Raizon: The Following (Updates Friday's)

Chaos | 6

CH 6

PRESENT

I looked out at the mess around me. It was growing dark, and with the light leaving so did the little warmth that the sun had been providing. Temperatures were slowly dropping, leaving me to rub at my arms as goosebumps rose. My temperature resistance would surely be put to the test here in this cold wasteland.

I kept where I was, on the roof of a building. For now, it had to be safest here... the fire and collapsed buildings were miles off in the next rundown city over but I knew all too well that this one was empty of anything useful. That's why we had skipped over it and gone on to the next one. None of us had known that things would end up this way...

The plan was to drive a few hundred miles out to the city areas to look for anything useful. We had stopped in this town and walked the rest of the way to the next city, as no one was sure what kind of creatures the vehicle we were using would draw in. The agreement was to gather the things we could before we came back here, hop in the vehicle, and drive back to base. But the runners and the zeds had ruined that plan.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and ended up putting my head in my hands. Sean was dead and... I didn't want to think about if any of the others died. Tiff, Klien, and Gen... I'd known them all for 3 years, and despite the wish to leave I still cared about them. They all had lives... Tiff just lost her brother... was she even still alive? I swallowed. At least one of them had to be alive. The vehicle was missing.

It was an exploration rover we had salvaged from one of the nations that were still active in this desolate raizon ridden world. The nations often didn't get along, so they would duke it out in little wars that often left behind some technology... we'd manage to rush in after a battle and salvage the rover before the salvaging crews arrived. Our own techy back at base had made sure any tracking devices or software was disabled and disconnected from the nation responsible for it. So in short, we stole and wiped it.

But now it was missing from where it had been left. Something that high tech was extremely hard to break into and hotwire so the chances of some other wanderers stealing it was slim. This left one last option... someone, hopefully, everyone but Sean was alive. I hadn't seen any bodies when I had surfaced from the rubble so the chances of them all being alive were even greater. The thought of this lifted my spirits a bit. Now all I had to do was travel and meet them back at base. They likely thought I was dead... and honestly, I felt like I had died.

There was no doubt that I had multiple fractures and a few cracked ribs. I wasn't in good shape for travel but I had no choice. This was life or death here. It had been at least 7 years since my escape. I would be damned if I stopped here, and just allowed myself to die. I had to make it back to camp.

I sat on the edge of the building, letting my legs hang over the side. The sun was disappearing to my right but I paid it no mind. My eyes scanned the city, noticing a few more zeds around than last time. I couldn't make them out enough from this distance to notice if they had any distinct black stuff on them, but by their patterns of movement, they seemed normal.

I didn't know the science behind the black stuff that would occasionally grow on zeds, but I knew that it had to be some sort of fungal raizon that attracted runners. Raizon was everywhere, it seemed. Even in the plants that climbed all the buildings, appearing as healthy as could be despite the blistering cold. Even I... even me myself had some traces of raizon within me. The organism was a part of my own DNA. Part of why I was a freak.

Raizon was like a disease, contaminating everything that came across it. The stuff was unbelievably adaptable to all sort of situations. Of course, humanity thought they could utilize this and combine it with a variety of living things to make things stronger, more efficient. Of course, it had to go wrong. And of course, mankind sought to fix their mistakes with more mistakes. That being me.