Chapter 4:

Lost and Found

"Frank…"

"Frank… there?"

These are the words I heard while in a deep slumber. Given that I was not fully conscious, I assumed that I was still dreaming. However, the voice kept nagging me, "do.. read?", but I simply ignored it. Minute after minute this voice kept dribbling on, "Frank… come in…", eventually, I forced myself awake and let out a rigid response, "Will you shut the fuck up!". This proved futile, as the voice grew in intensity, "Frank… are… okay? What… happening…". I then realized that this voice was very real, and that it was coming from nearby.

"Hello, hello, this is Frank, where are you?" I said, while frantically looking for the source of the voice. After some looking, I realized it was coming from one of the cabinets. I opened the cabinet and found that the blackbox had been powered on.

"Hello, Colombia are you there? Answer me."

"This is… Colombia" replied the voice.

"Oh thank god. I had to change locations, I'm now…"

"Shut it… don't… position.. Signal untrace… but they are listen…" replied the voice.

"I can't hear you, try boosting your signal, the static is very strong."

"The encryption makes the signal weak… Frank there isn't… time… enemy knows you… need to move north… we have contact…" replied the voice.

The static began to grow. It was getting harder to hear what they were saying.

"Who is coming? How much time do I have?"

"Large… force… coming… south… oh, sixhundred... go… north to cit…" replied the voice.

"North to the city?"

"Affirm…" replied the voice.

"Colombia, how much longer do I have to wait?"

"We don't…" the voice was cut off and the signal went blank.

I moved the cabinet blocking the window to see what time it was. From what I could tell, it was almost the crack of dawn. I needed to move fast. I grabbed as much supplies as I could along with my pistol and map. I also spread as much paper, foamboard and flammable liquid as I could find around the office. I figured if I burned down the building they would think I died in some kind of accident. As I walked out, I dropped a small match into a bin filled with paper. The flames quickly grew in strength, engulfing the entire building within a matter of minutes. With the dirty deed done, I proceeded to head north to the city. The walk will be long and harsh, but it's my only and perhaps final hope.

After nearly an hour of walking I turned back to see the town in the distance, Kepler 862 lit up the sky with it's brilliant yellow light. The town was shadowed as Kepler rose behind it. Suddenly, about a kilometer back down the road, an explosion occurred sending debris everywhere and shaking the were here, and from the looks of it, they are trying to prevent me from leaving. I continued up the road at a hurrying pace. Every half minute or so, another salvo of explosions would occur between the first explosion and the town. They were trying to stop me, but they were too late.

After an hour of walking, a plane approached from the north. I took in the woods lining the road to prevent myself from getting spotted. The plane roared past, filling the area with the sound of it's jets. It then dropped a series of bomb looking objects onto the town. The bombs exploded, releasing a blue hued gas into the area. After the aircraft was clear, I proceeded up the road.

Night began to fall, and I took refuge in a small ditch half a kilometer off the road. Once again, I was without fire, meaning I would have to spend the night without any food. This night was not like the others though, this night was much colder. The cold was unbearable and my pilots jumpsuit could only provide so much warmth. At midnight, it was so cold I could see my breath as I exhaled. The temperature was no higher than 3* centigrade. On the bright side, since I haven't shaved my beard or hair in nearly a month, my face stayed warm.

Morning rose over the frigid landscape, though one could not easily tell with the overcast weather. The temperature was a bit better than last night, this time it was 7* Centigrade. After eating a couple of bitter but edible fruits, I went along my way, continuing up the road. I looked back at the town, which was about twenty kilometers away by now. Though it was hard to tell from this distance, I could make out some kind of helicopter-like vehicles hovering over the town. It seems that they still think I'm there. If they discover that I'm not, it is more than likely they will come looking up the road. I still have another fifty kilometers to walk before I reach the big city, meaning that if they come up this road, I'll be fucked.

"I just need to keep walking." I said to myself. "Just keep walking…"

After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized that they probably will finish their search within the next one to two days. If I keep at a walking pace, it will take me another four days to reach the city. If I'm going to get to the city before they catch up with me, I'm going to have to run the rest of the way. I began to pick up the pace, walking twice as fast as before. After a few moments, my fast paced walking became an anxious jog, which soon turned to frantic running. As I ran, I began to slip into a trance like state, everything seemed as if it was some kind of dream. I closed my eyes, and began to tune out everything as a ran faster and faster. I don't know how it happened, but as soon as I opened my eyes again, it was almost noon. I broke out of the trance and stopped for a moment to catch my breath. As soon as I sat down, I blacked out.

I woke to find myself in the middle of the road, I tried to get up and collect myself, as I attempted to stand, my legs went limp almost immediately. A terrible sore pain enveloped my legs making it impossible to move them. I tried to roll myself off of the road to better conceal myself. I checked my watch and saw that it was about 1120 hours, meaning that I had been running nonstop for nearly four hours. I tilted my head so I could look up the road, and what I saw was at the moment, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was the city. The city shared the same brutalist architecture as the town. Towering concrete structures made up the bulk of the buildings within the center of the city. The city was no more than half a kilometer away. I had made it, perhaps

I will get to live.

I limped my way through the vast streets of the city. The buildings, though dull, were remarkably tall. Most of them were at least seventy stories high. The streets were very wide, six lanes, three on each side. The sidewalks were three meters wide, and were lined with benches and streetlights. The city was unkempt, as it looked as if it had been abandoned for almost a decade. It reminded me of the decay one could see in Pripyat. Plants grew in between the cracks of the road and sidewalk. The concrete facades had black soot sparsely covering them. Most of the windows were shattered, the shops and other buildings were vacant. I continued to move up the main street until I was greeted with what appeared to be a suburban area. These houses did not share the brutalist look of the rest of the city. Instead, they appeared to be of a renaissance architecture. They too, shared the decrepit uncleanliness of the rest of the city. There were no signs to be found anywhere, however, one could see areas in which signs may have once been mounted. Eventually, I found a building that looked secure enough and secluded enough. I settled down at the topmost floor and passed out almost immediately. I didn't even feel pain as my head hit the hard concrete floor.

I woke to the sound of an engine rumbling outside of the building. I sat up to look outside the window I was sleeping next to. The time was at least noon, the weather was even worse than yesterday's. I looked down and was horrified by the sight. Two large APC like vehicles were parked across the street, each had a large caliber cannon sticking of of a small turret. Twenty or so humanoid looking entities stood around the area. From what I could tell, they were at least 230 centimeters tall. They were fully armored in what looked like steel plates. I was not able to tell if they were living creatures, drones or a combination of both. Each one was carrying some kind of rifle. They're eyes glowed a bluish color. On the side of their heads looked to be some kind of flashlight and laser pointer. Two of each then broke off from the formation and began to enter the buildings across the street from mine. I was frantically packing my things, ready to make my escape. I checked my pistol and discovered I only had ten rounds left. My pistol was a survival pistol designed for pilots in the late 2080s. It uses a combination of cordite propellant and electromagnetic coils to accelerate a 12 millimeter steel dart at 1000 meters per second. This old pistol was more than adequate for dealing with small drones, but I sincerely doubt it will do much damage to whatever is out there.

Just as I was about to leave, a hail of energetic gunfire came from the streets below. I hit the ground immediately, however, I soon realized that they were not firing at me. I peaked out over the window and saw a huge squad of the humanoid drones firing down the street at an unseen enemy. Suddenly, a rocket careened down the block and hit one of the APC's right in the turret. The turret immediately blew off and flew almost ten meters into the air and a fire soon ensued. Another rocket came hurling toward the second APC, this time hitting it in the hull. Thick black smoke bellowed from the rear of the vehicle. Soon after, some sort of hatch was opened on the front, and another humanoid drone emerged from the flaming interior. The squad continued firing down the street, and one by one they were picked off from afar. I saw this as the perfect diversion to make my escape. I hurried down the stairwell and out the back door. As I turned, I saw two humanoids with their backs turned to me hurrying into the fray. One of them stopped, turned around and saw me. I quickly drew my pistol and shot them both in their backs multiple time, much to my surprise, they both dropped dead. I began to run away from the skirmish and into a some kind of stormdrain. The pipe was narrow, dark and smelled of mold. After a half an hour, I emerged from the drain to see if I could continue on foot rather than in a sewer. I carefully crept over to the street where the earlier skirmish had taken place. All of the drones were killed. A light smoke still continued to bellow from the two destroyed APC's. As I turned the corner of one of the exterior walls, I was greeting with a shocking sight. I only got a brief look of it before running in the opposite direction. From what I could tell, it was bipedal and wore some kind of camouflaged jacket and pants. I could tell it had some kind of fur coat along with ears protruding from it's head. It's face was eerily similar to that of a canine. I couldn't tell what color it's fur was, either teal or light green. Perhaps it was the same species as the corpse I discovered many weeks ago? It was tall, at least my height, it also was carrying some kind of rifle. As I ran, I turned back to check if this creature was pursuing me, all it did was stand there, staring at me as I ran like away like a maniac.

After running for nearly two city blocks, I lost sight of the creature. I walked back about a hundred meters and it was nowhere to be seen. Exhausted from the running, I went to a nearby building to rest. I opened the door and began walking down a tiled hallway. I was startled by the door behind me opening again. I immediately drew my pistol and turned around and saw the creature that had startled me earlier. I pointed the pistol at it and yelled, "Who are you!? What do the hell do you want from me!?"

The creature raised its hands in the air and said in a calm, quavering voice, "Hey, take it easy, I'm not here to hurt you."

"How do I know that!? Huh!? How do I know you aren't lying to me!? Who are you!? What are you!?"

"I would ask you the same thing." replied the creature.

"Whatever! That's beside the point! I want to know who you are and what you want from me! I want to know why I have had an entire army chase me through the fucking streets! Tell me goddamnit!"

"Please, put the weapon down and calm yourself. We can explain everything everything to you if you just calmly follow me…"

"Follow you!?" I replied intensely, "You must think I'm fucking stupid! Listen here, you've got ten seconds! Ten fucking seconds to start explaining things before I blow your ugly fucking head off!"

"Woah, hold on…"

"One!"

The creature looked at me in horror. It tried to gesture at me, but I simply ignored it.

"Two!"

"Three!"

"Four!"

"We aren't trying to hurt you! We are trying to help you! If you kill me…" desperately replied the creature.

"Five!"

"You don't understand! If I tell you in here, it could compromise…" yelled the creature.

"Six!"

"Seven!"

"If you kill me they will come after…" frantically yelled the creature.

"Eight!"

"Nine!"

"Please!" screamed the creature in horror.

"Ten!"

I lined up my pistol to get a clear shot of his head. My aim was impeccable. It stood there, frozen with fear, just like a deer in the headlights. All I had to do was pull the trigger.