A Tail Tale

Chapter-04- The Trip

Chapter-04:
        Like a cheetah after it's prey in the Savannah, the two small pick-up trucks raced at break-neck speeds towards their destination; The City. The truck with the boat winched to the rear was not slowed by the increase in weight, and kept up with the Red one. Even at such high speeds, the group saw few wrecked vehicles or debris lining the long stretch of four lane road between them and the city. The drive is somewhat long, and admittedly quiet. Tyler sat with his back on the rear part of the bed, where the driver's cabin connected to the bed. He contemplated about what he would do inside the city
"Scavenge for good PC parts before they are destroyed by natural elements? Maybe... Scavenging for food and supplies should be a priority though...Hmm, though, if this city is a safe zone...will we need to loot anymore? Mayb.."
His train of thought is interrupted by one of the first generation infected, a Lupman. He had a dirt brown fur coat, tired light blue eyes, and wore a dark green V-neck T-shirt with some brown cargo pants. His voice was deeper than most he had encountered, and he had a slight North American city businessman accent.
"It's a bit quiet, do you know what we're going to do once we enter the city? Do you know anything about where we're going?" He asks.
Tyler moved his head from side to side not knowing the local area at all. The only things he had known about thus far was his old vacationing grounds, but the rest was foreign territory to him.
"I was simply here on vacation with my family....I think one is dead, but I don't know about the rest..." Tyler replies.
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that, if it makes you feel any better, I don't know what happened to my family either...Anyways, the city we're going to is Philago, a city with an estimated population of a few billion...the safe-zone for us Mutants is on the other side of the city, near the southern part of down town." He pauses, remembering he had forgotten to say something to Tyler.
"Sorry, I got your name from Musan over there in the front of the truck, but you never got mine! I'm Frank, another infected like you, well...not exactly, but we're in the same boat...or truck.." He say jokingly.
Tyler nods and holds out his hand as if to shake Frank's but the truck starts to come to a rapid halt, and his hand is forced back down.
Getting slammed upon the back of the bed, Tyler thinks up of many factors of why they had stopped.
"What's going on?" Tyler whispered to himself as he slowly reeled himself back together from the sudden jolt..
He could only think of the worst possibilities as he recovered from his minor disturbance. The cans in his backpack did not make it any better, but the combination of his new fur coat, his clothing, and his backpack's padding stopped the cans from jutting themselves too far into his back. Many thoughts ran through his mind at that moment
"Ouch...that hurt, why'd we stop in such a hurry? It could be raiders....bandits, rioters....all the same, but why is everything so silent?"
As the trucks came to a stand still, Tyler got up after recovering to look over the truck's cabin. Getting a long, still silence to observe, Tyler say an overpass that crossed over the road in-front of them, an abandoned military checkpoint lay on the other side of the road blocking the other lane, but a thick, pitch black smoke lay shrouding this road ahead in mystery. Opening the door to his truck, Musan stepped out, and observed the smoke for a few moments, as if planning something. Within a few silent minutes, Musan came to a conclusion, and jogged over to the other truck, ordering five men with weapons to follow him. Looking around, the group shrugged at each other. Three Lupmen armed with hunting rifles, and two Humans armed with pump action shotguns leaped down from the bed of the other truck, and quickly gathered around Musan awaiting further instruction.
"What's Musan planning?" Frank asked himself as he started to check what supplies in the bed were still tied down correctly.
Tyler stood in silence, then crouched down as his legs were getting tired of simply standing, doing nothing. Still listening, his new ears allowed him to easily hear Musan's orders being given.
"The five of you will be going to scout the smoke, since there's a military checkpoint on the other side, there's bound to be one over here somewhere in the smoke. The gate is probably still closed, so scout it out, open the gate if you find one, then come back alive, alright?" Musan said as he says as he gives them a thumbs up. Quickly, Musan returns to his truck. Closing the door, he sat back, and crossed his arms as he awaited for the results of his operation.
"Alright! We're heading in!" One of the group yelled back to the others as they prepared to enter the black abyss. Lining up in a staggered horizontal line, they primed their weapons, loading them, and turning their safeties off. After a short thirty seconds, each member gave a thumbs up indicating they were ready. Nodding at the sight, the party raised their weapons, and entered the smoke. It engulfed them as they entered, and what was left in their passing was silence. Getting time to observe, Tyler saw the other truck's members sitting down, resting, or just not caring about the so-called checkpoint that was up ahead. He could listen in on some of their conversations...
"He'll be alright, right guys?" A Worried Lupman wearing a Red T-shirt, and brown dress pants asked.
"Yeah sure! It's probably just some looters, or the military accidentally left their smoke grenades behind....they'll be fine!" A man dressed in hunter's fatigues reassured.
The other truck fell silent, and Tyler was left to his own devices. Frank had finished checking the supplies in this truck and sat down parallel to Tyler on the bed.
"What a mess huh? People thought a zombie apocalypse would be..." Frank started saying before a single gunshot was heard, then a loud thud...then the ripping of clothe, and crunching of something hollow, but durable. Tyler looked back at the smoke, which seemed as ominous as before. Frank also looked back in suspicion. Tyler could see the Lupmen in the other truck starting to get up, and look around in a slight panic. A single, faint yell came from inside the smoke.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" A Worried, strained old man's voice.
"I DON'T KNOW, GO...OH SHI-..."A younger, less strained, but panicked man's voice said as he was interrupted by the sudden burst of a rifle gunshot.
Flashes of yellow luminescent light came from the black smoke after each gunshot. The smell of iron and gunpowder was floating in the air, as strong as if someone had just fired many shots, and a butcher just started cutting at thawed out meat. A second eerie silence fell upon them. With everyone looking over, Musan motioned for the driver to do something as he rolled down his small window, and sat on it's frame. Tyler heard a sudden noise coming from withing the truck, as if the driver had switched automatic gears to something else. He also saw the group of fourteen in the rear of the other truck gathered in a small crowd on the bed of it, and simply watched the smoke for any clues as to what was going on. Tyler started to hear a subtle thumping, a tacking sound with a steady beat. It got louder as time went on, and it had come from the smoke. Moving further into the cover of the truck's cabin, Tyler sat, crouched over his bag, ready to either engage, or hide at a moments notice. The middle part of the smoke cloud started to bulge as something emerged, and a few of the other truck's rifle armed men started aiming rifles at it with expressions of fear for the unknown. The figure slowed to a shuffle, and the smoke cleared to reveal it was one of the Lupmen that had originally entered the smoke cloud just minutes before. His Checkered red shirt was torn at the waist line part, dark red stains were prominent on his thighs of his blue jeans, and he had the expression of a fazed out war survivor with PTSD. As he shuffled forward a few feet, more thumping, heavier than before could be heard at a rapid pace. The Lupman shuffled a few feet before another bulge, a few feet above the him had appeared. The figure tackled the survivor down with immense force, and as the smoke cleared, it was all too evident as to what they were facing. A large, Lupman-like creature with piercing red, blood-shot eyes, hunger driven drool falling from his charcoal black fur around his large canine mouth, and prominent black, shiny claws that protruded from his finger tips was standing over the injured, unaware Lupman. Before anyone could react, it took a hold of the man's ankle with a grip so strong it had shattered it, making a loud hollow, but solid crunching noise as he quickly dragged him back into the smoke.
"MOVE THE TRUCKS BACK, WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, THERE CAN'T JUST BE ONE!" Musan ordered and warned as three more Feral-Lupman, this time dressed in United States military combat gear, started to sprint out of the smoke after the truck with the most people on it; the survivor barge. As the Ferals come closer, the vehicles begin accelerating backwards. Musan gets back in the truck completely, and motions for the driver to turn the vehicle around. Tyler looks as the other vehicle starts to become overrun with Feral-Lupmen. The larger Feral moves faster than anything they could have ever seen, catching up to the truck with great speeds. Frank and one other survivor got up and started firing their small caliber rifles at the beast to no effect. It jumped into the gate of the truck, just hanging on the tail gate with one hand, while the rest of his body dangled behind the truck. Tyler sat in shock and and horror as he watched the members of his new group desperately use their rifle's butts to try and shove the creature off of the truck. It's claws dug into the trailer, and it slowly crept up the rear gate. Looking through his back pack, Tyler grabs his pistol, cocks the hammer, and aims it towards the Feral's general location. Though by this time, Tyler could see frank had shot the hand of the beast, and stomped it until it gave way. With a few rifle butts more, the group finally shoved the Feral off the rear of the vehicle. Getting up, Tyler had a moment to observe his surroundings. The other truck was grinding the side-railing of the right side of the highway, and few survivors remained alive on-board the vehicle. The larger Feral could be seen looking back at the other vehicle, and changing directions to intercept it. Ramming the driver's side door, the truck grinded to a halt, and an intense silence fell upon the group. Only the sound of the truck's guzzling engine, and it's tires on the road could be heard. The group members sat back down, with nothing to worry about anymore. Tyler looked around at the group that was left and thought to himself:
"How many's left? I count Frank....that woman....another man, and the four in the cabin including Musan.... That's eight in total including me.....and they said they had twenty or so..."
Tyler thought to himself in silence, wondering what will happen next.