Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Recomend list to this soundtrack while you're reading this chapter

.

.

.

Throughout all the seasons they've spent together, throughout their adolescence and now, nothing is like this moment, the feeling of mutual understanding between the two of them. "I would give anything to make you the happiest man, even if the world is now over."

He shakes his head as if he's listening to music, but he's not, he's listening to all the voices, thoughts, and actions that the two of them have made until they get here. His sigh is heavy, full of relief and frustration. "You already make me happy, I just want you to promise me one thing..."

"Anything."

.

.

.

22 years ago

"Scientists are still trying to understand what disease is affecting flour mill workers around the globe. " -The television reporter says, speaking with admirable confidence. "Several people are currently in hospital, reports of more patients are coming in every minute. Symptoms can range from coughs to spasms to mood swings." -She pauses and looks at a small piece of paper in her hand. "If you are suffering from these symptoms, seek medical help immedia–"

The channel switches abruptly to a football match, Simon looks back, pouting and clutching himself.

His father is sitting on the sofa, a bottle of beer in hand, around him lots of crushed bottles and cans, he's going to get drunk again, like every night. He lifts the bottle and takes a long swig before turning to the blond boy cowering on the floor.

"Fuck off, you little shite, go and see your bloody brother or something." -The voice is scratchy and thick, sending shivers down Simon's body. "Just get out of my sight." -His father coughs slightly and spits on the floor.

The little boy gets up from the floor and walks silently out of the room, not wanting to stress his father, not wanting to feel the pain of a punch against his stomach. 

The house is dirty, there's no point in cleaning it because in less than a few hours it's dirty again with pizza boxes, produce, bottles of booze, Simon's mum contributes to this state of the house, the cleanest place is possibly Simon and his brother's room, Simon makes a point of leaving the place clean so that his little brother will be okay.

The smell of tomatoes perfumes the small corridor he walks down, the kitchen has the light on and a low, quiet humming echoes. His mum is stirring something in the pan, he knows what's for dinner, it's been the same for a few weeks, it's sickening to eat the same thing, but it's what they have. Tomato soup. Several cans open and thrown on the floor, making more permanent stains that can't be cleaned up.

Simon hears the neighbour's dogs barking outside, frustrated about something. The birds sing affectionately to other birds, and the wind blows through the trees and roof tiles of the house, the weather chilling even next to the cooker, which is warm.

"Mum..." -The boy calls out, mumbling to his mother, a woman with greasy blonde hair, fair skin with freckles, a little chubby who always wears long shirts to hide the marks and stains left by her husband. Simon hates it, hates that they have to live with him, and hates his mum for doing nothing.

She stops humming and looks down, her empty expression that used to look at the window, now looks down and faces her son in a warm and happy way, as if he were a ray of sunshine in the middle of the storm. Perhaps that's what her children are to her, but little does she know that the sun can burn and hurt more than the storm.

"Simon, my baby, what's wrong?" -She asks with a little smile on her face. "Are you hungry?" -Simon nods, he's hungry, but saying he wanted to eat something else would result in nothing more than some swearing or chastisement. "The soup will be ready soon, dear, why don't you help me set the table."

Simon nods, he liked helping with something, even the smallest thing, it made him feel useful for something.

He walks over to the cupboard next to the rusty fridge, takes out one plate at a time and starts to put them on the table, one for mum, one for him, Tommy doesn't need a plate as he only drinks milk, his mum turns off the heat on the cooker, and the last plate-

CRACK!!!

Simon trips over one of the tomato cans, the plate he was carrying is thrown to the floor, and the sound of breaking china rings out in the room along with a gasp from someone, probably his mum. Simon gets up slowly, his knees aching a little from the fall, and he looks up to see his mother with her hand covering her mouth.

Before she can say anything, approaching footsteps are heard, along with a shouting voice. "What the fuck is going on?!" -Simon looks down and shudders, he doesn't like this, he was wrong to break the plate, and now he's going to be punished for it. It's going to hurt again.

Footsteps stop at the kitchen door, Simon doesn't risk looking up, he knows that staring is an affront. "You only know how to annoy others, don't you, you little brat?!" -The man shouts at the child. "I should have hit you harder yesterday so you'd learn!" -The footsteps are approaching now, and at the same moment all Simon's air is taken away, a kick to the child's stomach sends him tumbling backwards.

Simon curls in on himself as he tries to breathe calmly, he trembles scared and hurt, his eyes blurred by the tears that yearn to spill from his eyes.

His mum just stands there and stares at the floor, she never does anything, she just waits for her husband to finish the job to kiss her son on the forehead and say ‘it was nothing’, before sending him to his room until the next day comes.

His father turns round and looks at the pan on the hob, he sniffs the air, and turns back to Simon. "So that you learn not to make a mess in this house, you're not having dinner tonight. Do you understand me?!" -Simon, still shaking and with his eyes closed now, just nods.

He opens a drawer in the counter and takes out a spoon, takes the pan from the hob and starts to walk back to the living room, but pauses momentarily and turns back to Simon. "Stop crying, only faggots cry!" -And then he continues walking and disappears from sight.

Simon lies for a few more seconds on the dirty floor, his stomach aching from the kick, tears now streaming down his face. A hand on his shoulder makes him jump in fright. "Shh... Shh... It's all right, love." -Simon relaxes a little at his mum's touch, she slowly helps him to his feet and runs her hand over his clothes to clean off the dirt.

She gives Simon a small kiss on the forehead. "Go to your room, darling, and play with Tommy..." -She gets up from the floor only to bend down a few steps again and start cleaning up the shards of porcelain.

Simon rubs his face and starts to wipe his eyes, wiping the phlegm on the collar of his shirt. He walks to his room and opens and closes the door slowly, he doesn't want to arouse his father's anger again. From his room, his father can be heard shouting something and coughing loudly.

He walks over to the cot next to his bed and sees his little brother asleep. If he had woken up, Simon would have been able to play with him with the little plastic cars and soldiers they have. Simon won't wake his brother, and hopes that Tommy doesn't wake up crying either, because he knows that the blame will fall on him. Even though he didn't do anything.

Simon lies in bed, pulls the covers over himself and looks out of the window at the world outside, taking in the stars and the moon.

.

.

.

Again Simon was sitting in front of the television, but this time there was no one kicking him out or hitting him, there was just his brother playing next to him and Simon watching a cartoon on the television, the cartoon was about a boy who could turn into aliens, it was a good cartoon and Simon's favourite, he liked one of the aliens who was a ghost. Simon wanted to be able to do the same as the alien, scare someone until they shivered, or walk through walls, that would be really cool.

Simon, when alone with his brother, likes to talk about the cartoons he watches on television, or the things he sees when he's outside, like the colourful birds that fly, or the snails that are slow and shrink their little antennae... or it was their eyes, Simon never knew how to tell, not that he needed to, Tommy wouldn't understand anyway.

Simon looks at his brother who is holding two little soldiers and banging them against each other, he laughs at the scene.

A knock on the door makes Simon startle, he looks at the door and remains silent until there is another knock on the door, only louder this time.

Simon quickly wonders if it isn't his father, but dismisses the possibility, since his father was somewhere in the city with some woman, Simon doesn't understand why he goes out with other women, but at least he doesn't stay at home so it's a good thing he could marry one of these women and finally leave Simon, Tommy and Mum alone.

Mum's footsteps are heard coming out of the kitchen, and in a few seconds she appears in the living room, smiling at the children and going to the door to open it. Meanwhile Simon approaches his brother and sits next to him, listening to the conversation of whoever is at the door.

“Hello, would you happen to be Mrs Riley?“ -A rough, strong voice asks. Simon can't see the man at the door, but he's probably not alone.

“Hi, yes, that would be me.“ -Mum says softly, crossing her arms over her breasts while holding a cloth between her hands. “Who are you?“ -She asks hesitantly.

“We work for the Federal Disaster Response Agency.“ -Something leather is shown, as Simon hears the rustle of a wallet, he wonders if it's like those action films where the cops take off their badges, are they secret agents? “I'm Sergeant Ramirez and this is my partner, Sergeant Allen, we're investigating a break-in that took place last night at one of the factories in Longsight.“

Another voice now speaks too, a more energetic and confident one. “Apparently, the security cameras filmed your husband with some other guys breaking into the factory,“ -Mum puts her hand over her mouth, she doesn't even look surprised, well, not really surprised, Simon's father never does anything good but disappear for days. “Have you had any contact with your husband since last night? Did he come home today?“

Mum slowly lowers her hand and shakes her head in denial. "No, no sir, he left two days ago and so far he hasn't come home-"

"WOFF!" -A loud bark from the neighbour's dog makes Simon jump, he looks to the window and sees the sun setting already, the orange illuminates a part of the wall, where there is a torn and stained wallpaper, will it ever get a new one? It's beautiful in a way, Simon likes this moment, when the sun is like this, it's admirable, Simon would like to capture these moments sometimes. Mum says there's an object that can do that, she has one tucked away somewhere, she calls it a Polaroid camera.

Simon doesn't even notice when his gaze fixes on the toys on the floor, but when Tommy murmurs, he snaps out of his trance. "Ghua...Gyh..." -Tommy begins to speak his indecipherable words, Simon wonders if it isn't a secret language that his brother has invented, he drops the little plastic soldiers he was playing with.

"What is it Tommy?" -Simon asks in a light tone, his little brother looks at him with big, dark eyes, just like Simon's, eyes the colour of chocolate. "Are you hungry? I don't know if Mum's going to make us anything today..." -And as he speaks, his tummy rumbles.

"Gya! Ghew!" -Tommy starts wriggling now at Simon's side, and he grabs his brother who has started to crawl away. Tommy struggles even more in Simon's arms.

Simon, not understanding at all, looks up as he pouts at his brother's actions. "Why are you being a troublemaker, Tom–" - the words choke in the child's throat.

He understands why Tommy is struggling and getting agitated. Standing at the window, blocking out the last drops of sunlight left over from the day, is a human figure. Simon shudders and freezes in place as he sees his father staring back at him, his arms wrapped around Tommy tightening, but he doesn't look like that just because it's his father in the window, no, he looks like that because of his father's face.

His eyes are completely wide open and red, his already white skin is even paler, there are several small veins protruding from around his eyes, small bloodstained wounds and purple patches around his face, and an intense groan of pain is heard through the window. Gasping breaths that sound like he's run several kilometres fog up the glass.

All of this, combined with Simon's fear and shivers, and the night that begins to hang over, makes the situation completely like a horror film. Little did Simon know that it would change his life in the future.

"Mum..." -he whispered slowly, trying to find the strength in his thin voice, while Tommy moaned random words. His father raises his arms, which are curled into fists, and slams them against the glass, causing it to crack instantly and be stained with more fresh blood. "MUM! MUMMY!" -he shouts loudly now, desperate.

Simon lifts his brother and carries him, almost knocking him over in the process as he doesn't have much strength, he runs over to his mum and the two ‘policemen’, they look at him strangely and try to understand why the child is panting and shaking. "What is it, love?" -She asks serenely, Simon looks towards the window which gives another loud bang, now making his mum also observe the creature outside which is perhaps the true form of his terrible father. "Oh my God!" -She screams, grabbing Tommy from Simon and taking Simon by the hand. She takes steps backwards, slamming into the wall.

The two guys go deeper into the house, trying to understand what's going on, until they both see the same scene at the window. Loud, agonising moans are heard, more crashes against the glass, only this time several large shards fly to the ground and chip even more. One of the guys, Ramirez from what Simon has identified, points at his partner and speaks in a loud and clear tone. "Get these three to the car, take them to the station and call for reinforcements!" -The other man opens his mouth to say something, but Ramirez shuts him down. "That's an order! They're starting to spread out!"

His partner just nods and starts directing Simon and his mum towards the vehicle, apparently. Simon clamps his strong hands on his mother's leg as they hurry to the car, he trembles with fear, and when they're all settled inside, he hugs his mother as if she were the only safe branch that won't break off at the top of the tree.

Allen, the other guy, starts talking to the radio, Simon doesn't know what he's talking about, he's more worried about stopping shaking. His eyes are purely closed and he's leaning against his mum's arm, who's trying to calm Tommy down, who started crying when the situation got out of hand.

The car begins to move slowly, entering the main street. And from a distance, inside the house, Simon can hear warning cries, agonised moans that sound like an animal about to die, and finally, gun shots.

.

.

.

5 years later

"So children, can anyone tell me how many years it's been since the pandemic?" -The teacher asks with a smile on her face, the same smile Simon's mum used to give to please his dad.

"Five!" -A girl replies, raising her arm and speaking loudly.

"Well done Isabel." -The teacher says hello. "Now, who can tell me why?" -She continues asking the other children, who are excited to learn. Except for Simon, who looks out of the rusty barred window, outside he sees FEDRA soldiers walking along the pavement, civilians walking to their jobs in search of rations to feed themselves. Manchester's buildings were already dry of paint and blackened with mould, everything was so dull and cold.

Five years had passed since the Cordyceps pandemic began and their father had finally left them alone. Simon thought he could finally be happy with Mum and Tommy, but he was wrong, completely wrong.

After the police station, they were transferred to a quarantine zone, if Simon remembers correctly, and then they were parked in a flat good enough for them to live in, at least it was better than the house they lived in.

Mum started working more and more often in those five years, having little time for him and Tommy, and when she did, she slept almost all day. Simon, only ten years old, was looking after Tommy and the flat, taking his brother to school and feeding him lunch, and sweeping the house and washing the dishes at home. He wanted to help his mum so she wouldn't have to worry. So far, everything was fine.

And at school, Simon didn't care much for the other children, he rarely talked to them, seeing the way they looked at him and muttered about him, he felt no interest. Unlike him, Tommy made lots of friends quickly, every time he saw Tommy around it was like watching ants at work, Tommy made a queue that followed him around.

At first, Simon was sad sometimes, going to the toilet to cry in one of the cabins because he had no one to play with and talk to apart from his brother. He was a child who just wanted a friend. But as time went by, Simon gave up hope that anyone would want him around, he was satisfied with what he had... or he lied to himself about it.

A great pastime at school, apart from studying, was reading the books in the tiny library there, hardly any of the other students went there to read, so Simon could enjoy the quiet time without interruptions, his favourite books being fantasy ones, Percy Jackson, Narnia, Dune, these were some of the favourites, other books promised continuations, but then came the pandemic... Simon liked to write down his thoughts about their continuations, wondering if they would be good endings, if new characters would appear. All questions that would never be answered...

Simon almost jumps out of his chair when the bell rings, the vibration echoing through the corridors signalling the end of the school day. Without wasting much time, he put his school supplies in his backpack and walked towards the school exit to wait for his brother.

It didn't take long, maybe a minute or two of waiting, and Tommy began to leave the school, saying goodbye and waving to his classmates. The FEDRA soldiers always kept an eye on the children passing by.

"Simon!" -Tommy shouted, running up to his brother and stopping beside him. "I made a new friend today!" -That hurts a bit, even if he tries to say it doesn't.

"Good Tommy, tell me about him?" -He asks, wondering who these children are.

"Okay, so, his name is Ivan and..." -Tommy starts to tell them all about this Ivan, apparently the child is the daughter of one of the teachers, Ivan likes orange sweets which is a strange and disgusting choice for Simon, the boy likes to make paper aeroplanes and show his tongue when he's upset, and Tommy says more things that start to get lost for Simon as they go along.

Simon is always on the lookout for danger, as the city isn't safe for anyone, but luckily the FEDRA guards and other police officers keep an eye on the corners as the children go to their own homes. The city is bustling, full of people going about their business, but the discomfort in everyone's eyes sends shivers down the spine.

When Simon hears the bang of a door opening, he grabs Tommy's hand, the two children look up startled at the sound and see several officers pointing guns at people who are kneeling down with their hands on their heads. It's quite common. Several people also stopped to watch the spectacle unfold, whispering among themselves about each person kneeling.

"Come on Tommy..." -He mumbles to his brother when he realises that one of the devices has started beeping and one of the kneeling women has started begging for her life. Simon doesn't like listening to the impossible clemencies of condemned people. It's horrendous. Tommy follows Simon, he opens his mouth to say something but Simon quickly cuts him off. "Just ignore the noise, don't look." -The arm that was holding Tommy's hand is now slung over the boy's shoulder.

Gunfire echoes behind them, and the shouts of excitement cease.

The Riley brothers don't look back.

It doesn't take more than fifteen minutes for the brothers to arrive at the flat where they live, the façade is all collapsed and everything looks dangerous from afar, but for Simon and Tommy it's just another normal day.

They climb the solid wood stairs, which are completely dirty and littered with bottles. Simon kicks one of the bottles and sees it fall all the way down the stairs, but it doesn't break as he thought it would. They go up to the third floor where their house is, number 109 marked with white paint that's almost rubbed off on the door, Tommy always likes to paint with the school paints he has so they don't fade.

When they open the door they are surprised by the sound of crying coming from the table, Simon quickly puts his brother behind him, but relaxes when he realises that the crying is coming from his mother. Mum rarely comes home before them, and when she does she cries. Simon asked once but Mum told him not to worry, so he never asked again.

The two of them reach her and hug her, it's the only comfort they can give. She hugs them back, her hands caressing the faces of her brothers who look at her worriedly.

"It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay." -she says, but not to the children, but to herself, a plea for everything to be all right with them.

After the meeting with Mum, the two of them sit at the table with her, Tommy excitedly telling Mum about his day and his new little friend, Simon smiles watching Tommy happy with Mum, seeing his brother's innocence in this terrible world, lucky he didn't grow up completely with Dad, he can't imagine what it would be like.

Simon is thankful every day that his father is dead, yes, even if everything is bad he doesn't have to be beaten by him, or see his mother subjected to his horrible treatment, he doesn't have to go hungry or wait to play.

He continues to do his maths homework, he never liked maths, he likes literature and creating stories, he would never let anyone read obvious. At some point Mum gets up to start cooking something on their rusty cooker, Tommy approaches him and asks for help with his homework, Simon doesn't refuse him and asks what the homework is about, luckily his is English, something Simon knows how to help with at least.

After about twenty minutes or so, Mum approaches with two plates in hand, she places them in front of the two brothers who push their books aside to make room. The food on the plate is the usual, beans, rice, corn and a small piece of meat already cut up by Mum so they don't have to worry.

The rations she's put on the table aren't enough for all of them.

"Aren't you going to eat, Mum?" -Simon asked, looking at her who was helping Tommy to eat.

"I'll eat later, darling." -She gives him a fake smile, Simon just nods and continues eating.

Mum hasn't been able to buy food for her to eat either, she used to be a bit chubby, but now she's thinner, with deep circles under her eyes and greasy hair, sometimes she doesn't shower just so that her children can, after all, the water isn't even free anymore.

.

.

.

3 years later

"What's this Mum?" -Simon asked. In his hands was a small box tied with a white ribbon that looked more like yellow. Shaking the box, he could feel and hear something inside.

His mum was sitting next to him at the dining table where a candle illuminated the room, Tommy was asleep in his room, it was already night, but Simon could still hear the big FEDRA patrol cars outside in the city, no gunfire tonight, thank God.

"Today is your birthday, it's a little present." -The yellow light of the candle illuminates a gentle smile on his face. "I know it's not much, but I hope you like it."

Of course Simon would like it, getting a present from Mum was something he loved, he treasured everything she gave him. He'd never received a cake like Tommy, even though Mum said it was for both of them, Simon never believed it, he knew the truth.

He gently pulled the ribbon from the box, and as soon as it was removed he opened the small paper box. Inside the box was something Simon had only seen in pictures in school books.

"A camera?" -The camera has a rainbow stripe in the centre, if he remembers correctly this is a Polaroid camera. Next to the camera inside the box are three other small boxes. "What's that?"

"These are the films, every time the camera doesn't take any more pictures, you have to change it with a new film from these little boxes." -She explains as she shows the camera how to change the films. "You also need batteries for it to work, but this one is already inside."

She hands the camera to Simon who analyses it, noticing a little dust and stains on it, but doesn't comment in depth. He wonders what his mum had to give him in exchange for this gift.

"Can I take a picture of you?" -Simon asked.

"Of course, darling." -She fixes her hair and quickly explains how to take the photo, after a few seconds a white flash flashes and slowly the photo begins to print, Simon catches it before it falls out of the camera. "It takes a while before the photo appears." -Simon just nods. "Why don't you put the camera away and go to sleep? Tomorrow-"

A shout from the corridor and the upper floors makes her go quiet, she looks up with wide, alert eyes, again a shout is heard, she turns her gaze to Simon whispering quickly. "Go to your room and lock the door." -Simon opens his mouth to protest, but his mother's gaze silences him. 

Quickly, Simon walks to his room, putting the box away next to his backpack. He closes the door and turns the key, then bends down and looks through the keyhole. 

He watches his mum slowly open the door, looking out into the corridor which has electric light unlike the small candlelit room in the flat, nothing happens until then, Simon hears mum saying something in the corridor. Talking to a neighbour perhaps?

Out of nowhere, a gunshot echoes down the corridor, Simon sees the bullet pass quickly and hit something not yet seen. A scream that sounds more like a snarl echoes down the corridor, Simon sees his mum running into the house in an attempt to close the door quickly.

But it was no use.

He saw what was causing all the commotion, just as his father had been on the day the outbreak began, there were two figures running from the hallway, one of the figures passed so quickly that Simon couldn't identify what it looked like, he heard screams and another shot, possibly the neighbour.

But Simon doesn't care, his heart is pounding fast in his chest as he sees the other figure, running down the corridor towards his mother who can't close the door in time.

She falls to the floor, causing a loud noise to echo around the room, a cold bead of sweat runs down Simon's forehead, she turns round coughing short of breath, the creature wastes no time and lunges at Mum, she puts her arms out in front of her, trying to defend herself.

The creature grunts loudly and horribly, each punch and blow against Mum's arms leaves scratches and blood dripping, by the light of the candle Simon can see the drool dripping with each scream. The red blood, looking black against the light.

From behind, Simon heard a yawn, in one agile movement he turned round and with hurried steps he covered Tommy's mouth with his own hand before the boy could say anything.

The grunts on the other side of the door mixed with another, thinner scream, Simon knew what was happening on the other side, he could smell the metallic odour starting to invade his nose.

From the little light provided by the streetlights, Simon could see the panicked look on Tommy's face, who now also realised the horror that must have been behind the door. "Don't make any noise Tom..." -Simon whispered in his brother's ear, which was slowly beginning to shake.

The noises stopped after a while, just leaving the silence of the night outside the window, sometimes a low grunt was heard, but Simon held on tightly to Tommy as he closed his eyes, muttering to himself ‘Don't be real, don't be real, Mum's fine, Mum's fine’.

Gradually the night began to pass, the street began to emit various car sounds, which soon turned into conversations, murmurs. Again the creatures' screams erupted, but this time several shots were fired, and the screams stopped soon afterwards.

Heavy footsteps approached the door, the handle turned but the person couldn't get in, Simon heard someone talking but the sound of the voices still didn't register for him, the only ones running on a loop were his mother's screams.

Mum always said God existed, and this time Simon hoped that if he did, she'd be right on the other side of the door.

He jumped back, his arms still wrapped around Tommy as if he were holding a teddy bear, the door was shattered and a soldier pointed a rifle inside, the light of a torch momentarily blinding Simon who blinked a few times, recovering his perception.

"God, two children..." -The soldier says with a hint of melancholy. He slowly approaches, bending down in front of the brothers. "Are you all right?"

Were they? Simon couldn't tell, deciding to just nod in the affirmative. "Right..." -The soldier looked back, seeing his colleague looking round the kitchen. "Pack some clothes in your backpacks, I'll take you somewhere safe." -He says, getting up from the floor.

As the sole moved away, Simon slowly let go of Tommy's mouth and he hugged him back, letting out a choked sob. Simon hugged him back, stroking his hair.

They stayed there for perhaps a few minutes, until Simon got up and started filling his and Tommy's bags. He hadn't forgotten the box with the camera, deciding to put the camera and its films inside the bag in a position that wouldn't break it.

Before leaving the room, Simon grabbed some of his mum's things and put them in his pocket.

He took Tommy on his lap, pressing his head into his shoulder so that he wouldn't see what was waiting for them outside.

But that didn't stop Simon from seeing what was left of his mum on the bloody floor.

.

.

.

1 year later

"Tommy, I can't keep getting you out of trouble if you keep creating more of them!" -Simon shouted at his brother.

The two of them were in the room that had been given to them since they were placed in the orphanage, well, more like a prison full of incompetent children.

Ever since the two of them arrived, Tommy has been nothing but trouble. The counsellor Tommy was put with told Simon that maybe he still hasn't come to terms with his mum's death. Yeah? No kidding. Simon almost snorted in the counsellor's face. Simon thought that maybe with time Tommy would get better, but so far there hasn't been much progress.

"Shut up! You don't understand!" -Tommy shouted back, throwing his arms in the air. He marched towards the door and opened it. "I hate you!" -And then he slammed the door hard, causing some of the floor to shake around.

Letting out a tired sigh, Simon sat down on the bed, slowly running his fingers over his face, blinking deeply a few times before grabbing something from his pocket.

He pulled out the photo of his mum, the edges of the Polaroid were already yellow, but in good condition. A year later he still hadn't taken another picture, not even of his brother, afraid that if he started taking pictures, he wouldn't have any use for the camera after a while.

"I don't know what to do Mum... I wish you were here." -His mother's loving gaze stares back at him, sometimes if he stayed in the picture he could hear her sweet voice.

Swallowing dryly, he put the photo back in his pocket and got up, heading out, not to follow Tommy, but because he needed to distract his mind from so much stress.

He headed for the library, hoping to find a story interesting enough to forget everything for a moment and enter the world of his imagination.

Luckily, when he entered the library there was no one there, at least not that he could see.

Going into the fantasy section, he began to look for something among the shelves, perhaps comics, it had been a while since he'd read something like that. Perhaps he could look for a few volumes of Tex, hide them under his shirt and leave them in his room so he wouldn't have to go out afterwards.

As he searched, Simon heard a bang on the other side of the bookcase, making him tense up for a moment, until he heard a grunt of pain from someone.

Slowly he turned round the bookcase until he finally realised what had happened, lying on the floor scratching his head and around several knocked-over books was a boy.

"Crap...Ugh." -The boy slowly pulled himself forward, sitting up and looking around on the floor at the books mumbling something, and then he looked up, his blue eyes seeing Simon watching him.

"Oh, sorry, did I get in your way, mate?" -The boy asked, starting to grab books from the floor and form piles.

Simon shook his head. "No, I was just... are you okay?’

The boy rose from the floor with one of the piles. "Yeah, yeah, it's just that I was trying to pick up one of the books." -With his head he pointed to a book separated from the piles. "But I accidentally knocked others over." -He started trying to put the books back, but his height wasn't helping him. "Can you give me a hand since you're tall?"

Simon made a face, honestly he didn't want to, but this boy is going to knock over more books and get in the way even more, so Simon just nodded and approached, starting to pick up some books and put them where they should be.

They stayed there for about three or five minutes, not talking at all until it was over. When they had finished, the boy clapped his hands, wiping off the dust.

"Thanks for your help." -The boy taps Simon on the shoulder, surprising him a little. "Name's John."

He doesn't say anything for a second, until he huffs and gives his name too. "Simon."

"Nice to meet you Simon." -The boy, John, gives a smile.

Chapter Text

.

.

.

The days began and ended in the same way.

Wake up, breakfast, training, lunch, patrol, paperwork, dinner and sleep.

The cycle that has been repeated for years since Simon joined FEDRA to ‘protect’ Manchester, well, Manchester was one of only three cities in England still standing with the quarantine, with only a few groups trying to fight the military. The surrounding large, thick walls protected people from the dangers outside.

FEDRA was a post-outbreak military organisation, set up to protect people from the infected. They kept the quarantine zones safe, but they had a problem: the rules were strict.

Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley, one of FEDRA's lieutenants who was taken seriously and respected, a man who never left the office to have fun with the other soldiers, no friends just work colleagues, a man who would never split from FEDRA and would probably die for the cause.

So imagine his surprise when Simon received an offer from his captain that contradicted everything people thought of him.

"Sir? What do you mean?" -Ghost's thick voice was muffled inside the car.

He and Jonathan Price, his captain, were on patrol around the city. Ghost had found it strange at first to see his captain calling him out on patrol. Normally, work prevented the captain from doing such an activity, and there was also the fact that he wasn't obliged to do it, as he had other, more important responsibilities.

As they drove across town, Price turned to Ghost and made a rather unusual proposal.

"Isn't it obvious? Let's get out of this place." -The car swerved to the left, entering a slightly busy street, a few civilians walking back and forth, picking up their rations. "This place Ghost... it's not worth it, not anymore."

"So you want to desert and go in search of what exactly?" -Ghost replied, staring at the people through the dark car windows.

Defecting wasn't in Ghost's life bingo, it could cause a lot of problems for them. The main thing was that if something like this was said to the wrong person, they could be killed in a public square as a spectacle.

Of course, he knew that Price would never say anything like that to people he didn't trust, but even so... the walls around here have ears.

Ghost didn't care about protecting people to be honest, he didn't join FEDRA to try to help others, he joined to escape, to escape the past, the memories. 

It didn't work out in the end. At night they always came back

"Go find a home, son. A place where we can be free and not oppress others, without living in fear." -Price replied, his tone determined.

Ghost gave him a sidelong glance, noticing the captain nibbling his lips. "Hard to find a dream place like that."

Price laughs sarcastically. "Bold words," -the car turns right now, Ghost recognises that they're heading back to base. "But it's not an impossible dream."

"Why?"

"Because I found it."

Ghost silently turns his face and looks towards Price, who was already staring at him with that look before a mission took place.

Without having to ask, the captain was already explaining. "About seven years ago I lost contact with one of FEDRA's informants... a friend." -Price swallows dryly, reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cigarette. "A few months ago I found her on one of the radio frequencies, apparently she managed to restore a city or something. High, protected walls, enough food, and with survivors who aren't dictators."

"Communists?" -Ghost jokes and gets a ‘yeah’ from the captain, he takes a lighter and lights the cigarette in Price's mouth. "How much do you trust this informant of yours? She could be trying to set you up."

"I've been through a lot with her, I trust her enough to know that she won't leave me to die for one of those freaks, she'd give me that grace." -Poetic, if Ghost was going to say anything.

The captain doesn't tend to trust anyone he doesn't know well, and knowing that he hasn't had contact with a person for years and still trusting them...

"Where is this place? Any names?" -From a distance, Ghost can see the gates of the base. They don't have much time to talk.

The captain says nothing for a moment, taking a drag on his cigarette.

"The town is called 141, and the location, well...."

.

.

.

Italy, in fucking Italy, is it serious?!

Ghost was finishing packing his small suitcase, which contained just three changes of clothes, knives, ammunition and a few other special items, like his mum's Polaroid.

Ghost debated whether or not to take his rifle, deciding in the end to take it.

Apparently, from what Price reported in the minutes left in the car, he and his informant had been talking for a few weeks before this plan to disappear from the city came to fruition.

The two of them had mapped out all the routes that could be taken without any problems, well, they did have some visibly worrying problems, such as the fact that they would have to arrange some kind of ferry across to France and then continue on foot.

Ghost had a bad feeling about this, if it was something close by it would be more plausible and easier, but the captain was crazy enough to cross the sea to go to this place. Maybe this place is destroying people's sanity? Yes, but that shouldn't be enough for this suicidal plan.

Even so, Price was confident that everything would work out. If Ghost were a person of principle, he would have handed over the captain a long time ago, but Ghost had no principles.

He let out a weary sigh. "I hope I don't regret this Price..." -Ghost sat up in bed, the daylight beginning to turn orange, it might be dark in a couple of hours. The suitcase was already packed, weapons were already put away, there was nothing else Ghost wanted to take with him.

He takes his mother's photo out of his pocket, smiles and runs his finger along his mother's cheek.

"Hey Mum... I'm leaving soon and I'm not supposed to come back, maybe it's for the best isn't it? Not having to think about when you and Tommy left me... If all goes well, I'll be living free from what the captain said and if not, I'll see you both later." -He gives the photo a little kiss and closes his eyes momentarily, before putting the photo away and grabbing his backpack.

It was time.

.

.

.

The walk to Price's office was silent, footsteps echoed down the empty corridor, the lights that were already on flickered occasionally, and the sun made the room glow golden.

Two knocks on the door and then Price's voice rang out: "Come in."

Ghost opened the door and stopped in his tracks when he noticed Gaz standing in the room sitting on one of the chairs. Gaz, who was looking at the door, gave a little nervous glance. Probably not expecting to see the lieutenant in the skeleton balaclava entering the office.

"Lieutenant."

"Garrick." -He turns to Price as he closes the door and approaches with light steps. "Didn't told me it was a family trip?" -With his head he points at the sergeant.

"I trust him, and that's enough, but you're right, I do apologise Ghost." -Price said with a little smirk, he didn't tell because he really didn't want to. Crazy old man.

The captain grabs his rucksack and puts it on his back, then opens a drawer, taking out a key to one of the cars and two maps. 

He hands one to Ghost who opens it, looking at the various routes drawn on it. The map itself contains the whole of Europe, city names and streets are displayed, there are a few Xs marked on the map, probably points where they will have to pick something up.

Ghost then looks at Price. "Just in case we lose one, we have another." -Price says with a serious look. Ghost just nods, as does Gaz. "Let's get going then."

So the three soldiers sneak out to the car park, taking one of the cars, the same one that Ghost and Price had taken earlier. They hid their bags in the boot and left only their pistols, knives, and gas masks in their waistbands. Ghost's rifle was stored next to the rucksack.

Price drove to the gate where he was released to leave. The initial anxiety left the lieutenant's body, and perhaps the sergeant's, as the small sigh he gave was noticeable.

As they drive through the city, Ghost can see several people starting to go home, not wanting to be caught by the military and interrogated. Ghost was once a person who interrogated some, and the end result was always the same, solitary confinement, euthanasia or a shot in the head.

Unfortunately it's not just adults, children are also forced to be interrogated and... well, it doesn't matter in the end.

The sun has started to set between the buildings, the clouds in the sky are slightly pink, a bizarre contrast to the buildings that have been falling apart for years without restoration beyond the basics.

Ghost remembers when his mum still had hope that everything would return to normal... She gave up hope after the sixth year since the outbreak.

"Do you think they'll find out?" -Gaz asked a few minutes after they'd been going round and round.

Price shrugged and grunted. "We'll be too far away when they finally notice."

"Let's hope so, sir." -Gaz leans on the bench and looks outside. "Hopefully they won't smell your cigarette stench when we're outside."

"Funny sergeant." -Price shook his head.

They passed another FEDRA vehicle that was on patrol. Luckily they didn't decide to stop and chat. These guys do that a lot instead of working.

That was why Ghost didn't like to mingle, the soldiers just talked bollocks and didn't focus on their jobs. Maybe that's why so many die to the infected, because they're stupid. Speaking of mingling...

"Should we know of any more unexpected guests?" -Ghost asked when the silence broke again after Price turned down several streets and began to enter a somewhat unused area of the city.

With a smile from Price, Ghost could imagine that they would. They would have.

"Who?"

"My smuggler, he gets my cigarettes." -So they'd be taking a guy who knows the outside, sounds better than he expected. But still, the tension that this guy could be trouble.

Gaz stands between the two front seats, looking at the captain with an arched eyebrow. "So it'll be the four of us, but what then? How do we get out of the quarantine walls?"

Price slowly brought the car to a halt, with a slight jerk making everyone in the car jump forwards and back.

He kept his hands on the wheel as he answered the sergeant. "This guy, he leaves the quarantine zone through a few tunnels constantly, says he could take us out."

"And in return, you take him to this settlement, 141?" -Gaz asked the question Ghost was about to ask.

Price answered in the affirmative, then took out his car key and opened the door. The other two soldiers got out after him.

Price looked between the tall, boarded-up buildings, some plants growing on the walls, the paint already worn off and non-existent, leaving only cement, the fading daylight and the cold wind, giving the place a macabre air, as if whatever was inside these buildings could be watching them.

The captain goes to the boot and opens it. Everyone takes off their bags and puts them over their shoulders. After putting on his own bag, the captain takes out two red jerry cans and a tube; he hands one to Ghost, who grabs it to carry.

Then the captain opens the car's tank and gets down on one knee, putting the tube into the tank with one end and sucking on it with the other until the petrol starts to come out, and when it finally does, Price coughs, possibly from having filled his mouth with a little petrol. He then puts the tube into the gallon and lets it fill up.

Ghost smiles at the scene, deciding not to comment on it, since Price gave Gaz an intimidating look when he opened his mouth.

As the tank fills up, Ghost looks around, in the distance he hears some patrol cars passing by, muffled voices, he won't miss this place at all. Perhaps if everything had been different, he could say the opposite.

He didn't care how he lived, Ghost did the work, he got food and rest, and that was enough, but now... now that would change, and he didn't know yet if it was good or bad.

"Okay boys, all set." -Price finished capping the gallon. "Let's get going, we've got to use the night to our advantage."

Heading towards an alleyway between the buildings, Price guides them to the back door of one of the buildings, which is in the same situation as the others, all boarded up, but strangely the back door is free.

A sharp metallic noise echoes when Price opens the door; the air inside is mouldy, but luckily there are no spores.

Possibly Price has been down this road several times, as he recognises every route they have to take to reach the smuggler. Fuck me, it's a lot of work to buy a cigarette, it'd be easier to smoke Price's paperwork.

Descending into the basement of the building, the stairs creak rustily but don't threaten to collapse. Several leafy roots swallow up the walls, along with brown and yellow stains. The smell of alcohol is prominent, possibly because of the bottles lying on the floor.

Switching on a torch, Price illuminates the room making it clearer to see, there is a door on one of the walls, this one is more cleanly styled, the smuggler probably takes care of it, keeping the door secure and rust-free at all times. There's no light behind the door as far as anyone can see.

Price raises his hand, signalling for them to stop. He knocks on the door, a few knocks with a split second between them. A secret signal passed to Price.

They wait for a few moments, until distant footsteps begin to approach the door, some sounds of locks being opened and then the handle turns, opening the door.

A yellow light from the lamps that Ghost can see beyond the door illuminates the dark cellar that the soldiers are in, but what makes Ghost and Gaz tense up is the shotgun pointed at Price, who raises his hands up.

"Calm down, lad." -The captain says, his tone neutral.

Ghost can't see the man properly with Price in front of him, and the light from behind makes the front of the man appear in shadow. The smuggler lowers his gun, giving the captain a little smile. "It's you Price, you nearly made me shit my trousers." -Damn, Scot, that's all it needed.

"Unfortunately Soap, I think you must have shit yourself, that stink I'm smelling isn't mine." -Price and the man, Soap, laugh. Something about this action made Ghost feel nostalgic, as if he had heard something similar before.

The smuggler looks at the soldiers behind Price. "You've got your group then, let's go in." -He steps to one side, letting everyone into the room. "Make yourselves at home." -The Scotsman says, closing the door.

Ghost doesn't know what to expect from now on.

Chapter Text

.

.

.

The smuggler, Soap, as Price referred to him from the moment they met, was a strange man to say the least. He had a mohawk haircut, punk practically, he wore thick leather gloves, his tanned skin was covered with a few scars, one under his chin and one on his eyebrow, and his eyes were light blue.

Ghost was taller than him, but not much more than 15 or 20 centimetres. Soap was also muscular, being quite roomy in a way, as well as being quite hairy from what Ghost could see.

Perhaps one thing that irked Ghost about this guy was the slight pull of his Scottish accent, even if the man himself didn't speak much slang. There was something familiar about this guy that Ghost couldn't quite put his finger on.

Price must have realised he was thinking something, from the way he glanced at the lieutenant.

The house, if you could call it Soap's house, was something different. Apparently Soap had knocked down two walls to make more room in the basement, and there were small windows that were covered by two layers of curtain so that no-one outside could see the light inside.

There were several shelves with products on top of each one, all separated by food, ropes, ammunition and others. some weapons were hanging on the wall. In the centre of the room was a table with a backpack on it, possibly Soap's, along with a large map of Manchester. In the corner there was a bed with a few pillows piled up and a blanket thrown over it, a shower and a toilet in sight.

In Ghost's opinion, a great place to live without any hassle. Soap was lucky to find this place.

"All right, let me introduce you," -Price says with a clap of his hands, catching Ghost's eye. "This is my salesman, Soap, and Soap, these are my soldiers and close friends, Kyle Garrick and Ghost." -He points to the soldiers.

"What kind of name is Ghost?" -Soap asks curiously.

"What kind of name is Soap?" -Ghost replies with frustration.

Soap nods at them then, posture relaxed and unconcerned. Ghost thinks it's a bit careless, if he were the one with three FEDRA soldiers inside his house, relaxed is not a position he'd be in.

Gaz steps over to Soap and holds out his hand, and Soap accepts the handshake enthusiastically. "I hope you know how to shoot mate." -Gaz says teasingly. "Call me Gaz, it's easier."

"You bet I know more than how to shoot." -Soap replies with a fierce glare, his eyes then flick to Ghost, making the lieutenant tense up. Ghost just watches, without answering. "You don't say much, do you? Easy, I can speak for you."

‘I've no doubt about that’, Ghost thought to himself, grunting and glancing at Price, who was looking on enthusiastically.

Price cleared his throat after the conversation ended. "Now that you've all met, let's get down to business. Soap," -The smuggler looks at the captain and nods. "How do we get out other than through the front door?"

"There are some tunnels under Crowcroft Park, through the sewers, it's the safest route that I know." -Gaz grimaces in disgust, justifiably. Just imagining walking over the faeces of years gone by or the putrid smell sends a shiver down Ghost's spine. Take care not to get an infection in there. "On the plus side, there are no infected in that area, so we should be able to get through safely."

"Better than nothing... how long from here to the park?" -Price muttered before asking highly, it seems that the filth of the sewer wasn't something the captain cared much about.

Soap looked at a watch on his wrist. "If we leave now, we should get there in twenty or thirty, and to cross another twenty."

"And then where do we go?" -Ghost asked roughly. He needed to be sure before he acted, for all he knew, Soap could just be using them to steal the resources and get the hell out.

Soap gave him a smug look. "There's a town to the east of here, Glossop, I have a base there as well as a car, if I can finish the concert we can cut a few days off our journey."

"And then what?" -Gaz asks expectantly.

"Then we go down to Dover, fix a boat and cross to France." -Price replies, already grabbing the gallon of petrol again.

"Talk is easy." -Gaz complains quietly and Soap laughs, tapping Gaz on the shoulder, starting to say something to him.

Ghost lets out a deep sigh and walks over to Price.

The captain turns to face Ghost when he sees the man approaching. "Ghost."

"Price, are you sure about this?" -He asks quietly, not wanting the Scotsman to hear.

"Sure? No, but it's the best we've got." -Price puts a hand on Ghost's shoulder and gives it a little shake. "I know you don't tend to trust others for no reason, and I'm not going to ask you to, but try to stay peaceful. If anything goes wrong, we'll fix it. Okay?"

Ghost bites the inside of his mouth and closes his eyes momentarily before nodding in agreement. "I say the same Captain."

.

.

.

The walk to the park is silent, only the sounds of the four's footsteps echoing faintly through the deserted streets at night, not even the torches are switched on so as not to attract the attention of any patrolling soldiers.

Sometimes from the buildings, one can hear a groan of pain, grunts and clicks. Or the sound of the cold wind through the open windows.

These sounds make Ghost watch his surroundings, always careful not to be caught off guard, he doesn't want to see what took his family away from him, he knows that if one of these turned up he would probably have an angry outburst, maybe even get bitten or scratched in the process, or he could froze and the memories would appear again making him anxious.

A sympathetic look from Price makes Ghost more attentive. He once told Price what happened, the captain made him go to a counsellor, what a joke, a counsellor at the end of the world. Poor bastard who has to attend to these madmen.

In the end it didn't work out, in the first session the counsellor asked about Ghost's family, trying to say that it wasn't Ghost's fault that things had happened and all that rubbish... Ghost didn't come back for another session.

After about twenty minutes they arrived at the entrance to a small park, the trees around were large and firm, the undergrowth was tall and dark, nobody had been to this place for years.

Soap led the way, one behind the other so as not to get lost in the tall grass. They walk until they find a small metal hatch. Ghost can smell it from inside even though he's outside.

Price helps Soap open the manhole hatch, pulling it up and dropping it on the ground with a small bang, while Gaz and Ghost aim their pistols inside, luckily nothing jumps out to grab them.

Soap kneels down and switches on a torch near his shoulder, attached to the wall there's a ladder with moss and slime around it, below there's a small river of water flowing by and the smell, ugh, the smell, better not to comment.

"I'll go first, the last one closes the entrance." -He says, looking at the soldiers, earning a nod from Price.

Soap starts slowly down the stairs, without wasting time Ghost follows, wanting to keep an eye on the Scotsman, Kyle follows and Price is the last, he drags the lid to close it slowly. When everyone has climbed down the ladder, they switch on their flashlights to get a look round.

The place is very cramped, with about five metres between one wall and the next, a corridor runs straight ahead and splits to two different sides, the water running down the middle between the walls. There is some rubbish lying on the floor, such as cardboard, bottles and black bags.

Soap starts walking ahead after everyone gets off. "Let's go." -He says calmly, followed by Kyle at his side. Ghost and Price stay at the back, analysing to make sure no one follows.

They walk slowly for a few minutes, until Soap and Gaz start chatting, Ghost just listens without comment.

"So you're Scottish? How did you end up here?" -Gaz asked curiously.

"Manchester? They left me here a decade ago, my family didn't... didn't get on, so to speak."

"Sad, mate, it must have been hard."

"It was, for a while."

"What's changed?"

"I met someone who helped me, until it all went to shit."

Ghost realises the melancholy tone and regret in his voice, whatever Soap did must have been brutal, possibly he killed the person, or worse, infected them. Something about going over Soap's words in his head gives Ghost a strange feeling.

Gaz hums in understanding. "And this smuggler business, how did it start?" -The sergeant asks as they begin to enter a large hole in the sewer wall, through the hole Ghost sees tracks, possibly coming from a railway station just ahead.

He answers Gaz as he guides them in front of the tracks. ‘After a while I started working like the rest of the civilians, until I met a couple of tough guys, we exchanged a few bullets and I stole their place, started doing a bit of selling around with the stuff I found out there.

Ghost looks at him curiously for a moment before asking a question. "Why hadn't you left yet, even after finding the exit?"

Soap pauses in his walk and looks back at Ghost. "And where would I go, skully?" -Palpable indignation.

"You said you had a car and another base on the outside, why not get the hell out of Manchester?" -Ghost paces until he stops in front of the man.

"Yeah, I've got a base and a car, but where would I go after that? Resources out there are scarce, security is minimal, plus there are vagrants who steal and try to kill anyone outside the zone's walls, and let's not forget the infected." -Soap's breathless for a moment as he speaks so quickly, Price moves closer fearing a fight might break out. "Why would I swap a place where I don't have to worry too much about surviving for a place where I have to fight every day?"

Ghost thinks for a moment before answering coldly. "Then why did you decide to go with us far away?"

Soap looks shocked at the question by his confused expression, and before he can answer the question, a scream echoes through the train tunnel.

Runners.

Everyone automatically turns towards the sound behind them. 

Ghost pulls out his hunting knife and presses it against Soap's neck while holding him with his other arm, he shouts quietly so as not to attract attention. "You said there were no infected!"

Soap wriggles in vain trying to get away from Ghost. "And there shouldn't have been, they came in from somewhere else."

"Captain?" -Gaz asks more urgently after another scream echoes.

Price, who was already nearby, pushed Ghost's hand aside, breaking up the argument. "This isn't the time to argue, Lieutenant, get your head out of your arse." He then turns to Soap, pointing a finger at his chest. "What's the quickest way out?"

Soap takes a few steps away and looks back to where they were going and where the shout came from. "Ten minutes, five running."

Gaz then, without whispering, shouts to them. "Then start running!"

Ghost looks back and with the light of the flashlight illuminating his surroundings, he sees in the distance, in the darkness, the shape of those things that were once people. Drool mixed with blood, ulcers mixed with a bit of fungus starting to sprout, the cloths already old, red sclera and pale pupils, hair starting to fall out.

At least ten from what Ghost can count now, but there must be many more approaching besides them. Soap starts running ahead, soon to be followed by Gaz, leaving Price and Ghost last, already armed in case one of the runners approaches them.

As they run, Ghost notices how deep the tunnel extends, this tunnel must lead to some other stations, which he hopes don't have infected inside.

Price, beside him as they run, shouts to Soap. "How did those freaks get in here?!"

Soap replies without turning round, shouting almost out of breath. "I've never been to that side from where they were, so maybe there must be a hole from the surface to down here!"

Fucking great, the upside is that the four of them aren't going back to Manchester, so there's no need to worry about how they're going to get back. Just get on with it.

They run, as fast as they can. The runners keep coming after them fiercely, probably with the sole thought of killing and devouring.

A few minutes into the run, Soap shouts to them all. "Just ahead, turning left, there's a corridor that leads to the exit, inside there are some wooden beams holding up the ceiling so it doesn't collapse, if we knock them down we might be able to stop the dogs!"

All the soldiers shout in unison. "Roger that!"

Just as Soap had said, as soon as they take a few more steps they see a corridor bending to the left, Soap runs into it first. 

When Ghost finally enters the corridor, he notices how narrow the corridor is, some wooden beams hold up the ceiling which is all cracked, at the end of the corridor there is a metal door. Price and Gaz are already hitting the beams hard.

The lieutenant quickly rushes over to them, grabs another beam and kicks it several times. His leg is hot and tingling from all the running, but the adrenaline still gives him enough strength to try and knock it down. He hears Gaz's beam falling to the ground and a few pieces of concrete falling to the ground.

When Ghost feels that the beam is about to come loose, he hears the screams of agony from the beginning of the corridor, and then he sees the silhouette stopping and looking into the corridor, looking at them all, and then, the runner rushes at them, at the same time as Price gives one last push and his beam falls.

Ghost, seeing how close the freak is, stops, he thought he'd be able to put a bullet in these things' heads, but he can't, not in this place, it's a very small corridor, he sees the runner approaching, it's like the same one that happened that day, he can't act, he's just standing there, watching the same runner coming towards him in that same tiny corridor as when he was younger. 

He hears shouting from behind, probably from Price and Gaz, but he can't move.

And then as the runner leaps out at him, he feels a hand pulling him back and a gunshot noise echoing. His ears ring for a moment, until reality slams into him, in front of him, Soap holds a gun, and blows the infected's head off.

Quickly, Soap pulls hard on the wooden beam and knocks it down. The ceiling collapses at the same moment, falling on top of some of the other runners who had started to enter the small corridor.

Smoke billows from the concrete and dust rises into the air, causing everyone in the room to cough heavily. Luckily, Ghost doesn't suffer as much from the dust thanks to his mask, but he breathes heavily, trying to recover from the small lapse in memory. The screeching of the creatures disappears behind the heavy rubble.

He blinks his eyes for a moment and then he hears Price's voice echoing. "Is everyone all right?"

"Fine." -Everyone replies.

Sweat dripping down Ghost's forehead, he watched Gaz lower himself to the ground and just closed his eyes, perhaps he was choosing whether it was a good or bad idea to have come along. Price was looking at Ghost, silently asking him if he was all right, to which Ghost just nodded. And Soap...

Soap had his hands on his knees as he took a deep breath, probably looking forward to earlier when Ghost froze.

"Thanks for your help." -Ghost genuinely thanked him for his help, if Soap hadn't helped, maybe Ghost would be quartered on the floor right now.

"It was nothing... are you all right?" -He asked, returning to his normal posture and putting the pistol away in his holster.

"I'm still in one piece."

"Good to know they didn't take a chunk out of you." -He said with a smile on his face.

Yeah... Ghost thinks so too.

He gives a thud that catches everyone's attention. "So, where do we go from here?" -Price asks.

Soap moves to the door, grabs the handle and opens the door. The light from the flashlight illuminates a room full of cables and electrical equipment. At the bottom of the wall is a ladder that goes straight up.

"If we go up here, which is our only choice, we'll come out a kilometre or two from the wall, we can walk to Glossop." -Soap says, putting his hands on his waist.

Price helps Gaz up before asking Soap. "How many kilometres?"

"Twenty-four, but we'll have to make a few detours which will increase our walk." -Ghost raises an eyebrow behind his mask, which Soap apparently realises as he replies. "Collapsed buildings and a motorway full of cars, we can get round."

Gaz walks past Soap to the stairs. "We'd better start now then, but let's go slowly, my legs are shaking."

Price and Soap giggle, while Ghost just smiles.

Chapter Text

.

.

.

After everyone climbs the stairs, they wander into a deserted street, several rotting houses dominated by nature. The smell of fresh air and no murmurs of people makes Ghost sigh with relief, there was nothing holding him back now. In the distance, looking behind the hole they came out of, he sees the great walls of the quarantine zone, several white beacons illuminating the surroundings, looking for infected and groups wanting to invade.

"Goodbye bloody hell..." -Ghost mutters to himself. Perhaps the bad memories can finally be forgotten, and the good ones, if they still exist, can be preserved over time.

With a glance at the sky, he sees a vast universe of white stars, each speck forming a mathematics impossible to count, the lights of the city do not pollute this beauty. There's not a cloud in sight, which is a good sign, signalling that if there was rain coming, it's already gone, and next to the sky, a crescent moon is present.

The four of them walk in silence, helped by the small amount of light provided by the moon. Soap walks in front, right next to Price, Gaz and Ghost follow behind, always on the lookout for any strange sounds.

The hours pass without any danger in sight, for which they are all grateful. When they reach a motorway, Ghost observes the many cars scattered around, all rusty from the weather, some of which still retain their colours, but only very pale ones.

Sometimes when the lieutenant looked inside, he saw what was left of people, adults, children and animals, skeletons of yellowish bones, some full of webs and others with moss growing on them. It was easy to deduce what had happened to these dumped skeletons, clearly they had been brutalised by the infected. A terrible end.

What did the people in these cars feel when the outbreak began? Did they decide to flee as soon as they saw the news of the infected? If so, where would they go? Another town in England? Another country? Continent? Or did some of these cars not even know about the outbreak and were just living normally?

Nobody will ever know the answer, we can only imagine.

"Will you miss it?" -Walking next to him, Gaz asks calmly, gun in hand and looking around at the cars. "Manchester, I mean."

Ghost thinks about the question, considering for a moment. "No, I don't think I'll miss it there."

"Fair enough, just thinking about the food in the canteen gives me the creeps." -Gaz makes a sound of disgust.

Ghost chuckles. "That too." -In a few more steps, he asks. "Can we find any wild animals to eat?"

"Possible, but we don't have any spices."

"We mix it with the MREs, it should taste good." -Garrick laughs, Ghost appreciates the happiness, not having to be so tense after that tunnel is invigorating, well, except for his leg which is sore from running so fucking much.

After another ten minutes of walking, Price whistles to Gaz and Ghost, drawing the attention of the two soldiers. The two approach quickly.

The captain puts his hands on his waist and Soap leans against one of the cars. "Soap says there's a waterfall a few metres from here, let's rest there and cut through in the morning."

"Roger, sir." -The two soldiers reply.

Price then looks at Soap and nods, the smuggler detaches himself from where he was leaning and starts walking towards the edge of the road, the three soldiers right behind him. They go down a small, crumbling dirt track, and Soap guides them into some trees and undergrowth.

After a few minutes, a little way off, Ghost heard the sound of falling water, like rain. When he emerges from the undergrowth just behind Soap, he sees the waterfall, grandiosely spewing water from the top onto some rocks and old cars, forming a small lake below. It's a beautiful sight.

Instead of stopping and getting ready for bed, Soap continues, circling the small lake and starting to climb the hill that leads up to the top of the waterfall. No one comments on this and they just climb along with him, weapons in hand.

When they reach the top of the hill, Ghost sees some houses around it, totally abandoned and broken down. The waterfall that fell down there was formed by an old sewer, which totally lost the beauty that the lieutenant thought the waterfall had. Ghost must remember not to drink this water. And from up there, on the horizon, he could also see, now smaller because of the greater distance, the walls of the quarantine, still firm and strong.

He hears the sound of something heavy hitting the ground and quickly turns round, noticing that Price has dropped his rucksack on the ground, he claps his hands together to clear the dust and fixes his hat before speaking. "All right lads, let's get organised," -He looks at everyone. "Let's split up, two rest while two keep watch, who wants to take the first shift?"

Soap quickly raises his hand. "I can stay, I know a bit about the area."

Just what was needed, after what happened in that tunnel, Ghost doesn't trust leaving this guy with Gaz or the Captain, who knows if an infected won't jump them while they're sleeping. "Me too, I've done a lot of overwatch."

Price looks into Ghost's eyes for a moment, then nods. "Right, fine, from here on," -He glances at the clock in his wrist. "In four hours wake us up." -Soap and Ghost agree and then Price and Gaz start to get ready for bed.

Ghost can see the motorway where they were walking earlier, completely deserted of life with only cars. Next to him, he hears Soap sitting down, when he looks he sees the smuggler leaning on a rock, Soap looks at him with a little smile.

The two of them remain silent for many minutes, or perhaps hours. No one looks at the watch on their wrist, but it can be seen that a lot of time has passed from the snoring of the two sleeping soldiers. It seems that that run in the tunnel really tired them out.

An icy wind blows through the place, the trees rustle all around, it's nice.

"Do you think it's going to be alright?" -Soap asks in a low, soft voice, trying not to wake the others.

Ghost looks towards the quarantine zone, and then to the east where they'll have to go at dawn. "It has to work, otherwise what's left to do?"

"If everything goes wrong, we can stay in Dover and live off the fish." -Ghost just grunted. "But my concern is something else, how are we going to find a boat? It's not as if one is still working.’"

"You've fixed a car, you should be able to manage with a boat."

"A car is not the same as a boat, bonehead." -Well, fair enough.

Ghost doesn't reply, deciding to think about what possible problems and risks they would be running if they didn't find a boat. At the same time, while he's thinking, he takes his rifle off his back and takes up a position to look around through the scope.

"Ghost?" -Soap asks, but there's something strange in his voice.

Ghost takes his eyes off the scope and glances at the smuggler. "Huh?"

"Do we know each other?"

What… Ghost now looks fully into Soap's eyes, trying to understand what he means by that. "I would have recognised someone with just a line of hair." -He replies.

Soap hums in understanding. "It's just that... you remind me of someone."

Strangely, Ghost feels the same way, ever since he first saw the Scotsman, there was something completely nostalgic about him, but Ghost can't pinpoint what. For now, he'll decide to ignore that feeling.

"Sorry about your nightmares then." -He decided to reply then, there was no way anyone would think of Ghost as a good thing.

"Don't be, he was a great person, I miss him." -Soap sighs. "He's probably dead by now… or…"

Ghost doesn't answer, nor does Soap say anything else. There wasn't much more they could talk about now, being physically tired and mentally burdened with doubts.

At some point, Soap took a notebook out of his backpack along with a pen and started scribbling, Ghost wondering how he could see with the little light he had. Meanwhile, Ghost continues to look through the sniper scope, noticing some wild boars passing by on the motorway. The four hours pass without a single event, the abandoned houses and the forest remain silent, with the exception of the waterfall which makes a pleasant sound of falling water.

They wake up Price and Gaz who take up a lookout position after a few minutes, and then Ghost gets ready for bed, putting his rucksack on as a pillow, he doesn't remove his mask, Soap is right next to him doing the same.

One turned his back to the other.

.

.

.

The next morning, when he wakes up, Ghost is met with low laughter from Gaz and Soap. He slowly gets up from where he was lying, stretches and lets out a yawn, runs a hand over his face but stops when he realises he's wearing a mask.

Looking around, he notices the sun beginning to rise, possibly around six or seven in the morning, a slightly chilly breeze sending goosebumps up Ghost's arms. He notices Gaz and Soap chatting near where he and Soap had been keeping watch at midnight, apparently still on the lookout for any strange movements.

And the captain was eating a packet of biscuits while watching Ghost slowly wake up, honestly, it was a bit scary for the lieutenant. "Good morning." -The captain says, offering a biscuit.

Ghost denied it, not feeling hungry at the moment. "Morning, up long?" -He asks, his voice thick with sleep.

"Fifteen minutes. Pack your things and we'll leave in ten." -The captain replies, already getting up and putting the packet of biscuits in his backpack.

"Right." -The lieutenant agrees, starting to get up and organise the things in his backpack, only taking out his canteen to take a sip of water and then put it away again.

Next to him, he hears Soap shouting. "Good morning Lt!" -Ghost lets out a sigh and then looks over to where the man was standing next to Gaz. "You really do sleep with that thing on your face, bizarre mate."

"Soundly, it's just like you and that rat on your head." -He joked, hearing a low chuckle from Price, and a loud laugh from Gaz, Soap just pouted before smiling.

Before Soap could say anything, Price clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention. "Alright lads, we need to start walking to our destination. We're still in the line of sight of the quarantine zone, and now that it's dawn it's going to make our situation worse. So the sooner we go, the sooner we get there." -He speaks as he takes out a cigarette and lights it.

He then walks over to where Soap and Gaz are standing, hands on hips, taking a drag and letting out a puff of smoke. "We can't go along the motorway now, we'd be visible to anyone else." -He looks at Soap, who has got up from where he was sitting. "You said we could cut across the road."

"We can, just follow the road round, there's a lower road that's overgrown, it leads to the same place." -Soap points, and Ghost notices a bit of tarmac hidden among the trees. It's really more hidden and the trees will help cover them from being seen. "There are no infected there, at least not that I know of."

Price nods, glancing at the quarantine zone and then at Ghost. His gaze filled with something indecipherable for the lieutenant. "Come on, lads."

And they set off, slowly, each one descending. But Ghost pauses for a moment, deciding to do something quickly. From inside his backpack, he pulls out his mum's Polaroid. He gropes through it, observing the details of scratches and dirt.

If he remembers correctly that the camera already has film inside, all he has to do is click the button and take the picture.

Ghost looks towards the horizon, noticing the quarantine zone. "This is proof that I made it out of here Mum, Tommy… Johnny…" -He points the camera, taking in most of the walls and several trees that cover the rotting houses. A flash of light appears quickly, and Ghost hopes that no-one on guard has noticed.

Slowly the camera prints out the photo, Ghost knows that the photo won't be developed now, so he puts it in his pocket, hoping that soon he will be able to keep his first memory outside Manchester.

As he turns to put the camera away in his backpack, he notices Price watching him, a slight smile on his face, proud. "Don't take too long Simon." -he says, already starting down the hill.

Ghost remains static for a moment, absorbing that he has been called by his first name in ages. Called affectionately. He smiles too, happy that he decided to take a simple photo. He finishes putting the camera away and then starts walking down behind the guys.

.

.

.

They walked along the low street that Soap had mentioned, which was also full of abandoned cars and skeletons, the only difference being that these weren't so corroded, but full of vines and weeds growing over them.

There were houses nearby too, some with broken windows and doors, others barricaded from the outside as if they were trapping something inside. Obviously Ghost wasn't going to go there to find out. The concrete and bricks that make up some of the houses had collapsed over time, opening up the first and second floors to be seen and invaded by nature.

A few birds sang in the trees, announcing that the sun was about to rise on a new day in this destroyed and abandoned world. Luckily, Soap kept his word when he said that there were no infected around and didn't make the same mistake in the tunnel.

During the walk to the city, they chatted for a while, a little about the environment, how different it was here outside the quarantine, and how they would cope if they encountered infected on the way. Most of the time, Ghost remained silent, sometimes he would get a strange look from Soap, as if the man wanted to say something but gave up.

Ghost didn't take much notice, deciding to keep an eye on his surroundings.

And in four hours, after crossing cars, fallen logs and ravines, they finally find themselves in Glossop, where, until then, they would have had a temporary base until they fixed Soap's car. Not that Ghost or anyone other than Soap knows how to fix one.

When they arrive at the entrance to the city, Soap starts instructing them where to go, explaining that the base is on the south side of the city, and that they would have to walk for at least another thirty minutes. They walk between the buildings, avoiding the main streets in case there are any people or infected in those areas.

As they sneak between the alleyways, Ghost decides to ask. "How did you get a car, it's not like there are many functional ones these days."

Soap glances at the skull with a smug smile. "Months ago, when I came to pick up some goods, I met a group from FEDRA, they were making rounds looking for supplies."

Ghost remembers one such group, they'd been sent to pick up supplies but never came back, the report put them down as deserters, the corridors were full of gossip for those weeks.

"They were ambushed by some clickers and runners, they tried to defend themselves by throwing a grenade, which was a stupid idea. The grenade bounced off the front of the van, damaging some of the front tyres and the engine." -They leave an alleyway and quickly cross the road while Soap continues to explain. "I waited for the day to pass and changed the tyres, pushed it to the garage at my base and started trying to fix it... but I'm not a mechanic, so the situation is quite, um, complicated."

"But you can fix it, can't you?" -Gaz asks.

"Possible, but it'll take a while." -Soap replies with a sigh.

Price taps Soap on the shoulder. "Don't worry, sunshine, we'll help."

They continue in silence for the rest of the walk, looking at the buildings for any sign of life, which luckily they don't find apart from buildings about to collapse and some wild animals roaming the streets, like hares and deer. Ghost is tempted to shoot one to guarantee dinner, but decides against it when Price looks at him crookedly.

The sun was already high when they finally arrived at the base, said base being a house covered in vines and bushes around the bricks, keeping only the windows uncovered for surveillance reasons probably. It had two floors, so it must have belonged to someone wealthy. On the right-hand side of the house on the first floor there was an entrance to the garage, where the car would probably be. 

There were several other houses around, all almost in the same style, but more dilapidated.

It was about midday, sweat was dripping off Ghost's forehead from inside his mask, making it damp, and unfortunately there was no wind to help this time, some clouds in the sky announced possible rain soon. Price and Gaz were both drinking water from canteens to hydrate themselves, Ghost was just hungry, having eaten nothing since he woke up. And Soap...

Looking at Soap, Ghost noticed something strange, he was analysing something, one hand on his chin and the other on his waist. He approaches the Scotsman silently, Soap notices him and turns to Ghost, whispering.

"There's something strange, Lt." -Lt? That new one.

"What's wrong?" -He asks, Price and Gaz approach watching the silent conversation taking place.

Quietly Soap pointed to the steps that led up to a small balcony that entered the main door. On the steps, there were clearly footprints, boots to be precise. But only one pair, which means that whoever entered was outnumbered.

Soap looks at Price and confidently, whispering, he says. "I think we have a guest waiting for us."

Chapter Text

.

.

.

Everyone was tense, Ghost especially, thinking that Soap might have do something to them, but he quickly dismissed it when he stopped to think and analysed his posture, he was clearly more surprised than the rest of the group, and also, if it was Soap's trap, someone would clearly have shot them all by now, but so far nothing.

In the distance, thunder echoes in the sky, the clouds are getting greyer and darker, the sun is gradually being blocked out, leaving them in the dark. Ghost feels very exposed, anyone or anything could be watching them through the windows of this house or those of the neighbours, or among the forest. 

The first to move is Price, gesturing for everyone to come closer as he whispers. "Does this house have a back door?" -He says, looking at Soap, who nods. "Good, Soap and I will go round the back, you two through the front door. Don't make a sound and if you find our guest just incapacitate him for the time being."

Everyone nods, but before they part Gaz asks. "Any chance it's an infected? Stalker maybe?"

Ghost looks at the boot prints on the steps. "If it was an infected, none of them would walk like a normal person, and besides, I don't think they open doors." -Gaz hums in understanding.

Price taps Soap on the shoulder and with his head he points to a small corridor at the side of the house, the two of them start walking towards it, weapons in hand. On the other side, Ghost and Gaz also take out their weapons, Ghost with a knife and Gaz with a pistol, he knows that Gaz won't shoot without the captain's command, mainly so as not to attract anyone.

The lieutenant walks ahead with the sergeant close behind, climbing the steps and avoiding stepping on rotten wood that might make a noise. In front of the door, Ghost turns the handle very slightly and finds it open, clearly someone must have used a lockpick to get in, it's not as if Soap had left the door open for any stranger to enter.

As he pushes the door, Ghost hopes it doesn't make a sound, and luckily it doesn't, he sighs with relief. Looking at the floor of the house he finds footprints that follow and run through most of the house, clearly someone has been exploring the residence.

The house itself was very simple inside, right at the entrance there was an ordinary welcome mat on the floor, a small corridor that went straight to the end had three entrances, and the only one Ghost could see led to a living room, which had a few sofas, a bookcase with several books, and some plants that were already dead. But after a few steps down the corridor, Ghost and Gaz came across a staircase that went up to the second floor, and next to it was a door that probably led to the garage.

Ghost points to the garage, and Gaz quickly goes to the door, he slowly pulls the handle and pushes it slowly, he then points the pistol inside looking for someone, but there is nothing in sight, nothing but a very familiar FEDRA truck, its top is open and on the floor in front of it there are various mechanic's tools. 

The sergeant walks round the inside of the garage, circling the car and even looking underneath it for safety's sake. "Nothing, there's nobody here." -He says softly, approaching the lieutenant.

"Let's go upstairs then." -Ghost says, starting up the stairs, trying to avoid making noise, Gaz right behind him.

As they ascend to the second floor, there are four noticeable doors, one of which Ghost guesses is a bathroom, the others possibly bedrooms. Ghost turns to Gaz and points to one of the doors. "You go in that one, I'll go in the other." -Gaz nods.

The two of them walk to their respective doors. As they pass through the door, Ghost comes across a simple child's room, a bed in the corner next to a chest of clothes, various toys scattered on the floor and some colouring books lying around. The windows are barricaded from the inside with several planks of wood, the handiwork of Soap.

Ghost approaches the bed and bends down, checking that there is nothing underneath. He finds only cobwebs and other toys lying around.

The scene is familiar from the room he had when he was younger, before all this outbreak shit happened. Of course, he doesn't own nearly half the stuff that was in this room, but just the same... Tommy would have liked it if they'd had this as kids. He'd probably jump from one corner to another with every toy.

He sighs heavily. Maybe in another life they could have been happy as a ‘real’ family.

He gets up from the floor and looks between the walls, stopping when his gaze meets a picture hanging on the wall. A family, all smiling happily, a mum, dad, a son and a dog, a golden retriever to be precise. A totally mundane scene. What happened to them, Ghost wonders, this child, if he is alive, would be almost Ghost's age.

Ghost remembers that earlier, before they left the place where they had camped, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the Polaroid photo. Now it's more visible, but the photo is still dark because it was taken when the sun was just beginning to rise, but a little of the quarantine walls and some trees are visible.

Simon smiles at the last memory he will ever have of Manchester. He puts the photo back in his pocket and then turns round and walks out of the room.

Gaz was still looking around the room, Ghost observed the other door that neither he nor Garrick had gone to, it was wide open, slowly he approached and began to hear something low, when he stopped in front of the door he heard it clearly.

A snore. Someone was sleeping.

He squeezed the hand that held the knife tighter, and then slowly pushed the door open. On the first step into the room, Ghost noticed several shelves with dusty books, the windows also boarded up on the inside, closed wardrobes, a desk in the corner, but most importantly, a double bed where a man was sleeping humbly.

Next to the man on the bed was a rucksack with a machete strapped to it, and possibly other weapons inside. The man himself was unremarkable, his appearance was that of someone in his 35s, very close to Price, and he had a scruffy beard that was as black as his shoulder-length hair. His clothes were just a leather jacket, black cargo trousers, boots and a few chains around his neck.

Without wasting any time, Ghost crosses with silent steps until he reaches the stranger's side of the bed, and in one swift movement he jumps on top of the man, putting the knife to his neck and his foot on his chest, and pushing the rucksack with the machete off the bed with his free hand.

The man himself wakes up startled and surprised, immediately trying to pull his own hands up, but Ghost quickly pins them down with his weight on the man. "Wh-Who are you?! Дерьмо!" -Ghost raises an eyebrow, the man speaks Russian he notices.

Ghost looks him in the eye, now noticing the man's dark eyes. "Sargent!" -He shouts, then hurried footsteps are heard and soon the sergeant's voice comes from the door.

"Holy shit." -The sergeant mutters as he watches the scene. "Captain, Soap! Ghost found the guy."

It didn't take more than a few seconds for the rest of the squad to make their way up to the second floor and into the bedroom. During this time the man tries to struggle but to no avail. Ghost and Gaz tear off some of the bed sheet and tie the man's hands behind his back and then leave him standing, the two soldiers now holding him down.

When Soap appears in the doorway next to Price, he looks at the man analytically. "Fuck, that's the... fuck."

Price moves closer until he's standing in front of the man. "Do you have a name?" -He asks, tone rough serious.

"Let me go and then I'll tell you." -The man replies, trying again to struggle.

"That's not how it works, mate. Name?" -Out of the corner of his eye, Ghost watches Soap bend down and pick up the guy's rucksack, starting to check inside.

The man remains silent for a few seconds, probably debating whether or not to say something, but in the end decides to answer. "Nikolai, засранец."

Price raises an eyebrow, curious he asks. "Hm, Russian, how did you get from so far away to England?"

The man, Nikolai, smiles and shakes his head slightly. "You wouldn't believe it, Captain ."

"Try me, I've got time." -Price puts his hands on his waist, waiting.

Nikolai opens his mouth to say something, but is interrupted by Soap exclaiming from the other side of the bed, wallet in hand, everyone staring at the Scotsman. ‘Fuckin‘ hell,’ he looks at Price and throws him the wallet, which Price automatically grabs. The captain checks it in silence and then lets out a sigh.

He lifts his gaze to look at Ghost and Gaz before settling on Nikolai. "You're one of the FEDRA soldiers.”

Ghost automatically looks at Nikolai, seeing the man bite his lip. "Captain of the Chimera group, and last remaining soldier." -A captain, that's interesting. "We were about to unload supplies in Bristol when rebels attacked."

"I heard about that months ago, that place has become home to bandits. Why didn't you look for other quarantine zones?"

"I did. They tried to follow me, it took me a while to get them off my back, and then when I did I started heading up to Manchester."

Gaz beside him snorts. "And then you decided to take a nap around here before going to the zone?"

Nikolai turns his face towards the sergeant, giving a sarcastic smile. "It was a good stop, I thought I could use the car downstairs-"

"That's my damn car down there." -Soap shouts and Price silences him by raising his hand. 

"Well, I was trying to fix it, but it's missing parts. How did you get one of those little beauties?" -Nikolai laughs quietly. "That's from FEDRA."

"It's none of your fucking business." -Soap replies in frustration.

The captain walks over to the desk and pulls out the chair that was leaning against it, he pulls it out in front of Nikolai, Ghost and Gaz automatically force him to sit down. Price takes a length of rope from his own backpack, he pulls the Russian's bound hands against the chair and ties them tightly, he probably won't release his hands any time soon.

"All right," -Price turned his gaze to the soldiers and the smuggler, nodding towards the door. "Check the house for security, make sure he hasn't tampered with anything in the trunk." -Everyone confirms loud and clear, Price then returns his gaze to Nikolai in the chair, who gives a nervous smile. "In the meantime, I'll have a little chat with our colleague from FEDRA."

Gaz gives a lopsided grin, probably wanting to stay and see what would happen, but then leaves the room, Soap stares at the Russian in frustration and also leaves the room. Ghost follows right behind, not caring about anything other than getting something to eat and leaving the work to the other two. And slowly, as the two walk down the stairs, Ghost hears the rain starting to fall against the roof tiles, the wind blowing harder through the trees outside, and some thunder echos in the distance.

.

.

.

After eating some MREs at the kitchen table behind the living room, Ghost organised his things and threw the rest into a box that Soap must have used for trash weeks or months ago. The rain didn't get any worse, but it didn't stop at any point either. Ghost sat in his chair for a while, watching the rain fall through the kitchen windows, the only ones that weren't barricaded.

There was something nostalgic and melancholy about watching the water trickle down the dirty glass and the growing nature. Which was ironic, because Ghost felt more alive at the same time for some reason. There’s a name for this sentiment, but he doesn't remember it.

Footsteps from the kitchen entrance draw the attention of the lieutenant who observes, Soap crosses into the kitchen, he stops at the sink counter, taking a small packet out of his backpack that Ghost identifies as a packet of biscuits, he turns around and then drags a chair over to sit on the other side of the table. He looks at the same window that Ghost was looking at earlier.

The two of them remain silent, observing the landscape. Not as uncomfortable as he thought it would be.

"He's taking a nap." -Soap says after a few minutes chewing his biscuits.

Ghost glances round. "Gaz?" -Soap nods. It's careless to rest with a stranger in the house, even if the captain is with said stranger.

"We didn't find anything different, just a few swapped parts from the truck." -Ghost grunted in response. "Maybe he really was trying to fix the car."

"Or he could have been wrecking it, or even fixing it to get out of here to god know where." -He replied without thinking, and Soap gave him a puzzled look.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because that's what I'd do if I knew the world out here." -He looks at the window again. "You shouldn't trust people so easily, Soap." -Even those you know can hurt you, is what Ghost would like to say, but he doesn't know Soap well enough, and from the looks of it, Soap must not even have anyone he cares about that much at this point, since he chose to flee Manchester as well.

Soap doesn't answer, Ghost feels his gaze on him for a while, but doesn't say anything.

Ghost likes silence, even if it's a tense one, he prefers calm to a lot of talking, it's in the silence that he manages to organise himself without stumbling. Did Johnny understand that when he was silent with Simon, when only the music was playing on one of the headphones they shared years ago?

Simon would like to ask him...

After a while, footsteps from the stairs echoed through the house, the lieutenant looked round to see who it was, and as expected Price headed for the entrance to the kitchen. His hat was in his hand. Ghost has seen the captain without his hat, but it's rare. Seeing Price's short hair, Ghost wonders if he needs a haircut too.

Price pulls out another chair and sits down. Soap, who had put his feet up on the table at some point, turns to the captain.

"I took the documents out of his bag, asked him a few questions, and it turns out he really was going to Manchester, he thinks he's going to get a helicopter to fly back to Russia." -Price put his fingers between his eyes, squeezing them shut.

"Sad for him, the most he'd get is a new house." -Soap says, crossing his arms.

"That's what I said..." -Price seems hesitant about something Ghost realises from the tone of his voice, he's planning how to say something.

Ghost hums for a few seconds and then asks. "What do you want to do?"

The captain lets out a sigh and rests his hands on the table, removed from his face and looks at Ghost with clenched eyebrows. "We can use him as an ally."

Soap raises his eyebrows, and Ghost feels indignant. Use Nikolai for what? Fixing the car, right, but then what? What do they do with the Russian afterwards? "Price, if we let him go, he'll shoot every one of us if he gets the chance." -They'd have to confiscate everything from the man, maybe even steal it for themselves.

"Good thing there are four of us then." -The captain laughs.

Ghost leans back in his chair and lets out a sigh, Soap on the other side puts his feet down on the table. "I don't think that's a bad idea." -Ghost turns his serious gaze on Soap. "Look, listen to me, the car's going to need repairs and I'm not a mechanic, he seems to know more about vehicles than I do, we can use that to our advantage."

"So what did we do with him after that?" -Ghost asks, putting his hands on the table, Soap also leans on it, his face showing a pout.

Price looks between the two of them for a moment. "If he proves useful, we'll take him along, otherwise, any threat against us, we'll put an end to him."

Soap gives Ghost a smug smile and Ghost rolls his eyes. Deep down he hopes the captain is right.

.

.

.

"So, what's missing?" -Soap asked with his arms folded, Ghost leaning against the wall with one hand on the knife and his gaze on the Russian who was taking a look at the engine and other parts of the car. Gaz was sitting in an office chair in the corner, and Price was next to Nikolai.

The Russian shakes his head for a moment, then points to a part inside and another part that he removed when he was underneath the car. "The suspension spring is fucked, and the radiator is open in the middle, if I can replace both parts this car should work again." -Nikolai closes the bonnet of the car and keeps his hands resting on it.

Soap takes out a small notebook, the same one he was drawing in at night, and writes something down. Ghost looks at Price who seems to be mulling over possibilities, the captain looks at Soap. "Do you know any place where we could find this?"

The smuggler thinks for a moment and nods. "There's a place in the north of the city, an abandoned mechanic's shop. I've never been inside, but there must be some parts there."

"All right, how long do you think it'll take to get there?" -Price crosses his arms.

"Maybe one, two hours, but with the rain and the buildings I'd have to enter to get from one side to the other, maybe another hour.’

"Okay," -Price rubs a hand over his face and sniffles. "Ghost, will go with you to get it."

Ghost looks at Price and agrees. "Yes, sir."

"Gaz and I will keep an eye on the house in case someone or one of the freaks turns up." -Ghost notices Gaz looking at something and getting up from his chair, but doesn't pay it much mind.

Nikolai looks at the captain, nonchalance on his face. "I could go with them, it'll be more-"

"No, you won't, you'll stay where I can keep an eye on you." -Price turns round and points at the Russian, who just rolls his eyes.

Ghost feels a nudge on his shoulder, glancing round he notices Soap smiling. "Do you want to do something before we go?" -The lieutenant thought, his backpack was still packed, the ammunition was full, there was nothing missing, so he just shook his head. "Okay, I'll just put a jacket on and we can go." -He comments as he leaves the garage.

He sighs as he watches the smuggler go up to the second floor. From the other side of the garage, he hears Gaz calling him. "Ghost, come here, I've got a little surprise." -He raises an eyebrow but doesn't say anything until he reaches Gaz, who is at the end of the garage, behind the car.

He sees Gaz kneeling on the ground holding bottles, he holds one out to Ghost who takes the bottle, and with a sniff he notices the scent of alcohol, probably vodka. 

"Our host must be a fan of explosives, check it out!" -Gaz points to a small open box full of cans with nails in them, several bottles tied up with cloth, and some… fireworks? Wow. 

He analyses the bottle in his hands and then he realises. "Molotov."

Gaz nods. "He shouldn't mind if we take some for ourselves, it's not like we're going back anyway." -The sergeant says, already grabbing some of the items. Ghost just quickly bends down and grabs two more Molotov bottles.

He then turns round and walks out of the garage to the front door of the house, leaning on the door while he waits for Soap. It doesn't take more than three minutes for the man to come down the stairs, but now he's wearing a dark green coat, and in his hands he's carrying another coat, only black.

"Hey, here, put this on." -He forces the coat into Ghost's hands, who just looks doubtfully at the other. "It's just a coat with a hood, so you won't drown in your mask or catch a disease, well, as much as possible of course." -Hum, better than nothing, Ghost takes off his backpack and puts on the coat, pulling the hood over his head.

As soon as he's ready, Ghost hears footsteps, and looking round he sees the captain approaching and standing next to them. "All set?" -The two nod to the captain. “Right, don't be long, go straight and get the parts and come back, if you're not back by tonight, I'll come after you.’ -Ghost senses the sincerity in his voice, he knows it's true, the captain is determined and savage when he needs to be.

Soap opens the door and steps outside, Ghost takes one last look at the captain. "Don't let him or you die, Ghost."

"Roger that, sir." -He says with a nod

.

.

.

Walking down the street covered in knee-high grass, the two men walk straight past houses and more houses in the town, the rain falling on their heads and soaking through their clothes.

They walk in silence, until they come to a part of the street that has collapsed downwards. Ghost glances down to see that the culvert has caved in, causing a large part of the street to collapse into a crater. It's possible to see the entrance to the culvert, and luckily the rain hasn't filled the crater, which is possibly about two and a half metres high.

"Shit." -Soap says, scratching his head where his hood hides him.

Ghost doesn't delay, already starting to descend into the crater, his footsteps spreading dirty shallow water around, he looks back towards the smuggler. "I'll tiptoe, you pull me along."

Soap glances at him thoughtfully and then looks across the street. "Okay, you better have some strength, Lt." -Ghost grunts in response. 

Ghost puts his hands together and Soap puts a hand on the lieutenant's shoulder, and he quickly climbs onto his hand and Ghost pushes him up. Soap grabs the tarmac stone and climbs upwards with an effortful snort. At the top, he brings one hand down, Ghost jumps up and grabs Soap's hand and the tarmac, pushing himself upwards.

They both got to their feet, Ghost wiping his hand on his clothes and Soap letting out a sigh. "Fuck, you weigh so damn much." -Ghost rolls his eyes and continues walking.

"So, do you still think it was a bad idea to ask the Russian to fix the car?"

"Terrible is the right word."

"Come on, Lt, he could be our quickest way out of here."

"A way into the coffin, you mean."

Soap sighs heavily, giving up trying to argue which puts a smile on Ghost's face. "But," -Or rather, he was just thinking of arguments. "He could be a great addition."

"I just see it as more wasted resources with someone we don't know." -There are other things he could mention, but Soap clearly doesn't see the point Ghost is trying to make, or... Ghost is missing something. He hopes not.

Glancing to the side, he sees Soap pouting, it was familiar to something, he was staring at a small park full of toys worn down by time, the paint no longer there and the metal rusting. Simon had played in it once, when the world was still full of cacophonies. Now, the world remains primal.

They continue, quiet this time. Just as Simon silently watches summer turn into autumn among the trees.

The streets of a neighbourhood turn into buildings at some point, almost in the same style as Manchester, the only difference being that the buildings are more worn out, destroyed and consumed by nature, some cars are jammed against some shop fronts, windows blown out, probably looted years ago. 

Ghost can't say when, but when they finally stop in front of a large barrier of wires and cars in the middle of the street, he hears Soap give a small whistle that is almost silenced by the rain.

"Two o'clock sharp, I'm very punctual don't you think?" -He says turning round with a little smile and an arch of his eyebrows, Ghost sighs heavily, but lets out a small low laugh.

"So, what do we do now?" -Ghost asks as he tidies up his backpack. 

Soap seems to think and looks around, he focuses his gaze on an alley to their right. "If we go that way, we can take a shortcut round the back of one of the buildings, or we can go round, but it'll probably take us a bit longer."

"Hm, any infected?" -Ghost won't forget the infected from the day before so easily.

"Maybe some travelling alone."

"Then let's get going."

The two of them soon turned into the alley on the right and entered it. There were a few bottles lying around, and doors locked with boards, the only one not locked was the one straight ahead.

He watches Soap take a small key out of his pocket and unlock the door. "Do you have all the keys to this city?" -He asks, genuinely curious.

"Only the important ones." -He pulls the door open and Simon looks through the back doors to reveal a kitchen similar to the canteen in the FEDRA barracks in Manchester, the only differences, of course, being the piles of dirt in the corner, the mould on the ceiling and the leaks that run from the ceiling to the tiles on the floor.

Soap closes the door behind him and Ghost walks inside. On leaving the kitchen, he comes across what might have been a bakery, the tables and chairs having been completely reduced to barricades on the doors and windows, which probably didn't work considering that the glass in the windows is shattered.

He liked to imagine with Johnny what their lives would be like if everything was normal. One of the options was for them to open a bakery, Johnny as the cook and Simon as the attendant. Good times. A slight smile appeared beneath his mask.

Maybe when they got to base 141, Ghost could get some work in the kitchen, or even maybe he could go and hunt something for them to eat, not that he knows how to prepare animal meat, but it shouldn't be too hard to learn.

A small sound of footsteps brings the lieutenant back from his thoughts, he looks at Soap who stops next to him and starts to rummage around behind the bench where the two of them are standing, he then pulls out a shotgun from under the bench.

Soap checks the shotgun and then holds it out to Ghost. "I knew this little beauty should still be here, take it for yourself."

Ghost takes the shotgun and looks it over, it has a few scratches on the metal but otherwise it's normal. "Thanks." -Soap pulls out a packet of ammunition and Ghost takes it with pleasure.

Soap gives the taller man a smile and walks over to one of the windows that has been smashed; Ghost walks right behind him. "We have to cross this street, the next block after that we'll come to the shop." -Ghost just nods and jumps through the window, Soap right behind him.

The two of them walk briskly for five minutes until they reach the shop, and as soon as they stand in front of it, Ghost notices that it has two floors, the walls painted a now greyish red and a sign that has been dismantled over time, the first floor has several relatively well-kept cars in front of a broken shop window, while on the second floor, from the outside, you can't see anything different.

"Keep an eye out, there could be an infected inside." -Ghost mutters before passing the shattered shop window.

Switching on the lantern, Ghost is able to get a better look at the surroundings, more cars that now look much better preserved than the ones in front of the shop window, perhaps because they are further away and protected from the weather outside they haven't been affected as much.

"Could we get the parts from these cars?" -He asks Soap, who is already opening the bonnet of a pick-up truck and staring at it. "Soap?" -Ghost approaches. "Are you even listening?"

"Hm? Oh, sorry, what is it?" -The doubt in the man's eyes is evident.

"Can we get those parts? The FEDRA truck is different from these cars." -He points around, showing the other cars.

"Not necessarily, some of the FEDRA trucks are made from pick-up truck parts, ironic i know, I can try to see if it's worth getting one of these." -Soap goes back to rummaging around inside the cars. "I thought you knew, since you're, well, if you know, a soldier."

"I'm a soldier, not one of the base mechanics, there's a difference." -He grunts and walks round to the back of the car. "I'm going to have a look around, I want to make sure there's nothing here. When you've finished picking up the parts, let me know."

"Yes, sir." -Soap mocks.

Rolling his eyes, Ghost begins to walk among the cars, there's nothing outside, just scrub growing between the cars and shards of glass scattered around, one thing that catches Ghost's eye is the motorbikes, there are some he recognises from magazines he's seen around, they were possibly to be repaired. He even lets out a whistle. If he could fix them, he would definitely take them for himself.

In his investigation, Ghost finds a small locker room next to a staircase, he checks the small room for anything interesting, but finds nothing more than some cloth, scissors and batteries that must have expired. He then cautiously decides to go up to the second floor.

On the second floor, there is a large office compartment, with several metal cabinets against the walls that probably have several binders inside, there are some desks with computers, but the most interesting thing that catches the lieutenant's eye is some mattresses at the end of the room, next to a radio and a giant open map on the floor with some points marked on it.

The marks are very old, perhaps decades old, possibly at the very beginning of the outbreak. On the map is the location of the mechanic's shop where he and Soap are currently staying, there's a mark pointing to the market, and another drawn in a circular shape that reads: FEDRA Regrouping. 

Ghost wonders for a moment, perhaps they could have some supplies that are still safe? No, they'd hardly have any perishable supplies, but maybe they'd have some ammunition and other equipment. He grabs the map and puts it in his pocket after folding it neatly.

Returning downstairs, he notices that there is no Scotsman on the premises. Walking between the cars, he hears a metallic noise echoing, and Ghost quickly makes his way through the mechanics until he finds an open door with a sign on it saying ‘Repairs’. Peering inside, Ghost notices several cars lifted by apparatus as if they had been left in the middle of repairs.

Soap was pressing his fingers between his eyes and one hand on his waist, slowly Ghost approached and put a hand on the man's shoulder. "Fuck!" -Soap turns round and throws a kick, but Ghost dodges it just in time, jumping backwards. "What the fuck, man, I thought you were one of those shits."

"You should pay attention, I wouldn't be surprised if one of those things took you by surprise." -He crosses his arms and stops in front of the other. "Did you find what we needed?"

Soap shakes his head in denial. "But I found a box with more tools than I have at home and some oils."

Well, that's disappointing. "Shite..." -Ghost sighs, he leans on the car as does Soap. They'd need to get on their feet without the parts, and that would probably take a few weeks of travelling. Unless they found one... well, that might be a long shot, but. "Look, I found something upstairs, we can risk it." -Ghost takes the map out of his pocket and opens it on the bonnet of the car.

Soap points to the dot circled on the map. "It's a commercial building, I've been there before and there was nothing there."

"Did you explore everything inside?"

"Not everything, there were some infected and some doors were blocked and I didn't have..." -Soap looks down at the floor where Ghost sees a large box of open tools, and next to the box a crowbar. "Tools to open."

Ghost picks up the map. "How long from here to there?"

"Ten minutes." -Soap bends down to pick up the toolbox and the crowbar. "There's an underground car park."

"Any chance of a FEDRA truck inside?"

"If they were regrouping there should be at least three cars, but the chances of them still being there are... yeah, minimal."

"Then hope they're there if you don't want to walk several kilometres to the coast."

.

.

.

The rain lessened its force when they arrived at the commercial building, a gentle wind made the plants and vines sway from where they had grown on the tall eight-storey building. A chill ran down Ghost's back, perhaps he would come down with the flu in the future and that would be a problem, luckily he had some medicine stashed away that he had picked up before leaving.

Soap was humming an unfamiliar tune, at least to the lieutenant, maybe it was something acoustic because it was so quiet, but Soap didn't seem to be a guy who liked a guitar.

There was a glass door preventing them from getting through, tied with chains and locked with a padlock so that nothing could open it, he hears the smuggler take another key out of his pocket, it's bigger. He turns round with furrowed brows and a serious expression.

"Look, there are spores inside, that's why I didn't explore properly." -Ghost takes another look inside, and almost imperceptibly he notices a slight difference in colour through the door. He thought it was dirt at first glance.

With a nod, the two of them grab their gas masks, Ghost turning round so that the other couldn't see his face. He nimbly removes his balaclava and puts his gas mask back on, leaving only his eyes showing. He didn't feel Soap's gaze on him as he changed, for which he is deeply grateful. He then turns to Soap. "Let's go quickly and quietly, we don't want to attract unwanted attention inside."

Then Soap unlocks the padlock and removes the chains. When he opens the door, some of the spores fall out like mist. The two of them enter and Ghost closes the door as soon as he's through. The room is dark, and when he switches on his lantern to see better, he can see his surroundings more clearly.

Inside, the situation is slightly different from what he expected. They were in a small circular hall with several other doors and shop signs. Up above, there was no ceiling but an open space that showed the floors above. There were several bodies of dead infected lying near walls and on the floor, some even standing on the ledge of other floors. Probably the work of Soap or other people from years ago.

There were lifts right next to the door in the wall on the other side of the lobby, but they clearly weren't working, but luckily next to the lift there was a wide staircase that went up and down. Soap said that the car park was below, and luckily their key to victory was only a few steps away.

Soap moves towards the stairs, but a sudden small clicking sound makes Ghost grab his wrist, Soap turns to say something but Ghost makes a silent gesture in front of his face. He then points to one of the doors of what might be a clothes shop, and through the door a figure appears.

Destroyed and torn clothes, leaving only a little bare skin visible, which has several protuberances and bulging veins, but the main point is the head that is surrounded by several orange mushroom bodies that have sprung up from the inside out, only the crooked and yellowed teeth are what remains of what was once a person. The thing makes little clicks in its throat as it walks tottering through the lobby.

Soap's eyes widen at the sight of the clicker, Ghost slowly leads them behind one of the pillars of the building, behind which they both kneel. Soap turns round and whispers in a very low voice. "I thought they were on the top floors, not the first."

Swallowing dryly, Ghost asks in the same whispering tone. "Do you think you can lure him away?" -He hears clicks and footsteps coming closer.

"Clickers see by sound, try to find something heavy enough to make a noise, we'll throw it the other way." -Soap replies firmly, his eyes showing the knowledge of someone who has lived through this many times.

Ghost nods, he takes the knife out of his pocket for safekeeping. "Stay here, I'll take a look, we're not using firearms in here unless everything goes to shit." -He doesn't wait for an answer as he starts walking.

Crouching down he walks around, it doesn't take long before he sees among the spores in the air, standing inside a box near a closed metal door, several empty bottles. Grabbing one, he turns towards the hall, noticing the clicker near the pillar where Soap was hiding behind it.

With force, he throws it across the lobby, the bottle hits the yellowish wall and shatters, the sound echoing through the silent place and quickly, the creature turns and runs crookedly to where the sound was emitted.

Looking at Soap, he gestures with his hand for the man to come over to Ghost. Slowly crouching down Soap approaches, Ghost notices that in his hands is the crowbar. Ghost turns to the box and takes out two bottles, giving one to Soap and the other he keeps in his pocket. "Precaution." -explained the man.

As they walk crouched towards the stairs, Ghost notices noises coming from the other doors around them, some even from the upper floors. Soap behind him whispers close enough for goosebumps to break out. "The basement door is locked, if we can press the crowbar underneath we might be able to grab it and pull it up."

"How do you know there's a car park below?" -He had this doubt because at no point was it explained, but Soap pointed to a sign right next to the staircase wall showing what was on each floor, and well, the car park had a downward arrow. "Oh..." -he whispered, now embarrassed.

Descending the stairs and with the help of the torch so as not to make a false move, the two arrived at the end. The lieutenant noticed that the passage to the car park was locked with a metal roll-up door; it looked heavy just by looking at it.

He feels a hand grab his shoulder, but isn't alarmed, knowing that it's Soap who's looking at him shrewdly. "Try pulling it up, it'll help." -Ghost nods and does as he's asked.

He presses his hands against the door, adjusts the position of his feet and then taking a deep breath through the gas mask he pulls the door upwards, next he hears the metallic sound of Soap sticking his crowbar under the door in the small space Ghost has managed to give him. In a few seconds he hears a "Ready." -And then the door is grabbed from underneath by Soap, who forces the door upwards more easily now.

The man's trembling arms are noticeable, so Ghost quickly grabs the door from underneath to help, and damn, what a heavy fucking door. "Go, go, go." -He said through gritted teeth.

Soap crouches underneath and passes to the other side, then stands up and grabs the door again, only now holding it for Ghost to pass under. When the soldier finally passes Soap slowly releases the door to the ground and lets out a tired sigh, but charismatic as ever he turns to Ghost with his hand raised for a High Five. "Very good Lt!" -Ghost rolls his eyes but accepts the high five. Maybe he's slowly starting to like the smuggler.

"Fuck, now let's see - Wow! Look what we've got here." -Soap practically runs between some cars parked.

Following behind Soap, Ghost sees several cars, but the one that catches his eye the most is two FEDRA trucks, hopefully for them to remove some parts from the trucks.

Soap takes his toolbox out of his backpack and throws it on the ground, causing a metallic noise to echo, Ghost feels his ears hurt a little. "All right, let's have a look." -Soap stares at Ghost, who can practically see a little smirk through his mask. "Why don't you take a look inside, there might be something interesting."

Soap's right, maybe there should be something they can use. "Right." -He mutters and walks over to the passenger door. As soon as he opens it, a skeletal body wearing soldier's clothes falls to the ground, and Ghost feels sorry for the poor guy who died like that. "Fuck hell."

"What's wrong?" -Soap asks, already fiddling with the bonnet parts.

"Poor guy died inside the car... probably of starvation." -Ghost kicks the body that's turned over on its back.

Soap complains quietly to the parts before answering the lieutenant. "How do you know? He could have been bitten and killed himself."

He bent over the body and turned it over again, analysing the state of the skull and the clothes. "That's hardly the case, considering he has no gunshot or blood marks, if he had been infected he would probably have become a clicker by now or infected the whole car with fungus." -In his curiosity about the corpse, Ghost managed to find some bullets in the soldier's pocket. ‘’Hell Yeah."

He looks inside the truck again now, and incredibly he finds proof that the soldier really did die of starvation: there were some ration packets lying on the seat next to bottles of water. Opening the boot, he finds a ray ban just like the ones in American films, which he obviously keeps secret in his rucksack for later use, and a few more boxes of bullets for a pistol. Apart from that, nothing much.

As soon as he gets out of the car, Soap curses loudly and closes the bonnet. "No luck on that one, let's hope there's something useful in the other one." -Let's hope so, Ghost isn't a fan of walking for weeks to get to the tip of England.

Ignoring this fact and rooting for Soap, he opens the door of the other car, prepared to grab any body that falls out, but luckily none does. "Whew." -He gets in and searches between the seats, finding nothing but dust and an infection detector. "It's been a few months since I've seen one of these." -And luckily he won't need to see any more.

Pulling the sun visor out of the car, the car key falls out onto the seat, a shame this shit must not be working otherwise they could just take this car and drive off. Opening the glove compartment Ghost sees something interesting, taking it in hand he finds three walkie-talkies. Price had talked about them once, he said they could communicate up to 32 kilometres.

Ghost puts them in his backpack, maybe if they found a battery they could make them work. Stepping out of the car, Ghost hears Soap celebrating and laughing in a demonic language known as...Gaelic? That must be the name.

"Yay! Finally! I got the radiator Lieutenant!" -Ghost claps his hands sarcastically as he watches the man place the part next to the toolbox. "Now all we need are two springs, do you think you can help lift the car, just by a few centimetres?" -Nodding, Ghost bends down to pick up the side of the car, Soap lies down and stands in front of the tyre, tools in hand. "You can pull."

Ghost pulls the car round and waits patiently for Soap to do the work underneath. Ghost's arms tremble a little, almost like when he started basic FEDRA training, the push-ups he did against his body weight were fucking exhausting. At least he's better today.

It takes a few more minutes to remove the spring on one side, and another fifteen on the other, Ghost's arms exclaim pleas for him to let go of the car and when he does, he feels light and weak. He's definitely going to sleep like a stone tonight, if any infected show up he'll have to kick them because he doesn't have the strength to lift a gun at the moment.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Soap finishing putting the parts into his rucksack and taking the radiator in hand from the toolbox. "I'm loaded!" -He exclaims with a beastly grin.

Ghost just grunted. "So, how do we get out of here?"

"There's a locked gate at the end of the corridor to the left."

A tingle runs through Ghost's muscles. "Better be worth coming here." -He complains, and then the two of them head back home.

Chapter Text

.

.

.

The rain continued to fall over the next few days, sometimes the wind was strong and full of thunderstorms, other times it was just blowing with splashes of water. He and Soap didn't really get the flu after returning, but they were clearly tired, falling asleep as soon as they arrived at 19:00 and waking up at 9:00 the next morning. Ghost's arms and legs were grateful for the good rest.

That night, Nikolai remained tied to the chair on the captain's lookout, while Gaz looked out of the street windows, turning round to look at the back of the house as well. Just after dawn Nikolai was brought to the garage to change the car parts. Price watched from the corner and Soap helped the Russian change the parts. Gaz went to bed and Ghost went to keep an eye on the neighbourhood.

During the day, when Gaz had already woken up and gone to take Price's place on watch, Ghost called the captain to talk about the walkie talkie he had found in the commercial building.

The captain sat down with them in his hand, whistling happily. "Gaz and I took the opportunity to pick up everything important in the house, we found some batteries that should be useful in these little beauties." -He said, pulling some batteries out of his pocket.

And it's a good thing the batteries were good enough, they tested them a bit to see if they were still good to use and luckily they were. Price didn't know if the kilometre distance was still active, but he hoped so. Deep down, Ghost hoped so too, since if they got separated they could still keep in touch.

So the walkie talkies remained, one with the captain, one with Ghost and one with Soap. The reason Gaz didn't get one was because they needed someone with outside knowledge, and Soap was the only one they had for that, since they couldn't rely on Nikolai for that.

And so, in three days everything was ready, they just rested another day to make sure they were prepared.

.

.

.

"So where are we going?" -Gaz asked from where he was filling the tank with one of the litres of petrol they had brought. They were packing up the car. "And what do we do with our little friend?" 

Price looks over to where Nikolai is sitting on the floor with his arms tied behind his back. The captain bends down to eye level with the Russian. "If you'd rather go to Machester, we'll let you go, but you won't find a way home from there." -He pauses, pursing his lips reflexively. "Or you can be a good boy and come with us to Italy, and from there you can return to your home."

Nikolai lets out a snort of laughter, looking smugly at Price. "Am I going to stay alive until the end, Captain?"

Price turns his head, pretending to think about the question. "If you follow the right steps, you might make it across the sea in one piece." -The Russian laughs, giving a toothy grin.

The captain then stands up and takes the map out of his pocket, spreading it over the bonnet of the car. Ghost approaches the captain, looking at the map. "We're here, and we need to get down here." -Price points from Glossop and makes an imaginary line to Dover at the southern tip of England.

"We haven't enough fuel to get there, we'll still need to walk a few kilometres." -Ghost points to London on the map. "That's the capital, isn't it? We'd probably stop in it." -Ghost isn't happy about having to walk, but it probably wouldn't take them much longer than two days to get to Dover on foot.

Price considers for a moment, tweaking his beard. He turns to the Russian and grabs him, pulling him close to the map. "What's your opinion, vodka?"

The Russian looks at the map, at the cities mentioned. "We won't get that far," -He points to London. "You're not so wrong that you'd probably make it to London, especially with the two litres of petrol you've got, though." -He walks around to the side of the car and kicks the tyre. "There's a chance of the tyre bursting or having to be changed, and as far as I know you don't have a tyre to spare."

"He's right." -Everyone looks at Gaz who is approaching. "We'd need to change the tyres somewhere or have to walk after a point."

Price shakes his head and then looks at the map, analysing it until he finds it. "Leicester, it's on the way, there might be something on it. We take what we need for the car and then we go down to London, from there we get to Dover."

Everyone accepts, it's not a bad idea, but it's not the best either considering they don't know much about what's out there beyond the basics. But it's a plan after all.

"Ghost," -Price says. "Find where Soap is."

Yeah, the smuggler had to say goodbye to the place before he left, which made Ghost roll his eyes. Why would anyone have to say goodbye to any house, Ghost never needed to get attached to a place, all the places he started to get attached to brought something bad, death, deception, and injustice, but apparently for Soap it wasn't like that.

Ghost merely grunted before going through the door to follow Soap. It didn't take long to find Soap, the man was sitting in the room where they had found Nikolai that day, or more precisely, lying on the bed, hands folded across his stomach and eyes closed. Possibly relaxing. 

It was a domestic scene seen from one angle. Birds singing outside, a fog covering the area and a bit of sun passing through the clouds, it was relatively early. It was a setting that Simon would like to experience more of now, away from the destroyed city and government of Manchester.

He walks over to the man, giving him a few small kicks with his foot that make Soap mumble in discomfort, slowly he opens his eyes and looks at the lieutenant, he gives a small smile. "I thought angels wore white instead of black." -The voice is thick with sleep.

Ghost snorts in response, leaning against the wall next to the bed. "I think it's more like a demon." -He crosses his arms, watching Soap sit up in bed and wipe his hand across his face, looking at Ghost with that little silly smile.

"Nah, demons have horns and bat wings, and I've seen images of angels in the shape of skulls." -Now that's a sight, going into a house of god and seeing its skeletal angels, maybe Ghost should ask for the location before they leave, maybe take a few Polaroid pictures.

"It's good, isn't it?"

"...What?"

"This," -Soap points around with his finger. "It's nice not to have to worry about anything, just to sit, listen and... relax." -The man sighed, resting his hands on the bed, grabing it. "I hope there's a place like this when we get there."

"There will be, if the captain says there is." -Ghost still has his doubts, but it's hope that drives him, the hope that Price gave him. Ghost watches Soap's eyebrows narrow for a moment. "Will you... miss this hovel?" -It was a doubt that Ghost had.

Soap looks at the window, seeing a bit of sunlight streaming through. "It's a safe place in a way... but no, I don't think missing it fits." -Soap stands up, heading for the door.

"And what does?" -Soap pauses at the door, slowly turning his face over his shoulder.

"I think... I think I'm afraid of leaving behind some memories, afraid of forgetting that they were ever real." -He finishes the last few words almost in a whisper, as if the strength to speak is weakening. Maybe it did. Soap descends the stairs, his footsteps moving towards the garage.

Ghost paused for a moment, reflecting on what Soap had told him. Taking the photo out of his pocket, Ghost looks at the walls of Manchester. Has anyone missed them? Will they come after them? Are they criminals? So many questions that won't be answered.

Fear of leaving memories behind, this is a fear that Ghost has with three memories, playing with Tommy, receiving his mum's camera, and the moments with Johnny. Sometimes, in the silence of the night, Ghost imagines if he lost his memories, maybe he could live more peacefully.

Looking at the bed, it was untidy, dust circulated in the air, and a slight chill crept up his skin through his clothes. Ghost takes the Polaroid camera out of his backpack, adjusts the angle to get enough of the room and the window, and then he clicks. A small flash comes on and goes off, and slowly the print is made.

Ghost doesn't stay to see how the photo turns out. He puts it in his pocket and goes downstairs to the garage.

Maybe one day he'll give it to Soap.

.

.

.

"I'll take the front!"

"No, you're not!"

"I said it first!"

Gaz and Soap clearly have no sense, they look like two children fighting over sweets. Gaz climbed into the front seat, next to Price who was in the driver's seat, in the back, Ghost sat behind Price and Soap behind Gaz, he was still complaining about having to sit in the back, and Nikolai was between the two of them.

The fog was still present but it was gradually clearing, which would give them cover until they left the city. It was a little euphoric to be able to explore the outside world with a car, it was safe in a way.

"How long until we arrive?" -Gaz asked as he finished putting on his seatbelt.

Price was braiding the map in his hands, probably calculating the kilometres in time. "Two hours, but if we have to take a diversion, probably about three." -He puts the map away in his rucksack, fixes his hat, and then starts the car, which vibrates. "Okay, I hope you boys don't have to go to the toilet, because there won't be a break." -Soap and Gaz laugh out loud, the Russian just smiles and Ghost looks out, watching the houses disappear little by little.

During the journey nothing bad happens, Gaz and Soap chat about random subjects like food, where they could rest, how they can't wait to get there soon, and how much their backs are hurting, and well, on that Ghost agreed.

The Russian would sometimes say a few words, asking about FEDRA in Manchester, doubts he had about crossing into another country, he even asked for a cigarette which Price quickly denied, even though he was smoking one.

Was this what travelling was supposed to be like? Films always showed something similar to this when friends travelled around. Hours on the road with music and singing. It would be great if it really were like that, but it's a shame it can't happen, not here where someone might listen to them, go after them. 

They passed other towns along the way, some that had low, broken walls, others that were submerged in water, others that were just abandoned altogether. A few detours were made because some of the motorways had too many cars at a standstill, and on these detours Ghost spotted various animals passing in front of the car and around it in the woods.

It was a scene worthy of a painting.

Within an hour, Ghost thought of something that gave rise to a small doubt. He cocked his head to one side so that Price could look in the rear-view mirror and see him. "Do you want to stop inside the city? It's risky." -As imagined, the captain's blue eyes jump into the rear-view mirror, staring at him. "We'll be easy targets, as well as making a lot of noise."

"Gaz, get the map." -The sergeant reaches into his rucksack and pulls out the map, opening it on his lap. "Look for a stop next to Leicester."

Gaz hums as he searches, when he finds it he makes a sound with his throat. "Whetstone is to the south, about seven kilometres from the centre of Leicester. It looks like a small town."

"We could stop there and look for something from there." -Soap interrupts with the idea.

Nikolai looks at the map, Ghost notices. "You'd need to stop and hide the car as well, it shouldn't be too difficult."

"Someone stands guard with the car, and someone else goes after it in the city." -Ghost gives the idea. "I can go, someone comes along and we take four wheels, roll to where the car is and that's it."

"I'll go along, we'll just take the pipe wrench with us." -Soap backs up, looking at Ghost who nods.

Price pays attention to the road for a moment and then turns to look at the map, and then he points with his finger. "We'll stop in the north-east of the city."

Right, plan done, legs ready to walk, all that's left is to wait for the car to stop so they can finally start. So, in the meantime, Ghost is ready to enjoy more of the scenery.

.

.

.

When Price parked the car, everyone went out to get something to cover the car, finding a discreet black tarpaulin that covered the whole car and camouflaged it against people who might be in the area, even though they hadn't seen anyone so far.

Price stood guard with Nikolai in hand while the rest of the men worked, they murmured to each other, talking about something serious, but not important enough to share.

It was cloudier now, which was good for Ghost, the cloudy day hid them and didn't attract attention.

"All right," -Price sat down in a dusty chair, they were inside a restaurant where next to them they hid the car. "Are you two sure you want to go alone?" -Ghost and Soap nodded with determination. "Right, we'll communicate by walkie talkies, every half hour I want updates, if you find danger don't make a fuss."

"Yes sir, me and the big guy will find new tyres in no time." -Soap says excitedly, patting Ghost on the shoulder. The touch sends a shiver down Ghost's spine and he quickly removes the intruding hand from his shoulder.

Soap looks at him strangely but doesn't comment further.

Checking their rucksacks one last time, the two men leave and start walking towards the city, Ghost again keeping an eye on his surroundings, Soap meanwhile looking for signs on the streets indicating the way.

There was something strange, a sensation, Ghost couldn't explain it but it was like a feeling, and it wasn't as if he had ever believed it. The trees planted in the middle of the street didn't help with this feeling either, not being able to see the surroundings properly was problematic.

Soap was also a little strange, quiet unlike the 'chatty' version of him, if he was planning to take Ghost out of the game he'd have to sweat. Not that Soap had a chance, considering that Ghost was behind and watching. Maybe he should have brought Gaz along, the sergeant would probably have calmed Ghost down.

"Hey, check it out," -Soap points to a rusty blue plaque. "Aylestone, that must be a suburb of Leicester. Do you think there's a FEDRA station round here?"

Ghost thinks about the question, as far as he knows, FEDRA used to park in tall buildings with a roof and a good field of vision, at least that's how Ghost learnt it in his surveillance classes. He's never been out of the zone before, so maybe that's changed or is different.

He looks around, between the space that the trees give up, there aren't many buildings, but more houses around, except for. "There, see that tip, up there?" -Ghost points with his finger at what looks like the whole of a children's cartoon castle. "If there's one big building, there must be others around it."

Soap shakes his head, licking his dry lips. "Okay, we can go up there."

Quickly with hurried steps they approach the direction Ghost has pointed, they pass a small stream on the way, deer taking a drink before being startled by the faces of the two men. Soap took out his notebook and started scribbling. 

Glancing round, Ghost notices Soap drawing, the lines are fluid as if he's been doing it for years, maybe he has, Ghost saw him drawing at the house in Glossop while they rested and ate. Ghost wanted to draw once, to have something to be the best at, but shapes and lines had never been his forte.

Johnny said that words were something Simon knew well, as well as angles. Perhaps Simon would write again in the future, maybe poems or short stories, Johnny would illustrate Simon's stories in comics, it was something unique and special to them. He loved it.

Soap finishes drawing, he notices Ghost watching and then shows the notebook more openly. "What do you think?" -He asks, humming.

"It looks like a deer." -Ghost replies sarcastically, arms crossed as he watches the drawing back at him. 

"Don't tell me, wise guy, I thought it was an elephant." -Soap rolled his eyes, closing the notebook and putting it in his rucksack.

"From your size, it's clearly an elephant." -They started walking back along the path, now closer together.

"Bastard," -Soap punches Ghost in the chest. "We should have killed it, we could have had meat today."

"Too much work to skin it, and we wouldn't have much time for that today."

It really would be nice for them to have some meat, but it would set them back hours on their journey and that's not something that would be good, not if they want to arrive just before autumn.

As soon as they cross to the other side of the sea, they can hunt for something to eat.

When the two arrive at the building that Ghost pointed out, they are slightly surprised, for as soon as they look they are in front of a church, one that has a tree breaking through one of its walls and several vines climbing up the roofs and falling down like a natural curtain.

Now that conversation he had with Soap earlier pops into his head. "Do you think skeleton angels hang around here?" -He says, passing through the open wall and entering the church.

Inside the church, wide chairs were leaning against the main doors, not that it would matter nowadays. The floor had a yellowish slab full of brown and green leaves, the walls followed the same pattern, the only difference being that they contained religious pictures with images distorted by time.

"Nah, this church really looks like a saint's church." -Soap whistles as he looks around. "We're lucky it didn't burn down when we came in here."

If they really were going to burn down, Ghost would probably be charred for hours on the floor. "It's a good thing God doesn't exist in this house of his." -Poor are those who still have faith in this world.

The two of them walked up to the priest's altar, on the right there was an open door that Ghost could see a ladder going up. They continued chatting along the way.

"You're not the religious type?" -Soap asks, arching an eyebrow.

"No." -Ghost was never religious, there wasn't even a bible in his house before the outbreak. His mum went to church sometimes, she prayed at night when his dad wasn't home to fill him in, she became more religious during the outbreak, but she never forced Simon or Tommy to pray. Tommy even prayed during his childhood, unlike Simon, but stopped when he started getting involved with his friends.

If there really is a God, someone must have taken a huge shit for them to be in this world. But Simon knows that's not true, nature is probably the closest thing they have to divinity.

"Are you?" -Ghost asks out of respect.

They walk up the stairs, with quiet steps, and Ghost can see a door at the top. "Me? No way, I think I'm more into science, like atoms and cells, you know?" -He waves his hands in the air, making a small sign.

Ghost feels a little lost, what the fuck were atoms? "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about chemistry, you know those experiments the teachers used to do? Like mixing hydrogen peroxide and sodium iodide, forming that long foam, it can burn if you touch it."

"I've never seen that in my life, the only thing I know about is cells and such." Soap seems to have a hard-on for this science stuff, like Johnny, they'd be good friends. "We're here."

When Ghost opens the door, he is immediately confronted with a large metal bell hanging above it, its ropes still intact. On the horizon, Ghost notices several old houses in the neighbourhood, which are almost covered by vegetation, green trees and others starting to turn orange.

"Hey, Lt," -Soap tugs on Ghost's shoulder, who looks up in annoyance.

"What's wrong?"

"Smoke."

What? Ghost looks to the right of where he was looking, and this time he sees several tall buildings, similar to those in Manchester, just below there were also houses and trees, but very visibly between all the buildings and the forest, there was a dark grey smoke.

And it surely didn't happen naturally.

"People?"

"A group, they're not too far from us," -Ghost takes his rifle off his shoulder and points it at the smoke, through the scope he tries to see closer. "Let's see."

For a moment Ghost looks for a clear space through the trees, it takes a while, but when he gets it he sees what was causing the smoke. Several tyres and plastic bags were burning, and some metal barrels were also burning inside, but the difference was that there were people around.

All men as far as Ghost could see, they carried guns on their backs and waists, shotguns, pistols, revolvers and a few sticks and pipes, these ones strapped with scissors and nails. They don't seem friendly. They chat, laugh about something, some are even sitting around polishing weapons.

"I don't see any women or children, just men with guns." -Ghost informs him, lowering himself to the ground with Soap.

"Bandits then, they must loot any survivors who pass in front of them." -Soap observes the place where the smoke is. "There's no point in going there, we can go back and try to find something near where Price and Gaz are."

"I agree, we can-"

VROOM!

Ghost is silent, Soap in front of him is wide-eyed, and the sound of the engine rumbling in the distance is very noticeable. These guys have a car, and it's no ordinary one. Looking through the scope again, Ghost tenses at the sight of headlights, but that's not what scares him most, it's the machine gun on top of the car.

"Holy shit." -Ghost thrusts the rifle at Soap, who instantly looks through the scope. 

And in a few seconds, he sighs anxiously. "Holy shit." -He also repeats, agreeing with Ghost. "What do we do now?"

Ghost takes the rifle back, swallowing his suspense he clicks on the walkie talkie. "Price, over."

The captain quickly replies, clearly expecting some good news, but too bad there isn't any. "Lieutenant, over, everything all right?"

"No, we've discovered something."

"Are you injured?"

"Negative, we found a group, Soap says they're bandits, no children or women, but several men walking around." -He pauses, looking towards where the rumble of the engine echoes again. "They've got a military car... with a machine gun on top."

Price is silent for a few seconds, on the other side of the communicator the sound of conversation echoes in static. "Repeat what you said, over?" -Price asks in a worried tone.

Soap picks up his own walkie talkie and replies. "They've got a military car with a fucking gun on it, Price."

"Holy shit." -Gaz's voice echoes.

Ghost watches the car park and a figure in a red coat gets out of the car, walking over to a circle of people chatting and drinking. "Should we fall back?" -They're clearly outnumbered here, and that's dangerous, even more so if these guys find out about them.

"You should-"

"No!" -Nikolai shouts, interrupting Price.

"Sit your arse down and shut up!" -Soap and Ghost look at each other in surprise at the shouting, not knowing whether or not to interrupt.

"Captain, listen to me, this car could be a great way out for us, it's a perfect weapon."

"I'm not going to send my men to graze behind a car that's surrounded by bandits who could kill them."

"Then don't send them after everyone, but the one with the key, catch him off guard and bang."

"That's a-"

"Great idea." -Soap mutters. And Ghost can only grimace, trying to understand what the fuck the smuggler is thinking. The voices from the walkie talkie become just a faint cacophony in the background at this point.

"Soap, we're not going to get that car." -They didn't stand a chance against those guys, especially with it being just the two of them. What would happen if they died? Price and Gaz would come after them and be killed too, if the Russian was lucky he'd get away with the car they have.

Soap looks at the horizon, mapping out the location, he gives Ghost a quick glance and then points to a building. "If we go there we'll have a more visible area, one of us gives it away and steals the key, we leave by... that open road over there." 

The building was fifty or a hundred metres from where the bandits were, there was no light coming from inside, but that didn't stop someone being there, or worse, an infected. 

Ghost is ready to argue, but Soap cuts him off first. "That car isn't going to make it to another town, we won't have any tyres on the way, if we look around here avoiding them, there must be more scattered around, if we go and get them now we'll have a better chance of survival out here, especially with that firepower."

Worst of all, Soap makes a good point, Ghost wants to argue and say that this plan to get the car is silly, he knows that what's stopping him is the fear that he could put Price and Kyle in danger, kill them for greed of something they can manage without, even if it takes more effort.

Perhaps what happened to Tommy and Johnny is the most accurate reason.

Ghost looks at the building, the bandits' camp and the car, shakes his head and sighs exaggeratedly. He switches on the walkie talkie and says in a firm voice, already knowing that if they were still in Manchester, Ghost would be punished.

"Price... we have an idea."

.

.

.

Ghost jumps off a small wall, landing with a grunt in the tall undergrowth. "Are you in position?" -Ghost asks calmly, walking between the oaks and the bushes, with light steps so as not to make a sound.

It took him a few seconds to hear the answer. "Yes, climbing the stairs in this shithole made me want to lie down."

"Get ready, you'll have to run downstairs. Remember to close the door to the room from wherever you are, don't be caught unawares." -A warning is always good in these situations, you never know when a rat might show up, or infected, in today's terms.

A static laugh exhales. "Aye, aye, Lt. All done as you said." -A short pause, and then he continues. "I'm surprised you gave me your rifle, are you sure you won't miss it?"

What a fucking greedy bloke, if Ghost is about to regret it. "I didn't give it to you, I lent it to you. And no, you're my eyes now, you need to have good vision, the scope will help you." -Soap doesn't respond at all to the rudeness.

They decided to split up, Soap providing cover from above in the building with the rifle, and Ghost below in the field, he knew he was sneaky enough not to be noticed among the bandits, the high, dense woods also helped. A few metres away they were, walking and chatting nonchalantly, nothing that was important to pay attention to.

When Price learnt of their plan he was about to have a stroke, but luckily Gaz managed to calm him down with the Russian, and Ghost's words saying that they could get the car must have helped even more. He and Price were good friends, Ghost understood their concern, it was the same thing he felt.

Ghost sees the car parked near some trees, he would need to lure these people away in order to get the car. "Soap, do you see the guy with the key?"

"If you're talking about the skinny bloke in the red coat, yeah, I am." -Soap hums through the communicator. "And he's just gone into a broken-down house in the east, there seems to be power in it, you can see some lights inside, can you?"

Ghost searches among the drunk and sober, until he finds a completely collapsed brick hovel with a few beams of orange light coming out of it, it's probably a corner shop or something. "I see, I'll try to get round, keep an eye out for me."

"Yes sir, and Lt... be careful." -Soap's tone has a certain kindness and concern. 

"Leave it to me, you too Soap."

It's not difficult to advance unnoticed; the cover of the urban forest helps him hide. As he advances, he notices some old leaflets lying around, all FEDRA warnings, apparently one of the bombings to contain the infected was supposed to have been near here. Not that it made any difference, at most it was a loss of resources.

Ghost crosses the road, using the bushes and broken walls as cover, he approaches the car, noticing two men talking a couple of metres in front of the bonnet, something about running out of food, and swearing at their boss. It's similar to the Manchester base, where the young men complained about their superiors, some suffering punishment when discovered, broken teeth and bruised bodies.

Deciding to ignore these two, he walks round the car, entering the woods again, Soap hadn't given any updates yet, so everything was fine, or so he thought. Ghost froze when he saw a man walk past and stop a metre away from him, he stank of alcohol and something rotten, he probably hadn't showered in a while.

The thug complains in spliced words, he pulls down his trousers, which gradually fall down to his trainers, and begins to piss without concern.

Ghost is disgusted by the scene. With knife in hand, he advances until he is behind the man and then attacks, covering the man's mouth and shoving the knife down his throat. The blood from the artery begins to squirt out and run down his clothes.

He slowly drops the body to the ground so as not to make a sound, before this man stank, now the smell has become worse with blood and urine. Ghost grabs the walkie talkie, and then asks in confusion, "Why didn't you warn me about the man coming towards me?" -He waits for a moment, watching the blood drain from his body and a few other men walk past. "Soap, over? Soap, are you there?"

A little despair falls over Ghost's shoulders, has Soap been caught? He looks at the building, expecting flashes of light and shots, but nothing, not even the tip of the rifle is visible, which could mean that he has changed position or is just well hidden.

Luckily, the answer to his question comes quickly. "Lt, over. Sorry, I had a stalker with me, the bastard got blood all over me." -Soap looks breathless as he replies, almost spitting out the words.

"Try not to let the blood get on any wounds." -Ghost waits a moment, watching a few guys walk past, almost stumbling on the ground. "I don't want to have to put a bullet in your face."

When he finally arrives at the shop after a few minutes lurking around, he tries to find an open window, but unfortunately luck doesn't help in this matter, but as he turns round there's an open hole, Ghost would have to crawl through to get in, but that's okay. 

"Soap, over."

"Lt, what's good?"

"Entering the house, keep an eye out in case anyone tries to come at me."

"Aye, aye, try not to get into trouble."

.

.

.

As requested, he didn't make a fuss, he quickly found where the scrawny guy was. Ghost crouched down and crawled over to the man's back, who was in front of a cooker mixing beans from tins, somehow these thugs had found a mini gas cylinder, which was really impressive.

Before the skinny man could turn round, Ghost crouched behind him and hugged the man from behind, putting his arm round his neck and with his other hand he grabbed the man's face and began to twist it. It wasn't long before he heard the snap of nerves and bones breaking, the body going limp against Ghost's chest, who lowered him to the ground cautiously and began to search his pockets for the car key.

"Soap, over." -He asked after taking the key and the pistol ammunition from the man.

"Lt, how's your visit going?" -He asked in a joking tone.

"It was good, I even got a little present from the host." -Ghost analysed the key in his hand, waving it around a little. There was nothing so special about it apart from a kitten keyring.

"That's what I like to hear," -Ghost gets up from where he was crouching, sees some tins of food and decides to keep them for himself, he's not daft enough to leave resources behind. "So, how are we going to get the car out without getting a bullet in our arses?"

"Hm, I'm thinking." -Soap could perhaps fire a few shots, but that would focus attention on him, and that's a fucking bad thing. Maybe an explosion, maybe cutting the barrel of the cylinder and setting it on fire, that sounds better. Yeah, that might work.

Withdrawing the knife, Ghost cuts the pipe that leads from the cylinder to the cooker, slowly he hears the air coming out more quickly and the smell of the air becomes strange. On top of the cooker is a torch lighter which Ghost grabs.

Setting off in the direction he came from, Ghost switches on the radio. "Soap, get ready to descend."

"Should I expect anything?" -Soap replies with a laugh.

"It's going to be an explosive distraction."

"Oh, now my heart's on fire, Lieutenant." -Soap purrs the words.

Ghost holds the lighter steady and lights it. "Heh, try not to melt then."

"Difficult with you tempting me like that."

"Focus on getting out of there Soap." -That was quite, um, embarrassing, stop it Simon.

With one last look, Ghost throws the lighter straight into the kitchen, and slowly like a firework, the flames expand and an explosion echoes through the room.

Quickly, Ghost bends down and climbs out of the hole where he came in, getting mud on his clothes. Outside, between the bushes and the forest, an orange glow is reflected, that of the flames that begin to envelop the shop like a cocoon, from a distance further on, the other bandits start shouting at each other, running towards the shop in a desperate way.

Ghost sneaks through the brush and quickly makes his way to the truck, he gets in and knocks the door lightly, he engages the key in the ignition and clicks on the walkie-talkie. "Soap, I'm in, are you down?"

"Like a child waiting for the bus, Lt." -Great, no time to lose then, Ghost turns the key and the roar of the engine echoes, looking out of the window he sees some people looking back, and not wanting to stay to see what happens he engages first gear and hits the accelerator hard. Ghost hears shouting, but doesn't look in the rear-view mirror to see what he already knows.

The drive to the building to pick up Soap is uneventful, nothing to worry about happens, the sound of the engine and the crunch of the machine gun on the roof calm the adrenaline. Looking out of the window, black smoke covers some of the sky, hopefully it will rain, to save those guys the trouble of not spreading the fire.

Ghost honestly thought it was going to go to shit, but luckily the smuggler's idea worked, Price is probably gnawing his fingers with anxiety to know the outcome, and giving a speech about how irresponsible he and Soap were, but screw it at this point.

When Soap gets into the car he's practically bouncing, his forehead is beaded with sweat and he looks a little out of breath, he glances happily at the machine gun, starting to check the equipment, the bullets connected in strips to the machine gun. Soap whistles and then mutters a few loose words, not that Ghost is paying attention.

"No fucking way." -Soap laughs and practically jumps into the back seat. "Check it out!" -Ghost hums and looks in the rear-view mirror, seeing Soap pull out some tinned food boxes, similar to the ones Ghost picked up in the kitchen. "Looks like we'll have snacks for a while."

"If there are beans, I'm happy." -Eggs and rice would be good too, but if not, beans are good enough.

Soap makes a sound of disgust. "Nice, a proper Brit, aren't you?" -That makes Ghost smile.

"So, anything more interesting back there?" -He asks, turning his gaze back to the street, past some of the houses they passed earlier.

Soap remains silent, analysing for a moment. "There's some fucking chocolate bars, where did these guys find that?" -Chocolate? It's not every day you see that, it usually cost a lot of resource exchange for even one packet, coffee and flour were also expensive resources.

Soap makes an excited grunt. "This looks more interesting." -He jumps back into the front seat with some music cassettes in a shoebox. "There must be at least fifty in here."

Ghost's eyes widened slightly as he looked at the box, it brought back so many memories of him and Johnny, them lying on top of that bunk sharing a cramped space to listen to the same song over and over again.

"I, ahm... I had a friend who liked that stuff, we listened to it every day." -Soap listened in silence to Ghost, paying attention as if it were precious information, maybe it was, they were still getting to know each other.

Soap nodded, licking his lips before asking. "Was that the same friend you said that day we left the wall?" -Ghost nods, it was the same one, Johnny, the shittiest boy he'd ever met. "I see... What kind of music did you listen to?" -He says after a few minutes looking at the box.

"Rock, every day, my ears vibrate just thinking about it." -The tune is still on the tip of his tongue.

"Then how about listening to one in honour of your friend?" -Soap pulls out a tape from inside the box, it had a street logo on it and Scar Tissue was written on it in black pen.

Ghost took the tape and put it inside the car's radio compartment, and slowly began to play a tune, not as violent as the one he and Johnny were listening to, but good enough.

"Man, this truck was the best idea I've ever had." -Soap puts his arms behind his head, relaxing against the seat.

Ghost lets out a small laugh. "Enjoy the peace, Price is going to be a pain in the arse when we get back."

"Fair enough." -Soap sighed deeply.

Getting to where the rest of the group was was easy, with no bandits or infected on the way, Ghost warned them that they were coming and to say that Nikolai had to take a look.

Price didn't seem stressed, but worried by what the tone of his voice might indicate, Gaz chatted until they arrived back, asking how it went, if they had any problems, the basics.

When they finally arrived, Nikolai and Price were already waiting in front of the restaurant and Gaz was taking the tarpaulin off the truck they had come in from Glossop, Price with his arms crossed muttered something to Nikolai who just smiled and replied quietly.

Soap from inside the car yawns and then removes the tape from the car, putting it away with the other tapes. "Pull the lever under the steering wheel, the Russian will want to see the engine." -With a nod, Ghost pulls and a metallic sound echoes from the bonnet. And just as Soap said, Nikolai heads for the bonnet.

Price moves to the side of Ghost's window and knocks twice, Ghost lowers the window to wait for what's to come from the captain. Soap next to him taps his foot on the floor a few times, nervously.

"Lieutenant. Soap." -He crosses his arms, checking their appearance. "You've got blood on you, Soap."

"It's not mine, Captain."

The two of them stare at each other for a minute, until Price lets out a sigh, leans on the window and then says. "Go wash up, there's a bucket of water we've arranged for inside." -Soap looks between the captain and Ghost before muttering “right” and getting out of the car.

Not wanting to beat around the bush, Ghost faces Price, his eyes already showing fatigue, and he says. "Price, come on."

"We can't take chances out here, what you two did today could have gone very wrong, an. you know that lad." -The worry was understandable, he could have lost two people from his group today, two friends important enough for him to take them out of a quarantine zone and drag them to another country. "Don't do that shit again, we clear?"

"Yes, sir." -Even if they're careful there's still a chance it could go wrong, what happened today was a long shot.

"At least tell me you've got some ammunition left for that machine gun?" -Price shakes his head at the sight of the machine gun. "I could use a polish on this little beauty."

It's good to know that the captain liked the cargo, maybe that helped him avoid being lectured. "There's some stuff in the back seats, Soap said it was food, take a look." -Without wasting any time, the captain opens the back seat and starts looking through the supplies, he even whistles and mumbles a few things.

Ghost leans back in the seat, trying to relax after everything that has happened that day, well, it could be worse. He rubs his fingers covered in the skeletal glove, a little blood from that man he killed in the forest stains the fabric.

Are all the people out here like that, just trying to survive against what the world throws at them?

Simon knows that even if these thugs haven't done anything too bad, there must be people worse than them, he's heard bizarre stories, even in quarantine there were horrible people he saw himself.

Maybe the infected aren't the worst of dangers.

"Hey" -Ghost turns his face to find Soap staring at him, and in his hands is Ghost's rifle, Soap sits down on the bench. "I think this is yours." -He holds out the gun and Ghost takes a firm grip, he'd forgotten all about it.

"Thanks, did you have fun?" -Ghost says, raising the rifle a little.

"I wish I could have fired a few shots, but it was enough."

"Maybe I'll lend it to you again some other time."

"Is that a promise?" -He asked hopefully, a smile on his face.

"Maybe, for now I need something to eat." -At the same moment someone's stomach rumbles, Soap and Ghost look back at Price who is still fiddling with the supplies.

The captain turned indignantly to the two of them, a slight blush on his cheeks. "I'll, uh, make the fire." -He leaves with a box full of food in his hands. 

The two sit in silence inside the car for a moment, then Soap laughs and Ghost smiles for the moment. "He's getting a bit chubby, isn't he?"

"It's the charm, he once said." -Ghost replies, remembering when some cadents teased Price. "Well, I'm hungry, shall we get a bite?"

"Sure, I'm hungry too."