Hot Day of the Dead

It was the hottest day of the year. Sweat dripped out of every pour to finally be sequestered in every inch of my clothing. Drinking from the mouth piece of my government issued camel pack to replenish, all I taste is plastic.

These newly issued ones are considered more ‘economically friendly’ which is just their way of saying they used less than safe products to create it.

Just another state sponsored propaganda spiel about how they are finding solutions, and closing the rift will happen any day now.

But suffering through some plastic tasting water and brain melting heat will be worth it. Tomorrow is my girlfriend's birthday. And she really has only talked about two things lately. How the firmament will heal the rift naturally stopping the poisonous heat and gas from infecting our world. Optimist. And Choo Choo Ray. A video game she used to play. Her favorite video game. You would start as a train conductor and then eventually unlock the ability to pilot any and all matter of vehicles. It was rated as one of the most realistic games during its short time. I personally think it was used to find pilots to help take people to the giant space stations. I mean the last level was literally the companion rockets they used. But that didn’t matter anymore. Especially now because my BioState suit might have a leak.

There is no way I was sweating this much in this suit. It was the hottest day of the year. But still it’s… one hundred and eighty three degrees!

Not good. This was by far the hottest day of the year. The problem is my BioState suit only being a second gen makes it near impossible to run. The clunky boots and silicone saline thigh patches turned any sprinting or jogging into fast walking at best.

My only luck here is the distance. The beautifully abandoned city of Nashville was only two miles from our colony. Although the place Games and Stuff was a bit farther into the city. I need to hurry but each step is just a grind. It would be easier if I could get on the road, but my suit boots would melt instantly. These dirt and mud paths were all we had these days. Not that anyone really left their colonies. Back when it was just heat and poisonous air, humanity used the surface of the planet for trade and travel. We couldn’t live on it but we could at least move on it. A night or two didn't hurt. Although sleeping in a BioState suit was like sleeping on a bunch of uneven rocks. No it wasn’t until the first Mad Ones appeared. The doc’s couldn’t really figure out the cause of their madness so they just blamed it on the poisonous air. It was as if they had become rabid from it and the heat had almost melted their skin instead of just burning it. But worst of all, they were fast. Incredibly fast. So fast in fact that I am breaking one of the colony's laws by traveling to the surface alone. Love, am I right.

Taking this first step here onto the concrete still makes me nervous. It was right before they started evacuating cities that they were advertising this new treatment for the concrete. ‘No more heat in the concrete. Looking around the city, you can see the attempt to concrete everything. Buildings were half covered by concrete shells and most of the roads in the city were covered creating giant sidewalks.

Funny enough after placing both my feet on it I feel less heat in my suit then the dirt. Wow, it almost feels cool. The temperature gauge still reads, oh man one hundred and seventy degrees! It was the hottest day of the year. For sure. Ground temperature must have been messing with the suit because it's only been four minutes and my sweating has subsided. A few more steps into the city and I can see down a street to the Atlantic. It has definitely receded since I was last here four months ago. The Pho place was completely submerged at the other edge of this street and now I can see its front doors.

The smashing of glass had me turn my head so fast I even spun slightly on my feet. Just a heat shatter. Surprised there are still large enough pieces to shatter like that. A month after the rift had opened most windshield sized glass a bigger one would shatter due to ‘uneven heating’ according to the government's propaganda machine. I mean it's totally true considering they teach it in science. You just never know though when the men in suits start talking. Always have to check the math ya know.

But I do need to keep moving. Sounds like that are the Mad One attractors. This advice comes from the doc’s back at the colony.

A bit of a maze in the city with the heaps of garbage and machinery left everywhere. I can only imagine the smell outside my BioState. Watching each step enough to avoid anything loud while moving at a pace will put some distance between me and that shattered window is truly the definition of stress. Wait, is that the Union Station clock tower. I'm here.

Just a quick push through the sealed doors on the giant unfinished concrete wall and there it is, Games and Stuff.

I don’t know why I thought the place would be in ruin but it looked like it had just been closed for a few years. The first step instantly fogged my visor and dust plumed into the air from the sand like carpet. With each step the vision of ruin truly set in.

No, this place was broken. No it hadn’t been ransacked or lit on fire, though some of its items looked as if they had been, but the time it has spent under this heat has decimated it. Picking up the game box of Ham and Bone created an instant plastic casing around my BioState suit fingers. Ugh, this stuff doesn’t come off. A few wipes on the metal shelf should do the trick through.

Looking behind the clerks counter a set of bones belonging to what had to be a human hand were just laying there. The Bleach Protocol must have missed this which was quite a rare sight. The rift caused a fifty percent death rate globally in the first two years which initiated the bleach protocol. A massive clean up program that miraculously did exactly that.

In fact its one of the only things during that time that went well. The Bleach Protocol sent out swarms of cleaners who cleaned up the streets, emptied buildings, and even inspected destruction zones for any human remains.

But out here in the front there were absolutely zero Choo Choo Ray systems. It wouldn't be in the games section as it was built as a console with a single game for play. A big investment by Macrohard. Not that they care anymore.

Damn, the back room is locked. Who the hell locks a back room in an apocalypse. It would be much easier to just kick this door down. A quick smash and grab.

Nope, never that easy. No keys in the cash register, no keys by the hand, no damn keys anywhere.

Kicking it would be so much easier.

One second later all I hear is smashing metal shelves and plastic games being thrown all over the floor. The next second I am now staring at the blue sand that used to once be the store's carpet.

Damn was that me? I look back and see on the floor a set of keys exactly where I was stepping before I took a spill. Hold on, hold on– oxygen sensor normal, temp gauge reading, cooling system still running full– whew. Damn clunky boots.

There was once an idea before the last few worthy scientists left for the space stations about a BioState Suit version where it was simply just an additional skin tight like uniform with a helmet similar to this.

That would have made excursions so much easier. May have put some even in the odds.

Unlocking that door as fast as I can still doesn’t seem fast enough. Oh no…I can’t move. Is this the suit? Damn, no. Fear has me as I look down on a curled up child with melted skin. His eyes had skin completely melted over them and only the holes of his ears still existed. That and of course the large gaping mouth with like ten extra teeth that were somehow grinded into sharpened razors. No, no razor teeth, just regular teeth. I have to shake this fear. Doc’s I think even called it tonic immobility. Or something. This is why you lock doors in the apocalypse.

Ok, ok… move my head and eyes up and up to not look at the Mad One. Huh– wouldn't you know it, the black box of Choo Choo Ray right there with his train decal moving across the top. Sometimes I wonder if I am being watched in life. Wow, look at that, no fear. That like step four in the Doc’s tonic immobility remedy, find an objective and focus on it. So now let’s slowly step, and slowly reach, and slowly… was the movement. Dman did it hear me. There’s no way. The Mad One turned slowly stretching its putty-like skin and yawning its extra wide mouth stained with blood in many places. It may be a child version but it has obviously killed. Strange to see it sleeping really. Mad Ones are known for their unquenchable madness. Sleep would be the lasting thing I would expect it to do. Ok focus. Just a bit further and– got it.

My eyes met the Mad One again as I slowly backed away from the back room storage. Its mouth still hung open but its arms were stretched wide now and while the skin puttied over its body the muscles and tendons of its arms were still quite visible. Each arm looked as if it had been lifting rocks for years and both arms lead down to a bloodied claw with the very tips of its fingers exposing sharpened bones from its ripping and tearing of everything. I turn and step forgetting one very important detail, the fallen games. As my boot comes down it presses silently through the game case and right into a disk. The crunch was so small and yet I could hear the high pitched breath from the beast now behind me.

Then just a moment after the whine of a Mad One, like a human screeching train wailed in the store.

I pushed the cash register not looking back knowing I would freeze in place and bolt for the door. Another much smaller screech came from the small beast but it had taken the bait. I was out of the door before it could zero in on me even with my heavy suit. Placing one of the leftover tools from the giant concrete project in the handles of the door doesn't take but a second after that the small Mad One pressed against the glass door cracking it just enough for its hand to reach for me but it was too late. Steps away now I look at the beast clawing and scratching. It wasn’t until it pulled back that the door squeezed its arms and the black blood that ran through the Mad Ones veins came squirting out. It let out another screech but this time it rang out into the abandoned city. I turn to walk past the unfinished concrete wall and hear them all the screaming screeches of the Mad Ones. Like bats to sound they would begin swarming the exact location I was at. Damn BioState suit strikes again. Just getting around the pile of garbage right next to the street four Mad Ones arrive with limbs flailing about and screeches ripping through the air. It takes everything in me to continue down Broadway and not look back. Step by step, every little crunch I can hear over the screaming echoes of the Mad Ones, afraid they will hear my boot steps. Making it to the edge of the city I can still hear the screeches ripping through the air. Hundred must have gathered at that spot, attracting each other with their ear piercing sounds. And just like that I am back on dirt. Letting out the exhale like I held my breath the entire time makes my lungs feel nearly empty so I suck back a deep breath and stand up. In that instant my body freezes.

Yes, a Mad One standing before me looking at my face without being able to see me at all. It heard my breathing. It knows I am near it. I stand so perfectly still but somehow it's as if the world was spinning too fast. It didn’t take much, not anything at all really, just a breath. I look at the game in my hands developing a plan. The problem is if I throw it I will have nothing for my girlfriend's birthday. Damn what do I do? The Mad One steps closer as if trying to smell the air. No– it spun its head as if trying to locate any sound at all. Even if I toss the game, I still have a long walk to go. And I don’t think I could outrun a Mad One even outside my BioState Suit. All this thinking is for nothing really, I am still frozen. Damn, this is why we have rules right here. Never leave by yourself. Standing on the grass has my back perspiration. The heat in my suit is building. Oh no, my suit. It’s going to set off my sensor. I slowly move my hand holding the box to place it in my other hand, and as I do the contents of the box make a slight noise. The Mad Ones head shifts quickly. Where his left ear would have been was just a hole on the side of his head but the side view of its rigid teeth were hideous. Jagged from gnawing what had to have been bones.

I look down and my hands aren't moving again. Damn this fear! I try to look away, I try to look at my sensor but it's all too late. The beep warning me of the heat in my suit sounds in my helmet but before the second one sounds I am on the ground with claws inside my stomach and chest while teeth bounce off the glass of my helmet. The color begins to darken at the edges of my sight. I can feel the pain subside and a numbing sleep fill my mind. This was a bad idea. It was the hottest day of the year.