I wish I could say something witty and manly, but lets be honest here.  Clawing at the dirt, I barely managed to make it out from under the tree before my stomach...left me. When all you’ve had to eat in the last several hours was meat and water, it makes everything more unpleasant.  Thankfully the retching and unpleasant act didn’t last long.  It just left me alone with my thoughts and the sickly scent of shame as I headed back toward camp.  Every white dot took me a painful step closer to my new “home.”

I’d have to come up with something to do with the mea...remains now that I knew where it came from.  There was a small war going on in the back of my mind as practicality clashed with morality.

You don’t have another food source, idiot.

But it would pretty much be cannibalism in kind of a fucked up way.

Onward the argument went, fueled by both hunger and the cold realization of what I’d done.  

I’ll figure out in the morning....

At least I had a simple plan.  Get back to the hide and get the taste of vomit out of my mouth.  After that would come another fitful night of sleep on too thin of a pad against hard ground.  That left one thing to do and the walk back to camp felt a lot longer than it really was.  As night began to fall, the dim output of my helmet light became more important with every step.  The small reflective tags glowing in the gloom lit the path back to my temporary home.  

In the distance the occasional snapping branch or rustle of brush began to drive my shattered nerves into slight paranoia.  My rifle quickly became slung across my back to keep the revolver near at hand.  Thankfully the small cluster of tags noting the blinds location came into view as evening finally came due.  The small white dots leading me to an oasis in a desert of insanity.  Careful step after step, I slipped through the brambles that seemed to claw and grasp at my clothes and skin in an effort to draw blood.  It took a minute or two of fumbling around with the zipper to open the blinds door, but the comfort of something familiar wrapped around me the moment I stepped in.  At least in here I could ignore the world around me.  In here I could pretend I knew what was going on.  Pack and rifle joined the jumble of gear atop the cart before I settled into the camp chair in an attempt to collect my thoughts before drifting off.

Consciousness clawed me back to reality to stare at the inside of the pitch black hunting blind with a pounding heart. Every beat surged in my ears as if trying to draw attention to something.  The enveloping black was normally calming, but between the pounding in my ears and some je ne sais quoi turned it into a predatory darkness.  Forcing myself to breathe shallowly and smoothly, I sat there in the abyssal darkness and listened to the world around me.  The rubber grip on the revolver was calming in its own way when I couldn't see a thing.  

There…

Sharp cracks echoed around the small clearing as something broke branches while moving around.  Wherever it stepped, raspy breathing followed as if whatever monster was trying to breathe through gravel and water filled lungs.  Every few stuttering steps, a death rattle of a breath stabbed itself into the darkness.  Every few steps there was a pause as if it was hunting something.  Hunting me.  Every fiber of my being was possessed by one task that became a mantra repeating in my head.

Breathe slowly.  Don’t move, don’t blink, don’t make a sound…

I could hear it scraping at the soft earth just outside the brambles I’d camped within.  The wet sound of claws against stone and tree bark just feet away.  

Don’t move.  Move and you’re dead…

I’d like to say I did something heroic or at least sane, but there was little I could do when the keening wail of the creature pierced the forest.  Every muscle in my body went rigid and I couldn’t have screamed if I wanted to as the call went on.  The voice of the damned carried on for a moment before the creature turned and ran away from the blind as if the devil itself were chasing it.  Mentally, I gave a sigh of relief as the pounding steps carried away from my hiding place.  It felt like little more than a place to hide when that...thing was concerned.  In the dark and distance, branches snapped and tore once more, all while I sat there in my chair doing my best not to void my bowels.

I sat there like that longer than I’d like to admit.  Not moving a muscle, fearing the return of the damned.  As eternity passed, I was ever grateful and relieved by the first vestiges of light beginning to fight for a new day.  When the dark began to melt and give way to morning dew and crisp light it was finally time to sleep.  If only I managed to get some.

Screaming, blood curdling screams of pain and agony tore me to reality.  I was half convinced it was just a dream until more of them joined into the chorus.  I might not know much about this world, but generally the sound of women screaming is bad in any culture.  The rifle was already in hand as I stood and headed for the flap leading to the sun lit woods beyond.

The noises seemed to be coming from the little walled hamlet I had viewed before my “realization.”  With that in mind and weapon in hand, every step brought me closer to whatever violence was happening.  A quick pace quickly turned into a ground eating stride through the forest as I closed the distance.  Dull peals of a bell in the village matched the intensity of the screams and howls from the denizens within as I found myself near where I’d taken cover the previous afternoon.  It only took a moment to kneel and lay my rifle across the fallen log before shouldering the firearm, but what I saw would forever be seared into my mind.

Through the bouncing crosshairs, I could see two figures chasing a pony through the freshly plowed field while a trio fought tooth and nail against the small cluster of ponies attempting to hold the village gate.  That is when I noticed it.  On a hurried glance, I wouldn’t have seen it, but the pallor, the stride, hell the entire composition of the “people” was wrong.  Before I even knew what was going on, a decision had been made.

Shifting my weight, I pushed into the rifle while turning it slightly.  Through the magnified optic, it all became clear as the crosshair settled onto the first “human.”  Ashen grey skin and dark bulging veins crossed its bare torso where several gashes weeped a black ichor.  Thankfully the pony was running straight toward me without knowing it.  Without thought, my thumb slid the safety forward and a heartbeat later the trigger broke.

I never heard the shot, but the pony certainly did and managed to trip on the freshly turned earth and tumble.  Thankfully, the first creature pitched forward as the bullet tore through its chest in a burst of viscous blood before it could reach the pony.  The second one was much quicker and was on the poor animal biting and clawing before I finished cycling my rifle.  Gleaming brass rolled down the log next to me as I did my best to center the thrashing human in my scope.  Knowing there was no way I could guarantee anything, the moment the crosshairs slid over the chest of the former human, the rifle bucked again.  Truthfully, I have no idea where the round went, but when the creature fell atop the pony without moving, I called it a win.

That is when I remembered the other humans.  Panicking, I looked up from the scope to find them and didn’t like what I saw at all.  There was a crumpled figure near the town gate, but the remaining humans were charging my way with the ponies in pursuit.  Three more times the rifle rocked against me.  Two ragged wounds appeared on the leading human that had no signs of stopping.  Reloading would be suicidal at this point, so the only other sane option was to run.

The same path as before, the same steps as before, just ever so much more important with the trees whipping around me.  Ducking outstretched branches and dodging trunks as panic began to take hold, I ran and ran.  There was no way to see the creatures behind me, but the noises they made kept me very aware of their presence.  Howls of rage and hunger drove me on and through the brambles by the hide.  A heartbeat later, the rifle slipped out of my fingers and onto the cart while the soft rubber grip of an axe filled my other.  Back into the light I slipped, leaving the brambles to my back and facing the small trail I had just escaped from.  The comforting weight of the axe resting against my thigh did little as I set it down and unholstered my revolver and waited for the bloodshed to come.

I wasn’t kept waiting long as a howl tore through the woods nearby.  Instinctively, the revolver came up to my vision with the bright green front sight bouncing in my trembling hands.  With the first glance of dull skin, the revolver barked and another burst of ichor issued forth.  Every step, every heartbeat the damned thing closed the distance between us.  Again and again the magnum roared until there was just a ‘click...click...’

Oh fu…

Pain.  Pain everywhere as it hit me and the revolver tumbled out of my grasp and dragged me to the ground while searing agony erupted from my leg.  I couldn't even scream under the weight of the creature while I waited for the final blow.  It took me a second to realize the human wasn't moving from on top of me, despite the sickly ichor it was leaking across my chest.  A second longer to realize I could roll the hopefully dead weight off and away from me.  

Up close, I wasn’t even sure if the things could be qualified as human anymore.  Every vein was visible in its skin as they bulged with twisted fluids that weeped from every orifice I could see.  They even cried thick black tears from bloodshot eyes.  Clammy skin filled both hands as I shoved the shattered corpse away and tried to gain a semblance of footing before falling to my face again.  Looking down at my leg there was one thing impossibly wrong.  The edge of my axe had sliced neatly into my calf to let a steady stream of blood drip through my now blood sodden pants.

First aid kit in the blind.  You can get to it before the other thing shows up or you bleed out.

Hissing with the pain, I dragged the axe over to me and used it as a crutch as I stood.  Agonizing steps seemed to take forever as I worked toward shelter, only stopping to pick up the revolver and jam it back into its holster.  Thankfully I was oblivious to the brambles and thorns in the brush, and was getting near my pack.  The howls of the other human were getting close, as was the clashing of steel on steel that was a safe assumption of pony armor.

Stop the blood flow and wrap it.  Worry about sterile stuff after you don’t die.”

From the first side pocket of my backpack I grabbed two things.  The first was a sealed white pouch and the second was a lumpy black one.  Thankfully the plastic gave way with a good tug to reveal a hard bundle of gauze.  After folding it in half, I did what I was dreading.  The colors swam in my vision while I fought to keep from dry heaving when I pushed the fabric into the wide slit in my leg.  Breathing hard and gagging, the worst was over at least.  The second pouch revealed a bundle of fabric with long leads and a plastic toggle.  That was quickly wrapped around the side of my leg over the gash and then the leads looped through the plastic.  A quick twist, loop again, and twist tied it firmly over the slowly bleeding wound just in time for a dull thump to sound outside along with panting and soft voices.

“That’s the last of the tartarus damned things.”

“What about the other human we saw running away from the infected?  There is a lot of blood out here.  Maybe that one is still here.”

Oh damn…

The soft rattle of armor and scraping of thorns against it was all the warning I had before the flap of the hide was torn open to reveal two heavily armored ponies.  It is kind of hilarious when you consider the stuff you see before passing out.  I would have sworn one of them had a horn and a crossbow floating alongside them.  They didn’t seem too impressed as I halfassedly gestured at them before the darkness took me. Next Chapter: 06. Stone and Steel Estimated time remaining: 20 Minutes