Chapter Text
The mountains of sand reflected the heat; little, invisible waves distorting the view. A light breeze shifted some of the grains and disturbed the silent wasteland. Large skyscrapers stood buried in sand, all abandoned. A bleak reminder of what the city had once looked like.
Many years ago, a thriving city, before the Affected had taken over.
Pushing their way through the desert was a small group of people dressed in white military suits, guns in hand. No one talked, their steps silent, and the impression they left in the sand was the only evidence. Walking at the head of the group was a big woman. Narrowed, green eyes stuck out from behind her head wrap while they took in the scene.
Body tensing under the suit, her eyes snapped towards a movement on their left. She had repeated that same action multiple times, with increasing frequency. It wasn’t a good sign. The group had only ever heard stories of their leader, but nobody dared to comment on it.
"It's too quiet," her voice rang out.
Looking at the young boy who was supposed to be the second in command, but, in reality, was nothing more than a greenie who had pulled the short string, she felt a sense of foreboding nesting in her chest.
"Uh… well, yes, it is." He tried to sound authoritative, but she could see the fear in his eyes.
Hands tightened around the guns. The metal weapons were a gamble out there in the desert, as sand got into literally everything. The knife on their backs was a good alternative.
There wasn’t necessarily something out of place, nothing to make them feel the way they did. But they had been walking around for hours, and there was nothing. No scavengers, no animals, and not even a corpse. It felt like they were being set up. It couldn’t be a coincidence; a group of inexperienced soldiers, some bullshit story about ‘more patrols’, and a completely empty city.
How did this even happen? Who would send them out here? Why would they send them out there?
What did she do?
That thought almost made her stumble over her own feet.
They knew.
Keeping her face motionless, she cursed quietly. Who had told? Her partner? He was the only one who knew. Or had he told somebody else? Fuck. This was a set up and they were not supposed to make it out alive. She wasn’t supposed to.
Looking around the group, all she saw were the hesitant faces of her crew. No way she could tell them. They would need to get back to the helicopter if they wanted to survive.
"I suggest we go back." She swallowed.
In their military environment there was no such thing as a tactical retreat. It was supposed to be considered an honour, to die while following orders. To die fighting them. It helped that in doing so the family you left behind was supposed to be taken care of, with support of the government. She knew from experience that would not happen.
But she suggested the idea, so she would be in trouble. It was going in her record and a physical punishment was undeniable. Maybe even several demotions. Still, it would give her time being yelled at by superiors to search for who betrayed her. And the one that wanted her dead.
Walking towards the helicopter, it looked like the choice was already made for them. A loud explosion echoed, the air rushing past their faces, and black smoke rose in the air, carrying the smell of metal and flesh.
Running towards the clouds, she came eye to eye with their helicopter, which was now on fire. She didn't pay attention to the others, who quickly took place at her sides, and her eyes searched the rubble for their driver. It was a lost cause.
Another explosion had everyone ducking for cover. That had to be the fuel tank. The surroundings seemed undisturbed, but helicopters didn't just explode. Her eyes searched for the characteristic signs. They fell on the bloodied childlike handprints on the side of the helicopter, yet to be burned off.
"Small ones!” The words everyone dreaded to hear. “Formation!"
Long story short; zombies.
The adult ones were stupid and easily predictable, with both body and mind affected. That is how 20 years ago they were almost extinct. All until some adult Affected had found enough brain cells to try and affect a child. It worked, but the children were worse. Much worse.
The Affected children were essentially trapped in their own enhanced body. While stronger than the adults, they were always crying and screaming. Slowly over time, most would retreat inside their heads. Those were the deadliest.
Every parent not being able to afford decent protection would be frightened to find their children missing from their beds. Weapons, security, and protected communities were like the oil and cigarettes of the old ages. There was always someone that would be too morally good to shoot and kill something that looked like a crying child.
To this day, she believed their turning to be a fate worse than death. She saw killing them as having mercy.
"M-maybe they left?" Her second breathed over his own words. He sent a hopeful glance her way, as if she had to confirm his suspicion for it to be true.
"They don't leave once they smell flesh," she replied without a doubt. No one around her had ever seen one before. Simulations could only prepare someone to a certain extent.
This situation was looking worse by the second.
"Do you see that?" The third person to her right sounded hysterical. "I think the pilot was moving. Maybe he is still alive?"
His fear wasn’t enough to stay grounded. In some kind of attempt at saving a life, he dashed down the sand dune, downward to the flaming piece of metal.
Shit. Idiot.
While the people around her automatically filled his empty spot, a few cried out to him to come back. He didn't listen and she kept her eyes on him. He stumbled across sand until he was halfway and she had to squint to see what was happening, the sun glaring hot above them. But when it happened, it was as if it happened right in front of them.
Jumping out of the sand were half a dozen children. The people around her immediately fell silent. They could only look in horror as they tore him apart, one on each limb. The sand coloured red and they never heard him scream.
It was over in a blink.
"There are too many.” She exhaled, gripping her gun tighter. It was weird. “Normally they don't even work in pairs."
It wasn't the right thing to say and the person next to her started shaking. Taking a deep breath, calming herself, she reflected on the situation. Death was starting to look more and more ineffable by the minute. Fuck.
Removing the safety of her gun had the people around her following. There would be no one waiting for her to come back. There would be no one at her funeral, if they even cared enough to give her one.
"Gear up." She spoke harshly. There were some sniffles around her, but everybody listened. Nobody was optimistic enough to think they would survive this.
Across from them, in the sand, there were children standing up from their sand lumps. She counted at least twenty, maybe more if there were more hiding. The helicopter was still on fire, smoke rising in the air, but now that the fuel tank was burning it should not have any more surprise explosions.
The part of her mind that wasn't busy observing told her it was curious. Why were there so many seemingly newly formed children in one place? What were the chances?
It seemed impossible, until her eyes managed to spot the umbilical cord in their necks. Her heart skipped a beat.
"Wait."
Speaking slowly, her eyes went from neck to neck, trying to keep her mouth from moving. Every neck had the same cord attached, but the sand masked the other end. It didn't matter, it was something.
"See the cord in their neck? It will all lead to one adult Affected, their maker. It’s controlling them. Kill it and they will die too."
A mutter went through their team when she revealed that piece of information.
It was known the makers of Affected existed, but the information on how or who was heavily guarded. Since applying for the military she had worked to exhaustion to get her clearance as high as it was. She knew someone like her would never be allowed to go higher than this. Those places were reserved for the people born into them.
Yet, together with her partner, they had dedicated themselves to killing the makers. Making numerous plans, tracking their movements, and it had worked. There had been a notice about the reducing numbers of Small Ones. It had been seen as the beginning of the end. People had celebrated.
They hadn’t trusted the people in power with the knowledge that they were targeting the makers. Almost all of them dealt in weapons and security. Where would it leave them if there came an end to the plague? They made their money from it.
Hence the situation.
"Let's go."
They followed a step behind her, hands shaking. Across from them the children started running, their cries making for a weird contrast with the bloodlust they were exuding.
Then the groups collided.
The battle itself was nothing special. Battle never was. She had hyper focus on everything surrounding her, but the events happening outside those bounds were left to their own devices.
But, while she wasn't seeing everything, she heard enough. The shots of her team, the children screaming, the guns that stopped firing, body parts falling into the sand, and the prayers of the person next to her.
The sun was radiating down on them, flames of the helicopter only making the heat worse, and sweat was running over her back. Her suit would absorb it and turn it into water, but she couldn't see herself surviving long enough to drink it.
Suddenly, her back made contact with her second.
"Go!" He fired at one Small One that kept evading. "Just go! Kill it!"
She looked at him for only a second, just to recognize the determination in his eyes. Retracting most of her previous statements about him, she nodded. His leadership abilities may be shit, but he was an okay soldier.
Breaking out in a sprint towards the cords, she heard shots and shots, until she heard one scream and nothing more. There was no hitch in her step as she dove into the sand where the cords came together.
Putting both her hands around the thick, flesh coloured cord, she pulled.
It was large, every one of its veins standing out on its pale body, eyes bloodshot, teeth rotten, and spit flying everywhere. She had seen enough of its kind to not even flinch at its aggressiveness. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the others already turning around, reacting to its mental commands.
It waved its arms around manically, but it couldn't focus on killing her. It couldn't put all his focus on its own body, simultaneously directing so many others.
"Arggg!"
The nails scratched over her cheek, leaving red lines all over her face. She barely felt it.
Her guns lost in the sand in favour of being faster, she had to use the other weapons on her. Pulling the knife off her back, she wasted no time trying to talk to it and stabbed from the chin up, pushing until the tip of her blade appeared out of its head. Immediately it stopped struggling and behind her the cries stopped, the bodies of children falling motionless just behind her.
Breathing heavily, she turned around, pulling the knife out of its head, and the dead Affected fell to the ground.
It was a wasteland filled with body parts and fire. Her right eye filled with her own blood, but she didn't care enough to try and stop it. Her face was already covered in scars, what would a few more be?
Stumbling back to the bodies of her crew, she tried to check for any remaining life. Even though she knew the change of survivors was slim, she was still their leader.
She couldn't even see a body that still had all its limbs attached.
Dropping down on both knees next to the severed head of her second in command, her muscles trembled. This couldn't be real. Why would they send them here when they only had to kill her? What would they do now that she had survived?
"Go away!" Yelling pulled her out of her musings and she looked up.
Clouds were rising in the distance and she had to blink to see through them. There were more children, running and screaming, all moving towards her.
For fucks sake. Of course there were more.
Heaving herself up, she unsheathed another knife from one of her crew. She had gotten lucky with the first fight, but now she was alone.
Taking a deep breath, she gripped her knives tight.
"Get away! Run!"
The corners of her mouth lifted at their concern, but she had nowhere to run. Her ride was on fire.
Slowly, they came closer. Faces became distinguishable and they showed no signs of slowing down. They must have been the ones already created, waiting for a second wave attack.
She stood no chance against that many. She was going to die.
Eyes flickering to her suit, her fingers inched towards the button on the inside of her left wrist. It was probably exactly what they wanted. It was probably exactly what they had planned for. Nothing more than a pawn that was in their way. Maybe not even that. Her body would rot in that place, while they would sleep soundly in their beds.
No one would mourn her.
"This is it," she mumbled to herself. "Long live me."
One explosion and a lot of pain later, she knew it had worked. The shockwave had thrown her across the sand and far away from the original site.
She could feel the heat of the flames on her body, the sand beneath her head, but everything inside of her was becoming cold. In the distance she could hear the other explosions go off.
Blinking up at the blue sky, she tried to remember sounds of laughter and green eyes before everything turned black.
Throughout life she was convinced death was just like sleeping a dreamless sleep. Waking up and realising she was on some kind of cold, dark rock, had thrown her off for a few seconds.
Laying down on the cold, hard stone, she noted how her body wasn't hurting. Blinking to let her eyes adjust, she just saw a rock, darkness all around her. Just one light shingly brightly in the distance.
She was covered in some kind of grey toga, the scars on her hands and arms all gone. Touching her face, even those seemed to have vanished.
"What the fuck?" Looking around, her voice echoed in the dark distance.
Was this death? Count her as disappointed.
Focusing on the only light in the near vicinity, she saw what lay in front of her. Heaving herself up immediately, she didn't take her eyes off the path before her.
There were more rocks, about jumping distance from each other, and eventually a path. Behind the path lay a giant mountain and, on top of that mountain, the light source that illuminated her surroundings. There was nothing connected to the rock she was standing on, or the one's in front of her. There was just darkness underneath and around it. One wrong move and she would fall in the dark, and who knows what then.
The light source looked like some floating bulb of light. Almost like a star.
She knew instinctively she had to get to that light. Some animalistic instinct told her that was the reason she was there; to touch that light.
Her heart was beating out of her chest and she felt the adrenaline rushing through her body. Accepting the challenge, she would get it. It didn't matter what it would take. She was conscious. That had to count for something.
Now, in this moment, she was going to count for something.
"Here we go." She mumbled, judging the distance between the first few rocks.
Time was lost on her, but, after what felt like an eternity, she finally made it. Her right ankle was sprained, three broken fingers, and she had to put her shoulder back in place so many times she lost feeling in her left arm.
But she made it.
"Made it," she panted, leaning on her knees, looking up at the star. "Fucker."
Breathing in deeply, she stood on the top of the mountain. The temperature remained cold and, looking around her, the darkness remained as it always had been.
Everything in her told her that she could touch it now; her prize. But fuck that. She was angry, slightly confused, and, most importantly of all, completely done with following orders. She was in control here, not them. Never them again.
"Now,” making herself comfortable on the ground, she looked at the light. “What are you?"
Braising herself, heels dug in the ground, she slowly threw a small rock at the light. It hit and she readied herself for an explosion. Nothing happened, but the light turned a red colour, before going back to white.
Frowning, she threw more, the rocks bouncing off and the light switching between red and white.
"Red. Red. Red." She groaned, picking up another pebble next to her. Every time the light turned red the feeling of touching it intensified.
What kind of mental game was this?
It went like this for some time, until the feeling turned into a physical force. She was practically being dragged on the rocky ground, something, or someone, literally pulling her to the light.
Digging her feet and her nails in the ground, she held on for dear life.
“Fuck you!" Screaming out into the darkness, she felt her broken fingers screaming out in pain, her nails slowly being torn off. “I’m not doing it!”
Obviously it was the wrong thing to say, because before she knew it there was this giant figure on the mountain standing behind the light.
Her heart jumped in her throat, but she kept holding on.
The figure stood around seven feet tall, dressed in a giant ragged black sheet with a hood. Objectively this image shouldn't have frightened her as much as it did, but her mind and body clearly weren't thinking the same. It felt like she was having a heart attack, liquid dripping down her face. Was she crying?
"Me vexat pede." The figure spoke, their voice deep and raspy.
She simply looked at it in silence, clenching her jaw when she felt one nail ripping off. The force was still pulling her, she was in pain, and she didn’t even know that language.
Licking the blood of her lips, she glared at the figure. Fuck it.
"Ex nihilo nihil fit." The figure continued, but she wasn’t listening.
She didn't care anymore. That thing seemed like the reason she was there and she was about to do something really stupid.
Releasing one hand, she tightened the other, and threw it forward, grabbing the last of her rocks. It was round and flat, and a sense of victory came over her when her hand closed around it, the blood making it slippery between her fingers. She got it.
Taking one deep breath, she released the tension in her body, letting the force take a hold of her, drag her upright, and yank her towards the star.
The figure stood tall, but had stopped talking. The opening in the hood moved, following her position, watching her being pulled towards the light.
Using the force's momentum, she stretched out her hand with the rock and, by yet another miracle - which was clearly the only reason she was still alive -, the light was perfectly centred in the middle of the rock. The force almost immediately stopped pushing her the moment the light moved, but Newton's first law still counted, even in this hell.
Pushing her heel into the ground, she used the last of her strength to add to her speed. Straight towards the figure.
It clearly wasn't expecting this and it moved its cloaked arm upward to reach for her. The cloak slipped away around the arm and revealed a clean white skeletal hand, stretched out in her direction. If it was going to stop her or strangle her, she didn't know.
At the sight of the hand she felt some kind of fluid filling her lungs. It tasted like more blood.
It didn't matter though, the moment the skeletal hand came into contact with the light everything around her imploded. It wasn't the reaction she was hoping for, but she didn't know what she had been hoping for.
Everything around her became black and she closed her eyes, waiting for thoughtless darkness, but her consciousness stayed.
Suddenly, there was water forcing its way into her nose and mouth.
Spluttering, she tried to remove it from her airway.
Then everything started to hurt, her body becoming compressed, but even while her limbs ached and water surrounded her, she remained aware of what was happening. The space started to close in, walls forming around her and strapping her inside with the water.
Holding her breath, she hoped the water would disappear as quickly as it had appeared, while pushing at the walls.
The water didn't disappear, the walls remained in place, and her lungs stretched beyond their capacity. But, luckily for her, everything soon turned black.