The Third Breed

Investigate

Lance felt like he was floating in midair while sitting at the top of the mountain, covered by the thick fog of the cold morning. The dark blue sky still showed all the stars glittering like crystals and below he could see the clouds touching the mountain peaks, like soft flying pillows.

“Lance are you okay?” Max comes over from behind him. A worried looked showed in his face seeing him stare into the blankness of the mid-morning skies.

“Yeah, I’m just appreciating the view right now. It’s so different from the colony, I mean I do love that place. But here, it’s just so...so peaceful. This place would have been paradise if only the horde didn’t exist. Not worrying about the dangers lurking below the mountains and just being able to move freely without a care in the world.” He raises his hands reaching into the horizon.

Max sat at a rock beside his friend Lance, who’s eyes were now closed, inhaling the fragrant aroma of dewy grass and trees. He then stares at the beyond where the light was starting to peek, smiling at the serenity they had right now.

“You know. My father use to tell me, that the horde were actually the people from before. But mother nature got angry with them for being too greedy, so she cursed them, taking their souls and changing their form to match their own selfishness. Now, they’re nothing but husk for the embodiment of her anger, forever roaming the earth, hungry for the flesh of their kind.” Max recalled the story that his old man used to tell whenever he would ask why the horde actually existed.

Lance held his laughter then turned to look at his friend. “Huh, that’s quite a nice story, And where exactly did your father hear that.” He folded his legs while sitting and hugged it. Warming himself from the cool breeze.

“It’s a very old tale pass down to us by our elders,” Max lips curled remembering his childhood.

Lance bent his head, wanting to get a closer look on Max face with his next question. “Does that mean that mother nature is still angry with us?” He was starting to worry with his new friends mind set, he had the innocence of a child with the ferocity of a wild beast and intelligence.

Max turns to him eyes twinkled as the rays from the sun began to shine. “No, he said that now, the horde were natures guardians, making sure that we don’t make the same mistakes again.”

Chuckling Lance stretched his legs, contemplating on what the man said. “We’ll, that’s one way to put it.”

There was silence between them as they watched the sun pierce the night sky, showing its full glory and bathing them with it’s sunshine.

“You know Lance,” Max starts again, looking at his own feet while twiddling it on the grass.

“Yeah?” Lance amusingly looked at his friend, guessing what he wanted to say.

Max let out a deep sigh before raising his head. “My father also said, that if the horde hadn’t come, everything that you see right now, would no longer exist.”

“Do you believe him?” Lance could feel the uncertainty from his friends voice.

“I don’t really know. Do you think he was wrong?” Max turns to his friend.

His eyes were gleaming with hope for an answer to a question that seems to be haunting him. Unable to accept that the horde would actually be able to be of some good.

Lance sensed the man’s remorse from sharing an idea that they thought was impossible. He reflects a bit, taking into consideration that it was something that came from someone important to his friend.

“Can’t really say, I mean it is an old story. So, maybe there’s a truth behind it.” Lance says, knowing full well the imperfectness and turmoil within their own colony.

Max felt his chest lighten. “Yes, maybe there is.”

“Guys!” Ariel calls out to them.

“Yeah,” Lance turns to their friend who was waving from a distant.

“Breakfast is ready.”

“C’mon we better get breakfast, before Ariel eats it all.” He taps the mans shoulder, giving him his sweetest smile for comfort.

The corners of Max mouth lightly turns up as they both stand up and race back to their group.

*****

Huge crumbling structures of different shades, covered with thick vines and assorted plants were all over the place, it looked like the forest and cities merged together forming a new world.

“I don’t feel good about this,” Ariel scours his sight towards the land but was unable to see any signs of people.

“Neither do I?” Lance states.

He couldn’t see much less know what’s down there, because of the spaces it hid from their view. But they tracked the traces of the previous platoon in that direction.

“Shall we continue sir?” Nick one of the men that came with them asks.

He thinks carefully, taking into account their small number and the places that they could probably hide while on the move. Yet, he couldn’t shake off the feeling of uncertainty and dread looking at the lush and well leveled terrain.

“What do you think Max?” He finally turns to his friend for an opinion.

“Plenty of places for the horde to hide and chase us,” Max eyes glared at the sight of the numerous dark corners.

“Yeah, and no place for us to take advantage of,” Ariel adds.

“It seems awfully quiet though,” Oliver the other man from their team joins in.

That eerie silence gave Lance goosebumps, it was something he became wary after their encounter in the mountains with the crawling horde.

“We better wait for nightfall, then we can hide in the shadows and the horde is less active,” Lance finally decides.

“Right,” Max agrees.

Lance signals his comrades to take a rest, they set up camp on the ledge of the hill as they waited for the sun to set.

When darkness covered the land they began moving from place to place, keeping themselves hidden and using what little light the moon had to offer, keeping a close eye for any signs of the previous group.

Lance kept remembering trees and places they can run off to, in case they encounter the infected. He also took into account some areas too dangerous to go to, that was covered in bushes and slim trees.

After almost three hours of moving, they reach a very large clearing with only very few trees and plants. The road was so wide that he was not sure where they could even go, as the huge ruins within the place were also so far apart and did not have any place for them to climb on to, it was a very bad place to encounter a horde.

“What do we do now?” Ariel was looking straight into the stony plains with his binoculars, trying to see for any possible signs of enemy.

“There should be some kind of pathway here that leads to a higher ground.” Lance pointed to a distance that showed in his map where the supposed place was. “Max, do you hear anything?”

“Nope.” Max answers after a few moments of listening.

“Everyone stay close, and keep your eyes out for anything that moves.” He orders.

They quickly move into the night, staying close into the shadow of the nearest bushes they could find.

They reach a stone road that was crumbling but was going upward, held together by huge pillars made from what seems to be concrete. They slowly creep unto its sides to make sure they stay in the shade of the dark. Lance thought that it would be safer for them to take higher ground as they would be able to use their binoculars to look ahead and see what was below. They pause when they reached the end of the road, stopping before they could even go down.

It wasn’t hard for them to notice the pile of bodies laying on the ground, like a line of mutilated corpses scattered across the grassland.

“Are they sleeping?” Ariel whispers as they lay flat on their stomachs.

Lance uses his binoculars to get a better look, but it was too dark to be sure. “I don’t think so.”

“Stay here,” Max states before dashing downward swords unsheathe.

They all take out their weapons as they patiently await, hearts pounding as they feel that coil of fear and uncertainty. They all watched as Max carefully pokes his sword into the flesh of one of the remains of infected, their team began to move when there was no sign of any movement and Max was already checking a second body.

“There’s more of them,” Ariel points to several more piled up infected up ahead.

“Sir Lance,” Nick was already pointing to a sword covered in blood and had a severed hand still holding it.

“It seems the group encountered a horde here,” Lance gets a better view of the place and can see that a battle happened there.

As the bodies of mutilated and crushed infected were mixed with some weapons and uniforms of scouts. He can’t help the sadness and pity for the men that had lost their lives trying to escape.

“What now?” Ariel was becoming restless because of the numerous dead men.

Lance surveys the area and hears running water from below the side of the road “Will use the stream to hide ourselves while we follow them, so stay sharp.” It was a stroke of luck that the running water was beside the road, as he knew that for some reason the infected had a hard time when moving in it.

They move into the stream that flowed opposite their direction, as they went along the path. Max crawled silently into the nearby bushes, like a large lizard on a hunt.

They closely follow the trail of mutilated bodies, until they reach two quadrone that were abandoned, covered in a pile of corpses. Waiting, as Max listened around. They proceeded when he nods at them saying that it was safe.

They check the large mechanical wreck that were now left, the cockpit seemed to have been forced opened as bits and pieces of bloody remains of the pilot were still strapped inside it.

“It seems they kept going and these two stayed behind to hold off the horde,” Oliver informs in a low voice while standing atop the huge vehicle.

They look around the mountains of bodies that were surrounding it, showing the efforts and struggle it took the two men to keep the monsters from following.

Lance was suddenly filled with strength to continue, wanting to ensure that the sacrifice and bravery of the men was not in vain.

“Lance, I think Max found them,” Ariel tells him pointing to their companion who was crouching within the tall grass, a few meters from them, looking straight ahead.

Lance quickly takes the binocular that Ariel was giving and looks towards where his friend was pointing. From a far, about a kilometer away he could already see the mass of infected swaying like a wave of rotting bodies, the creatures kept mobbing two more quadrones that were stuck together, it seemed to be blocking the entrance to a gate. Their numbers were thrice as many as the ones they encountered before, sending shivers within his body.

Max immediately goes back to them, eyes fiery with hatred. “Max, what’s the plan?”

“Calm down Max, we need to make sure to keep everyone safe, so that we can go back to camp in one piece, you understand.” Lance holds his friend shoulders slowly stroking it to keep him down.

He knew what his friend felt at the moment and was pretty sure the man was itching to go on a killing spree. But he could not take the chance now, with the almost immeasurable number of zombies and the place they wherein, it was their lost for sure.