’m just saying.” Mackenzie re-iterated, “We really don’t need to shoot anybody.”
Mathew cocked his head in Mackenzies direction as they walked. “Mack... last time you tried the whole unarmed confrontation method, you were shot.”
“Yes... I was, I doubt I would forget that, but that’s not the point.”
“Really?” Alain said, from behind. “I thought not getting shot was entirely the point.”
“You were shot too Al.” Tim said, still catching up.
“Shut up. I wasn’t trying to talk to seven armed hosts with nothing on me.”
“I had my pistol.” Mackenzie retorted.
“Yeah but you’re slow to draw.”
“We’re not all gunslingers like you Matt.”
“Why thank you Mack, I appreciate that.”
“Stop being such a dick.”
“Hey, do you hear that?” Tim said from behind them.
“Hear what?” Alain replied.
They all stopped in the tall grass, listening carefully as the first rays of the sun crested the horizon and shone on them. There was silence for almost two whole minutes before they all made note of the low grumbling sound that was reverberating in their chests.
“Sounds like fast air.” Alain said.
Tim slapped him on the head. “Shhh.”
Mathew’s gaze shot up to the sky. “There!” He pointed.
“Fast air!” Mackenzie yelled.
“I told you!” Alain exclaimed as the other three burst into a sprint.
As they ran, they could no longer hear the rumbling of the jet engines, only the overwhelming sound of their own breathing and the shifting of their gear resonated through their ears as they ran through the tall grass. It only took moments for their bodies to heat up drastically from the change of pace, and sweat began to pool in their gas masks.
“Do you see anything?” Alain yelled between deep forced breaths.
“No!.” Mackenzie replied, scanning the field for any kind of cover.
“Washout!” Mathew yelled as he burst out of the tall grass and fell abruptly into a small ravine that had dug a five foot deep trench through the field.
Mackenzie and Alain stumbled into the washout, nearly losing their balance on the loose stones in its basin.
Tim came crashing through the tall grass, falling onto Mackenzie who broke his fall. “Sorry.” he said.
“This way!” Mathew yelled as he ran down the washout.
The jet engines became audible again and soon they were unbearably loud as they passed just overhead.
All four men fell to the ground, expecting an explosion of flames and debris to rain down on them in the trench, but nothing came.
Tim lifted one arm from over his head and peered out. “What the hell?” He said, they didn’t drop anything?” As if to answer his question a spherical object the size of a golf ball smashed into the stones just in front of him. “Shit! Pellets!” he screamed, rising to his feet and running toward Mathew who had found relative shelter beneath an overhang of roots and earth.
Mathew was urging them in his direction as the balls rained down onto the field, exploding into balls of gas on impact.
Alain dove into the shelter but Mackenzie was slightly too late. A sphere smashed into him and he plummeted to the ground, knocking his face headfirst into the rocks. His gasmask was slightly dislodged in the process and as he attempted to get up he coughed harshly into his mask. His hand grasped at his throat and he collapsed from his knees back on to his stomach.
“Shit!” Mathew, lunged out from beneath the overhang, Alain and Timothy attempted to hold him back but he was too fast. He rushed to his fallen comrade and pulled his shoulder over, slid his arm beneath one armpit and with a grunting heave, lifted him onto his shoulders. Mathew was screaming, although he probably didn’t know it, deaf from the surge of adrenaline that had been released into his system. He ran back to the overhang, faster than he had empty handedly. When he arrived he dropped Mackenzie to the ground.
Alain had already ripped a strip of paper from the detection pack, he waved it in the air frantically and then stopped inspecting it briefly before shaking it again.
“What is it?” Tim inquired impatiently.
“Give me a fucking second!” Alain said, pushing Tim away from the paper.
All three stared at it as it began to change color. There was a moment that seemed like forever as it slowly darkened.
“Purple!” Alain said
“Nerve agent!” Matty exclaimed at the same time.
“Hurry!” Tim yelled
Mathew was already on it, he had pulled one of the autoinjectors from Mackenzies leg pack and had removed the cap and twisted the safety off. He rolled Mackenzie over, who had begun to convulse. He raised an arm and was ready to inject the atropine when the convulsions suddenly increased in activity, nearly throwing Mathew off balance.
“Hold him down!” Mathew yelled.
Timothy and Alain grabbed on to whatever limb was near them as vomit spewed from the valve at the front of Mackenzies gasmask.
“Fuck!” Tim yelled, getting sick from the sight of it.
Mathew raised his arm again and stabbed Mackenzie in the side of the buttocks, holding the autoinjector down for a few moments before removing it and throwing it away, grasping at the leg bag to ready another injector. He thought he was counting in his head, but Mathew was counting out loud, waiting, hoping that the convulsions would stop.
“Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen... fuck it.” he said, unlocking the second pen and stabbing him again.
“Put him in the recovery position” Alain said, reaching for his arm and resting his head on it. He felt the lining of the gasmask to ensure that it was sealed. He unplugged the stopper on the valve to make it easier for any vomit to be expelled from the gasmask. As he did so he glimpsed into Mackenzies mask through the eye piece. Mackenzies eyes had rolled back, but were still open, revealing a ghostly white bloodshot eye that made Alain feel even more uneasy. “He’s not looking good.”
“Why can’t they just fucking leave us be?” Timothy yelled, “Why the fuck are they always blowing the fuck out of places, dropping all sorts of shit. Don’t they know there are still people down here?”
Mathew was checking Mackenzies pulse. “They know, they don’t want us here. It makes it harder for them to scavenge what’s left of the western world. You have to remember, the Russians and the Chinese are the only two superpowers left. What else would they do in a situation like this one other than attempt to take over every resource that this parasite has made available for them.”
“Shit, do you think he inhaled spores?” Tim said, realizing the possibility once Mathew had mentioned the parasite.
“Even if he did, I doubt he inhaled enough to infect him. His mask only unsealed for a short moment. It’s the gas that got in.”
“Obviously.” Alain, stated, as Mackenzie jerked once again, the convulsions having nearly completely subsided.
Tim turned around and looked out from beneath the overhang. The air was filled with a yellow mist, if they hadn’t had their gas masks on they would have all perished. “We need to move. If they dropped that shit, there’s probably something to follow through with.”
“At least the settlement will be clear.” Mathew mentioned morbidly.
“Yeah...” Alain agreed, “But how are we going to move with him like this?”
“You and Tim can go check out the campsite, I’ll stay here with Mack, come back with whatever you can salvage and in the meantime I’ll set up a shelter, we’re going to have to stay here for a while.
“I agree.” Alain said, standing up and looking at Tim as he emptied his back pack to make room for the supplies they’d hopefully find.
“Alright.” Tim did the same before turning and walked out from beneath the overhang, brandishing his weapon.
“We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
Mathew nodded and then returned to Mackenzie, who was laying still now.

Alain and Tim climbed out of the washout and began to walk through the tall grass once again, staying near each other in case they encountered resistance from the small settlement. The nerve agents would have killed them, but they had no idea how it would have affected those infected by the parasite. Soon they exited the tall grass and were walking in a relatively clear area that stretched for about a hundred meters before the first tents of the campsite. It’s then that they saw the first bodies.
“There.” Tim pointed.
“I see it.” Alain replied. It was a woman, folded over on her side, she was wearing a thin white tank top, her exposed skin was covered in small spines, about one to five centimeters long. The longer ones were on the back of the shoulders and along the spine. They looked exactly like those that grew from old potatoes, white at the tips with small pink dots near the bottom of the stem. This was the physical manifestation of the Cordyceps fungus. These people were infected.
“Keep your eye open, they might reanimate.” Al said to Tim.
“No shit sherlock.” Tim replied, irritated.
Both of them had their weapons at the ready, and had slowed to a walk as they began to enter the campsite. Soon they turned the corner from one of the first tents and witnessed a fragment of hell.
“Ugh.” Timothy turned away for a short moment at the sight of it.
“The fires weren’t campfires...” Alain said, as he looked at the hundreds of corpses piled into mounds, some strewn across the field.
“Why were they burning them?” Timothy asked, as they walked further into the carnage.
“They must have known they were infected and were burning the bodies before the fungus could gestate.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Let’s clear this tent first.” Alain said as they moved toward the entrance of the tent they had passed.
Alain walked up to the side of the entrance and Timothy crept up behind him. He squeezed Alain’s tricep to let him know he was ready, and after a short delay Alain bolted through the doorway. He scanned the interior intently as he made his way to the left side of the doorway. Timothy was directly behind him, clearing the opposite side of the tent. Aside from an aged male corpse, him too afflicted by the Cordyceps, the tent was empty. They began to scavenge the contents once the room was declared safe. They followed this process for the remainder of the tents. As they reached the last one they noticed a small barn at the bottom of a slope.
“That’s a good two hundred meters away, feel like checking it out?” Alain asked to Tim.
“Well, we’re already overloaded, we should probably just head back.”
Alain began to walk toward the barn.
“Or not.” Timothy said as he turned and followed Alain down the slope.
Mathew, having taken advantage of the overhang, had completed a hasty leanto by using the ground sheets from Timothy and Alain’s discarded kit. Mackenzie was resting inside, and was still unconscious but seemed stable. Mathew wouldn’t be able to assess his true situation until he regained consciousness, or of course, if he didn’t. He wasn’t going to take a chance, after having been pelleted by Russian fighter jets, he assumed that perhaps Timothy’s expectation of some kind of follow up was not a stupid prediction. He took the time to camouflage the leanto so that if you looked down the washout it would be very difficult to discern that the shelter was even there. He prided himself on the work he did, and for a moment, relished this little victory. Mathew knew that if one did not take the time to appreciate the small things in life, especially in one such as his, it would be very easy to fall into an uncontrollable and devastating depression. There wasn’t much to give hope to the four of them, and often times they would sit and talk about the past, hoping it would cheer them up. However, nearly every time, they were forced to think of other things, as memories of the past caused a longing for something that could never again become reality. They were survivors, and that was all they could do now. Survive.
Their luck was bitter sweet, all of them had been hit before. Mackenzie had been shot several times, he had also fallen from a fatal height and somehow survived. Mathew himself had also been shot, perhaps more times than the others. He survived a high speed motorcycle accident in the early days of the infestation, while eluding mobs of infected. He was also the only one to stand his ground when a collapsing bridge spewed debris over the four of them. He was standing in the exact location that was not hit by any of the large pieces of concrete and steel. Alain survived several attacks from large groups of infected, and was shot by a twelve gauge in the chest without body armor. He was also badly burned by an exploding vehicle while the group was escaping an urban center. Timothy had been stabbed by a group of raiders and managed to fight his way through them regardless of his wounds, although collapsing once the confrontation was over. He also was the only one to have survived a prolonged exposure to spores; holding his breath as he ran through a subway station that was occupied by a Cordyceps host who’s fruiting bodies had erupted, being chased by infected the whole way through. All four of them had survived a train wreck, a plane crash, a car accident in which all but Mathew were expelled from the vehicle (they hadn’t fastened their seatbelts). All in all, the four of them had survived particularly traumatic events, and as previously stated, their luck has always been bitter sweet. Lucky to have survived, yet unlucky to have had the need to witness and experience the hardships of their twisted fate. For this reason, Mathew had hope for Mackenzie, that if they had survived this long, through so many insane situations, that the nerve agent was only going to be another campfire story months down the road.

“Room clear.” Tim said, now moving forward into the barn.
“Not much here is there.”
“Yeah maybe you were right eh Tim?” Tim said, mockingly.
“Shut up, you’re a fucking idiot.” Al replied.
“Calm down.”
Both of them froze in their tracks and became utterly silent as a strange noise caught their attention.
Alain signaled to Timothy to move toward the doorway to their right.
Timothy stacked up against the wall and waited for Alain to squeeze up. “Short wall right, it’s a hallway.” Timothy warned, making sure Alain knew he had to move to the left after entering to face down the hall.
Timothy felt the squeeze and waited for a short moment, giving Alain time to get his hands on his M249 before he spun around the corner, facing down the hallway with his weapon pointed firmly to the center of mass of a shadowed figure.
Even before Alain could make out the object in the shadows his weapon was up and aiming at its core, in the span of a tenth of a second he had recognized the humanoid shape and locked on to it.
“Say something!” Tim yelled to it, knowing that only a very rare few Cordyceps hosts could speak, and even then, they only spoke gibberish.
The shadowed figure said nothing.
“Cover me Tim, I’ll grab my light.”
“Check.” Tim replied.
Alain kept his eyes on the target but lowered his weapon slightly and began to dig in his pocket, pulling out a flashlight. He clicked it on and pointed the light toward the shadows.
There in the depth of the hall was a mangled human body, barely recognizable, suspended several feet off the ground by a foundation of fungal structures.
“Jesus Christ.” Timothy exclaimed.
Several fungal spires had erupted through the victims mouth and eyes, the fruiting bodies were still intact, and were dangerously close to erupting.
“Cordyceps host... those fresh spores are small enough to make it through the filters Tim, we have to move...”
As if sensing their presence, the corpse began to undulate.
“Now Tim!” Al yelled as he turned and made for the exit.
“Fuck!” Tim yelled at the top of his lungs, turning the corner just behind Alain as the Cordyceps host began to whine that familiar wail as the fungal structures collapsed on themselves, releasing millions upon millions of microscopic spores into the atmosphere. The shrill was so unimaginably terrifying to them that Alain had unintentionally vomited in his mask from the adrenaline that had been pumped so abruptly into his system. They raced out of the barn and three quarters of the way up the hill before collapsing near where they had originally conceived the idea of exploring the barn.
Alain was on his hands and knees, attempting to expel the vomit form his mask through the valve. He turned over after the majority of it had fallen to the ground. They both sat side by side and watched as a pink missed enveloped the barn.
“Fucking... twice.” Timothy said through deep gasps. “Twice I’ve had to deal with those fucking things...” He took another deep breath and swallowed, “... they’re supposed to be fucking rare.”
“I’ve never seen one before.” Al said, trying to move the chunks of vomit away from his mouth within the mask. “You got a canteen on you?” He asked.
“Yeah, here.” Tim said, pulling one from his backpack and passing it to Alain, who plugged the tube from his mask into the top of the canteen’s lid.
“Tasty?” Tim asked.
“Mmmhmm...” Al replied.
“Hehe, you puked didn’t you.” Tim laughed.
“At least I didn’t piss my pants.”
Tim looked at his crotch and noticed the wetness. “Fucking Christ, damn that sympathetic nervous system eh?” Tim said, shaking his head.
“I call it being a pussy.” Al said jokingly, laughing for a moment before being interrupted by a few more dry heaves.
“Hah, poetic justice.”
“Ugh... come on we gotta get back to Mathew and Mackenzie.”
“Yeah, let’s go.” Timothy agreed, taking up his pack and making his way back through the tents. Alain on his heels.

If only he could go back in time and kill that mother fucking research team. Mathew thought to himself, If only they hadn’t brought this fucking demonic plague upon us... Maybe life would still be normal. Mathew had begun to make a small fire, something small enough to be concealed by the leanto. He knew it would be a cold night, and preparing a fire early in the day was the logical thing to do if you knew you were going to be stationary for a few days. He had already collected a modest amount of kindling. A part of his mind was nagging at him about Tim and Al, creating scenarios where perhaps they had gotten into trouble and were in need of his assistance. If Mackenzie was not in such a bad state he would have checked on them, but he couldn’t leave Mack there on his own, unconscious, defenseless if one of those things were to show up. He burned some of the time away by fantasizing about how life would have been if the world hadn’t gone to shit... and then it donned on him that the world was headed for the shit regardless of this fucked up turn of events. It only took an experimental genetically modified fungus to throw the western world back to the stone age. What pissed Mathew off the most is that they knew about it. The fuckers knew exactly what they were doing, that it would affect human beings. What on earth were they thinking? Cordyceps fungus were used in Asia as immune system boosters for a long time, maybe they were trying to maximize that positive effect. Obviously they didn’t expect to plunge the continent into a fungal infestation. Luckily for the rest of the wildlife, this Cordyceps genus was only capable of affecting human beings. “Unluckily for us.” Mathew thought as he struck the flint once again, sparking a small yet manageable flame in the moss.
“That’s gonna go out you know.” Mackenzie said weakly
Mathew leapt over the growing flame and grabbed on to Mackenzies mask, looking into his eyes. They were still rolling back into his head, but he was obviously somewhat conscious. “You alright?” He asked, checking his pulse.
“I feel like I was shot in the stomach.”
“Not quite, you were hit in the head by a nerve gas pellet that was dropped from a Russian bomber. I think it bounced off the ground before hitting you though, otherwise I’m pretty sure you’d be dead.”
“Considering how I feel, I think I’d rather be dead.” he said in a raspy voice. “My mouth is insanely dry.”
“That’s because of the autoinjector, you’ll be pretty messed up for a while, I pumped your brain full of chemicals.”
“Good to know.” He said, attempting to sit up.
“Here let me help you.” Mathew took him by the shoulders and helped him prop his back up against the earth wall.
“Where’s Tim and Al?”
“They left for the settlement about three hours ago, they should be back soon.
“Ugh..” Mackenzie grunted.
“What, what’s the matter?”
“I was unconscious and my ass hurts, I’m worried I lost my virginity.”
Mathew laughed, “Your virginity is safe.”
“With you I somehow doubt that, when’s the last time you got laid?”
“About the same time the world went to shit.”
“That long ago huh... same here.”
“Funny.”
“What is?” Mackenzie asked.
“We’ve never talked about that before.”
“Probably because neither of us want to think about the fate of the last person we shared ourselves with.”
“Good point.”
“At that, let’s change the subject... I threw up in my mask.”
“Yes, you did. You also did the funky chicken.”
“Fun.”
“Not for us it wasn’t.”
“I don’t doubt that. How long was I out for?”
“Well they left for the tents just after you went down, so you’ve been out for just about three hours.”
“It feels like longer somehow.” Suddenly his eyes widened.
“What?” Mathew asked, noticing his sudden agitation.
“If I inhaled the nerve agent I had my mask off, how long was it off?”
“Don’t worry, it was a fraction of a second. If the pellet hadn’t exploded on you, you wouldn’t have even gotten any nerve agent under your mask. It’s only because it was concentrated near you that you inhaled some of it. Probably when you hit the ground after it struck you.”
“I don’t remember any of that.”
“You were hit pretty hard, I doubt you would remember any of it.”
“I like what you did with the place.” Mackenzie said, laughing a bit.
“Yeah, I’m surprised I did it this fast.”
“I want to stand.” Mackenzie said, planting his arm to support himself and attempting fruitlessly to raise himself off the ground.
“I want a salami sandwich, but I ain’t getting one, and you’re not standing.”
“You suck.”
Mathew sat beside Mackenzie, resting against the earth wall. “I hope they get back soon.”
Just as Mathew finished his sentence a series of gunshots were heard nearbye.
“What the fuck?” Mathew exclaimed. “Are you good here?” He said to Mackenzie, getting up briskly and taking hold of his shotgun.
“Yeah I’ll be good, just hand me my M14.”
Mathew picked the rifle from off the ground and handed it to him before he made his way to the end of the leanto. “I’ll be back.” He said as more shots rang out.
Mathew disappeared around the leanto.
Mackenzie could hear more gunshot going off in the distance as he scrambled and dragged himself to the entrance of the leanto so that he could see if someone or something was coming down the ravine.

Alain turned the corner of another tent and heard the footsteps rushing toward him. He spun around quickly and instinctually pulled the trigger, firing the M249 from the hip. The creature was leaping by the time he pulled the trigger, and he found it satisfying to watch it get pulled back as if yanked by a tether when the rounds ate into its chest. He walked toward it as it sprawled on to the ground, still squirming. As he walked forward he fired bursts into it, until finally was up to it. It was screeching, pink clouds of spores spewing from it’s open mouth, long dangling spines protruding from it’s back and shoulders. Alain walked up to its crippled body. Its eyes moved wildly, as it attempted to attack him, but several of Alains rounds had severed it’s spinal cord, and no matter how much of the fungus consumed and replaced the tissues of the body, it couldn’t replace or substitute a vital organ such as the spine. Its head thrashed wildly, the only part of its body still capable of moving. Alain lifted his leg and stomped firmly on its face. The skull cracked and the head opened in several places, fungal material erupting out of the fresh wounds. “Tim?” Alain yelled.
“Yeah I’m here.” He said, turning the corner. “Whoa... You know you can take your foot out of its head now.”
Alain looked down. “Yeah” He said walking toward him. “Come on let’s keep moving, keep your eyes open, who knows how many will reanimate.”
“I’m not a fucking idiot Al.”
“Just get moving.”
As they turned around another tent to head back the direction they came in, they noticed movement in one of the piles of burned corpses.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Al said.
The corpses began to reanimate, all of them.
“Well.” Tim sighed. “At last they’ll be slow as hell, being all burned and whatnot.”
One of them rolled down the mound of corpses and got on to its knees. As it began to stand up Tim took part of its head off with a 5.56. Several more from another mound began to shamble toward them.
Al shook his head and fired a short burst at one of them. “This is fucking stupid. I’m assuming the nerve agent has something to do with this because last time I checked burning them finishes them off pretty well.”
“Well.” Tim said, firing at another shambling corpse. “Have you ever really stuck around to see if they get back up? These corpses have been burned and were sitting around for a while, maybe they always reanimate and you’ve just never stuck around long enough to notice.”
“You’ve got a point.” Al said, sliding the M249 on his back and taking out his hatchet.. “I’m not going to waste ammo on these guys, they’re slow enough to deal with. Alain walked up to one of the slow moving charred bodies and stuck his axe into its head before it could even lift its arms. It shook violently before crumbling to the ground, dead once again. “Honestly, this is stupid”.
“Come on let’s get moving, we can kill them on our way out.”
As Tim turned to walk away one of the charred corpses rushed toward him at a blazing speed.
“TIM!” Al screamed, pulling his hatchet from a skull.
Tim turned too late, the creature was upon him. He raised his weapon, but it had leapt and latched on to his shoulders before he could react fast enough. As they rushed to the ground the creature thrashed at him, swiping at his head violently. Tims gasmask was pushed halfway across his face and he grasped frantically at it while holding his breath, trying to keep it over his face.
Alain dropped his M249 and ran toward him, slowing down about five meters from the two and winding his arm back. As the hatchet reached the apex, his feet slid in the dirt. In one swift motion his arm swung forward, releasing the hatchet to let it tumble but once before it plunged with immense force into the charred corpse’s head.
The creature flipped forward, landing on its back a foot or so away from Tim who got up frantically, replacing his mask to its rightful position. Tim turned to Al and his eyes widened.
Alain spun around to see six of them moving quickly toward him. He drew his pistol and began to execute them, one bullet to the head for each.
Tim reclaimed his weapon, but as he began to stand up he heard the footsteps of another behind him. When he turned he noticed that this one was not burned. It was a young woman, nude, her face twisted from insanity. Her long brown hair matted with dirt. Tim barely had the time to bring his weapon up to the hip and fire into her. As she dropped he noticed several more rushing toward him. “Uh. Al, we’ve got fast ones coming.”
Al turned, just after executing the last of the burned corpses. “Seen.” He said as he ran toward his M249. Just as he reached for it he was tackled by a young man. This one was fresh, Al noticed that he had no spines growing out of him. This was a problem; a body consumed by the fungus was weaker, easy to destroy, while a fresh body was more robust. Alain defended his face with one arm and reached down for his hatchet, his eyes widened as he realized it was not in his belt, but still in the back of the charred corpses head. He pulled his pistol out of its holster once more and aimed it at the young mans face as he thrashed wildly. A lucky swing connected with the pistol and it fired off into the air as Alain lost grip of it. “Fuck!” He said, remembering the times in the past when he was overwhelmed by infected gangs. He elbowed the man in the face, breaking his jaw, while still protecting his mask from the wild strikes. “A little help?” He yelled to Tim.
“I’ve got my own problems” Tim said, firing at several of the creatures while stepping backward. Another one leapt from between two tents and tackled Timothy who fell directly beside Alain. They both turned their heads to shield themselves from the blows and found themselves looking at each other although their heads pointed in opposite directions.
“This ain’t good.” Al said, feeding another knee and elbow to his assailant. He was running out of energy.
A loud burst was heard and one of the infected dropped in the small space between Alain and Tim, it’s head destroyed.
“Thank god!” Tim said, soon after kneeing his assailant in the groin to no avail.
“Who asked for help?” Matty said, pumping the shotgun to load another round as one of the creatures turned from Al and Tim to concentrate the last moments of its life on Mathew, It didn’t even complete one step forward before it’s head was turned into a cloud of pink mist.
Mathew stepped forward slinging the shotgun. “I’ll try not to shoot you.” He said to Tim.
“That would be...” Tim struck the creature in the throat, with a satisfying crunching sound. “... appreciated.”
Mathew heard the thumping footsteps rushing toward him and he spun around, drawing his revolver with lightning speed, firing it just as it left the holster. The creature tumbled toward him, yet he stood his ground as it tripped on its own feet. It missing him by mere centimeters as it crumbled to the ground just past where he stood, blood gushing in spurts from its head. He returned his attention to Al and Tim. He brought the revolver to bear and fired several shots consecutively until the cylinder was empty. He pulled the latch and emptied the spent casings into a pocket while Tim and Al moved the immobile corpses from on top of them.
“Show off.” Tim said, getting to his feet.
“I do what I can.” Mathew said, loading the cylinder with fresh rounds.
Al got up and dusted himself off slightly before speaking, “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Agreed.” Mathew responded.
The three brandished their weapons and began to make their way carefully toward the washout, attempting to be as vigilant as possible.

Mackenzie was not feeling well, his head was sore, his mouth was incredibly dry and he had a great urge to defecate, although he had no time to do so and wouldn’t risk being caught with his pants down, literally, so he waited. He tried to think of good memories to pass the time but that only made him feel worse. He inspected his rifle as best he could without taking too much attention off the washout, it was pretty clean considering what they’ve been through recently, although the moving parts could have been filthy since he hadn’t cleaned it properly for a few days now. He pulled the action back slowly to do a press check, make sure that there was a round in the chamber. As he did so a figure dropped into the washout several meters away from him. He immediately pulled his rifle into his shoulder and aimed instinctively down the sight. He found Timothys face within the sight and lowered his weapon. “Took you guys long enough. Are we expecting any company?”
“I hope not.” Tim said, pushing on his gasmask to make sure it was still firmly strapped.
“One of them tore my mask off, I’m going to have to decontaminate my face to make sure I don’t get mold growing on it.”
“I’d love to help you but I can barely stand, and I still have to do the same considering I might have some spores on my face too.
“We all have to decontaminate, we were hit with a nerve agent.” Al said as he too climbed into the washout.
“He’s got a point.” Timothy replied.
“Holy shit.” Al said, laughing. “Tim, doesn’t this remind you of Snake Pite?”
“The what?” Mathew said as he caught up.
“The Snake Pite.” Mackenzie said, laughing as well.
“You mean Snake Pit.” Mathew said.
“No.” Tim shook his head. “They mean Snake Pite.”
“Or the No Coles Club.” Al said, laughing some more, taking advantage of the light hearted moment to cool down after the trauma they just witnessed.
“Haha, yeah I remember that.” Mackenzie said. “Back when we were training in Texas, we had set up a leanto with a bunch of ground sheets like this and we called it the Snake Pit, but Burns misspelled pit to Pite so it became the Snake Pite.”
“Man, even the Officer called it that later when we were doing an assault on a village.” Tim said laughing.
“Good times.” Mackenzie said. “Good times.”
There was a silence, the laughter had stopped. They were all thinking about moments in their past; when life wasn’t a constant struggle to survive, when they felt the warm touch of a loved one, when they made love to their girlfriends. They thought of when they complained about doing sports for the afternoon, when they woke up in the morning and their greatest worry was making it to work on time, not if they would eat that day, or if they’d be attacked that day, bombed that day, or fall victim to the Cordyceps that day.
All they had now was each other, and that’s all they could ever count on. The world was falling apart, but together, they could survive.
Together they could survive anything.