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Yeoman scratched his butt crack and rolled over. It was the last day. Six days and nights of living in the woods had taken its toll on him. His hair was a mess. He stunk. Every part of his body felt grimy, and there was an unbearable itch between his lower cheeks. He suspected it had to do with the rag he had wiped with, but he was too embarrassed to ask Cody and Ella if they had similar issues.
“Rise and shine.”
Bits of solidified mud fell onto Yeoman’s face, and sunlight shone into his eyes. The roof of the hut fell over, revealing Cody’s figure. His leg was planted on one of the hut’s walls, and seconds later the hut crumbled as the Asian man kicked it apart.
“What are you doing?” Yeoman asked and sat up. The fire was barely burning, and Ella was nowhere to be seen. “Why are you destroying our shelter?”
“It’s the last day,” Cody said. “Look at your fleshwatch.”
Fleshwatch, it was the name Cody had given to the screen embedded in their wrists. Yeoman rubbed away the boogers in the corners of his eyes and brought his left arm up.
[Main Mission: Survive for 7 days. 5:48:07 Remaining.]
“There’s only six hours left?” It was just the start of the day. Did that mean they didn’t have to last another night? Yeoman frowned. “What if the stage continues, and we still need this shelter?”
Cody scratched his head. “I’ll build a better one next time,” he said. “Don’t forget what we planned.”
Yeoman groaned and grabbed his flask. He took off the cap and drank a few generous mouthfuls of water. “Hard to believe it’s been seven days already,” he said and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The previous days had been uneventful. Occasionally, they were attacked by infected, but never in groups more than seven. They hadn’t encountered a living person either. Yeoman suspected Cody’s plan of training the herd onto the camp had killed everyone inside. Why else had they not encountered anyone? The other problems were just minor inconveniences. The lack of a bathroom was one of them. The constant meals of fish were another, but at least eating fish was better than eating worms. As for the plan Cody was talking about, it was a plan to hunt the smart infected.
“I’ve been looking forward to today for so long,” Cody said and stretched his arms towards the sky. “We’ll kill the smart infected, beat the stage, and exchange our points for some kickass loot.”
There was a crunching sound, and Yeoman stood up while grabbing his bat. It was just Ella. She nodded at them and held up a shirt. There were six fish in it. “I caught us some breakfast. Hopefully, it’ll be the last one we have to eat here.”
Yeoman exhaled and sat back down before leaning over to pick up some dry wood. He tossed it into the dying fire. Cody sat down and opened up his quiver, taking out his arrows and inspected them one at a time. Yeoman didn’t know what Cody was looking for, but Yeoman didn’t question it. He looked at his own weapon, the metal bat. It was severely dented, but at least it was clean; he washed it every day. The bonus mission of killing ten infected had been completed on the second day. If he had to take a guess, around thirty infected had died thanks to his bat.
“Do you really think your plan is going to work?” Ella asked and flipped the fish over. She had placed them on a large rock which she set over the fire. Bits of fish skin were stuck on the rock’s surface. “There’s one big problem with it.”
“Hmm?” Cody raised his head. “What’s wrong with it? I mean, even if it doesn’t work, we can at least escape.”
Ella shook her head. “That’s not it.” She narrowed her eyes at Cody. “Who gets the kill?”
Cody blinked. “It doesn’t really matter who gets it, right?” he asked. “We can just buy things and split the reward that way.”
“You don’t know what’s being sold in the shop,” Ella said. “What if it’s like a membership? We can’t split a membership.”
Yeoman kept his mouth shut. Honestly, he didn’t think killing the smart infected was worth it. They only had to survive for around six more hours. If they hid in a tree and kept really quiet, their chances of dying would be extremely slim. With the second bonus mission completed, they’d each get one thousand five hundred points for a total of forty-five hundred. If they hunted the smart infected, they’d get an additional two thousand points, but they’d potentially lose forty-five hundred points if all of them died—not to mention their lives! To him, the risk absolutely wasn’t worth it; however, Cody and Ella weren’t right in the head. Ella had no problem risking her life because she was already close to death, according to her words. As for Cody, from the start, he had treated the whole situation as a game. Yeoman could’ve opted out of this plan of theirs, but it wouldn’t sit right with him if he did. After all, without his two companions, he’d probably have died on the first day. They didn’t complain about carrying him even when he was simply useless baggage. He owed them his life, and he wouldn’t walk away when they needed his help. Though, he really hoped Ella and Cody’s argument would grow large enough that they dropped their plan completely.
“Well, we can have a rotation system,” Cody said. “There’s bound to be more missions similar to this one in the future that only one person can complete. Whoever gets it now will help the other two get the next ones.”
“What if we’re not together in the next stage?”
Cody frowned. “Then why don’t we just compete for it? Whoever gets it gets it, no hard feelings.”
Ella beamed, and her eyes twinkled as she narrowed them. “No hard feelings. I like that.”
“Don’t think you’ve won just yet.” Cody smirked. “Who’s the one that killed the most infected?”
“Whose arrows were blocked by the smart infected?”
Cody snorted, and grabbed one of the fishes. After eating fish all week, he could tell when they were ready. “I can’t lose. I’m the main character.”
Yeoman took one of the fishes as well. He scraped away its skin with his hunting knife. The infected they had killed over the week had dropped a lot of hunting knives, Swiss Army knives, hatchets, lighters, and water flasks. He suspected aliens had made sure all the infected had those items to help people survive in the woods. As for clothes, Yeoman, Cody, and Ella were wearing relatively clean jeans with pockets. They wore multiple shirts for warmth—Cody no longer had to wear his blanket around like a soft turtle—and each of them had a warm jacket. Yeoman didn’t really like his jeans too much; they made it difficult for him to scratch that infernal itch.
“What do you think?” Ella asked Yeoman. “Who’s going to get the kill?”
Yeoman separated a piece of flesh from the fish with his knife and put it into his mouth. It was hot. He pressed his tongue against the top of his mouth, mashing the fish meat, its juices leaking out. “I don’t know, but I’ll once again make an argument against this plan. If the smart infected really killed everyone in the camp, then it has a bow now. It was already really good with the bow in the original story, and after the adjustments the aliens made to it, I think it’s practically a killing machine now. We don’t stand a chance.”
“Young people like you should take more risks in life,” Ella said and sighed while shaking her head. “Stop being so scared. You’re a man.”
“Hey, you’re not allowed to say that these days,” Cody said. “It’s not woke.”
“Woke? What the hell is woke?” Ella asked and frowned. “I’ll show you woke when I kill the smart infected with my spear.”
Yeoman couldn’t help but feel sorry for Ella’s husband. With her domineering personality, her husband would surely be as aggressive as a doormat. Yeoman sighed and shook his head. It looked like his final persuasion had failed. All that was left to do was prepare the plan. They were going to start a huge fire, send a pillar of smoke into the sky to attract the smart infected. Once it came, they’d kill it. That was the whole plan. As the lead engineer of his workplace, the one who had to write all the reports and make pitches for more funding, he couldn’t help but think this plan would’ve been rejected by his higher-ups a thousand times over. There were too many things lacking, but neither Cody nor Ella seemed to understand. Maybe they did understand but just didn’t care. Yeoman wasn’t sure which one was worse.
Breakfast didn’t take long. The group had prepared a great amount of firewood yesterday for the bonfire. All they needed to do was set it on fire. Before they started, Yeoman took stock of everything he had—which, admittedly, wasn’t much. He had two flasks filled with boiled river water, his clothes, his metal bat, two hatchets, three hunting knives, a belt which said knives and hatches hung from, and a lighter. He also had a small pouch filled with some nuts Ella said were edible. Ella was similarly equipped to him—with a wooden spear instead of a metal bat. Cody, however, was a bit creative. Along with everything his companions had—excluding the bat and spear—he had his bow and arrows, and three extra flasks. Two of them were filled with nightshade berries, and the third flask was filled with blood he had drained from the infected. Yeoman nearly puked when he had opened that flask on accident.
“Alright, let’s review the plan,” Cody said.
Review? What was there to review? Yeoman nodded. Maybe Cody would realize how dumb the plan was after a review.
“We’re gonna create a huge fire,” Cody said. “With me so far?”
Yeoman and Ella nodded.
“Yeoman will climb that tree.” Cody pointed at the tallest tree in the forest. “He’ll report the movements of any infected to us from up there.”
Yeoman blinked. He wasn’t aware of this part of the plan. That tree was a bit too … tall. Just thinking about climbing it gave him the chills. “There’s a problem with this plan. I’m afraid of heights.”
Cody furrowed his brow. “Can’t you pretend it’s not that high or something?”
“I’ve never climbed a tree in my life. I’m not even sure if I can do it.” When Yeoman was just a child, he used to climb up his dad. That was the closest he ever came to climbing a tree. “Change the plan.”
“Oh, fine,” Ella said and huffed out a sigh. “I’ll climb the tree.”
“Thank you,” Cody said and nodded at Ella. “Alright, Ella will climb the tree and report the movements of the infected. She’ll point out any group of infected, five or less, and Yeoman and I will go around killing them, but I won’t be using any arrows. If the smart infected shows up, Ella will try to get an approximate number of its followers; if that’s not possible, that’s fine, but you have to at least note the direction they’re coming from.”
Ella nodded. “Sounds easy enough.”
“Once we figure out what direction they’re coming from, we’ll make sure the river is between them and us. In a lot of strategy games, the defending side gets bonus points if they’re blocking troops from climbing out of a river.”
“What about the smart infected?” Yeoman asked. “What if it has a bow and ignores the river?”
“I was just getting to that,” Cody said. “The two of you will defend the river, and I’ll be in hiding waiting to shoot the smart infected.”
“Whoever kills the smart infected kills it?” Ella asked, giving Cody the stink eye. “Your plan is clearly biased towards yourself!”
“Do you have a better one?” Cody asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Yes.” Ella snorted. “After we set the fire, we disguise ourselves as infected with their clothes and blood. We’ll blend into the infected herd and silently kill the infected from behind with our hunting knives. When the smart infected notices, we ambush it.”
“You think it won’t notice?” Cody asked. “What if it points us out right away, and we get swarmed in the middle of the herd? We’ll die for sure.”
“It’s a much fairer plan than the one you presented,” Ella said. She pointed at Yeoman with a fish skeleton. “What do you think? Whose plan is better?”
To Yeoman, both plans sounded equally horrible, but Ella’s plan did sound a lot more fair and less dangerous for him. “I think we should disguise ourselves.”
“It’s settled,” Ella said. “Cody, start the fire. Yeoman and I will bring some corpses here.”
Yeoman nodded. The bodies weren’t dumped too far away, just far enough for the trio to not be bothered by the smell. As he and Ella left the fire, Yeoman heard Cody mutter, “Democracy sucks.” However, the Asian man didn’t seem too upset seeing as he was placing the firewood from the pile into the fire.
“Four bodies should be enough,” Ella said, drawing Yeoman’s attention away from Cody. “Let’s try smearing it on ourselves first. We can play a prank on Cody.”
Yeoman felt like sighing, but he held back. “What if he overreacts and stabs us? It’s the last day. We should be serious.”
Ella exhaled and shook her head. “A young man like you should be more adventurous. If it were Cody, I’d bet he’d agree to scare you.”
Yeoman thought about it. Cody probably would do something like that. This time, Yeoman couldn’t hold back his sigh. “I can’t help it. I’m old at heart. I’m perfectly happy with living an ordinary life.”
“If we can go back, what will you do?” Ella asked. They had reached the bodies. She squatted next to one and grabbed its arms. “Grab its legs, will you?”
Yeoman complied. The corpse’s legs were squishy like a moldy orange. The corpse sagged when he lifted, but the two still managed to get it off the ground. “I’ll probably go to my mom, explain why I’ve been missing for a week. Afterwards, I’ll call my boss. I’m not sure what I’ll tell him; I’ll probably tell him to check the news and say I was one of the missing people. I don’t think he’ll accept an explanation of alien abduction.”
“You still want to go back to work?” Ella asked, waddling backwards, bringing the corpse back to the camp. “After all of this?”
“Unless the government pays me some unemployment, I’ll have to,” Yeoman said. “Bills don’t pay themselves.”
Ella scowled. “You dream too small. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?”
Yeoman’s face turned slightly red. It wouldn’t hurt to tell Ella, would it? “I always wanted to be a trophy husband.”
Ella stumbled, but it was probably from walking backwards and not because of Yeoman’s words. “A trophy husband, eh? Why are you an engineer now?”
“One day, I looked in the mirror and realized my dream would never come true. I’m too ugly.” Yeoman shook his head. “Engineers make good money, and they only need a four-year degree.”
Ella exhaled and clicked her tongue. “You should follow your dreams, not the money,” she said and gestured with her head for Yeoman to drop the body. He did. “Well, your life is yours. I can’t tell you how to live it, but if you were my grandson, I’d beat some sense into you.”
Ella was just an old lady—a short old lady, yet Yeoman found her a little intimidating. It was probably for the best if he kept his mouth shut here. After a while, there were four bodies next to the campfire, which was growing at a massive rate. Cody pointed at the pile of wood they had collected. There was nothing left. “All done.”
“Now, we dissect these,” Ella said. “Their bodies don’t have a lot of liquid blood. Most of it is chunky, like jelly. We’ll have to cut off pieces of flesh and rub them onto every part of our bodies. Take off your clothes first, and rub them on your clothes after you put them back on.”
It was disgusting, but the three of them did it. Every inch of their skin was covered in black gunk. There were a few times Yeoman had tripped and scraped himself, so he avoided getting fluids on those patches by binding them with a cloth first. It felt like a shame to ruin the only wearable clothes he had recovered from looting infected, but for the sake of the two thousand points he didn’t really care about, he smeared them with the flesh of the corpses, using their organs like crayons. Something cold and wet touched his head, and a shiver ran down his spine.
“Massage it into your scalp,” Ella said before cackling.
“God, I’m going to be sick,” Cody said and dry heaved. He couldn’t even pinch his nose because his fingers were covered with gunk. “My plan was a thousand times better. It was a hundred thousand times better. This is your fault, Yeoman.”
Yeoman’s expression darkened. How was it his fault? This was Ella’s plan. All he did was agree. “I’m not enjoying this either.”
“Well, you better get used to it,” Ella said. She looked at her left wrist. “There’s still another five hours to go.”