(Uri)
I cough a lot. That cold isn't leaving me.
M - You look pale.
U - I might have caught something bad down there.
It took us many more days to cross the nice but rather barren landscapes and return to more hospitable lands. But my hands are shaky now soon after midday. I have some nervous twitches.
The land is flat again. The weather is mild. Dust is washing the landscape though, and we can see how the roads have begun to vanish now that no one uses them.
U - I didn't recall such dusty winds in the area.
M - Probably the season.
We cross an old bridge above struggling farmlands. Everything is abandoned and the plants, trees and grass are clearly dying since we're all gone.
We follow the highway without much difficulties. There's only the occasional truck or car around blocking the way.
We pass fields of ruins from a suburb, and even more fertile lands turning to savannah or desert. This side of the mountains is quite a harsher landscape.
But everywhere, hidden in the nook and crannies, there are rich pockets of life gradually winning.
Rather than heading straight into the wide city centre, we turn right to reach an old military base on the outskirt.
U - If we can find clues of the good sites to investigate, it will be there in the soldiers' orders and military maps.
M - Alright. And if there are survivors in the vicinity, this was also a place to check.
U - I bet we'll find the military doing well and waiting for government orders all this time.
M - I bet we'll find them tending the fields to grow food themselves.
U - Are we optimistic or what?
M - Good question. It depends on the perspective.
We make our way to our first guess. This urban area is immense, we could spend months exploring every possible point of interest. Let's start with this guess.
We find thankfully no toxic nor caustic mist lingering around the metropolis.
The map we have and the road signs are unreliable however. Many roads were cut short, changed or entirely dislocated somehow.
The signs are missing around a very long segment of road that has been weirdly uprooted and thrown in pieces all over. We drive beside.
U - What happened to this road...
M - A bombing maybe?
I doubt it. It's not with craters and burn marks. Meanwhile, we're better rolling beside, even if it sometimes goes with other side road wrecks to navigate around.
Thank goodness, I went with the full solid tires when we took this car. We're rolling on a curtain of trash and scrap metals with sharp shards.
Again, it takes longer than expected, but we make it to the military base.
The main door is blocked by rubbles. But the wall beside is completely collapsed and open; We roll in this way as if we were attacking, now expecting to find the place abandoned like everything else.
Not a soul in sight.
We stop by the first buildings that are still standing. I clear my throat.
U - We're invaders!
M - Stop that!
My friend didn't like that joke, but we're not getting shot. So I think we're good to explore as usual.
U - Normal drill then?
M - Alright.
Our thermoelectric generator eases things a lot. It was made with materials that gives it a conversion efficiency that is off the chart from anything we would ever find on this continent. Thanks to its wealthy origin.
I unroll the cables and leave them there for now. We head into the building.
There's dust and oddly, there are maggots everywhere. What are they eating? Well, most of them too are already dead and dry now that I look closer.
My foot pierces a floor. They are eating some fibres. This is unsafe.
U - Mushio! Get out!
He soon returns safe and sound, and we debate.
He'll look carefully still, since he is the lighter one. I'll go check the other buildings meanwhile.
~
The usual. No one.
Weird stains and traces of new yeast or bacterial development here and there. Weird things grow everywhere, and we find no one alive.
In the barracks, everything has rotten. I don't step in that gunk and move to the next place. I get dizzy with another sharp migraine. I trip and almost fall. I'm definitely not well.
If I find a medical bay with some equipment left working, that would be nice as well.
Places long abandoned were often more or less officially occupied by marginal, punks and nomads; people out of full citizenships. Centuries of steady declining population made things different from previous times of real estate frenzies. So even if things look old and shabby, it doesn't mean there wasn't anyone living there until recently. It's been often simpler to move to another abandoned house than to repair the previous one in our days.
In this next building, I find a pile of rubbish in a corner that reminds me of this. There are traces. Someone lived here, not so long ago.
I enter rooms more richly furbished and decorated.
An animal smell is noticeable. I call out but hear no answer. I go further and find no one.
But the stains all over the bed are once more evocative. Someone died here. And then the body... disappeared?
Weird... It's far from the first time when we're puzzled about bodies apparently disappearing, but I still have no explanation. Here too I doubt someone came to bury the dead, although that remains the most likely reason.
I rummage a little around. And lucky me, I find an annotated map. Someone made camp here and radiated for scavenging through the city.
U - Thank you for your work...
I get that and move on.
~
I found no medical bay, and not much of use, but the map is a great find. I meet back with my friend who is already making a fire? Weird.
He's burning his clothes, among other things.
M - Don't get closer. Something poisonous fell on me.
U - Okay. I found a place where there might be some clothing left, I'll have another look.
M - Thanks...
I was careful not to look at his naked body. I don't really care, but he might. I trust him anyway.
I turned back on my steps and went to rummage further through the dressers, where I found some clothes as expected. No weird bugs on them. I take them.
Something catches my eye. A small shining stone?
I pick up the small golden crystal. It's weird. It looks like gold, but slightly translucent and with a different crystalline shape.
What the hell is that material? Just tainted glass?
It was just lying there along the weird stains. It looks like an overly artistic jewel, but without anything to lock it as a ring or amulet. I pocket it, I'll see if Mushio has an idea about it. I'm curious.
Night will soon be falling. We'll find another place and another objective.
By the fire I return to, I have another look at the map. Mushio dressed up with arguably fresh clothes now.
U - I think I've got something.
M - Yeah?
A place outside the city that is marked and labelled by handwriting as such; the city.
~