The stench of decay and blood coated my throat and trickled like water with every breath I choked in the closer I got to the Wall.
Unlike the slab of concrete with maybe a few people speckled around it, keeping watch, I was met with barricaded towns and people missing limbs limping around.
I was still struggling to walk on my own, but was forced to get better during the haul to my Mission. There was no-one to help me when I fell down or tripped. I didn't have encouragement when I managed to walk without cutting myself for a few hundred meters.
I had to do this. Forcing it on me helped. But, it also felt so empty achieving all of this with nobody to share my excitement.
That died when I avoided blocked towns and the demon groups pouring from them to scout out the land. I kept my eyes on the Wall when it and it's accompanying stench grew closer.
The first thing that hit me was the layers of piss coating the leaves out from the concrete. The second was the blood that soaked the ground and swamped my legs trying to trek through it to the closest people I saw.
They had blown a hole into the concrete to camp inside. It looked fresh from the rubble and burnt fuses piled to the side.
It wasn't so bad, not nearly as horrible as Oxy was making it out to be.
I tried to see the headstones where I could have some evidence to prove how right I had been, but couldn't see them.
They'd be further out. No way they'd line them against the wall.
Somehow, it reminded me of the Base. The cold concrete; the familiar grey and ugliness of it all.
Everyone here was Banded too.
I frowned at it when I carefully approached.
I had caught the attention of the older occupants who also cautiously peeled outside, weapons cocked but not aimed.
"I... I'm here to count the dead?"
I dropped the paper down and backed up so a woman could swipe it up and ruffle through it with mixed emotions.
"Looks like it's him" she showed it to a man who approached and took it from her "at least he's big enough to get it done kind of quickly."
The man snorted and looked me over.
"More legs ought to do it" he laughed, jabbing his thumb to the hole "but how on earth is he meant to write down the names?"
Write the names? Should I shed this skin so I can?
I didn't like these people. Being higher than them made me feel safer.
"Send one of the kids" the woman shrugged "make sure it's not one of the ones we actually need this time."
"17 can be it" the man agreed as he disappeared briefly.
I saw people shuffling out of the way and catching glimpses of me when the man pulled out a girl and pushed her through the other side of the hole with nothing more than a pad of paper and a pen.
The woman snapped her fingers and pointed up the wall.
"Off you go" she snapped again.
I remained quiet as I gripped the concrete and hauled myself up it. My claws notched in perfectly into the imperfect surface blocking out the sky.
The concrete went forever. I felt my muscles straining and slipping when I climbed towards the top that would offer me a break from it all.
Eagerly, I stretched upwards and lifted myself to the top of the wall to breathe in a sigh of relief. My breath hitched in my throat and almost choked me when I saw what awaited me on the other side.
Sprawling land was choked with torn bodies drowning in thier own blood. Some had been blown up, strewn across the grass, while others were decapitated or mangled into smeared messes dragged on the ground.
I saw monsters ripping at the bodies eagerly while others tried to murder thier way through the humans trickling like a plague over the ground tripping them up.
There were bombs spraying the ground in the distance. There was a plane gliding overhead several kilometers away. There was others running to hide amongst what remained of the trees that only offered flimsy coverage for the children in vests pouring all along the wall below me.
I couldn't be up here. I couldn't do this. I wasn't supposed to have this Mission....
"Spider!" I heard a little voice below "come on! We've got to count!"
I peerd down to see a little girl glancing back up at me. She retreated to the concrete to avoid gunshots piercing through others nearby.
The poor thing was terrified. She was eager to get going so she could be out of danger sooner.
She had on a vest like all the other children. Her brown hair was knotted and pulled into two ponytails hanging over her shoulders.
How old was she? Eight? Six? It was hard to tell under all the dirt that covered her.
I quickly darted down the other side as my heart pumped ice through my veins at each explosion and scream echoing into the air. The stench of blood and taste of it in every breath clung to me before I even reached the girl.
"17" she held out her hand to me "I'll be your counter today."
What had I put this kid through?
"Should we start forward and work our way from there?" she offered with gestures to the left then right "we'll want to get it down before night."
I didn't even want to ask why. I was too scared of all the noises and smells pelting me all at once to even be bothered by which direction I was about to go.
It was all horrible. I could count them all safely inside.
"Right! Lets go, Spider!" the girl shouted out at an explosion to our left that pelted her with dirt "come on!"
She darted out and was met with a body only a few meters away. Crouching, she lifted its arm to check the Band and scrawl down the name.
"Cover me!" the girl called when she raced for another not too far from the first. I scurried after her and stood over her as she searched for a Band that had been blown clean off.
"Oh! Here it is!" she grinned, retrieving it a few meters away.
"How long is this going to take?" I whimpered at more screams ahead of us, and gunshots piercing the trees.
"If you keep me covered, maybe a day or two" she responded casually, moving to another beside the strewn one "you need to help me count the dead. This is your Mission. I'm only helping with writing it all down."
"This is all.... a lot" I cowered at the guteral screams dying out only a few meters ahead of us "I'm not meant to be here."
"Neither" the girl promptly replied, standing to scurry off to another exploded body that she searched "but, they like the dead ones here."
I raced to shield the girl from more dirt and stones when she wandered off to scour the bleeding ground for the missing Band.
"You're like me?" I breathed down to her.
She smiled, pulling apart burnt entrails to find her goal.
"Did you get the name of the one over there?"
I saw her pointing to a body splayed out behind me.
"Oh, right."
My big claws rolled over the arm that peeled apart from its own skin at the slightest touch. It looked like dough sticking to a board as it was peeled along it.
"Cutter!" I squinted at the screen I had to swipe clean.
"Good!" the girl grinned, writing it down "let's get moving! It's too open here!"
I nodded and went to shield her again as monsters darted for the trees to tear apart scurrying humans trying to find cover.
"We'll go around" the girl veered right at the sight "we'll come back for those ones."
I couldn't have agreed more. We both sprinted for the trees, narrowly missing bullets spraying into them when we kept bolting further into the cover.
It wasn't even safe in here. 17 crouched to check bodies along our path for Bands to report. Although we were out of fire, we were still accompanied by sounds of the unfortunate dying amongst the trees that obscured anything lurking amongst it.
"I'm actually glad you came today" the girl chimed up when she diverged to find another Band "I wasnt looking forward to racing with the others."
"Racing?"
She nodded, returning to me.
"We make a game of it. We all line up, like you would at a race, and when the adults say for us to go, we run as fast as we can down the hill. There's a little house at the end of it that we call our finish line. You have to get past everything else to get to the finish."
I looked down at her walking briskly beside me. Despite her little smile, I could see she hated having to turn something so dangerous into a game just to be brave enough to face it.
"At first, I thought you were the nanny we ware getting" the girl continued with a little laugh "but they said it would be calming. You are not calming. You actually made 24 cry. She's afraid of spiders."
"Wait, they're sending a nanny out?" I couldn't keep the amusement out of my voice "what for? To make sure you all run?"
The girl shrugged, pulling away again at another Band.
"They say it'll be good for us" she spoke as she lifted the wrist that broke in her hand "a nanny will keep us calm and quiet. I just hope she's nice."
Who did the Base even have to send that was like that? Did they even have any nurturing parents who wanted to be thrown into a warzone just to keep a few kids from panicking?
My gut clenched. I wasn't sure if it was dread from me or from Shie.
I kept going, hearing the girl patter back to my side.
"I'm Luli, by the way" she said with a small hand grabbing at the fur on my leg.
"Luli?"
"Stellular, but it's easier to say Luli."
She held out her Band that I couldn't read anyway.
"I'm Phillius" I smiled back "but, you can call me Philly if that's too hard."
"Filly?" she giggled up at me "I thought you'd be more like a 'Titan' or a 'Midnight'. Something tough."
Luli flexed her little arms and pushed up the skin to imitate muscles that I snorted at.
"I could be Maxmillius, the Bold" I boasted to her laughter.
"You'll be Frilly" she poked my side "it suits you because it rhymes with silly."
I gasped dramatically and heard her laughter when she rushed ahead to search for another missing Band.
"Luli" I proded the severed hand with my claw as I approached.
"Thanks, Frilly" she giggled and picked it up to write it down.
She was such a cute girl. Way too young to be out here doing this.
Is this why I saw no children at the Base? They dumped them out here to be shields for a concrete wall?
"What's with the jackets anyway?" I piped up when she ran ahead again "it looks way too big for you."
It wouldn't protect her from bullets. She had to hold onto the sides of it whenever she moved so it wouldn't slip off her shoulders.
"The adults say it'll keep me safe. It has wires across the zippers to keep it up."
Wires?
"Let me see that."
Luli straightened and kept her hands secured around the sides as I leant closer to see the wires the threaded a pinky under to reveal to me.
That wasn't right. They were all sorts of colours that reminded me of the bombs on those over the top action movies.
I snorted at the absurdity.
Surely not? They wouldn't do that to a kid like her?
"Its still up?" she questioned "they said it has to stay up. I'm not allowed to take it off until they do it for me."
Fuck. It really did sound like a bomb....
"Stay really still, ok?"
"Why?" she watched me lift my claws up so I could press my skin against the cloth to feel for any protrusions.
They were all there. Masses of packages sewn into the vest that had to be connected to those wires just inches from her fingers.
There had to be a few kilos of the stuff just sitting along her body. It had to be weighing this kid down.
I couldnt scare her. She'd destroy us both.
I wasn't dying again because I had been dumb enough to tell her what she was lugging around.
"Its all fine" I smiled and lifted myself from her "it's bulletproof. All the playe are still good."
She grinned, knocking them with her knuckles.
"But!" I blurted when she went to go again "we really should leave it alone. You don't want to move anything out of place, especially those wires. The whole thing will be useless if you touch them."
"They don't seem that special" she ran her finger below them again before pulling her hand away "but, I trust you."
That was news.
"You do?"
"You haven't killed me yet" she shrugged "and we gave each other our names. You're one of the good ones."
"I'd doubt that" I snorted back, kicking out another Band for her to write "I'm just here to get this Mission done and go back to my family."
"Me too!" Luli gasped from the clipboard "my brother will be missing me. It's been a while since I've been back."
I went ahead to dig up another body and hold up the Band for Luli to run to.
"How long have you been here, Luli?"
She looked up, frowning.
"How long does it take for hair to grow this long?" she asked, dropping her head to think "uh, 2 was six when I came, and we had that fun party twice.... I think it's been three years."
"Three years?" I choked out.
"Yeah!" she nodded proudly "I've done really well! Even the adults say I'm doing good!"
How on earth had she survived out here that long? I wasn't even here for an hour and I was already a nervous wreck shaking at the knees with every step I took.
We had to get out of the trees to count the dead, but I was too scared to even head out to where I knew it was most dangerous.
This kid could have probably done the job a lot quicker without me dragging her down.
"We can go and grab some food if we cut through this way" Luli pointed to her left "we can cut through the trees and come out near the house."
That did sound a lot safer. The house could shield us from the explosions and bullets better than anything else around here.
I was hungry too. I could feel Shie's hunger also growling deep within me, reminding me of what Oxy had demanded I do while I was here.
I shuddered at the thought, hurrying to keep up to Luli weaving the trees ahead.
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We kept close to the bark to avoid the running bodies scurrying past, or the monsters shooting through to mow them down. When one of them tore a body in half, it turned and locked its many eyes onto me to have my blood instantly run cold.
We got out of there before it could decide we were next. Luckily, someone was too blind with panic to notice the eyes belonging to the monster that snapped down its next victim instead of us.
Rounding to the back of the house, Luli pushed open the door and wedged it so I could peek in.
It was a hollowed shell of what used to be a loved residence. I could see hints of the home it used to be through the pictures still hung on the walls and the furniture beneath them that hadn't been dragged and destroyed to form the mound in the middle of the room.
Children gathered around the fire to warm thier bodies or use the light to scrape blood and gore from themselves.
The littlest was younger than Luli herself. The girl cracked a smile and held up her hands to Luli, pumping her hands in grabbing motions. Her hair was shaved short and her clothes were simple; white shirt and shorts that were see-through.
"Glad you made it, 17" a boy smiled from the fireside he poked with a bone "thought that big one would have got you by now."
He was coated in blood he scraped from his skin with his nails to flick into the fire. His vest gleamed when he flicked off the insides dripping from it towards his feet.
He was so coated, I couldn't even tell his hair from his skin. He had enough of it to form a thick, bloody curtain over his shoulders.
"We dodged the main stretch and went for the trees" Luli replied, hugging the boy and sitting beside him so she could point me out "Frilly is here to help me."
"Jeez" he blew out a breath at me "easy to get that confused."
She agreed, still smiling at me.
"Have we got food?"
The boy grinned, propping up a section of the wood to reveal foil-wrapped parcels shoved underneath that the group of children eagerly awaited.
There were nine of them here. The foil only covered six.
"I can find something, if you like" I suggested uselessly "I'm sure there's another house or a town nearby...."
"We have all the food we need here" the boy snorted and poked the flames "we can just grab more if we need it. There's no shortage."
He scraped out the foil parcels to flick them towards the eager children that dove for them.
They snatched and squabbled over the burning surfaces, smiling when the foil was peeled back and the charred surface was torn apart.
One was flicked to me, the boy standing so he could watch.
"You can get us more. That'll be your payment for it, creature."
The thing looked long and thick. It had to be twice the size of the others the children hunched over as they tore through thier fill with thier bare teeth.
It smelled amazing. The meat was cooked right through and I could almost taste the layer of charcoal burnt across the top when I peeled back the foil.
"Caught it myself" the boy boasted to the admiration of the others "eat up."
My claws recoiled when I saw how the burnt skin across the top peeled to reveal the tender, pale meat underneath.
It lengthened and pulled into a foot that was so mangled it looked more like a club.
I would have confused it for the limb of a beast if it hadn't of been for the big toe laying beneath the leg.
They all tore into it like wild dogs. Greedy fingers seperated skin from fat as they all hunched around the fire to eat thier portion of the dissected person.
"This isnt right" I pushed mine away.
The boy glared, standing again.
"Well, don't waste it!" he scolded me as he dragged it away "give it to someone who actually appreciates my work, arsehole!"
"I appreciate it" Luli smiled up at him.
"Thank you for the food" another chimed up.
"You're the best!" the youngest chewed through the arm meat she held close.
The boy basked in the glory, smirking at me.
"What about real food?" I frowned at them sucking thier fingers and clawing at my portion so readily "cans? Vegetables?"
"They stopped sending those a while ago" a girl piped up through her mouthful, one eye missing from an old wound that hadn't healed properly "it was good at first, but then they started forgetting more and more until nothing showed up."
"We had to make do with what we got" the boy poked the fire with a growl "and we did. We found all the food we could eat!"
"As long as you cook it" another boy reminded with a laugh.
"You get sick if you don't cook them" Luli added to me "it's not bad. It tastes like pork."
"Urgh, I'd kill for some bacon" the other boy moaned "I miss that so much."
"3, I'll crisp you up some skin and find some seasoning for it next time" the boy replied "we can all have bacon!"
There were grins and quiet cheers. The boy kept glancing towards the front of the house where the windows glimpsed the darkening battlefield still raging on.
We needed to keep counting the bodies if I was going to get out of here as soon as possible.
"9 is the best at making things taste like food" Luli boasted to me as she got up "it's not that bad."
"I'll take my chances" I muttered to her.
The boy followed, tugging on my leg to make me pause.
His blue eyes scowled and his lip pouted a little when he checked on the way Luli had gone before huffing up at me.
"You look after her" he poked me "I've kept her safe since the moment she got here. I'm not having her die because you couldn't do the same."
What did I say to that? I just blinked back.
"You take every bullet, cover her from every bomb, and every monster out there. You're here to keep her safe while she does your job. Don't let her die or I'll come for you tonight."
He forked his fingers and pointed at his eyes before directing them to mine.
I snorted as I held back my laugh that tried to escape.
He was so fierce for no reason.
"I'll keep her safe" I shook my head at his worries "now, can I go? She's probably half way across the field by now."
The boy glared again and moved from me to head back inside to the others and close the door.
The kid did have the right determination that I really lacked. I wanted to do everything he snapped at me, but I was too scared of anything that might send me back to that Dead Side for good.
Luli was already ahead, bent behind a corpse pile to scribble down the names.
Stray bullets flung the bodies against her as she kept trying to complete her mission and move onwards.
The kid was already growling in my mind at the sight of her cowering to avoid the bullets.
Immediently I raced out to plant myself over her. Her little head poked up with a smile of appreciation.
I felt the bullets tear through the side of my leg before I saw I was being targeted.
Each bite of the metal boiled my blood and drilled into my very bones struggling to keep me upright.
But, with every snap of the bullets in my body, my adrenaline thundered through me and pumped like pure fuel into my blood. It pounded painfully for me to charge for the human ducked behind bodies to use the opportunity to take shots at me.
I didn't even think when I snapped into his outstretched hands to tear them from his arms. Blood spurted across my face and blinded me momentarily when threw the arms aside so I could bite his head to shut out the gargling wails of agony.
Tearing it off was too easy. It felt like dough in my mandibles that sliced through his skin and seperated his from his spine threatening to thread through his limp body.
Letting the head roll out of my mouth, I saw the mangled mess collapse at my feet that peeled back from the blood trying to drown them.
I turned, seeing Luli was now free from fire.
My heart hammered with every sawing breath. It wasn't mine but the monster's that I had stole it from.
I had to borrow its courage. It wasnt scared of anything in a place only darkness grew. I had to be more like it if I wanted to get out of here and back to where it was safe.
Blood boiled as it bled from my peppered leg. I pushed aside the fire to return to Luli and scan the grounds for more threats to her.
"We need to get this done" I reminded her sternly "you run out there and I'll keep you safe, ok?"
I wasn't letting some little girl die out here because I was too cowardly to finish my Mission that had been forced on her. If I had to borrow strength from some superficial place in my rattled mind, then so be it.
I had to get home.
Luli nodded and ran for the next body draped across the ground. I kept her covered beneath my body that loomed over her and scanned the area frantically for any attempts at her life again.
She darted out for the one to our left, searching for the Band. I followed, still looking desperately.
With my left covered, I was neglecting my right, which is where I was struck from.
I thought I had been sprayed in the leg with more bullets before I felt the force twist its way up to my torso and tighten.
I felt pinching legs all around me trying to bury into my skin. Spinning around to find whatever was constricting me was useless since it kept moving with me.
Luli panicked and whimpered at the sight of it, forgetting her board that laid on the ground.
"Keep writing!" I snapped to her while trying to snag a jabbing leg "you can do it!"
Luli whined and picked up the board, screaming out and scrambling to the side when I crashed past her to try and crush the beast determined on splitting me open.
Luli was shaking when she tried to get the details of the Band she finally found. I could see her press the board to the ground and use both hands to steady the pen just to get the name on it.
A hissing head reared beside mine as the body around me recoiled at another lunge into the ground.
I growled back and stabbed through the throat exposed to me.
It pierced into my head in retaliation, trying to gouge out my eyes with its hundreds of pointed legs scraping over my body.
With black blood spraying into my mouth and over the grass, the monster loosened its hold around me just enough for my arms and legs to push against it long enough for my claws to slice through.
Chunks of the monster collapsed around me while the head still held on in its vengance to try and cause me more harm.
I tore it off easily and dumped it with the body so I could find Luli and shadow her beneath me.
"TRY IT!" I screamed out as the thrill of the win coarsed through me "COME ON!"
I don't know if I was even yelling to anyone or anything, but I felt like I could take on anything after killing something so damn frightening.
My blood streamed down my face when I planted my legs and let a scream rattle through me. It echoed into the already buzzing air and startled me at how powerful it sounded.
That was me!
I swelled with pride and nudged Luli to continue onwards.
"I've got you" I smiled through the blood splattering down onto her.
"OK, Spider" she whispered, rushing onwards with me shielding her to our next victim.
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