Arriving at the spot we agreed on, I handed the weapon to Eric.
"Thanks, I guess… but I've never actually fired one. I thought you'd just cover me," he said, gripping the rifle with nervous, clumsy fingers.
I froze. Somehow I hadn't even considered something that simple. You don't need much time to learn how to handle a rifle. The real skills come later: aiming speed, confidence, accuracy.
"Then we'll practice on the go. I'll cover you if anything happens," I said.
"I wanted to ask… why do you always wear a mask? Are you that afraid of spores?" Eric asked.
"You could say that," I answered, looking away for a moment.
"I won't state the obvious that spores are rare outdoors and it's easier to avoid those places anyway. But you should… I don't know, boost your voice or something. Half the time I can't hear a damn thing you say. Only when you get close," he muttered.
"That's not a bad idea," I agreed.
All this time, I kept having to lift the mask just a little to speak. Not that I talked much anyway. I'd always been more of a loner, and for the past year I'd spoken only with one friend. Everything else was just internal dialogue.
"Do we start scouting, or should we gather supplies first? I've got a few hideouts in the city," Eric said.
"Better pick a place first. Somewhere with clean streets, and with a quick exit route if things go bad. Preferably enough space for a vehicle. If not, then at least a spot where we can retreat on foot without dying on the way."
"Hmm… a spot for vehicles? Could be fire stations, hospitals, parking structures. Auto shops might not work, but we can check maybe there's something left. Residential areas are an option too," Eric muttered, thinking out loud as he listed the possibilities.
With at least a vague idea of what we were looking for, we moved deeper into the city.
Traveling with Buddy made everything much easier. He sensed unfamiliar scents long before we spotted anything. He'd dart ahead, and as soon as he noticed someone, he'd sprint back to me and point out exactly where he'd seen them. He could tell infected from people by smell alone. The difference was strong enough.
Right now, we only ran into infected. Eric's first shots landed anywhere except the head. He was less than a hundred meters from his targets, so I had to cover him constantly whenever things got too close. By the end of the day, he was hitting far more reliably.
Even though the shots were muffled, the sound still carried through the streets. It was hard to pinpoint direction in a city like this, but the infected we attracted didn't manage to reach us in time.
By nightfall, we had found only two places that could work as a base. Most buildings were too dangerous to stay in: leaning walls, collapsed floors, the constant threat of everything coming down at any moment.
Strangely enough, the main impact hadn't hit the whole city just the southern districts, where the quarantine zone was later established. Several following strikes also targeted that same area while the camp was being built.
Looking around now, large parts of the city were surprisingly intact. The central district was the most preserved currently holding a massive crowd of trapped infected.
My own base was about thirty kilometers from the quarantine zone. The trip took me about an hour, sometimes two I crossed part of the route straight through the forest. And now, lying in one of Eric's hideouts, I suddenly remembered a kids' camp I had come across exploring the woods. The memory alone made my skin crawl.
"Damn…" I muttered to myself.
"Hm?" Eric looked at me expectantly.
"I remembered a kids' camp. I don't know why there were so many people there… It was the end of the season when everything happened. I guess they just didn't manage to evacuate them. At first I saw small silhouettes inside the cabins. They sat there quietly, barely moving, huddled too close together at first you can't even tell if they're infected or not. But the moment I opened the door… dozens of eyes stared at me definitely not human ones. I ran like hell, and behind me I heard a wave of snarling erupt all at once. I reached my bike in seconds, jumped on it, and started it mid-motion with the throttle fully open," I said. I'd been avoiding that place ever since, like it was a nuclear zone.
"Kids had the weakest immunity. They were the easiest to infect," Eric said softly. Then his expression shifted a little, and with a half-smirk he added, "So… you shit yourself and ran? Wouldn't expect a tough guy like you to turn tail."
"Don't confuse bravery with stupidity. Running was the only option. I don't have some macho pride I don't pound my chest and fight to the last drop of blood," I said.
"Wouldn't guess that," Eric chuckled.
"Laugh it up while you can," I said without any real irritation as I lay back on the couch.
"I'll be sure to tell Sarah this story," Eric said.
I didn't respond just stared at the ceiling. I'd really talked too much…
At sunrise, we set out again, picking up the rare resources we found along the way.
Through my binoculars, I spotted vehicles heading in our direction.
Telling Eric to hide, we slipped into the shadows of a ruined building. A car reinforced with metal plates tore down the road at insane speed. The people inside were armed, wearing a mix of clothing definitely not soldiers.
I'd encountered groups like that before. Crossing paths with them usually ended with me dead.
"Jackals… City would be better off without them," Eric muttered.
I didn't like the kind of activity that had been happening lately. I noticed Jackals' vehicles appearing more and more often, cutting through the western part of the city and getting dangerously close to the quarantine zone. Had they really stopped fearing FEDRA?
Once we found a place for a base, I wanted to head back toward the outskirts. I'd already seen a gathering of armed people once, though only from afar when I gauged their numbers. I often spotted their ambushes on the roads and in places where food could still be scavenged. They really were like jackals waiting in the shadows for the right moment to strike.
Reaching the eastern side of the city, we stopped at a fire station. After dealing with a few infected, we went inside and checked the rooms. The good thing was that the building was almost fully intact; the tall walls weren't cracked, which meant it could serve as a decent defensive position.
The problems were the usual ones water and electricity. But what worried me more right now was the approaching winter. Even with global warming, it was still going to be cold. It was already mid-October, and you could feel the shift in the air.
During the first winter after the outbreak, the infected had noticeably lowered their activity. The fewer sunny days, the slower they moved. I always connected it to the fungus itself like most organisms of that kind, it didn't handle lack of sunlight very well. Stalkers and runners suffered the most; clickers barely changed, since they rarely wandered into open areas anyway. Maybe the more advanced the infection stage, the easier it becomes for the fungus to endure?
Still, cold didn't spare them either, but warming had done its job winters were no longer harsh enough to turn infected into frozen statues. Maybe up north, in Canada, things were different.
If I had the choice, I'd travel far away from here. But this place still had the best medical infrastructure, research centers, and, of course, people who possessed that knowledge. I still hadn't met a single real specialist who truly understood this stuff.
Choosing the fire station as our anchor point, we decided we could later modify it to fit our needs. For now, it was just a temporary spot while we gathered resources from the city. Despite all the years that had passed, there was still plenty left behind. The reason was simple: even though people grabbed whatever they could at the start of the apocalypse, many simply didn't have enough time. Some never made it out, some were killed or infected too quickly. Then panic spread, and everyone rushed to flee the city as fast as possible.
Later, FEDRA conducted a purge and established the camp. Barely a hundred people remained in the city. Many were still killed by infected over time, and others died for different reasons.
The only ones who consistently scavenged were FEDRA. Little by little, they pushed the infected away from certain districts and hauled everything they could find back into the quarantine zone. For the first six months, they fought endless battles against the infected with mixed success but in the end, they held on.