There might be animals scurrying about, but he didn’t take any chances. Reaching to the small of his back, he pulled out the handgun he tucked there and kept scanning the area.
The animals didn’t seem to be affected by the infection, for whatever reason, but that was good news for the healthy. That meant they could still hunt and find food in the wild.
When he didn’t see or hear anything, he turned back around and started moving up the mountain again. The air was getting thinner, and with the exertion he was putting out, it made breathing hard. And then the land leveled out, the trees thinned, and he was walking comfortably.
For another twenty minutes, he trekked through the forest. It was then, as he reached a cleared-out valley, that he saw a large farmhouse.
Fencing was all the way around it, thick wire fencing that would do well at keeping out the infected. He could also see from this angle a pond in the back, possibly stocked with fish, or so he hoped, trying to stay optimistic. A small greenhouse was close to the house, and there was even what looked like a coop and stable, but he didn’t see any animals within them.
He held his breath as he saw a woman walking toward the greenhouse. She had long, black hair, and as the wind picked up, it blew the strands around her shoulders. It had been a long fucking time since he’d seen a woman. Just as he went to step over a fallen log, the sound of something running toward him from behind filled Marius’s head.
He turned just as something crashed into him, sending him to the ground. The air left him as his head cracked back and landed on a rock. Lights danced in front of his vision, and he groaned. The weight atop him was heavy, crushing him to the ground, but Marius couldn’t afford to be knocked out, couldn’t afford to be vulnerable.
He blinked to clear his vision and saw a man sitting on his chest, his beard having pieces of debris in it, his face filthy, and his eyes wild. He was searching Marius and then turned him to try to get his backpack off.
That’s when Marius snapped out of it and started fighting back. The guy was big, but Marius was bigger, even malnourished. He used all his strength to push the man off enough that Marius could stand and face him.
Marius breathed out, shook off the dizziness that assaulted him, and reached down to grab his knife that had fallen from his hand. He had lost his gun in the process of getting knocked down and wasn’t about to waste time trying to find it, not right now at least.
The man stood, his eyes still holding that frantic, crazed look, and came toward Marius. He attacked him again, grunting, trying to grab for his pack. Marius pushed him off.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.”
The man chuckled humorlessly. “This world is all about hurt anymore. You either learn to take what you need to survive, or you deserve to die.” And then the man came after him again. They fell to the ground, grappling for control, rolling around, and trying to gain supremacy. Marius didn’t want to hurt anyone unless it was life or death, but he knew this was one of those situations.
And just as he was about to protect himself with the knife, doing what he had to, the bearded man pulled back enough Marius saw he also held a blade. Before Marius could react, the guy stabbed Marius in the side. He howled in agony, his eyes watering instantly as pain consumed him.
Marius just reacted then. He lifted his arm and plunged his own blade in the asshole’s gut. The man grunted, fell back, and held onto his stomach. When he lifted his head and stared at Marius, all that reflected back was insanity. The bearded man turned and left, stumbling over the debris on the ground.
Marius rose, grimacing as pain slammed into him from the movement. He held onto his side and then looked down. Blood covered his hand. He lifted his shirt up, saw the three-inch knife wound, and knew that if he didn’t get it cleaned and stitched up, he’d bleed out. He was already losing too much blood.
Stumbling forward and out of the woods, he walked into the clearing, his head feeling dizzy as he tried to focus. The woman stepped out of the greenhouse, a basket in her hands and her gaze on the ground.
He reached out, tried to open his mouth to tell her not to be afraid, that he needed help, but a wave of nausea and dizziness slammed into him harder than before. Marius stumbled forward, bracing his weight on one hand as he crashed to the ground. And as he lifted his head, trying to get her attention, he knew he’d probably die out here in this field.