Chapter Text
“A highly infectious disease has been discovered on Earth by JCJenson scienti-”
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“...results in increased aggression and mutat-”
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“...Earth has been declared a quarantine zone for the forseeab-”
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“...deployed so-called ‘sterilisation drones’ to conta-”
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“...assured, the situation is under contr-’
Uzi still remembered the day of the outbreak like it was yesterday, even though she was barely 4 years old at the time. What the company failed to mention was that the ‘sterilisation drones’ were sent to wipe out all life on the planet, not just the infected.
Then her colony exiled her when she was just 17 years old, kicking her out with nothing but the clothes on her back, abandoning her to whatever cruel fate awaited her in the desolate wasteland that was once the centre of a vast interstellar empire. She could still remember looking Khan, her own father, in the eye as he closed the door and locked it, his grim expression betraying the sorrow he felt but he still ignored her desperate pleas and pounding on the cold metal surface.
5 years (or was it 6?) had passed since then and by some cruel twist of fate, Uzi was somehow still kicking. She could never finish herself off, though. Her mother wouldn't have wanted that.
Uzi tossed her bag onto the floor and knelt down, opening it up to grab a can of some kind of food she found in an apartment somewhere. Stabbing her knife through the top, she pried it open as she sat down on the seat of the bus stop she took shelter under while keeping an eye out for any infected humans or sterilisation drones.
Uzi had only ever heard stories of sterilisation drones before she was exiled but, based on what she heard, she knew that a run-in with one meant almost certain death.
As she choked down the unidentified substance contained in the can, she glanced down at the scar on her right arm - a little "souvenir" from when someone had gotten just a little unhappy with her in her former colony prior to her exile.
That thought then brought her to when she got exiled. She could still remember the look on Khan's face as he locked the doors behind her and, if she ever saw it again, she knew that she was going to punch it as hard as she possibly could. Maybe even a few times. Maybe she'd even do it until he stopped moving, stopped struggling.
She shook her head to dispel those thoughts. He had his reasons, she kept telling herself. It wasn't his choice, she told herself.
It didn't matter what she told herself, though. Nothing could prevent the rage that bubbled up at the thought of it.
Uzi was ripped out of her head when her watch beeped to inform her that nighttime was near. She finished her food and tossed the can on the floor before standing up and slinging her bag back over her shoulders.
As she set off, she unholstered her pistol and made sure the safety was off, wanting to be prepared if she ran into any infected. She wandered through the decayed streets, the monolithic buildings towering over her serving as one of the few remaining reminders of the planet's former glory. Now, the only living things in the city were Uzi, infected, mutated former humans and the vegetation that was growing on the roads and the buildings, forming vibrant green blankets in an otherwise grey and dull environment.
Uzi arrived at her destination just as the sun started to set below the horizon, a fairly tall apartment block with one of the rooms on a floor near the top having been refurbished by Uzi into a sort of “home”, if you could call it that. She climbed up the stairs and reached her home, opening the door and closing it behind her.
The windows had all been boarded up and covered with a pitch black sheet to ensure the sterilisation drones wouldn't find her home, although the measure was more to ease Uzi's mind than anything as their sensors could probably see right through the sheets. Nonetheless, it kept Uzi from staying up all night worrying about being found by the drones. At the very least, it kept the infected away as they wouldn't be attracted to the light coming from the home.
Most of the furniture was filthy and ripped to shreds for materials to board up the windows with but there was a bed in the corner with a reasonably clean mattress, blanket and pillow for sleeping so she wouldn't have to lay on the cold, hard floor. On the walls were an assortment of miraculously undamaged posters and other pictures she found while poking through the ruins. If she had any say in the matter, among them would be her anime posters and photos of her mother from the colony but she didn't exactly have a chance to pack when she was exiled.
The room was lit up as Uzi pulled a match from her pocket and used it to light the candles she had scattered around. Preferably, she'd have electric lights but working electricity stopped being a thing a few years into the outbreak. As she lit up the candles and tossed her bag to the other side of the room, her face also lit up in a genuine smile as she heard a cawing followed by the flapping of wings as a crow landed on her shoulder.
“Hey, Skye,” Uzi said, booping her pet on the beak with her finger. She cawed again and nuzzled into Uzi's finger, prompting a giggle from her. This little crow was the only thing that made Uzi genuinely smile anymore and, as corny as it sounds and as much as Uzi hates to admit it, she was almost like a mini version of Uzi.
“Yeah, I missed you too, buddy.”
She sat down on the bed as Skye jumped off of her shoulder and down onto the nightstand, looking up at Uzi as she ran her fingers through her shoulder-length, brown hair.
“Fuuuuck… didn’t find anything today,” Uzi said as Skye tilted her head as if she was listening to what was being said. Obviously, she wasn’t, Uzi was aware of that, but the thought helped keep her sanity from completely vanishing.
“Gonna have to start going further out on my runs.”
She raised her head to look at Skye.
“What do you think?”
Skye cocked her head to the side.
“Alright, then,” Uzi said with a smile.
Checking her watch, she saw that it was almost 10PM. The sun had surely set by now so Uzi decided to try and get some sleep. She kicked her boots off and removed her beanie, freeing her frazzled hair. She placed the beanie on the nightstand beside Skye and stroked the bird’s head a few times. She slowly blinked at Uzi, prompting a giggle from her and she returned the gesture.
“G’night, Skye,” Uzi said as she lay down and rolled over to face the wall.
Every day was more or less the same for Uzi. Wake up, check her supplies, feed herself and Skye if she had enough food, head out, scavenge, haul as much back home as she could before night and then fall asleep. It was a cycle that, although it never got any easier, she was used to it by now. Uzi practically knew the immediate area around her camp like the back of her own hand, effortlessly weaving through the streets and avoiding the infected with ease.
However, she was now beginning to have to travel further and further from her camp to find vital supplies as the immediate area had been almost picked clean. Further distances meant unfamiliarity, unfamiliarity meant potential risk. Not that she cared about risk, though. She hadn’t cared about risk for a very long time.
The bitter wind was painful on her exposed arm and face as she walked through the empty street, the rusted cars laying in columns on the road as if time simply stopped completely when they were going about their business.
Uzi heard what sounded like footsteps behind her. Heavy and irregular, like whatever it was was struggling to stand. She spun around and held her pistol up, aiming it directly at the head of the infected human that, seemingly, tried to sneak up on her.
It looked like an ordinary human, indicating that it had only fairly recently been infected. From its right eye, small, slimy vine-like tendrils protruded out from around the edges of the socket, snaking some distance across its skin. The same tendrils were visible coming out of its nose which was leaking a translucent brown ooze that dripped down to its chin. It was standing with its knees crooked and its feet pointed inward, its “walk” resembling more of an awkward shuffle.
It lunged forward toward Uzi with a croaky, high-pitched shriek and slashed toward her with its hands, putting seemingly its entire body weight into the attack. Stepping back at just the right second with a gasp, Uzi shot a bullet into its head, causing it to howl in pain and step back. It clutched at the wound and appeared to cower for a moment, staring at Uzi and holding its other hand up in a gesture that almost resembled a surrender. Ignoring its plea, Uzi shot it again, keeping her distance to avoid its blood splashing onto her body lest she herself become infected. The creature howled again, the sound throwing Uzi off for a second as it slightly resembled the word “stop” as it fell to the ground. With another bullet in its head, the infected human stopped moving entirely before Uzi shot it once more to ensure it was dead.
Uzi holstered her pistol as she glanced around, her eyes wide. The noise from her gun would most certainly attract more infected and she knew that she should have probably tried running away first.
Not even she was immune to panicking, unfortunately, and it resulted in her making a stupid decision.
“Shit,” she hissed under her breath as she looked around for a possible escape route if things went wrong. A part of her wanted to return to her camp, but she was low on supplies and if she went back now, she might not end up with enough food to feed Skye (and herself, obviously).
She began to suspect that something was wrong when no infected showed up even after about a minute. Not even a howl or shriek to indicate that some were on the way.
That was strange. Infected were usually found in clusters, to find one that was isolated enough that unsilenced gunshots didn’t attract more was unusual.
A silver glint in the sky made Uzi realise why there was no other infected in the area.