AfterLife

Chapter 3

They had 5 soldiers patrolling switching every few hours, all day it was silent until night fell. There were sounds and noises echoing threw the forest, rarely anyone got any sleep out of fear of what was out there.

Logan laid on his cot looking up at his tent, he had one arm behind his head holding it up and the other playing with Angels neckless. Amy said it was going to take her a few hours, she had to dry out some of the components and replace a few.

Logan sighed he wished he could hear Angels voice. Then his thoughts went back to the lake and to the black figure in the water, he knew it wasn’t his mind playing tricks. It was way to vivid, if some animals survived then maybe some humans did too.

Then his thoughts went back the to zombie bear, he hoped that if there were humans left that they weren’t mutated like the bear. He tried closing his eyes when a blood curdling scream filled the air, Logan jumped up and ran out of his tent.

As he walked out of his tent he saw Rick standing in the middle of camp twitching,

“Rick?”

Logan yelled.

Rick slowly turned to him, he had four giant gashes going from his right shoulder down to his left hip. You can see his organs barely staying inside his body, blood was pouring out of his mouth. Logan finally looked at his eyes, they were a milky white like the bears.

Rick let out a low growl that turned into a loud roar and charged at Logan.

A gun shot filled the air, Ricks body collapsed to the ground.

Logan looked in the direction of the gun shot and saw Kyle aiming his rifle at Rick, Kyle put down his gun.

Logan walked to Ricks body and slowly knelt down next to it, Kyle shot him in the left temple. Logan grabbed a stick and pushed it Ricks body to his back so he can look at him, he was starting to give off the same smell the bear did.

“What happened to him, he was dead I checked him after the bear.”

Kyle said kneeling down next to Logan looking at Rick.

Logan shook his head,

“I have no idea, we’ll have to do an autopsy. It was either from the bear or the air after he died.”

Logan stood up,

“Can I have two doctors wear the radiation suits and examine the body?”

Everyone stood in silence, after a few moments two doctors stepped forward and nodded to Logan.

“Thank you, we’ll have a spare tent set up and have him moved into it, go get the suits on and the supplies you need ready. Let’s try pushing him with sticks on a blanket and we’ll carry him that way.”

Logan and Kyle pushed Rick on a blanket, they carried him to a tent that was set up for the autopsy and left the doctors to do their work with one soldier standing by the door watching just in case.

Logan was about to head to Amy’s tent to see how the radio was coming along when Kyle stopped him.

“What are we going to do if it’s in the air, if someone dies are they going to turn into… A zombie?”

Kyle asked.

Logan shrugged,

“We won’t know till they finish the autopsy, but I have to see if Amy fix the radio so I can talk to the The Nautilus maybe there’s something in the Archives.”

Logan made his way to Amy’s tent,

“Amy?”

He ask outside her tent.

“Come in.”

Logan walked in, the radio was still in pieces all over her table.

Logan sighed with disappointment,

“Still no luck?”

“Unfortunately the circuit board is completely fried, there’s no fixing it. I’d need to replace it with a different one but we don’t have one or anything close.”

Amy waved the circuit board.

Logan fought back tears, he cleared his throat

“Ok, um at first light I’ll take a small team and go searching for one.”

Amy looked at him wide eyed,

“Logan we have no idea where we are or what is out there. You saw what happened to Rick, there’s something out there that changes living creatures.”

“We don’t have a choice Amy, we have to communicate with The Nautilus. They have to know were are alive and need help, they can send us more supplies and military.”

Logan said crossing his arms.

“Or they can send us a ship to bring us home, Logan maybe this mission is to far gone.”

Amy said standing up.

“Amy this mission is way to important to abandon now, maybe not all the animals were infected. We don’t know until we explore, we can’t just tuck our tails and run when we see danger for the first time.”

Amy stood there in shock at the words Logan just spoke,

“See danger for the first time?! Logan Rick is dead! Someone died from something that was unnatural and came back as one of them! Earth looks to be far more dangerous then we thought, how many people have to died for you to see that!”

Anger bubbles in Logan’s chest, he snapped back at Amy,

“It doesn’t matter when The Nautilus is dying anyway!”

Amy’s face dropped,

“What do you mean The Nautilus is dying?”

Logan sighed and rubbed his face,

“The Nautilus was supposed to be a temporary home for 125 years but the Elders didn’t calculate people reproduce rapidly. It’s only been 75 years and it only has one, maybe two years left before it shuts down completely. Hence why we’ve had power and electrical problems for the pass few years.”

Amy was speechless,

“Why haven’t they said anything?”

Logan scoffed,

“Can you imagine telling 300,000 people their all going to died in a year or two if Earth is uninhabitable. That number will drop in hours, this mission has to work Amy. So far the only set back is the mutated animals but as long as we don’t touch them and shot them in the head we’ll be fine.”

Amy shook her head,

“The people have the right to know Logan.”

Logan nodded,

“When we get the radio up and running I’ll let everyone know, ok.”

Amy nodded and sat back down at the table.

“Any other part you need?”

Amy shrugged,

“I mean if you find another radio fully intact that would be great, there are some part that could be replace but still work.”

Logan nodded and left.

Logan saw the sky starting to brighten up, he walked to Connors tent,

“Yea Connor you up?”

Connor opened his tent and walked out yawning,

“Never fell asleep, to creepy at night man specially after what happened to Rick.”

Logan nodded,

“Tell me about it, listen I’m taking a few soldiers with me to do a run, Amy needs parts for the radio.”

Connors eyes widened,

“You sure you want to go back out there? We have no idea if there’s more mutant animals out there.”

“Yea we’ll we need that radio working Connor it’s our only hope.”

Logan said annoyed.

Connor nodded,

“True, you want me to come with you?”

Logan shook his head,

“No stay here and get the walls up but low key ask around why people decided to be part of this mission. Of someone is trying to sabotage our mission I want to know who and why.”

Connor nodded

“Ok I’ll ask around, Logan be careful.”

Logan nodded, Connor gave him a hug.

Logan gathered 4 soldiers and headed outside the camp. They walked for about 2 hours and saw nothing but trees.

“What are we looking for?”

Said one soldier named Vinny.

“Any old structure or building, maybe there’s a radio or parts for one left.”

Logan said looking around, something caught his eye and he signaled for everyone to stop moving. Everyone duck down and raised their guns, Logan looked though his scoop to see an animal. It was sandy colored with long legs eating grass, it didn’t look anything like the bear.

He gestured for Kari, the soldier who knew about animals, to come to him.

“What is that?”

Logan whispered.

Kari looked though her scoop, she lightly chuckled

“It’s a deer, looks to be a female. Their completely harmless.”

She looked though her scoop again and gasp,

“Look she has babies.”

Logan quickly looked though his scoop to see two smaller looking ones.

Logan chuckled,

“See, not all the animals were affected by the radiation. Come on let’s go.”

They went around the deers so they wouldn’t scare them, they walked for about another hour. They sat by a creek and rest for a moment,

Henry the really big guy with a buzz cut spoke,

“So what are we going to do if we don’t find any parts for the radio?”

Logan took a bite out of a ration,

“We’ll have to find a way to send a signal up in space, try to get it past the Grey.”

Henry looked confused,

“How?”

Logan shrugged,

“I don’t know, let just hope we find some parts so we don’t have to come to that.”

They finished their rations and continued walking, they final came to what looked to be a town.

Logan sighed with relief,

“Yes finally, ok we’ll cover more ground if we split up. We’ll meet up in the middle, whistle if you see anything dangerous.”

Everyone nodded and went in different directions, Logan head for what was once a house. Most of the roof was caved in, trees and other plants grew around it. Logan climbed in though a window, he had his rifle ready and started searching the house. He found nothing, it looked like it was picked clean. He climbed back out of the house and moved on to the next building, this one was made out of concrete. Most of the walls were crumbled, Logan entered though one of the holes in the wall.

It looked like a department store, there were still some things on the shelf but were destroyed though the years.

“Come on there’s got to be something.”

Logan searched all the isles but found nothing, he walked in what looked like an office, it was pitch black so he turned on his flashlight. He searched the desk and the cabinets, he stopped when he heard a noise. He slowly looked around in the darkness when he saw a woman standing in the corner. She had matted black hair, half her face missing you can see her jaw and teeth. Her eyes were a milky white like Ricks and the bear, she let out a blood curdling scream. She lunged at Logan snapping her teeth together, Logan shot her between the eyes and she fell to the floor. Logan started panting when he heard gunshots, he ran out of the building and into the middle of town. He saw Kari, Vinny, Henry and the other guy Luke shooting at more mutants. Logan ran to their side to help them.

“There’s to many of them!”

Yelled Kari.

The mutants started to circle them cutting off their escape, they slowly started closing in snapping their teeth at them.

Then a loud siren filled the air, the mutants stopped moved and sniffed the air, they screeched then ran into the forest.

Henry looked around,

“What the f**k is that?”

“I don’t know but if it scared them off it can’t be good.”

Said Kari watching the mutants run away.

“What is that?”

Luke ask point to the sky.

Logan looked up, a greenish yellow fog started rolling down the mountains. Logan’s radiation reader was beeping.

“I think it’s time to run back to camp.”

Said Henry backing up.

“We’ll never make it in time, we have to find a place to hide and wait it out.”

Said Logan looking for shelter.

“There was a house that had a bomb shelter hatch, I was about to check it out when the mutants attacked.”

Said Kari running to the house, they followed her and quickly opened the hatch, they climbed down in the darkness.

Logan felt the ground and quickly turned on his light, pointing his gun looking around. Luke closed the hatch and climbed down, he pulled out some glow sticks. He cracked them, Kari was able to find a switch and flicked it. A generator kicked on and lite up the place, there were shelves with moldy boxes and molded bottles.

Logan looked around and saw a map on a table, it was a map of the United States.

There was a red circle around the state of Maine,

“I’m guessing we are here.”

Said Logan pointing at the map, there was a line going from Maine up though Canada to what looked like snow lands, there was another circle that read Go Here.

Logan grabbed the map and put it in his backpack, the he looked around when he saw it.

A radio,

“Oh thank The Elders!”

Logan grabbed the radio and touched it to his forehead, he placed it in his backpack.

He sighed with relief.

“How do we know if whatever that is had passed? What about the people back at camp? Where would they go? We should go warn them.”

Said Luke pacing back and forth.

“That siren was loud, I guarantee they heard it and got in the drop ship. Nothing can get past that sealed door. The reader was going off so it’s got to be a radiation cloud, I don’t know how long it will take to pass. We’re just going to have to sit tight and wait, in the mean time get some rest.”

Said Logan sitting up against the wall closing his eyes.

The others joined him since no one got sleep the night before, at lease now they know their safe for the most part.