“...And the battle for Ystets continues along the northern edge of the city,” the campervan's radio chirped, prompting the olive-skinned woman to shut it off. It was the same thing Maxie had been hearing for the last two hours, stuck in the middle of gridlock.
Ystets isn't a city anymore. It's a hive, she thought.
Military personnel bordered each side of the street, guiding civilians to a safe detour where the city hadn't been quarantined, protecting them from the threat of possible alien attack. Ever since volons had emerged in the neighbouring city of Miyatama, the beasts had rampaged en masse all throughout Ystets, devouring a frightening chunk of the city's remaining human population.
Maxie had seen glimpses of video coverage: for every soldier, there were at least five amorphous, shapeshifting apex predators with mouths as wide as their heads, filled with rows upon rows of pointed, yellow teeth. Glimpses was the keyword; she couldn't bear to watch the grim conclusion of the footage she'd found. It was rarely optimistic.
Volons were actively kicking humans off the top of the food chain, mimicking and consuming Maxie's fellow sapiens at alarming rates. But with armed forces pressing back on all fronts, clearly the humans weren't going down without a fight.
Unfortunately, it made for pretty bad traffic. Max was tempted to turn the radio back on for some sort of stimulation, but she decided to listen to her better judgment.
Should've known the roads were going to be crammed...
Finally, the vehicles ahead of her began crawling forward again. She was so close to the edge of Ystets; half a kilometre and she'd be free of the traffic jam.
Minutes later, she inched past a hastily erected barbed-wire fence that marked the end of the city, guarded by multiple armoured trucks and soldiers. A cursory glance told her that the army had converted the road into a one-way passage, only letting people out of the city. Max didn't fret, though – she knew of other routes to get back to her life in Miyatama, cursing herself for not taking one of them on her current trip.
Traffic gradually sped up as she passed the checkpoint, with a wall of evergreen trees to her right and a rocky field to her left. After she'd driven far enough for the city to be out of sight, she slowed down to make a right turn, transitioning from pavement to gravel as she entered the thicket.
“Ystets Lake,” a simple wooden sign on the side of the path read.
The surrounding forest was terribly dense, forcing Maxie to slow to a crawl down the bumpy, narrow path. At the very least, traffic was nonexistent leading to the lake, so it was a fairly relaxing drive in comparison to Ystets' gridlock.
Despite the overcast afternoon weather, it looked more like evening or night beneath the thicket. The canopy of branches and leaves above was overgrown to the point where light hardly shone through, giving the area an infamously eerie atmosphere. It didn't help that the lake's fluctuating temperature caused frequent bouts of fog to cover the area, and as the twisting gravel road slowly transitioned to dirt, Maxie's vision was slowly limited by a thin blanket of haze.
With visibility steadily decreasing, she instinctively flinched and ducked as greenery brushed against the windshield of her van. But as quickly as her vision had diminished, the road opened up into a sizable clearing at least five times as wide, and she saw the shoreline's warm hues approaching up ahead.
There was another vehicle already parked by the left side of the glade – a black recreational vehicle with tinted windows and flashy decals. She rolled her eyes at its gaudy decorations, but the RV was a very welcome sight regardless.
Camping for a night next to a volon infestation was the last option Maxie wanted to choose. But without access to safe motels in Ystets, the multiple commutes she'd have to make between High Miyatama and the lake was both prohibitively expensive and time consuming. Thus, she'd invited her reliable and adventurous friend to ensure everything went well.
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Maxie parked her campervan on the opposite end of the clearing and stepped outside, stretching her limbs, breathing in the humid, misty air. She waited patiently against the side of her van until she heard footsteps in the other vehicle. The door swung open a moment later.
“Max! What took you so long?” the globe-headed man exclaimed with open arms, shutting the door behind him.
“You would not believe the traffic in Ystets right now. I made a huge mistake going down one of the major roads,” Maxie grumbled.
“No kidding; haven't you heard the news? Ystets is exploding!”
“Yeah. Not my smartest moment.”
Maxie's friend was a pale-skinned man who went by the simple nickname Wire. As opposed to Max's plain brown getup with rubber boots and a teal jacket, Wire wore a black sweatshirt covered in eccentric logos and text, striped monochrome slacks, and colourful running shoes that looked like a child had scribbled on them with rainbow markers.
Most notably, Wire didn't have a human head. Instead, there was an opaque black globe in its place with a subtle violet glow around the edges. He was a remite, an object-head with a human body whose internal workings were a well-guarded secret.
“I'm kinda glad you got here before me though,” Max continued. “I'd rather not chill out here on my own and end up dealing with stray volons without any backup.”
“Aw, it wouldn't be so bad,” Wire replied, dismissing her worries with a quick hand-wave. “Think of it like a chance to see some real exciting shit!”
Maxie grimaced. “I don't know if I would call it exciting...”
Wire walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Trust me. We'll have a great time, you'll see!”
Reckless was one of the first words that came to mind when Maxie thought of Wire, seconded only by flamboyant. Nevertheless, he was an excellent companion she'd counted on many times before, and with him around, her worries about staying lakeside overnight almost completely subsided.
“Well, let's get this started.” Maxie walked over and unlatched her van's trunk, revealing various camping supplies and an assortment of gadgets and tools she needed for her work: gauges, basins, metal stakes with tall antennae, a variety of handheld devices, and a big plastic tote full of other scientific bits and bobs.
It was a curious situation unlike anything she'd dealt with in the past. Modern innovations hardly required hydrologists to do much fieldwork, but Ystets Lake was an anomaly; its water level had been rising for the past two weeks, roughly one centimetre per day, with no logical explanation. At least, no explanation from any recent weather patterns or satellite reports. Therefore, it was a job that required a human's inquisitive eye (and the human's gaudy remite pal).
“Can you help me set up the awning and chairs and stuff?” Maxie asked.
“Only if you brought marshmallows.”
Max gave him an incredulous look. “You... you don't even have a mouth.”
“Yeah, but I've always wanted to try roasting marshmallows.”
“W-who said we'd even be making a campfire? I'd rather not attract every volon that might be lurking in the forest.”
“Joking, joking!” Wire pulled out a pair of folding chairs and got to work, mumbling, “she doesn't even want to roast marshmallows in the volon forest,” just loud enough for Max to hear.
She couldn't help but let out a chuckle.
Max walked over to the passenger side door. Lying under some rags on the seat was a holster and a lockbox containing her most important tool: a Kinrod-56 pistol, coupled with a suppressor and a box of custom incendiary ammunition. The gun and ammo were both legal – especially the ammo, given the recent revelations that volons were susceptible to fire – but the silencer was another story.
She wasn't in the business of hurting other people. But with the recent man-eater uprising, Wire had gifted the suppressor to her a few weeks ago, explaining that discretion was critical if she ever encountered any volons face to face. She knew the remite had some volatile underground connections in Miyatama, and the thought of getting anywhere near his shady goods wasn't exactly appealing, but she couldn't deny that the accessory gave her peace of mind.
Wouldn't be very fun if a horde of those monsters bulldoze us after I announce where we are. Maxie bit her lip, hoping she wouldn't have to fire any shots at all. She doubted there would be many volons to contend with since there wasn't nearly as much food for them out in the wilderness, but she steeled herself in case things did go sideways.
Checking to ensure the pistol was loaded, she attached the holster to her waist and tucked the gun into it.
After briefly joining Wire to finish setting up her simple camp comforts, Maxie walked out to the edge of the lake and scanned what she could. Looking down the shorelines, she couldn't see any horrible, creeping monsters in the immediate area. The lake was totally still, and the surrounding forest was silent save for the occasional bird call.
It better stay like this.