Battle of Ash

Chapter 16

"He walked out in the gray light and stood and he
saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world.
The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth.
Darkness implacable."
Cormac McCarthy

2017.05.30 08:04
The infected moaned and rattled in their cages behind them from the vehicles. Dillon wasn't sure how long they had travelled, but it had been a great deal further than he would have been able to bike in the day and a half they had pushed the caravan through highways and roads. It had been unnerving when they had suddenly stopped and been all but shoved out of the vehicles; the dome visible on the horizon.

"Remember!" The man driving the vehicle screamed as he shoved weapon filled bags into their hands, "Your supplies are limited, your time is short, and we are not going to tolerate failure."

Dillon felt a sinking sense of dread as he had a heavier bag shoved into his arms. He had been warned beforehand that he would be carrying the device, but he hadn't wished for the responsibility. He caught the man's eye. For a second they shared a feeling of what could be called unsettled before he moved on, to the side of the cage his vehicle towed housing his horde of infected.

"CRAWL!" the man demanded, echoes of the order came from the other vehicles as everyone dropped and advanced to avoid being seen by any force that may have been lurking within the dome.

2017.05.30 08:46
Dillon felt the dew soaking into the cuffs of his pants. Kyla had been gracious enough to garb her 'soldiers' in leather before sending them out. It would help when the infected were released from the vehicles behind them- trucks, vans, and busses that had transported the twenty-some-odd people and roughly fifty infected out to the nearest dome- but they were equally hot and cold; sweat dripped down wherever the fabric touched Dillon's skin from the running and hiking, yet soaking up all the wet cold from the Earth around him.

He shifted the bag around on his shoulder from where it had begun to chafe. He looked over to see Ash crawling about as they neared the dome; it looked eerily quiet from the outside. No birds or animals were lounging around as they had been in the dome they came from. Dillon waited, holding back with the rest as someone scoped out the surroundings.

"It looks like everything inside is... dead?" The man lowered his binoculars, standing now. "I mean, the animals are all just lying around, some look super bloated. And take a look there." He pointed to the trees, "even the trees are dead. You can tell by their leaves. Our dome, due to the season outside, has pretty bare trees except for the evergreens. But these trees, the deciduous... they still have their leaves and they're that weird grey color; as though they're petrified on."

"He's right." Ash piped up, sidling beside them. "The grass is the same. Do you see those huge brown and grey spots? And the areas where it's just stopped growing completely? It's... not natural."

"Alright everyone, switch to gas masks!"

Dillon eyed Ash warily as she traded out her mask for the one Kyla had provided. She had gotten healthier, her skin was glowing again and she had regained some of the weight she lost. More than that though, the nutrients in the organic food they were eating had given her something he hadn't seen in her. Of course, it had the same effect on him.

That first night in the shower he had been stunned. He had always been fit but a little fattier than if he were in perfect shape. Through the months of scavenging and always being on the move he had lost all of that body fat and gained crazy lean muscle. He had never before been that in shape but it wasn't healthy. All the stress and lack of proper nutrition had caused his hair to start falling out, which prompted him to shave it all off back at the dome, his skin looked pale, and his face sunken. He may have had the muscle, but he looked gaunt.