Our Time Bomb

Chapter 60 - A Broadcast of Hope

The walk back to the Guild is brisk and a little tense, the group of Erika's accomplices follow behind us. The forest is quite thick and honestly I don't know how they frequently managed to make trips to town through this mess of an underbrush. How is there so few trails through here? I hardly understand it, yet they seem to know every inch of what they are passing. 

The trees in this area are huge towers, shadowing the forest almost in a protective manner. I can somewhat see the appeal of living under such a canopy of green. It's kind of serene and peaceful, like a different world thousands of miles away from civilization. 

"Jefferson back!" Erika grabs my arm and jerks me back a foot and points to a tree right in front of me. Carved in the bark of the tree is a small neatly cut triangle. 

"what?" I step away from the tree.

"trap, you've never seen one of those before?"

"no..." 

She laughs a little, "oh, well they're just meat traps set by our scouts, nothing to be worried about so long as you pay attention to your surroundings. Step at the foot of that tree and you might lose your leg." 

"the hell?" I glare a little at her, "that's illegal you know in this forest."

She shrugs with a small smile.

"Well I guess I should remember who I'm talking to, shouldn't I?" I roll my eyes as we continue to walk briskly through the brush. "now isn't the time for what's right or wrong anyway, we're supposed to be dying so..."

"yeah exactly." 

"oh by the way though, I heard that you scared the shit out of my nurse back at the Guild. Erika you don't just threaten people with weapons because they're trying to help you."

She frowns at me, "huh?" then she pauses for a moment, "oh hah, right. I kind of forgot about that, sorry."

I nudge her side a little roughly yet playfully, "she might be scarred forever because of you my dear."

She nudges me back harder, "god, I didn't even touch her." 

"whatever," I shrug, "just come with me later and apologize, okay?" 

"fine." 

About an hour later we make it to the guild, my heart is racing as I make my way through the crowded courtyard. I feel a little sick from the smell, people are just waiting out here for the service of the guild nurses because the hospital and medical centers are full. They are puking all over the place and some are lying on the ground. I don't look at their faces to see if they are dead. 

I go upstairs into the equipment room which is rarely used. There is a radio broadcast system that used to be run at the guild and it isn't active more. I sync my recording off of my device onto the old computers and it turns up intact, to my thankfulness. Erika touches my shoulder, she stands behind me in the musty crowded room, "it's alright, deep breath."

I breathe in and reach for her hand, squeezing it. I open the broadcast district-wide software. The last time this was used was for storm warnings. I attach my recording file and with my fingers shaking, I press play. 

What this system does is very overriding, it will connect to every single village speaker, on every radio, on every output device. 

I stand up and press my fingers to my forehead, praying that the system will function. Erika rushes to the window and looks down onto the courtyard and the road leading to the village. So far, the guild speakers haven't responded yet. We wait... a good eight seconds, it feels like hours. Then it happens, it starts playing. I sigh with enormous relief and fall to my knees.