“I cannot see that far. There are too many strings. It all depends on you, though; I can see that much.”
I looked away. No pressure at all.
“Just tell me what I must do.”
“You will know, in time. Just remember my words.”
“I don’t even know how to interpret that.”
The Wanderer was still holding onto me. He had not let go for two minutes. He did so now.
“Your potential is far beyond what you even realize. There is always something we can do to make another’s day brighter – a smile, a kind word or gesture – the small things give us the strength to do the big things.”
The Wanderer turned from me and faced the fire, its orange glow reflecting off his face. He went off to sit where he had eaten. Everyone watched him quietly.
“I have said all I came to say,” he said. “I just need to have a bit of a rest and I’ll be off.”
“I’ll bring you a blanket,” I said.
The Wanderer smiled. “That would be good.”
I went to the Recon, and found him something to cover up with, my mind a blur. Once I’d grabbed a thick blanket, I returned and handed it to the Wanderer. He accepted it, wrapped himself up, and lay with his back to the fire. Within moments, his breathing was even with sleep.
No one said much of anything after that. I lay down and wrapped myself in my blanket, thinking on what he had told me.
It all hinged on me. What did that mean? And I had to sacrifice something, and I would know what that was when the time came?
I only hoped it wouldn’t be my life.
Chapter 12
When we awoke the next morning, the Wanderer was gone. He must have left sometime in the night, but his words had remained. The blanket I had loaned him was left behind, folded neatly on a nearby rock.
Everyone worked to break camp quickly, packing the Recon with purpose. Anna seemed distant, so I decided to see what was up.
“You alright?”
She paused after spreading the ashes of last night’s fire. “It’s nothing.”
“Nothing always means something, right?”
She looked at me with a mixture of annoyance and softness. “That man told me something. I guess I can’t tell you what it is, since he told me not to…”
She sighed, and I waited for her to go on. She said nothing more.
“Whatever it is, we’ll get through it, right?” I asked.
She smiled sadly. “I hope so. It wasn’t good news, I’m afraid.”
“You’ve got me worried.”
Anna looked toward the Recon. Everyone else was already getting in. Makara turned on the engine and it roared to life in the thin mountain air. The headlights clicked on.
“Time to go,” Anna said.
Makara honked the horn, and leaned out the window. “You two, hurry up! We’re burning daylight.”
We went to the Recon, and got into the cab. I looked over at Lisa. She stared out the window as if it were her life’s mission.
Everyone was quiet and contemplative. Both Anna and Lisa on either side of me had dozed off. Makara kept the Recon on a steady course east. The blackened, dead trees on either side of us looked gloomy in the red early-morning light. The ground was bare, bereft of any life. Above the clouds churned, holding more dust than rain. The scene was depressing.
Makara navigated the rocky, dry earth slowly. It sloped downward. Ahead lay a wide, desert vista, rocky, filled with dune and mountain. A thin line, barely discernible, marked the highway that headed east. In the far distance the sky was a bit brighter, but the sun was still too weak at this hour to force much of its light through.
Samuel pored over the map, his eyes squinting in concentration.
“How’s your arm holding up?” I asked.
“Much the same,” he said, without taking his eyes off the map. “Feels the same as yesterday.”
Makara said nothing, concentrating on the path ahead of her.
“Get on the highway?” she asked.
“That would be easiest,” Samuel said. “At this rate, we’ll be on it in a few minutes.”
Anna turned from the window. “The highway should take you the rest of the way there.”
Anna’s words reminded me of the fact that she would not be with us much longer. We still had the rest of the day, and part of tomorrow, before she was gone.
“Are you sure you’ll make it back alright on your own?” I asked.
She looked at me pointedly. “I can handle myself. Besides, my odds of making it back are far better than yours.”
She had a point. I decided to hold my peace, though somehow the prospect of her leaving felt wrong.
The next few hours passed in silence. Everyone was tired, and Samuel and Makara were intent on navigating the Recon. Anna had not been out this far before, so her guess was as only good as theirs. Though she no longer knew the way, she decided to stay until the Great Blight.
Ahead were two great rocks the highway passed between. Makara went through the gap.
It was upon leaving the other side that something big pummeled the side of the Recon.
The Recon spun out, and Makara slammed on the brakes. When the Recon came to a standstill, we were facing the direction we had come from.
That’s when we saw them.
Several creatures shot in front of the Recon. They were low to the ground, pink, and had many scuttling legs. They had long faces with snakelike white eyes, and looked like a cross between a lizard and a serpent.
“Crawlers,” Anna said.
Makara floored the accelerator – as she did, two of the things sailed through the air toward the windshield, their long bodies wriggling back and forth while in the air. Makara spun to the right, the crawlers slamming into the Recon’s side.
“The turret!” Samuel yelled. “Get to the turret!”
I forced myself up, trying not to crash from all the bumps. I made it to the ladder in the cargo bay and hauled myself up. Hitting the cold desert air was a shock. I snapped the gun into position, and clicked the safety off.
Those crawlers moved fast. There were four of them, and they easily matched the Recon in speed. They scurried across the ground, their forms a blur.
In the far eastern distance, a line of pink and purple mountains edged along the horizon. Pink and purple…we were nearly there. The border of the Great Blight.
I fired, hitting one of the monsters. It gave a wretched squeal as it tumbled from its own velocity, sliding and rolling through the dirt to its death.
Lisa popped up next to me, aiming her gun upward.
“Need a hand?”
I didn’t answer as I started firing at another one. This one dodged my bullets, but Lisa was already aiming. Within seconds, she found her mark. She fired, the sound so loud that it temporarily deafened me. I saw the monster crash and roll over like the other one had.
The remaining two backed off. In tandem, they slowed down, allowing the Recon to get away. In the distance, the mountains were slightly larger, glimmering in the late morning light.
“Looks like they’re giving up,” I said.
They sped up again, running insanely fast.
“Watch out!” I said, taking aim.
They took to the air, sailing through it, their long mouths open and revealing razor-sharp teeth. They crashed on top of the cargo bay, their paws sticky and clinging to the metal. They scuttled toward us like insects. I fired, blasting one of the snakelike things off the Recon. It flew into the air and crashed into the dust.
The other was close. It was nearly on top of me and Lisa. Its mouth widened, discharging a rancid stench from within.
The crawler struck, its nasty paws pinning me to the top of the Recon as Lisa retrieved a knife. The thing smelled of decay and rot – thick purple ooze dripped down its slimy skin.
My arms grappled its neck – but the thing had a lot of strength I hadn’t counted on. Its mouth neared my neck.
“Kill it!” I yel
led.
But the crawler, with its rear legs, kicked Lisa, causing her to sprawl over the gun. It was just me and the monster.
That’s when Anna showed up, her katana flashing. With a scream, she severed the monster’s head from its torso, sending a spray of purple ooze gushing from its neck. I jerked to avoid it, and it missed me by inches. The head rolled off the side and crashed onto the ground.
The crawler’s body rested against me, constricting my breathing.
With her leg, Anna forced the heavy body up enough for me to slink out from under it. Together, we pushed the thing off the Recon. It tumbled onto the dusty ground below.
Lisa struggled up from where she had fallen.
“You alright?” I asked.
She winced in pain. “That shit hurt.” She got up, rubbing her side. “It wasn’t the kick so much, but my back slammed right into the gun. It’ll leave a nasty bruise.”
“Take it easy,” I said. “At least we still have our lives, thanks to Anna.”
Anna cleaned her weapon with a rag, wiping her blade clean. Scrunching her nose at the dirty cloth, she threw it over the side. “It was nothing.”
“I think I’m going to stay up here a while,” I said. “There should probably be someone up here at all times to keep watch.”
“Be careful, Alex,” Lisa said. “Come down if more of those things are out there.”
“Don’t worry. The land’s flat, so I can see anything coming from a mile away.”
“Still,” Lisa said. “I better go check on Makara and Samuel. They’ll want to know that everyone’s okay.”
Lisa climbed down the ladder and back into the Recon.
Anna looked at me. “You alright?”
“Yeah. I thought I was dead.”
“I should have come up first thing,” Anna said. “I’m sorry.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I had no idea they could get up there. I thought I’d be useless with my sword.”
I laughed. “I’m glad you were wrong. I wish you’d stay, though.”
She turned away, her head down. Her black hair blew in the wind.
“I…I don’t know. I’m still thinking.”
“What did the Wanderer tell you?”
She didn’t answer. Of course she wouldn’t. She wasn’t supposed to tell me. She looked at the hatch on the ground, as if considering leaving me up here.
“You don’t have to stay,” I said. “I just don’t know who will save my life in the nick of time if you go.”
Anna turned back around, with a smile. “I’m glad I got to know you, Alex. Whatever happens.” She looked at my shirt. There was a purple stain on it from earlier. “Stay here. I’ll go get you another shirt.” She touched my arm. “And a jacket.”
She turned to go, my eyes never leaving her. Alright, after that, I definitely had to do what I could to get her to stay. But still, did I really want that? Going to Bunker One could be sure death. It probably was sure death. Anna would be better off leaving when she could. And yet, I couldn’t help but feel a spark when she was around. It was shame, then, that she had to leave. It felt sad to think that I might never see her again.
I looked at the mountains. It wouldn’t be long, now. That line of orange, purple, and pink glimmered, seeming to absorb the suns’s paltry light and burn with unnatural luminescence. I had no idea how we were going to cross all that, all the way to Cheyenne, Colorado. Hundreds of miles of Blight seemed impossible to fathom.
The first stretch of our journey had ended. The second, worse one, was about to begin.
***
It was getting dark by the time we saw the first twisted trees. Seeing them again was a horrifying sight as it was only a sign of much worse things to come. They were stunted, leafless, and had become vessels of the xenovirus, dripping the slime. I didn’t know what else to call it but “the slime”; that pink, organic liquid that carried the xenovirus and allowed it to spread.
About a mile to the east was the border of the Great Blight. It was chilling to look at: a giant wall of purple and pink, stretching from north to south, horizon to horizon, maybe as much as one hundred feet high.
Makara pulled to a stop, still a fair distance from the border. Darkness was quickly cloaking the land. Trying to find a way in tonight would be madness.
We were the only blot on the windswept desert flatland, other than the occasional dune.
“We camp here tonight,” Samuel said.
We were a little exposed, but anything resembling cover was twenty miles back. We would just have to risk the threat of attack. I shuddered to think of more crawlers out there in the night. Could they see us? Hear us? Smell us? Or were they waiting for us to cross into Hell?
Despite my trepidation, nothing happened that night. We all slept soundly, except Samuel and Lisa, who were on watch.
It would be my last night in the Wasteland for a while.
Chapter 13
We left at sunrise after a quick breakfast and headed the final mile to the Great Blight.
It must have been my imagination but it seemed a bit…closer than yesterday. Maybe it was just the light, because I could not see how it could have possibly grown that much. Seeing that pink wall stretch from north to south in a near perfect line was damn unnerving. It was as if something had built it. What that something was, I didn’t know. It was all encoded into the genetics of the xenovirus, I supposed.
We approached within a hundred feet of the wall, and we had to crane our necks to see the top of it. The twisting pink, purple, and orange growth was thick, gnarled, interlocking. It was impenetrable. The wall cast a long, pinkish shadow from the low morning sun. There was no telling how thick the wall was, or even how to pass through. Makara turned north, driving the Recon alongside it for a good hour.
“There,” Samuel said, pointing.
Makara turned. “I don’t see anything.”
“You can barely see it because the colors mess with your eyes.”
Makara’s eyes narrowed. She nodded grimly. “Yes. I see it.”
Anna drew closer to me, our shoulders touching. I turned to her.
“You alright?”
She nodded. “I think so.”
“I guess you’ll be leaving soon, huh?”
She didn’t answer for a moment. Her face appeared troubled.
“You can talk to me,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“I can’t leave,” she nearly whispered.
Makara’s eyes flicked to the rearview. “What do you mean? That was the agreement.”
Anna sighed. “Yeah. I know. But the Wanderer said I would have a choice, and I’m making that choice now. My role here isn’t done. Without me, you guys won’t make it. If you guys will have me, I’d like to join you, the rest of the way to Bunker One.”
No one said anything. Samuel turned around.
“You realize what this means, right?”
Anna nodded slowly. “Yeah. I know. We might not be coming back. It’s important that I go on. That is my choice. If I don’t…I will regret it.”
“Well, I don’t think anyone else would be against it. You’re a good fighter and we could sure use someone like you,” Samuel said.
“What will Char say?” Makara asked.
“Char will be made to understand, if we ever see him again,” Anna said. “This is bigger than Char. This is my chance to do something for once.”
“Let her come,” Lisa said. “Like Samuel said, she will hold her own and be useful. Besides, I don’t want to go against what the Wanderer said.”
I was ecstatic, though I hid my feelings
“So you’re really staying?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
She turned to me, her eyes fierce. “This is my mission too, Alex. Don’t try to stop me. You guys need me.”
She held my gaze. There was no faltering in it.
“It’s decided, then,” Samuel said.
Makara pres
sed the accelerator, and we rolled forward, toward the entrance of the Great Blight.
***
Makara slowed the Recon as we approached the opening of the Great Blight. The opening was a giant archway of fungus, where the hard rock of the ground was replaced with the pale, sickly pink of the xenofungus. As the vehicle transferred from the hard surface to the soft one, the ride became eerily smooth. The fungus sloped upward. On our either side were tall, organic walls, twisted and dripping with slime. The tunnel cast pinkish shadows on the vehicle, on its inside, even on my skin.
This must have been what the Wanderer referred to as the Gates of Hell.
Now that we were in, I wanted back out. The puffy fungus extended up a hill, its multicolored hues blinding to the eye. Twisted columns rose from the ground, spreading in a series of hanging tubes that all dripped slime. The slime collected at the bases of the columns, forming pools and icky streams. Clouds of insects swarmed above the pools.
A couple minutes into the Great Blight, I could feel the hostility of the landscape. I used to think we weren’t coming back. Now, I knew. Something dark was behind all this. It went beyond the xenovirus and Ragnarok. But that’s why we were here. We had to figure out why this was happening and how to stop it.
Finally, we made it to the top of the incline. It was hard not to get depressed at the sight. In all directions was something that could only be described as a xenofungal forest. There were thousands upon thousands of trees, alien to behold, spreading in all directions. The trees’ foliage was afire with blinding orange, shining from the feeble rays of sun that found their way through the red-clouded sky. The trees were so thick that it seemed impossible that we should ever get through them. They extended all the way to the far horizon, and there was no telling where they ended. That is, if they ended. Some of the trees were tall – maybe a hundred feet high – and the biggest ones had offshoots of their own that connected to other trees in a spidery labyrinth. I thought of the creatures that had attacked us, and how many would be lurking in the shadows within.
In that forest we would be reduced to a crawl. The Recon’s speed would be no advantage. It was a good thing the Recon had a compass, or we would surely get lost in that maze.
The Last Days: Six Post-Apocalyptic Thrillers Page 49