New to the series or certain you’ve missed a chapter? You can find the introduction Here and the table of contents Here.

~ Content Warning for limb removal and related descriptions. ~

We didn’t get into the bunker the next day, either. Overnight, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and we woke up to a day full of dark grey clouds that started dumping snow on us almost the moment we stepped outside to try charging the control box. We had a guard at the entrance to the cave keep an eye on it, brushing the snow away as it accumulated, but the box hadn’t even gotten enough power to turn on when we took it back into the cave system over lunch. Lucas tried setting up a light capture array using a bunch of mirrors in the afternoon, but that still wasn’t enough to power it on long enough to slap it back into its place on the wall and punch in the code.

As we ate what was going to be our last full, if somewhat bland, meal unless the hunters got incredibly lucky or we managed to get the bunker door open, Lucas, Cam, Natalie, and I talked through solutions.

“I don’t think we’ve got any tech we can use to adapt to the battery port.” I gestured at the small plate on the back of the device. “Not without breaking something we can’t do without, anyway. We’ve got maybe two devices that would power this thing and losing either the receiver or our heavy-duty thermal goggles is a recipe for a delayed but probably violent death if anything goes wrong during our approach to the Chicago Enclave.”

Cam grunted and nodded in agreement, but didn’t add anything. Natalie poured over the list of devices, batteries, and power sources we had for another moment before saying “and we’ve got nothing else that we can combine to do the same thing?”

“Not that anyone here knows, anyway. I’m sure if we were in an Enclave or still had Jay around we’d be able to do something. No one else has any kind of electrical engineering knowledge beyond swapping wires or stuff like that.” I shrugged. “If we cracked the thing open, so we could get to the wires inside it, that’d be a different story. We’ve got a couple really old lanterns, with those little charging ports on them. I could wire one of those directly to the battery or power thingy or whatever is inside. I just don’t know how to make that happen through the weird little plate.”

“If we crack it open, I could probably get a chemical reaction going that would power it long enough, too.” Lucas shrugged and gestured to a couple of the small glow sticks hanging from the bandolier he wore over his thermal jacket. “One of these and some stuff out of our medical supplies would do it.”

“Which is a moot point.” Cam grunted and unfolded their arms. “The whole reason we still use this dumb thing is because it’s shielded. We crack it open and then what signal manages to get through the box enough to open the door is suddenly free to go anywhere. It might even make it outside.”

Natalie frowned at Cam. “But is being attacked by monsters worse than starving to death? We can handle those things. There’s not much we can do against hunger with a group this big. Today’s attempt at hunting pretty much proves it. There’s almost no trees here, thanks to all the farming, and what little wildlife still lives around here is too wary. If there even is any. There’s not exactly a lot of loose vegetation for anything to eat after all these years. If we stay here too long, we’re going to run out of fuel and freeze or starve, and I don’t expect foraging and hunting to get any better as we head east. If anything, they’ll get worse.”

“Then why not just crack open the receiver or goggles?” Cam threw up their hands. “If we don’t care about being attacked, why not do the thing that will only maybe get us killed instead of the one that will definitely get us killed.”

“Cam…” Natalie sighed and before she could say any more, I jumped in.

“If we have the receiver and goggles, we can see them coming. Or, at worst, know to expect them. A loose signal doesn’t automatically get us killed, especially since we’re about as far from The Blizzard as we can get. There’s a chance nothing will pick it up and we always get better results if we’re the ones firing first, rather than the monsters.”

Cam grudgingly nodded at that. “I don’t like it, though. We’ve lost so many people already and the Naturalists won’t be able to help with any of that fighting. They don’t have the training.”

“But that’s what we do, right?” Lucas smirked and waggled an eyebrow at Cam. “We kill monsters. That’s the whole point of our group. Why we’re the best of the best.” Lucas mimed holding a rifle to his shoulder, aiming down a scope, and firing it. “You’ve got more monster kills to your name than any two or three Wayfinders put together. As long as we take any scouts out before they can report back, we’re fine. And even if they do, that’s what the goggles are for. We make distance, hunker down, and lose our tails.”

“And it might not even come to that.” Natalie made a shooing motion at Lucas as he continued to mime firing a rifle. “The signal might not make it out of the cave. We can even try sealing the box back up if we open it the right way. There’s no guarantee there will be anything to detect, let alone that there will be anything nearby to detect it.”

“What about waiting for the storm to pass?” Cam turned their head to face the location of the exit out of the caves, which left them staring at a blank wall of the cavern we were sitting in. “If we wait, we should be able to get enough of a charge in the thing to open the door.”

“Sure, but we don’t know how long that’ll take.” Lucas shrugged and looked over to me. “All our weather data is old and while we can all make some pretty good guesses, none of them indicate that this snow will be ending soon.”

“If we wait too long, we’ll be too tired from the cold and hunger to be able to outrun or outfight any monsters.” I picked up the control box and flipped it around a few times in my hands. “Plus, there’s no guarantee that the battery inside this thing can hold enough of a charge to get the door open. It could be that we’re getting enough sunlight already for a slow charge, but the battery just dies again before we can use it.”

“I don’t like the risk.” Cam shook their head. “This shit was buried for a reason. This whole thing is far back for a reason. We have no idea if removing any of the barriers is what gets it found. Are we willing to risk this entire depot and all the stuff we’ve got here for a resupply? It might be tough, but we could probably make it to a cache or two and just drain the caches and hunt until we get to Chicago.”

“We can’t risk it, Cam.” Natalie looked down at the clipboard in their lap and sighed. “There’s too many kids. If we miss even one cache or can’t hunt up enough food, we’re going to lose people. We might be used to some rough hikes, but the Naturalists and their kids sure aren’t. And we’d probably lose the more injured people, too.”

“I know, but this is my job, Nat.” Cam held up their hands to forestall any arguments as they said “I have to ask the hard questions. My number one job is making sure as many people survive as possible and we all know the hard decisions we might have to make.”

“Yeah, which is my job.” I took a long, slow breath in, held it for a few seconds, and then slowly let it out. “We crack it. Let’s do the chemical thing, so we can just leave whatever behind if we have to. We’ll do it in the morning, after getting the camp packed up. I’ll have someone at the entrance to the cavern with the receiver. If they detect a signal, we load up and run. If they don’t, we load up the bare minimum, go inside, and keep up a wide patrol. If nothing shows up, we settle in for a bit and get our injured people healed before we do the next leg. None of us is in the right shape to walk three weeks to the Chicago Enclave on foraging rations.”

I looked each of them in the eyes and reminded them “The whole area is practically empty of life thanks to all Naturalist and Cultist groups that hunted it clean over the years. We can’t count on finding anything within two weeks of the Chicago Enclave and we already took the path that would take us to the depot rather than past enough caches to feed our group. We have to find a way to make this work.”

There were a few moments of silence as everyone traded looks and then, when no one spoke, everyone settled back, the tension draining out of them. Cam was the first to speak. “Right. I’ll get patrols set up. Nat, make your stock-up plans to use the bare minimum of Wayfinders and then cut that in half. I want everyone on patrol. Anyone who can’t patrol but can sit up is going to be set up at the cave entrance. You’ll be in charge of that group, Lucas. I’ll leave a runner with you so we know if we’re hunting or just keeping watch. Marshall, I’m leaving you here to command so the Naturalists fall in line. You can also be the runner for the depot group.”

Lucas and I nodded as Cam spoke, a serious expression on our faces that stayed as Cam and Natalie talked through how many people Natalie would need to hold on to in order to shepherd the Naturalists or pull supplies. Within a handful of minutes, we had a solid plan and dispersed to go give out orders.

After that, the entire camp was a flurry of activity as Wayfinders checked their weapons and we did a gear inspection, making sure everyone’s thermal gear was up to snuff. It took most of the rest of the evening as we got everything packed that we could and we set up a couple markers along the path from the cave system’s entrance to the depot so the Naturalists could move stuff to the sleds that couldn’t travel through the caves. They were a bunch of little flags that we tucked into cracks in the stones that we normally used these to mark our campsite out if we wound up needing to hunker down in our tents during a normal snowstorm that threatened to bury us. They were easy to see and light enough for the last person out of the depot to quickly gather them all up as they ran, which made them ideal for our situation.

When everything was finally finished for the evening, we all retired to our tents and I could feel the lingering energy and tension of the camp as it slowly quieted down. The Wayfinders all had experience with the monsters, since that was a part of the training for all incoming Wayfinders. You got introduced to them and taught how to kill them. 

Most of the Naturalists, though, had never encountered one. Their life without technology meant they were safer from detection than most Enclaves and everyone knew to stay inside at night, to not have visible lights in the dark, and to keep any source of heat hidden, so it was rare that they ever encountered any. They’d all heard the stories, though, so it was almost two hours before the final whispers died away and I resigned myself to calculating prime numbers until my mind was distracted enough to fall asleep.

The next morning passed quickly. Breakfast was a rushed affair, even for how small it was for most of us, and we quickly announced that the heavy snow had graduated into a full blizzard. While everyone else packed up, Lucas walked Natalie through the process of starting the chemical reaction that would provide enough power for the keypad while I went through the arduous process of cracking open the metal shell so we could run some wires from the glass bottle Lucas had given me to the power supply. Cam took all but two of the healthy Wayfinders outside, to set up patrols and a perimeter around the cave system so they would all be in place by the time we would start the reaction and enter the passcode.

Once Natalie had things figured out, I helped the three injured Wayfinders, including Lucas, get settled into place at the entrance to the cave and did some stretches so I’d be ready to sprint through the cave if we got a signal. After the agreed upon fifteen minutes had passed, Lucas flicked the receiver on and we all stared intently at it in complete, breathless silence. I counted heartbeats as the line on the screen remained flat. Just as I was beginning to wonder if Natalie’s watch had lost time despite the fact that we’d synchronized them not even thirty minutes ago, the line on the screen leapt up into a waveform and I dashed away without a word.

I heard Lucas call out something to the Wayfinder Cam had stationed outside the cave, but I was already two turns down the path and couldn’t make out the words over the pounding of my feet on the stone. When I finally made it into the cavern outside the depot, I could see people running back and forth, loading supplies into boxes as they were passed out of the depot and a couple people prepared to carry full boxes to the sleds that were waiting in the entrance cavern  next to Lucas and the other guards.

“We’ve got a signal, everyone. We had two hours. Keep it up.”

I noticed a few Naturalists come to a halt as they heard my words, some of them whispering to each other as they stopped and stared at me. Before the human chain could completely screech to a halt, Natalie was already yelling out. “Don’t stop. We have work to do and two hours is barely enough to do it. Keep moving, people. You can think about it later.”

I dashed into the depot and started gathering the supplies I’d been tasked with collecting. I checked for updated weather data, to see if any other Wayfinder groups had passed through here since the last passage of The Blizzard and then started copying down the notes Natalie had made to her map onto the large table map that showed the area covered by the midwestern section of the Wayfinders. I also left a couple notes on the Cultist activity we’d seen, copied some notes about changes in some of the bandit groups south of the Chicago Enclave that we might have to deal with, and then dashed off to restock our medical supplies.

The two hours passed in a blur. Thanks to years of walking and the training we did during our breaks from Wayfinding, I was able to keep up a steady jog and sprint the entire time. It felt almost refreshing to be so completely focused on one task. I could see that it was starting to take a toll on the Naturalists, though, as the stress and fear of not knowing what could be happening outside the caverns ate at them.

Thankfully, though, we finished with five minutes to spare and I made sure to seal the depot behind us. I left the control box on the floor of the cavern, with the wires still sticking out of it, so it would be impossible to miss, and the note that the depot was probably compromised was clearly visible to anyone who walked up. When I got to the entrance, I found everyone doing a final gear check as a couple people finished loading the sleds and two Wayfinders from Cam’s group started getting everything lined up to head east. I dropped the bundle of flags in Lucas’ arms as he was settled into place on one of the sleds, gun still at the ready, and ran into the snow, heading to the spot that I knew Cam would be waiting for me.

I found them leaning against the tree where the battery and solar panel should have been, expression calm but a few magazines notably missing from their belt. When I came to a standstill, Cam launched right into their report. “

“We’ve got sixteen confirmed kills. The blizzard is slowing them down. It’s too heavy for them to get through easily. We’ve got two injuries, though.” Cam grabbed my sleeve and pulled me along behind them. “Not serious, but one of them got tagged during the hit.”

“Fuck.” I pulled my arm free of Cam and picked up the pace, shifting from the quick shuffle I favored in the snow to a long, kicking stride that would tired me out quickly but that rapidly ate up ground. “Who?”

“Tiffany. Natalie’s new trainee.”

“Where?”

“Hand. Another hundred meters. Should be seeing them soon.”

“How long?”

“Got it wrapped in less than a minute and it’s been about fifteen since. Figured it wasn’t going to make much of a difference for her and it let us funnel them all in once she got hit.”

Just ahead, standing next to an old barren tree, was a trio of Wayfinders. One was leaning against the tree, right arm hanging loosely at their side as they clutched it against them with their left arm. Before I even got there, I was whipping my pack off my back and detaching the lower portion that held my field medical kit. As we came to a halt beside the trio, Cam nodded to the third Wayfinder who then jogged off into the snow, relieved of their watch.

I ripped my bag open and started spreading it out over the snow, tossing the rolled up tarp to Cam so they could block some of the wind and snow while I worked. Tiffany, her eyes sharp and brittle, flashed an angry smile at me. “Did as trained, Captain. Glove’s off, tied just above the joint, and my emergency painkillers have kicked in. I can’t feel shit right now.”

“Good.” I pulled out a bit of thick wooden dowling wrapped in untreated leather. “This is still going to suck. It will hurt and you’re going to feel it. Bite.” While Tiffany arranged the stick in her mouth with her uninjured hand and my hands started pulling unfolding the amputation kit on top of my pack, I glanced over at the other Wayfinder. “Ben. Report.”

“Sir.” Ben saluted and I saw the tear in the sleeve of his jacket. “I was hit by normal fire. No tracer. Barely a scratch and I’ve already bandaged it.”

“Get that sleeve wrapped, then. Tape’s in the top pouch.” Saw Ben saluted again out of the corner of my eye and felt him start digging through my pack. I banished the sensation from my mind as I snapped on a pair of sterile gloves I pulled out of a packet. When I looked up at Tiffany again, I could see some of the sharpness had faded from her eyes as she thrust her hand out. I glanced over it quickly, noting that it was already turning blotchy purple and blue. I carefully rotated her hand so I could see the black metal spike embedded in the meat of her hand. Past the red of the dried blood on her hand, I could see thin lines of brilliant bright red along the surface of her skin that were extending toward her wrist. Stopping the circulation to her hand had prevented them from getting very far, though.

I glanced up at Tiffany again, saying “look away and hold still” as I pulled out an alcohol wipe and swabbed over her hand and the exposed part of her forearm. When I was finished, I pulled Tiffany into a seated position and pressed a stress ball into her left hand. “Squeeze.” Before she’d even begun to squeeze, I pulled out the bone saw from the bottom of the kit, ripped open the packaging, and grabbed Tiffany’s forearm in my left hand. As she flinched in response to my sudden movement, I held her arm in place and started sawing just below the tourniquet.

I swallowed past the bile in my throat and quickly cut through her wrist. Once I was finished with the saw, I set it aside in the alcohol bag, grabbed a scalpel, and quickly cleaned up the cut, leaving enough skin to wrap over the stump of her wrist. Before wrapping things up, I carefully inspected the stump and saw no signs of the red Trace lines spreading into her arm. Once I was satisfied, I sewed everything up and started bandaging the stump.

Tiffany, for her part, had done well. She had held still as I worked, despite the many grunts of pain, and seemed content just to press her back into the tree she was leaning against rather than thrash her free arm or legs. When I glanced up at her as I finished wrapping up her arm, I found her glaring up at the sky, bits of frozen tears flaking her eyelashes as she snarled around the stick. I pulled her sleeve down and held up a hand to stop her as she moved to rip the stick out of her move. Only after I’d taped her sleeve shut did I let her take the stick out.

“God fucking fuck, Captain. An actual bonesaw?”

“Take these.” I held out a bottle of pills. “Antibiotic. One every six hours. These” I held up another bottle once she’d taken the first one. “Are better painkillers. I’m going to help you to a sled where you’re going to take one of these and pass out for three or four hours. When you wake up, you can take these,” I produced another bottle, “to help keep the edge off until you need to take the good ones again. You get to take the good ones a total of twelve times, with at least six hours between doses. Only take them when you can’t stand it. I will repeat these instructions every six hours until they stick. Clear?”

Tiffany, eyes more glassy than ever, raised their right arm to salute and flinched as she moved it. “Clear,” she said through gritted teeth. “Crystal.” 

“Good. Sit there for a moment. Deep breaths. Try to avoid throwing up but don’t fight it if it’s coming up.” I started tucking things away and folding my medical kit back up, keeping an eye on Tiffany as I did. When I had packed everything away, I took the bag holding Tiffany’s hand, the bloody gloves, and all of the medical trash and taped it up. I ran over it a few times with the roll so it wouldn’t be at risk of tearing or being popped open, and tossed it to Cam.

“Tracer’s in there. Do your thing.”

“Roger.” Cam saluted and looked off to the north, where the other Wayfinder had vanished. “You gonna be good with Tiffany?”

“Yeah. Between Ben and I, we can carry her if we have to.”

Hearing his name startled Ben out of the reverie he’d fallen into. He’d turned around when I started working on Tiffany and stared off into the distance, ostensibly keeping watch but the coughing and gagging noises he made told a different story. He glanced over his shoulder at me and then looked down at Tiffany, flinching when he saw the taped up stump where her hand had been. I ignored him and turned my attention back to Cam.

“Anything else?”

“Basic heat-sensing types. Usually they only start tagging when they think we’re going to run, so I’ve got no idea what gave them that idea. We started with stabs and cold kills, which worked for a while, but more and more of them started showing up. The rest of the Wayfinders are leading them West, or at least as much as they can, but any of the scouts are going to corral the fighters once they pick up the tag’s signal.”

“Any count?”

“Nope. We’ve seen at least two dozen, but we killed most of them and you know how they go. A few at a time until suddenly it’s a whole wave of them all at once.”

“Did you get the one that tagged her?”

“I sure as hell did, Captain.” Tiffany growled, eyes still closed, and was waving to the north when I looked down at her. “It’s over there if you want to confirm. Killed it as it shot me, so it didn’t even get to confirm the tag.”

“Good job, Tiffany.” I looked back at Cam who just nodded.

“They did good. Took out the ones they were fighting as we went to guns.” Cam paused and looked down at the bag in their hands for a moment before continuing. “Best case, we can lure them away and use the tag to throw them off. Worst case, they follow us all the way to Chicago.”

“They better follow the tag after all that.” Tiffany let out a harsh laugh and started pushing herself to her feet. “Waste of a hand, otherwise.”

Cam sighed and shouldered their gun. “Ben, stick with the sleds when you get back. Help the rear guard unless someone comes to get you.”

Ben saluted, flinching as he raised his taped right arm but keeping the gesture smooth despite it. “Yes, Captain.”

I nodded to Cam and gave them a quick pat on the shoulder. “Stay safe.”

“You’re not the boss of me.” Cam smirked and winked at me.

“Please stay safe.” I smiled softly and shook my head. Cam turned and started shuffling north, moving at a steady clip despite the heavy snow on the ground. I watched them for a few seconds as I slipped my stiffening hands into my thermal gloves. Once they’d begun to fade into the haze of the heavy snowfall, I turned to Tiffany. “Let’s get you back to the sleds. You need to get to sleep.”

Tiffany threw her good arm over my shoulders and, with Ben keeping an eye on the surroundings, we took off toward where I’d left the sleds. As we went, I did a quick check of mine and Tiffany’s gear, making sure all the seals around our wrists, waists, and necks were tight. Sending Cam off with a tag to lead them away wouldn’t do us any good if the monsters could follow us because our thermal gear wasn’t hiding the heat we gave off.

As we got to the cave and I turned us in the direction of the path the sleds had left, taking advantage of the cleared ground to start picking up a little more speed, I took some time to say a prayer to every god I could think of. If the tag had been almost anywhere else, it would have spread too quickly to be stopped by anything but an immediate amputation. We would have had to leave Tiffany behind if it had been able to spread throughout her body.

This time, thankfully, we didn’t have to leave another person behind. Tiffany was going to be forced into early retirement from the Wayfinders, but at least we didn’t have to abandon her or force her to choose between being left behind and running in the opposite direction until the monsters caught up with her. Hardly ideal, but much better than I expected when I’d heard that someone had gotten tagged.

As we finally caught up to the sleds and I carefully bundled Tiffany onto the sled next to Lucas, where he could keep an eye on her for me, I mused on the situation. Usually, the monsters didn’t tag people until the people had begun to flee. Normally, they just killed them. This was either an unlikely coincidence or a new behavior that we’d never seen before. Given the way things had been going the last few weeks, it was difficult not to dwell on the idea that everything we thought we knew about the monsters might be wrong.