I felt like some kind of villain, forcing people into desperate decisions. But there was no other way. If I took the first people I found, they'd kill me the next day for my gear.
Although all of that already felt secondary compared to what was happening to me. The numbness in my left arm came back as soon as I took off my gas mask for longer than five minutes. I stared at my arm as if it belonged to someone else it refused to listen to me. A few minutes of breathing fresh air, and something started scratching deep inside my skull. As if my thoughts stopped being mine and slowly turned into something… different. Into the will of the cordyceps.
I needed to get out of the quarantine zone as quickly as possible things were getting worse. Waiting, doing nothing, drowning in this sickening, heavy anticipation was torture for me. All year after the lab, I'd been working on the base: searching for supplies, equipment, gathering medical books. Funny I'd open those books and see just a bunch of words with no connection between them. You don't become a doctor by reading textbooks. It was more desperation than real work. But the work itself kept me going. It kept my thoughts busy. Kept me from sinking into despair.
Finally, that sticky waiting ended. We had to leave through a different place: the path I'd used to enter the camp before was now blocked. We needed to move through another part of the city and descend into the sewers.
"Be careful," Sarah said, hugging Eric tightly.
"I'll be fine. Especially with Viktor with me," he replied.
Why did he say that? Her deadly glare immediately jumped to me.
"If anything happens to him, I'll find you and skin you alive," Sarah said.
I didn't want to argue with her. I just nodded. In any case, I had no intention of putting Eric at risk. He was the only person I knew well enough to call a friend. Well not the only one. There was also Buddy.
The three new recruits would join later. First we needed to find a place for the base that was what Eric and I were going to do. After that, he'd guide the others out of the city.
"Sorry for shifting the heat onto you," Eric said once we were far enough from Sarah.
"Forget it. I don't care," I replied.
Most of the manholes in the streets had been welded shut after the chain of incidents that shook the city. But because housing was scarce, lots of people lived right on the streets. Welding every manhole shut would mean demolishing whole blocks and driving out hundreds of people. FEDRA wasn't willing to do that. So some entrances could still be opened if you knew where to look.
That was exactly where we were heading. On the way, we ran into a pair of FEDRA soldiers, and unfortunately for me one of them decided to check our documents.
"Papers," the soldier said, extending his hand.
"Here you go," Eric replied and gave me a calming wink, as if to say it was all fine.
I handed my forged documents to the second soldier. They looked them over. Eric's were returned almost immediately, but mine they held for too long, as if they'd noticed something.
"All good," the soldier finally said, giving them back.
We waited until they left and then turned off the street, slipping into the maze of makeshift shacks and peeling tents.
"How's it going, Norman?" Eric asked a man in jeans and a simple shirt. He had dusty blond hair, a bit dirty from the streets. He looked about forty though who knows now. These days everyone looks older; stress eats people faster than time.
"All good. Come on," he replied.
We stepped inside his home if you could call it that. He immediately started pushing aside a rug.
"Anyone come by?" Eric asked.
"Of course. They all poked around here," Norman said, removing some plywood sheets and opening a manhole.
"I figured. They're hiring regular people now to keep an eye on everyone. If someone starts asking questions keep quiet. You know nothing, heard nothing," Eric said.
I didn't know what he used to do before, but pulling off schemes like this right under the noses of armed soldiers, and without even having a weapon that took guts. He had found the people who patrolled the sewer exits, arranged deals with soldiers so they'd ignore the spots he needed, and even got documents that didn't raise suspicion. I could never do something like that. Talking people into things wasn't my skill.
We climbed down into the sewer and switched on our flashlights. Eric put on his respirator and confidently headed down the tunnel.
The sewers were uneven: in some places wide, almost spacious, and in others so narrow we had to squeeze through to reach the main network.
"Here, remember this," Eric said, pointing at his mark on the corner of the wall. "See this little stroke? It tells you the direction. If it's on top go left. If it's on the bottom go right."
He pointed at the line crossing a tiny, barely visible "X."
"Got it," I said.
"By the way, give me your documents," Eric said.
I didn't ask why. I just pulled them from my inner pocket and handed them over. He opened them between the folded covers lay a small note.
"Ten twenty, then," Eric said. That was what was written on the scrap of paper. "A message from a FEDRA contact."
So the soldier who checked my documents had managed to slip the note inside. And I hadn't even noticed.
"Patrols are moving pretty often now," Eric continued. "I don't know how you managed not to run into anyone earlier you got really lucky. Now, after all this chaos, the noise won't die down for a long time. More guards on the walls, more people everywhere."
"How many soldiers are in the camp?" I asked.
"About two thousand FEDRA troops. They lost a lot fighting infected and keep losing more. Remember I told you about the barricades? They set them up in central Pittsburgh. Infected started pouring out of there, and by the most modest estimates there were around forty thousand of them. And the fighting's still going on," Eric said.
The barricades were the only way to stop massive hordes of infected. They'd started launching targeted strikes at buildings, planting explosives and collapsing floors wherever they could. Somewhere they used vehicles, turning trucks into impenetrable blockades. They managed to seal off downtown Pittsburgh, turning it into a giant prison for the infected. It was supposed to be temporary just long enough to buy time, gather forces, then clear the city. But, as usual, temporary became permanent.
"And what, they never followed through?" I asked.
"They wanted to. They even made a raid for more explosives and were ready to drop bombs from the air. But some of the airbases got overrun by infected, and the squad sent for explosives apparently ran into some gang and lost a lot of soldiers," Eric said.
"So the situation is still extremely dangerous. Why doesn't FEDRA move somewhere safer?" I asked.
"And go where? Other cities aren't any better. Here they managed to hold a quarantine zone, same for two others. On the East Coast maybe a couple more. The rest of the cities belong to those monsters now," Eric said.
"Small towns won't fit that many people," I said.
"Exactly. There's nowhere to go," Eric replied. "That's why they stayed. Oh, and I heard recently… not sure how true it is, but supposedly two generals started a little private war with each other and tore their armies apart somewhere out east. Rumors travel by radio, but who knows what's true anymore."
Radio was the only form of communication left. The mobile network had nearly died more dead zones every month. Destroyed towers, broken lines… all of it long since turned to useless scrap. Satellite communication was now only in military hands, and they blocked any signals but their own. The old era was slowly dying, dissolving into dust. No one cared anymore, and probably never would.
"Will FEDRA hold out?" I asked.
"They should. They still have heavy equipment and ammo for it. But that won't last forever either. That's why I'm not with the Fireflies. All they did was stir up trouble and make life worse for everyone," Eric said.
We finally approached the grate. The lock was still hanging on the door. Eric stepped up, put the key in, and opened it.
"By the way, how did you open it before?" he asked.
I pulled out my lock pick and showed him.
"Seriously?" he said.
I just nodded. After closing the door behind us, we reached the stairs and stopped there. It wasn't time yet.