The Forest

I kept my word and woke up super-ass early to get a move on. The forest looked rather tranquil now, not scary or menacing at all. I’m sure those “eyes” were either my imagination or some fireflies. Which to me was a perfectly logical explanation. I shook Mac to get him up. Same thing with Gar, although a little harder, plus he appeared to be sober, which was strange. Mac kind of grumbled and made us our daily vitamin-enhanced miracle-slop.

Gar looked at me with disgust as he ate. Mac just looked annoyed. Gar looked like I had just punched his mom in the face. I decided it was just harsh sobriety and it would kick off a bit later. I shrugged it off. I was enjoying the silent meal for a change, that is until I was startled by a loud voice.

“Mr. Mac! Delivery, sir!” a uniformed geeky-looking kid shouted. These lo-techs sure knew how to adapt. Mac took the letter and the lo-tech kid was gone in a flash.

Mac opened up the letter. “What does it say?” I asked. Mac frowned.

“Nothing good, nothing bad,” he replied, “It just says four more lo-techs were killed, everything beyond the damage zone is suspected to be infected, oh and ‘Be vigilant when entering the forest. Good luck and godspeed.'”

“Shit,” was the only thing that came to mind, so that’s what I said.

Be vigilant. What was that supposed to mean? I thought about it for a minute, but then I just shrugged. I would keep my eyes open, but I was sure it wasn’t going to be anything us three couldn’t handle.

Slowly but surely we finished up our meal, put out our fire and packed up. I was eager to lead us up the hill, and boy was it a climb. The closer we got, the taller the trees appeared. The towered over us so far they appeared to bend with the dome of the earth. I probably should have slowed down and maybe stopped staring upwards because the next thing I bumped in to wasn’t so friendly.

“Halt! ID?” I was prompted by a large, ripped, guard as he pointed a gun at me. His clothes made him look like some kind of revolutionary. Olive drab and a combat rifle. Good thing the other two came not a second too late.

“Halt, both of you!” he shouted at Gar and Mac as they approached. He then proceeded to whistle a series of long, loud notes. Seconds later, two more guards showed up in the same uniform.

“We haven’t got any ID,” I told the guard, hoping he wouldn’t be angry.

“None of you have ID?” One of the guards asked. I looked back at Gar and Mac, hoping they had some ID, they didn’t.

“No, sir,” I replied, “My ID is somewhere on a hard drive, I’m sure.”

“Don’t get smart,” he said sternly in reply. He almost looked as if he were going to sock me with his rifle butt for a split second. I decided to be cooperative and not make any additional comments.

“No sir, we have no ID,” I said once again.

“Restrain them and take them in,” said the ‘roided-out looking guard, “Make sure they are neutralized and decontaminated. Oh and put them in cell D. Cell C is under construction currently. Okay boys, hands behind your backs.” We complied and put our hands behind our backs so we could be restrained. The big guard restrained me. And boy, was that asshole rough as he put those zip ties on.

“Owwww! Too tight! My hand is gonna fall off!” I complained.

“Fine,” He said as he cut off the ties and put new ones on. He put them on much better this time.

“Thanks,” I said. He grunted and shoved me around.

“Okay boys, lets neutralize ’em,” Roids shouted. The next thing I remember was a wooden-sounding CLUNK! I blacked out after that, or rather, was knocked out.

When I came to, I was alone in a locked cell made of logs and sticks. Kind of like a mini-log cabin. Gar and Mac weren’t anywhere to be seen. My head hurt, so I figured I had been clunked on the noggin. My stuff was in the corner of the shelter, about three feet away. The bars were made of wood, but they had been crafted in such a way that they were nearly unbreakable. There was no getting out for now, so I went back to sleep, hoping to get more rest until a guard came in, grabbed my bag, ordered me to get up, put a sack over my head and dragged me out of the cell. I regretted for a second that I wanted to get up so early to get to the forest, but in reality we would have been put in this situation no matter when we left.

Crossing the River to Near the Woods

The salve tingled and made my skin feel buzzy, but even this was nothing compared to what that water looked like it could do. It was filmy and disgusting. Mac and I stood there in ankle-deep water. My feet were still intact, no flesh-eating bacteria or viruses, no chemical burns.

“Damn, Mac, you are truly amazing with these concoctions of yours,” I said, still amazed my feet weren’t melting.

“Don’t mention it my friend. Now lets ford this river,” Mac said as he surged forward into the “water.”

Gar followed slowly behind as I crept forward into the river. Mac was already up to his shoulders.

“I think this is about as deep as it gets!” Mac shouted, “Hurry up guys, we’re almost there!”

I was lagging about ten feet behind him. Gar was another ten feet behind me, stepping haphazardly through the murky water. I quickened my pace as I made my way towards the deep section of the river. I could’ve sworn that something brushed by as I sped through that part.

Gar still lagged behind quite a bit. Mac was already at the other side as I looked back to check on Gar. I was about ten feet from the other side and that bastard was only getting to the deep part. He struggled to get through as if he were stuck in some kind of muck.

“Hey, HEY! God DAMMIT!” Gar screamed and splashed, “Some damn thing’s got ma’ leg!”

Gar panicked and struggled against whatever was restraining him. That was probably a bad idea.

“DON’T MOVE!” Mac yelled from across the river. He grabbed something from his pack, something shiny and some goggles it looked like. Man, this guy had everything. He tossed his glasses in his pack, strapped on the goggles and ran into the water. He swam at superhuman speed. Gar was still being an idiot, struggling mindlessly against his captors. Mac unfolded his shiny thing, a Leatherman tool to be exact, and took out the blade. He took a deep breath and went underwater, cutting whatever was restraining ol’ Gar. Chunks of green, weedy-looking, kind of even fleshy looking matter floated to the surface. Gar ran quickly across to the other side. Before I knew it, Mac emerged from the water and was right next to me, standing ankle deep in the water.

“Holy shit!” Mac exlclaimed, “That was some bad-ass river weed!”

“I’d say. Something in the water I’m sure,” I added.

“Must be. I’ll take note of that,” Mac said, noting it in a small notepad he grabbed from his pack.

He also grabbed us some hotel towels. Random hotels on each. I got to dry off with the Days Inn, Mac got the Holiday Inn towel, which looked much better than mine, Gar, lucky bastard, got the Hilton towel. They all dried us just the same, but the Hilton towel just looked so much more plush. It could have been my imagination too, like a placebo effect.

After we dried off we put our clothes back on and looked towards what was to come. There it was, at the top of the hill, not more than a half mile in the distance: trees. The forest was there and it looked beautiful. It looked that way from the outside, so I needed a closer inspection.

“Everybody ready?” I asked, eager to get going.

Gar went to lie down, he grunted in response. Mac looked at me with those stupid beady eyes. Ugh, we were going to rest here. The sun was about to set, so I went along with it. I was tired too, and after seeing the mutant river-weed, I was wise to go along with the whole rest and go tomorrow idea. I had no idea what was in the woods. None of us did.

“Oh, alright. Let’s camp here tonight. But I’m waking you all up super-ass early tomorrow,” I demanded.

Mac kind of nodded. Mac grunted.

“Well let’s get some firewood!” I said enthusiastically. “Okay,” Mac said as he got up. He didn’t sound as enthused as I, but he helped me pick up some driftwood and start a fire. Once he laid back down though, he was out.

So there I was, lying there. It was barely dark out yet, so I sat back up and stared at the forest and wondered. I wondered a million things. I imagined once again the possibilities. They were a bit different from before since they included the possibility of mutated wildlife. So much for my dreams of utopia. I stared at the fire for a while, then looked back towards the woods. I could see what looked like glowing eyes in the distance. I hoped they were fireflies. I laid back down and stared into the dark sky. This time it was glittered with stars. I stared off into the dark, glittery sky and wondered. Then I slowly closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

The Crossing

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!!!!!

Mac woke us up at the butt-crack of dawn banging silverware on his steel cups.

“Time to move out guys, we’ve got a journey ahead!” Mac said excitedly.

Gar rolled over and over, slowly waking up. I got myself up to my feet, annoyed, but ready to take on the task. Mac had three cups of god-knows-what concoction and a breakfast of slop ready for us. Gar managed to find a way to sit up and take a swig from his never-ending flask.

“Gar,” I said, “You’d better leave that baby bottle behind, booze is illegal from here on out.” I chuckled a little.

Gar got a good kick out of that and laughed so hard he almost spit out his booze.

We ate, talked a bit about the weather and what was going on, bitched a bit about how early it was, and eventually finished up and got ready to move.

“Okay guys,” Mac started, “this is it. Hands in.”

It felt like we were some kind of team now. We formed a circle and put our hands in the center. I prayed we would have safe travels as Mac began to speak.

“Okay, now I know we don’t really know each other, but we’ve stuck together so far. We’re a team now, and a strong one at that. There’s no turning back now. Ready?”

I stared at our hands in the center. I could feel our energy flowing throughout. I felt positive, I was up.

” Let’s go on three. One, two, three,” Mac started.

“Let’s go!” We shouted and started to head on our way.

My head was all in the clouds. I had high hopes for this adventure. The highway would be a cinch. The river, no problem. The gray of the world seemed to glow purple for me. We all glowed as we walked on, grinning like idiots.

We were all on the same plane now, we knew this trip would be worthwhile. As we stumbled and strutted across the debris, broken down cars and concrete, I saw something moving.

“Did you guys see that?” I asked, concerned.

“See what?” Mac answered. Gar obviously didn’t see it, but grunted in acknowledgement.

“Over there,” I pointed “Maybe it was nothing. My imagination probably.” I shrugged.

“Let’s keep moving,” Mac insisted.

We moved on through the gray, towards the highway. We could finally see it in the distance as the sun rose up in the sky. It was another hot day. Shade was on the way. The highway drew closer and closer until finally we were there. It was a mess of cars and trucks, some overturned, some looking showroom new, mint even.

“Why don’t we take one of these four-by-fours and haul out of here?” I asked, forgetting about the EMP that destroyed the ECU’s of most of the cars. Mac answered before I could even remember this.

“Remember the EMP destroyed everything. We could find a classic carbureted car, but that would prove difficult. The EPA outlawed the use of carbureted engines not too long ago.”

I sighed. So much for that plan. We crossed the highway and hopped the safety fence. Not more than two hundred yards beyond was the river. The water was low, as Mac predicted.

“There it is!” Mac said out loud, pointing towards the river.

We started to speed up our pace. The river came closer and closer until we were right at its edge. The water looked disgusting. There was green slime floating on the surface. Rainbow colored swirls, like the kind that appears when gasoline enters water flowed all over.

“Is this safe to walk through?” I asked, fearful of what was actually in the water. Mutated fish had to be in there. That water looked more than toxic.

Mac pulled out a jar full of strong smelling powder.

“Take some of this,” He handed me the jar along with a bottle of water to wash it down.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Mostly ginseng. Some other herbs to protect against toxins and radiation,” he answered.

I shrugged. I took a spoon and passed it on. Drank some water. It tasted like ginseng for sure. Very rooty. Some bitter herbs in there too. Gar took his dose, then Mac.

“Okay,” Mac began to speak as he pulled a tin out of his pack, “Now take off your pants and rub this on your lower body, the parts that will be submerged.”

We all stripped down to our grungy undies. There was no time to question this anyways.

“This salve will protect your skin. Keep your pants off– the water’s toxicity will probably disintegrate them anyways– then you’ll have no pants,” Mac told us.

We finished up preparations as Mac stashed our pants in his pack.

“Okay, who’s first?” Mac said, looking at me, then Gar.

I laughed. “You look ready enough, you go,” I insisted.

“Okay then, at the same time. Let’s go,” Mac compromised.

“Sounds fine by me,” I replied.

We stepped towards the river. Gar was close behind us, wary of what would happen, or just too drunk to care. We got closer and closer to the drink. I put my foot towards the water, then Mac did.

“Ready?” Mac asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered back.

I slowly lowered my right foot towards the water. I watched Mac do the same. I hoped Mac’s concoctions worked as our feet entered the disgustingly slimy water.

A Long Day Awaits

The hot sun blazed over us as we traveled over the crumbles of what remained. As we trekked towards the forest-lands, I could only imagine what the pristine forest had to offer. I imagined a utopia of greatness, a clean, untouched land where we could start over and live sustainably. We would have hydroelectric from a stream nearby and machines that run on steam, just like the old days. It would be great, I thought.

“Hey, you guys think the forest is going to be as great as I think?” I asked openly.

“Who knows?” Mac answered, “It could be paradise, or it could be hell. Or something in between, which is what I’m betting on.”

Gar grunted before responding, “I don’ know, but anywhere I can rest my bones is good to me.”

Maybe I was being too optimistic. Who knows? The forest could have been taken over by mutated animals and humans for that matter. I kept silent most of the way as did Mac and Gar. Talk right now was a waste of energy, and our food was scarce. I sure hoped this forest was going to be untouched.

I became absorbed in myself as we walked. The pace we were walking was almost hypnotic. Images of greenery, streams, and plentiful wildlife filled my imagination. Fish jumped along the stream while deer scattered after drinking the cool, clean water. We would live harmoniously among Nature and its beings. Using the plants and animals of the land, we would heal and once again thrive.

Before I knew it, we had stopped. I kept walking before I even noticed that Mac and Gar had stopped.

“Nat!” Mac yelled at me.

I snapped out of my trance. I was back in the world of destruction, where it was grey and clouded. So much for my fantasy. Mac started up a fire and set up camp for the night.

“By late afternoon tomorrow, we should be there,” Mac said.

“But first,” I added quickly “We’ve got to cross the highway– then the river.”

“We’ll be fine,” Mac piped in, “The highway is dead, and the river is low this time of year.”

I had a feeling the crossing of both would be a chore no one of us would want to endure. On the other hand, like Mac said, it could be a cinch. I deleted all of my pre-existing notions and decided to jump into it with no expectations. You know, to reduce my own personal disappointment.

Mac started to cook up some weird concoction of different herbs and god-knows-what. He boiled and stirred it, then poured the fluid into his fancy stainless-steel cups.

“Bottoms up!” Mac exclaimed, raising his cup. We clinked cups and sipped the hot tea. It was bitter and sweet with herbal notes and hints of flowers and flavors of different barks.

“This will help us sleep and give us energy for the big day tomorrow,” Mac told us, “Drink up, we’re heading out early in the morning.”

Gar looked nearly passed out at this point as usual. I stayed up a bit and chatted with Mac about the science behind this disaster. It was nothing he hadn’t told me before: Seismic probe, EMP, two viral bombs. Something about a government test or screw-up or something. Did these get into the wrong hands? Or was it the government who was completely at fault? None of this really mattered, but I felt the need to get answers. My whole world had been destroyed and I wanted to know exactly how and why.

My thoughts drifted a bit and Mac’s voice became garbled. I mumbled something like “I’m going to sleep” before I laid my head down. I sure hoped Mac wasn’t planning some evil scheme by drugging us. Besides, we had nothing of use to him anyways.

I woke up suddenly in a sweat that night. I became paranoid because of the thoughts I had before bed. Before I woke up, I had dreamlike images of a dark figure standing over us, appearing very malicious in nature. I looked around. Mac was there, sleeping. I relaxed. Gar was there too. The drink was just a sedative. I calmed. The drink’s active ingredients began to kick in. I looked around again, no dark figures. I relaxed more and fell back asleep. Tomorrow would be a long day.

Slop and Poker

“Gar, get your ass over here!” I shouted in his direction. He grunted. I walked over there and gave him a good slap on the shoulder and helped him up.

The slop was hot and ready. Mac was still perma-grinning it over by the stove as he slopped the slop into his fine stainless steel bowls.

I inhaled deep smelling the slop. It smelled kind of like a meat-jello. Sounds gross, but it tasted alright. Then again, any food was a feast at this point.

I tried to imagine Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner with my family: Prime rib, seafood, turkey, cranberry, stuffing– Just imagining the food and good times of the holidays made me ten times hungrier. That, and it didn’t make the slop taste any better. You really couldn’t polish this turd of a dish.

We finished eating in silence. Like men. Grunting and belches. No silverware. Sloppy. Okay maybe it was in silence because everyone was out to save any energy they had. More likely it was because everyday we were starving. Gar drank a bit of his booze, got up, and headed back to the lowly bed-corner.

“Oh, hey Gar,” I said, holding back a burp, “We’re gonna head out here in a bit.” Mac dug out some cards. Gar grunted. “Mac’s got some cards,” Gar turned around, I waved him over, “let’s play a few games and then head out.”

He grunted and sat down to play a few games. Texas hold ’em this time. Gar’s least favorite game. He was more into old school games like rummy and gin. I barely even knew how to play either, so I was glad to play something I was familiar with.

Mac dealt the cards out. We ‘bet.’ The flop. The turn. The river. Gar wins with a flush. Bullshit he doesn’t like this game. Gar laughed heartily as he collected the ‘pot.’ Gar won, Mac won. I got all the shitty cards, off suited. Dueces and tres. Maybe a Jack here and there. I’d win a random game here or there, but Mac and Gar dominated the table. Flip, flop, flam — Game over, we gotta get going.

I folded up my cards. “Well we better head out guys,” I suggested. Gar and Mac agreed. We packed up quickly and moved out, once again walking over debris. Everything looked the same: gray and crumbled.

“Mac, how far ’till we get to the Forest?” I asked, anxious to see some new scenery.

“Well,” Mac answered, “According to my maps and calculations, we have about a day and a half journey until we get there.”

“Good,” I said. Gar grunted and took another swig. Was that flask bottomless or what? Gar flashed his rotten teeth and laughed his creepy laugh.

“I gon’ go live in da woods! HA!,” Gar said drunkenly, laughing.

Mac and I looked at each other and shrugged. It was time to get up and head out.

I was hoping the woods would be just as imagined them: Free of disaster and pristine. Beautiful. Beauty was hard to come by here, but I’m sure you could have found some beauty in the crumbled remains of a once thriving city.

The sun was almost at its apex when we left, shining upon us. Even though my luck in poker left me something to be desired, as I felt the sun shine on my shoulders, I felt like the luckiest man alive.

A Disaster of a Morning

I tried to sleep that night over the droning of Mac’s voice, but it cut through everything. I tossed and turned. Mac played his game. Eventually I drifted of somewhere in between Mac explaining the whole disaster situation and him fumbling around in his bag for who-knows-what.

When I woke up I could sense something was wrong. Not with me, all my items were on my person and in my bag. My medicine pouch I nearly forgot about was secure around my neck. I’m almost betting it was this small item that had been keeping me out of trouble this whole time. It was like I could sense things others couldn’t. Either way, bad fortune hadn’t hit me yet, but soon enough, I was sure it would.

Mac was frantic. He dug through his bag.

“Where is it! Where did they go!?” he shouted, looking for a specific item. Or two. The sisters were gone.

I got up to see what all the ruckus was about. I rubbed my eyes awake and stretched.

“What’s the matter? What happened?” I asked.

“Those… Those BITCHES!” He stammered.

“Okay, calm down, I’m sure we can figure this out,” I said calmly in attempts to control the situation.

“They stole four bottles of painkillers and took most of my healing salve. Got like half a tin left only. Dammit,” Mac said. He was pissed.

I looked around the “apartment.” Gar was still passed out, bottle in hand. Now it wasn’t him I wanted to strangle. It was Mac this time. I thought he was a stupid idiot for having trusted these two, and now he paid the price. We all paid the price.

“Looks like they just packed up and left,” I commented.

“Stole my shit and got the hell out,” Mac added.

“Hey man, I’m sorry. It’s a tough break. But look where we are,” I waved my arm to the horizon, “everything has been destroyed. Even people’s values. It’s all about survival now. You can’t just keep helping people out,” I dragged on.

“I guess you’re right,” Mac said softly.

“I mean, we are an exception, we’re looking to build a team. They had a team already set up. Hell, they probably spotted us from miles. They had a pretty good operation set up there,” I rambled.

Mac sighed.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find another crumbled pharmacy somewhere. Then you can loot the hell outta it. Sound good?” I asked, trying to make old Mac feel better about the situation.

“I, I thought they actually liked me…” Mac dribbled out.

“Yeah, me too,” I said in a sarcastic tone, “Look. They knew you had something they wanted, so they took it. They just played you.” I said.

“Yeah, I guess,” Mac said glumly.

“You should be happy we aren’t all dead. I guess those chicks weren’t that bad,” I added.

“True. We are alive,” Mac said in a happier tone.

“Alright, I’ll wake up Gar. We should make some of that breakfast slop and head out,” I said.

I went over and slapped Gar on the shoulder. He grunted and slowly woke up. He looked annoyed, grunted, and laid back down.

“Alright, Gar,” I told him, “We’re makin’ some grub so get up or get none.”

He grunted again, putting his hand over his eyes. Mac rummaged through his bag to find ingredients for his slop.

“Shit! Goddammit!” He shouted. I knew immediately what had happened.

“Those bitches stole our food!” Mac exclaimed angrily.

But we were still alive, Mac. We might have been hungry, lonely, confused, or just plain lost, but we were alive. Besides, he was probably just frantic about losing his other stuff. I decided to take a look just to be sure this wasn’t the case.

“Let me take a look,” I said opening up the bag. There were weird cans and bottles of all sorts. Some with labels, some without labels. I spotted a can that looked like there was food in it. The can was stamped “C-1500-R.”

“Here,” I grabbed the can and showed it to Mac, “What’s this?”

“Oh thank God!” Mac said, thrilled to not have another thing stolen from his life.

“One-thousand five-hundred calories of slop never looked so sexy,” Mac said, caressing the can.

That was kind of odd, but hey, I was hungry so I didn’t care what Mac considered sexy.

The coals on the stove were still hot. Mac cracked open the can with a grin, slopped it into one of his pans (which he was lucky to still have), and put it on the stove. Mac just sat near the stove and smiled.

“What are you smilin’ at?” I asked.

“Oh nothing,” Mac said, “Things are just looking up.

The delicious smell of the slop filled the air as I watched Mac with his permagrin. I couldn’t help but crack a grin myself.

Mac Attack

Now we were on a slightly different path, helping T and D, or was it Tea and Dea? I’ll go with Tea and Dea from here on out. We walked and walked while the girls talked and talked. They talked frantically, mostly worrying about friends and family they haven’t seen yet. From what I understood it was Tea, Dea, and Fee, three sisters. Fee was on the search for their mother, they had a little ‘place’ to stay with a bed and a stove and some food. At the least, I hoped we could score a free meal for our good deed.

Mac chit-chatted a bit with the girls too, mostly talking technical stuff that the girls clearly knew nothing about. And on and on with his knowledge, his know-how. It was boring. I stayed quiet. I was kind of pissed that we had to walk out of the way damn near five miles (probably less than one, actually) to help these chicks out. Plus it got me all wrapped up into thinking about my wife. I knew she was alive, somewhere, but I just couldn’t find her. Nothing could stop that woman. She was probably looking for me, too. It was frustrating not being able to communicate with her, but I could feel her energy in the air. I just couldn’t lock it down.

“Here it is!” Tea exclaimed. It was pretty much as I thought: A makeshift shed-type building. A bed and a couple of cabinets. There was a well put together stove in the corner. Whoever made it knew how to make a stove. The coals were red-hot and ready for cooking. Tea grabbed a can of some type of pasta and slopped in into a pan, putting in on the stove. Dea tended to her wounds, covering it with a clean cloth.

“So, where’s your sister?” I asked. Gar laughed. I hoped Gar wasn’t going to say something stupid.

“Well,” she said in a semi-bitchy tone, “if you were listening, Fee is gone searching for the rest of our family.”

“Oh,” I said stupidly, “that’s right, I remember hearing about that.”

I kind of wanted to get going. These were ungrateful bitches. I could even tell they probably weren’t going to offer us any food. I wouldn’t blame them if they did, they didn’t know us. We did help them out though…

“We don’t really have enough to go around, sorry,” Tea said. Sure enough.

“Well,” I started to say “we probably should get going.”

“Nat, lets just stay here for the night. We can head out in the morning. I’m pooped,” Mac suggested.

Gar laughed and grunted drunkenly. He wouldn’t care either way as long as he had his bottle.

I shrugged. “Fine,” I said as I put my stuff down and settled in. Mac looked excited to see a member of the opposite sex. He just wanted to talk and talk and talk and listen to these bitches jabba jabba jabba. Go nuts, Mac.

The sun was burning a firey orange-red hue. Purples on the outside. It was amazing. Mac bent down to observe Dea’s wound, rubbing more salve on it. Gar found himself on the bed, a comfy spot, and sucked his bottle. He’d pass out in a minute. We’d probably hear his drunken chuckles- him laughing at some random part of a conversation.

I pulled up a ripped up cushion and laid down.

“G’night ladies and gents,” I said before I hit the floor.

“Going to sleep already?” Mac said.

“Yeah, I’m pretty tired man,” I replied, closing my eyes.

I imagined Mac being in heaven. Two girls that would listen and pay attention to him! Oh, they’d have a time, I was sure. I was also sure Mac would be on the fast track to getting slapped in the face, especially when I kept seeing that damn grin on his face. I thought about my wife again for a minute, I could feel her presents in a forest. A large evergreen forest. I wanted to go West. I pondered the idea of waking up early and just leaving. By then Mac would probably have learned his lesson. Or not. I prayed for our safety before my consciousness left my mind. The last thing I remember was Mac talking about some research he was doing before the disaster. There were loads of “Really?” and “That’s amazing!” Those ladies sure sounded interested. I had a feeling they were after something else…

Another Shot at Altruism

I laid there after I woke up with my eyes closed, just listening and meditating. Mac was already up, of course, and I heard him talking. To Gar, probably, and a second after the thought I heard Gar’s gruff and gravely voice. It sounded like Gar was leading the conversation with his three topics of choice: booze, sports, and women. Typical of a big dumb oaf. I blocked out the sounds and meditated a little bit longer.

I opened my eyes to see Mac and Gar playing cards near the campfire. Jagged pieces of concrete and debris poked me in the back while I was lying down, so it was time to get up. I rose slowly.

“Look who’s up!” Mac beamed.

“C’mon over here,” Gar said, pulling up a makeshift seat consisting of a slab of concrete. I was groggy and tired. I felt like shit, but I reluctantly shuffled over and sat down.

“Time is it?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.

Mac looked at the sky.

“It’s about three-thirty,” Mac replied, “You’ve only been asleep for an hour or so.”

Great, so now we’ve got about five hours till sundown. I figured we had better get moving, but I said ‘what the hell’ and played a few games of rummy with the boys.

Mac looked up at the sky after we played a few games. I lost most of the games. Mac and Gar were hardcore cutthroat and played competitively the whole time.

“Four-thirty, we gotta get going,” Mac said aloud. He got up and started packing up all his gear. Five minutes later we were ready to hike. I pulled myself up while Mac and Gar were already standing tall. Gar looked much better after the treatment. I, however, felt like total crap.

As we walked west, I couldn’t help but try to remember what happened. The past ten years had been a blur to me. I had no real job, nothing that was satisfying anyway. The economy was in shambles and slowly was rebuilding. Right now we were ‘halfway recovered’ according to the news. Now, everything was destroyed. None of that mattered now, so I forgot about it. These days, survival was king.

“Shhhh,” Mac whispered, “I hear something behind that wall.” He pointed at a crumbled building wall about a hundred feet in the distance. I heard it too, it was like crying or something. It sounded like a female voice.

Man oh man had it been a long time since any of us had even laid eyes on the opposite sex. This would be interesting to see. I knew Gar would act a fool. I preferred the gentleman approach. Mac, I had no idea.

“Lets check it out,” Mac suggested. We followed him to the  wall.

Behind the wall there were two women, about thirty or so years old, and yes, they were crying.

“What’s the matter?” Mac asked.

None of the words that came out of their mouths sounded like words. They were crying too much. I could make out something about one or both of them being sick, but everything else sounded like sob.

“Did you get bit?” Mac asked. The women became more visible. One of them was tall and had coffee-dark hair. The other was a bit shorter, larger chested, and had light-brown locks. Coffee dark shook her head.

None of them were sick, so why were they crying?

Light-brown sat against the wall, holding a dirty piece of fabric against her calf. Coffee dark began to rise, drying off the tears and finally calming down.

“Hi,” she said softly, still trying to normalize herself, “I’m T,” she cleared the snot out of her nose, “and she’s D. D’s got a gash on her leg and now we’re stuck here.”

You could tell they weren’t thinking straight or didn’t know what the hell survival was. Probably the latter since they both were wearing shorts and tank tops. They both looked beat up and dirty. We all looked that way actually.

“Take that cloth off,” Mac said, pointing at the cloth. She removed the cloth to reveal a disgusting looking festering wound. It was infected, and bad. Mac surely had something that would do the trick.

“How long has the wound been there?” Mac asked.

“About a day I think,” T said, unsure.

“Hmmmm,” Mac dug around in his pack, “this should help.” He took out a bottle of something and a tin of salve. Now this wasn’t the same salve we used before.

“Let me make sure she’s not bit,” Mac said to the girls. He checked her neck, her legs and her arms and nothing appeared to be bitten. A sharp piece of debris was probably responsible for this one.

“Looks good,” Mac said, “Take these,” Mac handed T some pills to give to D, “And apply this often,” he said as he handed T the salve.

“The pills are an antibiotic and the salve will help heal as well,” Mac explained.

“Thank you,” T said. She gave the pills to D. She swallowed them quickly. T then rubbed some of the salve onto D’s wound. She twitched and cringed due to the pain.

This was just too weird. We had been walking for two hours and we run into these two. These women would slow us down if they wanted to travel with us for sure. I mean, they were good looking, sure, but they acted dumb as rocks. They’d do us no good. I decided to converse a bit with them, seeing as both were calm and relaxed.

“So, where are you two headed?” I asked

“Going back to my sister’s apartment,” T replied.

“It’s crumbled to the ground most likely,” I said.

“Oh no. It isn’t like that kind of apartment. Its like, more of a shelter,” T said, making it sound like a question.

“Oh. Well we probably could get you back there if it’s close,” I offered.

“It is. I can almost see it from here. It’s like, over there,” T said as she pointed off to the North.

“Okay lets get there before sundown then,” Mac said looking at the sky.

I wasn’t sure why I had offered to be nice to these women. Probably because I felt bad for them because of their misfortune. As I thought about it more and more, I realized what a mistake this could be. What if her sister is some crazy bitch that would kill us? What if these two were lying and set up the whole infected wound scenario to lure in some poor old saps like us? I trusted my instinct though, hoping it still was working properly. I had a feeling something was up, but I didn’t feel threatened by it, so I left it alone.

Breakfast News

I woke up sweating the next morning. I had the craziest dream that night. Maybe it was the preceding events, but either way the dream scared the hell out of me.

It was Gar, Mac, and me, all traveling West as usual. Then these dogs jump out and burst into flame, exploding entrails everywhere. Then, I remember we saw a group of people who appeared friendly enough. They burst into flames as well, spewing guts everywhere. Human torsos crawled towards me as I inched back and bumped into… Then I woke up. That or I don’t remember the rest. The details were really foggy. My mind was too.

I laid there, staring at the gray, cloudy sky. I wondered if the dream meant anything or if it was some kind of premonition. Either way, seeing as I had met two other survivors, the events in my dream seemed very likely. I decided to keep vigilant.

I stared up at the sky for ten minutes longer before sleep drifted back in. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

When I woke up, Mac was talking to another man. It was the messenger. He finally got his report done. Great news. The messenger left speedily as Mac pulled out some kitchen vessels and began to cook. I rose slowly.

“Breakfast?” Mac asked.

“Sure,” I said sleepily. Gar was still sleeping like a rock nearby.

Mac tossed in cans of this and that, emptied powders, and stirred in liquids. What was this stuff? I had no idea what this concoction could be, but with the salve he made earlier, I was certain whatever Mac was making would do the trick.

Fifteen minutes later he slopped the mix into three bowls. Gar wasn’t awake yet, but you could see he was working on it as he stirred a bit as Mac and I ate. The slop had a meaty texture, like ground beef mixed with refried beans, and tasted bland and a little salty. It wasn’t home cooking, but it would satisfy.

Gar woke up as Mac and I were finishing. Mac handed him the bowl and he scarfed down the food in no time. He looked like hell after the salve treatment. He looked better today, especially after he ate. Being the lazy oaf that he is, Gar naturally went back to lay down and rest.

“Shouldn’t we be going soon?” I asked.

“Nah, it’s early, we can rest a bit,” Mac replied, “Besides, I have news.”

“Good or bad?” I had to ask.

“News is news at this point and time,” Mac said, “Whether its good or bad has no bearing. Besides, I think most of the bad has been done, so even bad news could be considered good news now.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” I said back, “On with the news, then!”

“Okay, so we’ve established the damage radius at just under 200 miles, at 167.7 miles,” Mac started.

“Okay,” I replied, thinking, ‘So what?’

“So from the epicenter, there’s just about two hundred miles of destruction. Now what we didn’t take into account was the viral bombs,” Mac went on. I knew what he was getting at.

“And so, with wind and whatnot, the viruses could be found anywhere. We are also still finding out how they are transferred. We know as of now it is transferred through saliva via bites and, um, eating flesh, we know that now,” Mac said.

“So what about the combustion virus?” I asked.

“We know very little about that one. It’s just so hard to study. The zombie-type virus is much easier to track and study,” Mac answered.

“So have you encountered any of the combustible-type?” I asked, thinking about the events in the dream I had.

“None alive. Every body we have encountered has been charred and burnt to a crisp. We don’t even know how it effects the body yet,” he answered, “The zombie one is unique. It simplifies the body. Slows down the central nervous system and brain. Organs eventually turn into a cellular goo. The skin turns gray and becomes leathery. Bones remain stable and muscles retain function.”

“Have you killed any yet?” I interrupted.

“They are difficult to destroy,” he answered, “The multiplication of the cellular goo is at such a high rate that the body heals very quickly. The goo fills it right back up. And if any is lost, it multiplies so fast.”

“So how do you kill one?” I was full of questions.

“Right now, you don’t. You just slow them down,” he said, frowning.

“Shit,” I said. I was unprepared to hear the news. Zombies you can’t kill? No thanks. That and who knows where the viruses had spread. Plus, the combustion virus was void of any knowledge. None of this news helped me recover from the events in my dream.

“Everything okay?” Mac asked. “I know it wasn’t the best news.”

“Yeah I’m fine,” I said, “I think I’m gonna lie down for a bit. Wake me up when you wanna hike.”

“Will do,” Mac replied, “I’ll keep a look out and wake you guys up when it’s time to go.”

“Thanks,” I said and nodded back to sleep.

As I sat there with my eyes closed trying to sleep I realized how much we didn’t know about the situation and how wrong our initial inferences were. Nukes? Pffft, we could only wish. I needed rest but too much was swirling in my head. I wanted to know more for some reason, and on the same token, I didn’t want to know any more. I wasn’t sure, but as I fell back asleep, I was sure we would later run into something far scarier than some puke-spewing zombie.

Eruption

I stood there wanting to ask Mac what the heck was going to happen but I knew he’d just tell me to wait and see. So I asked anyways.

“Soooo, what’s gonna happen in ten minutes? Why will he,” I made some quote fingers, ” ‘guaranteed be awake’ or whatever?”

“Okay lets talk about something else to keep your mind off it,” Mac replied back. It was the sort of response I was expecting. “So, I told you about the EMP and Seismic probe, Right?”

“Yeah,” I said, wondering why he going back to this. We needed to get somewhere where there was food and water. I knew we needed to be going west, but it felt like Gar and me had been just traveling in circles. Who has a compass? We all had cell phones equipped with GPS, which, with the EMP going off, was pretty much just as good as a rock.

“And the two viruses,” he added.

“Yeah the ‘Zombie whatever’ virus and the ‘Spontaneous combustion’ virus,” I replied as he nodded in confirmation.

“Yes. Okay, so here’s a question: Where are you trying to go?” It was a good question. The guy hadn’t asked where we were going before, he had just been looking for another living soul in need. We just happened to be on the way.

“Well, I know West of here is the suburbs and they’re a bit more wooded. We’d need guns, but I’m sure we could hunt some of the game in the forested areas,” I said confidently, “but I think we have been just circling around the edge of the city. You know, I can recognize some buildings, the unique ones, but much of the rubble looks the same. That and we might have been losing it due to lack of food,” I added.

“Another question: How far do you think the destruction stretches?” He asked. I was getting sick of questions, but I answered.

“I dunno, twenty-five, maybe thirty miles I suppose,” I replied, guessing heavily.

“What would you think if I told you the destruction spans out over a one-hundred mile radius?” Another question. Jeeze Louise.

“I would tell you you are out of your fucking mind, Mac,” I said in my douchiest tone. He pulled out of his bag some ratty rag looking thing. It looked almost like a scroll with writing on it.

“The hell is that,” I asked in my still negative tone of voice.

“This is a message from my friend delivered by our messenger. We’re very connected, very knowledgeable, and very lo-tech. We were hi-tech, but we learned the ways of the lo-tech so that we could survive,” Mac answered as he unfolded the dirty looking scroll.

“Hey, I started getting into that lo-tech stuff for a while too,” I said in a happier tone “Yeah, writing on paper instead of on plastic. Pencils. All that stuff. I can dig the lo-tech for sure.”

“Yes, good. We are on the same level then,” he said as I nodded.

“This scroll arrived just two days ago,” Mac said, unfolding it carefully. I took a look at the scroll, noticing a strange seal at the top.

I read the scroll. It read:

Thu Jun 20 2022,

Mac: Rup and I have traveled East for some time now. Ted should be here with the measurements soon. Estimated radius is 150 miles at the time of this writing. Virus T-251-IV and Virus 2-B-V have been confirmed in these areas. Virus T seems to be different than what we expected. We will update you with a full report very soon on this matter.

Keep traveling West, and report new data as necessary.We will update you frequently.

P.S. We missed your last report, please send A.S.A.P.

Sincerely,

Red

“So you missed your last report, huh?” I asked, chuckling.

“Well yes, you see,” he spat out. He paused for a bit, “Ahhhhh, yeah I didn’t get it in. Wanna help me write it up?”

Before I could answer, Gar’s eyes opened up wide as a disturbing look ran across his face. It was the kind of look you’d get if you either had to take a disgusting shit or if you were about to vomit. It looked like Gar was about to do both pretty soon.

“Stand him up,” Mac instructed as he ran over to his left arm. I ran over to the other arm and with one fluid motion we stood him up on his feet.

“Okay stand away from the head,” Mac said. I figured Gar was going to hurl soon. We both braced his back, standing away from the line of fire. Gar made some weird noises, some gurgling sounds, “Here it comes!” Mac just had so say it as a disgusting “ARRRRRRRWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAFF!” filled the air. Projectile vomit spewed from Gar’s mouth and reached a distance of nearly twenty feet from my quick estimate. He puked a bit more, spit for about ten minutes, and, as Mac gave him a bottle of water and a flask, he went back to his drinking and napping.

Gar seemed to be alright after his vomit-fest. It had been a long day, I figured I’d lay back as well, so I started gathering firewood.

“Get on that report,” I told Mac, “I wanna get out of here.”

“Good idea. Thanks. You’re right, I need to stay on top of these things,” he said back.

I was glad to have Mac around and now that Gar wasn’t a rotten piece of shit, we could drag him along again. He sat there, passed out drunk as I collected firewood. Mac scribbled notes in a notebook as I laid the wood down. It wasn’t even dark yet, but I wanted to feel the glowing warmth of a fire.

“Here, use this,” Mac said, tossing me a bottle of kerosene. I pulled out a lighter.

“Thanks,” I said as I lit the fire. The kerosene stunk as it burned but soon the fire was roaring. Mac tossed me two sleeping bags.

“Much more comfortable than the ground,” he said, “Throw that other one on your buddy, he’ll eventually find it.”

“Thanks, man. You’re amazing,” I said in a half-serious tone. I threw the other bag on Gar, hopped in to my bag and warmed up next to the fire as the world turned around me. Today was a long day. I wanted to end it early to see tomorrow again.