Bio Hazard

The Search Begins

The city was quickly approaching absolute darkness. The day's sunlight was almost spent and there was barely anything piercing the thick, black veil. The angry clouds that rolled slowly overhead were illuminated in orange from fires that burned relentlessly below. Columns of blackness rose into the polluted sky, just adding to the smoke and ash. It seemed impossible that life could sustain itself, but extremely well timed technological advances just before the social collapse meant that foods could be grown with less light and contaminants could be removed. Water purification was available and many people served as a militant force with the goal of protecting their people.

Of course, these services were only available to the healthy. The elite. Ruby, along with every other person who had been taken over by HM-3, had no hope of ever using the protection. Not that they needed it, of course. Infected food and drink did nothing to harm Ruby. The armed guards, however, they would harm her. Some guards would actively seek out infected people, but they never strayed too far from the centre. The healthy people were a rare breed. They had managed to avoid the infection by some miracle and now saw themselves as superior and entitled to hunting the infected down.

Ruby, still fuelled with desire, pushed on through the city streets, feeling eyes upon them. The feeling of being watched made Ruby feel slightly more tense, but they knew that if it was the gaze of the military, they would have been dead a long time ago. They had seen it happen.

It was in the first week after Celeste had abandoned them. Ruby had found another couple of infected people, a now widowed mother and her son. At this point, the three of them still had the mentality of 'safety in numbers', although being in a group made you seem like more of a threat, as they soon found out. Ruby limped with them, towards the suburbs, but had to pass through a part of the city that they should never have approached. The moment the three of them rounded the corner, they found themselves stood opposite a larger group of ex soldiers, still wearing their combat gear and armed.

Ruby never thought they'd find themselves on the wrong side of the military. She knew of the technology. Just weeks before, all soldiers in Canada, America and Europe gained access to advanced heads up display technology. The wearer of the glass fronted helmet could calibrate it to make certain colours stand out so they could better eliminate hostiles with a lower risk to civilians or friendlies.

This group of soldiers must have had their helmets calibrated to show green, because as soon as the three infected walked out, they recognised them from at least fifty metres in almost complete darkness. The bullets quickly followed the shouts to open fire, ripping through the mother first, bathing her son in blood, who collapsed in shock next to her. Ruby was able to avoid it by ducking back around the corner, but looking back at the two others, she could feel her heart begin to race.

The boy was kneeling beside his mother, screaming, partly from fear, partly from the blood melting away his flesh. Ruby could do nothing. They were immobilised. Even if they could move, running out would result in her death. All she could do was watch as blood pooled around the dying family. Ruby only regained movement when the boy jerked still and fell back, a single bullet wound in between his two, glowing eyes. The soldiers approached and Ruby had no choice but to run. Tears formed in Ruby's own eyes, stinging, an almost inaudible hissing indicating that any and all bodily fluid had become at least slightly corrosive.

Ruby pushed the painful memory out of their head. Her hand automatically came up to wipe away phantom tears from her face. She had learned long ago not to cry. Those who cried drew attention to themselves. Those who cried also risked blindness, the HM-3 mutation from HM-2 increased The strength of the corrosive properties of all bodily fluids across the board. No, instead Ruby pushed away the desire to cry and forced herself to carry on.