Chapter 5:Rot

Raphael awoke in a strange rattling bed. At first he was confused at where he was until he looked out of the window. Between the drapes that let only a small bit of sunlight to seep out, there was a constantly moving sight of trees, hills and distant buildings over in the horizon.

He slowly rubbed his dark brown eyes while trying to slightly style his dark brown hair. His hand moved around the frighteningly short hair only out of habit as he continued looking out of the train cabin window. His brown skin lightly glistened under the rays of light reflected from the window.

The young man was only in his late thirties and was of medium build, not too fat nor too skinny. He was currently wearing loose fitting light grey trousers and a navy blue buttoned shirt with a name tag right above his left pectoral. "Raphael Beaufort, senior assistant."

His face had a short trimmed beard and mustache which contrasted nice with his square face. He was a bit tired from last night where he was given an in-depth summary of the mission that the research group was assigned by the French government.

They were to meet up with a squadron of soldiers led by a man named Adam Green. They are to journey by train until they get close to what was formerly Aix-les-Bains, join the squadron on their specialized vehicle and then go to the Domes around Geneva.

The research assistant knew only the bare minimum about the Domes, which is still a lot more than the common man knows.

Construction started two years after The War of Blood Grass and then continued for several years, with most domes around the borders being finished around the beginning of The War of the Horizon, where construction had to be halted.

The Dome they were currently journeying towards was among the first to be built but also one of the most dangerous ones to enter. Due to the dense gasses that still permeated the air in the first years of construction, the inside of the Domes was left unexplored.

Only after America started offering soldiers to help with the border did research teams start being able to explore inside Switzerland.

The Wound was the outer reaches of Switzerland and also the area that was the safest to explore, with an unprotected human being able to survive there for half an hour at best. The closer one got to the center, the worse it got.

There are numerous biochemical weapons that were used in the War of Blood Grass, some noxious gases managed to kill off most bacteria, fungi, mold and other similar things, but unfortunately such gases were not used everywhere.

The Domes which kept weapons of similar traits are few in number because most of the gas tended to be carried away by gusts of wind long before the Domes even started construction.

Most of the water in the land was also highly acidic and so rain was among one of the many death sentences, if the bacteria that managed to survive thus far doesn't kill you. The barely surviving plants and fauna that still exist either do so deep underground or in areas where acidic rain storms don't happen as frequently.

There are pockets of radiation left due to the attempts of treating Bone Mold using it, but all attempts failed, and so now highly irradiated objects and material is strewn around the land.

These materials can be found in medical facilities in some of the Domes while some were simply thrown by the winds. These irradiated materials led to many mutations, most of them dooming even more beings, along with contaminating some of the lands even further.

The goal of this research group is to bring in numerous seeds, existing plants, animals and other materials that could then be left in the wild or inside some of the domes.

This has led to a lot of discoveries, like how some of these weapons seemed to have mutated slightly while in this environment, some weakened and some just died off.

The majority of these plants and animals end up dying, getting horrible diseases or mutations or just get lost. Such losses were deemed acceptable.

The nature of these expeditions and the domes felt off to Raphael, like they were delivering sacrifices to some God or lab rats. With the Domes serving as small ecosystems were a sped up version of evolution or island syndrome.

He was also suspicious over the amount of research groups that were sent and their quality. From what he gathered from general rumors and talks in his circle, there were two main groups. There were the senior and the junior groups.

The senior groups tended to disappear the most while also being filled with senior researchers and accompanied by elite military squads. They were the ones that went into the deepest parts of Switzerland, past the comparatively safer Wound and straight into the Flesh.

The number of senior groups that entered started slowly decreasing as the government most likely started realizing that going into the Flesh and towards the Blood Sea was a suicidal idea. These names were of course the ones made up by young assistants that learned a bit from the surviving senior researchers that managed to return alive.

The official name of the area that they were going to was 'Section Delta', it was the second safest area, with Section Epsilon, the area where they will rendezvous with the military squad being the safest.

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-"Senior assistant Raphael! It is time to depart, make sure you are properly equipped and come out! We have a long journey ahead of us!" The man that just said that was Senior Researcher Rodolphe, sounding extremely muffled due to the hazmat suit he was currently wearing. The hazmat suit was a modified Level A suit that was made to be worn for long periods of time, but it still had issues with dehydration so it could not be kept on for periods longer than three hours without a change in disposable hydration canister.

Raphael slowly started getting prepared and went into the specialized compartment of the train. Once inside and prepared, he then started putting on the uncomfortable suit.

The suit was bulky, with a rectangular shape to the head part and a compartment near the back which helped with the filtration. It's color was a dark grey and the helmet was modified. Instead of a see through material and a gas mask, the 'helmet' was instead inspired by old plague doctors.

The helmet had three large filters which were connected to the suit through long, black tubes. The visor was modified to protect against possible harmful wavelengths of light and had two rectangular holes through which the eyes can see through.

The design was made specially for the ecosystem of Switzerland and is made to be reusable and more resistant to scratches, cuts or similar attacks, but is also much more bulky. The military squadron is supposed to have a modified version which is equipped with plates of armor and instead of beak like helmet, it instead had two heavy duty filters that hung close to the mouth due to the soldiers having to fare against more hazardous materials.

The young research assistant was getting a tad bit excited to go out. Feeling like one of the protagonists of a book series that he read during his down time. Going out into a wasteland with a gas mask on, prepared to meet monstrosities and mad men that came to this land searching for fame and riches.

Raphael, of course, did not look out of the window so as to not spoil himself. He took one step after another, each feeling less clunky than the previous as he slowly started getting used to the cumbersome suit. His breathing was laborious and his heart started beating faster and faster.

The sight that welcomed him once he walked out was Section Epsilon, the safest area of Switzerland and where he is supposed to wait for a squadron of heavily armed soldiers.

The land looked like a cancerous tumor. The ground was slightly soft and when he landed, Raphael almost fell face first, with the shock of the land before him not helping either.

The land looked like it had been rained on by acid instead of water. There were small puddles in the mud which were once flowing leaves and some of the tougher bones stuck out like solidified pus. There was an acidic rain recently and the off colored clouds had already flown away from them, slowly dissipating and going further back to singe the flesh of what remaining animals there were.

Rocks had clear ridges and some made out of softer material even had holes tunneled through them. They looked like sponges or badly made statues, trying to pass off as normal rocks. When the wind passed through these large boulders, a harrowing melody was created.

It reverberated through the bones and into the marrow. Raphael felt naked and afraid, he felt stupid for making light of the things that happened to this land and how this was how it looked several years after the war. Were the soldiers and citizens warned and managed to evacuate? Did children suddenly wake up to see red clouds of acid and mushrooms grow on the corpses of their loved ones, sapping them of whatever life remained?

Raphael then felt his stomach churn as he looked down at the mud. It was distorted by the shaking and fall of his boot, and he could swear that a face of pure agony was drawn into the mud, only to be broken by yet another assistant that almost fell down besides the young assistant.

Small bugs could still be seen nibbling at putrefying plant and animal matter. Worms that tried to come out instead slowly started convulsing and wriggling madly, like they were being cut apart on a cellular level, these ones seem to be young, inexperienced worms that had not yet learned that this land was not for the beings of flesh anymore. This land now belongs to creatures of chitin, fungus and mold.

A shiver ran down Raphael's spine, with him now noticing that his back and brow was covered in sweat. The other researchers and assistants seem to be in a bit of a daze, probably feeling the same emotions as the young assistant.

Doubt.Fear.Agitation.Confusion.

Doubt, because they were not sure they were on the same planet anymore.

Fear, because they now knew that the warnings of how even a small nick or cut could be a death sentence. If the noxious, corrosive or carcinogenic gases wouldn't kill them, then the fungi would claim them, the mold would shape them or the pathogens would eat the from the inside.

Agitation, because they wanted to get out as fast as possible, not wanting to stay in this land for long. No life could possibly survive this place without being adapted through evolution to chemical attacks. It was a wonder that their suits did not start melting, rotting or devoured.

Confusion, because this land was deemed as the safest...

-"Alright people! It is time to start walking! Start getting used to how your suit moves, how your boots land and how to breathe through the filter! The soldiers aren't so kind as to come directly to us so let's get going quick!"

The voice of the senior Researcher was muffled but also loud, as if the man was used to talking in these suits. The hum of the stones continued going through the bones of the men and women present as their black beaks slowly tilted towards the man in front of them.

Raphael was too stunned to properly respond but he was then woken out of his trance by the laborious walk of the researchers, which were then followed by the assistants. He slowly gazed back at the tracks and the now distant train that seemingly took off while everybody was left in a trance. Its dark silhouette slowly got smaller and smaller until it was drowned out by the tumorous mud and the wilting small grove that he missed while getting dressed.

The grove could barely even be seen, only an extremely thin layer of vague shapes over into the horizon. If Raphael could see the grove, he would have most probably puked out what remained of his lunch.

The small grove was filled with diseased trees and the carcasses of birds, mice and other small rodents. The birds had holes bored through their wings and bodies while the rodents had their paws almost singed off, as if they put the lower bodies into a vat of acid.

Out of the holes and wounds of these corpses grew small mushrooms. Some gave off small amounts of light, some happily spread their spores after the danger of the acidic rain passed, while some tried to burrow into the ground, only to slowly die off as they came into contact with the hazardous materials hidden beneath.

The plants and trees that remained were not better off either. The tops of the trees where leaves and branches were supposed to be instead had rotting green growths and twigs that slowly bent down, not being able to support the weight of their green tumors.

The bases of the trees were covered by moss, and this moss was then slowly eaten by mold. These parasitic life forms were saved the sufferings of the acidic rain by the branches and leaves of these trees which they are now devouring.

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Raphael walked what felt like several kilometers in the laborious hazmat suit. The sights only got worse and worse as he slowly started going to the front of the group. His boots were smeared black by the mud, a small corruption trying to devour his suit.

One step he pushed down on soft mud, the other he pushed down on something liquid, and the other he crushed slowly rotting bones. He did not look down out of fear and because he wished to see the sight of the Squadron as soon as possible.

The mud slowly turned less and less solid the more he went on as the off colored clouds also seemed to get closer. The ground now felt like it was buzzing. He did not see any more remains of animal or plant matter anymore.

All around him, there were only puddles of mood, dizzolving life matter and the hum of the rocks. The hum fluctuated with the winds, his direction and the number of singing boulders. The hum some times sounded oddly comforting, like the flute of a child that is trying its best.

The worst was the nightmarish shriek that it would give out whenever a strong gust of wind hit. It did not sound human but it still felt like it contained emotion. A cry of anguish, pain and of drowned mouths.

The scream was inhuman and multiple, each rock gave off a unique yet familiar cry.

It was maddening. Even when they started getting as far away from the rocks, he could still hear the screams from the depths of his soul. Whenever he looked down, Raphael could see a distorted face, a rotting limb or streams of black blood which were then interrupted by his next step, snuffing the life out of the mud and beginning the life of another vision.

He started wondering if the sounds made by the rocks was even possible. Was the water so acidic that it could bore through the rocks? Was the water simply going through the ridges that had clumps of minerals that were weaker than the others?

Was he going to start seeing his own face, contorted in anguish in the mud next?

Another sound started being heard in the distance. Raphael thought that he once again would have to go through a valley of ringing and wailing boulders. The sound sounded even more disturbing this time.

It sounded like rolling boulders were swimming through the mud, trying to make a path through this slurry of acid, earth and dissolved flesh and bone. The sound sounded familiar though.

That's when Raphael realized that the sound instead came out of a distant figure looming over the horizon. It was the massive vehicle that carried the squadron which would take them into the Domes. Raphael then looked back to see people carrying crates and cages filled with plants, seeds and animals.

These people were laborers which has the task of going through this mud while dragging along all this cargo. Normally a research group would be deployed a vehicle to help with the transportation, but because of how spread out resources were and the current state of the economy, Raphael wasn't too surprised.

These laborers were Asian and wore hazmat suits that looked a bit odd to the young assistant. There were a lot of refugees from most of Asia after what happened in the latest war so the government had to put them to work somewhere. Not a lot of people came to the Three Powers, and even fewer worked for the western military after what happened, but desperation makes people do unlikely things.

He felt pity and sadness towards them. He could not imagine what it would be like to go through a nightmare of flesh and return to a nightmare of rot. They must have been the lucky ones that didn't live in cities....