Foundered

Yarachimiel VI: In the Grasp of Death

Every step Yara took upon the warm loam, his heart seemed to give in. Whatever had happened to him, so much was certain that it was nothing good. It didn't seem logical how someone as strong as him could rest all night and still be tired.

"You need us to carry you?" joked Jasper, Yara would have almost said yes, if not for his shame having tied his tongue into a knot.

"How far do you think we have to move?" he asked.

"A couple hundred miles west, but since we have no choice, we have to keep moving east until we find civilisation, or at least what remains of it."

"But that could take days," Zac complained, "how do we last that long?"

"The same way you had been for months," answered Jasper, "by salvaging and foraging. Aye, we may not have any bullets left, but we still have a hatchet to chop down wood into lean-tos and campfires, I can use my backpack as a sling to hunt you game, water won't be a problem in these wet forest in the month of June."

"You say like it's that easy," murmured Yara, still tired from the long march ahead.

"It shouldn't take us more than a day or two's walk to reach a remote settlement."

Yara leaned on a tree to stop for a moment, taking short breaths rapidly. "Three at this rate," Jasper said, the very next moment aware of the situation. "Yara, you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, trying to hold his head in place, even though he felt like his head would just burst apart. His heart was racing, he was feeling dizzy, and had a terrible body ache.

Jasper took off his glove and put his hand on Yara's forehead, "yeah, you have fever."

Yara put his hand on his forehead and realised that. "What do we do now?"

Jasper took off his belt and pulled a small satchel, a few medicines within. "I always keep it with myself, even when at home."

"Oh, thanks," said Yara as he took a pill, a little bit of water with it.

"Ah, the signal's back!" yelled Jasper, checking his phone to find his location on a map. "Wait, we're just two miles away from the closest railway station."

"Your phone still has life in it?" asked Zac.

"Yeah, this one's my creation, it has a really long battery life."

Zac looked at him like he had discovered the elixir of immortality. "Mhm..."

"Can you walk?" asked Jasper.

"Yep, I think so," said Yara, taking support from Jasper to start walking.

Taking it slow, the three of them trekked through the rugged forests, their path dappled in the light of the morning sun. Even though the GPS showed it to be close by, it took them several hours to travel to the station. "Great, it's midday already," Jasper sighed, "but thankfully we're close to civilisation."

The station was quite desolate, not a single person living or dead around. Food and drinks in the vending machines rotted away as a train by the station rusted away, a dead driver nearby.

"Looks like the guy was infected," said Zac, taking a look at the nearby pools of blood.

"Yep, so he was," said Jasper, readying his axe.

Yara got up and away as Jasper hacked away at the corpse. Even if he was not going to rise, they best took no chances.

"Can you drive a train?" asked Zac.

"No, but I know someone who can," said Jasper.

Yara and Zac looked at each other, neither of them knew to drive a train. "Jasper, this isn't funny," said Yara, "we need someone who can drive a train who is also present here."