Stuck between a rock and a desert (3)

The journey from Malagamot Road to where Rando lived is supposed to be very short. In fact, back when the war hadn't started, it would only take half an hour of driving if there was no traffic. Obviously, after the war, there was no way there would be traffic, how much more if the entire city is sent under quarantine because of the reports of the disease. Yet somehow, Lieutenant Mickey's group that had originally gone out right after noon, had now already spent more than five hours on the road.

After barely surviving their first encounter with the blood red Slime Collector that chased after them and the Sand Collector that blinded them earlier that day, not only were the four soldiers in the dark green truck tired, they were also thirsty. For some bizarre reason, the Sand Collector magically emptied out their water canteens.

During their encounter earlier, they were too panicked to think about their canteens. Mark wasn't even able to find the grenades that he himself carried inside their truck, how much more the water canteen that he carried in his pocket.

As soon as they got out of the sandstorm blinding their sights, Anthony immediately opened the windows to let some air in. The heat inside was already killing them, and the gushing wind that soon came was their saving grace. By the time their faces gained color, the truck itself had already cooled down. 

Inside the back of the truck, Lieutenant Mickey, Mark, and Anthony laid down completely still on the chairs. Rose who was driving at the front also slowed down the truck so she could rest. Lieutenant Mickey reached for his canteen that he wasn't able to see earlier and opened it. He put it over his mouth and drank all of the water inside.

Or one would think that that was what was supposed to happen. 

Lieutenant Mickey looked at his canteen and realized that there is no water inside. He shook it several times to see whether there were some drops left, but only dust remained inside. 

Perhaps maybe because he was shy, or maybe he just got embarrassed, Lieutenant Mickey silently put the lid of the canteen back and put his canteen away. He looked at his juniors and saw them also taking out their canteens.

'I'll ask for some, I hope they won't mind.'

Until now, they still hadn't realized that their water was sucked out clean. But as soon as Mark opened his canteen and put it over his mouth, Lieutenant Mickey widened his eyes in shock.

There was no water!

Mark's canteen, Anthony's canteen, and even Rose's canteen was completely empty of water!

Realizing this fact, Lieutenant Mickey immediately checked on the supplies that they brought with them and saw that although the food was untouched, the water bottles are also completely empty.

"What the--?"

Lieutenant Mickey exclaimed, but he was quickly interrupted by Mark's sudden innocent question.

"Si-sir, do you have some water?"

As soon as Lieutenant Mickey heard that, he looked toward his junior with a dumb face, and slowly sighed.

"You have to pay attention to all of your sides, not just what is in front of you."

Mark could not understand at first why Lieutenant Mickey would say that to him, but as he followed his lieutenant's orders and looked around, he then saw what was the problem.

They were all out of water. And just like him, they were also very thirsty.

Mark scratched his head and looked embarrassed as he mouthed sorry to everybody.

As Lieutenant Mickey was still stressing about the fact that they don't have any water, Anthony spoke up.

"Sir, should we look for drinking water in the houses? They should be abandoned now."

Lieutenant Mickey hesitated after hearing Anthony's suggestion.

"I mean, we can't just barge into people's homes. But I guess since we are in this situation, there is nothing we could do."

Out of the truck that was standing in the middle of the road came Lieutenant Mickey's group. All four of them staggered as they jumped out of the dark green military truck. The issue of wearing a wet military uniform became more apparent as soon as the wind touched their clothes, it felt very cold. 

As such, Lieutenant Mickey told his juniors.

"Wearing wet clothes will make us sick, you should know that. I hope that the houses near us are really abandoned, and if it is, we should get a change of clothes if you find some. Don't forget to bring your uniforms back to the truck if you do change, we can dry them off later. We're looking for water, let's find as much as we can."

In Lieutenant Mickey's mind, scavenging for supplies is the first priority right now. Screw the mission, currently, survival is what matters the most. They have plenty of food inside the truck, and if they need to, they could just sleep inside it. What they really need right now are water and clothes. They could pass out at any moment because of their lack of water, coupled with the fact that they sweat so much during their encounter with the Sand Collector earlier, there is a very high chance of getting fever, which would be the worst possible state they could be in right now. 

As he was reminded of the two Existences that they encountered, Lieutenant Mickey became convinced that the world had entered the age of the apocalypse. Unfortunately, it wasn't a zombie apocalypse.

"Hays, if only it were zombies, things would have been much more manageable. A bullet through the head, noiseless weapons, proper defenses, killing zombies would have been easy peasy now that he joined the army. These monsters are fucking supernatural. Is there a way to get a cheat system, too? Do we get superpowers to kill those things?"

He felt cheated and he was really angry, but more importantly, he felt pressured. As the current leader of this group, Lieutenant Mickey is responsible for his junior's safety. There's no way he's going to leave them alone, but if things keep going like this, if they keep encountering the Existences, they would surely die.

At least, one of them would.

"I hope nothing like that happens."

As he talked to himself, Lieutenant Mickey's gaze landed upon the surrounding area. 

Trees, rubble, broken down homes, and flickering lights in the distance. Surprisingly, things looked much better here than the residential area where that Sand Collector stood. The worn down houses appeared much better than the ones he saw during the rebuilding process. It seems like the terrors of war only has its tail whip through here, not really leaving behind any signs of a head on attack.

This could be a good sign, there might be living people around here.

"Nah, I doubt it, there's no way people could still hold on for three years without supplies. Even if they do, it's limited and had probably expired before the war ended."

Indeed, that could be the case. 

In the early hours of the night, without the help of the usual street lights, the darkness surrounding them felt suffocating... as if they were slowly being pushed towards one spot. 

Lieutenant Mickey wanted to go back towards the truck to turn on the lights, but he was afraid of getting unnecessary attention. After all, they're in an apocalypse now, they have to be careful, or something might look towards them with wanting eyes.

Anthony, Mark, and Rose had all went on their own on the left side of the road as they entered some houses in search for water and clothes, and Anthony in particular went towards the farthest out of them three. In spite of all the houses being built side by side, most of them had already been demolished by something, looking like they were remnants of the war, and so it was normal for them to split up.

Lieutenant Mickey went to the other side of the road and walked up to the nearest house. The gates were closed, but it wasn't locked. With a push, it opened easily, but only after creating a grating noise.

Lieutenant Mickey felt something and looked at his hands, now covered with rust that had grown over time. He pat his hands on his pants and proceeded to look around. 

The fences were made of wood and vines have already tangled itself onto it, the house itself is made of cement. It looked eerie, but maybe it was because of the darkness. It looked like a normal Filipino house, to be fair, just without the lights.

Lieutenant Mickey walked up to the front door and was about to place his hands on the handle but he took his hands back.

"I should probably check the outside first for any water jugs."

With a soft, nearly silent voice, he backed out slowly and went around. The fences were connected to the walls on one side, but there was a path that lead to the backyard from the other side, and that's where Lieutenant Mickey went through. 

Still covered by darkness, Lieutenant Mickey found it harder and harder to see. Usually, he would've taken out his flashlight by now, but something keeps telling him that he probably shouldn't. The moon just started rising, it isn't that dark yet, but he would have to take out his flashlight very soon.

Sure enough, as soon as Lieutenant Mickey got to the backyard of the house, he spotted two water jugs, completely full of water. He immediately went towards it and held the mouth of the jug with his hands, he was about to drink the water, but soon found an anomaly.

It was open.

Both jugs had their mouths open.

Why is it open?

Lieutenant Mickey was about to take oout his flashlight to look at the contents of a jug when something caught his eye.

From far away, at the second floor of a building, there was a source of light that kept flashing. 

The flashing is consistent. Three short bursts of light, three long bursts of light, and another three short bursts of light.