The Third Breed

What do you know that we don't

Max stayed behind the two the whole time, though they both seemed nice and carefree he was still wary.

He remained half asleep during the night guarding himself, but the two didn’t do anything. When morning came, the younger man cooked something in water that looked like yellow colored worms, but really tasted nicely, specially with its soup, though he couldn’t understand the taste, he’d compare it to chicken, even their mud colored drinks were to behold as it was both sweet and milky with a punch of that dark flavor.

The sun was already halfway in the sky when they reached the second mountain top. He was now starting to remember their name.

The talkative guy with the weird gestures and long knife was named Lance Dullahan, it seems he was like the leader of the two. He seems to know a lot of things besides numbers. A while ago, they were all looking at the paper with the squiggly lines, dots and color that they called map. It seems to show were they needed to go somehow, though he couldn’t understand how it work. Then whenever Lance was unsure he’d take out this round metal thing that had an arrow in it that kept pointing somewhere and shaking as they move, but what he was most curious of was the black box thing that produced numbers.

Yes, he knew about numbers, since his father had thought it to him before, though there was also something called letters, he never did get the chance to learn it.

Lance would usually use the little black box whenever they reached the highest part of the mountain. It seems to be telling were they were.

The younger one named Ariel Lee, didn’t seem all that special at first, with all the non stop talk the kid had been doing, asking how he can do this, that and those things, all the while looking at him with those half sleeping eyes. He was annoyed at first until the guy starts showing him useful things that were in his bag. Like that small knife that he puts in his pocket, it had different hidden weapons on it, a box of sticks that can easily make fire and his bow that was made of some kind of hard yet bendable material. Plus the kid was the one who makes the really tasty food for them, using that metallic contraption that was able to control fire.

He was starting to feel a bit at ease with them, if not to say the least. But he knew he can’t just relax, since he just met the two. There was just something off about them that was making him feel uneasy.

“We should probably take a rest for now,” Lance stops, looking at the horizon and the lower parts of the mountain.

“Yes,” Max answers, he just watched as the two started putting down their bags.

“I’ll go check the area,” Lance says taking out another of those stuff they have, which look like two tubes stuck together, he then proceeded to to the highest part of the summit a few meters away from them and for some reason he place the tube things on his eyes.

“I’ll make us some lunch,” Ariel says as he sat at a clearing near a big acacia tree, he then took out his metallic food making stuff, the so called ration food, metal where they put it and some other things.

Max just surveyed the surroundings. They were already at the highest part of that mountain, a few trees grew about several feet tall around them but the rest were mostly shrubs and grassy areas. He decides to cut some bamboo when he sees some close by. He was quite satisfied using the knife the two gave him, it really made his work much more easier. He comes back with a bunch of the plant. He thought that if he was going to go with these two, it would be better if he was well prepared.

While sharpening some of the sticks, he notices that the bags the two were carrying were much more smaller than before.

“It seems your almost out of food,” he says to Lance when he see’s him getting seated on a log just beside him.

“Ow, don’t worry, we should be nearing a supply crate by now.” Lance answers before looking at that so called book that he always had.

“Supply crate?” He couldn’t help but frown.

“Yeah, the colony drops them at certain points during scouting missions to make sure we have enough supplies for the whole expedition. So, you don’t need to worry about food or any other basic stuff.” Lance explains, giving him a reassuring smile.

He just nods and continued sharpening his sticks.

“Hey Max, which one do you want, tuna, pork and beans or sausage?” Ariel calls out to him. The kid was holding some kind of small pouch like bags.

“Tuna?” he ended up saying, not actually knowing what it was. Though he remembers hearing that thing before, but he didn’t thought that it was food.

“I’ll have the beans then,” Lance says after him.

Ariel nods then starts ripping the pouches, before putting the stuff into the metallic boxes that was used for cooking.

“So, how long have you been roaming by yourself?” Lance starts again while taking off his nice looking shoes to massage his foot.

“Since, I was this small,” Max stood up and raises his hand below his chest to show his size before he was alone.

Lance ended scratching his head. “Ow, so that long huh.”

“Yup.”

“So, before you were…you know,” Lance asks again waving his hand at him, this time the guys eyes rolled upwards, but then just looked at him with an apologetic smile.

Max got what the man was trying to ask. “I was with my father.”

That received a good reaction seeing as how Lance face lit up. “So, where is he now?”

The guy let out this wide eyed smile, before moving a bit more to get closer to him.

Max just raised an eyebrow. “Dead.” He shrugs.

Lance immediately swallowed hard. “The zombies got him?” he said, his brown eyes suddenly became water as his mouth suddenly straightened.

“Yup.” He answers as he continued to scrape the top of the bamboo’s to sharpen it.

It was one of those things that he had buried deep in his memory. Since he would always feel that jolt of pain in his chest whenever he remembers it.

“Sorry to hear that,” Lance head was lowered. His voice was a bit shaky at that time.

They both remained silent for a moment, he continued sharpening his sticks, while Lance just sat there looking around at the lush green of their surroundings.

“And how old are you exactly? If its okay to ask,” Lance starts again.

“Whats that?” Max brows furrow at the question.

He’s never remembered anyone asking such a thing specially since there wasn’t a way to find out about someones oldness.

Lance forehead started to wrinkle. “Age, the number of years you’ve been living since your date of birth.

“Whats a year?” he blurts out, eyes now squinting at the questions. These were words that he has never heard before, nor was he able to understand it’s meaning or purpose.

“Okay..., let’s put that aside for now,” Lane just lets out a laugh while scratching the back of his head.

“Okay.” He just lets out a quick pout. He felt a sort of pounding inside his head at hearing words that were quite foreign to him.

.

“By the way, I remember you said that last time that you don’t know if there are anymore people here, does that mean there were others before?” Lance asks again, seeing Max’s confusion.

“Yup.”

“And what happened to them?”

“Probably hiding, traveling like us.” His face twitched, and he could feel his insides shudder as he remembered all those times he encountered other so called people before.

“So, there are others right?” Again Lance face brightens up, his lips formed into a smile and his eyes sort of twinkled.

“Can’t say now,” he sighed.

“Why’s that?”

Max was sure that Lance wasn’t going to stop for any other answer, so he might as well tell him all that he thinks and know.

“A lot of them were now gone, starve to death or move to another place because there wasn’t any more food or they may also have ended up killing one another over some stuff, or worst they were taken over by the zombies.” He says a matter of fact.

With all the places he’s been, these were some of the stuffs that he encountered. Save for some places that were a bit unique which he did not dare mention.

“Well, I expected much,” Lance let out a long sigh. Again the man was in deep though as he looked down on the ground. “But doesn’t anyone realize that the zombies are unable to climb mountains?” he says once again.

Max just winced. “The zombies, they’re changing.” he says.

“Changing?” Lance straightens up from his position, his face was now creased.

“Yes, changing,” Max repeats again, remembering the times he had seen stragglers going up the mountain.

Lance opened his mouth to say something but then they heard clapping from their side.

“Food’s ready!”Ariel merrily announces.

The young man carried the metallic boxes of food to them, before going back to the cooking thing he uses to retrieve a sort of large cup with a nose.

They quietly ate a mixed of shredded meat like thing, that he was quite sure was a kind of fish he had never tasted. Ariel added white soft puffs of grains that the two called rice, and of course his favorite marshmallow, only this time it was floating on that sweet black drink inside a metal container called mug. He was again satisfied that he had tagged along.

They rested for a bit more after eating, before moving again, to find the so called crate that was mentioned awhile ago. Which is, according to Lance, they would find just further along the high parts of the mountain.

Lance kept looking at his number making contraption, and arrow pointer. As it seems it knows the way, while Ariel was busy looking around for the whole mountain side.

“There it is!” Lance excitedly points out.

He squints to try to find what was in front but the two were already rushing towards it, so he just followed. A few moments later and he could see a very large green box, the size of a small hut hidden in a field of tall grass.

He remembered seeing such things before, but no one actually knew what is was for, nor has he ever heard of anyone ever managing to open one, because no one knew how to.

Max was so lost in thought that it took him a while to take notice of the eerie silence of the whole place. He was standing atop a mound, giving him a full view of the whole landscape.

Lance and Ariel seems to have no idea, even though they were threading the grass path with care and silence, they were unable to see what he was looking at.

Max felt the sudden rush of chill on his shoulder when the wind blew, making the long narrow leaves dance and bend to it.

Like wild fire he felt the immediate rush of heat enter his veins, as his blood boiled and increased its circulation through out his body. Not a moment had even pass for him to crouch, two long bamboo sticks on each hand, raised on his side mimicking a bird getting ready for flight. The muscles on his leg tightened as he planted his foot on the ground in preparation.

Looking at the two unsuspecting men, he set his sight on Ariel whom was already inspecting the front of the crate.