We are deployed to Alpha base, the only base that hasn’t been discovered by the
infected. It is situated inside an abandoned outside the jungle. The coordinates
are already uploaded to the system. We stand up and initiate running. The bot
pushes forward and quickly accelerates to its maximum speed.
“They limited these bad boys” Colin yells over the blaring rock music. We cross
the desert. It’s a hot, barren wasteland. For hours it’s just sand and clouds. In the
distance it looks like the horizon is on fire.
“Is that sunlight?” I ask squinting to focus.
“Fucking hell!” Colin says shocked. “Yes, I think its sunlight!” Colin yells and turns
the music down. He connects to base “Alpha base, this is Jungle Monkey. There is
light falling from the sky. Permission to proceed?”
“Roger that Jungle Monkey. Get a feel for sunlight, there’s only light from here on
out.”
When we enter the light, I close my eyes in anticipation. The hemispheres
polarize, but it’s still something to get used to. Now I get why the training terrain
was so bright. It’s fucking breathtaking! I have never seen something so beautiful
in my life. I take a while to get used to the blue sky. It makes me feel the same
sense of freedom I get when driving.
When we arrive at the town there is a giant wall next to the base.
“That’s a risky spot for a base camp” Colin reads my mind.
“How is this random town in the middle of nowhere not been discovered by the
zombies yet?” I ask.
“They probably don’t leave the jungle, genius.” Colin has a point.
On arrival the lieutenant takes us to our bunkers. “Which fucking idiot built the
bunker next to the wall?” I rage.
“Our requested to relocate the bunkers is pending” the lieutenant points to our
beds. Colin looks at me with a raised eyebrow like he knows that the only thing
that’s pending is bullshit.
“At least we’ll be in the bots most of the time” I mumble.
We get settled in and it’s the first time I sit outside around an open fire and see
the stars. I can hardly believe my eyes. I try not to make too big a scene, but I
randomly blurt out “Wow” every time my eye catches a glimpse of the sky. I hear
the other soldiers complain about chapped soles and how they made their pet
rooster, Billy, a little hard hat and a chicken pen because he keeps pecking their
boots, now his beak is stump. I take a moment to process the conversation. “A
chicken with a stump beak and a hard hat?” I try to make sense of what I just
heard and frown at Colin who raises his shoulders and laughs. I pull out a bottle of
whiskey I snuck in. The men are overjoyed. They all introduce themselves and
start discussing the state of the resources.
“If you control the resources you control the citizens” the guy whose name I’ve
already forgotten says after sipping the whiskey.
“Not that the citizens mind, the majority are too busy living for themselves to
think about contributing to society” the guy next to him adds to the conversation.
“Sky-Lo is always consulted before big choices are made, I think they’re all playing
us” another guy conspires.
“What do you guys know about The Urge?” I interrupt.
“I think it was chemical warfare” one guy says.
“Aliens!” another yell from the side.
“It was the government. The government and their mind control experiments”
the guy next to me says in a serious tone.
“All I know is that The Urge is incurable, and you don’t want that shit to rub off on
you” Colin jokes, but looks at me intently as he passes the whiskey my way.
That night I have another dream. I am running towards purple zombies, but this
time the bridge is burning. I run into the fire and it consumes me. I sit up soaked,
again. I think the talk around the fire stayed with me. I don’t say anything about
the dream. I think Colin is already suspicious.
The next morning, we get a quick briefing before we leave for harvesting.
“Like you all know by now, the jungle zombies are well adapted to their
environment and their vast numbers give them the upper hand. We need to get in
and get out every day without being detected, until we have gained enough
ground to counterattack. They don’t want our weapons. They want us. The
Logbots will keep you safe. Don’t get out, don’t get caught. You are assets to Light
City. A range of bots are being made that can be controlled remotely, but for now
we need to survey the terrain and get to the water source. The harvesting
location is about an hour’s run from base camp, so you’ll be in transit before the
break of dawn and back before dark. Remember to clear your tracks and stay in
the safe time zones” the general salutes.
We get the Jungle Monkey jogging and push it to a flat out run while we cross the
desert towards the jungle border. We listen to rock music to get psyched but
when we reach the jungle I’m blown away once again. “Fuck me. Have you ever
seen something like this before?” the canopy seems to stretch on for ages. The
huge trees cover the earth like a blanket with so many different shades of greens I
never even knew existed, contrasting the blue sky above it.
“This is amazing” Colin nods, “I thought they were exaggerating in the movies” he
laughs.
I find it hard to cut down the first tree. For the first time I’m not enjoying my job.
Colin sees me look uncomfortable and quickly turns up the music.
“Let’s get the show on the roll” he tries to motivate me.
I start sliding my thumb towards my index finger. Chopping down trees. By the
time we reached our quota I’m in a trance state. Colin takes us back and I’m quiet
the entire trip.
The days pass quickly, and we get pumped up every morning on our jungle run to
meet some zombies, but we see none. We have the highest yield of all the teams
by the end of the first week and everyone is getting more relaxed as we are
making good progress.
The fire is burning again tonight, but it’s only Colin and I around it. I open another
bottle of whiskey. I need to talk to him. I need his help.
“How many of these do you have?” he laughs.
“Last one” I laugh too. I pour some into his glass and I sip from the bottle. We sit
in silence for a while and look at the stars. The sheer beauty pushes up the tears
again. There is no fucking way I’m crying now. I spit some whiskey on the fire to
snap out of it. My emotions are becoming harder to control.
“Did you experience the Purple Pulse?” I break the silence. He looks at me and
then stares into the fire. I think the setting made him open up, it’s either that or
the whiskey…or maybe he was expecting it?
“The day it happened was the highest global temperatures ever recorded. The
rising water levels were pushing coastal inhabitants inland while drought and
famine continued to spread.” He takes a sip of whiskey and stares into the fire.
“I remember feeling my heart restart and watched the sky flash purple” he sips
his whiskey like he‘s nervous. “I remember my ears ringing and then everything
falling silent. My life flashed before my eyes. I thought I was dying. Ugh, this
sounds ridiculous!” he sighs.
“So, the Purple Pulse happened before the onset of The Urge?” I ask to keep him
going.
“Yeah, they said something about the ice-caps and a rise in the earth’s
electromagnetic frequency, but it was later said to be too minor to affect us.”
“Do you think the Purple Pulse is connected to The Urge?” I ask anxiously.
“They said the Purple Pulse was due to the fertilizers and the stopping of the
oceanic currents, but I think it was connected. Wait, why are you asking all this?”
he looks at me intently.
I don’t say anything.
“Since when do you care about why things are the way they are?” he insists.
“Did you glow purple?” I change the subject.
“What? How do you know?” he asks surprised.
“It happened to me after taking EMO” I confess.
“You experienced the Purple Pulse?!” he almost yells in disbelief.
I nod in silence.
“Have your Nigredo levels stabilized?” he sounds worried.
“No, the Nigredo isn’t working properly” I say trying to keep calm.
“Are you showing symptoms?” he asks. “I feel different” I whisper.
“You feel?” Colin looks at me wide-eyed and chugs down the rest of the whiskey.
He extends his arm with the empty cup. I refill.
“Never mind that, what happened after your heart restarted? “I continue.
“People started acting strange. It’s was like nature turned against us. The Urge
made people leave behind their belongings and friends and family, and
congregate in the wild. When the virus was linked to the cause of their strange
behavior, it was already spreading so fast it was impossible to stop it. By
preventing the onset of the symptoms, we could prevent complete degeneration
of our brains, so Sky-Lo helped us do just that. Prevent the onset of The Urge.
Prevention is better than a cure I guess” he mumbles to himself.
“And The Urge?” I ask.
“The outbreak started within the first week after the pulse. It was chaos. The
floods and weather destroyed everything and the infected were everywhere. I
joined the force shortly after everybody was called to join hands. Everyone moved
north to the safe zones. We set up the boundaries to separate the citizens from
the infected. After the installation of Nigredo everything calmed down…and here
we are” he says and looks down at his empty glass. He seems sad.
“Do you think I’m infected?”
“What are you feeling?” he asks.
“I’m fucking crying in my pillow at night when I can’t sleep. And when I do
manage to fall asleep I dream of zombies and fire and wake up soaked.”
“What? You’re dreaming?” his jaw drops.
“Yes, it started when we left the city and has become more intense every night.”
He is quiet for a while. He looks serious. “Okay, let’s not jump to any conclusions”
he tries to console himself.
“What would they do to me if I’m infected?” I ask. He just shakes his head and
says nothing. “Come on. You were in the force, you know!” I insist.
“We put them in quarantine back then, but I don’t know what happens after that,
and I don’t know what they’ll do now.” We sit in silence for a while. “You’re
coming off that EMO shit, don’t worry about it” he tries to reassure me.
“Everything alright here boys?” the general steps into the light of the fire. We
want to stand up, but he gestures for us to stay seated. He takes the bottle of
whiskey from me and drinks it.
“Yes sir, just informing Jet on the homework he didn’t do” Colin saves my ass.
I laugh to lighten the mood.
“You feeling okay captain?” the general looks at me intently.
“Yes sir, besides a bit of withdrawal from our reinstatement party I feel great” I
joke.
“The first week of harvesting went smoothly. Congratulations on making the
highest yields, you two set a good example” he says proudly.
“Thank you, sir,” we both thank him.
“We are making good progress into the jungle, but we are going deeper into her, I
mean, their territory now. Be careful out there” he warns and gives me the bottle.
“Get some rest” he says as he walks off.
That night I dream about the wall around the base. I walk along it and it seems to
be cracking. I reach Billy the stump beak rooster’s pen and he is sitting inside a
hole with his hard hat on. “Dig a hole. Dig a hole. D-d-dig a hole” he says and
pecks the ground.
I wake up feeling tense. I continue to feel tense the whole morning. I administer
an extra dose of relaxant, but it doesn’t last long. When it wears off it makes me
feel even more anxious. I struggle to stay focused on the job. My hands are
shaking, and Colin and I hardly talk. I don’t know if he is scared or irritated, but we
take long to reach our quota. I begin to feel claustrophobic and start
hyperventilating.
“Are you okay?” Colin asks.
“I need fresh air” I gasp. I open my hemisphere and inhale deeply. I can hear Colin
swearing from inside his hemisphere. I breathe a sigh of relief. I can hear the
rustling of the leaves and the birds singing.
“Jet, close the damn hemisphere! What are you doing?” he yells over the com.
I inhale, lean back and place my feet on the front panel. Suddenly the leg
underneath the bot gives way and it falls over. I fall out of the hemisphere and
knock my head. Black out.