Pandemic: Nameless
Chapter 1
Load Full Story Next ChapterA baby crying; that was the first thing I was aware of.
I opened my eyes and immediately brought an arm up to shield them against the glare of the sun. I was laying on my back, somewhere outside, and it felt like I was laying on a pile of jagged rocks. The crying continued, somewhere close to me.
After I turned my head I lowered my arm. I was indeed laying on a pile of rocks, or at least, I was laying on a pile of smashed and broken concrete. I could hear the sounds of a stream or river, and I heard pops and cracks in the distance. I also continued to hear the incessant crying of a child. Beyond that, I knew nothing about where I was, how I got there, and (most disturbing of all) I had no idea who I was either.
The crying was too much for me to ignore. I flipped my body over so I could better see the source. A mere meter from my head was a wicker basket with a handle, on the edge of a riverbank. The wails were coming from within. Outside the basket was a worn and ragged human doll, made with what looked like brown sackcloth with black button eyes and a single black string for a mouth. It lay against the side if the basket as f deliberately placed there to be the first thing I'd see when looking in that direction. The basket itself was a simple wicker basket, worn and wet, as if it had just come out of the river. The doll seemed perfectly dry in contrast. I too felt dry, and I wondered if I had placed the doll there.
Laying here wasn't accomplishing anything. I focused on pushing myself up into a sitting position. The rocks were hard on my hands, and I could feel them digging into my knees as my weight shifted. Once I was in a sitting position I tried to next stand up. It took a little effort, but I managed it. Once I was standing I was finally able to take stock of myself.
My hands were pale, as if they hadn't seen sunlight in years. They were also filthy, and so thin I could make out the outlines of the bones within them. My arms were exposed, and in the same condition as my hands. I was wearing a rough pair of pants, which had holes all throughout them, plenty of dirt, and several stains that I was sure were blood. My shirt might have once been white, but it now resembled the color of mud, and had even more rips and holes, and even more bloodstains.
Standing up also gave me my first real look at my surroundings. I could see the other side of the riverbank, but it was a large distance to swim, especially if fighting the current. There didn't seem to be anything of interest on that side of the river anyway; the land was just empty area, with light grass, and some mountains far in the distance. I assumed the river's source was somewhere in those mountains, and if I followed it upstream it would curve towards them. I watched as pieces of odd shaped debris were carried by the current, and I gasped as I realized one of those pieces was a mutilated human body. A few seconds later another body could be seen being carried down the river, this one having the unmistakable pastel colored fur of a pony.
I quickly turned away from the death filled river, only to be greeted by more horror on my own side of the riverbank. A few paces from where I had been laying was another pony body, an earth pony, with a massive bloody hole on the side of his body. Flies buzzed about the body in a swarm. Further back in the distance a building, perhaps an old farmhouse, burned, sending pillars of smoke into the air. In front of the burning building was what appeared to be at first glance a bonfire, but an agonizing second glance showed it to be a pile of burning bodies, both human and pony. An unexploded artillery shell was within dangerously close distance to the flame. The only sounds now we're the cracking of the flames and the never-ending ending cries of the baby.
I ripped my gaze back to the wicker basket, as it was the only thing around that didn't hold any obvious horror. Standing up I could see it's occupant, a tiny orange pony foal, with a yellow mane. I moved towards the basket, half stumbling from the weight of my surroundings. I bent down, and looked more closely at the foal. The foal noticed me at this time, and stared back at me, as if trying to decide if my sudden presence was welcome or not.
It seemed to be an earth pony colt. I saw no wings or horn, nor any crystalline quality to his fur. I assumed it was a colt, but the only way to confirm that for sure would be to pick him up and examine him. The colt still seemed to be deciding whether I was a friend or a monster, so I was not ready to unleash his screams on the world again by picking him up when he wasn't yet ready for some stranger to do so. At least the crying had stopped. It had been an ear-sore to begin with, but our surroundings indicated that it was not the best idea to draw attention to ourselves. Wherever we were, we were in a war zone, and we didn't even know who the sides were yet.
Hoping to make some sort of gesture to gain his trust, I looked for the doll that had been laying against the basket, but it didn't seem to be there. I shuffled around as I crouched, and even looked underneath myself, but there was no sign of the weathered plaything. Where could it have gone to? It was just here, and it wasn't close enough to the river to have been caught in that, and there was no breeze to have blown it away. My search for it turned up nothing. It was like it had just gotten up and walked away. It had to have been real, there was no way I could imagine something like that in such detail.
I turned back to my lone companion. "Please, keep quiet. I'm going to help you, but you have to keep quiet." I hoped my offer for help wasn't a lie, as I was unsure if I could even help myself yet.
The colt kept silently staring at me, which wasn't crying. It clearly had yet to make up its mind if the strange human in front of it was friend or foe. I decided to keep talking to him. "I don't know my name, or yours. I don't suppose we need them yet. We do need to find food, and shelter. Do you think you can be quiet for me? Please?"
No answer, but no crying. He seemed too young to give a verbal answer anyway. I don't know why I was acting like he would. I was going to have to carry his basket. He might be surging, and a surging earth pony colt could seriously injure me. I reached out to grab the basket, and the colt started to whimper as he watched my hand. "Hush," I whispered, as I grabbed the handle on the basket. When he saw my hand wasn't going for him his whimpering stopped.
The smell of burning flesh and fur was really starting to get to me, and I could only imagine how bad it was for the colt, with his more developed sense of smell. I held the basket at my side, and tried to decide where to go. The mountains might provide the best chances of shelter, but the bodies floating downstream indicated that going in that direction likely led to more horrors. There was a dirt road that led away from where the house was, and now that I was looking beyond it I saw other pillars of smoke in the distance, as well as more mountains in the distance. I looked downstream, and saw even more smoke clouds rising in that direction. Further off there were even more mountains that way. Was this a very large valley?
The only direction that seemed safer was on the other side of the river, but I had no way of crossing it here. There had to be a bridge or something somewhere, but I would have to follow the river to actually find it. There were patches of tall grass and small thickets of trees on this side of the river, so there were places to take cover. It was concerning that the other side of the river seemed barren of anything larger than a small bush. If we made it to the other side there wouldn't be much cover to be found. That was a worry for later, with luck the landscape on the other side changed further along the river.
After a lot of internal debate, I decided to go upstream. There were less signs of fire in that direction, and all available directions promised carnage. Moving towards the closest mountains might mean finding alternative sources of water from smaller streams sooner. Water was an essential need, and we definitely weren't going to be drinking water out of something with dead bodies floating in it. Maybe we would be viewed as non-threatening by whoever the combatants were, and they'd leave us be. I didn't think that was going to happen, but I tried to find small hopes. We needed any small hope we could find.
I started walking, baby and basket in tow. Still unsure of anything, and ignorant of even my name, where I was, how I got here, or even what kind of conflict I was surrounded by. I had just two things: a baby that I had no intention of letting die, and my own will to survive. It was all the foundation I needed, the rest, including answers, could come later.