Hordes
of creatures continued to flow forth from the mounds of earth. Their six legs,
no wider than a man's palm, propelled them across the short distance to the
awaiting militia. Nate watched as the newly arrived creatures exploded,
fragments of their armoured bodies and black insides scattered across the road,
adding to the carnage.
Nate
had to occasionally brush long brown strands of hair from his face to see
through the sight on his rifle and he felt the roughness of his beard as he
rested his chin against the weapon. He imagined he looked a lot like one of the
band of Scav's, frail ghost like individuals feeding of the scraps of town's and
things they found left over from the old world. The things that separated him
from the Scav's where his rifle and the hand gun strapped to his waist.
A dull
ache had built up in his arms but he ignored it, turning his attention back to
the battle below. The creatures where a swarm of scurrying parts which made it
almost impossible to distinguish between the wounded, living and dead. He did
manage to spot one creature with only two legs remaining and a large part of
its rear body segment missing. It crawled forward seemingly unaware of its
predicament. Nate shivered, high up on the hill above the town he still felt
the sudden urge to search for protruding mounds of earth around him.
Despite
the creature's advantage in numbers, none of them had so far penetrated the
twenty yard gap between the ever growing pile of carcasses and the militia line
but Nate knew it couldn't last. Ammo would run low or nerves would shatter and
there couldn't be an endless supply of gun fodder either. One side would have
to give and he wasn't sure which side would cause him the most problems.
As if
on cue, the road cracked open in half a dozen more places behind the swarm.
Heads twice as wide as a man's lurched from the newly formed holes. There
antennae's swept over the tarmac before they bolted from their dens, followed
by more and more. With the swarm swelled by the new arrivals, the gap between
the militia rapidly closed.
The
swarm suddenly arrowed forward reaching the militia line, Nate guessed a few of
the militia had run out of ammo or one of the larger weapons had jammed, either
way it didn't really matter. The effect was still the same. Four or five
militia where set upon by the creature's there snapping jaws ripped away flesh.
Sprays of crimson splattered across the heads of the creatures. Nate saw one
unfortunate militia ensnared in his midsection; his intestines spilled out as
he was ripped open.
The
militia line disintegrated, most of the men were torn to pieces but some had
turned tail at the first signs the horde wouldn't be stopped. A trail of
weapons and other discarded items lay on the ground leading to the fleeing men
but Nate quickly lost sight of them behind the wave of black bodies. Their legs
moved in a blur of motion as they gave pursuit. He was amazed that some of the
men had even made it to the entrance to the town.
Large
sheets of discarded metal protruded from the ground, twice as high as a man.
The barricade was wedged between two buildings that stretched up twice the
height of it. The men congregated to a spot in the fencing where Nate had seen
the entrance to the town before the attack had begun. He didn't see if it got
opened, as the black wave of creatures crashed over the last of the militia.
Some of the creatures stopped to mop up the last of the men. The rest scurried
over the wall.
Nate pulled back from the rifle and
shook his head. He'd seen the swarms from a far a few times but had only
encountered them on two occasions. Once they'd attacked his raiding party, when
one of the more youthful raiders had decided to take a passing shot at one of
the creatures, unfortunately for the party it had landed home and sent the
creature's into a frenzy. Not many of the party made it home and Nate had
picked up a nasty scar across his thigh as a souvenir but at least the foolish
raider had gone down in the fight too.
The second encounter happened right
at home. Guards on the town wall spotted the mounds one morning as if the
creatures had just decided to relocate. Danko had decided to call everyone
home. It was the only time Nate had seen everyone in town at the same time.
Raiders, hunters and the town guard where all together, nearly 200 men. The
most experienced of the raiders and hunters had travelled into the mounds. At
the time Nate had felt ashamed to have been left behind with the youngsters and
the women. Over a decade later that youthful arrogance had grown into a
stubborn veterans understanding of the world. After all no one told tales of a
dead raider.
The
nest had been purged that day and there was great tales told of Gav's hunting
party who had taken down the largest creature anyone had ever seen. Danko had
announced it had to have been the king of the creatures, a large vicious
creature so fearsome and enormous it made men piss themselves. Nate wasn't so
convinced, hunter's always took a prize from there kills, yet they'd come back
with only a story. Even so Gav and his surviving men
had been moved up to the town watch.
Both
times he'd fought with the creatures they'd been provoked, retaliating to
protect themselves or their nest but this swarm was different. They seemed to
be moving with purpose, pushed on to some goal. He knew that was crazy but he
couldn't help but feel something was up and he'd learned long ago to go with
his instinct. No matter what the reason was for the creature's behaviour he had
his own goal.
He
imagined the women would be locked up in some part of the town, tucked away in
a building or at least put someplace they couldn't escape. Nate hoped they were
locked up now, otherwise Shan was dead and he couldn't let that happen. The
militia had been his first big problem, they were gone now. The creatures where
his second, he wasn't sure which was worse. He had to wait for the chaos to
calm down and hopefully the creatures would just move on.
Now the
creatures had stripped away the armed men in the town, it might have just
become that much easier for him to get into the town. He just had to wait the
creatures out and then he could get her out alive. It sounded too easy and that
bothered Nate. In his experience nothing that sounded easy, ever turned out
that way.
Soon
the day turned into the evening and Nate could no longer make out as much but
he could still see the scuttling forms of the creatures, it was clear they
weren't going to move on, at least not soon. He slid back from the ledge and
brought out a cover from the rucksack that sat to his side. He used his canteen
to dampen the thick cloth and then rubbed one side across the ground. When he
was done he positioned his rucksack under his head and slid the rifle to his
side, then he pulled the thick cloth right over him.
He then removed the hand gun from its holster
and placed it under him, a nasty little surprise if anything stumbled across
him in the night. Nate drifted into an away-from-home-sleep. It was barely away
from the world but helped to refresh his mind and body. The morning heat
brought him from his slumber and he threw the cloth off him, rolling over onto
his back. The hand gun scanned back and forth, nothing. It was always better to
be careful, especially when you were at your most vulnerable.
The
town was quiet and only the odd wounded creature moved in the aftermath of the
dead. Past the metal wall, Nate searched for signs of the creatures but he saw
only more pieces of men or woman, he couldn't tell which. Nothing alive in the
town was moving, at least not where he could see. There were large sections
behind the buildings, he couldn't see. He just hoped Shan was tucked away
somewhere safe.
Nate
gathered up his things but decided it was best to leave his rucksack here. He
took a long pull on his canteen before pouring the rest into a little hole he'd
dug. Some large rocks lay nearby and
Nate stuffed his canteen back inside his rucksack and then placed it in between
the rocks, with the thick cloth wrapped tightly around, you had to really focus
before you could tell the rucksack apart.
The
water had already mixed into the dirt and Nate rubbed the sloppy mixture onto
his face. Just another Scav picking from
the dead. As an afterthought he slid the mixture through his hair, brushing
it up and out of his face. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and withdrew
his handgun. Nate then moved down the slope of the hill, giving the creature
carcasses and mounds a wide berth, as he ran to one of the buildings near the
entrance.