Chapter Text
Another supply run.
I can't keep fucking doing this – weren't they supposed to be figuring out something to farm?
I'm good.
I'm very good at scavenging.
But, that still requires there to actually be something for me to scavenge.
I keep having to go farther and farther out. More distance. Riskier and riskier. Trips stretching from days to weeks.
Look. I get it. Scavvers have been hitting us hard recently. They always do, the closer it gets to monsoon season. But, we seriously can't ration any more? At all?
This far out... I'm starting to see things I haven't before. New mutations. Nothing like the pred-deer or the spores. The terrain itself is warped here. Mushrooms boring into stone. Animals the size of houses; with whole ecosystems on and in them.
And, these damned vines. Everywhere. Choking every tree, house, road, and… Even what look like bodies.
I thought it would only last for a mile or so, but they just keep sprawling. I'll have to find a different way back. There's no way in hell that I'll be slicing through all this again with whatever load I have by trip’s end.
Small flowers that make me even more thankful for my gas mask – probably poisonous or something – grow everywhere on the lowest, woodiest vines. There's a thick haze in the air as well. Pollen, maybe? I just hope this air filter’s not through yet. I've only got two more.
Damned storehouse managers…
These vines. Makes kudzu look like a native species. Hell… Maybe it was kudzu at some point. Or at least some other type of invasive plant.
Whatever it is, I'm glad to be wearing so much gear, even with the humidity. Each slash through the thick growth coats me in ever more of its sticky white blood. The waterproofing only helped for a few minutes before my arms started to stick to my sides.
It isn't enough anyhow. It's leaking under my sleeve ends, right above my gloves, gripping and pulling at my skin almost painfully. I'm taking a long, hot bath when I get back. No quartermaster is gonna get in my way of that.
Maybe, if I'm lucky, Carla will be so happy once she sees me that she'll help me get cleaned up too. Just thinking about snuggling under the covers with her is enough to make all this worth it. Knowing that her, above all the others, will benefit from all this effort is enough.
Not that nobody else needs anything.
Hell, I've been in a bit of a panic about my meds my own self. Not that I'm running low… But, well…
I can't do without them, is the thing of it; and, we can't make them either. They're not rare by any means, given that they're useful for more than just fixing my faulty ass, but I'd rather not have to deal with the added stress at all.
Before all this ended up the way it is now, I remember getting letters from some study in who-gives-a-fuck Canada that was supposed to be coming up with a 'permanent cure.' Sure would be nice not to have to lug around gallons more water than anybody else in the supply team, but… Well… Tough luck, I guess…
What the hell are these vines… My arms are starting to get itchier. I'd worry more about having some kind of allergic reaction if that was actually the worst thing that could happen out here.
Thinking back to those bodies… There's no turning back now. I'll just have to push even harder to get through.
All I've been able to hear for the last hour has been the swishing and creaking of the vines, my footsteps, and my own breath. It can't be too much longer now.
After another hour of tripping over and cutting through this plant, the water I've been sipping on runs dry.
Of course.
I can't continue on without it. This day’s just been getting hotter.
Looking around, and seeing no sign of a clearing still… Well, not like I was going to get out of this anytime soon anyway…
I stop and shuffle a few of my bags off. Checking that the straw running from my mask didn't just slip out of the bottle it was in again, I pull a fresh one out.
Twisting the connector off the expired bottle, I hook it to the outside of my main bag. More containers for food and drink never hurt. After that, I fumble with the other bottle before the cap finally pops off. I'd rather not waste any of this, but I can't very well twist this cap on with all this white crap coating my gloves. There's absolutely no way I'm taking them off, either. So, I do my best to rinse most of it off, before seating the straw inside and securing it.
Putting this new bottle into my water pack, I take a sip.
It tastes sweet. So deliciously sweet. In a... Floral… Green sort of way.
Fuck!
I spit the straw out, but realise I've already swallowed a few mouthfuls.
I… There's nothing to be done about it. I just… I won't drink any more until I can get out and clean off. In the meantime… I just hope that shit wasn't poisonous.
More hours – I can't keep track anymore – pass, and I still haven't made it out. It's started to cool off, and there isn’t much light getting through the vines anymore. It's an active struggle to get my arms and legs to move with how much of this damned glue is on everything. It's soaked through every inch of fabric I've got on me at this point.
I can barely muster my strength anymore. Fighting the vines and my own clothes with a now dull hatchet just isn't working. I stumble and fall to my knees, just narrowly able to catch myself before I fall any further.
I'm tired.
I'm hungry.
And, I'm thirsty.
I'm so thirsty.
So thirsty.
I had to change my filter about thirty minutes ago, realising I could smell the delectable scent of the flowering vines around me. With no idea of how long I'd been breathing in whatever is in the air, I almost immediately began scrambling to get a new one.
Fiddling with the mask only reminded me of how close I constantly am to getting another drink. All I have to do is open my mouth, maneuver my tongue a little, and that amazing water will be mine.
It would be…
S-so…
It tastes so sweet and my sore throat almost burns from how soothing the, long since lukewarm, stream water feels.
No!
N-not like…
I…
Can't stop.
It tastes like
drinking more
i-is… What I should do.
I guzzle down half the bottle, like I haven't had water in weeks. The sweet taste just keeps filling me. Then I start feeling as my overexertion truly catches up.
Sitting down was a mistake.
But, I
shouldn't
get up now.
So, in a dazed sort of exhaustion, I just try to get comfortable. I peel my bags off and take a few more gulps of the intoxicating drink. If I'm already dead, no way am I denying myself at least some kind of refreshment before I go.
Letting out a heavy sigh, the delicious scent can envelop me as I finally pass out.