[T: 6 Days 21 Hours ]
It has been three days since La Fonte, Jose, Lucas and Frank first explored the deeper levels, and two days since the group started taking other members of the fighting group to explore with them. This morning La Fonte and Jose went with Johannes and three other men, while Lucas and Frank stayed behind. Lucas stayed with his wife and Angelica, while Frank convinced a bored Timotheus to do some light stretches with him and to run with him from the beginning of the hall to the stairs that lead to the deeper levels. Timotheus and Frank manage to run multiple laps and break into a sweat.
Frank: Whew. That’s a good run. Want to head to the stream to wash our faces?
Timotheus: Yeah, sounds good.
They both walk down the hall huffing and puffing and go outside to the tunnel. They squat down and start scrubbing their faces. While they are doing that the Fit Woman pops out behind them. “Hey what are you guys doing?”
Timotheus turns, “We went for a run”. Frank adds, “We wanted to clean ourselves up a bit. None of us have had proper baths since we got here”.
The Fit Woman agrees somberly, “Yeah. Hard to be clean when there’s no running water”. Frank points to the stream, “Well there’s running water”. The Fit Woman laughs sweetly, “I mean running water to clean ourselves with”. Frank once more replies, “Well no one says that you can’t wash in there”, he jerks his head to the stream, “ Sure it’s cold and uncomfortable, but I’d say anyone could get a good wash out of this if they put their minds to it”. Frank gets up and leaves. Timotheus gets up and follows as well.
The Fit Woman turns and sees them leaving. She then turns back to the stream and looks at it. She stares at the water for a few seconds, kneels down a bit and puts her hand in the water. It’s cold. She contemplates for a little longer. She then reaches for the bottom of her shirt and lifts it up. She strips down and takes everything off including her underwear. She enters the water.
Frank enters the kitchen to grab a meal and Timotheus goes to the living quarters. As he is about to enter, he hears his parents talking.
Lucas: You sure?
Mother: (nods) She hasn’t been talking. I haven’t seen her talk ever since we arrived here. (Lucas doesn’t say anything) I think that losing him, seeing him, seeing “that” happen to him might have… (her lips quiver and Lucas pulls her head into his chest)
Lucas: (murmurs) We’ll get through this. I promise. Angelica will be fine.
Mother: But we lost my baby… (She cries)
Timotheus doesn’t go into the living quarters. He stands outside. In the Hall. And he stares at the ground.
In the living quarters, across from where Lucas and his wife are grieving, the Vegetarian Man is busy trying to convince the rest of the vegetarians to stop fasting and to eat the only food option they have right now. Several members of the group are convinced and are eating. The Vegetarian Man is trying to convince the rest of the group.
Vegetarian Man: Look, we can't just keep starving. We need to eat something. The grass and the leaves are not working.
Vegetarian 1: But… we’re vegetarians…
Vegetarian Man: (imploringly) But we need to be alive to be vegetarians. We can’t be vegetarians if we are all dead. We can get past this. We just need to persevere and only eat this meat so that we can go back to being vegetarians later. Please.
The woman who previously shouted at Jose and called him a monster replies stubbornly, “I’d rather die than be a monster. These are lives we are talking about. We’re talking about eating a living creature”, she turns to the former vegetarians eating the meat, “How could you eat that shit”, she cries hysterically, “You traitor. You eating that is the same as murdering the poor creature”. The vegetarians continue to argue with each other. Timotheus is still staring at the floor outside the living quarters. The noise is too much. He leaves.
He slowly walks back down the hall and he passes by the kitchen where Frank is eating. Frank notices him and is about to call out to him when he notices the dark emotions swirling around the boy's face. He drops the hand holding his meal and lets him pass.
Timotheus passes by the kitchen and makes a left turn. He walks down the next hall and comes to the doorway leading to the cave tunnel outside, with the stream running through it. And what he sees instantly makes him forget about everything.
The Fit Woman is naked and rubbing her hands over her body. Her butt is facing towards him and she bends down to grab handfuls of water to run down her body and she rubs and massages the areas the water runs down, to cleanse herself of dead skin, dirt and dust. Her hips twist and turn, her butt dancing as she moves. She turns to the side, revealing her bust to him. Both her breasts and ass are well endowed and shapely from years of working out and eating foods that provide healthy fat and muscle. Her thin arms again grab handfuls of water and she drips it down her breasts rubbing it. A pink nipple peeks out from her moving hands.
Timotheus is entranced, mesmerized. She is beautiful. The very image of her provides pleasure to his brain. He likes it, but can not explain why he likes it. He wants to keep watching, to forget everything but somewhere in the back of his mind he knows he needs to remember himself.
After the initial shock of seeing her naked beauty has subsided, Timotheus carefully walks back the way he came, careful not to alert her to his presence. Frank sees him walk back again to the living quarters, his depressed past self now changed to that of a man who had his sight struck with blinding light. Frank turns the corner, sees the Fit Woman bathing, and turns around and goes back the way he came. He looks back at Timotheus who turns another corner disappearing. “That will do it”, he murmurs to himself. “That will do it indeed”. He smiles, smirking slightly and shakes his head. He turns once more, and passes by the intersection slowly, glancing once more at the erotic image of the bathing nymph before he too disappears.
The vegetarians are still arguing and his parents are still grieving and consoling each other. But Timotheus doesn’t see any of that. He sits down and leans against the wall. His mind is full of breasts and asses, and an imaginary image of a woman speaking and murmuring fantastically flirtatious whispers.
Frank reaches the stairs that lead to the lower levels with a slight smile on his face. One of the people on guard duty notice, “ Something good happen?” Frank cocks his head a little to the side and grins, “Just got a glimpse of ambrosia for the soul”. “Must be nice”, the guard turns to his shift partner, “while we’re here guarding against an actual danger you’re having fun”. Frank leans against the stone wall surrounding the staircase and looks at the guard. “Hey I’m going down there with the next group so you can’t say shit”. The guard shrugs. Frank looks down the staircase, into the hole that connects the stone structure they are taking refuge in with the tunnel that leads to the city full of the undead. “What you can’t see is what you don’t know, he says softly, “ and what you don’t know is what will kill you. Just like ‘Nam”. The guard turns his head, “Say something?” Frank shakes his head, “Nope”.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Frank feels a tingling itch near his ear and scratches it. “There a breeze here?”, he asks the guard. Now it’s the guards turn to shake his head. “No, we haven’t felt anything like that here. Why?” Frank replies, “I thought I felt something. Like a breeze”. The guard looks at Frank's face with his unfocused eyes. “There couldn’t be a breeze, we’re deep down in an underground structure and way far away from any natural opening.” He waves his hand around. “Everything surrounding us is encased in manmade blocks of stone, deep underground. You think there would be a breeze down here?” Frank shrugs, “You never know. This shit looks old, maybe it’s falling apart and there’s some kind of sink hole or something around here that connects to the surface.”
“Maybe. But I don’t think so. This place is old but the materials still look strong. I haven’t seen a single crack or any indication that this place is falling apart.” Frank has to agree with the guard, “Must’ve been my imagination”. The guard tilts his head and raises one eyebrow slightly, “Hey man, when I get to your age I bet I’ll be a schizo”, he teases. Frank snickers once. “If you get to my age”, he teases back. The second guard next to the first guard laughs, “Judging from how we’re in some kind of a hellhole, I don’t expect any of us to live that much longer”. Everyone laughs, then slowly starts sobering up from the spirited moment. The first guard sighs and looks back down the stairs, “Ain’t that the truth”, he says. Everyone turns silent saying not a word, all three of them leaning and looking down, not actually looking down the stairs but deep in thought, wondering what might come next.
Down the stairs, past the tunnel and in the abandoned town, Jose is smashing a skeleton to bits with a mallet that is used to crush meat. The skeleton is lying on the floor, with Jose on top of it, attempting to protect itself with one of its arms. Jose slowly chips away at the arm and finally the arm falls apart leaving the skeleton vulnerable. The skeleton looks up at Jose.
La Fonte and two other men are fighting two skeletons. The two men are ganging up on a single skeleton, while La Fonte squares off on his own with another. One of the two men with La Fonte, carrying a piece of large rubble keeps a skeleton focused on him, while the other man circles to the skeleton's rear. The man behind the skeleton then attacks causing the skeleton to stagger forward towards the other man, who then attacks the staggered skeleton. The skeleton tries to swipe at the man in front of it, but the man had already pulled back, causing the skeleton to lose balance as the swipe misses. The man behind the skeleton then rushes forward and swats at the skeleton with a rusty pipe. This time the man is committed and doesn’t stop. The man who was in front of the skeleton joins too and the skeleton soon becomes unresponsive, its body broken into three pieces and its skull smashed open. La Fonte is still fighting with his skeleton, the man cautious not to overextend and open himself to any attacks. Both man and skeleton jab and swipe at each other, one with a collapsible spade, the other with a skeletal arm. The skeleton winds up for another swipe when a rusty pipe comes out and strikes the skeleton in its temple. The skeleton topples over its skull busted open from its side. The man with the rusty pipe just runs in, with the second man with the rubble rock joining in. They are still beating at the skeleton when Jose comes in. “Hey”, he yells at the man with the rubble rock. The two men look at Jose while still beating on the undead. Jose tosses the meat mallet to the man holding the rubble rock and the man catches it, dropping the rock. He then, brandishing his mallet, continues to strike.
Johannes and one other man enter the room. The other man has a bruise on his face. The two men stop beating on the unresponsive skeleton. The man with the rusty pipe huffs once, takes a breath, then states a question, “You got hit on the face”. The statement is like a question, but the way the man asks makes the question seem like a statement, or a comment. The man with a bruise nods, “Yeah, I didn’t step back in time and it punched me.” Johannes pats him on his shoulder firmly, the pat having some power to it, creating a small impact. “It’s all good, I think. We didn’t lose anyone and we’re getting better at this. Soon we’ll be cleaning this town several houses at a time. It helps a lot that most of these guys are so out of it. They only wake up when someone is a couple yards away from them”.
“Makes cleaning this place up a heck of a lot easier for us, when the entire town just keeps sleeping while neighbors get smashed to bits”, La Fonte folds his entrenchment tool, a shovel, and holds it as he comments. Jose’s eyes unfocus for a moment, then focus back. “Ok, let’s head back now. It’s time to change shifts with the next group and we’ve cleaned up a decent amount today.
The men exit out of the building and into a main road. The custom house is closeby and the men slowly make their way back to it. As they approach a man peeks out from the second floor window. Jose waves and the man waves back. The group enters the custom house and makes it to the second floor where they meet the man whom they just saw.
Lookout Man: Had a good day?
Jose: Very. We hit ten today.
Lookout Man: Nice. Go ahead and mark it.
They make a turn and walk into a room. The room has a fire at the corner to give light and warmth. In another corner are some backpacks. Right beside another corner is a desk made of stone. Behind the desk is a wall with a map of the town, almost faded but still readable.
One man is looking up at the map, the other is sitting by one of the packs shuffling into it. The man shuffling through the backpack glances as the group enters and the man looking at the map turns.
Jose: Got ten today.
Man looking at map: (takes a step back away from the map) Go ahead.
Jose steps forward, pulling out his combat knife. His eyes scan across the map. “Here”, he stabs at the map, marking a small X. “Here”, he repeats, marking again. He turns to the Man Looking At Map, “We thought we’d start clearing this part of the town today so that we can start preparing for cleaning up the deeper parts of the town. This main road just goes straight through the town. All the way. So we just cleaned up along it.
Man looking at map: (crosses his arms and shifts his weight on one leg) The groups have managed to clean up the surrounding buildings bordering this building and we’ve also handled some of the ones roaming around near this place.
Jose turns back to the map and continues marking along the main road of the buildings his group has cleared.
Man looking at map: Looks pretty good, your group made a lot of progress today. What, you just go in there and smash them up?
Jose: Pretty much.
Man shuffling in backpack: The other groups like to plan their attacks and whatnot. Waking each one, one by one, luring it to a corner, then jumping it from behind, etc. etc. They’re kinda slow compared to you guys. But then again you guys are soldiers, not like us regular folks.
Jose: Hey man, it’s the heart that counts. Even slow and steady wins the race.
Man shuffling in backpack: Yeah well, if you say so. (glances at the man with a bruise) He got hit.
Man with a bruise: Yep, got knocked hard by one of them. Didn’t avoid it in time.
The other man looks for a moment, looking at the man’s face with the bruise below his eye. His mouth is curved downwards, giving him a slightly glum look, except his eyes are focused revealing that he is only slightly disapproving and understands.
Man shuffling in backpack: Well, one of us was bound to get hurt sometime soon. Eventually all of us will have some kind of injury. Then, maybe one day we might even die.
La Fonte: But we gotta keep trying.
Man shuffling in backpack: But we gotta keep trying. There’s no point in living if you just lie down and die. Part of living is to keep fighting. And that’s what makes life worth it.
La Fonte: Ain’t that the truth. If we had alcohol I’d drink that.
Man looking at map: Amen.
Jose: (finishes marking on the map) Ok, we’re done. We’re going to head back now and switch with the next group.
Man looking at map: Alright take care. (As the group leaves he raises one hand for goodbye).