5

in the wastelands

Night spilled across the sky, so dark it seemed to draw away what little grey light they had to reveal their murky path.  The going was slow through the slop and grime, and Cole didn’t want to imagine what sorts of organic sludge grabbed her boots with such wet and sickening force.

The breathing filter filled her head with the sound of her own robotic circulation, but while (hopefully) all of the earth’s toxins were filtered out, that didn’t hold off the sour stench of the swamp, which was heady and thick with organic waste.  The air was moist and hot but Cole still shivered inside the skin-tight suit at the sight of the creeping black storm ahead.

“How long do we have?” she asked.  Her voice was distorted and sounded distant even to herself.  She was third in line, ahead of Rawlins but trailing Black and Lee.  The going had been slow, but Black insisted they proceed in single file, as that meant the soldier could create something of a trail for the rest of them to follow.

“Until the storm hits?” Rawlins asked.  “Six hours, I think.  Maybe less.”

“All the more reason to talk less and move more,” Black said.

All charm, that one, Cole thought.

“There must be a thousand species of insects that weren’t here when the Exodus took place,” Lee said with unbridled fascination in her voice.  “Without us here and with all of these toxins in the air they must have really thrived!”

“You dig bugs, huh?” Black asked.  “I’m more into muscular guys with tattoos, but whatever gets you off, I guess.”

“You’re kind of a terrible person, aren’t you?” Lee asked.  

Black just laughed.  “You don’t know the half of it,” she said.

“And I’d rather not know,” Rawlins said with something of a forced laugh.

“Oh, a prudish priest,” Black said.  “How original.”

She led the way with her assault rifle gripped tight in black gloves and lowered to point at the ground.  Cole had noted the scar down the woman’s left cheek and something cold and distant behind her eyes, like she constantly stared at some far removed place only she could see.  It was a look Cole knew well, because her father had held it for most of his life, so often there had been times she’d wondered if he even knew she was there.  

Won’t you come with me?

She shook her head to hold the voice at bay.  A nagging pain pressed against the side of her skull, but Cole did her best to ignore it.

“How does a woman end up in the Republic Army?” Lee asked.  “I’ve heard of others, but I know it’s difficult.”

“It is,” Black said.  “I had to go through a tremendous amount of shit, and still do.  But I don’t want to talk about it.”  She turned just far enough for them to be able to see the side of her face.  “Now keep it quiet.  I’d rather hear something coming before it’s already on top of us.”

She didn’t specify what they might have to worry about coming for them, but the notion of some killer insect or mutation wandering through those Stygian swamp wastes sent a chill up Cole’s spine.  

They slowly made their way towards the inevitable black wall that marked the edge of Zone 66.  The bubble of shadow was indistinct, not a border so much as a sudden darkening of the light, a breadth of shadowed space right at the edge of the swamp.  The milky sky bled grey, an eye-numbing and sick illumination which only intensified Cole’s already growing headache.  Clouds the color and texture of old stone hung petrified like derelict islands in a stale sea.

She felt the cloying damp and grisly waters even through the environmental suit’s heavy boots, and when she looked down at the hazy murk she swore she saw things slither underneath, the tails of large worms and dark spined fish that managed to stay just out of sight.  Cole shuddered.  She’d meant to ask Lee more about what sort of life they might expect to encounter on Earth’s remains, since the biologist was the most likely one to have some notion of what they could run into down there, but apart from some vague talk of evolution picking up where forced genetic mutation left off and how the possibilities were “mind boggling” Cole had left her one conversation with Lee on the subject more confused than she’d been when they’d started.

It took them nearly an hour of trudging through the ghastly muck before Cole felt as though they’d made any true progress.  The black edge of Zone 66 seemed to consistently keep them at bay, the shadow shell receding like fog, always creeping out of reach, teasing, mocking.  It was when the air grew noticeably colder and the darkness went from high on the horizon to just over their heads, like they’d stepped into the shadow of a frozen umbral wave, that the shuddering fear returned to Cole’s gut.  The goggles affixed to her environmental suit started to frost over even though there was no reasonable or logical way it was that cold, not with the buzzing insects all around and the cloying sweat she felt sliding down her back, but nevertheless she suddenly had trouble seeing anything ahead clearly.

They were just a hundred yards from the shore, where the swamp ended and the Zone began, when she heard voices.  

“What in the blue fuck is that?” Black snarled.  “Goss, come in.”

“Goss here. What’s your status?”

“We’re almost to the shore…”

“You were to maintain radio silence until you reached the Zone, Black, not almost reached it…”

“Something is happening,” Black said.

Lee stopped and turned to Cole.  “Do you hear that?  What are they saying?”

All too well, she wanted to say, but Cole found her tongue refused to work.

“The Lord’s prayer,” Rawlins said, his words muffled nearly to incomprehension through the air filter.  “In reverse.  Blasphemy, or an attempt at such.”

“What?” Lee asked.  “How can you even understand it…”

Cole felt motion...no, she realized, not felt, she sensed movement in the swamp behind them, a wake created by something that should have been visible in those shallow waters, especially since it created such a forceful impact on the surface.  She turned and looked past Goss, away from the great shadow ahead and into the misty marsh at their backs, all clumps of soil bobbing like dead men in the foul grey waters.  

A shape slithered into sight, just for a moment.  Reptilian and massive, oily pores and razor scales.  It was easily as large as the transport they’d flown in on.  The fog and shadows made it difficult to determine exactly how far away it was.

Not far enough.

“Behind us!” Cole shouted.

“I see it,” Black said.  “Make for the shore!”  The sniper took up position with her big rifle and put one foot up on a nearby mound of earth to take aim, though Cole hoped desperately she wouldn’t shoot.  

It’s not what we should be afraid of.

Fear iced the blood flowing to her heart and every muscle screamed with exhausted fear by the time Cole made it to shore.  It felt good to have solid ground beneath her feet after Lee pulled her up to the hard-packed grass that stood at least a foot above the surface of the muck, ground so hard and dry it might have existed in a different reality than the slop they’d just struggled through.  The area ahead was concealed beyond twenty meters away due to a wall of curling mist, ahead of which lay shattered stones and clefts in the earth like jagged scars.  The darkness overhead was near absolute.

Cole and Lee dragged Rawlins ashore -- the older man was much heavier than he appeared -- and watched with horror as Black slowly edged backwards towards them.  There was no longer any sign of the monstrous presence, but Cole knew that it was there as surely as she felt the frost of the bodiless voices on the back of her neck.

“Black, sitrep!”

“Stand by!”

Cole breathed easy as Black reached the shoreline, slung her rifle over her shoulder and let them pull her up.  They all stepped back from the edge and looked out at the swamp.  The ripples in the water had trickled down to almost nothing, and the voices in the air were suddenly gone, which left the four of them stranded on the island in chilling silence.

“Black…”

“We’re good,” she said, out of breath.  “We’re good...saw some sort of local life form...which to be honest looked like a fucking dragon...and we heard...jibberish...wicked chanting, or something...”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Goss demanded, but for once Black’s hardened face slackened, because she wasn’t really sure how to explain. 

“What did you hear?” Cole asked Lee.  Rawlins wandered further inland to look at the stones, while Black stepped out of earshot to continue talking to Goss.  “Could you hear what the voices said?”

“It…” Lee said, hesitant.  “It’s...must have been a trick of the wind, or something.”

Cole nodded, wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged herself against the sudden cold.

It wasn’t gibberish, and she knew that although it sounded of many, it was just one whisper they heard.  One person.

She stood still, and tried to get her mother’s voice out of her head.

Next Chapter: How to Build A Bridge