0800 Hours [slash]

0800 Hours: Recording #006

Click.

"0800 hours. It's been twelve days since my dad last spoke to me. I think he's finally cracked. I'm actually on my way to the Co-Op again. Hang on, I'll try and get some authentic Scottish countryside in - "

A moderate wind whips around the microphone, the gush of air eerily resembling shrieks and howls. Underneath the fanfare of the gale, the faint trickle of water on rocks can be detected.

"Before the Infection that'd have been much more exciting. You'd hear cows and horses and kids running through the grass, probably a dog or two as well... Anyway, it's good to document for comparison purposes, I guess. I'm just gonna take a trolley full of shopping up the road today. At any rate, it's not like there's anyone other than me and dad to miss it. Plus, it's like a two hour walk back, and I can only carry so many messages at once. I'm gonna get so many digestives. It'll be great."

Footsteps crunch as shoes meet gravel.

"Fuck! I think that's a body! Hello? Are you ok?! Do you need help...?"

Panicked panting starts as the footsteps become heavy and quick.

"Are you - holy shit! That's definitely a corpse. I guess the village wasn't totally evacuated after all. Uh, for documentational purposes, the Infected is covered in skin lesions, and there's a discharge around the mouth. Maybe from pulmonary oedema? Fuck, it's been two hundred and one days since I last found a corpse, and that one was..."

The speaker draws a few deep breaths, faltering as the cool air stings their lungs.

"Anyways, I should probably burn it. It's way too risky to just leave it festering... I don't have a lighter fluid or anything though. I'll just grab something out the Co-Op. I guess I'll be out for a bit longer than five hours then. Oh well."

Click.