E
Disclaimer: This chapter is very action-packed from beginning to end. I'm sorry this chapter came out a little late. I got zero writing done last weekend because of responsibilities to my father and my girlfriend, but we had a ton of fun. I want to wish all the readers who have come this far to have a wonderful weekend and to stay safe. I also must explain just two changes to this story. Red in this story is now a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Dog as that dog has a maroon furred coat and can survive very well in arctic weather. Besides that, I will be changing the title of this story to Silent Echoes very soon. Those are the only changes. Chapter 12 should be out within 2 weeks or less hopefully and chapter 13, which is going to a banger will be out in October.
THE LAST
OF US
PART III
(Music to go with certain scenes)
(transliteration/translations)
Written text
Chapter 11: River of Death
THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! SLASH! THUNK! SLASH! CREAKKKKK!
"Out of the way!" Screamed Blue.
Lev rolled across the hard snowy ground. The ground shook and churned as an eighty-foot-tall timber pine fell to the snowy earth. Icicles and leafless branches turned into shrapnel. Snow lofted into the air. Lev saw his bucksaw still lodged inside of a half-torn timber pine that Blue felled five minutes prior. He stared amazed at Blue. The Mexican cowboy was now Firefly target number one. They had been working almost all day long, but Blue never once stopped working. They had arrived by 8:30 a.m. and started work not long after they crossed the dam to the south side of the Snake River.
Lev crawled around the edge of the fallen tree. Fallers, fellow buckers, and even two of the five guards assigned to their party showed up. Maroon and dark Purple light reflected from everyone's exposed skin. The setting sun blood red over the horizon started to sink lower. White snow owls and black feathered magpies fluttered from the rooks of unfallen trees at the edge of the never-ending southern forest. Blue climbed the fallen tree and ran towards Lev. Lev saw Blue leaning against his 4-foot-long wooden axe. The silvery axeblade was lodged deep into the fallen tree. Brenden a veteran lumberjack growled next to Lev. "Damn show off." Blue simply whistled and pulled his gloved hands off his cross-hatched handle.
"You said I couldn't cut it down before nightfall!" Shouted Blue from atop the tree's trunk. He climbed down and walked over to Brenden and Lev. "You alright Lou?"
"Other than shitting my pants, I think I'm alright." Lev dusted himself off as he listened to Brendan and the other guard laughing. "Wish you wouldn't cut these trees down so fast. I can barely keep up."
"The faster we get this done. The faster we can go home." Said Blue before walking away.
Lev couldn't help but huff out in annoyance. He hated bucking trees. Right when he was halfway done chopping a fallen tree down into small transportable pieces, another tree would fall, and there were now 10 fallen trees on the south side of the Snake River that needed bucking. Lev couldn't help but gaze at Blue walking away back to camp. He was beyond impressed. The man was stronger than most of the other lumberjacks and he ate more than four plates full of pancakes and scrambled eggs, while Lev could barely finish two.
DING! DONG! DING!
Loud bells started ringing. Workers lifted their heads up high towards the north.
"That's it! Day's over!" Shouted a guard on horseback.
"Tsk, at least most of the work is done." Muttered Kaiden. Kaiden was a tall dark brown-haired bucker who had been working for Miles Strauss for five years. He had a long scraggly beard that went down to his collarbone. He grew up in east Washinton and made his way to Jackson ten years ago and held authority over most of the lumberjacks. "Bet you boys were gonna have fine dinner ahead!"
"If it's beef stew again, I'm going to fucking blow my brains out!" Shouted Max, a recent hire, who was now walking next to Lev.
"What can you do? At least we get food at the end of the day, and the cooking ain't so bad." Said Aran, he was a young sixteen-year-old kid who was working so that his two younger brothers in Jackson could have food on the table. Aran had short black hair, almond-shaped eyes that were a dull grey, and wasn't taller than 5'9 but like the rest of the lumberjacks, the kid was very muscular. "I once didn't eat for three days. You'll eat anything after that."
"I've eaten worse. Besides, I'm not worried about the food. And all of you shouldn't either unless y'all are wee yellow-bellied ass suckers!" Boomed Gavan McDaniel, was a bald fifty-five-year-old Scotsman who immigrated to America before the outbreak. He was somewhat friendly with Blue, unlike the rest of the lumberjacks, Even though he was friendlier with Blue, Gavan McDaniel had a potty mouth worse than any other lumberjack, which didn't come off as friendly. "We are half a mile from the dam! You shitheads better keep your eyes and ears out for any infected or worse!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! We know all about Hunters. They don't seem any more terrifying than the average raider." Replied Max. He was a black-haired mountain man in his 30s who had been in Jackson since its founding in 2030. "Fuckers are nearly wiped out is what I've heard!"
"Lemme tell ya, newbie, I've seen stalkers, clickers, shamblers, and smilers. Indians are far worse, better to put a bullet in your head than get caught by one." Said Gavan angrily. The Scotsman spit out some black and yellow tar onto the snow. Lev figured it was chewing tobacco, at least that's what he hoped it was. "Only good one is a dead one."
"The Shoshone? Aren't they, our allies?" Asked Aran, the poor kid ran up angrily between Lev and Gavan. "We shouldn't be talking about them behind their backs."
"Comanche." Said Gavan. The whole forest grew colder and darker. Their dark purple faces were turning darker until several workers lit orange kerosene lanterns. "Fuckers once cooked a man's legs and fed it to him while he was starving. Heard about them raiding Cheyenne a few months back. I saw a scalped woman over in Alpine, her head was covered in dried yellow pus, and her eyes… Never seen something so dead, yet alive." Everyone near Gavan held their axes and rifles closer to their chests. Lev heard the rumors, but he had yet to face a Comanche. "She witnessed the Comanches firsthand. They came to Cheyenne like locusts. Burning, raping, killing, and worse. Took her children as slaves and decided to scalp her after she spent two weeks getting raped and tortured."
"Holy shit!"
"What the fuck!"
Lev felt his neck grow colder and he instinctively held the grip of his holstered revolver. "May she be guided home." Lev muttered the prayer silently under his breath. He may have left the Seraphites 8 years back with Abby and Yara, but he'd never forget the prayer. The Seraphites were a religious cult in Seattle that practiced ritualistic sacrifices to The Prophet, yet despite that practice, the Seraphites never believed in slavery. Blue emerged from the shadows with his dog Red in front of the group. Gavan's eyes glowed like a cold ruthless statue. In the burning kerosene light, Gavan looked like a gargoyle as he scratched his peppered beard.
"So, uh, what happened to the woman?" Asked Aran. Gavan's face turned grim and much colder. Everyone waited under bated breath for the Scotsman's answer.
"She didn't want to live. Her children are enslaved, her family and friends are dead. And she was missing her scalp and hair. Did the noble thing." Lev looked at Gavan's dreadful and joyous face. "I shot her."
TuTxTuTxTuT
Two hours had passed. From hearing Gavan's story about the Comanches. Almost every lumberjack was walking around camp with their rifles out. Men and several women were playing a game of Texas Hold Em' for a pound of Wild Indian Tobacco. Lev was full, he had eaten two full plates of cooked flak steaks and mashed potatoes with pea leaves on the side. Food was never terrible, Miles Strauss made sure all his workers were well-fed and had plenty of booze. However, Lev's muscles ached, his bones wobbled, and he was weary. He walked around camp half deliriously. Their logging camp was situated half a mile south of the Snake River and another mile to the Jackson hydroelectric dam. They were one mile upstream where the fur traders were predicted to meet up with them tomorrow morning. Laughter groans, and murmured talk emanated from weary lumberjacks as Lev made his way through the camp.
(Dueling Banjos by Eric Weissberg)
"Was speaking to the Disciples of Dakota yesterday." Said an old grizzly lumberjack on a fallen log. A bright orange fire between him and four faces Lev barely interacted with. "Told me about trouble over in the Ozarks. Big war has broken out between some groups calling themselves the Nazis or Aryan Nation. They're fighting a war between another group calling themselves the Shofarians."
"Nazis?" Said Tim. He was a young fourteen-year-old orphaned boy who had been working for Miles' lumber company for the past year. "What the hell is a Nazi?"
"Bunch of fuckers worse than Fedra." Replied the old grizzly lumberjack. The old man took several swigs of a flask of liquor, some drops of whiskey fell onto his icy white beard. "You should be grateful you live in a place as blessed as the Jackson Republic. These Nazis have been exterminating anyone they think aren't pure."
Tim looked up and his fearful eyes met with Lev's curious brown eyes. All the men sitting by the fire turned to look at Lev. Soft banjo music started to drift from atop a hill overlooking their camp. The old grizzly lumberjack gestured for Lev to sit down. "Lou, come sit." Lev froze and considered sitting with the old man. He was curious about these Nazis. He wondered if such a frightening force could be useful for the Fireflies. Abby always said they needed allies to liberate the United States of America from the fascist yoke of Fedra. Even if they had to turn to horrid groups like the O'Leary Gang or the Gunners. Even though he was curious, Lev wanted to find Blue.
"I wish I could, was looking for Blue. Do you guys know where he is?" Asked Lev. All the lumberjacks started to awkwardly shift around on their log chairs at the mention of Blue.
"That Mexican cowboy? Saw him earlier going up the hill with Aran and Gavan." Said Tim softly. He was a short kid, only 5'3', and had bright red hair. Tim got up from his seat on the log, he extended a gloved hand up the hill overlooking their camp. A lone orange glowing light beamed over the hill. "You armed?"
"Got my pistol and my bow." Said Lev before departing from the group of lumberjacks by the firepit. He journeyed up the snowy and slippery hilltop with much difficulty. He passed by hundreds of cut tree stumps on the way there. A large gale of wind tore through his dark-furred clothes. Lev considered going back down the hill and going to bed, but then he heard guitar and banjo music picking up.
Around a very small firepit were four small trunks acting as chairs, all but one of the trunks were occupied with Blue and Gavan parallel to each other. Gavan was playing a country guitar solo while Blue was waiting patiently with his banjo in his hands. Lev in the cold and dark watched both men dueling with their instruments. The tune started to pick up as both Blue and Gavan's fingers plucked away at both instruments so fast their fingers turned blurry. Aran got off his log, and with a bottle of moonshine in hand he started dancing.
The young man kicked his boots together faster and faster to the rhythm and tempo of the music. Lev turned his head and observed numerous lumberjacks down the hill were dancing too. Max was leading a woman by the hands. Kaiden came out of his overseer tent confused by the music. It was true hick music, but very catchy.
"Okay! Okay! You're good!" Cried out Gavan. The Scotsman stopped playing, but Blue didn't stop.
The sounds of the banjo reverberated across the cold Wyoming night. A few lumberjacks down below the hill yelled out. "Yee-Haw!" Several more people were clapping until Blue eventually stopped. He settled the banjo on the ground next to his dog Red, which had curled below Blue's feet. "That was really freaking good."
(End of Song)
"Thanks, Aran, I don't intend on losing." Replied Blue while smiling.
"If you wanna win, I'd find someone who's better. The solo is supposed to be four minutes long. The best I could do is two." Said Gavan McDaniels solemnly. "Used to be I could play the guitar from sunrise to sunset." He settled his worn mesquite guitar on the snowy ground. He tugged out a cork from a manmade drinking horn. Pungent brown whiskey filled the smoky air. "Too much logging, sonny. I've got gout, I can barely climb up a tree, and now I can't play the guitar. I was happy when you got out."
"I was too." Blue looked up and noticed Lev.
"Can't believe the Communal Council is forcing you to do this."
"Lou, is it?" Lev nodded. Blue's smile grew wide. Lev looked at Blue and noticed how jovial the honey-haired cowboy was being. Blue gestured for Lev to take a seat. "Come sit down, we were about to go to bed, but decided now is as good a time for tunes as any."
Blue carefully watched Lev sit down. There was something off about Lou, something he couldn't put his hands on. The mood became awkward. Aran got up from his seat. "Gonna head off to bed." Aran shook both Blue and Gavan's hands. "Thank you, guys, for the tunes and the pep talk. See y'all in the mornin!"
"Sleep well." Blue waved at the drunken young teen heading back to camp. "Miles is hiring em younger and younger."
"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Replied Gavan. "Most of them now either are missing their balls or their balls haven't yet dropped. Aran is trying to feed his younger brothers, Tim was an orphan, and Xavier was a runaway slave. Better they're here than out there."
"Out there." Blue laughed and looked around at the never-ending dark, snowy, and sinister woods to the south. He turned toward the massive black mass known as the Snake River half a mile north. "This isn't our country anymore."
"What do you mean? Lou aren't we in the Jackson Republic?" Said Gavan wearily. The old Scotsman took another swig from his drinking horn.
"I wouldn't know. I'm still new in the Republic." Said Lev honestly.
"Jackson only has settlements north of the Snake River. Even though we've only been cutting trees south of the river, this isn't ours." Blue started petting his thick, maroon-furred Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. Blue's hound purred almost like a cat at the affectionate touch of his owner. "You guys feel like you are being watched?"
Blue chuckled as he saw Gavan and Lev's reactions. Lev wasn't at all concerned by the revelation, but Gavan pulled off his .30-30 caliber hunting rifle from his shoulders to his chest. Blue knew they were being watched, but by whom he couldn't tell. He spent enough time as a Texas Ranger to trust his gut when it really mattered. There were some footprints in the snow a mile south of their logging camp and signs of animals spooked by the presence of humans nearby. This wasn't caused by their party as the animal tracks were close to a week old.
"Who do you think is watching us?" Asked Lev. He too felt like he was being watched every time he entered the forest.
"Don't know. Just know that whoever is watching us knows these woods better than us. I doubt we'll be attacked, there's over thirty of us." Said Blue. He stopped scratching Red's ears and looked up at Lev's eyes. "You gonna fight them with that bow?"
"Unlike a gun. Bow and arrow are silent and can be far more lethal." Replied Lev.
"You got a pussy bow!" Said Gavan harshly. "Back in Scotland and Wales, my ancestors killed the English with longbows. Takes a real man to pull a longbow and it can shoot two hundred to three hundred yards away."
"Whales? Like the animal." Asked Blue. He had never heard of such a place before. "You kill a whale with a harpoon, not an arrow."
"Wales is a state in the UK. Bunch of sheep buggers those people are." Said Gavan. Blue was sucking in the knowledge like a sponge. "Never trusted the Welsh, they aren't loyal like a Frenchmen."
"I thought Scottish people hated the French like the English." Said Blue. He remembered reading a history book that went over a 100-year war between the English and French back in Monterrey, Mexico. "You've mentioned to me that the Scots aren't English, but figured your people sided with the English."
"We sided with anyone who wasn't English. The French were the only people who came to the aid of my ancestors when we needed saving." Explained Gavan. His eyes started to water, and Lev wondered if Gavan was saddened by memories of wherever England was. "I sometimes miss the great Highlands and my family back in Edinburgh. Came to the United States for university just in time for the outbreak. The rest is history, but I still remember my ancestors and what they fought for."
"I respect that. Never really got to learn much about my mom's family or my dad's. I wish they told me but that's life." Said Blue.
Gavan nodded his head. He got up and with saddened eyes, he left the campfire to go back to bed. Lev brought his gloved hands closer to the orange burning flames.
"I'm thinking of calling it a night. Red might sleep in the snow if I don't bring him into our tent soon." Said Blue. He shot Lev an odd look, which caused Lev to tremble internally. "You have interesting scars. Where are you from?"
"I'm from California."
"Why'd you leave? It's sunny, warm, and quite beautiful over there. Beats shoveling horse shit or cutting down trees here in Wyoming."
"I was a slave. Spent over a year on the plantations in Santa Barbara. The California slave trade was going strong, and I tried to escape but…" A lone tear fell from Lev's right eye as he remembered that night. He and Abby were trying to flee from the Rattlers when they were caught by their traps outside the plantation. They were tortured for weeks on the bottom floors. That was when the Rattlers found out Lev's true sex, he was assaulted and violated, and after the never-ending torture, he was placed on a wooden pillar to become bird food. Lev bit his cheek to keep the horrible memories at bay, "When we escaped things didn't go so well. I was caught and…" Lev watched Blue's face to make sure the man wasn't freaked out. "I was assaulted and tortured for days until the Rattlers decided to tie me up on a wooden post. I spent days watching the salty waters of the Pacific Ocean grow higher, hoping to drown. Then one day, a woman came to our rescue. She freed us from the Rattlers. She saved us… she saved us. Since then, I vowed to never become a slave again."
Blue understood the pain, and the brutality as well. He was furious, and he wished fury on the damn Rattlers. He wanted to kill something, but he realized where he was. Lev noticed the dangerous aura and he became petrified by Blue's icy cold eyes as if he intended to destroy everything around him. "I understand… you don't need to feel ashamed about anything, you're part of the Republic now."
"I owe my life to them. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if they hadn't shown up."
"Who was this woman?"
"I was asleep at the time. I was told she was beautiful, she was a fearsome fighter, and fought her way past dozens of infected and heavily armed Rattlers just to free us." Blue's mouth opened just a bit in surprise, but it quickly closed, and he became an icy furious statue of dread once again. "If I could ever meet them, I'd thank them. I'd give my life to that woman, yet that ship has long since sailed."
"Maybe, but maybe not."
Across the burning fire, Lev saw Blue's smile, and for a split second, he thought he understood the Mexican cowboy.
November 20th, 2046
The sun had barely peaked over the Rockies when the morning bells tolled. Everyone rushed from their tents and prepared the best they could. Blue held Red in his arms as he looked dazedly at the tent flaps. He was fully dressed, but he didn't want to exit. Red's fluffy maroon-colored fur felt warm, and it calmed him down from feeling hopeless. Blue gave the top of Red's forehead a kiss and he hugged his dog like it could be his last. Red huffed and whined uneasily as his master scratched behind his ears and scratched just above his big fluffy tail.
"Woof! Woof!"
"I know Red. I know. Just wanna tell you, papa loves you. You've been with me since Texas…" Said Blue, trying to relay his love to his dog. He continued petting his hound until he felt the courage to exit his tent. "Without you, I'd be dead, after what happened I've dreamed of killing myself in so many ways. I've wanted to for so long, but you and Ellie have kept me alive. You probably don't understand what I'm saying but I hope you know that Papa loves you."
"Woof! Woof!"
Blue marched out of his tent fully dressed. Several camp workers were busy packing the tables, supplies, and tents across the camp. Lumberjacks armed with .30-06 caliber M1 Garands strapped to their backs were busy ushering prepared lumberjacks up the hill. Blue followed their directions until he bumped into Lou and Tim. Both were happy to be in the same company. Gavan McDaniels and Niko Gruzinsky a Georgian National from Yellowstone emerged on Blue's flanks. The party of five marched over the hill, their rifles drawn with their barrels pointing at the ground, just over their chests, and all five ready to pull and fire at a moment's notice.
Morning fog hung low over the forest like a blanket. Droplets of water were falling from icicles high up from the trees. Snow owls were hooting, the sound of snow crunching, and the smell of burning leaves engulfed everyone's senses. Thirty armed men and women of Miles Strauss' Lumber company marched forward in a wide long line further south. None of them were sure when or exactly where these fur traders were coming from except somewhere in these woods. Blue held the butt of his Henry lever-action rifle's stock against his right shoulder. Drip! Drip! DRIP! He looked at everyone's faces he could make out in the breaking fog. Paranoia hung on the lips, eyes, and faces of everyone he saw.
Blue's foggy breath fell in front of him, and he stopped. Gavan and Lev stopped with him. Deep in the dimly lit and icy white forest was a long line of visitors. They were dressed in dark and bright-furred clothes, some wore military parkas, but all of them looked like friendlies. Brenden charged with three other armed guards on horseback, they approached the traveling party and the world slowed down. Blue's chest heaved up and down, his heart pounded quicker in his chest, and his anxiety was tearing him apart inside.
"What's happening?" Whispered Tim behind an icy white Timber Pine.
"Shh!" Hushed Niko.
The party of fur traders quickly approached their group and Blue felt a large sigh of relief. The fog started to dissipate as the yellow sun rose higher in the sky. The caravan of fur traders held up a flag with the Rocky Mountains below a giant red star at the center of the flag. They were Jackson Republic fur traders, brothers in arms, and there were around forty fur traders in total bringing the traveling party to over 70 in total manpower. Blue relaxed his rifle as he marched alongside the caravan. Tim, Gavan, Niko, Lou, Aran, Brenden, and four old grizzly lumberjacks marched in Blue's column.
"We're about a mile away from the Snake River," said Gavan uncertainty as he scanned around the cold white forests. Blue looked at the fur traders who looked half spooked from their travels. Blue then turned to look at Gavan who added, "Blue, why are we still marching west?"
"I don't know. We should be going north, but I guess Kaiden wants us to get closer to the hydroelectric dam." Replied Blue, he scanned the ground and spotted Red. It made Blue happy to see his dog once again.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Said Aran.
"Calm down son." Said Niko, his thick Slavic accent rumbling off the tongue. "We have the numbers that if a horde attacks us. I doubt we'll lose a single man."
"I ain't worried about a horde." Replied Gavan.
They continued marching one mile west towards the Jackson hydroelectric dam. They came across a wetland area of the forest. Large crystal-clear streams covered portions of the forests. Every single stream flows into the Snake River. Blue's dark green poncho was covered in grimy wet snow. Almost everyone had dark grime on their faces or had ice stuck to their beards and hair. Blue thought he heard a war drum in the distance. Numerous heads popped up, but the sound died as soon as it was heard.
"What the fuck was that!" Shouted a random fur trader at the back of a wagon. The wagon was carrying hundreds of pounds of fur.
"Calm down!" Shouted Kaiden from his horse. "It's nothing, to worry about."
Blue saw Kaiden riding his horse deep into the thick forest only for their overseer to disappear into the white snowy forest. They continued marching for ten minutes but every now and then their caravan would stop at the sounds of cackling coyotes deep in the forest or the sound of war drums. Blue wasn't sure what was going on, but the paranoia of whatever was making the sounds grew. Men held the barrels of their rifles up high, ready to shoot.
"I just hope we can make it to the Snake River," cried out Tim. The young boy's eyes were pink and watery, tears fell from the fourteen-year-old's face. Blue knew the boy was afraid, he was too. "We're just one mile away, just one mile away, just one mile away."
Blue patted the young red-headed boy's head and whispered, "Easy there. Don't worry, it'll be alright. You're a strong young man we'll be back home in no time. Just keep marching forward." Tim calmed down, but barely. Blue looked up at the tall trees surrounding their party. He saw the leafless trees swinging back and forth from the whooshing wind. "Easy now. Well, er, uh." Blue's eyes met with one of the old lumberjacks in their party. "Sir, what's your name?"
"Name's Murphy, been working with Miles since before the outbreak. I'm surprised you've forgotten all about me. We used to buck together before you became a showoff." Said Murphy. He had snowy white hair that flowed down to his neck and pale almost ghost-like skin. Yet despite his age, Murphy was as strong as the rest of them a testament to decades of being a lumberjack. "Have you been staying away from the booze?"
"Trying." Replied Blue. The mere mention of alcohol made him feel hot. Water splashed below their feet from small puddles alongside the trail. "Was going to ask how well you know these woods?"
"Boy, I've walked and ridden every part of this area. The only thing I'd worry about is getting back to the dam. This whole area has its history, etched into time in every tree and creek." Said Murphy. Blue saw that Tim and Aran were calming down.
"These woods have a history?" Asked Blue.
"Course they do. You know a famous fur trapper was abandoned in these very woods." Said Murphy, no one reacted but they listened to his every word. "Hugh Glass was left for dead not far from here. He crawled from the dead and walked 400 miles back home on foot."
"I've heard that story before." Said Tim.
"Well, did you know the Snake River starts in Yellowstone, it flows past Jackson down here and back before I was born. This whole area used to flood deep into Idaho and Oregon, used to confuse and even kill settlers going to Oregon back in the day. Louis and Clark were the first Americans to navigate and explore Wyoming. They started right here." Murphy stopped near the edge of a small flowing brook. White waters roared and whooshed against granite stones into a much larger creek. "The river got its name cause in Shoshone the sign language for weaved baskets looks a lot like a snake. Louis and Clark were probably shitting their pants going down it."
Loud sinister coyote cackles surrounded the traveling party. Every hair on Blue's neck rose high. The cackling sounded almost exactly like hundreds of coyotes were close by. Chargers were pulled and gun safeties were switched off, everyone once again was on edge. Snow fell from trees, branches rustled, and the cackling continued. No one said a word as they continued marching forward toward the dam. Blue started breathing deeper and harder. His anxiety was going on overdrive, he wanted to see the roaring waters of the Snake River and the giant concrete monument known as the Jackson hydroelectric dam.
A giant dark ball flew from behind a tall hilly ridge. Light and dark globby blood rained over the caravan. Blue saw the ball tumble and roll towards him. Warm blood leaked from the ball staining the snow and leaving sizzles with each roll. The horse-drawn wagons and every man on foot stopped. Blue focused his eyes on the mysterious object, to his horror, he stared into Kaiden's beheaded eyes. Kaiden's last moments on this planet were spent enduring agony, pain, and torture beyond humanity. A giant bloody scrotum hung out of his mouth.
The cackling grew louder. Men and women started screaming bloody murder, but Brenden on his horse tried his best to calm everyone down. "Easy, easy, we're almost aaaghghh!" An arrow flew from out of nowhere into Brenden's neck. Blue rolled behind a Timber Pine. Within the neck of a hair, he avoided Brenden's spooked horse, which charged into several shocked fur traders.
Mayhem! People started hollering, they shouted at the trees and each other. The fur traders on the horse-drawn buggies were already moving forward. Blue rushed from behind his tree towards one of the fallen fur traders who was on their back. They cried and groaned.
"Help me I can't see!" Screamed the fur trader. Blue pulled the man to his feet. "Thank you! Thank you! But I can't see!"
Blue wasn't a doctor; however, he noticed a lot of dirt and silty sediment covering the fur trader's face. He pushed the fur trader towards Tim and Aran who were behind small timber pines. Both younger boys were grasping their rifles tighter in their hands, yet the barrels were shaking in the air so much from fear that Blue became worried they might fire blindly into the air.
"Stand together!" Shouted another one of the mounted guards.
Max rushed to Blue's side, the mountain man shouted, "Blue we need to get to the daaaaaKAA!" An arrow whooshed through the back of Max's head. The arrowhead exited the man's mouth. Blood flew and covered Blue's face as he raised his head.
"Where are they coming from?" Screamed a fur trader.
"Get down!" Screamed Gavan.
"They're everywhere! We're all going to die! We're all going to die!" Screamed a lumberjack who ran out into the snowy forest, into the flowing creeks.
"Stay here! Stay here!" Shouted Blue, but his words fell on deaf ears. He watched to his horror the lone lumberjack splashing through the creek, but he didn't make it more than fifteen feet before a hail of arrows pierced his body from his legs to his head.
"Aaaagh! Kill me!" Screamed the man. Blue watched the lumberjack writhing in the murky red waters petrified to move forward. He thought about shooting the poor man, but a quick-moving dark figure on a charging Mustang rode next to the writhing lumberjack. "Kill me! Somebody just do, Ick!"
The man gargled his last breath as the figure wearing a wolfskin headdress slashed the top portion of the lumberjack's head. Goosebumps popped up all over Blue's body even under his warm winter clothes. Blood dripped and splashed onto the snow from the scalp of the arrow-riddled lumberjack. The wolfskin hooded rider left the area, but not before the Jacksonites tried to get payback.
Tim was the first one to fire his rifle. The young 14-year-old missed, but Blue gave the young man a respectable nod causing Tim to smile in appreciation. Men and women started blindly firing their guns. Blue rushed behind a tree right next to Gavan and Lou. He felt relieved when he saw next to his feet was Red, the hound gave his master a quick bark while lying low. The hound was smart not to go attack whoever was trying to ambush them.
"They want us out in the open. Find cover and stay down." Urged Niko who grasped his Mossin-Nagant 1891 rifle tighter in his hands.
"Fucking bastards are after the pelts!" Said Gavan. "You all know they are. This shipment of furs is worth more than two hundred brand new rifles."
"We need to get to the dam." Replied Blue. He wasn't worried about the pelts or the furs. The fur traders could always get more pelts and furs. "We don't have the firepower or the position to fight an entrenched battle."
"Do you think they'll let us live if we leave the furs?" Asked Lev, curious about Blue's answer. "There could be a hundred or just a dozen raiders out there. It's impossible to tell."
"Comanches! This has Comanche all written on it, I doubt it's a random native tribe." Said Blue, he looked high in the trees.
More arrows fell, but everyone had taken cover under the wagons or against the trees surrounding the wagon trail. He saw frightened faces all around him. Blue knew the signs of Comanches. They often began their ambushes with loud crazy coyote howls then captured and tormented caravans before finishing them off. Blue fought them for two years of his life during the Paris, Texas Campaign of 2032, it was the year he joined the Texas Rangers and fought tooth and nail to survive to one day see Sophia again.
"Comanches don't believe in mercy. Even if you're peaceful and surrender, you'll wish ya didn't. Fuckers will find ways, and they'll even make new ways so you can die as gruesome a death as possible. They rose to power right after the outbreak, they'll stop at nothing until the earth is stained in the blood of anyone who isn't a Comanche." Explained Blue. He saw that Lev was finally understanding how much danger they were in. Lev understood these Comanche fought similarly to the Seraphites, but something made him believe Blue had seen far worse.
"Do they fight just using bow and arrows?"
"No! Comanche may dress and act like Indians, but I've seen entire mobilized armies of Comanches in Oklahoma. They love riding Ford 4x4s that have mounted .50 caliber Browning M2 machine guns. They'll ride through the plains gunning whoever and whatever they want. These are Comanche Raiders, they like using bows and arrows when they're on horseback, but the experienced warriors have guns and know how to shoot."
Over the surrounding hills were darkened figures on horseback. There were dozens of Comanches wearing animal headdresses and hoodies with feathers and human ears stitched like elegant cowls wrapped around their heads but flowing down off their backs. They were riding and screeching like coyotes, Blue half expected them to attack, but they did nothing more than chant. Lumberjacks and fur traders started breaking cover. More arrows rained down from out of nowhere. One arrow flew into a fur trader's shoulder and another punctured through a woman's back.
Blue raised his rifle high and scanned the trees.
Ka-Bam! Ka-Bam!
Blue fired two shots from his 1894 Henry repeater. A hidden Comanche archer high up in the trees fell twenty feet down ten feet from Blue. The warrior crashed and coughed out blood and tried to clutch their torn chest. They shouldn't have tried, for Gavan rushed the Comanche warrior. SMASH! SMASH! CRUNCH! Gavan McDaniels kept ramming his rifle's butt into the fallen warrior's skull until it broke, but even while the warrior gasped his last dying breaths. Gavan did the unthinkable. Blue watched the Scotsman cut the Comanche's scalp off, Blue was about to protest but he heard rustling in the trees. Ka-Bam! Ka-Bam!
Another Comanche warrior fell, but this one cracked his neck on his forty-foot descent to the ground. Blue saw the mass array of fighters flees up over the hills. It must have been instinct, at the nearest sign of the Comanches fleeing over the hills, everyone ran for their lives. The wagons charged forward, and every lumberjack and fur trade bolted north. CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!
To Blue's very horror, he heard the familiar sounds of clickers chattering. Clickers got their name because the Ophiocordyceps growing out of their eye sockets during the 3rd standard stage of Cordyceps Brain Infection, thus they were destined to an eternity of wandering the world unable to see and forever controlled by a fungus. They spent the rest of their existence hunting non-infected humans to spread the infection. To achieve this, a clicker used echolocation by clicking its mouth because cordyceps heightened the senses of sound and touch, a clicker didn't need eyes they had evolved past needing them. It could find anything. Blue didn't mind clickers as they weren't too hard to kill. Clickers were tough opponents for those not used to fighting them. Even though they sounded hungry, alien, and in fact were hungry and alien-like beings. Clickers weren't hard to take down, especially with Red nearby.
"Woof! Woof! Aagh!"
Blue fired his rifle and killed a charging clicker that Red caught between its legs. The hound rushed and took down another target. More and more clickers chattered throughout the dark forest. Almost fifty infected forms covered in long orange cordyceps, and various other fungi emerged through the wetlands. Blue fired his rifle four more times. He took down three clickers, but that did little to stop the growing horde. Fur traders and lumberjacks around the edges of the heavy wagons of fur fired their guns. Some were semiautomatic, others single shot, but even a few automatic FAL 50.61s were firing into the approaching horde.
Gunpowder rose from the edges of the traveling party. A horde was upon them, and the horde was going northward bound. The very same direction they were going. All the noise, the smell of blood, and the warmth their bodies gave out brought close to a hundred infected monstrosities out of the woods surrounding the southern shores of the Snake River. Stalkers clumsily wandered close behind a pack of close to forty clickers, ten frightening smilers, and one large shambler.
"God damn it!"
"They're coming from everywhere!"
"To the Dam! To the Dam!"
The frantic shouts grew louder and more desperate. Blue huffed as he ran like his life depended on it. Red jumped alongside his master, Gavan and Niko held Blue's flanks. From the corner of Blue's eyes, he saw dozens of frightened Jacksonites running behind him. Right on his tail were Aran and Lou who were both red-faced. Snow crunched under his frantic feet, but Blue decided to slow down as the party started to cross a muddy and very swampy watershed. They were half a mile to the dam now having barely kept pace with the horde chasing after them.
Clickers rushed and snatched slow stragglers. Blood-curdling screams sounded as Blue heard flesh being torn by hungry infected. Twenty-five infected monstrosities slowed down to feast on the five fallen stragglers. Blue raised his rifle and started picking off as many as he could. Mushroom-headed clickers snarled and screeched as .44 magnum bullets tore through their torsos, shoulders, and heads. Shell casings flew out of Blue's lever-action rifle as he pulled his gun's lever frantically down and up. CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! The clicks came from Blue's rifle.
"Motherfuckers!" Screamed Blue. He growled and threw his lever-action rifle over his shoulder and pulled out two Molotov cocktails from his trusty CrossFit backpack. "Come at me! Come at me you motherfuckers!"
Clickers twisted and screeched. A large horrifying, massive, pustule clustered Shambler roared. It charged through the horde of infected monstrosities. Stalkers were crushed to death by the uncaring charging Shambler, and bursts of yellow acidic spores came from the shambler's cancerous pustule clusters. Dark yellow T-2 Mycotoxins covered the clear white snow as the Shambler went on a full-speed sprint towards a retreating Blue.
"Come at me, you fat ugly bastard! Come to me! Everyone, run to the Dam!" Screamed Blue while running towards a twelve-foot granite boulder that had jutted out of the watershed. He climbed up the boulder using dead tree roots as leverage. He almost slipped into the surrounding horde but climbed to the top. Most of the horde was rushing to him. "Por el Imperio!"
Blue lit two small diesel-filled beer bottles. Bright orange flames rose from the lit rags of the cocktails as close to twenty infected, including the shambler closed in on the boulder. Blue threw the bottles at the foot of the boulder igniting the Shambler and ten unfortunate clickers instantly. The fungus-covered zombies screeched in pain. Blue smiled and watched for several seconds as they twisted and turned covered in smokey orange flames. He didn't need to fire another shot and to his delight, the shambler died without a further fight at the foot of the boulder.
"Por el Imperio! (For the Empire!)" Repeated Blue. He jumped from the back to the boulder onto an elevated ridge.
He bolted through the snow-covered woods. Clickers were trailing behind him in the icy shadows. Smilers moaned and groaned from the thick woods. Blue saw below the ridge five Smilers on his tail. Smilers were sadistic Ophiocordyceps monstrosities that evolved differently than clickers or stalkers. Unlike a clicker having their eyes popped out by emerging fungi, a smiler had advanced fungal growth emerge from around its jawline making it appear like they were always smiling. Like clickers, a tough fungal plate covered their bodies, and the top of their heads were covered in fungal growths, but their eyes were always dark purple and blue.
Sweat and grime covered Blue's face. He ran faster and faster through the woods. He jumped down from his ridge back into the watershed. He heard the rushing waters of the faraway Snake River and saw signs of the escaping party. Gavan Mcdaniels and Niko were on the back of a wagon shooting and firing at any approaching infected. Niko was reloading his Mossin-Nagant rifle with a fully loaded clip.
"Blue! You're alive you lucky bastard!" Screamed Gavan happily as Blue rushed closer to the back of the moving wagon train.
Lou emerged from the thick woods. He splashed through the watershed and avoided several sneaky stalkers rushing at him. He fired several more arrows and took down two more clickers, but Lev cursed himself as he was running low on arrows. Blue and Lev nearly crashed into each other in the watershed. Both men grasped each other's shoulders. "Blue I'm so happy I found you. I saw that Shambler approaching you and thought you were a goner."
"We're not out of this yet." Said Blue. He looked behind them and saw four frothing at the mouth Smilers. Long cord-like mycelium ropes flew from their mouths. These cordyceps ropes were white in color and moved like tentacles on an octopus. "The Comanches are still nearby."
"Yes." Said Lev. "I heard their chants in the woods. They're watching us, probably waiting, and hoping the horde will finish us off so they can grab the pelts." The scars on Lev's face ached as he thought about the Comanches. Even during the war between the Washington Liberation Front and the Seraphites in Seattle. Scalping people to death and tormenting any captured WLF soldiers was rarely done. "I have your back Blue."
Blue gave Lou a nod and to his great pleasure, he saw Red running through the watershed to his side. Both lumberjacks ran northward away from the approaching horde. Blue pulled out his Chiappa Rhino revolvers. Duel wielding them he fired .357 bullets left and right at any fast-moving monster that came near them. Red once again woofed and took down clickers and stalkers. One after another, Red growled and took down another infected zombie. Blood and guts covered his hound's fur as he jumped back towards his master.
Twenty unmoving infected corpses trailed behind their wagon train. The horde was slowly receding back into the southern woods, but there were still dozens trailing behind them. Ten smilers charged fast through the column of fur traders and lumberjacks. Misty light red blood flew in the air, screams of agony, and the whinnies of frightened horses. Then came the Comanches.
"Fucking bastards!" Screamed Gavan who jumped off the now-stopped wagon trail with his lumber axe in hand. He charged at an approaching stalker and beheaded the fungal-plated abomination. "One less one of you!"
Arrows flew from Comanche riders on horseback at their party. Most of the arrows missed but the ones that found their target were left screaming and writhing in agony in the cold snow. Smilers closed in on the fallen Jacksonites and feasted on their bodies. The unlucky ones were held in place by the moaning smiler's ropey-moving mycelium tongue. The tongues brought the smiler to the faces of their prey, and they started to passionately kiss their prey, infecting them.
Blue fired every single bullet from his revolver's barrels, taking down a smiler with four shots to the head. A frightened and moaning Jacksonite who had been kissed by a smiler rose to his knees. Only for them to be shot down by Blue. He hated killing innocent people, but it was a mercy. They'd rather be dead than roam until the end of time as an infected zombie. "You're in a better place." Muttered Blue.
Tim was crying under the wagons as more arrows and infected closed in around their traveling party. Blue holstered his revolvers, he didn't have time to reload and pulled out his Makarov pistol he acquired in Yellowstone. He saw a silvery lumber axe on the ground and picked it up in his right hand. A frothing at the mouth clicker with blackened jagged teeth rushed him. Blue swung the axe and tore through the clicker's fungal-plated torso then fired three 9mm rounds into the clicker taking it down.
"Not bad." Commented Blue while looking at the Russian pistol. He fired six more rounds taking down two more smilers. Guts and blood covered the ground. Blue holstered his pistol and started to reload his lever-action rifle. "Lou, where are you?"
"I'm by your side." Commented Lev. He released another arrow striking down a smiler that was charging him with a ropey tongue. "What is going on."
"Just cover me. I need to reload." Said Blue while shoving .44 magnum rounds into his lever-action rifle loading port as fast as he could. "We're pinned down! We need to get to the dam!"
"Not without the pelts!" Shouted Gavan angrily. "These pelts are worth more than all our lives put together. I'd rather die than let a damned Indian touch our pelts!"
The infected were falling one after another, but that was when the Comanches emerged from the woods. Twenty Comanche berserkers dressed in animal skins and adorned in headdresses chanted like coyotes. All were armed with homemade tomahawks fashioned from sharpened sheet metal and they were all carrying revolvers. Gavan smashed the butt of his hunting rifle at two Comanches and fired a deadly .30-30 round at the chest of another. Men and women screamed as the assault grew worse and worse.
Blue charged an unsuspecting Comanche warrior who was busy scalping a fur trader. Blue swung his lumber axe into the Comanche's neck causing it to spurt blood. A crazed stalker approached Blue from behind and was about to bite his neck. A whooshing arrow took the stalker down and Red tore apart the monster's fungus-covered face. Blue gave Lev a nod of approval.
"To the dam!" Screamed Blue. Fur traders carrying bundles of fur on their backs ran slowly through the flowing streams of icy-cold water. Most people were leaving the fur behind on the wagons, as the Comanches cheered and made off with bundles of fur. Niko fired four shots from his bolt-action rifle taking down two Comanche warriors. Gavan was heaving two large bundles of fur on his back. The crazed Scotsman was screaming, "Grab the furs! Grab the furs!"
"To the dam!"
"Please, please mercy!" Screamed a woman who was being pushed down by two Comanches. "Help! No, please no!"
Blue shot one of the Comanches on top of the woman, the Comanche warrior fell over dead, but it was too little too late. The woman was snatched over another warrior's shoulders, and they were gone in the woods faster than the blink of an eye. Blue's heart sank, her screams echoed in his head as he ran with the retreating party of now forty-one Jacksonites. The horde had taken ten poor souls, but the Comanches had taken over twenty lives. More men and women fell from volleys of arrows coming from the woods. The roaring crystal waters of the Jackson hydroelectric dam were in view. Blue ran desperately with Red and Lou by his side. He turned around every twenty seconds to fire back at the Comanches in the woods. The Comanches were now using rifles and semi-automatic weapons to pick them off.
Lev ran forward ahead of Blue across the riverbed. Water splashed below Blue's legs. He huffed out more foggy breaths as he continued running closer uphill toward the southern entrance to the dam. He wanted nothing more than to make it back alive with Red. He wanted to jump into Ellie's arms and cry. He wanted to survive.
Gavan rushed past Blue with ten others carrying large bundles of fur on their backs. Blue rested just one hundred meters from the elevated concrete southern entrance to the Jackson hydroelectric dam. Before Blue could make it ten more meters something crashed into him. He tumbled and fell into the icy cold waters of the Snake River.
Blue gurgled and screamed under the water. He was being held down in the water by a heavy wooden stocked hunting rifle. This was it. This was where he was going to die, in the river of death. Right before the lights went off in his brain the mysterious figure stopped. Red tackled the mysterious figure allowing Blue to pull himself out of the icy-cold water of the river.
Blue was amazed to see Red clutching the bloody legs of a very beautiful brunette woman with long dark hair. Her skin was porcelain white, and her lips were ruby red. She had hazel eyes that shined with righteous fury. Her Comanche headdress was in the water along with her rifle. She screamed louder and louder, which started to make Blue's head spin. Memories flowed to his mind of the many women he hurt in his youth.
"Red, stop!" Shouted Blue. He yanked his bloodthirsty hound off the Comanche woman. "Good boy!"
The woman moaned and groaned in the water. Blue marched out of the water onto the muddy shores of the Snake River. Her hazel eyes were on his back. "Why?"
Blue turned and saw the Comanche staring at him confused. "Why what?"
"Why are you sparing me? You can have your way with me or kill me." Said the woman solemnly as if she was expecting it. Her eyes were still furious as she groaned her way to shore. "I can't move my left leg. Damn dog!"
Blue raised his rifle and thought about it. If he killed her now, she wouldn't ever be a problem to the Jackson Republic again. If he let her live, she'd die anyway. If the infected didn't get to her first the elements would surely finish her off. The Comanche woman turned her head and whispered a tribal prayer. She started crying and nodded her head. "ʉnha hakai nahniaka?"
"What did you say?"
"What is your name?" Replied the Comanche woman. She smiled at Blue with tears leaking down to her chin. "I promise, I won't forget it."
"My name is Blue," said Blue, he held out a helping hand for her. She grabbed it and both looked around and thankfully didn't see anyone or anything near them. "Just tell the others that if they try crossing this river we'll massacre them."
The woman used her wet hunting rifle as a crutch and slowly walked over the hilly watershed back to the forests south of the Snake River. Blue watched her leave and made his way to the dam. He watched the woman linger on the edge of the woods. She was looking out in his direction. Her mouth was moving, but whatever she was saying Blue hadn't a clue. He made his way to the gated concrete entrance and was glad to see Lou. Once inside Blue slumped against the concrete walls. He was covered head to toe in blood, gunpowder, and grime. He wanted nothing more than to ride up north to see Ellie. He had to endure just one more day. Just one more day…