The End

Empty District

"C'mon guys!" said Ray "It's just over the hill." The rest of us were panting slightly behind Ray, and Geneis huffed "is that a good thing??" "It is if we want to get to Phoenix!" Ray shot back. We continued to walk laboriously until we finally crested the hill and we saw the empty district.

Like many things in this city it was aptly named, most if not all of the building were mere shells of concrete and steel. Twisted and scorched, bent away from the epicentre of an obvious nuclear explosion. "So this is where the main bomb fell" said Myles. "Yup" replied Tyler. We stared for a few more moments before Ray said "Shall we have a break then?" The team cheered and we all sat down to admire the dark beauty of post-apocalyptic London.

A question then issued forth from my lips "What did you mean by Phoenix, Ray?" Ray was drinking deeply from a steaming cup so gestured in a non committal way, so Tyler spoke. "Phoenix is the main outpost set up in the center of London" he said and I was slightly confused, "Outpost? So there's more of you guys? But aren't you set up in the Gerhkin?" Bull interrupted the conversation and said "Yeah, our main base of operations is about 10-20 miles outside of London, and no, we're not set up in the Gherkin although there has been rumours that the Tier-0 of the Hunters has set up there." My brain was in utter confusion right now "Okay okay" I said "slowly now... So, A- you don't no for sure about the Gherkin and, B- Tier-0?". Bull and Tyler laughed loudly and then Tyler said "Yeah basically we don't know about the Gherkin, and the Tier-0 part of the hunters is the ULTRA covert division dealing with covert scout, assassination, sabotage and spec-ops". I whistled and said "quite a mouthful!" Myles laughed and Tyler and Bull smiled indulgently.

Ray had finished his drink and got up saying "Come on people! Up, up! Lets go!" We all groaned and Anna said "We heard you the first time Ray!" We all got to our feet, stretched, and set off down the road into the empty district.

Wind blew through the buildings, whistling mournfully as our boots crunched on the rubble strewn road. I looked around sadly at the ruins, the crumbling concrete and rusting iron all scorched. I suddenly bumped into Bull who had stopped walking and nearly fell over before steadying myself. As I caught my balance I looked forwards to see Ray at the head of the group, frozen, holding his fist up in the 'halt' sign. We all stared at Ray who was squinting down the street carefully. "Ray? What's up?" Said Tyler quietly, but Ray only made a shushing gesture and Tyler fell silent. Ray continued to stare down the road and I followed his gaze down to the end of the road. I squinted and I thought I could see something, a sort of... Hazy quality in the air..... A hue of light green....... "Gasmasks!" Barked Ray and we all fumbled with our masks and fitted them on over our faces. "What do you think it is?" Asked bull through his mask, Ray stayed silent for a moment, in apparent contemplation, before answering "I think it's spores". I leaned over to Tyler before asking "spores?", Tyler kept a watchful eye out while answering me, "well as you can imagine, another organism that's mutated has mutated aggressively" I nodded and said "right, and I had the impression spores came from Fungi?" Tyler nodded, "yeah, so these mushrooms create these spores and spray them in the air as a means for 'breeding'". I sighed resignedly and said "how?", Tyler chuckled and said shrewdly "you're not a fan of mutants are you Jason?". "No" I conceded "anyway how?", Tyler continued "well these 'spores' sort of attack your nervous system and send you into a frenzy as a natural response to try to stop whatever's attacking your system. Then after roughly 30 minutes it'll kill you, and the spores feed on your body as it grows." I stared at the haze now in a more fearful way, "you guys know this how?" I asked and Tyler said "well back at base we do have a entire division of boffins researching the various mutants that's popped up in the ensuing years of radiation and biological abnormality". I was astonished to hear that people were actually studying these monstrosities not just trying to kill them! "How many of these scientists are there exactly?" I questioned and Geneis who had apparently been eavesdropping interrupted, "I think we have about 160?" She said and my jaw visibly dropped. "How did you come across all of them!?" I asked incredibly, and both Tyler and Geneis laughed, Tyler took up the narrative as he explained "well during the time before all the nukes and stuff the NATO command had authorised the research of radiological, biological and conventional weaponry at a massive scale, so many of the best minds of different fields went to the front lines to analyse and fabricate weapons." "But then surely that means they should all be dead?" I persisted and Geneis answered me, "well the boffins did visit the front lines their actual base was a scientific bunker under the very military complex were based at!". With that clarified I said "so they have a scientific research bunker under your base to research stuff and now you're researching muties?", "that's right!" Said Tyler brightly "we're then briefed on their weaknesses blah blah blah to increase combat effectiveness", I shook my head in astonishment at the NATO forces' organisation and resources. But I barely had time to think about it as Ray and Bull, who had apparently been having a conversation, turned around and said "listen up!" Immediately we were all silent and looking intently at Ray. "As you remember" he started seriously "last time we went down this Main Street to the bridge, but I'm sure you can also remember that on our way here we were followed by a herd of Malakists as well". Ray paused a second to look at us before continuing, "well we reckon the Malakists have probably nested down that road, so we're going through the puffers". The squad visibly straightened at that and I asked Tyler under my breath "Puffers?" He replied just as quietly "our name for the mushrooms". "Ready guys?" Asked Ray and we looked back at him as the squad all nodded grimly. "Good" said Ray "keep it tight guys no unnecessary noise!" And he led us towards the largest building on the road where the cloud of spores seemed to emanate. We continued walking and after a second we had been engulfed by the green cloud, we angled our approach towards the open gash in the front of the building that used to be an entrance. Molten glass and brittle concrete crunched as we crossed the threshold into the dingy gloom within and Ray paused at the head of the group to turn on his torch to illuminate the way. The squad followed suit and soon several breams of light sliced through the inky blackness. Through all the illumination we saw a large room with one corner collapsed in and cracked walls everywhere. "Where do you think the puffers are?" Asked Bull and Ray answered tersely "lets not look for them Bull we don't want any unnecessary encounters do we", "I hear that" replied Bull under his breath as we continued through the room. Myles sidled up to me while we were walking and asked quietly "Puffers?" I looked at him and explained "their name for the Fungus that creates all these spores", "ah" said Myles looking understanding now, in light of Ray's comment. Ray led us to the furthest wall of the room where a crack had grown big enough to accommodate even Bulls size, and led us through the crack one at a time to the other side. When I clambered through the crack I saw that Ray had led us into a corridor that stretched off into darkness either side of us and a strange growth covered the walls, a sort of pulsating moving growth.... "Ray?" I said over my back at the man, who was just helping Anna through the crack, "yeah?" He grunted "is this puffer stuff?" I asked pointing at the growth, Ray turned around and shone his light on the wall as well looking at it before turning back to the crack and saying "yeah that's puffer stuff". I felt repulsed by the seething mass of brown, vine like growths and carefully avoided them as we shuffled down the corridor to make room for Kat who had just clambered out of the crack. We paused for a second allowing Ray to catch his bearings before he said through is mask "okay let's keep moving guys, we'll have to do some parkour later I'm guessing so don't get too tired". Ray jogged off down the corridor to left and we followed, our equipment clinking as we jogged. We finally reached the end of the corridor coming across a half collapsed stairwell half of the steps missing. "I told you" said Ray over his shoulder and Bull grunted "shut up". Ray shrugged and stepped onto the crumbling concrete steps of the stairwell, "we gotta get to the tenth floor if I remember correctly so we have way to go!" Called out Ray, who was already a flight of steps above us. ,"So watch your step!". Tyler rolled his eyes and stepped forward onto the steps, followed by Bull, then Kat, then Geneis then me. After me came Anna and finally Myles, we had room to walk normally up the stairs but it was narrow and we all walked cautiously as we climbed. The concrete steps crunched ominously under our weight and we paused many times on our way up. "These two floors feel a lot higher than they should" said Anna huffily, I smiled a bit at that. But just as I had turned to look at Anna I heard a scream from behind me, I whipped round just in time to see Geneis toppling, almost in slow motion, sideways, losing her balance. I lunged forwards and grabbed her around the waist preventing her from falling off the steps into the dark stairwell below. We were balanced precariously in the edge of the steps, Geneis teetering over the edge clutching at my arms and me holding her around the waist. I slowly pulled back onto the stairs and then let her go. "Are you okay?" I asked her as leaned against the wall breathing heavily, "I'm fine.... Thanks Jason just a bit scared" she answered shakily. Bull who had been watching carefully burst out laughing. Geneis glared at him and I smiled weakly, "ironic" chuckled Bull as he turned away from Geneis who had just got up and was still glaring at him. Kate who had also turned around said "funny things aside guys lets carry on or Rays gonna get annoyed" and we all followed Tyler up the stairs and we finally reached the tenth floor. Ray stood at the end of the landing looking stern through his gasmask, arms crossed across his chest, his machine gun slung on his shoulder. "Didn't I say anything about unnecessary noise?" He said irritably and Bull chucked as Geneis, continued to glare at him and, said "I lost my footing Ray sorry". Ray shook his head and sighed saying, "no need for apologies Geneis, sorry I'm being a bit ratty I'm just on edge", "you're not the only one" said Anna who had just got onto the landing followed by Myles who gave me a little wave in greeting. Ray shook his head and unslung his machine gun, "c'mon lets go guys" he said "let's just get to Phoenix". We murmured our ascent and he led us off the landing down another dusty spore filled corridor. This corridor was devoid of puffer growth but it did have the rather more intimidating sight of dried blood splashed in swathes across the walls. I gripped my M4 a little more tightly at that sight. We continued in silence through the darkness, dissecting it with our beams of light revealing many more pools of blood, spent bullet casings, empty magazines, and the odd mangled body or broken skeleton. The first difference I notices was a clearing of the air as the spores visible became less concentrated as we advanced. The corridor seemed to go on for ages and finally after another minute of the darkness our torches abruptly revealed a heavy metal door, with peeling pale red paint, secured with a very rusted heavy chain. Ray lowered his machine gun and then slung it on his shoulder as he drew his huge revolver from a shoulder holster to aim it carefully at the rusted chain and shoot it. The gunshot was deafening in the confined space and the chain exploded in the middle as the bullet ripped through it, allowing what was left to clatter onto the floor. Ray then stepped back and then charged the door with his shoulder causing it to burst open with a bang. The sudden light that slammed into my eyes blinded me and all I could see were white spots as I was bundled forwards with the rest of the squad onto the roof of the building. For a minute I staggered on the spot blinking furiously to try to clear the white spots from my vision. Then my vision was clear and I looked up to see a cracked and partially collapsed Tarmac roof with a view over a long dusty road with a bridge at the end. "Well that's the road we usually would've taken" said Ray out loud for me and Myles's benefit "but if you look closely it seems that me and Bull were right". We all squinted down at the road to indeed see many familiar dog like figures wandering around the road at the foot of the building we currently were standing on. "Well then what now?" Asked Myles and Ray led us to the edge of the building. "We take the fire ladder down back to street level at the back of the building and then we can take the subway to the other side of the road and onto the bridge". We reached the furthest side of the roof to come across a pile of very old looking construction equipment, "what fire ladder?" Asked Kate. At the edge of the roof were handle brackets and a couple of rusted bolts sunk into the concrete but otherwise no sign of a ladder. "Ah" said Ray awkwardly as he looked over the side of the building "yeeaahh er we might need a different route cause our ladder is at the bottom of our building". We all rushed over to indeed see the shattered remains of a ladder at the foot of the building. While everyone else stared at the ladder and talked about what to do I wondered off towards the construction gear further down the roof. I trudged through the rusted metal tools and rotten parts and items to see a circular yellow tube protruding from below the roof onto it. "Guys?" I called over my shoulder, "I think I have an idea for how to get down!"....