Andrew tensed, raised his weapon, and scanned in the direction that Barry was pointing towards. Barry signaled him with his left hand to follow him. Andrew’s heart raced. With all this stillness they were used to, when they got movement, it’s like a high.
The earth beneath their feet crunched, as they walked along it slowly, and at attention; battle readied. Andrew looked up, as he heard the sound of a roaring drone coming screaming across the blue sky. This was a common practice for these types of drones to patrol questionable areas. A little comfort hit him as he realized that if there were something up ahead, the drone would blast it to bits. He watched the drone reach the rendezvous point, and instead of launching missiles, it continued its path, and it flew right by. Although Andrew was ready for some action, he was very relieved that the drone hadn’t spotted anything. They continued onward on Barry’s hunch.
Barry wasn't one to worry, lose his cool or shy away from a hoard of flesh-eaters, so he continued marching towards his destination with great focus. As they walked across the double-lane highway and moved through the maze of vehicles, Andrew's training was starting to kick in. He gripped his weapon tighter and brought the glass eyepiece of the scope to his helmet. Barry kept walking, and Andrew crouched down. He had Barry's back if something were to go down. He stared through the scope and zoomed in on the target location. There didn't appear to be anything occupying the space, but it was their job to get close enough to find out.
Andrew stood back up, and he heard Barry informing him, “The target’s right up ahead, let’s do this thing.” They closed in on the buildings, and still there wasn’t anything to report. Should we just turn back, and head to base, Andrew thought to himself. Then his better half kicked in, we have to do our job, he reasoned, but there was no time left to contemplate, they were now upon the target location where Barry claimed he saw movement. At first glance, the area was empty; just like every other place out there.
“What do you think,” Barry asked, as he scanned around.
Andrew also gave the area another once over before answering, “This looks to be deserted.”
“I guess I was just seeing things. Been out here too long…”
Barry got cut off when something bolted from the doorway of the building. The dark figure smashed into him, knocking him to ground. The dust kicked up as he landed with a heavy clank from his suit. It all happened so fast, Andrew didn't know what to do first: look at the doorway, look at Barry, or let his brain catch-up to figure out what just happened. Instinctively he chose Barry. He looked, and saw on top of him was a flesh-eater, and not a fresh one either. It was one that had been rotting for a while. It had a blown open chest cavity, torn, and tattered clothing and the skin on his face flapped, as it attacked him.
Barry struggled with the flesh-eater; his weapon was out of his reach. Andrew could hear him struggling through his headset in his helmet, “Simmons… Help!" The two things that these creatures have were speed and freakishly superhuman strength. Andrew steadied his weapon to fire at the flesh-eater, but he risked the fact that his round might go through the eater, and hit Barry. Without a moment of hesitation, he swung his weapon around and held it like a batter waiting for a fastball. Then he swung with as much force as he could muster, striking the flesh-eater in the side of the head.
Its skull caved under the massive weight and share force of the gun. Black blood spurted everywhere, as it covered Barry and the front of Andrew's suit. Barry pushed the lifeless corpse off of him, and the eater fell to the ground with its ghastly stare, and wide-open jaw, like it was still ready to feed. Barry was visibly still shaken; Andrew extended his hand to him to help him to his feet. Barry accepted, and he pulled him up.
Once to his feet, he wiped the front of his visor, clearing the black colored blood from it. “What the hell is going on? The drone cleared this place with its flyby,” Barry exclaimed with a bit of anger in his voice.
From the shadows of the surrounding buildings, Andrew spotted something heading in their direction. "I don't want to alarm you Barr, but we've got a bogey at three o'clock!" Knowing that these things hunt in packs, Andrew turned around and scanned the area behind them. Sure enough, he spotted two more standing on top of the roof of the building directly above where they were standing.
Andrew immediately thought to himself, if there are three out in plain sight, then you know there’s more hiding, and waiting. Then he spoke to his partner, “Barry, we’ve got to go man! There has to be more of these things around the corner or something.”
"We can't outrun them, we need to stand our ground, and fight them off, it's our only chance," he yelled through his mic.
His voice resonated through his crackling headset. Andrew cocked his gun; wiped the blood, skull fragments, and brain matter from the butt end of it so it didn't slip off his shoulder, as they fought the demon creatures. Just as Andrew predicted, the others that he was worrying about came out from hiding and made their way towards them. There had to be at least ten flesh-eaters heading in their general direction.
Andrew and Barry stood back-to-back and started firing down on them. Since the only way to kill a flesh-eater was to destroy their infected, diseased brain, that meant they couldn't count on body shots to stop them. Andrew steadied his rifle, as he aimed for their heads. He reassured himself, headshots only. The creatures ran at full speed, but once they were hit with a round that exploded their skulls, their momentum was lost, and they dropped right where they stood. Sometimes, when they got hit, they spun around like they’re doing an eloquent dance at a recital, but right now, this sure as hell was no dance recital.
One by one, the eaters dropped. Guns blazed, empty rounds ejected from their chambers. The sight of smoke coming from the expelled cartridges on the ground; seemed to reassure him that they were going to be okay.
“Four left,” Barry yelled.
Andrew looked to his right and wasted two of the creatures with only three shots. He then spun around to help Barry, but he saw that he had the situation under control, as he picked off the last two eaters from a distance of about twenty yards. The two soldiers breathing were heavy, and their muscles clenched, as they assessed the situation around them.
Along the ground, there were carcasses just strewn about.
“I think we’re safe,” Andrew said.
Barry agreed and suggested, “Let's get out of here before any more of those things decide to come help their friends.” Then he led, and Andrew followed, as they headed for their land-cruiser stationed far away across the double-lane highway.
Silence is Golden
Back in the safety of the Cluster, Jessica waited for the boys to return home. It was almost dark, and they weren’t allowed to scout after dark, so she could count on that as a timetable on when their return would be. Then through the quiet dusk air, came the loud booming echo that was the sound of the grinding of the Cluster’s gate opening.
The men were returning home from their daily missions. Civilian life didn’t have electricity or vehicles, only The United Front did, and for good reason. The civilians didn’t need the remaining resources that were leftover after the air raids, but The United Front did to ensure their safety. Although they had some technologies, what they did have wasn’t much, but they made due with what they had.
The rolling sound of the land-cruisers meant that Andrew was moments from arriving home, and just like clockwork, their cruiser sputtered into the center of the Cluster. It came to a slow halt, as it stalled out with a few backfires from the tailpipes.
Jessica headed over to beat-up buggy, as she liked to call it, and greeted Andrew. He got out of the vehicle and shut the door. Barry got out on the other side, shut his door with a heavy slam, and then kicked the front fender.
“Damn piece of garbage,” he cursed.
“What’s wrong Barr, your beat-up buggy not working again,” she jokingly asked.
“Jess, my favorite antagonist,” he kidded with her.
"Come on B
arry, give her a break. This thing is a piece of garbage,” Andrew smiled his big white smile, as he stood up for her. Andrew was older than she, but not by much. If she had to guess, he and Barry were around the same age. They all came into the Cluster at the same time, along with Jupiter, and Gracie.
Andrew walked around the front of the cruiser from the cover of the passenger side of the vehicle. Jessica noticed a black substance on his suit. She quickly looked Barry’s suit over, and could clearly see that he too was covered in the same dried, caked on substance. She knew something was up, so she asked Andrew, “How’d it go today out there?”
He hesitated for a moment, then answered, "Ah… Fine, I guess."
He walked past Jessica, and patted her on the head, like a puppy being rewarded by its owner for doing something good, or was the patting meant to be more of a hush now young child, let the adults talk? Either way, she didn't like it, so she peppered him another question, making sure not to look too desperate. "Just fine?"
Again he smiled, and then replied, “Yeah—just fine.” Then turned his attention to Barry, “Why don’t we get out of these clunky suits.”
Jessica looked at Barry because he was the one who usually would crack first when she pressured. He was lucky that Andrew changed the subject, and gave him an out; she was just about to lay into him with some persuasive questioning.
Barry, sensing she was getting close to seeing him crack, didn’t hesitate to answer Andrew’s question, “I’m not opposed to that.”
She knew that she had lost her chance, as she watched as they walked away. Something was differently odd about them today. With each mission they went on, when they returned, she was there to greet them, and they never acted with such avoidance, as they today. Her new plan was to hijack them at dinner, that’s where she would get them to spill the beans.
Jessica heard a voice calling out her name from behind her, “Jess.”
She turned around and saw Jupiter standing there. She was happy to see him, "Jupiter, when did you get here?"
With his delay, he answered, "I, just, got, here."
She walked closer towards him, and asked, "Hey, did you see Andrew and Barry when they were here?" Jupiter nodded his head because it was faster than speaking the simple answer. She continued, "Did they seem odd to you?" He shrugged his shoulders, and she continued to speak out loud to herself, "Yeah, that’s what I thought too.” Suddenly she realized she was asking Jupiter all these questions, and never asked him what he wanted. “Did you need something Jupiter?”
"Just, seeing, the cruiser," he spoke softly as he looked the vehicle over.
Along with all of his other major interests, Jupiter also enthusiastically enjoyed technology. He worked on this hunk-of-junk each time they returned from a field mission. In fact, if it wasn’t for Jupiter, Jessica doubted Andrew and Barry would have a cruiser to go out in at all. Jessica watched, as Jupiter examined the vehicle, and then began climbing all over, around, and underneath it. He looked happy, so she left him alone, and made her way back to the pod to get ready for dinner.
Once home, Gracie greeted her and pulled her hand leading her to the kitchen. Jessica humored her and followed. This was a ritual that they did almost every night. After they made their way in, their pod-mother was sitting at the table peeling potatoes. She looked up from her peeling and motioned silently that there was a pile of peeled potatoes that needed washing.
Jessica crouched down to Gracie’s level, and asked her, “Would you like to wash the potatoes with me?" Gracie was all for it. It worked out good, her and Jessica working together. They had a system for washing all the potatoes. Gracie picked one up, wiped the yellowish peeled vegetable with a towel to get all of the loose dirt off, and then she handed it to her. From there Jessica washed them under the gray-tinged water that came out of the faucet.
“Momma,” Jess said to her pod mother.
“What is it,” she replied with her soft comforting voice, and southern drawl.
“I saw Andrew, and Barry a little bit ago, they just got back from being in the field. Something didn’t seem right with them.”
“Well darling, don’t mind those two. Boys will be boys,” she assured.
The conversation peaked Gracie’s attention, “What do you mean something wasn’t right with those two?”
Jessica saw that Gracie was looking worried, so she calmed her down, "I didn't mean anything by it, Gracie. Don't you worry, everything is fine."
Andrew was still in his army suit, but his helmet was off. He stood in his bedroom in his pod. The clunky old suit needed to come off. With just a few clicks of some latches, it clanked to the floor. He stepped out; wearing only his white jumpsuit, he turned, and knelt down in front of it. His hands grasped the thin, lightweight metal. He was curious and examined the dried, eerie blood from the head of the first flesh eater he took out. Andrew thought to himself, I can’t believe we allowed ourselves to get that close to those foul beasts.
He allowed his thumb to scrape across the darkness, as he held it in her hand. Feels like dirt, he thought to himself. He knew they had these suits, but they wouldn’t have stopped all those eaters from chewing, and clawing their way through them in seconds. Now I have Jess asking questions. I’m only going to be able to stay her off for a short time before I break, or she figures things out on her own, he pondered, as he dropped the suit to his floor.
Death was just seconds away from creeping into his skin. With just one bite, he could have been almost instantly turned into a flesh-eater, after being eaten alive. This was all too much for him to take in; he had never been in that type of situation before. Sure he had his fair share of battles with them, but usually one, or two at a time. Never had he, or Barry saw a horde of them like that. That was something that they used to see back before the air-raids, but now after the raids, they would see pockets of stragglers, and the drones usually eradicated those ones. Close quarter combat not needed as much as it used to.
They were only supposed to scout the area, gather some samples, and get themselves out of there. They weren’t prepared for what they encountered, plus they really had no business being in the middle of those buildings, it was out of their range of area.
Night fell, the sky cleared, and the stars could be seen easily because there were no city lights lighting up the sky. Everyone gathered at the dinner tables in the middle of the Cluster. There were around twenty tables, and benches around this center of the dining area. The women stirred the kettles and served the men their food. Once the men were all served, then the women and children got theirs. It had nothing to do with sexism or anything like that. It had to do with the fact that the men were out all day doing physical laborious tasks, and they needed to eat first to regain their lost strength. Jessica took her bowl of potato soup, put her arm around Gracie, and they both went in search of Andrew.
With soup in hand, they made their way through the tables, and she then spotted Andrew sitting at their usual table with Barry, and Jupiter. Jessica made sure that Gracie was all set with her soup, and that she didn't need anything else before she took her seat next to Jupiter. The soup smelt bland like it did every night. Unfortunately, potatoes seemed to be the only thing that grew well inside the Cluster.
“Hey, Jess,” Jupiter said, as he greeted her.
"Hey Jupe," she said, as she locked eyes with Andrew. In the background, Jupiter started to have a conversation with her, but she quickly tuned him out, and her only focus is breaking down Andrew. Her eyes barely blinked, as she stared him down.
“Jess, what, do, you, think?”
Jupiter’s voice suddenly rang in her eardrums.
She had to break the stare; Andrew won this battle. She didn’t want to be rude, so she answered him, “What Jupe?”
“I, know, I, am, slow, at, talking, but, you, could, at, least, listen,” he belts out.
He was right, she should’ve given him the respect of listening; he was talking to her first before she started the staring co
ntest with Andrew. “I’m sorry, go ahead.” He slowly stumbled over his words, as he asked her if she thought those two, meaning Barry and Andrew had too much fun out there in the field. It was hard to listen to him, as she locked eyes with Andrew again, as he ate his soup.
With a devilish smile, she replied, "I bet they just sunbath all day, and pretend to have been working when they come rolling in, in that beat-up buggy of theirs. Yup, it's a real vacation," she teased, knowing that it would get the better of him, and maybe he would just spit out that story he was hiding; due to the amount of staring they were doing, it must have been a juicy one.
“Okay,” Barry shouted out.
Andrew stood up, and firmly chimed in, “Barry…Not now.”
“I knew it! I knew something was up. Spill the beans Simmons,” Jessica antagonized.
“Take Gracie to another table, I’ll clean up what you started.”
Barry got up, grabbed Gracie, and ushered her to another table, where they sat down, and finished their dinner. Jessica couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say, the excitement was bubbling over, he imagination began to run wild, Maybe they found gold, or better yet, something better than potatoes to eat, the anticipation was literally eating her up inside. “Sit down, and tell us what’s going on,” Jessica told him.
He sat down, and faced Jupiter and Jessica, then he took a moment to adjust himself, and he leaned into the table. They do the same, so they could hear him better. He started to explain, “Today, Barry and I were out doing our usual scouting, and sample taking. When he spotted movement off in the distance. We made our way over to check it out, once we got there, something crashed out of the building’s doorway, and started to attack Barry—“
Jess interrupted, “What was it?”
“I’m getting there, so like I was saying. This thing was attacking Barry, so I smashed it in the head with my gun, and it rolled off of him, not alive. Then I saw it was a flesh-eater—“
A Regressive World: Book One Page 2