AfterLife

Chapter 5

“Logan!”

Connor said lightly shaking Logan awake.

Logan opened his eyes,

“Yeah what’s up, it is nightfall yet?”

Connor nodded,

“Yeah and The Nautilus radioed back, they’ll be sending the supplies down in a few hours. A few people were able to talk to their loved ones which helped regain control on The Nautilus. A few people aren’t happy that the condition of the station where kept from them but knowing Earth is still habitable is giving them hope.”

Logan rubbed his eyes,

“Did you hear from my dad?”

Connor looked down,

“Um, he’s in the infirmary. He got stabbed in a riot, but they said he’ll be ok just needs some rest.”

Logan shook his head,

“He’ll be back at it in a few hours, he’s tough always has been.”

Logan stood up and followed Connor outside, it got dark fast.

“Did you find anything out?”

Connor shook his head,

“No everyone here is excited to be here, the engineers are still looking at the ship to see what happened. I told them to get you as soon as they find anything.”

Logan nodded, him and Connor grabbed a gun and got up on the wall.

The sound coming from the forest were dulled now that the wall was up but when Logan stood at the top he could hear it all. Luckily he remembered in elementary school the sound of Earth animals, it was a class were kids listened to the sounds of all the different animals. From what Logan could remember he can hear; monkeys, wolves, bears, some sort of big cat and more he couldn’t remember.

“I wonder why these animals only come out at night. At some point we’re going to have to hunt these animals for food if their not mutated.”

Connor said looking into the dark forest.

Logan nodded,

“We could take a few soldiers now and hunt what we can find close to camp, some of the animals sound close.”

Connor jumped down from the wall and gathered two soldiers to replace them and gathered the rest to go out.

“Wait!”

Yelled Mary one of the scientists.

They stopped at the gate and turned to her.

“Here there’s only four of them but it will help you see in the dark so you don’t have to use flashlights. That way you don’t give your positions away, you put them on and press this button here.”

She said handing them night vision goggles. Pointing at the button on the side.

Logan nodded,

“Thank you, now go back to the safe zone we’ll be back soon ok.”

She smile and walked back to the center of camp. Logan handed three goggles to the soldiers who were the best shooters and put one on himself,

“The rest of you stay close, you guys can watch our backs and sides. If you hear or see anything let someone with goggles know, keep your lights on dim. Just enough to see but not give your position away, let’s go.”

They opened the gate and went to the forest, it was pitch black, even with the dim lights it was hard to see. The night vision goggles worked well though, Logan can see the trees and bushes clearly.

They walked a few more feet till Logan spotted something, he gave the signal to stop and pointed.

“Kari, what is it?”

Kari quietly walked up next to Logan,

“Quickly hide!”

Everyone quickly hide behind a tree, Logan, Kari, and Connor hid behind a boulder.

“What is it?”

Connor ask looking into the dark.

“That’s a f*****g Tiger, the strongest and biggest cat on Earth.”

Logan peeked over the rock to get a better look at it, it was massive from head to tail he was at lease 11 feet long and a good 700 pounds.

“How hard are they to take down?”

He asked.

“You’d have to shoot him dead in the eye to kill him instantly from this far but that would be impossible.”

She said shaking her head.

Logan rested his rifle up on the rock to help hold it still.

“What are you doing?! You can’t make that shot it’s impossible, you can’t see it’s eyes!”

Kari said panicking.

Logan ignored her and took a deep breath, the tiger turned its head in his direction making his eyes shine in the dark.

Logan pulled the trigger, the tiger instantly dropped on the forest floor.

Kari just watched in shock,

“How the f**k did you do that?”

“Lucky shot.”

Said Henry, everyone slowly walked up to the dead tiger. The bullet hit dead center though the right eye and out the back of the skull, the tiger was even bigger up close.

“How are we going to carry this back to camp, it’s f*****g huge!”

Said Connor kicking it with his foot.

Logan looked around a found a few big branches. He grabbed them and lined them up,

“We can drag it on the branches back to camp, the ones without goggles drag it and us with the goggles will cover.”

Everyone nodded, it took all 10 of them to pull the tiger on the branches. 6 grabbed the branches and started hauling the dead tiger while the other 4 looked around. They finally made it back to camp, everyone crowed the dead beast gasping and whispering.

“The meat needs to be tested first to make sure it’s not contaminated.”

Logan said taking off the goggles.

One of the scientists nodded and grabbed a kit, he drew some blood and put it in a vile. He put a few drops in it and swirled it around, it went green for a second then back to red.

“It’s edible.”

Everyone cheered.

“Does anyone know how to cut up meat?”

Connor asked.

Everyone got quite and looked around.

“I have a book about butchering, had a feeling it would be useful. I can give it a try.”

Said a young scientists with glasses, he was a little scrawny.

Logan nodded,

“Try to use as much as possible, Kari will help you she’ll know what parts are edible and what’s not.”

Logan looked up and saw the sky starting to light up, morning is coming. Logan put the goggles and gun back in the armory tent, him and Connor went to eat their last MRE packs.

“Luckily we found that beast, he’ll feed us for a while if we portion it well enough.”

Connor said sitting by the fire.

“I wonder what real meat taste like, bet it’s different from the artificial stuff.”

Logan said eating his fake steak and potatoes.

Connor chuckled.

A loud rumble filled the air, everyone looked up the see a cargo pod plummeting down.

“The supplies from The Nautilus!”

Someone yelled pointing.

Connor and Logan watched as it landed near the mountains, they heard the impact echo thought the forest.

“Well we’re lucky they were able to drop it that close to us, we better hurry. I guarantee those mutants you ran into will hear that and head to it.”

Logan nodded,

“You stay here and watch over the camp, I’ll take 8 soldiers and will try to grab as much as we can.”

Connor nodded.

Logan gathered the strongest soldiers and headed out, by that time it was light now. They walked through the forest and crossed a little river of water that was ankle deep. They walked for about 3 hours till they saw smoke, Logan signaled them to be cautious. Everyone took out their guns and looked around when they reached the cargo.

Logan grabbed the handle and tried pulling it open, it was stuck. He grabbed a thick stick and tried to pry it open, the stick broke.

“Can we carry it back to camp? I mean all of us could manage it.”

Logan shook his head,

“We wouldn’t make it back before dark. There’s got to be away to open it, I need to two fastest runners.”

Two men walked up,

“You two run back to camp as fast as you can and get something to open this up.”

They nodded and ran into the forest.

Logan kept trying to open the hatch, nothing. The others tried with no success either, Logan saw something fly through the air out of the corner of his eye and hit the ground.

He turned his head and saw a flash bang grenade,

“GRENADE!”

But it was late, the grenade went off shining a blinding light and loud noise. Logan and the other soldiers were stunned and fell the ground holding their ears or covering their eyes.

Logan was blind for a few moments but when he got his vision back it was still doubled, all he could hear was a high pitch humming. He tried to get up to his feet but just fell back down, he managed to look up and see a few people dressed in black clothes walk past them and up to the cargo pod. Logan noticed that one of them was the one from the ship in the lake. He had a bow on his back and a metal club in his hands, he turned to Logan. He had goggles and a bandana with a hood, he was the only one with goggles and hood. The others just had the bandanas covering their mouths, they were a lot bigger though. The one Logan saw at the ship was small, possibly a child.

One of the men walked up to the cargo pod and took his weapon, looked like a steel spear, pried it open.

The hatch door flew open, Logan tried to get up again but just fell back down. He tried to speak but his throat was too dry. One of Logan’s men, Wyatt, managed to get up. Wyatt was the biggest soldiers, bigger then Henry, he stood up and put his hands up ready to fight.

The man by the pod just waved his hand and continued handing the supplies to his men.

The little soldier Logan saw put down his weapons and walked over to Wyatt. Logan was confused as to why they would send their littlest soldier, Wyatt towered over the little 5 foot kid.

Wyatt laughed and went to throw a punch, in a blind of an eye the little soldier moved and rolled over Wyatts head wrapping his arm around his neck. When the little soldier touched the ground behind Wyatt a loud snap filled the air, Wyatts body fell to the ground. The little soldier turned around and grabbed a steel spear from the other soldier and ran it though Wyatts skull.

Logans hearing was starting to come back, he managed to get on his knees.

The little soldier looked at him and turned his head, he walked over to Logan and got to his level with the spear pushing against his neck.

“Please… We need… Those supplies.”

The little soldier turned his head again, he lowered his weapon from Logan’s neck.

He pulled back his hood revealing long sliver/white wavy hair, he pulled down his goggles and bandana.

To Logan’s surprise it wasn’t a man, it was a young girl barely 18. She had mocha flawless skin, big plump red lips and the most unique eyes. They were like looking into a diamond, they were bright purple with fragments of white. She was the most gorgeous thing Logan’s ever seen, he completely forgot she just snapped Wyatts neck without breaking a sweat.

She just looked Logan in the eyes and said in the sweetest voice he’s ever heard.

“You Sky People should have stayed in the sky.”

She stood up and put back on her gear, she nodded.

A sharp pain struck Logan in the back of the head knocking him out.

“Logan! Wake up!”

One of the soldiers shook Logan, pain pulsated though his skull.

“What happened?”

“Those people took most of the supplies, all that’s left is some weapons, food, tools and some equipment. Looks like they mostly took the medical supplies, don’t know why they didn’t take all the weapons.”

Said Henry kicking the cases.

Logan rubbed his head, he couldn’t get the girls face out of his head.

“That girl, she was the same one I saw at the the other half of the ship in the water. She called us ‘Sky People’, they must have saw up crash down.”

“Were they the same mutants you ran into before?”

Said one of the soldiers wrapping Wyatts body in a blanket.

Logan shook his head,

“No these people didn’t look anything like the mutants, some people must have survived. Which means they must have a base somewhere, let’s take what’s left back. Then we’ll figure out our next move.”

They gathered the supplies that were left, Logan was surprised they didn’t just take all of it, they had enough people. They just took majority of the medicine, some food, and only a handful of melee weapons. No guns, Logan was confused as to why they left some behind when they could have killed us all without hesitation like Wyatt.

Maybe they could be potential allies, considering there are still some civilized people alive.

They finally made it back to camp, everyone whispered when they saw Wyatts body wrapped in a blanket.

Connor walked up shaking his head,

“Who and what this time?”

Logan looked him straight in the eye,

“A 5 foot 95 pound girl, there are still people unaltered as far as we know by the radiation, they took some of our supplies majority of the medical they took but left us a good amount of the rest. They didn’t touch the fire arms and ammo, they just took a few melee weapons.”

Connor looked at Logan dumbfounded,

“What a ‘girl’ managed to kill Wyatt? The same Wyatt that was 250 pounds of pure muscle standing at 6.5 feet tall? I don’t believe you.”

“Believe it, we all saw it. She moved fast and flawless, Wyatt didn’t stand a chance.”

Said one of the soldiers.

Connor shook his head,

“What do we do now? We can’t fight mutants, animals and superhumans.”

Logan shook his head,

“That’s why we find the superhumans and try to make an alliance with them.”

Connors eye bugged out of his head along with the rest of the soldiers.

“Say what now?”

Asked Connor.

“Yea they hit you harder then we thought, their smallest soldier killed our biggest soldier like he was paper.”

Said another soldier.

“Exactly, they are strong, they know what’s out there and how to kill them. We have supplies they clearly need, we have doctors that could help them use the medicine they took. I guarantee we could strike some sort of agreement with them, we just have to find where they are.”

Logan said pointing in the forest.

Everyone mumbled.

“It’s the only idea we have, we can at lease try to make them allies. If they wanted to kill us all they would have but they didn’t. It’s worth a shot.”

Everyone shrugged.

A faint siren sound echoed though the forest, they saw the radiation cloud rolling over the mountains.

“Ok everyone get all the food and equipment in the ship quickly the clouds coming!”

Connor yelled, everyone quickly grabbed everything and put it in the ship, they did a head count.

“Wait we’re missing two, did Paul and Tony make it back to get something to open the hatch?”

Logan asked looking around.

Connor shook his head,

“Nope no one came back that I heard, I’m sure they found shelter. We’ll search for them after the cloud passes, nothing we can do now.”

He closed the door.