The Fog
Kenji was woken up by Nobuto, who was shaking him awake. His eyes quickly adjusted to the dimness of the room, and darted across the room, making sure everything was normal. He felt tired and groggy, his body still wanting to sleep.
“Are you ok? I came to get you, but you were screaming in your sleep.” asked Nobuto nervously.
Kenji rubbed his eyes and sat up, “Yeah, I’m fine, just a nightmare.”
“Was it about her?” Nobuto asked meekly.
“No,” lied Kenji, “What did you need me for?”
“Oh, um, the soldiers said to start waking everyone up. I think it’s time to go.”
Kenji stood up, “Alright, tell them I will be there in a second.”
Nobuto walked out of the room, pausing briefly at the doorway, and looked back at Kenji. Decided that he was okay, he left the room to join the others gathering outside the office. Kenji sat up and sifted through his back until he found a bottle of water, drinking deeply from it. He wondered if Nobuto believed him when he lied to him, or if he just wasn’t up to talking about what had happened to Kiyomi.
Kenji had decided that he didn’t want the others to think that he was weak or incapable of leading them. No one else had stepped forward to guide them. He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs sometimes, all the pressure was on him, and he felt like everything had gone wrong. Kenji knew that it could be worse; he or anyone else could have gotten infected. He was unsure of the idea that he could be doing worse.
In his mind, he was already doing worse, so when the soldiers arrived bring forward a plan that was better than his own, he went with it. Kenji was happy to have the guilt, blame, and paranoia of leadership placed on the man called Knight. He no longer had to worry every second of every day if someone would be hurt or infected. No longer did he have to worry about if they would find enough supplies to last them through the end of the week.
A weird small part of him felt insecure, exposed, for giving away his leadership role. He didn’t want the responsibility, but now that it was gone it felt like part of him was torn away. Like many other things that had recently been ripped from his old life, he knew that given time he would learn to let go of it. It was just hard facing the facts every day, mainly when they were right in front of you. Kenji sighed; the world went on spinning whether you wanted it to or not.
With that in mind, he grabbed his bag and his katana, looking back one last time at the office, making sure he did not forget anything.
✽ ✽ ✽
Knight was prepping his men, making sure each of them knew the plan by heart. He didn’t want any more mistakes made by his men. The civilians huddled around, clearly nervous about all leaving at once. Knight shared in their fear, but held it deep within himself, wanting to be the strong leader they needed and wanted. He looked at each of their faces, seeing the gaunt and grim faces they all wore.
It was odd to see people that he knew had no military training wearing the look that he had seen only veteran soldiers wear. The grim façade of war plastered on their features, a representation of unwanted victories, ending a life so they could live. At least, he knew these people had the guts to do what was necessary to survive. It was better to have a strong group for this sort of thing.
Knight looked amongst the crowd for the face of their leader, Kenji, but did not see him present. Maybe he had decided to stay, after all, thought Knight. Just as he looked over the last civilian, he saw Kenji and the teenage boy from earlier. They were walking over to the group, carrying their backpacks and weapons. Knight silently commended the man for sticking with the rest of his group even after he had handed over leadership to someone else.
“Sorry, I overslept.” Said Kenji.
“Don’t let it happen again, next time we might not have the luxury of waiting for you.” Replied Knight sternly.
Knight turned to the rest of the group, “Alright, everyone is here, check your belongings. Make sure they are snug and tight, you don’t want them to fall off or allow an infected to grab them. After that make sure your weapons are in good condition, if not we have gathered some extra melee weapons here.”
A few civilians walked over the pile of weapons the soldiers had found about the warehouse. They grabbed a weapon and headed back to others, enjoying their new weapons, mostly hammers. The soldiers had kept their Kabar knives to themselves, not wanting to part with their gear. The also held onto their M4A1s but decided it was best to save them for when the shit hit the fan.
The soldiers began to walk amongst the civilians checking each person’s backpack straps, making sure that none of them were loose. Tightening a few straps here and there amongst the group, but otherwise satisfied with the results. Everyone started to buzz with nervous energy, realizing that they would be soon leaving their haven. The soldiers then split them all into two separate groups; one group which would be leading the way consisted of Knight, Ramirez, Kenji, Nobuto, Ren, Cooper, and a few civilians.
The second group consisted of the other two pilots, Carter, and the rest of the civilians. Knight believed they should split up the pilots just in case one group got surrounded. Once everyone was together, Knight stepped out once more to address them all.
“Alright everyone, let’s move out, the second group will stay on the left side of the street while the first group will stick to the right. I want us all to clear the perimeter around the warehouse here just to be safe, and make sure we aren’t followed.”
Kenji stepped up next to Knight, “I will open up the roll-up door over there, and it opens up on the same side that you came in on.” He walked over to the door and began to unlock the door and grabbed the handle. Kenji pulled up with all his might and eventually the door started to move up. The two groups walked out into the loading dock area, the sky was still dark but held a dark blue-grey hue.
They all moved as quietly as they could, walking further along the building to the gate entrance that the soldiers had entered through earlier that morning. A slight fog had crept in from the nearby bay area, considerably reducing visibility. They could barely make out the fence at the edge of the parking lot, which worried them all. They had not thought about the elements hindering them on their way to the base.
It wasn’t enough to stop them from continuing onwards, as they moved to the fence. Kenji held the key to the gate and walked to the door in the chain link fence that he had opened for the soldiers, and the man who decided to stay went with him. He unlocked the door and then handed the key to the man. Kenji and the man said their final goodbyes and the rest of the group moved up to meet them.
Knight pushed past them and opened the door. It squeaked open, echoing in the empty street. They all paused listening to see if an infected were around, but after a minute decided that if there were any, they didn’t hear it. After they were all through the gate Knight gathered them all together.
“Alright, from here on out no talking, keep any and all sound to a minimum. Carter, I want you to take the lead, just remember to whistle twice quickly if you spot trouble. If you do spot trouble, we will stop moving and sit tight until it's all clear or we have killed the infected. I am trusting you with the second group don’t let me down again; this is your last chance if you mess up...” Knight trailed off.
Carter looked at Knight with shame on his face, “I won’t, sir.”
“Move out!” Knight said.
Kenji moved up to Knight, “Shouldn’t we wait until the fog clears up? We won’t be able to see that well until it does. We could walk right into a horde!”
Knight stopped and turned, “We don’t have time to wait, and we need to find a way out of this city.”
“B-But…” stammered Kenji, unbelieving Knight’s lack of care.
Knight didn’t let Kenji say anything else, walking away from him and joining the group. Kenji stood dumbfounded by what had just happened but quickly recovered. He jogged over to the group as well, still looking at Knight wondering what he was thinking. Surely
Knight knew what he was doing; he was the trained professional after all.
They all split into the two groups, and each group took a side of the street. Both groups began to move slowly, creeping passing the dead bodies that still littered the streets. Many of the civilians looked all around them, keeping their eyes peeled for any movement in the fog. However, it was too thick to see that far in front of them, along with the fact that the sun still had not risen yet. The sky above them now had a white-gray hue, meaning that the sun would soon begin to break above the horizon.
As the group passed the second intersection, a crash of glass was heard in the distance, amplified by everyone’s nerves that were already on edge. Several of the civilians took cover behind cars while some stood in the open holding their weapons ready for any infected if they showed up. All movement stopped for both groups, and they waited; Carter looked over to the other side of the street, waiting for Knight to signal to move forward.
The fog showed no signs of lightening up, which still worried them all. It felt like a long time had passed before Knight motioned Carter to start moving again. Everyone hoped that whatever broke the window would leave them alone, not wanting to find out if it was an infected or not. Everyone tread even more softly than before, not wanting to be the person to bring whatever lay in the fog to them.
They made it a couple of more blocks, now coming close to the end of the area they had cleared out. It could only mean one thing; their chances of finding infected grew exponentially. It meant that someone would probably draw unwanted attention to their groups. Most of the civilians felt a sinking feeling in their stomachs as they approached the edge of their territory.
At the same time, they were crossing over the edge of their explored area, and into an unknown zone, the sun finally had risen. It increased visibility a bit more, and they could now see almost half a block. That made them all feel a little better but still worrisome. At least, they would now have some small warning if they ran into some infected.
The next couple of blocks were some of the worst to trek through; lots of people had tried to leave in their cars, but ultimately abandoned them once they realized it was quicker on foot. It had created a traffic jam for several blocks and slowed down even their movement. They had to make sure that there weren’t any infected in the cars, either trapped inside or hiding amongst them.
Knight’s group had their path mostly clear, with just one car in the way that had attempted to bypass the traffic by driving on the sidewalk, but only to get stuck. The car door was ajar, the driver abandoning it after getting stuck. Broken glass littered the area, with a trail of dried blood leading to the interior of the car, giving a hint at the driver’s demise. They each glanced at the dried blood, a silent reminder of what could happen to them.
Carter’s group, however, had run dry on luck, finding several cars had been in an accident, blocking the entire sidewalk. They had to wind their way through the cars in the street to get around the pileup. Knight’s group waited just ahead of the crash on the other side of the street, watching both directions. It was a scene that many of the civilians remembered seeing, fighting their way through the city.
As the last of the group passed by the pile up both groups moved down the street. They spotted the origins of the pile up; a city bus had crashed into a building, half in the middle of the street as if the driver had swerved to miss something. The bus and cars blocked off most of the road, abandoned where it stopped. On the other side of the bus was an intersection and what remained of a military blockade.
It seemed that they had been overrun quite sometime before, dried pools of blood and spent casings littered the ground. The chain link fence they had set up was pushed aside in several spots. It also looked like someone had already been through the area, stealing all the weapons, ammo, and food. It was a disheartening scene, knowing that if the military couldn’t contain the outbreak; nothing could.
Knight signaled Carter to bring his group to his at the barricade. They met right outside the barricade wall.
“Carter, I want us to rest here for a bit, see if we can find something useful. Have the civilians in your group wait here while we search it. We might need any extra supplies we can find, and hopefully, the fog will start to let up. Fifteen minutes all I am allowing.” Stated Knight.
“Yes, sir!” replied Carter.
Kenji told the civilians that they were going to rest for a bit but keep an eye out. Carter and Ramirez went over to the pile of munitions; most of the metal cases carrying small caliber rounds had been picked over, with the higher caliber round cases mostly untouched. They grabbed what they could, shoving it into extra side pouches. Knight and Kenji walked over towards the tents together; a couple had come loose from their anchors, hanging freely.
Knight looked inside the first tent, which was empty and held nothing in it, except for some trash. The next tent was also empty except for a table at the back, and lots of paper strewn across both the floor and table. Knight picked up a few, but couldn’t understand them, but recognized their familiar format of reports from the chain of command. He threw them back onto the table and turned to leave.
Kenji stood in his way, “I just wanted to ask you if you knew where we are? I mean I don’t know the exact location of your base, and I wanted to make sure we are heading the right way.”
Knight replied, “Yeah, sure, let me just get out my map.”
He turned back towards the table and reached into his pocket and pulled out his folded-up map. Unfolding the map, he flattened it against the table, looking at it hoping to find their location. Kenji moved up beside him and did the same, pointing to their location on the map.
“There we are, at this intersection on the map.” said Kenji, “Where is your base at again?”
“It should be right here,” said Knight pointing at a building fifteen blocks to the southwest of their current location.
They had made it several blocks across the city so far and had no issues. They both took a second to look at the map, judging that they were mostly on target for finding their way. Pleased with their findings Kenji turned and walked to exit the tent; Knight grabbed the map, refolding it and shoved it back into his pocket. He glanced one last time at the papers, wondering if they held any useful information, but ignored them.
“Knight!” hissed Kenji.
Knight poked his head outside the tent finding Kenji standing next to the canvas, looking towards the street they were about to travel down. The fog had gotten thicker, and they could only see about fifty feet ahead now. Just outside the field of vision Knight could see an outline of a person. Kenji pointed at the person and put his finger to his lips.
Knight stepped up to whisper to Kenji, “Is that someone from our group?”
Kenji shook his head, “I don’t think so, everyone should be over there.” He pointed towards the fence they had entered.
“Let’s go check it out.”
“Alright.” Replied Kenji.
“Just give me a second,” said Knight.
He walked over to Ramirez and pointed at the person and whispered to him. After a few moments, he walked back over to Kenji. They both looked each other in the eyes; Kenji’s brown eyes showed his fear but held strength behind them, while Knight’s eyes were cold blue steel and no emotion. Knight pulled out his Bowie knife, a present to himself after he completed his first mission and nodded at Kenji.
At the same time, they started towards the figure in the fog; Kenji unsheathed his sword as they moved past the rest of the barricade. The sword made a slight ringing noise vibrating as he pulled it out. As the stepped over the remains of the fence to the barrier, they went to the left side of the street hugging the buildings. They crept up along the buildings, sticking low so whoever it was wouldn’t see them first.
As they got closer to the person, they ducked behind a car. From the stance the person had, they were hurt or infected. They moved from car to car until they were about twenty feet away, and they f
inally had a good enough view of the person. Knight turned towards Kenji, “I will take a quick peek. Stay low and watch our backs.”
He slowly and carefully poked his head out from behind the cover of the car. It was a man, who was facing away from them but wore native military garb. Almost too familiar; it looked like the gear that they had worn for one of his previous missions. Dark green BDU’s, rifle slung over the shoulder, and tactical vest containing spare magazines and other items.
That gear was gear that only Knight and his team would wear when they went out into the field. He found himself staring at the man, wondering who would have gear that matched his own. The man stood very still in the street, but then slowly started to turn towards where they were hiding. Knight stood up and began to move towards the man, sure that it was someone he knew.
Knight walked around the car; Kenji turned towards him, staying close but also hanging back. Knight had his knife in his hand, sneaking up to the infected soldier to plunge his blade into the base of the man's skull. As he approached the infected man, he found himself watching the man. He reminded him of Smith and froze.
He found he couldn't, and didn't, want to end the infected man's life. He couldn't bring himself to do it again. Ending his friend’s life was hard enough, and now he could not bring himself to end this man either, who reminded him of his fallen brothers. The choice he had made to shoot Smith hung heavy on his mind, making himself feel disgusted. Knight felt terrible, and his stomach heaved in retaliation, his previous breakfast now making a sick wet slapping noise on the pavement.
The infected man who hadn't noticed Knight yet, and now had turned to face him. Knight stood frozen in place still unable to move, his mind full of thoughts of regret; his mind preoccupied, and his limbs weak from ejecting his stomach's contents. The infected man was still several feet away from him, but Kenji acted.
“What are you doing? Don't just stand there,” Kenji said moving quickly to get to Knight.
The infected soldier was closing in on Knight who was too focused on Kenji now to notice how close he had gotten. The infected soldier’s hands grasped on to Knight from behind, grabbing him by his pack. They both fell to the ground, but Knight immediately caught himself and threw his fist into the infected soldier's face and rolled over. Knight stood up, “Fuck!”
What Remains: The Outbreak Page 22