A Creature of War, Book 4, CH02 (Patreon)

They walked as fast as they could for hours among burned and toppled trees. The further they walked the less damage there was, but it meant they could recognize some of the burned forms as bodies, and then tell who they had been.

Eventually they reached threes that didn’t show any signs of damage. There, they found a dozen of Anthros, El’s soldiers, those who had been made for speed, and the fastest of the other. Of them only three were completely unscathed.

El wanted to fall to the ground, but Vee held him up. “We can’t stop here. We’re still being poisoned. We need to keep moving.

A rabbit stood. “Sir, Walter and Joanne, they can’t walk anymore.” She pointed to them. Their fur had been burned off and their bodies were so much charred flesh El couldn’t tell what species they were.

Vee looked at them. “I’m sorry, I can’t do anything for you. It’s taking all I have to keep the poison from eating at us.”

One of the burned Anthros nodded its head.

“Sir, what’s happened?” the rabbit asked, fear in her voice. “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” El answered, his voice hollow. He felt further and further away. The difference was in the air itself, not just the poison, but how it felt, how it didn’t do what he wanted it to.

“What’s this poison then?” she sounded near hysteria, but El was too distraught by what he felt to care. “Where is it coming from? Is anywhere safe?”

Vee’s voice shook “I—I don’t know.”

“Two kilometers,” El said. As strange as the air felt to him now, he was at least able to tell that. “Two kilometers from here the air is free of poison.”

The bull looked in the distance El indicated. “I’m not going to make it.” He began shaking.

“Vee?” El turned to look at him. How had he not noticed how gaunt he was?

“I’ve been eating at myself for energy, El. I can’t last another two kilometers.”

“Sir,” An ocelot joined them. Some of his fur had been burned off, but otherwise he looked healthy. He held an open backpack, it was filled with high energy protein bars. “Us runners are always hungry, so we always carry supplies.”

Vee reached in the pack and came out of a handful of the bars. He devoured them, barely taking the time to rip the packages open.

El forced his attention away from trying to understand why the air felt so strange, and to look at his soldiers. They were all hurt in some ways. Burned fur, burned flesh. But except for the two unrecognizable on the ground, they looked functional.

Vee paused his eating. “I don’t have the strength to heal any of you right now.” He sounded defeated. “I can’t promise I’ll be able to once we get out of the poison.”

“We understand, Sir.”

“No, you don’t.” The bull reigned in his anger. “The longer we’re here, the more the poison affects us. It’s destroying our cells. You need to get out of here as fast as possible. El said two kilometers.  Run as fast as you can.

The ocelot shook his head. “Sorry, Sir, but we can’t do that. We can’t abandon our commanding officers in enemy territory.”

“And we have injured to carry, Sir,” A cheetah added.

“Don’t,” one of the burned bodies said. By the voice a woman, although even that was uncertain. “I’m not going to make it, I can feel it. Neither of us will.” The other nodded. “We’d just slow you down.” She sounded in pain.

“We’re not leaving you behind,” the cheetah snapped. She glared at the woman who’d spoken.

“Sacrificing yourself for them isn’t going to help anyone,” El said.

“Sir, with all due respect, shut—”

“No!” He put as much command in his voice as he could. “Look at them. You can’t move them, we don’t have any gurneys and even with that I’m not sure we could move someone with those levels of injuries. If you try to pick her up you’ll probably kill her.”

“Sir,” the burned woman’s voice carried so much pain with it El winced. “Can you end it for me?” her question was directed at Vee, who looked steadier.

“Are you sure, soldier?”

She nodded. “The pain….” She closed her eyes. “You said the air’s killing me. I’d rather have it over now.”

“Me…too,” the other croaked, and it sounded like those two words ripped his throat open.

Vee nodded. “It was an honor serving to both of you.”

Their form became still, and El had to support Vee’s weight. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he whispered, “not as tired as you are.”

“They deserved an end to their pain.” Vee forced himself to take a step. “We need to get moving.” The ocelot offered up his pack and Vee took more bars out of it.

Not long after they started up, darkness fell, and they discovered none of their lights worked. Even the fire starters they carried had trouble igniting.

Even instructed to do so, no one ran ahead, so EL instructed everyone to talk so they could keep track of each other. By the time they reach an area where the air was safe, they’d lost two more soldiers. El had wanted to go look for them when they fell silent, But Vee had kept him moving. El hadn’t needed to see the bull’s face to know they were gone, and that he’d ended their pain too.

When El informed them they were safe, They simply fell where they stood. And El dreamed of air that felt like molasses, that had teeth and bit his flesh out. Of fire that pulled away when he reached for it. Of lightning that laughed at him, of water that wouldn’t quench his thirst, and of the ground that swallowed him whole and tried to crush him.

He woke with a start and took a deep breath of air. He was above ground. He rested his head back. The wrongness was still there, all around him, but none of the elements were trying to kill him anymore.

With the dream fading he noticed the scent of cooking meat. Vee’s arms were over his chest, the bull pressed against him, so he didn’t move. He listened to the sound of people moving about, to fires burning. His stomach growled.

Vee stirred, yawned and sniffed the air. He sat up suddenly and looked around. His eyes focused and he looked at El. “Are you okay?”

The lynx nodded. “Are you?” Vee looked even worse than before, barely skin and bones.

The rabbit stopped by them. “Sorry if we woke you, Sirs, we were hungry.” 

El didn’t answer, his eyes had found the pot of water over one of the fires and what he felt was killing some of his hunger.

“Didn’t you have any energy bars left?” Vee asked.

She handed him a pack. “We figured you’d need these more than us after last night.”

“Who’s still hunting?” Vee asked and El head snapped up. There were only seven Anthros here, not including them.

She hesitated. “No one, sir. GND wasn’t feeling well. He decided to go away and not be a burden on our resources.”

Vee cursed and tried to stand. “How long ago?”

“A few hours.”

He cursed again, having made it to a knee. “I can’t sense them. I’m either too weak, or it’s too late.” He closed his eyes. 

El placed a hand on his arm. “You can’t save everyone.”

Vee nodded. “It still hurts when I don’t.” He looked at the rabbit. “How are you feeling? Do you have a name?”

“No, Sir. I’m DHC, and I’m okay. MSE is the weakest of us. She’s been staying by the fires, tending them.”

“Do any of you have names?”

“No, Sir. This was our first mission.” He voice faltered and she looked at the others. “Those of us who would have made it back would have picked one.”

“The two who were dying last night.”

“Joanne was on her third mission. It was Walter’s second.” She closed her eyes and when she opened them again there was resolve in them, but she couldn’t keep her voice from trembling. “Sir, are we going to die here?”

“No.” Vee’s voice was hard. “We’re not losing anyone else. I’m going to heal everyone.”

The words registered and El pulled the bull back down. “You can’t, we’re still weak.”

Vee looked at him, his eyes hard. “I’m not that weak, and I have food.” He shook the pack. “If that’s not enough, we can hunt. I’m not losing anyone else. When we’re all better, we can start for the Lab.” He realized how he sounded and gave El a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to take over for you.”

El didn’t say anything.

DHC sounded relieved when she spoke again. “Yes Sir, there’s plenty of animals around. We’ve been hunting them away from where we came from to minimize the chances they carry the poison.” She left to see to the food.

El watched her go, and the dream came back to him. He looked at the pot of water again. “Something’s wrong.”

Vee looked at him as he swallowed the bar he was eating. “What?” El indicated the pot over the fire. “Is the water poisoned?”

El shook his head. “It’s all wrong, Vee.”

The bull motioned to someone who was heading toward them, shooed them away. He forced El to look at him. He searched his eyes. “What’s wrong, El?”

“All of it, Vee.” El couldn’t stop his voice from shaking, the fear from seeping into him. “The explosion changed something.” He motioned around them. “I don’t know how, but the elements, they’re different.” He wrapped his arms around him in an attempt to stoke the shaking.

“El, you need to pull yourself together. They need you to lead them.”

“Vee, they don’t obey me anymore.”

“Of course they’ll obey you. They’re soldiers, good ones.”

“Not them.” El replied, anger replacing the fear. He waved around again. “Those. I can’t move the air, the fire, or even the water.”

“You lost your power?” Vee asked in dismay.

El closed his eyes and tried to bury the fear of having it spoken out loud. “I—I don’t know. I can sense them, and I can try to move them, but it’s like… it’s like whene you to try to pick up water with your hands. It mostly runs through your fingers. It feels like that for me now. Vee,” he looked at the bull, the fear running full force through him. “I can’t affect the elements anymore.”

The bull took him by the shoulders. “El, that isn’t important right now. You have men to lead back home.”

El recoiled and stood. “Not important? How can you say that? It’s what I am! You heal, I control the elements. Without that I’m nothing, I’m just one of the infantry!”

Vee was slower to stand and his leg shook when he managed it. “El, you’re not your power. It doesn’t matter if you can or can’t control the elements, You’re my lover, you’ll always be that.”

The lynx didn’t move away when Vee placed a hand on his shoulder. El looked away. “I’m scared. What if it doesn’t come back. What if I’m this way forever?”

Gently Vee pulled him close and wrapped his arms around him. “I’m still going to love you.”

El held on to the bull and cried. He’d never been this scared before. Even when the wall of heat hit them, he wasn’t this terrified. What had done this to him? Was it some Crazies’ invention? Had some other country’s Specialist done this to him? No, that was fear talking. It wasn’t him who had been changed. It was the world. If someone had that kind of power, what could they do against him?

“El, You need to pull yourself together. You have men to lead.”

The lynx shook his head. “I can’t. I’m not—” he didn’t know how to explain what this had done to him. It didn’t matter it was the world that had been changed, it— “Vee, I think this broke me.” His voice was shaking.

Vee took his face in his hands and searched his eyes. He nodded. “Alright. I’ll take command. I’ll get us back to the Lab.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry.”

Vee caressed his cheek. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You’ve taken command anytime Eek wasn’t there. You deserve a rest.” He led El to the fire and sat him down. “You’ll feel better once you’ve eaten.

El took the meat he was offered, but his eyes were on the pot of water. The water was wrong, he could feel it. It wasn’t just that it no longer obeyed him, it had changed, had been changed on a deeper level than that.

An ostrich sat next to him and noticed where he was looking. “The water’s not boiling. I didn’t mean to listen in, but I heard you say it was wrong.” She nodded to the pot. “You’re right. That pot’s been on the fire for an hour now, and the water still isn’t boiling. She handed El a cup with coffee in it. “It’s instant. I’m afraid we didn’t have the time to grab the coffee machine when we ran for our lives.”

El managed a smile. “It’s okay, I’m not picky.” He looked at the pot again. “It’s not just the water. It’s the fire too. The air, the earth, even the lightning. They’ve all been changed.” A shudder ran through him. “I don’t know how, or by whom.”

“At least we can still breath the air, that a good sign, right?”

El raised his cup. “And drink the water.” He sipped the coffee and made a face. “It’s the coffee, not the water,” he clarified.