She did not know their whereabouts, yet she kept driving, plowing through the sea of shambling "Turned", as she called them. She found an APC with lightly armed guards around it. They tried to stop her, but the shambling horde following her distracted them. She drove away from their cries.
The armored vehicle crashed through trees. Falling trunks crushed bodies. The Turned splattered across the front of her vehicle, and the little parasites within them were thrown into the foliage. Main roads were swarming with the Turned and armed forces. She tried not to cross them, but when she did, she indiscriminately drove through anyone in her way.
She followed what signs still stood, and drove farther from the city, over which a giant cloud of smoke plumed above, followed by explosions that could be felt miles away. As she did so she found wildlife also infected. Four-headed Turned cats lunged at her vehicle. The APC jolted as each body slammed into the front and to the side. Their numbers increased once she entered the plains, and some of them began biting chunks of metal off the vehicle. She throttled the engine and a cloud of smoke spewed from the spinning tires, the vehicle blazing away from the metal-hungry horde in pursuit.
Never before had she encountered anything close to this. From what she remembered, not even the heart of heresy, Chaos, had anything close to the complete corruption of these undead legions. Neither did the Tyranids. She did remember rumors of undead machines going around called Necrons, but she dismissed the sightings and encounters as merely heretical off-shoots of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Even if Necrons were a thing, she did not recall nor could she imagine them having such an uncontrollable weapon that human cults could get their hands on. And on that note, she remembered that there was still a cult to investigate.
Weeks passed. She spend days driving and at night, she would park it under thick foliage, inside caves, town garages, or anything that would put it out of plain sight. She looked in some of the APCs storage compartments and found rations to last her for a few months. When it came to water and sleep, she snoozed in patterns that gave her enough rest so that when it started to rain, she would drive out and use the rain collectors on the roof of the vehicle. Besides having a deep fuel tank, the APC also came with spare gas canisters. The vehicle was built for survival, and she understood why.
There was much wilderness between settlements, even the large ones. Most of the time the terrain was uneven, and when whether came in it turned the uneven terrain to impossible to traverse without suspension and firm treads. Often she'd come across snowy regions which the APC plowed on through. Other times there would be marshlands which took weeks to cross. The bridges covering which had either fallen into the water or were covered with Turned. She kept the APC on the muddy and at times sunken roads besides the supporting columns. She was the only person around, as it seemed though everyone else had, for the most part, either died or were Turned. And the more she traveled the more she began the noticed the Turned assimilating not only humans and domestic life, but also the wildlife.
It wasn't long before the fuel ran out and she had to use the gas canisters. A few more weeks of surviving, and the tanks were empty once more. The last two settlements were piles of rubble topped with a thick layer of shambling Turned, so no stopping there. She scavenged through the back and found a portable fuel pump. She salvaged fuel from the wrecks she came across. Some days she came upon small clusters of a dozen cars or so, others she came across traffic jams. However she was never able to completely fill the deep tank of the APC, as the Turned would soon wander in her direction.
When the roads became sparse and there were no more signs to follow, she turned to the wall map in the back of the vehicle. She'd drive for a few hours, stop, head into the back, meditate on the route, and continue driving. She at first believed she knew where she was going, but soon enough forgot where she was headed to and realized she had no idea where she currently was. The tedious effort drove her mad. She sometimes contemplated ending it and killing herself. But she kept driving until she almost ran out of fuel. And when she did, she made quite the discovery.
She came across a large tent city surrounding one side of the mountain. At the base was what appeared to be a dig, and what was being dug looked like a temple hewn into the side of the mountain, or perhaps buried under it. When coming close for further inspection she noticed that there were bodies scattered around with weapons. However the windows of the APC could provide only so much perspective on the situation, and so she climbed into the turret. Then she heard the crackle of gunfire, bringing a tide of relief over her. There was someone else alive! The sounds seemed to emanate from the upper slope of the mountain. She hopped into the driver's seat and driving on fumes throttled the vehicle up the road weaving up the steep rocky face.
Eight sharp turns and harsh inclines later, a barricade stood in the way of the road. She forgot where she put her gun so she took a revolver with her. She climbed over traps and inched through minefields into a cave. "If you don't talk I'll start shooting!" she said as she entered.
A gun reported. She dodged into cover behind a rock. She fired off a few rounds.
"Another living person?" the male voice said, followed by a few more shots. "Come closer so I can see you bleed. No hard or personal feelings."
"You first," the Inquisitor replied.
"Ladies first."
"If such were the case none of us would be born. How many are you?"
Two bullets ricocheted off the floor.
"Two?" she asked.
"How many are in your party?" the manly male voice asked.
She fired a shot.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked, before firing off bursts.
"Maybe the same as you," she replied. "Trying to survive and find an end to this chaos." She unloaded a few rounds in the general direction the voice was coming from.
"Really now?" he asked, followed by the tink tink of a grenade bouncing her way.
"So who's the other person with you?" she asked and turned away from the blast.
"Seeker Demmel-" Another boom.
"And you?" she asked, kicking the third grenade thrown at her back into the darkness of the cave.
"Captain Cox, the best goddamn adventurer you've ever hear of." Another burst of rounds her way. "I return the question." Tink tink.
Boom. "I've never heard of you," she said and returned fire. "While I'm impressed with our conversation, I have to say I've seen better."
"I'm certainly not doing this for show," he replied and fired down the hallway. "It's just when you've seen all your company turn into those things you have a hard time trusting people. I've bound and gagged the Seeker, which is why I'm the only one talking."
She tossed a mag around the rock. "How about this, we stop wasting ammo and have a sit-down."
"You could be one of them," Cox replied. "With the way those things adapt, who's to say that they haven't learned out to talk through their host?" No gunfire followed his words.
"Alright, how about this. I holster my gun and come at you hands over head. If you don't like me, you can shoot all you like. Deal?"
"Deal."
She did as she said.
From the light at the end of the cave, Captain Cox saw a silhouette of a woman in a military long coat. Behind him crackled the embers of a fire pit, and the closer she came the more the dim glow revealed about her. Her clothing had certainly seen better days, parts of it in tatters or stained with oil, gas, and blood. "Sorry about the appearance," she said. "Used to have better clothes, but a few things along the way took care of that."
"Stop." He reloaded his revolver, pulled back the hammer, and aimed. "You still haven't told me who you are."
"Given that we've probably gone through enough to care less about names, call me whatever you want."
"Annoying Woman sounds lovely. Demmel?"
The short, bald man in black robes nodded.
Cox grinned. "Lucy will do." He lowered the revolver.
"Lucy it is," the Inquisitor replied.
"Now get behind me before some of those monsters come through the mouth and I have to shoot through you."
"Better idea," she said. "Show me fuel and I'll show you a way out of this. APC outside. Ammo and guns."
"I have supplies," Cox said, nodding to three duffel bags. "Should last a couple of weeks, enough for some scavenging. I'm also one of the best hunters around-"
"Wildlife have joined the ranks of the Turned."
Cox kicked a rock, his boot tip splitting it in half. "And I was beginning to have wet dreams for venison."
"If your still in it for the kills, there's no better time then now. The fawns stumble over-"
"A great sportsman does not hunt the weak," Cox said. "In any case, we'll join you seeing as my plans for a glorious dig have turned to dust because of this."
The Inquisitor looked back. "What were you digging, anyway?"
"An old complex. Either an elaborate temple or a buried city connecting to a network underground. I'd love to show you my handiwork, but I'd rather keep skin on my back."
"We can drive through that large entrance at the foot of the mountain-"
"Too dangerous," said Cox, combing his fingers through his 'stache. "Let's get to your vehicle first, then we can talk more about our impending doom."