"Right, let's have a wee look - ah, shit… I think that's going to complicate things."
Next to Adam, underneath the truck, thick and shining, lay a deep pool of viscous black liquid. To the right of his prone body, a few feet away, dampening the grass growing through the cracks in the concrete was another pool of liquid, this time transparent and slowly evaporating. Bullet holes populated the front of the vehicle, and created grim, polka-dot-like patterns across the matte black surface.
The man, scruffy and fatigued from the events unfolded, shimmied out from underneath the wounded chassis of the car.
"They peppered the car before they left, smart bastards." He stood, rising to his full height, breathing deeply, continuing. "They nailed both the oil and water tanks. We're not getting anywhere without them." A sigh shook his body as he paced backwards, towards them. "At least we can be thankful none of them struck the gas line."
"Thing's would've gotten a lot warmer." The grizzled alpha-male survivor next to the veteran said. He turned, with a face composed for business. "What're you intending to do?"
The Watcher paused, staring at the ruined vehicle, wallowing, almost inhabiting in his disappointment and fear. He'd been playing a game of craps with new gamblers, and not noticed the older, wiser shooter return from the rear. His gaze turned north, and hung over the hills. He breathed deeply, visualised a plan, and issued it.
"The armoured car exited out of the gate to the west, then turned south, correct?"
"Right, to the south." Joel responded, brooding, still riled from the engagement.
"Okay." The veteran inside him crept past the compassionate side, and took the helm.
"We can't return to base, not with a high-priority hostile this close. Might be he already knows it's there."
"Gotcha. So what?"
"So," The auburn haired veteran continued, gesturing to the forest behind him, "I say we go south-east."
"You wanna try our luck in that two-bit town?"
"Two-bit is better than no bit." He countered, lowering his voice as not to disturb the women, that were seeing to each other's wounds, resting and recuperating, perched on the edge of a concrete jersey barrier a few meters away. "If Amber's running the show, we'd be welcome. More than welcome."
"Who exactly is this 'Amber' character?"
"One of the good guys, Joel. She's ex US Marines. Black market dealer after shit went south, when the Military still held sway over most of the country. She made the right choice and bugged out a few years after, going AWOL. After that, she had a few run-ins with hunters. That's how we met. Eventually she settled for the quiet life and set up a township after our business was concluded. Last I heard, her town got sacked and she was missing, and that was five years ago."
Joel huffed, surprised that so many people took it upon themselves not only to survive, but to sacrifice for others survival and even their comfort. It all seemed to extravagant to him. Perhaps he'd just gotten used to his life as a wandering nomad.
"Seems like settin' up towns is the in-thing at the moment, eh?"
Adam shrugged. "I don't know. Never found the appeal to it, myself. Too many risks. It's better to keep moving."
"I can vouch for that." Joel replied, recalling his excessive experience in that regard. He gestured over to the injured and frightened black-haired woman, who ironically had taken the position of the child as the two women patched themselves up. She was shivering, still in shock from her brush with death.
"What are you gonna do with her?"
The scotsman sighed, unsure of his plans. "I don't know. It's just our luck that this happened on her first trip out in a long time, poor girl. She's never going to want to leave again."
"She more of a homely type?"
"Not necessarily." He glanced over at her, her face still red from crying. "Where we have strength, she has brains. That's all."
"Right." Joel countered, wiping the thick red blood off of the survival knife Adam had lent him, then sliding it back into the sheath, shining, creating a small screech as it slipped into the leather holster. He continued.
"Still don't address our logistical problem, though."
"We're going to have to walk. The car isn't going anywhere without a new oil tank."
"She ain't walking 30 miles on that leg."
"I know. I could hear the bones grinding as I carried her out." He suddenly flushed over with anger. "Pyotr, that fuck. He made her stand on it the entire time."
"She didn't fall, or scream. She's got grit."
"I know." He smiled dully to himself. "She's tougher than she looks."
They glanced back over to the jersey barrier again, and saw Ellie hoisting up the left leg of Evelynn's khakis to examine the injury inflicted on her by the behemoth infected. At a distance, they saw the leg of the pants were matted with a damp crimson, sticky and thick, masking what turned out to be a large laceration in her calf where the bone had penetrated the flesh. Luckily, it hadn't come completely out of the leg, only severing the skin. At a glance, the could tell that the bone had snapped completely.
As Ellie rolled the leg of the pants upwards, Evelynn heaved and shouted in agony. The adrenaline that had dulled the pain for their escape after the fight had long subsided, and she almost passed out due to the immense pain. Adam was roused by her cry, and immediately left Joel to tend to her. He sauntered over afterward, dwelling on the events that had unfolded. He'd killed another two men today, and only added to the gigantic list he'd compiled over the years. That wasn't what burdened him, though; his mind was heavy with the fact that Ellie had been forced to kill as well.
Adam had knelt down next to Evelynn, and removed his hiking pack. Out of which he withdrew both his leather satchel, and a red, surprisingly pristine, travel-size first aid kit. He carefully opened the zip, conservatively opening the pack as to not damage the contents. He sifted around for a while, eventually drawing out a spiel of bandages, a tube of cream labelled 'ANTI-SEPTIC', and a white-clean, fraying rag. Upon questioning what the rag was for, Ellie was met with a response that said "Noise management." Evelynn looked at her, her blue eyes cowering in realisation. There were no painkillers to be seen.
"All right, Evie, just... just be strong for me, okay?"
Evelynn didn't reply; Adam followed up by unwinding some of the bandage and prepping the thick tube of antiseptic cream.
He gestured to the two of them.
"Ellie, Joel. Take a look around, see if you can find me some pieces of wood. Preferably thin."
"Like a two-by-four?" Ellie queried.
"Yeah, just like that. Try and find a few of them."
"Alright." Joel said, moving off slowly. "C'mon, kiddo."
Ellie trailed slowly behind him, leaving the Watcher to tend to his mistress.
They walked for a few minutes, eventually coming across a garage-looking structure on the limits of the compound. Luckily enough, the runners that may've been present a few hours previously had all moved off, vainly chasing after the loud thrum of the large-engined armoured car as it sped off, believing they could catch it and chow down on its inhabitants. The fauna of the area had overgrown the overwhelming majority of the power plant, with vines and crawlers now visible, casting green lines over the faded grey of the concrete cooling towers. At the extreme edges of the facility, the Geiger counter was less active, flickering every now and again to remind her where they were. A medium sized pine tree penetrated the concrete roof of the garage, jutting out the top and casting a long, pleasant shadow over the dirt-covered concrete courtyard they'd traversed.
Joel moved over to the corrugated iron door, rusted shut, tarnished a dull red-brown, and managed to raise it just high enough to slip his fingers underneath. He heaved, the thick, strong muscles in his back tensing, visible through the sweat-stained shirt that clung to his body. With enough force, the door shifted, screeching as rust was chewed up in the hinges of the door. It raised slightly, just enough for a person to squeeze through, before there was a loud clang, and it stuck fast in its place.
"That'll about do it. Under we go."
She went prone, then shuffled gently forward and entered the darkness of the storage room. In the far wall, a single window stood, and the afternoon sun created an iridescent sheen on the particles of dust that hung loosely in the air. The room was slightly lit, and the faint outlines of miscellaneous maintenance items met her eyes.
"Alright. There's gotta be some wood in here somewhere. Let's look around."
The two sifted through shelves and boxes, searching for anything that fit Adam's description. The work was mundane, and incredibly boring - eventually, Ellie couldn't keep her thoughts to herself any longer.
"Why are we still with these people?"
Joel leaned up. "What?" He asked.
She turned to meet his gaze. "Why are we still here?"
"You mean, why ain't we left them yet?"
"Yeah."
Joel pondered for a moment, then continued.
"Are you gettin' attached to them?"
She looked down at the floor, her resolve wavered at how quickly he'd calculated her feelings.
"They're good people, Joel." She uttered.
"Sure." He replied, moving over to her, kneeling, and placing his hand on her shoulder. "They are good people, I give you that. But the truth is that all good people go bad when they got the right motivation. Catch my drift?"
She chose not to reply, playing the ignorant girl card, hoping he wasn't getting at what she thought he was. He elaborated for her.
"The point is, we're the only two that matter. Now, they've shown us kindness, they saved us, fed us and healed us, and I'm sure grateful for that, but... She's a scientist, and he's obsessed with killing bandits. I've been in this game too long, Ellie. If things go south... well, when things go south... we leave. We stay for however long it suits us, then we leave."
"Just like Tommy's?" She asked defiantly.
"Just like Tommy's." He confirmed. She wasn't sure whether he'd picked up on her arguing of his decision. She let it slide, reasoning that now was not the time to discuss their motives.
The radio on Joel's lapel cracked into life, issuing a low-quality voice into the space around them.
"Joel, you there?"
"Yeah, here." He responded.
"Dig anything up?"
"Still looking."
"Alright. Just make it quick; Evelynn isn't getting any better by waiting."
The radio lay silent, the line disconnected. Joel breathed in slowly, and let out a sigh.
"Alright." He began. "Keep looking."
Another few minutes rolled past, yielding no results. Eventually, her hand traced around a large, thin and metallic rectangle, almost like the lid to a long box, or something in that regard. She curled her fingers around the exposed top, lifted the item, and stuck her head into the gap in the shelf to gain a closer look. Underneath were another three, equal in size and thickness.
She picked them up gently, nestling them in her gloved hands, and made her way back over to Joel. She stopped his busy searching with a light touch to his back, and showed him the items. He nodded, touched the radio on his label, and spoke.
"On our way back now."
No reply came. They walked in a duo together, eventually coming to a stop and shimmying back underneath the door into the evening light. They wandered gently around the compound, drinking in the sights of the sky and fauna, the cool air on their faces, Geiger counters ticking lightly. They arrived back at the jersey barrier to find Evelynn wearing Adam's military jacket, the two huddling for warmth, Evenlynn's injured leg still exposed. Adam stood, and made his way over to them.
"You're back. Find anything?"
"Here." Ellie offered him the long, thin rectangles of metal.
His face lit up at the sight of something adequate. "Perfect."
He moved back around to Evelynn, and cringing, she raised her injured leg. Joel and Ellie moved toward the two, spectating.
"Alright, Evie... I've got to-"
"I know." She spluttered, desperately. "I know what you have to do. Science major, remember? Gimme the rag, please."
Joel lifted the rag, handed it to Adam, who handed it to Evelynn. She took it in her right hand and stuffed it in her mouth. Hesitantly, she nodded at the scotsman. He placed some of the white cream onto his hand, and gently touched it to her laceration.
She tensed, her face contorted with pain, a muffled scream quietly penetrating the rag in her mouth. She bit down on the fabric, her whole body tight as Adam gently worked the antiseptic into her wound. When he finished, he bound the wound tightly with the spiel of bandage, placed the metal rectangles around her leg, bracing it, and wrapped another layer around, lashing the braces to the injury. After a few more moments of recovery, He slipped a muscular arm underneath hers, and hoisted her up onto her feet. She stood fine on her right foot, and gently placed her left on the ground. The splint worked, and she could lightly stand on it without experiencing too much pain.
"Her leg is pretty serious." Adam said, removing the rag from her mouth and tossing it aside. "She's going to need rest and morphine to recover properly."
"We ain't going to have any medical attention for a while." Joel stated.
"I know." He replied, moving forward with his limping spouse clutching to his burly shoulders. "Our best bet is that town the recording in the plant discussed."
"Fuck, seriously?" Evelynn asked between heavy breaths. "That's nearly thirty miles away... why can't we go to the mine?"
"You know why." Adam responded. She looked at him in distaste, but nodded regardlessly.
"So, we're walking?" Ellie enquired, remembering the pearlescent pools of liquid beneath the bullet-riddled coupe.
"We're walking." Joel confirmed. He moved up to the injured woman, and supported her other side. Ellie moved back over to the jersey barrier and scooped up the 22 Hunting Rifle that Eveylnn had left strewn over the concrete. The men would be busy carrying her - they needed someone to take point. For the first time in a long time, Ellie felt like the strong one of the group.
The walked together, Ellie checking around corners and sighting out the complex before the other three caught up. The facility was as good as abandoned - all that remained was the odd corpse of an infected, and the husk of a burnt-out car that drooped sadly against the concrete floor. The reached the extreme of the compound in a few minutes, and Ellie carefully cut a large swathe of the chain-link fence away with her pen knife. The sharpened and well-tempered steel slid through the rusted metal wires as easily as it had carved through the venison they'd eaten before they'd set out. Her stomach gurgled at the thought of sumptuous, cooked meat. She didn't foresee them eating again until they reached Amber's town.
Conversation was lacking on the journey; everyone was still in shock or contemplating their brush with the leader of the red-rings. Surprisingly enough to her, that man had put her more on edge than the mammoth infected had when it'd almost killed her. Dealing with him would never be a pleasant experience; she just hoped Adam was capable of knowing when to stop, so that they could avoid another meeting with the crazed bastard.
Every know and again they'd need to clamber over logs or debris in the forest, and the ambience of nature was shattered by a pained yelp from Evelynn. When the scientist wasn't in absolute agony, the forest was a beautiful and forgotten place - no one had been here since the outbreak. The grass had grown waist-high, dampening trousers and concealing obstacles, but making the walk more fun that it would've been otherwise. Wildlife was abundant, with birds, rabbits and deer being a common sight in the autumnal woods.
She pondered to herself on why the outbreak happened, as she so often had. She'd heard hundreds of stories from hundreds of people; that scientists went too far, some asteroid crashed on Earth, rabies evolved to humans, and other nonsense to that degree. She'd formulated her own opinion on the crisis shortly after she'd met Joel, as she'd seen the ruined cities, and observed what humans had done to their planet.
The human race had spread too far too quickly, with little or no effort for conservation, like a virus. They infected the Earth, sapping its resources and destroying its species, taking control and slowly killing it. In reply to this human virus, planet Earth had responded in equal context, before it was too late - Cordyceps had spread from ants, to vermin, to crops, to humans, paving the way for Mother Nature to reclaim everything she'd lost to them. Of course, some humans survived, as she had intended. Earth didn't want to destroy the human race - it just wanted them to learn a valuable lesson.
After around two hours of dismal progress, they came across a cottage in the woods, overgrown with foliage. It had originally sat in a clearing, possibly reserved as a holiday home for someone with the privilege - now it lay dormant, the clearing having consumed it on all sides. They moved gently towards it, the forest standing watch on all sides.
As they approached, she saw it'd been occupied fairly recently - some of the grass around the edges had been cut away, and one of the smaller trees had been cut away at the stump, segmented into chunks, and piled by the rear wall of the cottage. The windows were sealed with sheets of metal, and an improvised wooden deer-hunting stand stood next to the eastern wall, concealed by a woodland camouflaged net that made it blend in with the fauna.
"At... at last." She heard Evelynn murmur. The scientist had been slipping in and out of consciousness for the entire journey.
"Joel, go with Ellie. Check the place out, yeah? I've got Evie."
"Sure." Joel replied. He moved forward, comfortingly placed his hand on Ellie's back, and moved forward with her. They walked around the front of the stone cottage to the balcony, and discovered to their surprise that there was no road leading away from it; there wasn't even a track linking up to anywhere else. She understood why this place had been fortified - it made a great base, cosy and functional, hard to find, and relatively large.
They walked together up the damp wooden steps, and Joel placed his gloveless hand gently on the rusted brass doorknob. He twisted it to the left, and the door gently swung open, allowing the evening sun to cascade gently into the homely cottage.
The building itself was relatively large, but the interior was very simple - it was all one big room. There was a table sitting silently just next to the door, a pristine and ornate gas-powered lamp resting on the mahogany surface. She placed her fingers around the knob, turned it slightly, and a small naked flame filled the remaining dark spaces of the room in a warm, orange light.
On the far left-hand side were a collection of bedrolls, some better than others; one was a pre-outbreak sleeping bag manufactured professionally, one a collection of quilts and bedsheets sown together, the other three, more improvised, constructed with cobbled-together animal hides, were strewn across the floor next to them.
A large, stone hearth sat in the middle of the longest wall, charcoal sitting in its base, a mark of wood recently burned.
Joel raised his hand to the radio on his lapel and spoke clearly into it.
"All clear."
No reply followed, but his call was answered a few moments later as Adam and Evelynn struggled through the door into the cottage.
As he seated her gently on a wooden chair in the corner, and the three adults took their shots of inhibitor, Ellie used the time to look around the room. Paintings were hanging on the wall, faded but still beautiful, reflecting days long gone. There were people smiling, ornate buildings, and cityscapes; but her favourite was a panorama of a seaside resort, the crystal-blue waves lapping against perfect white-gold sand.
Her eyes moved over a nearby desk, on which lay a letter, and one of the 9mm pistols the red-ring bandits carried. The letter was folded in half, and had an eye drawn on the side that faced the ceiling.
She went to call Adam, only to be silenced when a hand moved to grasp the letter and she turned to see him standing right next to her. He picked it up in his military grade gloves, turned it over a few times, and gave her a cautious look.
"That pistol..." She began.
"Red-rings?"
"Yeah."
He walked into the centre of the room, unfolded the yellowed paper, and began reading.
"Watcher," He dictated. "I recently received word that you moved back north a few years ago, seeking a safe refuge from which you could plan your attacks. Unfortunately for me, you are as hard to find as they say you are. I've heard stories of your efforts in this area, and of your newfound adversaries, the most recent of which you destroyed an outpost further south a week or so ago."
Evelynn had tuned back in, looking him over as he read the note.
"What's that talking about?" She inquired.
Instead of responding, he turned to her and continued reading.
"In that regard, we share a common enemy. We have tried to contact you, but our efforts have gone unanswered. We lost the electrical plant that powered our town a few days back - they were there, and they were up to something horrible. I sent five scouts up after their soldiers pushed us out, but they didn't return."
"Scouts?" Evelynn inquired.
"The corpses in the bunkrooms that weren't infected." Joel interjected, putting the pieces together.
"Therefore, I am to presume they are dead." He continued. "And, that I'm writing this letter so no one will read it. However, on the off chance that you stumbled across this cottage, feel free to use it to your own accord for as long as you need."
"Shit, that's convenient." Ellie stated.
"Being the good guy isn't easy, but it always finds a way to reward you." Adam responded. He traced down the writing until he found where he'd left off, and then proceeded reading the message.
"All I can say to that is that I hope you don't use it for too long. The soldiers who took our plant did so with the knowledge it would cripple us - the town will be next, I imagine."
The other three listened in silence, drinking in this new information.
"Please, Watcher. If you read this, please. Help us." He lifted his head up from the note and let the arm that held it fall to his side. The last line he was able to recite from memory.
"Signed, an old friend."