Inside

Location: Unknown

Date: A months after it happened

Time: It's light outside, but neither dawn nor dying day

I woke suddenly, jerking forward. Instinctively, I grabbed my sniper rifle. Nothing.

The gray light was shining still, it was so when I went to sleep. It covered the Earth and never went away, no matter where I went. The rain had stopped, no idea when, but the ground was wet.

I looked around me. For miles in every direction was the fog; thick enough so it wasn't permeated, yet thin enough that it wasn't oppressive, I still could not see the objective though, but I knew I had to be close.

I left the small house today, and followed my compass, laid on top of the map. I could not find anything at the locations marked, but I only needed to find one. It was cirlced with a big red marker. He did it for me when I saw him last, before he wished me luck and left with the rest of them.

The fog is too thick, I can barely see the things around me. 

I make it into a town. It's small, and abandoned. But it will need to suit my needs. 

According to my watch, I have been walking for five hours now. Traversing open fields, roads, and still no forests; they told me to look for a forest.

I searched the town, and still nothing, no semblance that civilization was ever here. What happened must have cleared them out when it started, no reason to stay. The fog is so thick that I can't see one building from the other side of the street, but it doesn't matter, still no two story buildings or larger ones.

I find a good place to sit down and have my lunch, maybe it's lunch time, I don't know, my watch doesn't say AM or PM. I should have gotten a 24 hour watch, not just one with numbers and nothing else.

MRE's are easy to find now. When we went to fight, entire groups left them behind when we fell back, and even the antagonists leave them. I got so lonely once, I thought about joining them, if only I could find some, I can't find anyone. It's been weeks now.

I finish lunch and take my radio out of my bag. Before he left, he said not to use it until I was clear, I'm not as of yet. They would find me, he said. I thought about using it, just to see what would happen, I didn't.

A few more hours pass, it might as well be nighttime, but the grey light is still there. More open fields and farmhouses, I steal grain and pass on, maybe even a stock of corn.

I see them... a few of them. 

Around a dark road, with some trees on either side, the fog parts, barely. There is a dip on both roadsides, I hide in one to rest, then I see them. 

One hundred yards away, a truck is stopped, with four or so of them standing outside of the back. There should be more of them. They are black sillohouettes to me, they barely move. I put my scope over one, my heart is racing, but in the race, I remember what he told.

Don't do it unless you have to.

I continue on. Then I found the forest. It is large and dark, the grey light and overcast cannot permeate it, neither can the fog to an extent.

I travel in it, seeing the darkest it has been.

I hear noises, more of them maybe, I hide.

A small path is down a ridge running through the low part of the forest, they are there, three of them. My heart begisn to race again, they are closer this time. Rifles were on their backs, they are ignorant of my presence.

I watch them this time, walk down the path, they are talking, but I cannot hear them over the drone of the forest, which seemms like night has fallen.

A loud resonant sound goes off far away. It sounds like artillery, my heart is about to pound out of my chest. They turn, then hurry on down the path and out of view. I look towards the dark sky, through an exposed part of the canopy, the sky even looks like the grey light has left.

I make it through the forest, there are no more of them.

I see a town up ahead, with figures standing around, they aren't moving.

I hear loud bangs, gunshots far away, they scurry off.

I enter the town, stealthily sneaking from cover to cover, scanning and observing, then moving. I look high, look low, where they might be, but only the ones like me are the ones I have to worry about. I would imagine they live longer, also like me, if not, they are lucky. 

The fog covers the town, the grey has retuned and the overcast sky lets nothing through, in or out. Except one rebel. 

I hear a prop, it swings low through the clouds, it is green with tan mixed in, the symbol on it is on my bag, they are friendly. A red flare is shot out from it, it falls to the ground slowly, facing north.

I get through the town, I see more of them, my heart races when I do. More gunshots... they go away again. I want to follow.

I think about the plane, my heart races, but it is already gone.

When I get to the edge of the town, I see bodies, destroyed cars a tank, it's immobile.

Days pass, nothing exciting. I'm scared now. My heart wants to race again. I should have just gone with them when they left, I would have rather died with them, if they had.  I would not have been alone inside my head.

I hear strange sounds inside a cornfield, nothing.

A large open field, I traverse it to a wood line. A piece of bark came off of a tree, then a loud gunshot ensued, my heart did not race, it knew. I fell to the ground and crawled behind a tree, another shot. I looked through my scope for the origin.

Nothing.

I walk again.

I see a town up ahead, another one. 

I look down at my map, there is a river here, and there is one on the map. There is a town, one on the map, there is no red marking, but there is one on the map.

I see the light, but it is nothing like what I expected it to be