by Nathan Ward
Enrique lead the team deeper until he had begun to notice what could only be a light at the end of the tunnel. He held up his hand and pointed towards it, Sasha and Murdock behind him could just about make out the outline of his hand by the faint glow coming from the opening up ahead – but as they approached, the tunnel had gotten ridiculously tight to a point where they had now started to take side steps to avoid injury from the jagged rocks that jutted out razor sharp along the narrow walls.
“Careful, it is becoming quite so dangerous,” warned Enrique, keeping his eyes glued towards the light that silhouetted the lumps and bumps of the walls.
“I keep getting stabbed up the arse!” yelled Sasha, holding back her laughter.
“Sorry about that!” apologised Murdock, and then the group broke out in hysterics. It was the light, the hope, they were all embracing it and finding a reason to laugh – hope was shining brightly now, a hope that this long journey would end soon.
'I’m stood in shit, encased by stone at what could be the end of all life as we know it and yet we can still find the energy to laugh, these people are amazing!' thought Murdock as he laughed, grasping the moment and feeling thankful for the lightness of it as he hoped when the moment slipped away, the return to reality wouldn't be too sharp and painful in this world of hopelessness where laughter was so very rare. But he had faith, because for now, there was still hope, and all of them clung to that.
Enrique emerged from the narrow tunnel, followed by Sasha and lastly Murdock who took his final step not noticing an extremely sharp edged rock that had nipped his suit, tearing it slightly and grazing the skin on his leg. He didn’t even bother checking to see if he’d been seriously wounded, he’d suffered much worse and instead, he focused his attention on the newly uncovered cavern.
The rocky walls rose to at least eighteen feet high, encasing the area like a hollow Easter egg, through the centre of the cavern ran a passage filled with the magic they had travelled to obtain, water – and lots of it!
For a moment, they just stood there. After the nightmare journey, with constant thoughts of thirst tormenting their minds, it was a sight that stopped them in their tracks as they gazed at the beauty of it. Tears of joy flooded from Sasha's eyes, she looked across at her friends who were completely amazed at what lie before them as it hit her that they had taken this route by chance, and found something she could only liken to life itself.
Nothing could delay them from sprinting towards the edge of the water and diving in; the water was so ice cold and fresh they could all feel it pressing against their suits as it cooled their skin, as the suits acted as a barrier, keeping them dry – except for Murdock, whose boot had begun to fill up through the tear he had just sustained. They cherished the moment, splashing water into the air as they celebrated, laughing, smiling and crying with joy.
They were so overwhelmed and caught in the moment that they had failed to notice something sinister was floating down and around them. Sasha caught a glimpse in the corner of her eye, a black mass floating downstream beside her, the sight of it gave her a jolt and she was almost too scared to look in case it would pounce on her and devour her flesh.
Murdock wasted no time as he turned his head and stared down at the mass surrounding them as it slowly moved down the stream: A never ending trail of bodies, UNA soldiers bodies clothed in the very same white uniforms...
Murdock was the only one of the three who could honestly sympathize, having worked with these men for the past months, admittedly he knew a day may come when he would be faced with a sight like this - but he had never imagined it in this scenario. Most of the bodies were face down but the occasional one went on by faced upright, features bloated by the water, the skin like clay and as white as the suits they wore, the occasional ones Murdock identified as a childhood friends who had come from loving families - seeing them now, they were just corpses drifting in to the darkness of the unknown.
“Don’t drink the water!”Murdock yelled, “I know we're desperate, but we have children counting on us. So we need to survive this!”
Sasha's gaze was fixed on the corpses.
“Who would have done this?” she said in a hushed voice as she started to tremble.
“We would have done this…” replied Enrique, “We couldn’t have been the only people to mount a rebellion against the UNA.”
“Which leads to my worst fear,” said Murdock
“Which is what?” asked Sasha
“The UNA were the enemy, if they’re now gone and the human race prevailed again like many times before throughout history, that’s us gone full circle, the monsters rise again,” explained Murdock.
A body suddenly dropped from above them, narrowly avoiding Enrique and crashing into the stream of water, erupting on impact. It was another UNA human soldier but this one had a huge chunk missing from his forehead.
Enrique knelt down and held on to the body, its head leaked a deep crimson that turned the colour of the stream in to a flowing blood bath, a constant flow of crimson poured while he attempted to examine the severity of the injury and what could of done it.
“Well, half of his face is missing…” Enrique explained to Sasha and Murdock
He wiped his hand over the wound and the blood leaked on to his white leathers, smothering him, dripping at the elbow back in to the stream. Enrique pulled the deceased soldiers head closer to his gaze, where upon further inspection he began to wonder – before he could wonder too much another body suddenly fell, knocking Sasha in under the water.
Murdock leapt to her rescue, pulling away the body, which this time had an arm missing, and then reached for Sasha, pulling her back to her feet.
She began to cough, spluttering up the condemned water. Sasha was now covered in a thin glaze of crimson. They both looked across at Enrique who had begun to stare up at the ceiling, so Sasha and Murdock slowly rose their heads too.
All they could see was a thick shadow of nothingness but the expression on Enrique's face told a different story, he rose his arm and pointed, and then he slowly whispered.
“We…need… to move!”
From what had been darkness a moment ago, had now turned into a fest of bright glowing green eyes, hundreds upon hundreds fast appearing, followed by the shape of what could only be a living organism.
One of the creatures entered into the light, revealing a heavily mutated body, its limbs were that of a body builder on steroids and its face seemed to have sunk in, leaving the glow of nuclear radiated eyes and a gaping long jaw from which it bellowed a furious roar, followed by another and another until an entire swarm had began to scream at the fighters down below who stood in the stream of blood.
“Evolution's a fucking bitch!” Murdock exclaimed.
“They climb walls now...” said Sasha as she trembled again.
“I thought the nuke would have wiped them out!” Enrique said in surprise.
“They’re half human, what do you expect?” Murdock replied, “They have our survival instinct. Welcome back, our Howling friends...”
Then Murdock, Sasha and Enrique challenged the swarm of mutated howlers by remaining within their sights, locking in eye contact, waiting for someone or something to make the first deadly move.
Chapter 6 – Rise of the Muto Howlers
A Howler broke its gaze, releasing itself from the ceiling of the cave, sending its body in to a fall and it rapidly landed with a hard splash into the stream a few meters away from Murdock. Another dropped then another until the three defensive fighters were stood with their backs touching one another as a circle of howlers crept towards them, staring with a menacing glow, snarling and howling.
The Howlers continued to drop down from above, some scrambling to their feet others landing perfectly into the water, the crowd was growing at a worrying pace and Murdock knew if he didn’t act now they were all going to be Howler supper.
“Enrique, we’re going to need that swing of yours!” yelled Murdock, making sure he was he
ard over the sound of the rapidly gathering Howler infestation that was now surrounding them.
Enrique understood the order, he threw his rifle on to his back which was held in place by a strap, then he drew his sharp edged axes from their holsters that had been mounted to his thighs. The bladed edges sparkled in the beams of light that had begun to shine through the smallest of holes in the ceiling, light rays that could only be generated by the prematurely risen Moon in the skies, but this still didn’t seem to fend off the Howlers aggression – that aggression was growing by the second, it was almost as if they felt teased – knowing just how tasty and heroic this new pallet would be, they could not hide their desires. The Howler closest to Enrique had begun to foam at the mouth, dribbling out a slime trail of toxic green. This Howlers patience was being severely tested but it endured, clouding its mind, waiting to feast as the need for flesh burned in its monstrous eyes as clearly as its ravenous hunger also reflected there.
Howlers were still falling from the hive above, their numbers rising by the second. Murdock had begun to worry for the first time in a long time but he shoved that fear aside as he made his move.
“NOW!” he yelled.
Murdock and Sasha turned to face the direction in which Enrique was stood, they had already lifted their rifles to the side of their faces allowing them to fix their sights to target around Enrique, then they unleashed a rapid burst of gunfire that simultaneously caused the Howlers to explode on impact, green bile had begun to spray livid and ugly into to the air, landing all around the cavern. Murdock and Sasha continued to fire, highlighting an exit path through the thick, endless horde of howlers. Enrique took a few swings, decapitating a few of the oncoming howlers and advancing through the crowd.
Enrique knew Sasha and Murdock had his back so he locked his gaze on the twelve o’clock threat, continuing to swing and amputate the howlers around him, sending limbs flying across the stream.
The Howlers behind Murdock had begun to charge at them, Murdock looked back for a brief moment and caught a howler about to impale his skull with sharp claws capable of crushing bone, but in the nick of time he managed to unload a round into its eye, rupturing its skull and discharging its brains in to the horde of howlers behind it.
Murdock turned and pushed against Sasha who was still unloading lead around Enrique, keeping him out of the mutants reach. With one last swinging motion, Enrique hacked in to the last howler’s chest, tearing out its organs as the axe exited its body. The body fell with force in to the ground, sinking heavily into the bloody stream that had now begun to glow a dark poisonous green colour.
Enrique got down on to his hands and knees and crawled in to a passage which the water had originated from, Sasha and Murdock threw themselves to the ground and rolled under, narrowly avoiding the howlers furious swipes, by now they were like attack dogs trying to mutilate the wall - but they were not quite intelligent enough to work out how to get to the other side, so for now – the team were safe.
They slowly climbed using boulders that led back up to ground level, relying on each other to hoist one another up until they reached the surface. Sasha was first to emerge, her head rose from down below and quickly observed the surroundings: They had reemerged from the cavern and arrived at a farm, the field around them was green and lush, the blades of grass reflecting in the glow of the moonlight.
Sasha, Enrique and Murdock pulled themselves up and on to the field carrying a silent hope born of blind faith and desperation that nothing hostile would come to meet them out of the moonlit field.
The three of them had almost completely sidelined the fact that they were running on empty and had not drank fresh water in days, so this time it was out of their control as they collapsed face first to the solid mud, critically exhausted, only Murdock had enough energy left in him to push his body out of the mud and roll on to his back.
His face was half covered in blood and soil, his eyes were glazed as if in a trance as he stared up at the night sky. By now the temperature had dropped to a tolerable level, bringing with it a sense of sweet relief almost like the kind of calm that came over those who drowned in ice water as hypothermia set in because sometimes, death could be beautiful and peaceful and if this was the end, it felt like a wonderful and welcome release...
Sasha had turned her head to look over at Murdock and saw Enrique had passed out cold.
“Is this how it ends?” she asked, and now her dry throat had made her voice crack, making it sound rough as hell.
There was a moment of silence, followed by a quiet chuckle that slowly changed in to what became a roar of hysterics.
Sasha stared at Murdock punching the air joyfully as a single thought ran through her mind: What the fuck?
“Fuck yeah!” Murdock shouted, “Thank you, lord!” Then excitement became a bit too much as Murdock choked and spluttered as his dry throat protested at lack of saliva.
Sasha pushed her body off the ground and fell on to her back, and then as her gaze met the skies, a thunderous explosion of lightning bolts lit the night sky and was followed by a heavy flurry of rain, the storm had finally caught up with them, relighting the spark of life, pulling Murdock and Sasha to their swollen feet.
Sasha just stood there for a moment, like she would in a shower as the crimson washed away from her skin and suit allowing for the stained white to surface through the dirt and blood that previously covered it.
Murdock had begun to scramble around trying to find equipment that he could use to collect the rain drops and refill their water tanks. He limped over to a nearby bush and ripped a few leaves from its branches, the leaves were larger than his hands. He made his way back to Sasha.
“Use these, hold them up and gather the rain drops. We can drip in to our water tanks!”
Sasha knew this was going to take a while but the storm didn’t look like it was going to pass any time soon, the blackened clouds went on for as far as the human eye could see.
While Murdock and Sasha collected as much of the falling water as they could, Enrique began to feel the cold liquid dripping down his neck and into his suit which made him snap back to life, regaining consciousness. He sat up and looked across at his friends with an expression of confusion, hoping he really could dare to believe what he was seeing:
Was it a dream? It must of surely been a dream because he had felt dead just a moment ago.
Enrique climbed to his and fetched a large leaf so he could join in on the fun.
The rain was falling so heavily that they didn’t realise they had already filled one of the bottles.
“Look at that! Come on get some inside you, pass it around!” yelled Murdock, shouting loud enough to ensure he was heard over the sound of the torrential rain.
Sasha snatched the two litre sized bottle from the ground and consumed as much of the freshly fallen water as she could until the bottle was almost empty, nothing had tasted that good in months - beside the wine, of course.
She placed it back on the ground and allowed for it to refill as they all positioned their leaves towards the top of the bottle and watched as the rain collected and dripped inside, it was a sight so breathtaking to the group, they felt as if they could stand there for eternity and watch as the water level rose. Until they had known such terrible thirst, water had never seemed so important. Now it was beauty in every drop, it was life itself.
Sasha looked across at Murdock and smiled as the rain thundered against her face.
Murdock returned the same look.
“Get a room, guys!” Enrique joked, and once again the three of them broke out in a fit of laughter.
As the events of the evening unraveled, the storm clouds moved on and the rain stopped falling. With their bottles filled to the brim and their bodies feeling refreshed, Murdock, Sasha and Enrique had finally reached the end of their day, dropping off at an empty barn that they had discovered at the end of the field.
Inside was filled with plenty of hay bales scattered around the floor space.<
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Murdock pulled the two giant gates shut, hiding them inside and locking the monstrosities of this new world firmly outside.
Enrique slowly wandered along the stables, checking inside to make sure it was definitely empty and that there was no nasty surprises waiting for them – while Sasha had begun to wipe away the rain from her glowing face.
“How is it?” asked Murdock
Enrique popped his head out from behind a stable door.
“Looks clean, great find, Captain!” he called from across the barn.
“The entire land looks fresh, if there were any UNA situated here there's a good chance there's a whole infrastructure ready for the taking,” explained Murdock.
Enrique had started to walk back to Sasha
“But the soldiers in the cavern, there was many. More than a scouting force?”
“Yeah and I don’t believe the UNA are still in control here, it looked to me like those soldiers had been dead a long time,” explained Murdock as he looked to the others.
“But the Howlers killed them… we saw them!” said Sasha.
“We saw nothing,” Murdock reminded her, “If anything, it felt like they were playing... Playing with their new toys. I feel that once again there is much more to this… maybe we’re now walking in to a trap? Or being watched by someone who’s waiting around for morons like us to wander in to the world that we can only visualize now, in our dreams. Who wouldn’t be tempted?” As he asked that question, he felt sure he was right on his theory.
“Just don’t forget why we’re here, we have our own people to go back to…not to cause any trouble,” Sasha replied
“Well, that’s the plan,” Murdock replied.
