1 Blood Storm

"Wake up! Time for the next shift!"

With those words and a light kick, Jiang was forced back into reality again. He looked up and motioned to show that he was awake. Waking up is starting to become a chore more and more these days.

Jiang was stuffed into a room with nearly 5 other guys in order to accommodate for the rest of the base's housing crisis. As a result, he had to tiptoe around the others still sleeping on the floor until he could reach his gear. He got ready as fast as he could and within 15 minutes he walked up to the door of the shared room.

"Exiting!" Jiang proclaimed loudly, as was the agreed upon standard procedure. He quickly wrapped several pieces of cloth over his face, leaving only his eyes uncovered. The others in the room grumbled and did the same, even the ones who were startled awake.

Within a split second, Jiang yanked open their door and quickly shut it behind him as fast as he could. He quickly inhaled and let out a slow breath, he looked ahead and started to walk out into the fog. He followed the rope until he reached the headquarters, barely able to see more than a few inches in front of him.

Once Jiang found the door that he had seen a dozen other times, he pounded on it and waited for admittance. He saw movement through the window and saw a pair of eyes look at him for a second.

"Would it kill you guys to open the damn door faster? Cause it would literally kill me!" Jiang shook his head and massaged his tired eyes as he finally heard sounds of the door being opened.

"Get in!"

Jiang had to actually move as the door swung open violently, if the fog was any thicker he would've been slammed in the face by the hunk of iron. Like before, he quickly moved inside and closed the door with haste.

'Come on, you can't be both negligent and slow.'

Jiang thought as he quickly swept his eyes over the door guard that had nearly taken him out.

'Jen- Jenkins is it? I'll remember this next time.'

Moving past Jenkins, Jiang headed for the duty desk and that a familiar face was already there waiting for him along with the Sergeant on duty.

"Jiang reporting in." Jiang said as he nodded to both his friend and to their superior.

"Smith reporting in."

"Smith, Jiang you are both on patrol duty on route number 10."

"Acknowledged."

"Copy that."

After that, Jiang and Smith quickly walked through to the designated supply area and quickly ate their rations; it would not be safe to eat them outside. And like before, they made their way back to the entry point to exit once more.

"Exiting!"

After a loud slam, it was just Jiang and Smith facing the boundless fog. Jiang adjusted his face covering once more, making sure they weren't wet from the fog yet. It was hypothesized that breathing in the water vapor from the fog was dangerous and so everyone needed to cover up when they walked outside now.

"Man, Jenkins is something else." Jiang said as they both started to follow the guide rope that was their only sense of direction.

"He caught the side of my foot and nearly cracked the barrel on my gun too. Guy is a terror and that's probably why he's not on patrol or entry control point duty." Smith agreed as he rubbed the side of his right foot.

"He does that to my gun and I'll probably have to beat him in his sleep, that salt licker." Jiang laughed as they slowly continued along the clouded path. All they could really do was laugh and complain with each other since their present circumstances had occurred.

Several weeks ago, Jiang was on a plane coming back from another base after his unit "volunteered" for supporting a mobile exercise. In the middle of their flight, the plane had to suddenly land and Jiang would quickly learn the reason why.

It turned out that there was a terrifying phenomenon where thick fog was suddenly engulfing the entire area. It blocked out light and even most forms of wireless communications. Jiang had a choice to make at the airport and he chose to live. Instead of taking his chances in the fog and trying to make his way home somehow, Jiang found soldiers like himself at the airport and followed them to the current base that they were on.

Hundreds of miles from his home base, Jiang was forced to adapt to this place. After several weeks, it did not look like the fog was going to recede. In fact there was evidence to support that the fog had covered the entire planet, as that was the projected course that some people had mentioned. Jiang was unsure about the future currently but he could tell that things were certainly very grim.

Fortunately for them, their route tonight was simply walking back and forth on an almost entirely straight line. Unfortunately, it was near the back of the rather large base and it was near the "research facility". The people who worked here had the top level of clearances from what Jiang had heard, anyone, uniformed or not would be shot on sight if they did not have the proper clearance badge on them at all times.

"Bout time you guys got here." One of the guys from the last shift said he heard Jiang and Smith approach him and his partner.

"We still have 5 minutes." Smith shrugged as he tapped the light on his watch.

"Takes 15 minutes just to get back to the shack!"

"I mean we're lucky we don't have to de-arm and wait to get armed right?" Jiang laughed as the other two soldiers begrudgingly agreed, everyone on patrols were simply permanently assigned a weapon for now.

"Alright, let's get to the debrief so me and Wilson can get the fuck out of here!"

Jiang and Smith faced Anderson and Wilson as they lined up, waiting attentively to hear the report.

Anderson leaned slightly forward and shifted gazes between Jiang and Smith. Jiang raised an eyebrow and leaned forward a little as well, curious on what Wilson could possibly have to say.

"There's something you guys need to know…"

"Yes?" Smith asked.

"Jack shit happened!" Anderson suddenly shouted.

He suddenly started laughing right afterwards and pushed through Jiang and Smith with Wilson following behind.

"Bastard!" Jiang frowned as he felt a slight reduction of hearing ability in his right ear.

"I'd suggest you pop one in his ass if that didn't mean we probably have to do more work."

"Yea, let's enjoy our daily hike."

Once more, they started to follow the designated ropes that this time were tied to the gate that they were patrolling along. It was a good thing they had each other, if someone got lost or injured they might as well be dead in the fog.

Their flashlights were barely able to penetrate the fog, like always, but the reflective belts they had on were able to flash it back well enough. The two slowly made their way with their hands lightly gliding across the rope as best they could.

The first time Jiang had to do a patrol, he was terrified as he couldn't see anything but eventually he learned to just live with it. Especially after he had to help lay out several guiding ropes through the fog.

Patrolling in the day was only slightly less terrifying, that meant you could look up and see a brighter fog covering. But night patrol was definitely worse, the feeling of loneliness was amplified by the pitch black abyss. It was like physically losing your mind since you couldn't comprehend anything past a foot or two past you, if you were lucky.

"Smith."

"Jiang."

"Smith."

"Jiang."

After a while, they started to just say random things. But Jiang was glad he was able to request Smith as a partner, he was one of the few friends he had managed to make here. Otherwise he would have to play the 12 hour game of "Hi, I'm…" Which was a chore after the third time he had to do a spiel like that.

"Aw man this sucks. All we do is walk for 12 hours, go back and eat rations. Then sleep next to smelly bastards and then sleep and repeat it again." Jiang yawned as he adjusted the shoulder strap on his M16.

"Could be worse, we could be in the city. Probably turned into the purge."

"The purge? Hahahaha it probably made the crime rate go down if anything." Jiang burst out laughing when he imagined the people trying to blindly attack each other.

"Eh, I guess you're right. The sickness would scare any fools that are walking…"

"Uh-huh."

"…outside."

All of a sudden, the two started to feel wind strongly rushing past their legs. Jiang looked back at Smith but he shook his head in confusion too. Jiang took his hand off his weapon and let it hang, he then went parallel along the metal fence. Smith did the same and the two were soon being violently rocked back and forth with hanging on to the gate.

"Oh sh-" Before Jiang could finish, he saw something that made his eyes pop in awe.

It was like being in a dust storm on the planet Mars, only things were far more foreign. That was the only thing that Jiang's mind could relate to as small red droplets started to hit his glasses.

Their world, their surroundings had only one color as they were holding on to the fence for dear life, crimson red.

'Damn, I hope this fence isn't military grade.' Jiang thought as he heard the screeching wind pass them by.

Jiang and Smith had both made the mistake of facing the mysterious wind current in the split second they had to decide where they would move. They stood as what looked like a blood storm slammed against them for what felt like an eternity.

Jiang tried his best to not let the "blood" go into his mouth but he couldn't close his nose, so that's where he started to feel it. He started to feel bad as the liquid started to enter his nose and give him a nauseous feeling. It was like when he got out of the pool after almost drowning, with water still in his nose.

*cough, cough*

Eventually, Jiang started to cough violently and couldn't do anything about it.

'Drowning on land is still better than being burned alive, I suppose.' Jiang thought as he started to feel his consciousness slip.

But as suddenly as it appeared, the blood storm dissipated without warning. Soon there was nothing but the dark eerie fog once more.

"Agh, man I didn't know how much I could miss this regular world ending fog. Right? Smith? Are you good?" Jiang had let out several water filled lung hacking coughs, but he didn't hear Smith respond.

"Jiang… I don't feel so good." Smith said as he faced the ground, having fallen to his knees shortly after the storm disappeared.

"Alright, hold on buddy." Jiang threw Smith's arm over his shoulder and gave him support as they slowly trudged back the way they came. They were only 4 hours into their shift but Jiang was worried about Smith's condition.

"…Jiang, I think this might be it for me. I think I'm infected…"

"Shut up Smith, no you're not! It usually takes a little bit before the first symptoms show up and goes through slow progressive steps!"

Smith wasn't even standing anymore, his legs were now dragging against the wet grass. At that point, Jiang broke into a run after heaving Smith onto his back.

"Jiang, if you trip and end up lost in the fog, we'll both end up dying here." Smith said slowly, as if he were drifting off.

"You forget the words they drill into our heads at Basic?"

"This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine?" Smith lifted his rifle that had been knocking into Jiang.

"This is pretty serious… that's a different branch's creed. And that's my gun you're holding up."

"Huh!? Oh…"

"Don't leave anyone behind!"

"…"

"Smith? Talk to me!" Jiang asked as he concentrated on not getting lost from the gate to their left.

Smith didn't respond but he did tighten his arms around Jiang's neck, and started to heavily breathe.

"Woah buddy! You're starting to choke me here. You can pass out if you want to, I'll just have to carry you sideways though. Smith?"

Jiang casted a quick glance to Smith's face and was genuinely surprised. Smith looked like he had been possessed by something, there was a hunger in his eyes that wasn't there before.

"Haugh!"

In a split second, Smith tried to bite Jiang's neck!

Lucky, Jiang was looking over at that moment and managed to shove the barrel of his rifle between his neck and Smith. Using his momentum, Jiang flipped Smith over his shoulder and reached for his rifle.

Smith flew a foot or two before landing on all fours. He slowly looked up at Jiang who could barely make out Smith in the fog.

*Click*

Jiang took his rifle off of "Safe" and to "Fire". Smith was his friend but he wasn't certainly acting like it.

"Well I guess that's new. Usually if you're infected you just drop and slowly die from disease."

Jiang pointed his rifle at Smith who had taken a beast like stance and was not moving, only seemingly watching Jiang.

"Smith, come on. It's cold, wet and we still have a long time for our shift. They'll complain but we can argue for some more rest for you."

"…"

"Or at least a closet so you don't try to bite anyone else."

Smith still didn't respond and his figure slowly disappeared in front of Jiang, almost like he backed off.

But Jiang didn't drop his aiming stance, he merely waited. For the most logical thing, Smith tried to bite him but there was nothing else around them so he was definitely going to try again.

He heard a small rustle on the grass near him and swept his flash light around. That's when he saw the gleam off a familiar blue belt, Smith's reflective belt still happened to be on.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Jiang squeezed off three shots as he heard Smith lunge at him.

"Auagh!"

From Smith's howl of pain it seemed like some shots did connect.

"Alright buddy, you're coming back with me. Even if you are a little maimed…"

"…sounds… direction… go…up…"

Suddenly, the two heard shouts coming from further ahead in the direction they were going towards. From what he could make out, it seemed like a woman and a child to Jiang.

"God damn it! Not now!"

Jiang knew exactly why they were here! The base had been locked down due to the base commander ordering it. But they had several civilians trying to sneak on to the base for safety even though they weren't taking anymore people. Nonetheless, countless had resorted to sneaking in whenever possible.

Between the armed Jiang and the new prey, Smith decided to disengage and head after the new arrivals.

"Smith! No!" Jiang howled out in desperation as he ran in the direction Smith went in.

"No! Run! Agghhh!"

Jiang heard the screams of pain as he quickly approached and took a shooting stance on one knee.

"Smith!"

Smith momentarily paused and looked at Jiang, all the while the woman was whimpering in pain and bleeding profusely.

"Last warning buddy, don't make me do this!"

Jiang wasn't too sure but he could swear that he could see Smith sneer at him at that moment and look towards the shaking figure of the little girl. Then he took a look back at Jiang, who's eyes seemed to waver.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

He could tell Smith was winding up to attack the girl and preemptively started firing at Smith.

"Rauughhh!" Smith roared before running away from the gate and into the fog.

Jiang immediately rushed up to the woman and saw a wound on her neck, she seemed to have lost a lot of blood. Next he went to check on the girl who looked to be around 10 years old.

"Hey, he's gone now. But things still aren't over yet! I need your help! What's your name? I'm Jiang."

"E-E… Emily." The girl shakily said as tears streamed down her face.

"Look, Emily you have to be brave now, alright? I have to go find him so he doesn't hurt anyone else. You have to get the other soldiers here, you got that?"

Jiang made Emily look him in the eyes as he handed her the map and laid out the path to the nearest building with personnel in it.

"Take this belt, and wrap this around your face. You're going to have to keep running, it's the only way they can find your mom here."

Jiang helped Emily over the fence and she started to follow the map to get help. Meanwhile, Jiang wrapped up the wound on Emily's mother as best he could with a cloth covering.

After that, Jiang stood up and faced the direction Smith had run in, the classified area.

"Just keep going straight, keep going straight."

Jiang ran in that direction but it was surprisingly short, it took him 5 minutes to almost run into a bigger fence.

The one they were patrolling before was a measly chain link fence, on the other hand this one was an iron fence made of reinforced rods with two chain link fences on either side. When he looked a little higher, he saw many rows of barbed wire to prevent climbers from going over.

Jiang was lucky he had gloves on and carefully climbed the first chain link fence. Sacrificing another of his face coverings, he used it to pull on the barbed wire enough for him to get his hand up and pull himself further. He managed to pull himself over onto the sturdy iron fence and faced the foggy ground, unsure what he would land on if he jumped.