Chapter Text
The air was acrid and burned the throat, hot and dry despite the lingering mists through which the midday sun glowed a wan yellow. The rubble around him still smoked in places, wisps rising from the craters of scorched and slagged glass pocked marked around the rough mile wide area. He was perched on what remained of a low stone wall, his boots crunching on the half burnt, half crushed floors of whatever building that had been standing there before. He hadn't been present for the destruction, only making it there for the aftermath.
He blinked the grit out of his eyes, the weak wind blowing fine sand and wisps of choking mist around the devastation like wraiths dancing to whatever mournful music that echoed from all the noise and tumult that had chewed this place up and spit out splinters of bones.
A slim, unlit, black cigarette hung from his chapped lips. Lighting up would surely ignite the stinking mist still swirling thinly among the burnt twisted metal that jutted up from the cracked ground as if clawing their way up to seek either solace or vengeance from heaven. Still, the familiar smell of the hand rolled tube gave a small comfort amidst all the desolation.
Footsteps crunched towards him, soft and steady coming from the mist, growing closer until a dark shadowed form appeared. Soon enough the mist parted, almost unwillingly; tendrils clinging to the form like fingers reluctant to relinquish their desperate hold. Dusty boots entered his vision under the brim of his ragged ball cap, coming to a stop just a few feet away.
"Same as the others." Her voice was husky and muffled by the bandana tied over her mouth and nose. "It's happening faster than we predicted."
He nodded, still staring at his soot covered hands and blackened chewed off nails; all the details he'd observed and catalogued flashing through his mind with a kind of dispassion he would have found concerning even a year ago. But he'd seen too much... gone through too fucking much to feel anything but deadened inside. He broke from that dismal thought spiral and inhaled sharply, tucking the cigarette into a spare pocket in his jacket before tipping his head back just enough to look at his companion.
Her dark goggles reflected a distorted sickly sky, her red bandana discolored from dust and smoke. Her leather outfit had long lost its supple black sheen, caked with desert dust and cracks from long time wear in bad weather. She had her bike helmet in one hand and a phone in the other, a well-worn backpack securely strapped to her back. Her hair, which had been long and usually styled in a sleek pony tail since the last time he'd seen her in person, was now cropped close to her skull for comfort and utility.
"I've already sent pictures back to headquarters." She looked down at the phone distractedly, pressing at the screen a few times "… and took readings. It's still within the same level as the other sites but its way ahead of predictions."
"Hmmmm " he acknowledged quietly, his voice rough from both misuse and the choking burn of the lingering mist. "Any bodies this time?"
"None. "She hissed like a curse, shoving the phone into her pocket with an annoyed shake of her head. "Same as the last three burn outs. No sign. No bones. Not even ash."
He'd figured. It was like every other time they'd visited a scene like this. Utter destruction but no death. Well... no visible death. No sign of those who'd been there before. Nothing left behind but the remnants of the lives they must have lived.
He swallowed drily, his throat parched from the heat that seemed trapped right under the dirt, and shook his flask. The little liquid inside sloshed and he quickly uncapped it and threw it back, wincing as it burned on the way down. Whisky was awful for situations like this but the sting in his nose and throat was familiar and brought his mind back into sharp focus.
"The * cough * the area's much bigger than any of the others before. Almost by half. Reaching way outside the settlements borders. That's different from before." He slowly stood, his body complaining as he tucked the now empty flask away. "So.... it's faster... and getting bigger."
Her boot dragged on the melted and shattered sand glass. "So... bigger... faster and from what I heard along the network... appearing in more places." She knocked her helmet against her thigh, looking around at the sprawling devastation; the only tell he'd even seen of her nervousness. "That's never a good sign, is it?"
He shouldered his own backpack and pulled his own googles down to cover his reddened and tired eyes. His own dusty mask came up to cover his nose and mouth. Taking one more look at the empty and ruined husk of what was once a bustling village, he tugged down the brim of his cap and sighed.
"No... not a good sign at all."