Decay

It was dark, and you sat high above the ground, leaning back against the trunk of a tree, looking at the starry night sky. You had been bullshitting the creature- the queen, or whatever it was. You had no intention of going there. What was the point? So you could sit there and go through all that first encounter shit? No, they'd study you. They wouldn't let you out of the damn lab. No sentient species would.  You shivered as you remembered the decontamination procedures at Fort Bradley. Fuck that. You'd take your chances out here. You remembered the dreams you had been having the past few nights. You'd rather not have them. Although it couldn't have been more than 50 degrees out, you still felt cold.

Letting out a pained cough, you tried to make yourself as comfortable as possible as you once again settled into bed.

-

The streets were chaos as you sprinted towards the apartment. Gunfire echoed throughout the city and all around you were screaming people, pushing shopping carts with looted goods. A few soldiers and policemen tried to keep order as much as possible, but the number of panicked people far exceeded theirs.

"Holy shit, what is that?!?"

Someone screamed louder than everyone else and pointed at someone else in the pack of people. People tried moving closer to get a look at what it was that was causing all the commotion. Then, just as fast they all ran, pressing themselves up against the military barricade and screaming. You strained to look and saw that certain figures in the frantic mob looked different. Soldiers took aim at these figures and took shots, but were unable to reliably hit their targets. As the pack of people and other things drew closer to the barricade, the NCO panicked. You saw the man, faceless under his MOPP gear, flash a signal to the Browning .50 gunner on top of the humvee. With little hesitation, the gunner began firing randomly into the crowd.

-

You awoke. The sun was barely rising over the horizon. You prepared yourself to move, but you decided, fuck it, you were taking it easy today. You reached into the bag, secured to the branch next to you, and pulled out the most valuable thing you owned. A bottle of ibuprofen, a quarter full. You lustfully poured two pills out of the container and your canteen, which still contained some of that delicious creek water. You popped the pills and washed them down.

With that, you slowly made your descent.

Once on the ground, you stretched, grimacing at the back pain this caused. You were actually considering going to those creature's settlement if it meant seeing a chiropractor. Or stealing some pain meds.

You quickly purged that idea. Going there was out of the question.

You decided to stop sleeping in trees. At least for now. And if something got you in the night, fuck it. Hopefully it would be quick.

"Where am i going today?"

You had no plan. Back on earth, you usually did. You acquired a map of the area and used it to decide where you needed to go. Food? Wholesale store. Supplies? A supermarket, if it wasn't too looted. Ammo? Houses. Gun stores were pretty much cleared out. You were day to day. It was a miserable life, but you had a structure, and a purpose for living- to keep on living. But here, there was nothing. Just a forest, some strange fucking creatures and misery.

You were hungry. You had eaten nothing. If no cans of food were available back home, you could always hunt. Here, you had seen no edible wildlife. You chuckled.

"I survived the end of the world, and lived in the wilderness for months with billions of flesh hungry monsters after me. And i end up dying of starvation in some damn place that doesn't even have WD. Just some stupid flying horses. What the fuck."

Could you eat them?

They had TALKED to you. They seemed intelligent, even. Their leader had even come to see you. They had shown concern about you. But they were meat. Probably delicious meat. And you were hungry.

No, you couldn't. You would explore other options.

You looked at your pistol. You were considering offing yourself back there. Was it the right choice? You wouldn't have done it out of pain or sadness, only for an escape.

You shook your head. You didn't know what to do anymore.

You figured you needed a direction to go. Maybe the stream again, more water. You would follow it in the direction away from the settlement.

How long would you be able to? You would have water, but what food would you have? Were there fish?

You would have to look. It was your only hope. You were not used to fishing, usually eating preserved food from a can or small animals you managed to shoot. Did you even have the supplies needed to reliably fish? You rummaged through your bag. There was a bundle of parachute cord. You could use one of the inner strands for a line. Now, a hook?

You had read about wooden fishhooks, but you decided that you would use that last. It had to be sturdy. Was there some piece of metal you could use?

There, in the very bottom of your bag. An old pull tab from a soda can. It already had a hole in it. You could cut off part of it for a sharpened hook shape. Perfect.

You were set. Time to make the hike to the creek. You would have to head west to find it.. The same way as the settlement you were trying to avoid.

You would find it, then head east.

You shook your head. "I'm just walking all a fucking round, ain't i?"

Two hours later you were slashing your way through some brush, grumbling about how you hated the situation. Your stomach also growled, but it had other things on it's mind.

"I know, asshole, i know. Food soon."

You mumbled.

There. You broke through the trees and there it was. The creek.

Hungrily you got out your makeshift fishing equipment. You had gone fishing a few times before, but only with proper equipment- not a strand of 550 cord and a fabricated fishhook. You dug under some rocks, eventually retrieving an earthworm. Sticking it on the hook, you tossed it in and waited.

After a few minutes, you felt a tugging  on the string. You jerked the string back to set the hook and slowly pulled it in.

Success. You had caught a small fish. You quickly snapped it's neck and looked at it.

Food. Actual food.

You wondered how close to the settlement you were. You hoped not too close, otherwise smoke from your cook fire would attract attention. You gathered firewood and soon had a decent fire going.

You crudely filleted the fish and tossed the unused carcass into the woods behind you. Didn't need it anyway.  You stuck the fillets on a stick and cooked them over the fire.

It was delicious. As you swallowed the last bite of fish you heard a noise behind you. You upholstered your firearm and brought it to bear behind you.

You did not like what you saw.

Many pairs of the same yellow eyes you had seen your first day here.

A pair of the eyes moved into the light, revealing it's true shape.

It looked canine in shape.. But something was off about it. Namely the fact that it seemed to be made of wood.

You gulped as you noticed one particular detail. In it's left shoulder, it had a hole. About the size of a .22 bullet.

In it's jaws it held the fish carcass.

It dropped it and let out a terrifying, low growl. The other pairs of eyes moved out of the shadows too. More of the same creatures. Ten of them.

You tried to look as confident as possible as you readied your weapon.

"Back for more, asshole?"

The pack charged.

--

You let off three shots, dropping three of the wooden canines. As you brought your gun around to aim at another, they reached you.

Strong wooden jaws clenched around your arm and wooden claws raked your torso.

Grunting through your pain, you unsheathed your knife and raked it across the face of one, before lodging it in the torso of another. You snapped out your leg, your boot catching one of the creatures square in the nose. Through the chaos, you heard wood snap.

But there were too many. As they finally overwhelmed you, with two holding you down, the first preparing for a death blow, you started to black out.

There was a bright flash of light and the canine was flung to the side, smoking. The others looked at the source, then fled into the woods.

As you heard something approach, you could take no more.

You let the blackness creeping in to your peripheral vision take over.

-

You were finally getting near to the apartment. Screaming people all around, military men in chemical suits scanning the crowd, gunfire, helicopters and the smell of smoke.

As you looked up you noticed something strange. One of the Apache helicopters was flying strangely. It moved erratically through the air, weaving and spinning.

And then it stopped flying. It careened towards the ground, impacting a building in a massive fireball.

The building she was in.

--