One Year, Fourteen Days: Chapter Four

"Liam to home base. Do you copy?" 

"We copy. Any updates?" 

"As of this conversation, none." 

This had been Liam's sample of social interaction for the past two weeks. He'd been marching his way east essentially from sun-up to sun-down, but he had yet to encounter anything. He wasn't complaining from the lack of action, but the anxiety of expecting something to happen that never does was eating at him. Half the time, the food he attempted to eat got thrown up soon after because his stomach couldn't hold anything. He found that small breaks to nibble on the food prevented sickness most of the time, but the idea of staying still freaked him out even more. 

Liam heard Kennedy chuckle a bit over the walkie talkie. "Well, I'm sure you appreciate that. How are you doing?" 

"How am I doing? I... I'm doing horrible. I keep expecting to get attacked and it never comes. I don't think I can take the anxiety anymore; humans aren't meant to be on edge constantly like this. Sir, I think you made a mistake sending me here." Liam rubbed his sleep deprived eyes even though nothing was coming out of them. 

"I see. Uh, well, I was referring more to your physical state. Like, were you hurt or anything?"

Liam wanted to chuck his walkie talkie against the tree he was leaning on and sacrifice himself to the first mutated he saw. "Oh my - no, sir. Under the circumstances, my physical state is fine." He smacked his palm against his face multiple times, probably leaving a red mark somewhere. 

"Good. Good to hear. If you encounter something, don't wait to report to us. Over and out." The walkie talkie made a beep noise, indicating the line was no longer active. 

"Yeah, yeah, over and out," Liam muttered, going in for a second round of smacking his face. "Let's just play therapy session with my boss. Good one Liam." The stick of jerky he was snacking on was gone now, so it meant a few more hours of walking before calling it a night. 

Liam was in the heart of the forest now. The half-hearted trail that he was following in the beginning was long gone, so now he was just following his instincts. The unbothered branches were long and intertwining with branches from nearby trees, making it almost impossible to see in front of him. His hands constantly had to stay up to keep his line of sight clear and to avoid getting stabbed by branches. The sound of crunching and snapping, with the occasional curse word, slowly filled his head and became his soundtrack. 

The twig snapping off the right was a noise he knew he didn't make, and he instantly froze. 

Sometimes things would fall and make similar noises and it would be just that. But the twigs kept snapping, getting gradually closer to Liam's position. If it was a person, they definitely would have said something by now. He wasn't going to yell out and say anything either; he's seen enough horror movies. 

Liam grabbed the pistol from the right side of his pants. It was already loaded, all he had to do was turn the safety off. He pointed the gun to the direction of the snapping twigs, just wanting to wait a few more seconds for whatever that thing was to get closer, so he would know for a fact he wouldn't miss the shot-

Something from his left shot from the trees and tackled him to the ground, digging something sharp into his shoulder and chest. His vision went blurry from the rough landing, and when it finally cleared, he was face to face with something he hadn't seen for a whole year: a mutated human. 

This specific one had been mutated for quite some time. Liam couldn't guess a timeframe, as he only ever experienced ones who recently turned. Months, maybe? Years? Its eyes were completely missing, revealing only black empty sockets that leaked a pitch-black ooze. Chunks of skin were missing from the body, and on some areas, Liam could see a leather looking "skin" replacement slowly cover them back over. Parts of bones were sticking out of its skin. On its left hand, every bone from the wrist up was exposed, the skin around it dangling. Normal, human teeth were gone, instead replaced with a new set of teeth that came to a point on each one like fangs. 

Liam kicked the mutant off of him and regained his footing, giving it a quick shot to the head like he was taught. The black ooze splattered all over the ground and landed on his boots. Was that blood? The mutants he killed in the past still had red blood, but he was always too busy killing other mutants to stop and really examine it. Just like now, his attention on the blood was taken away from the original source of the noise: another mutant. 

To Liam's horror though, this one was recently turned. The missions he did as a rookie solidified the look in his head: still looks human, but the veins. The veins were black. Unlike a normal person where you could only see the veins on parts of their body, you could see the black ones everywhere. He was in the heart of the mutant wave, where countless scientists theorized the "worst of the worst" would be. Why was this one here? 

Liam never had trouble killing newly turned mutants, as he always fought them in waves and never had a chance to stop and think about the person they used to be. Seeing one face to face like this was different. It still looked like a child, maybe a young teenager. It didn't seem to have any intentions of attacking, it simply looked like a hurt animal who didn't know how to react to the person that just came up to them. Liam couldn't nurse them back to health though, and there was only one thing he could do. 

He pointed the gun back up to the mutant's head and shot one bullet, killing it instantly. It crumpled to the ground, its face buried in a pile of leaves. Its blood wasn't black like the previous ones, it was red, the color Liam was familiar with. He did a 360 of his surroundings before continuing his walk like nothing happened. 

He just killed two mutants. This time, he didn't have his fellow rookies around him to hype him up or his superiors back at base to congratulate him or call him a hero. Instead, all he had was the blood on his clothes and his thoughts, which offered nothing but questions and guilt. He was also faced with fear. Fear of what those mutants could evolve further into the longer they went without interaction with humans, and why freshly turned mutants were this deep into the wave. 

With a shaky hand, he grabbed the walkie talkie strapped to his pants that somehow managed to stay on. It had some scratches on the surface, but it still looked functional. He pressed the button and spoke into it, "Liam to home base. Do you copy?" 

It took a minute to hear a response, but Kennedy was back on the walkie. "We copy. Has something happened?" 

"I just encountered two mutants. You're not going to believe what I saw."