[T: 1 Day 1 Hour]
As the group of around twenty to thirty people went along the stream they were naturally slightly more at ease. They had for the most part become accustomed to combat or at the very least come to understand that combat was inevitable and likely to occur at any given point. They had knowledge and intelligence on the monsters, far more than when they were dying in large numbers in the beginning. And they also had a sense on how to act and react when a monster did engage one of their members. It also helped that they had far more vision along the stream than when they were in the forest with every bush and every tree potentially hiding a monster.
The group walked along the stream in a column like fashion, as it just seemed natural to do it that way. They would look left and right into the forest for potential enemies as they walked along. Not much was said.
Occasionally they would find some lone humans either walking along the stream as well, or being chased by a monster. They would naturally join up with the new human and save the human being chased and incorporate that human into their group.
A child in a dress needed to urinate and so the group paused to take a bathroom break, where a person would be escorted by several members, and each member of that group would urinate in turn. The family of the old man, now five with the loss of their toddler, grouped up with the child in a dress and the child's mother, a woman wearing black rimmed glasses, and fat in nature. The group headed a little into the forest, just enough to be out of sight of everyone else.
The child in the dress urinated first, going to the side of a tree, lifting their dress and urinating standing up. The little girl, grandchild of the old man with the machete, looked at the child urinating with confusion and amazement. The mother of the child in the dress, dragged the urinating child away, turned them around and yelled at the child. The family of the old man could hear her yelling something like, “Is that the proper way to pee for a girl? You’re a girl. Pee like one. Do I need to bring the bad man so that you learn?”
The child could be heard saying, “No, I don’t want the bad man to teach me.”
The family of the old man with the machete sort of tilted away from the mother and the child in the dress, awkward and slightly embarrassed at the interaction.
They headed back to the stream and as soon as everyone was accounted for they headed along the stream once more.
It didn’t take long for them to reach the end of the stream, a small lake, perhaps only about a mile in diameter. There they found another group of people. They were gathered along the shore, about ten of them. This was the same group that had gathered in the beginning to have a discussion of organizing groups to look for food and water.
After getting over the initial contact, the group of around thirty people found that this group of ten had actually been in separate parties, when they had heard the gunshots and just seconds later was ambushed by the monsters riled up by those same gunshots. And, in reverse, this group of ten found out from the group of around thirty people that after those gunshots, the Beam of Light and the field it was in had become overrun by dozens of monsters. The thought sunk in for the group of ten, that there was no safe place to go.
One of them, the young asian woman with a black baseball cap asked, “So,” she paused a moment before continuing, “so those people who come through that light,” she paused again, “after us, and after the monsters attacked that place and now.” She looked distant as she said this, “They’re all dead from now on? The people who come out of that light?” No one said anything and she ended with a, “Oh well shit… that’s… that’s dark.”
The conversation about the fates of those who continue to be brought by the Beam of Light ended there. The group of ten had actually set up a campfire and had been cutting open one of the monsters and seeing if they could eat it. No one had had anything to eat and they had to address the issue about food, however there was nothing to eat as this was the wild and they had been chased by the monsters the whole time. So they just decided to see if the meat could be cooked and eaten.
They found some sticks, stuck some sliced pieces of meat, sliced from a butcher knife acquisitioned from a chef's knife set, which they claimed was next to a dead guy. Apparently the guy had absolutely refused to use his knives to defend himself and had died for it. They placed the sticks next to the campfire and left them alone to cook.
[T: 1 Day 3 Hours]
It was found that you could indeed cook the meat of monsters and that the meat was edible as well. It was not the best tasting meat, nor was it the most horribly tasting of meat. It simply, more or less tasted like tasteless patties. No taste or hint of tasty meat. At all. Just meat. No taste.
It appeared that a single body of a monster was enough to adequately sustain around forty to fifty people, at least for one meal, with plenty of the monster left over. After eating, the majority of the group sat down, with a few others refusing to sit as they were still vigilant about the monsters. These would roam around a little while the others slept, and when those that slept woke up the roamers would cautiously get some rest after the rest of the group coaxed them into getting a rest.
[T: 1 Day 7 Hours]
Many had had nightmares during their rest as the rigors and memories of fighting and fleeing were still fresh in their minds and they were still in a sort of cautious combat mode as if they were still in danger. It was starting to get late with the sun starting to set. They cut up some more of the monster and let it cook as they started to discuss what they should do, as that was the only thing they could do at this time. Discuss and remain vigilant.
[T: 1 Day 8 Hours]
The majority of people did not join in the discussion, preferring to stay within their own heads and just simply follow the group. They were still processing and reliving previous events and did not want to actively think about anything other than to try and disconnect their consciousness with the world.
The fire crackled as the wood burned and snapped. There was a pile of leaves next to the fire where cooked meat was placed. Red, Gold, Black Military man and Asian Girl with cap sat next to the fire keeping watch on the meat.
Asian Girl With Cap was sitting with her knees up, arms supported by those knees, with her head supported by those arms. “So, what do we do now,” she asked, as she stared into the fire.
Black Military Man: “We move on”, the Black Military man was using a stick to move the sticks in the fire around. “We move on”, he said again.
Asian girl with cap: “I don’t know, this place looks like a good place to be. We could set up here where there’s a distance from the lake and the forest and we could prepare for a counter attack so we can take that Beam of Light.”
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The Black Military Man shook his head, shifted to his side, one of his knees up.
Black Military Man: There won’t be a counterattack. Not with this group right here.
He lazily waved his hand towards the people all in psychological shock.
Black Military Man: If we had a good squad or two with this group, then maybe we could retake that Light Beam or whatever it's called. But you only got me and Jose over there with our two rifles, two pistols, combat knives and the limited amount of ammo between the two of us. We got nothing that can retake that position.
He paused for a second.
Black Military Man: And you saw how many there were. And how they just continued to keep coming and coming. Like there was no end to them. The amount of monsters those people say they saw at the Light, I’d say there’s more than a hundred or even two hundred of them all gathered up munching on those poor mother fuckers who got carried here after us. And I’ll bet that more of them, Pikachus, are coming for that tasty human meat. Which is probably why we’re seeing fewer and fewer of them as we get further and further away from them. The people that get transported here are keeping them constantly occupied and the others from this area have already been drawn to them. There’s no fucking way we’re gonna go back there and die.
He looked up to the side.
Black Military Man: Isn’t that right Jose?
Jose: Yeah, whatever he said.
Jose came to the campfire with the Old Man with a machete, and sat down. The Old Man sat down as well. Jose nodded to the Black Military Man.
Jose: Yeah, whatever you said. But everyone, this here is Frank Versace. I was just getting to know my Italian friend who served in Vietnam.
Black Military Man: Vietnam? Didn’t that end like fifty years ago?
Frank shrugged, “To me it seemed like it was only yesterday, or maybe even last week. Time’s weird.”
Black Military Man: Yeah ‘cuz you look like you don’t look a day older than sixty.
Frank shrugged again, “Some people age well, some people don’t”.
Black Military Man looked at Frank, examining him. “I guess so”, he said slowly.
Jose looked up from the fire and looked side to side, “So”, he asked, “what’s up? What’re we talking about?”
Black Military Man: Me and Alice were talking about some options, like retaking that Light or something.
Jose raised his eyebrows, “You serious? There ain’t no way we’re taking that. No fucking way. We got nothing to take that field. Our radios don’t work so we can’t talk with anyone else. Our phones don’t work. Anything that requires a signal don’t work. Nothing works. Not even our guns, unless you get a headshot.”
Black Military Man: Yeah, as I was saying and telling Alice here. We’re not going back to that field unless we can get into contact with HQ or anyone else. We’re certainly not going to try and take back that position with a bunch of civilians wielding forks and knives. No offense, old man.
Frank shrugged, “None taken”.
Jose: So what’s the next best plan?
Black Military Man: We got none.
There was a pause. No one said anything. No one had anything to say. Or anything to ask. There was silence as Red, Gold and Fit Woman in Sweats came and sat down.
Red: Hey guys, are we talking about something good?
Black Military Man: Nope
Red: Awesome
Red takes a moment to think, uncertain of what to say or do.
Red: So I was thinking.
Black Military Man turns his head a little and turns his eyes towards Red.
Red: So I was thinking that maybe we should talk about what we should do from here on.
Black Military Man: We’re listening.
Red: No, I mean I don’t have a clue on what to do, so I was wondering if you guys had anything.
Black Military Man turns his head and eyes back to the fire.
Black Military Man: Nope
Red: No one?
No one answers. Red sighs.
Red: We really don’t have a plan do we?
Black Military Man: Nope.
Red: We can’t stay here. The monsters are like right there.
Black Military Man: I know. Just a few clicks away. So where are we headed?
Red: Away from here.
Black Military Man: Great
Frank Versace, the old man with the machete, interjects into the conversation between Red and the Black Military Man. “I guess we should go back upstream. Or at least, I’m planning to go. I’m also going to take my family with me and anyone else that wants to go.”
Black Military Man looks at Frank, then looks behind Frank at his family, Frank’s daughter in law, her face buried in the chest of Frank’s son. “That your family?”, he asks. Frank nods. “You already lost someone right?” Frank doesn’t say a word.
Black Military Man looks at Frank and asks, “I’m sorry about that, but what makes you think that going upstream is better?”
Frank Versace: First off, it's better than going back into the forest where you can’t see shit. Second, it’s better than being here. Third? I got a feeling.
Black Military Man: You got a feeling huh? That from ‘Nam?
Frank doesn’t say a word. Black Military Man sighs. “It’s better than any other plan we got”, he mumbles. Jose also thinks about it for a second, then shakes his body forward and backward as if he was nodding in agreement, but with his body. Black Military Man looks at Jose rocking back and forth. He looks back at Frank. “Alright, think me and Jose are in. We’ll go with you tomorrow as soon as it gets light.
Red raises his hand. “I want to go as well”, he says.
Gold: Yeah, me too.
Fit Woman in Sweats nods as well. Alice doesn’t say anything, but it doesn’t look like she is in disagreement or has any objections.
Black Military Man: Well looks like the major league players have decided.
He looked at the rest of the group. “Don’t look like any of them will disagree, " he said, “ most of the people that can think are right here. They’ll just follow us and do what we tell them to as long as we agree amongst ourselves. They don’t want to think right now, so it’s just follow the pack.”
To make his point, he yelled at everyone, “Hey, get your food, we’re moving tomorrow, so eat right now, make some kind of patrolling schedule and cooking schedule so that we can eat early in the morning.”
People started getting up and heading toward the campfire, where the group while discussing and prior to discussing had been continuously cooking the meat and placing them on the pile of leaves.
Red: Um, shouldn’t we be the ones to organize a patrolling schedule and cooking schedule?
Black Military Man shrugged. “They seem to be doing just fine”, he said. Red looked at him and looked at the people coming to pick up their food, looked at the paranoid people still patrolling around, not finding anything to say even though he wanted to say something. Finding nothing to say he just gave up.
[T: 1 Day 12 Hours]
Night goes by with people tossing and turning unable to sleep.