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THE FUTURE:

Epidemic, biological warfare, super rabies… the outbreak was called all sorts of things once it became public knowledge, and by then it was too late. Spread too far. If you were unfortunate enough to get it, you hoped for a merciful death… It was preferable to the alternative, madness, utter inhumane, cannibalistic madness.

If a town or city got infected the government would blockade and isolate the area, nothing in or out. They had to try and keep it from spreading, small consolation to those that got trapped with the infected. Folks tried for safety in numbers, or just running solo. Neither was a good idea. Small groups were best, and not being a hero… yeah, that’s smart too.

But eventually someone panicked and tried to purge the world with fire, it was very biblical. At least that’s the story that got past down over the years to survivors. Of course there were whispers of a safe zone, not that anyone had ever found it. But at least it was something to hold onto, it gave people hope…. This is a story of two of them.

Thunder rumbled through the black sky. Occasionally, the sharp, searing flash of lighting scorched the air. Rain poured from thick clouds, saturating the earth with mud. The plant life perished when the darkness came. It blocked out the sun and eliminated the food source for vegetation. Again lighting cracked across the sky with spider web tentacles arching from rolling cloud to rolling cloud as the sky seemingly poured tons of water continually through the darkness. Water streaming down over the few stray locks of dark coils that had managed to slip out into the open caused Jack pulled the black hooded cloak around her body even tighter around her body while she trudged through the darkness towards the dimly glowing lights of the village at the bottom of the continually twisting mountain pass. For the hundredth, no the thousandth time…well, it didn’t matter anyway Jack thought. It was noon in the middle of summer, but what did that mean any more, the world was bathed in darkness, seemingly continual rain and…. she sighed again…and continual misery.

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Deep in the hidden the folds of her clothing, her hand stroked and turned the crystal that hung around her neck? over and over as she made her way carefully down the lightning illuminated path and even though her mind wondered in its own thought world, her senses were on overtime and her other hand was always near the large handle of the lovingly maintained sword that hung close to the leg of her leather pants. Having grown up in a world of darkness, James had heard stories from the old ones of a time when blue sky ruled over a bright and sunny world filled with happy things and numerous happy people going about their lives raising families, and…and…those things just were not something that James could even comprehend within her spirit.

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She had heard stories of the “event”, First, there had been panic. People were disappearing in the dark, and in large numbers. Military mobilization had followed to quell the panic and fight an enemy they couldn't see, even with all their technology. They failed. Society crumbled until all that was left was survival. What humans and animals were left huddled in the ruins of civilization, terrified of the dark.

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She had heard that since the coming of the Darkness, those who had managed to survive the "event" were rapidly becoming extinct and even the old ones.... the old ones, she turned those words over in her mind.? The old ones, a tag that was given to those survivors that had had the wisdom or perhaps "seer" powers that had fled before the darkness arrived. The old ones, those, whose decreasing numbers, had seen the world before the darkness came and had somehow managed to avoid the death that lived within it.

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She didn't fear the dark, like so many others. She understood it. She existed in it.

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James had been born in a world blackness, already dark with fear, she struggled to remember who she was and for that matter, anything from her past. ? All, everything was just a blank…gone…just gone. James’s only real memory was that of the white-haired grand husband-like figure. A very large, stoic man, a man that she had perceived was once a great warrior, who lived a very raucous life, loved his wife with unbridled fierceness and had trained James until the point that the ache in her spirit was just too much to bare and despite his protests, James had packed her things...and left. ? Driven by the unknown demons that haunted her life…yet but by the grace of…what…strength of will…training…luck…whatever it was, James had grown into a woman in her new world.

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Carefully picking her way over the rubble, James worked her way towards the lights of the “village”,? a loose term at best, for the huddle of hovels that had been pieced together from discarded pieces….of…well, whatever the owners could find. ? With her boots splashing through the rain filled puddles. She raised her chin as much as she could to stare up at the glowing yellow moon. She watched as the dark rain cloud seemed to just sit and surround the earth.

The rain pitter pattering against the window pane, pouring through a hole in the brick that had once been a window. The glass and frame had been destroyed long ago. Water dripped down to the decaying wooden floor. Garbage littered the room, piled high in corners and strewn across the floor. A stained, bare mattress rested against the wall. A man's lifeless corpse lay motionless upon it. Blood from a fresh, jagged wound encircling his neck seeped slowly into the grungy mattress. Firelight barely flickered in the makeshift hearth, which was nothing more than a hole in the wall. The shadows danced with the chilly breeze that sailed through the window.

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She watched the dark cloud of fog roll in before her.

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‘You are crazy to leave,’ Her thoughts now echoing the sentiments of her trainer. ‘You are crazy to go out there alone,’ he had called to her as she moved away. Following her demons, chasing hunches.? Now as she stood in this place, she realized just how right he was…She was crazy to be here.

But she couldn’t help herself really. Her obsession with her hunches first took hold of her and refused to let go when she sat straight up in cold ice sweat to find herself in a hospital, or a really a military style field hospital barely clinging to life, a cold sweat gripping her body, a strangled sob stuck in her esophagus, the image of a feral beast ripping into her throat. For years that nightmare had been her constant bedfellow. And now all she wanted was answers...by any means necessary

So no matter how objectionably she found the setting, and even though every instinct in her body was screaming to her that this was not good judgment, she simply had no choice. She simply had to do what she had to do, which was willingly walking about this hell on earth because a feeling within her gut told her she needed to…she needed answers.

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With a deep breath let out on a sigh, she stared out at the sight before her

"Well nothing ventured nothing gain," she said as she moved into the mangled remains of the structure.

The hospital was old and decrepit and falling down around her. But she knew the records were here. She knew the answers were here

"Damnit!" she screamed to the room.

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Nothing.

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There was nothing here. Nothing at all. No information, no formulas, nothing.

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“Damnit, Damnit, Damnit!"

Frustration was filling her enough to give up when she heard the sounds of movement behind her. Her thoughts came to a halt suddenly as her senses picked up something…again…the same something she had felt was following…no…tracking her for some time. Her hand gripped the sword handle tightly, her body tensed…then suddenly, she whipped it out with precision filled experience, spun to her left …..there…from the side of her vision, she caught a glimpse of something…darker than dark…but again, it was not there…and again…she had almost saw it…

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James took one step backwards into the shadows herself and she stood stark still, peering out into the night. Her voice whispered, “If you are coming, come on, you bastard.” As she stood watching, waiting.

Crazies traveled in packs, and sometimes they ran solo. Like the human race it was easy to pick them off one by one, but sometimes numbers had the advantages. The problem was trying to detect the early stages of the infection, and it wasn’t like a victim would announce it. People liked living even if it was as a rabid nut job, there was always hope for a cure. For a miracle.

His childhood had been nothing but constant training to survive by his parents. Knowledge passed down to them from their parents, and those before them. It kept him alive, but maybe this time his luck had run out. AJ had sniper duty and had planned to set up in the old derelict hospital, but he was always on the lookout for fellow survivors. Sometimes a guy just needed to see a halfway friendly face, or at least one that wasn’t trying to eat him. Didn’t mean humans being what they are, didn’t sometimes kill each other for food… or as bait for the nutters.

When he first spotted her, at least he knew she was a female now… he had almost pulled the trigger. It was easy to kill from a distance, less to think about, you didn’t have to see their faces as clearly and hope to God it wasn’t someone you once knew. Getting up close was far more dangerous, and he couldn’t afford to waste a bullet unless it was a sure deal. So he trailed her from a distance with his hands keeping his weapons close and from making noise.

And now… he fucking lost her. Callahan mentally cursed himself, maybe she saw him and spooked. Or worse maybe she found a patch of crazies and they were downing her entrails with some muddy rainwater to wash it down. He looked around trying to figure out where she disappeared to when he got full body tackled to the ground.?

Shit, was waiting for him….The ravenous snarl in his ear, no not her...them.

Something sneered at her.

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It wasn’t something…it was the Crazies, unfortunately souls that had had the misfortune to become infected in this godforsaken world. A short bald guy in a well worn highly bloody leather jacket and a girl who looked at her like she was the best thing since sliced bread, both came her way.

Not moving, she stood her ground waiting…

The bald guy came out so quickly, James barely had time to lift her sword, but she managed it taking the bald guy's head off. She heard it bounce off into a corner, his body falling backwards on the chick behind him. Putting the swords back, James took? the axe quickly off her back she swung and connected solidly with the girl's head cracking it open.

Wiping the blood off the axe on the girl's shirt, James moved out into the hall. Only to learn that the hall was full to the brim with Corpse. "Oh well Goddamn," she said and moving back into the room she had just left out of closing the door with a slam,

Moving quickly, James pushed a file cabinet in front of the door. She was sure it wasn’t going to hold. Turning in slow circles she had to get out. But how, when all there was was a window and she was at least two stories up.

The sound of the hinges creaked. And the walls rumbled with the banging from the other side. She had to get out of here. Had to find another way out. Almost if on cue, James had to duck as the door exploded inward and the sight and sounds of clawing and a clutch of ravenous Crazies filled the entry.

James had on her three weapons upon her, an axe and two Glock 9 she called Frick and Frack and her sword, but it still wasn't going to be enough to get out of this alive. Having no choice, James ran straight for the window.

Climbing out, she moved onto the ledge. She could go down or she could go up…down seemed smarter, until she saw the clutch of Crazies rushing into the doors from below. She chose up. Free climbing, scaling the walls with her fingertips and feet. Eyes straight up, she moved, slow and steady buy quickly until she reached the top.

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“Shit!” More Fucking Crazies.

Pulling out Frick, she shot one in the head of something that had someone pinned down. The now dead thing fell on top of the once pinned down someone. “You’re welcome.” She said, turning to walk away.

Callahan hadn’t expected the steroid laced looking crazy that had him pinned with only his rifle between him and those damn teeth to quite literally become dead weight. “Fuck you’re heavy!” he growled at the corpse pushing it off him, careful not to let any of its infected blood get into his mouth or an open wound. The cannibal certainly hadn’t missed any meals which made AJ shudder.

“Hey! Hey, wait a minute!” he exclaimed, wiggling out from under the body and scrambling to his feet to follow the woman. AJ let the rifle swing to his side and he kept it pointed down so as not to look threatening, folks were real jumpy these days. “Please!” he implored because it never hurt to throw in a bit of politeness.

He looked her over and she seemed human, and not in the early stages of the infection. Healthy, which was good. A survivor from her marksmanship, which was even better. No one wanted to hold someone’s hand the whole way through an apocalypse ….. and in his opinion, easy on the eyes, which was just a bonus.

“You’re a townie?” There were little outcroppings of humanity but finding them was getting harder and harder. “My name’s AJ, I’m from the North...uh...thanks” he said offering his hand in the hopes that she wouldn’t completely blow off his gratitude, or company. There were some humans so deep in the state of things that they couldn’t cope with anything else than kill or be killed. He threw in a charming, tentative smile because again, it couldn’t hurt. “Think I’m lost, can you help a fella out?”?

James didn’t actually wait, she did however slow down her steps a bit, she just just didn’t completely stop. Not until he said please. And then she sighed and turned. He was nice enough looking. Seemed like he would be able to hold his own if?he needed to, even if he didn’t seem to manage to hold his own now.?