Letters From Old Earth (Part 1)
While watching the end of LOST, I couldn't help but be intrigued by the concept of instrumentality and the idea that not only do we define ourselves through our relationships with others, but we also depend on each other's companionship to stay alive, literally and figuratively.
Note: I have marked this story as _clean _because of it's lack of sexual content (a.k.a. yiff). However, it does contain more than mild language and extremely graphic violence. In short, use your discretion and enjoy.
Letters From Old Earth (Part 1)
By Kaven Violet
"You were the tide to wash away my pain, you were the light to heal my darkness, but I drove you away like you were nothing at all, like you were a monster. Farewell my dear Sophie, I hope one day you can forgive me for the horrible things I've done."
The sentence ran through Sophie's head over and over again as she trudged through the thick snow that blanketed the silent and empty remains of uptown Chicago. The year was 2032, six years after the Great Crossfire had devastated the planet.
Not so 'uptown' anymore, she thought. The 20 year old human had been walking for the past ten hours, stopping only for short periods of time to catch her breath and check her vitals, in the near-zero winter climate, a person could easily drive him or herself to a deadly level of exhaustion without knowing it. Even if, like her, they were buried beneath multiple layers of clothing on the legs, torso, and head. The rampant wind was building steadily, causing a stinging sensation on the exposed parts of her face. Tired and thirsty, she slung her backpack and M14 rifle off of her shoulders and took a seat at what looked like a bus stop. She had planned on making it farther today, but through the clouds she could see the sun going down, and the feeling of bitter cold in her fingers had been replaced by pure numbness. Up ahead, an abandoned convenient store caught her eye, it would be as good a place as any to take shelter for the night, and she might even be able to find supplies, given that someone hadn't gotten there before her. Fishing around in her bag, she found one of her water bottles, after unscrewing the top and putting it to her mouth, she realized that the liquid had frozen within the bottle. She wasn't the least bit surprised, it was just another sign that winter was upon her again. She looked around at the snow building on the sorry heaps of rubble and bent metal that used to be tall and elegant buildings. Soon enough the snow would become so deep she wouldn't be able to walk through it with just her boots, she made a mental note to start looking for snowshoes.
Taking in her surroundings, she couldn't help but notice how alone she was, but in this new era chemical weapon residue made it near impossible to grow crops, almost everyone left alive was ether a flesh-hungry Fur or a human like herself trying to survive in the frozen wasteland of New Earth. Alone was just about the only option, that was something she had come to live with.
Deciding against pressing on, she retreated inside the abandoned store for the night. All the windows were shattered, but the main structure of the small corner shop remained. That was good enough for her, all she needed was shelter from the wind. To her disappointment she found the shelves empty, she congratulated whoever was able to clean the place out so well, it didn't matter though, her priority was water.
She took off her pack and sifted through it's contents. Inside she carried a portable white gas powered cookstove along with a synthetically insulated sleeping bag, the same devices backpackers had used to scale mountains in the days of Old Earth now kept her alive. Also in her pack was a generic headlamp, spare gloves and other clothing, two water bottles, what remained of her food stash (two cans of raw vegetables), .308 rounds for her rifle, and a loaded 9mm pistol in case that just didn't do the trick. Before long she had the stove on high with a generous heap of snow in the pot, the simplest way she knew to get water.
While waiting for the snow to become drinkable she reached into the pocket of her hoodie and pulled out a rolled up stack of papers, pages torn from a U.S. highway atlas. She had covered almost 700 miles since she had been driven out of Montreal by the Furs four months ago. She ran her finger down the map, one inch for every hundred miles, and she still had over 1,000 miles to go before she reached Mexico. Sophie let out a worried sigh, with the harsh winter weather slowing her down, it could be another two years before she reached her ultimate goal, South America, where a thin line of fertile soil still remained along the equator. It was the only place where an establishment of human civilization still remained, and that made it the only place she would be safe from the furs.
Just as long as they don't get to me first, she thought, I can leave it all behind me, I can live in peace again and never look back on this frozen junkyard they called North Am...
An intrusive bubbling noise from behind her interrupted her thoughts, the snow had long ago turned into water and was now at the boiling point, she dropped the atlas pages and removed the hot liquid from the heat, making sure to set the fuel pump to off. She retrieved a water bottle from her pack and took off her gloves (to give her better grip), grabbed the pot with one hand and slowly poured the still-bubbling water into the waiting bottle. The warmth building inside the bottle felt good on her bare hand, but unfortunately, the good sensation distracted her from foreseeing what came next. As the water flowed from pot to container, a draft of freezing air filtered in from the shattered windows causing the ungloved hand holding the pot to tremble uncontrollably as it was blasted with the bitterly cold air. Before Sophie could react, a stream of water tempered just under the boiling point struck her bare hand.
"AHHHHH FUCK!," she screamed aloud and jumped back, her reaction fueled by an intense pain that sent a jolt all the through her entire body. She gritted her teeth and clutched her scalded hand, moaning loudly and rolling around on the ground. Biting pack the pain she pulled herself together and reached for one of the spare shirts in her pack, then retrieved her knife from it's sheath on her belt and cut a small notch on the collar. Holding one end of the shirt in her good hand, she bit down on the other end and pulled, tearing the garment into a straight line of fabric. She wasted no time wrapping the makeshift bandage around the burned skin on her hand.
"Idiot," she mumbled to herself, "you're and idiot."
She continued cursing herself for not letting the water cool as she prepared another heap of snow to be her second try at melting snow. After that was done she examined her still-throbbing hand, red skin and blisters covered entire back and part of her wrist, at least she hadn't spilt any on her fingers, that would have made the he healing process even more nasty. Still, she would have a rough time getting to sleep tonight. She considered taking a quick look behind the counter of the store to see if they had any sleep medication, but she quickly dismissed the thought as foolish, sleep aids would make her more vulnerable to anything that tried to sneak up on her in the night, an occurrence that was all too likely on New Earth.
After finally filling her water bottles, Sophie slipped into her sleeping bag and slowly fell into an uneasy sleep. She dreamed of Old Earth, even though to her memories of Earth before the Great Crossfire were mostly vague and distant, like a collection of old movies in her head. She remembered her mother, kind and loving, the bright and elegant flower of the family. When she was young her mother would take her to the park every day, it was beautiful scenic escape in the center of the overdeveloped downtown Montreal. Memories of her still made Sophie smile from time to time, when she dared think of her. Sophie's mother had died when she was only eight years old, just like everyone else back in the old world, the woman had died of starvation. Besides her parents, her most significant memory of Old Earth was the hunger. With food shortages a global epidemic by 2018, everyone starved, there were no exceptions. But an even worse memory than that was her father, a selfish, brutal man who could never get past the death of his beloved wife. With no one else to turn to, he released his pain on none other but his daughter. However Sophie had put up with her father's abuse, not for him, but for her mother. Her mother was the one happy memory she had left, it was her reason for living, and it was her reason for carrying on south. Sophie only hoped she could keep that memory alive long enough.
***
Sophie started the next day the same way she had started every day for the past six months, walking. Her wound still burned constantly through her glove, but the deep winter freeze soon numbed the hand considerably (and unfortunately did the same with the rest of her extremities). At the end of the street a rusty sign marked the intersection of La Sale and Lakeshore Drive. Sophie turned right on Lakeshore, her destination Interstate 55, a stretch of road that would take her as far as St. Louis before she would have to deviate. Lakeshore Drive, as it's name suggested, traced the shoreline of Lake Michigan, which had long ago frozen over into endless desert of white that stretched as far as the eye could see, and beyond. On the other side of the street loomed the massive spires of twisted metal, leftovers of the once prominent central Chicago. After three years of post-crossfire weather and no maintenance whatsoever, Sophie guessed all of the standing buildings were on the brink of collapse. Amongst the buildings that still miraculously stood was the famous Sears Tower, it's two giant antennae dug deep into the low winter cloud cover.
As she made her way through the heart of the city, something caught her eye. At the base of one of the large buildings, a large sign read: JC'S SPORTING GOODS AND APPAREL. To Sophie that meant only one thing, snowshoes.
The front entrance to the store was locked, but there was no need to bother with it, Sophie simply kicked in one of the the already cracked wall-to-ceiling windows and waltzed in as if it were a second doorway. Inside, Sophie scanned the expansive store for anything that suggested her desired item. Before long her eyes fell upon large sign still hanging from the crumbling celling tiles reading: WINTER GEAR. She made her way over to the area over the sign, snatching a rack of protein bars off the front counter as she walked. In these times, food was something you took whenever could find it.
The shelf beneath the sign was stacked with various brands of gloves, stocking caps, collapsible trekking poles, and more importantly, snowshoes. Putting down her pack and stashing within it the protein bars she found, Sophie picked a brand at random and sat down on the ground, thinking it a good idea to make sure the snowshoes fit her boots properly.
BANG!!! A loud noise from the other end of the store made the girl freeze in place, it sounded like someone had knocked over over the clothing racks near the front entrance. However this was New Earth, and she knew that that someone was more than likely a some_thing_.
Her heart racing, Sophie instinctively dropped the snowshoes, slung her pack over one shoulder, snatched up her rifle and bolted towards the back of the store, hoping for an exit. She kept low to the ground, trusting the long lines of shelves to give her cover from whatever was inside the building with her. When she reached the back wall of the store, she found no exit. She peeked around the corner of a shelf and saw an exit sign on the wall about 20 feet away. Without hesitating she sprinted for it, ignoring the icy cold air and burning pain in her hand for the first time that day. But before she could get there, a dark shadow emerged from behind a shelf about 30 feet ahead, she immediately ducked into an isle between two shelves, but not before she saw the light from an overhead skylight reflect off of it's eyes, making them shine like evil beacons in the darkness of the store. It was a Fur, just as she'd assumed. Fighting back fear and raging adrenaline, Sophie pulled back on the bolt handle of her gun and glanced down into the open chamber, making sure it was loaded. It was.
A typical fur would be three times stronger and five times faster than her, which meant if she wanted to survive, she had to make the first move. Firing a gun was one of the few things her father had bothered to teach her in her teenage years, and it was a skill that had proved invaluable since her first encounter with the Furs in Montreal. Wasting no time, she rounded the corner of the shelf, her finger tight on the trigger as she pressed the butt of the gun to the proper place near her shoulder. As she moved she shut one eye and lined the other up with the sight, aiming for the place she had last seen the vile creature, but to her surprise, she found nothing there. The isle was completely empty. A low growl from behind her ended her confusion, she turned her head and found herself staring into a pair of hauntingly bloodshot eyes belonging to what Sophie could have best described as a skeleton coated with thin black fur. The wolf-hybrid displayed it's yellowed teeth as it crouched atop a shelf on all fours. Like Sophie, the fur had retreated into another isle, but it must have then made it's way around behind her while she was checking her weapon.
The monster was a smart one, and she could tell by it's skinny body form and the look of pure primal desire on it's face that it wanted nothing more than fresh meat. Before she could turn her weapon, the fur opened it's teeth and lunged at her, going straight for the kill. Sophie dove to her left, she was quick enough to avert sudden death, but failed to dodge the Fur's claw. The sharp digit tore into Sophie's side, penetrating the many layers of clothing she wore and continuing through her flesh. She let out a roaring scream as hot blood splattered across the floor. The Fur crashed into a rack of hiking boots behind her, making frustrated growling noises as it struggled get back up. With a fresh wound in her gut and the air knocked out of her lungs, Sophie found herself unable to get on her feet. A few feet away, her rifle was laying on the ground, patiently waiting to do it's job. She crawled towards it on one arm, clutching her side as the pain bit at her with every motion. She could hear the Fur's yells and growls growing louder, it must have pinned a leg under whatever it had knocked over. The rifle was less than three feet away, she reached out for it, trying to grab at it with the tips of her fingers. Behind her, the fur freed it's pinned leg with a loud bark, without a second of hesitation, it charged at the girl once again. Sophie gasped as her fingertips slowly inched the gun closer to her until she was finally able to hook one of her fingers around the trigger guard of the gun. She quickly pulled the weapon to her and rolled over to face her attacker, but to her misfortune, the Fur was already upon her. It's mouth was wide open, ready to deliver the finishing bite with it's razor sharp teeth. Without time to aim and fire, Sophie put one hand on either end of the gun and held it up as a brace. The wolf was unable to stop itself in time, the barrel of the gun jammed into it's open mouth. It let out a loud yelp as the foreign object broke two of it's back teeth. Taking full advantage of the brief distraction, Sophie took one hand off the gun and reached down to her belt, unsheathing her knife. The creature was already at the ideal stabbing distance, and she felt enough adrenaline running through her to drive the knife through a brick wall. She plunged the knife straight into the fur's neck, making it howl out in a ear-piercing cry of pain.
Sophie let go of the knife and crawled backwards, trying to stay clear of the creature's paws which now flailed wildly in all directions as it struggled to get up again. She knew the knife wouldn't be enough, the Fur would soon recover. Drifting back into state of rational thinking, the girl looked over to her rifle. The barrel had been bent out of shape by the Fur's teeth, fixable but for now useless. She reached behind her and was relieved to find that her pack had stayed on the entire time, without taking it off she unzipped the side pocket and pulled out her pistol. Sophie held weapon's the grip and pulled the top back, priming the weapon for it's first shot. The close proximity of her target made aiming down the sight irrelevant, she simply raised the gun and pulled the trigger. The first shot pierced the creature's chest, splattering blood all the way down the isle to the back wall of the store. The second shot did the same. The third drove straight through it's head, making recovery a physical impossibility. However Sophie still emptied three more rounds on the beast, for the sake of satisfaction.
The girl was swift as a rabbit as she gathered her things and dove through the backdoor of the building. Furs most always traveled in packs, and the others would certainly be close. The creatures liked to accumulate in the larger cities where food was plentiful, Sophie knew they had been slowly moving south, she just hadn't expected them to get to Chicago so soon. If she could just make it to Interstate 55, she would be out from under their noses in no time, but getting there would be dangerous. She couldn't take her chances on Lakeshore Drive, it was far too open. Instead she planned to weave her way through the ruins of Chicago, staying hidden on small streets and alleyways. Heading due south, she would have to hit the Interstate eventually.
***
Roughly an hour after her encounter with the Fur, Sophie strode briskly down the narrow lengths of an alleyway paralleling State Street. Her rifle damaged, she kept her 9mm close at hand underneath her belt. Another bandage made from clothing wrapped tightly around her waist, choking off the blood flow from where the fur had clawed her. The pain in her side still sent a jolt trough her body every time she took a step, but she knew that she had to keep going if she wanted to live. Up ahead, the small passage emptied out into a much larger, four-lane expressway.
No way I'm going out there, she thought. After her narrow escape from death, she knew invisibility was her only advantage, if she could even call it an advantage. She turned onto an even smaller alley beside her. However as soon as she rounded the corner her progress was impeded by a frozen wall of rubble. A collapsed building blocked her way.
Sophie quickly weighed her options. The very thought of traveling on the open expressway made her shiver. She could backtrack and find another way, but that would cost her time she might not have. Observing her surroundings once more, she found that there was a door on the left side of the alleyway, the back entrance to some business. If she could get inside then she could make her way through the building and around the rubble. It was as good a plan as any.
She half-walked, half-ran to the rusty metal door and grasped the handle. The door was unlocked, but the hinges presented their own challenge. Years of rust and a layer of ice made opening the door a task that demanded every bit of strength the starved, injured human had. Slowly but surely, the door opened with a loud metallic creaking noise. Beyond the door lay a dark corridor walled with unpainted concrete blocks. Sophie extracted her headlamp from her pack, fastened it around her head, and continued into the lightless mouth of the building.
As a child Sophie had been afraid of the dark, and she couldn't help but wonder if she had actually made any improvement since then as she continued down the corridor. The increasing darkness formed a chokehold around her mind, trapping in every possible thought of what could be lurking just beyond her sight lines. Eventually the corridor ended with two large double doors. Cautiously pushing one open, she found herself in a wide open space, how wide she couldn't tell, the beams of light produced by her headlamp were swallowed by the darkness before they could reach anything. Looking to her right, observed a glass case housing two well-dressed mannequins, beyond that, a sign advertised the latest cellular phones. Sophie didn't have to think for long to figure out where she was. She was in a shopping mall.
She turned and headed south through the dead shopping center, pistol drawn and clutched in her good hand, carefully listening for any sounds other than the clomping of her own boots on the tile floor. As she walked she gazed around at the abandoned stores and empty social areas. The windows were all dusty and cracked, potted plants lay brown and shriveled in their respective containers. At the intersection of two hallways, a large fountain sat lifeless, rusted from the small pool of stagnate water it still retained.
As she climbed down a motionless escalator a particular business caught her eye, a pharmacy. Danger was still hot on her back, but Sophie knew that her makeshift bandage wouldn't be enough on it's own. The fur had cut her wide and deep, the wound would probably be infected within days, and when she left the city on the interstate, medical supplies would become more difficult to find. Stopping here for a half-hour or so was a risk she was willing to take.
As she walked into the store a soft thud from behind her drew her attention. Looking in the direction of the noise, she observed a large broken window at the end of another hallway. The rough winter wind must have blown in and knocked something over. No fur was that subtle.
Inside the store she gathered the supplies she deemed necessary to fix her wound, alcohol, sterile gauze, and a sewing kit for the more unpleasant part. She hunched down behind the front counter of the store and took off her hoodie, the outermost layer of clothing she wore, after that came a fleece pullover and finally she pulled up her tank top to reveal the crude bandage around the wound. The disgustingly red gash in her side began to drool blood as she untied the cloth from around her waist. Ready to begin, she took off her stocking cap and put in her mouth. Sophie was no doctor, but she had gained some modest medical skills helping doctors with the wounded in the weeks after the Great Crossfire. She was about to push those skills to their limit. She removed the cap from the alcohol and let the liquid flow over her wound. She bit down hard on the fabric in her mouth, preparing herself for what came next. As the substance hit her wound it fizzed with a soft hissing noise. She moaned and then screamed against the dense fabric of the stocking cap as the pain did an evil dance up and down her spine. She tried to keep in mind that the substance was only cleansing her wound of bacteria, even though the pain suggested differently. After she had emptied the alcohol, she grabbed the sewing kit and went straight to step two. She knew wound would take far too long to heal on it's own, and that the longer it was open the more chance she would have of contracting an infection. Stitches were the best option. However Sophie had only seen the them given to other people, she had never performed the process herself, and defiantly not on herself. She grimaced at the sight of the curved needle within the sewing kit, knowing full well what she would have to do with it.
It's days like this I wish I wasn't alone, she thought. However, she knew she was alone, and if she ever wanted to change that, she had to sew this wound up and keep going. She grabbed a spool of black thread and ran it through the end of the needle, hoping through the doubt that the pain wouldn't be as bad as she expected. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the cold, sharp metal of the needle up to her skin, she was ready as she would ever be.
"Hello?" said an unfamiliar voice.
Sophie suddenly dropped the needle and turned around.
"Hello, is anyone there?" the voice said again.
It was a male voice, and he sounded almost Sophie's age. A gasp of pure shock escaped from her mouth. It was impossible, another human had found her, but how? There were too few survivors to count, especially this far north. The odds of someone finding her had to be one in one a thousand, hell, maybe even one in a million!
"I heard someone screaming, if you're there, please say something."
Sophie remained frozen in place, she wasn't sure what to do. Did she dare respond?
"Hey Davies," the voice continued, "I think it came from in here."
Oh god, he's in a group. Sophie knew even the smallest collections of people were walking targets for the Furs, she had learned that the hard way in Montreal. If these people were careless enough to travel in a group, then they could very well have an entire pack of Furs on their tail. In that case, the best thing to do would be to keep her mouth shut and wait for them to move on. On the other hand, what if it was just these two people, and what one of them was a doctor? Or at least was willing help her with her wound? Hell, maybe they could fix her rifle, she certainly had no knowledge of weapons beyond load, point, and shoot. Perhaps traveling alongside a few other humans couldn't hurt.
"I don't hear anything," said the young man, "maybe it came from farther down."
Beneath the counter, Sophie could not be seen, and she guessed that the mystery person hadn't seen her light, otherwise he would already be upon her. Thinking strategically, she switched off her headlamp and slowly rose from behind the counter, she wanted to see just how many people she was dealing with. Trough the dusty glass of the abandoned pharmacy, all she could see were the bright beams of two LED headlamps and the vague silhouettes of their owners.
Only two, she concluded. Sophie cautiously strode out from behind the counter. She didn't know if she was making the right decision, but she knew she would find out soon enough.
"Wh... who's there?" she said softly, communicating for the first time in six months.
The two shadows gave no response, obviously failing to hear her.
"Who are you?" Sophie said, speaking louder now.
One of the headlamps turned it's beam straight to her, Sophie winced as the sharp light stung her eyes. There was no turning back now.
"Don't worry," the voice said, "we're friends, you can come out."
Sophie switched her headlamp back on and crossed to the open door of the store.
"My name's Sophie," she said as she walked out the door, "what's yo...?"
Sophie ceased talking and froze in place as her eyes met those of the mystery speaker, it wasn't a human at all, before her stood a six foot tall wolf hybrid. One simple word passed through the girl's mind, Fur.
Without thinking she drew her pistol and prepared to squeeze the trigger, but the other figure stopped her just in time.
"WHOA!" he yelled. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, he removed a rifle from his shoulder and pointed it aggressively at Sophie. "Cool it girl!"
To Sophie's moderate relief, the other mysterious figure was a human, although before she identified his species she took note of the AR-15 he pointed straight at her head.
"Put it away," he said, his voice aggressive and demanding.
"Were not here to hurt you, we're friends," the Fur was speaking to for the first time since they had come face to face.
"Friends?!" Sophie said as if she didn't understand what the word meant. She was confused beyond belief, what was the Fur doing just standing there? How was it speaking to her? For fuck's sake, the thing was dressed in jeans and a hoodie!
"My name is Davies," said the human, "I know you don't understand, but Jake is with me."
Jake, she the word echoed through her head, the Fur even had a name!
The wolf turned his head to Davies, "Would you two feel more comfortable if I left to go get Rachel?"
"It's your choice Jake," Davies said.
The wolf looked back to Sophie and her weapon. "I think that would be for the best."
With that he turned and walked briskly down the hall and around the corner. Sophie slowly lowered her firearm as she watched him disappear from sight, Davies did the same.
"What the hell was that?" Sophie said.
"That was Jake," replied Davies.
"No! I mean what was it?"
"He's a Fur, don't tell me you've never seen one before."
"I know what a Fur is!" Sophie shot at him, "but how... how..."
"How come he didn't try to rip your throat out?" Davies laughed subtly as he finished the sentence for her.
The girl nodded, still not believing what she had seen.
"Jake is an original," Davies explained, "before the Great Crossfire, all Furs were like him."
Sophie said nothing, refusing to take the young man's words to heart, it would be impossibly foolish to let one sentence undo the pain dealt to her in the past six months.
"It's a long story." he said, and sat down on a nearby bench, pulling water bottle from his pack. "Where are you headed?"
"Interstate 55," she replied.
"So you're going south, I take it you've heard the message?"
Sophie nodded, he was no doubt referring the omni-frequency satellite transmission giving the location of the safe zone on the equator. "A friend of mine back in Montreal had a satellite radio. He told me about the establishment in South America just before the Furs got to us. Where did you come from?"
"Burlington, Vermont;" he replied, "the greenest city in the United States."
Sophie detected a faded sense of pride in his voice, "And how did you end up with the Fur?"
"Well," Davies said, "my story isn't so different from yours, I picked up the transmission while I was dicking around with a sat-radio and I've been heading south ever since. While I was passing through Niagara Falls I got caught off guard by a rouge Fur, the thing snuck up from behind and threw me through a window before I could even get a shot out, it was about to bite my fucking head off when Jake and Rachel saved my ass. They took me back to an abandoned hotel they were living in and helped me with my injuries, you don't just get up and walk away after you go face first through a pane of glass."
He pulled back his shoulder-length brown hair to reveal an ugly scar running from his ear down to the base of his neck. "After Jake and Rachel fixed me up, I told them about the transmission and how there could still be good soil on the equator, the two of them were more than happy with the idea of heading south. We've been traveling together ever since."
"So is it still just you three?"
"Yep, any more would attract too much attention from the Northerns."
"Northerns, let me guess, that's what you call the other furs."
"Correct," Davies said, his eyes drifting down to the slow trickle of blood from under Sophie's tank top, "and speaking of Rachel, I think you might want her to take a look at your gut."
For the first time that day, Sophie smiled a little bit, at least she had found a goddamn doctor.
***
"So how do you know you'll be able to find food if you go around St. Louis?" Sophie asked as she retrieved her atlas from her pocket and spread it out on the table before her.
The two humans sat in the mall's abandoned food court, they had been waiting for the last half-hour for the wolf to return with Rachel. Most of the time had been spent arguing about whose planned route was the quickest and safest.
"There's a small city called Rolla about a 100 miles past the Missouri border." Davies pointed out the location on Sophie's atlas, "we should be able to make it there before we run out of anything. You forget, we have extra muscle."
He must have been referring to the Fur, the creature could easily carry twice what she or Davies could, but Sophie still doubted the benefits of keeping the thing around.
They're playing one wild fire, she thought to herself.
"What's this?" Davies asked as he picked up a small brown envelope Sophie had folded into the atlas pages.
"None of your business," Sophie said, snatching the item from his hands. "Anyway, why wouldn't you just punch straight through the city, like you're doing here?"
"I think you can answer that better than I," Davies said, pointing down to the the blood still slowly dripping from her open wound.
"You think that the Furs..."
"Northerns," Davies corrected.
"Whatever you call them, you think they're gathering in all the major cities?"
"Seems likely to me, the bastards multiply like bunnies, and they're hell bent on controlling the food supply."
"But six months ago they hadn't made it farther than Montreal, how could they be all the way to Missouri by now?"
"Well in case you haven't noticed they're deadly fast, not to mention the fuckers are smarter than most would give them credit for, especially the pack leaders. They know that if they wanna survive they have to stamp out the competition."
"Meaning us," Sophie commented.
"Meaning us," he confirmed, "first they'll get control of the major cities, then they'll move out to the smaller towns, taking whatever food they can find and driving us out into the woods to die."
"And you think you can make your way around the major cities before it's all finished," said Sophie, now fully understanding the young man's plan.
"One always hopes," Davies said with a sigh, "of course I know I could never do it without Jake and Rachel."
Sophie's expression turned to one of deep concern. "And how do you know you can trust... Jake?"
"Like I said," Davies replied, "Jake is an original."
"I still don't understand what that means."
"Its... complicated."
"And how is it you things about the furs that I don't?"
"Because my uncle was head of the North American Agricultural Research Committee."
Sophie looked at him questioningly, she couldn't possibly guess what that had to do with the Furs.
"It's a very long story." Davies said knowingly.
Sophie shrugged. "I've got time."
Davies leaned into the table, from the look on his face Sophie could tell he wasn't quite sure where to start.
"Well," he said finally, "you grew up in Old Earth just like I did, you know what it was like to be constantly starving, all the while not knowing when your next meal would be."
Sophie simply nodded, she knew all too well.
"About ten years before the GC, a friend of my father's, some brilliant bio-researcher from Germany, made the World Food Summit stand still announcing a new method that would improve the productivity of farms worldwide, it was a 'foolproof' way to end world hunger. He suggested that because we don't have enough workers to reach the Earth's maximum farming capacity, we must create another race of the workers to do the job for us. The guy laid out a plan to combine human DNA with that of a much more capable species, and then systematically distribute them around the world to expand current farms to cover every patch of fertile land on the planet."
"And that 'more capable' species was the wolf?" Sophie asked.
"The wolf, the dog, and few other species in that family," replied Davies, "basically anything that could follow orders and plow land fast enough."
"And then something went wrong." Sophie said, obviously there was nothing good had become of the project, otherwise the fate of mankind would have been much, much different.
"It there wasn't necessarily anything wrong with the project," Davies continued, "it just didn't turn up any results, but by the time the operation was cancelled, there where millions of Furs around the globe, especially in the U.S. and Mexico. Food was still running out, and with no other options, people drove the Furs up into the northern regions of Canada hoping that less mouths to feed would somehow stop the crises."
Davies turned to a nearby window looking out onto the wide expanse of wrecked buildings that lay silently outside. "Of course you can see how well that worked."
"And what about Jake?" Sophie questioned.
"The furs were up there in the wilderness for a long time, I guess most of them just lost whatever humanity they had, 'wild once and now wild again.' Jake was one of the lucky ones who stayed behind in civilization, according to him, friends from the farm he worked on hid him up in their attic."
"Where are those friends now?"
"He doesn't talk much about his past, my guess is they're dead like everyone else. Jake's a survivor, just like we are."
Sophie just glared at Davies, his explanation hadn't quite changed her viewpoint.
"But you said that all Furs used to be like Jake, how do you know that he won't end up like them eventually?"
"Sophie I know it's hard to understand, but Jake and Rachel have saved my ass countless times, and they count on me as much as I do them."
"Wait a second" Sophie said, something in that sentence didn't seem right, "are you saying that Rachel is a..."
"Am I interrupting?" A soft female voice from behind her said.
Davies looked up from the table and smiled, "hello Rachel."
Sophie slowly turned around her seat, her heart had already sank knowing what she would see. Rachel wasn't human either.
The Border Collie was not quite Jake's size but still stood just over six feet, roughly Davies's height. She gave Sophie a warm smile as as the human fought the urge to grit her teeth in return.
"Davies isn't killing you slowly with his 'irresistible charm' is he?" the Collie asked with a smirk on her muzzle.
"Can it, doggy," Davies shot back. "We've got a new patient for you."
"Oh goodie." Said Rachel, looking down at the blood still seeping from the girl's gut, "I always love a fresh wound to keep me busy."
"I'm sure you do," Sophie said under her breath.
***
Sophie, Davies, and the two Furs made camp in the abandoned shopping mall that night. Having Rachel stitch up her wound was one of the most awkward and edgy experiences of Sophie's life, but the dog hybrid did prove to have exceptional medical skills. When Sophie asked her where she had gotten such talents, Rachel explained:
"Back in the Old Earth days, the humans discovered I couldn't work as fast as the other Fur species, so they put me to work as a physician's assistant, making sure the other Furs stayed at optimal physical condition. I was the only one that didn't work in the fields, and it always made me feel felt a little left out. My work at the farm didn't last long though, about a year after I started the order came down to ship us up north. The physician I was working for was kind enough to hide me and Jake up in her attic, I guess being different paid off after all."
Sophie hadn't quite known how to respond to that, but luckily she didn't have to as she bit down hard on a piece of fabric, trying to ignore the pain of yet another wound-sterilization. According to Rachel, hydrogen peroxide worked better on deep cuts.
After Rachel had finished bandaging her newly sutured wound Sophie put on her pullover and retrieved her sleeping bag from her pack. Davies had built a fire under a broken skylight, she wasn't happy about sleeping next to the 'original,' but she found herself drawn in by it's elemental glow. Davies was already fast asleep, softly snoring with his back to the fire, Rachel lay atop a blanket, curled up in a ball tight enough for her tail to touch her face. Jake however sat up against a concrete column, quietly reading a book. As she drew closer she discovered he was reading The Dark Half, by Stephen King, a book she had read herself when she was sixteen, or maybe it was fifteen? She quickly rolled out the bag on the floor and climbed inside, trying to avoid eye contact with the wolf.
"How are you feeling?" Jake suddenly said.
"Perfect," Sophie said, trying to avoid small talk at all costs.
"I don't believe I introduced myself, my name is Ja..."
"Jake," she said, cutting him off, "I know your name, I need to sleep."
With that she zipped up her sleeping bag and closed her eyes, praying for sweet unconsciousness.
That night Sophie dreamt no happy memories, instead her mind took her back to Montreal six months ago. A quiet day in New Earth, suddenly interrupted by shouting and screaming from the far side of the city. Sophie hadn't enough time to even realize what was happening, much less to react. Before she knew her friends, family and everyone else were all screaming and running for their lives as the monsters invaded the city. Unforgettable amounts of blood had stained the streets as she made a desperate run for the fields outside the city. Luck had blessed her with a narrow escape from death, but never from the memories. It was the most horrible hour of her life, and given what had happened to her so far in Chicago, she knew could very well happen again.
***
The four travelers woke up early the next day, hoping to be at the Interstate before sundown. During the night, a snow and rain mix had left a thin layer of ice atop the snow, making every surface slick and treacherous. It was as cold as ever, and Sophie knew that would only make the furs more desperate. Jake and Rachel however didn't seemed phased at all by the worsening weather, each of them wore a single of layer of clothing, and didn't shiver for a second. Davies on the other hand was buried under multiple layers, just as Sophie was, every once and a while he would shake his face against the wind, trying to stop the ice from building on his thin facial hair.
By noon, the group had made it as far as Chicago's 'Near South Side.' They were nearly one mile from the beginning if Interstate 55.
"Sss... so, I guess you're g...going south with us now Sophie?" Davies struggled to push words through his frozen lips.
"I guess, as long as those two don't cause any trouble," replied Sophie, gesturing toward Jake and Rachel.
The two hybrids were a good 20 feet ahead of Sophie and Davies, well out of hearing distance despite their sensitive canine ears.
"Oh come off it Sophie, Rachel only barks to keep me in line, and Jake wouldn't hurt a fly. Seriously, the big guy's practically a pacifist."
"But everybody has a breaking point."
"Including you and me." Davies added, "It's just a matter of keeping your happy thoughts."
Sophie grinned, obviously The Dark Half had been passed around between group members.
"But thats only if you can find them first," she added, "In case you haven't noticed, happy thoughts are a bit hard to find these days."
"I can't say that I agree, I've found all kinds of wonderful things on New Earth, but I guess that's just a matter of perspective or whatever you call it. I take it you've had a few rough years to date?"
"You could say that." Sophie said, trying to hide her sarcasm, "Tell me Davies, what 'wonderful' things have you found lately?"
"Well the first thing would defiantly be..."
"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" Rachel suddenly yelled.
The four of them were on a bridge crossing over the Chicago Ship Canal. Davies dropped to his belly, Sophie was only to happy to follow, both humans drew their weapons and made sure they were loaded. Up ahead, Jake and Rachel were pressed up against the side rail of the bridge, obviously trying to stay out of sight from whatever had raised the alarm. Rachel raised a finger and pointed behind her, trying to point out enemy's direction to the two humans, she then raised eight fingers. That could only mean one thing: Eight Furs.
"Holy shit!" Davies said in a high whisper, "Stay low and stay behind me."
The humans crawled their way to Jake and Rachel, trying to keep hidden beneath the guard rail.
"Eight, are you sure?"
Rachel nodded and drew a pistol from her belt line, "Eight at least."
"How far?" Davies asked her.
"Thirty yards, give or take," she replied.
Slowly, Sophie and Davies rose from behind the guard rail to peek in the direction Rachel had given. The Collie's estimates were spot on, on the other side of the Canal, eight Furs paced around an open dumpster, each creature trying to outwit the others in order to win it's contents.
"What should we do?" asked Jake.
"We should run for it," Davies said, "Of course it probably won't be that simple."
Davies gestured to Sophie's 9mm, "You any good with that thing?"
"I've hit a few tin cans in my day," she replied, salvaging a bit of sarcasm from her adrenaline-charged brain.
"Alright, everyone stay low, quiet, and behind me."
Davies maintained his crouching position while he ran along the guard rail, his rifle held high and pointed straight ahead. At the end of the bridge he stopped and peeked around the corner, then waved his hand, signaling for the others to go on ahead while he covered them. Sophie and the two hybrids ran as fast and as quietly as they could across the intersection, they were in full view of the Furs, hopefully the beasts were too occupied with each other to notice. When they reached the other side, Sophie and Rachel took aim at the enemy. Rachel gave Davies a wave of her paw, signaling that it was his turn. The human made a dash across the intersection, Sophie's hand tightened on the trigger, knowing any moment one of the Furs could simply turn it's head and it would all be over. Davies was seconds away from the rest of the group when their luck ran out, a patch of ice atop the snow decided not to give way to the young man, instead he slid across it and lost his footing, falling on his back with the loudest thud anyone could have asked for.
All eight of the beasts turned around, each making aggressive growling noises as they found their latest prey. A wave of fear shook Sophie's entire body as all eight pairs of eyes fell upon her and the group, making her open fire before she even knew it. Rachel was soon to follow. Tall plumes of gun smoke rose into the air as discharge heat met the bitter cold. One of the Furs went down instantly, catching three rounds to the chest and one straight through it's eye, fresh blood splattered all across the snow, melting it on contact with it's bodily warmth. Stray bullets tore through the dumpster behind the Furs, making sparks and loud metallic clanging noises, the creatures scattered to all sides of the street as they made their advance on the small group.
Davies picked himself up from the ground, slung the rifle from his shoulder and fired the automatic weapon wherever he saw fur. The powerful rounds of his rifle made concrete explode and tore through flesh like it was paper, two more Furs dropped dead into the snow, but it wasn't enough, the enemy was far two fast and still outnumbered them.
"RUN!" Davies screamed, "FIND COVER!"
All four of them sprinted down the street, looking for a decent firing position. Sophie scanned the area ahead of them, all she saw were old stores and abandoned cars. The Furs turned the corner behind them, the remaining five closing in for the kill.
"Over here!" Rachel yelled, running for an overturned metro bus.
Jake and Rachel both jumped up onto the dormant vehicle and rolled across to the other side. Davies and Sophie followed as quickly as possible, scrambling up the side of the bus and clumsily dropping down on the other side into a narrow space between the vehicle's roof and the brick wall of a nearby building. Rachel was in the process of reloading her weapon, Sophie did the same with hers, pulling a spare magazine from her coat pocket and driving it into the waiting pistol.
"This is my last mag," Rachel said, "You've got 9mm rounds in your pack right Davies?"
"I used them all last month, sorry," he replied.
"Maybe we should have stopped for ammo last week, like I suggested."
"Maybe you should get a bigger gun," Davies commented, rising from behind the bus to greet the oncoming beasts with a barrage of 45mm rounds.
Sophie and Rachel were soon to follow, trying their best to stop the enemy before they were overrun. Davies hit another one, tearing it's head in half with automatic fire. Rachel shot one in the leg, impairing it's movement completely before Sophie finished the job with a shot to the head. There were still three left when they reached the bus. Sophie shot one in the neck as it climbed up the side, it made a loud yelp as it fell back down to bleed out on the ground. Another Fur made it over and made a lunge straight for Davies. Unable to aim and fire in time, The young man found himself pinned against the wall by the hungry creature, he threw his hands to it's neck, trying to stop it from lunging foreword with it's teeth. Sophie couldn't fire at it, at the current trajectory the bullet would kill Davies as well. Suddenly, she felt her jacket ripped open and looked down to find her knife missing.
"GET OFF HIM YOU FUCK!!!" Rachel half growled, half screamed as she jumped at the Fur with Sophie's knife in hand.
Sophie watched as Rachel drove the knife straight into the Fur's back, it let out a roar of pain and released it's captive. Rachel continued stabbing at the creature, one knife wound wasn't enough to bring the beast down. However the close encounter left Sophie off guard for what came next. Before she knew what was happening, the girl found herself lifted off her feet and thrown into one of the windows on the overturned bus, the glass panel shattered under her and she fell into the inside of the vehicle.
Sophie slowly picked herself up, dazed from the rough collision. As she rolled over onto her back, she was faced head on with her attacker. It was the final Fur; a black furred, male wolf; and it looked as angry as it possibly could be. She looked around for a weapon, but there was nothing too be found, she had dropped her pistol when the Fur grabbed her, and the Collie had taken her knife. As her enemy dropped on her, Sophie's fingers closed around something long and solid, she instinctively held it up and swung it at the oncoming enemy, the Fur growled and fell off to the side as the hard object made contact with his jaw. Sophie looked down at her weapon and immediately gasped, it was a human bone. Looking around at the bus, she realized it was filled with frozen bodies, human remains that had not yet been claimed by the Furs. Sophie instinctively dropped the foreign appendage and immediately realized it was a huge mistake. The Fur was already back up and charging at her, he had her pinned to the ground before she could even blink. In that split second Sophie realized one thing, she was about to join the bodies on the bus.
The human closed her eyes, trying to think of her mother, one last happy thought before it was all over, but the end never came. Sophie cracked one eye open to see a pair of grey-furred paws close over her enemy's throat. Jake's claws cut the Fur's flesh quickly and deeply, killing him before he even had a chance to yelp. As the beast drew it's last breath, Jake threw the body off to the side and held out a bloody paw for Sophie.
"Are you alright Sophie?" he asked.
Reluctantly, Sophie reached up and grabbed the paw.
"Yeah... you could say that," she replied, barely able to hear her own voice over the beating of her heart as the Jake pulled her up onto wobbly legs.
"RACHEL!!!"
Both the hybrid and human looked up as Davies screamed the Collie's name. With the speed of a bullet, Jake jumped up, gripped the window of the bus and pulled himself out into the daylight, Sophie followed behind as quickly as she could.
Outside, Davies stood atop the bus, his rifle pointed out at the street where two more Furs dragged away Rachel's near-motionless body. From afar Sophie could see the Collie's chest slowly rising and falling, she was alive, but defiantly unconscious. One of the Furs had his teeth clamped down on her shoulder, pulling her close it's own body as it drug her away. The other Fur stayed close by, Sophie knew that Davies wouldn't dare fire a shot, at such a range he would risk hitting his dear friend.
Sophie looked over to Jake, an aura of pure anger emanated from his eyes, there was only one thing he could do. With a loud, raging bark the Wolf jumped off of the bus and sprinted towards Rachel and her captors.
"JAKE, NO!!!" Davies screamed. The young man tightened his grip on the rifle, waiting for the opportunity to put some bullets through a Northern's body.
Unfortunately, the opportunity never came, before Jake could reach his target, three more Furs ran out onto the street from an alleyway behind him, he was trapped. Davies and Sophie watched in horror as Jake was mauled by the enemy pack, knowing full well that they were powerless to save him.
"What are they doing to them?" Sophie asked, her voice trembling.
"They're being Judged," Davies said, lowering his gun with shaky hands. "They'll be taken to the pack leader, and if they're proven disloyal, then the Furs will slaughter them as humans."
The Fur's dragged Jake and Rachel into a nearby alleyway. As they disappeared from sight, Davies turned to Sophie, his face showing no fear, only anger.
"Styrofoam peanuts." He said.
"What?" Sophie replied with a degree of confusion.
"We need styrofoam peanuts and gasoline."
"For what?"
"We need to get them back before they're put in front of the pack leader."
"Are you crazy?!" Sophie said, "There's probably hundreds of those things in the city by now!"
"I know Sophie, but I can't just leave Jake and Rachel behind."
Sophie paused for a second, every horrible outcome of Davies's plan playing out in her head, "What's the styrofoam and gas for?"
Davies dropped down off the bus and turned around to face the girl...
"'Napalm."
***
"WHERE THE HELL did you learn how to make Napalm?" Sophie asked.
Night had fallen upon the city, the two humans were rummaging through an abandoned supermarket, looking for the items that Davies had described.
"Well to be perfectly fair, the stuff isn't exactly military grade," Davies explained, "but I've seen it work, it gets the job done."
"But how do you know we won't blow ourselves up? Or kill your friends when we use it?
"First of all Sophie, they're not my friends, if you're really traveling with us, then they're our friends now; and second, making explosives is as easy as baking a cake. The catch, however, is that you're supposed heat the gasoline without using an open flame, otherwise you risk igniting the stuff."
"And how do we plan on doing that? It's not like we can just plug a hot plate into the wall!"
"Oh, I didn't say we weren't using an open flame, I was just expressing that there's a good chance we're going to blow ourselves up. Sorry for the miscommunication."
"Perfect," Sophie replied as they came upon the 'packaging supplies' isle.
"Alright," Davies said, grabbing a large bag of styrofoam peanuts. "You find the stove, I'll go get the gas."
Before Davies left he retrieved a bilge pump from the pool maintenance section of the store, a simple and easy way to extract gasoline manually. There was no need for Sophie to find a stove, she could just use the white gas burner in her pack. However while waiting for Davies to return she did retrieve a crowbar and pluck a thin sheet of metal from the back wall of the store, planning to place it between the burner and the vat of gasoline. It was a small precaution when all others had been thrown out the window.
It took Davies over three hours to find enough gas. Before the Great Crossfire the resource had became scarce and near impossible to find anywhere except major cities, it was the reason south-goers had to travel on foot.
However Davies still managed to find more than enough, when the boy finally returned he carried two large, red plastic containers filled to the brim with the explosive fluid. The two humans worked quickly, attempting to balance speed and caution. After the gasoline was brought to a slow boil, Davies began to drop the styrofoam peanuts in one by one, according to him, to many at once would make the substance uneven and therefore unstable.
Meanwhile Sophie kept watch at the front of the store, fearfully staring out into the consuming nighttime darkness.
There's so many of them, she thought to herself. Davies didn't seem afraid, but that's because Jake and Rachel are his best friends. Why was she doing this?
"It's done," said Davies from behind her.
Sophie turned around to see the boy packing six jars of the jelly-like substance into his pack, each one rigged with a timer/detonator he had made from alarm clock parts.
"So where do we find them?" Sophie asked.
"That's simple, the Fur's psychology is completely king-of-the-hill based, the pack leader will make his den in the highest possible spot."
Sophie nodded, it didn't take an atlas to tell you the highest spot in Chicago. "The Sears Tower."
"Actually it was renamed The Willis Tower, but yes, that's where I'm going."
"You mean us," Sophie commented, checking her rifle's recoil before slinging it over her shoulder.
"No Sophie, I mean me." Davies said.
Sophie looked up at the young man, his face was more serious than she had ever seen it. "What do you mean?"
"You've done enough." Davies closed the distance between them and put a hand on her shoulder. "I brought you into this, you don't need to risk your life in a fight you didn't start."
"But you didn't start this either! You said that Jake and Rachel were our friends!"
"That's why you have to go on Sophie. If you come with me and you die, then everything we've done, everything me, Jake, and Rachel have fought for will be for nothing. I don't care whether or not I come back alive Sophie, I just need to know that one of us made it."
A tear slipped from Sophie's eye, something she long ago promised herself never to let happen.
"The Interstate isn't far, wait for us at the nearest overpass. If we're not there by noon tomorrow, leave, forget about us and move on."
"But Davies! He saved my life, Jake saved my life! I owe him mine." At first Sophie couldn't believe the words were coming out of her mouth, but she soon understood that she owed the Wolf and the Collie more than she could ever pay.
Knowing his word's weren't enough, Davies pulled the girl into a firm embrace and slowly whispered his next words into her ear...
"If you wan't to repay him, then get your ass to the equator, don't ever look back."
With those final words he released his grasp on her. Sophie slumped back onto a nearby shelf, not saying a word as the young man quietly opened the door and strode off into the waiting darkness.
_ To Be Continued... _