Rot || ONC2024

──●Eighteen●──

    When Sera left the room, a newfound hatred for my kind bloomed to life within me. 

    What did she mean about turning chambers? I've never seen a human turned in my life. Plus, that begs the question, how? How could my own kind somehow concoct some mystical, magical formula that turns plain humans into monsters?

    I let out a small chuckle to myself. Monsters, that's what we were. All of the higher ups feeding lies while we blindly followed. Keeping secrets under lock and key.

     That led me onto my next train of thought. Was Yarrow aware of these fathomed turning liquids? Was he aware our camp was set to be obliterated within the next few days? Pfft, of course he didn't. Yarrow and I were practically conjoined at the hip. If he knew something, I would know it too. That boy couldn't keep his mouth shut even if he tried.

    My mind faded back to my original though. Turning liquid? How could something like that even exist? If it was true, how could our Council hide that information from an entire species of people?

    No matter the digging I did, no matter the scraping of my brain, I couldn't find the answers. I've been down every nook and cranny of that place. If there was some sort of undercover turning operation going on, I would have found it by now.

    Right?

    "Alastor you son of a bitch," I cussed, letting out a long, agitated groan. He would be the type of person to keep shit from us. That fancy suited gold digging bastard. He never even let me look at a damn sheet of paper, my damn sheet of paper. If he wouldn't even let me look at something as simple as that, the premise of a turning liquid was not too far out of the picture.

    A small knock on the door caused me to jump out of my thinking frenzy. When I turned around, it was just Koda and Sera.

    "Sorry for startling ya," Sera apologized. She and Koda had numerous things in their hands.

    "No no, it's okay." I forced a small smile to my face, being careful not to bare my teeth.

    "Thank you for your help Koda. We'll just be another minute, then you're free to come in."

    Koda nodded and set their assortment of items on Sera's desk. Then they exited the room, gently closing the door behind them.

    "So, Mara, where were we?" 

    "Turning liquid," I muttered.

    "Oh yes, right!" Sera flopped down on her worn, leather chair before continuing. "With this turning liquid, we believe this may be the only stash of it. Potentially, it's being shipped out to other Walker camps, but that's for another day to discuss. We've got it figured out that if we bomb the camp, the the heat from the fires will render the liquid useless. From there, we can directly attack the members, maybe even get the Commander, and then we'll be out!" 

    "What do you mean 'be out'?"

    "Out of harm's way for now. Walkers nest in abandoned buildings. Unless they're going to clean out the village, which I doubt greatly, most of them will be fried by the daylight or shot by us. Both are good options."

    I nodded slowly, trying to make use of all this information.

    Sera headed for the door and let Koda in. "I know it's a lot of information, Mara, but just relay what you can. I'll be gathering all the Commanders together before our big expedition."

    "Okay."

    "Now, onto the fun part, weapons! Koda and I handpicked some of our best quality grenades, as well as a fancy vest to store them in!"

   I presumed that the weird, ball shaped objects on the desk were the grenades. The vest was a beautiful eggshell white and housed numerous pockets, compartments, and straps. Upon flipping the vest over, the same bind rune that was on my face, as well as the face dots and dashes, were embroidered on.

   "I have a question. Actually, lots."

   Sera smiled warmly. "Shoot kiddo."

   "Well, uh, for starts, how do I use the grenade?"

   Sera grabbed one and pointed to a shiny metal pin that was located on the top. "You see that?"

    I nodded.

    "First, aim were you want to go, then pull that pin. Huck that bitch ball as far as you can, and watch it explode into a beautiful bath of fire and shrapnel."

   I nodded slowly. "Makes sense, sounds pretty easy."

   "It is," Koda mentioned, "but I will warn you, when you're throwing a lot of these into enemy lines, your arms become tired real quick."

   I giggled, which made Koda smile.

   "Any other questions," Sera inquired.

   "Yeah. The symbols, I was taught what the bind rune was, but the weird dots-"

   "It's Morse Code! We tap that bad boy out to alert people of Walkers in situations where talking would alert the Walkers. The tapping is more likely to be taken as a woodpecker or something by them. We incorporate it into our daily lives so when it comes time to use it, we're more likely to remember it."

   "Ah, that makes sense. That's pretty neat!"

   "It really is!" Sera pushed all the goodies that littered the desk towards me. "Feel free to have these, take it as a token of you successfully making it here. There's also a pistol that's locked and loaded in your holster. The grenades you can just keep in your pockets. In some of the extras, Koda and I packed you some snacks in case you get hungry on your way home."

   I smiled. "Thank you."

   "Now, which file ya looking for?"

   "I think her name's Camille."

   Upon the mention of her name, the air seemed to shift. A somber mood settled over everyone.

   Without a word, Sera shuffled through her rusted filing cabinet and pulled out a yellowed folder with a name printed clearly on the front. Corporal Camille Bartlett.

   Without another word, she set the folder gently on the table. 

   "Truthfully, I never thought I'd see this folder for the rest of my life," she whispered.

   "Me neither," replied Koda.

    Without further delay, I opened it.