Last Life Part 1: Homecoming

Desertification's Ramifications

Lord Verres

I couldn't tell if it was day or night, or how many hours I have been lying here. If I dared move from this spot, crouched in the leeward side of a dilapidated collapsed brick and steel watchtower, I would surely suffocate in the blinding onslaught of sand and dust. I had walked a few miles, with one eye open before finally finding this structure and settling in, waiting for the storm to end. But the storm wouldn't end, it kept going, the wind speed picking up and the particulates becoming larger and harder.

I was utterly lost, all I could see was darkness, the sky was lost in the dust, and it was almost impossible to breathe, the air was thick with the dry filth. But Saul.... Where was he? Taken by those damn birds... They've probably eaten him by now. No don't... Damn their species. I'll make breakfast of their feathered behinds!

Frustrated, I roared at the wind as if reaching a higher volume would prove me superior. Not that it really did anything at all, other than earn me a smarting burn from the sand along the side of my face. I heaved myself up, I'm a damn coward, I ran from those half-brained avians. Lying in the dust, where I belonged I smirked to myself, I was nothing. But I must to do something. I have lived to long waiting back on my hind. That's it, I'm going back.

Into the storm I trekked, my eye shut and the other sheathed in a layer of wires to protect the lens. Going was slow, every step I had to watch that I wasn't being pushed by the wind over the flat dirt. My vision obfuscated by sand and wires, I also needed to make sure I was walking in a straight line. If I were to turn at all I would never be able to find my way back, especially since any trail would be swept away in dust and wind. All that I had to go on was the faint scent of the rotting waters from the bunker. I caught occasional whiffs of the repugnant odor on the wind. They were just fleeting promises of some reunion caught in the flight of the hellish landscape.

After what must have been several hours of walking and sliding in the throes of the storm, I found myself to be amongst several low bunkers... But these were unlike the ones that I had seen last. These ones were smaller... and much much older. Something doesn't smell right. This was some pre-plague establishment... In the middle of the desert... That reeks of corpses.

Somewhat more sheltered from the sand, I wandered amongst the buildings, attempting to figure out their purpose. Since most were covered in concrete or encased in metal, I was unable to see inside. The bulletproof glass windows of a few were frosty from erosion, dust and some kind of fungus growing from the inside of the rooms. With my hoof, I kicked through one of the windows easily, shattering the thick glass.

Bitter black motes of mold filled my nose, I backed up choking out the burning particles. Oh gods what was that. I hacked my lungs and spat up horrifying amounts of blood and mucus. I looked back inside the building. The walls, the floors, the desks... Everything was coated in a thick layer of the proliferating black fungus. Taking a closer look, I realized that there were crumbling skeletons at the desks, human of course, most of which were in a pile at the doorway... Trying to get out, I could even see the marks their fingernails left on the inside of the door. Poor beasts. Heh, and two days ago, I would have merely been disappointed they were inedible. So much for whatever I am. A soft beast. Pathetic.

And yet, this rot was not the most offensive odor in the air... There was something else out here, and a lot of it. Whatever this place was, it surely became a hell for those who stayed. The further in I ventured, the more dessicated corpses I found, both human and animal, but nothing that could be causing the horrendous scent in the air. Though I was sure I was getting closer, I was practically choking on my own breaths.

Sheltered by buildings that rose up on a slight slope, there it was. The stinking cadaver of an absolutely enormous mountain lion, laying in a depression at the center of the compound, decomposing in a puddle of its melted fat. As hungry as I was, not even I would be caught with my tusks in that coagulated mess. At the moment, a more important question tugged at me. What on earth managed to kill such an impressive beast? Certainly not starvation, there was so much flesh on that animal, it must've been incredibly healthy. I stared at the fetid remains for a while longer, examining it carefully for any signs of foul play, of which I could not find any.

I rested against a short retaining wall at the base of the hill, watching the storm subside gradually to a mild flurry of dust devils. Finally, I could tell the time of day, late morning, from the sun which faintly shone between gusts of sand. For the most part, the sky was still a greasy brown. Still, it was time to move on, Saul could still be out there.

I got up and reoriented myself, just making out the mountains to the North. I was only a few miles off from the bunker. At last, things were looking up, for the time being at least. Continuing my march North-North-West I did so with the immutable pride of a boar. It is that what makes us so stupid, but so strong. And I finally had found a reason to restore that pride, now if only I could get it back.