I climbed into the backseat of the van beside Goma, who was leaning over typing furiously on her tablet. She looked up to greet me silently. Sashi got into the passenger seat soon after, sinking down with the weight of someone a lot more tired than she was and placing her feet on the dashboard much to Pogi's displeasure.
Pogi scoffed. "Get your feet off the da-"
"No," Sashi replied simply as she took a drag of her cigarette.
Pogi sighed heavily before starting the car.
Sashi didn't hesitate or even let me ask before starting the brief.
"Mission is a simple scout routine. A lost signal is reported in an area out west; reports indicate that someone used to live there. Nothing crazy." She said, her smoking hand slacked out the window, a thin trail of smoke being made as we drove. She continued, "If we're lucky, it's just a corpse and we can go home after sterilization. We know our luck, though, so don't get comfortable."
We passed through the center of town where the solid steel statue of Eziel, the man who founded the country, stood with his arms outstretched as if he was shielding the entire state. Citizens were crowded around it. Some people prayed to it or touched it for good luck.
Sashi must've noticed me staring out of the window because she blew out her smoke with a huff to speak. "The religious groups are becoming a real annoyance," She muttered. "Doesn't make it better that they're fighting each other. The ones that worship Eziel and the city have numbers, but the mutant-worshippers... They've been here a lot longer. They've got roots. That church down in the residential district? Been here for fifty-six years."
"I think they're all crazy," Pogi remarked. "A bunch of nuts who can't think for themselves."
We passed the checkpoint to exit the Foundation district. Pogi nodded at the young agent working the gate as he let us through. He looked nervous, probably his first job.
"I don't know," Goma said with a shrug. "People should have something to believe in. Especially after losing so much. Many of those devotees were refugees from after the Blue wave."
I zoned out for the rest of their conversation. Whatever it was, I'm pretty sure Sashi won.
Pogi slowed the van to a halt just on the edge of a massive cornfield. The stalks were tall enough to swallow the sun standing in front of them. I remember seeing this field a couple of times during flight training, just a circle of yellow. I've never had the opportunity to see it from the ground. It appears much larger from this angle.
"So what? We look in this entire cornfield until we find something? That could take the whole day," Pogi complained.
"There's a house in the center of this field," I recalled. "If we restore the signal to the area, Goma can do an aerial scan."
Goma perked up at hearing her name, already searching through the menu on her tablet.
Sashi flicked her cigarette out the window, pushed the door open with her boot, and stepped straight into the cornfield without another word.
The three of us stared after her.
Sashi shouted through the stalks, her voice muffled, "We don't have time to make more plans. Kaelus' plan is in motion."
We followed behind her into the maze of corn. Even Pogi, standing at six feet 6 inches, needed to jump to see above the corn. Despite this, he walked in front of us.
The way the corn made seeing 3 feet ahead a challenge made my skin crawl. Every few seconds I glanced back, trying to capture as much of my surroundings as possible.
Sashi glanced back at me. "Get a grip, Calostero."
I rolled my shoulders, trying to focus on moving forward. Goma moved behind me to make me more comfortable. It didn't, but the sentiment was nice.
The corn parted into a clearing where a scarecrow stood. It wore a pair of jeans, women's shoes, a denim jacket, and a burlap sack. The sack over its body showed months of age and wear. My eyes lingered on it for a bit longer as we passed it.
Eventually, we broke through the corn to find just what we'd expected, an old farmhouse with rotting wood. Vines scaled the wood siding, woven in between them were dark blue tendrils.
"We've got spores." I alerted immediately, reaching for my knife.
The rest of them followed: Sashi, grabbing her gun, Goma unsheathing her machete, and Pogi clenching his fists.
We moved towards the front of the house, and the door was lying flat on the floor with a gaping hole in the center. Immediately a smell came through the entrance that was a mix of rotting corpse and mold. Goma, her face a sickly green, darted off to the side to puke, returning with a gas mask.
Sashi moved in first, her pistol raised as one does when clearing a room. After confirming there wasn't an immediate threat, she motioned for us to follow.
Furniture was overturned, and luminous fungal matter grew on damp spots that were stained with blood.
The floorboards creaked with age as we crept across them. A size 13 pair of boots that stood behind the door told us the man who lived here was large. Large enough that it's unlikely he was killed by his fellow man.
We moved past a nursery and into the kitchen and somehow the smell was even worse. Even behind the mask Goma's eyes watered. Large portions of rotting food sat on dinner plates on the counter, flies swarming them ravenously. Evening sun shone through slits in the window blinds. In the back, near the dining table, it was clear.
The corpse of the large man was slumped over in the corner, his head caved in. Whatever mutant got to him had already moved on.
Pogi walked over and knelt down in front of the body. "Livor mortis is fixed. The body hasn't moved. He's gone, unfortunately so is the mutant who got him," he said mournfully. Pogi wasn't too far from the same height as the man. That's what he was probably thinking, too.
Sashi took a final scan of the room before sighing. "Goma start drafting the report. We found the body, no need to stay any longer."
"And the signal?" I interjected.
"Doesn't matter. The boss just wanted a report." She retorted quickly.
We filed out of the farmhouse and back into the cornfield. Pogi's face was still as hard as steel.
Immediately I started feeling off. A dull pressure in my head made my vision slightly blurry. I second-guessed every blow of the wind. My eyes frantically searched for something, anything to be wrong. My eyes landed on Goma. Her gas mask was still on. It was then that I realized the rotting smell never left. That bitter odor still surrounded and offended my nose making my eyes water.
"Sashi." I managed to call out.
Something slammed into me, knocking me flat and stealing the air from my lungs. Then, razor-sharp claws dug into my traps as whatever hit me started running, my ragdoll body being dragged behind it.
Shouts and gunshots were fired off but never reached me. The creature and I kept speeding through the stalks of corn. My body thrashed around as the lightning pain spread down my arm, numbing my fingers. And into my neck.
I managed to catch a glance at whatever was dragging me. My eyes glided over its claws of braided fence wire, puffy arms under a denim jacket, and the burlap sack that covered its torso.
Shit.
I twisted my body, grabbing my knife with my non-dominant hand, to slash at the scarecrow's wrist. The claws released their grip on me, leaving me tumbling through the dirt.
I jumped up to my feet shakily. Blood oozed from my shoulder, my left arm hanging limp. My head flicked around anxiously. The corn was disabling me critically.
I catch movement out of the corner of my eye and slide over. Just as I did, the mutant dashed through, probably trying to get a grip on me again.
My breath quickened. I could keep dodging, but without attacking, the scarecrow wouldn't stop.
The mutant came from my left this time, so I sidestepped accordingly. It was moving too fast for me to counterattack.
My head was spinning in part from the blood loss but also the disorientation of it all.
An idea crossed my mind. I forced my body to stop shaking and stood still and tensed, awaiting the pain that was soon to strike.
As I expected, the mutant rushed in from behind me, latching on to my shoulder again. My body snapped like a stick. My knife found the mutant's sternum. I stabbed wildly. The knife slid through the straw, a different, emptier feeling than flesh. However, if I stabbed deep enough, I could feel my knife break skin, and that was enough for me to keep going.
The mutant stopped running and tried throwing me off of it, but I was grabbing onto it, trying to weigh it down. It crashed to the ground, trying to crawl away to no avail. I stabbed endlessly, not allowing myself to stop until it stopped moving. The corn finally went still. It was like I could finally see.
I grabbed a flare out of my back pocket and fired it into the air. I wasn't able to stand. My left arm refused to move. My eyelids felt heavy but I didn't allow myself to close them until I saw Pogi gazing down at me, concern on his face.