The Encounter

Marcus didn't want to get up after what happened yesterday. Baking bread had been fun and fulfilling. It even renewed his hope in his survival.

But.

The realisation of how alone he was became even more obvious. Last night in anger he'd killed one of the ducks. Hit it over the head with a rock before dragging it back home to eat for dinner. He'd ignored all the system notifications about how his prey skill had levelled up and a new crate was available to claim.

He'd gutted the corpse maliciously and devoured its tender flesh once cooked like an animal. He just collapsed after his feeding frenzy since his body couldn't cope with the sudden change in emotions.

It was in the morning that the guilt crept in from remembering how much he'd enjoyed the taste. More tears poured out of him when the remorse flooded him from the inside. Those ducks had put their trust in him and now they would never trust him again. They were the closest things to friends when he was now almost sure that he was the last human on Earth.

Marcus had known all along that there wasn't anyone out there. He knew it the day he broke down. The only reason he believed there could be for a while was because without hope, what reason was there to live? Maybe he'd kill himself. 'Yeah, right... like I'd have the balls.' If only a few hundred more years had passed.

Surely there must be towns, cities, villages, ANYTHING salvageable that people may have congregated at. The idea of leaving the valley was too unbearable though. Just the trek to the valley had been taxing. Now that he finally had a warm shelter, plentiful food and clean water, leaving sounded irrational. Leaving now could cost him his life.

Crawling on his front, Marcus emerged from his insulated den. Breathing in fresh air felt so nice. Maybe today he could try making sandwiches... Maybe the ducks would forget his madness... Maybe... just maybe... everything was actually alright and it was okay to carry on living. "Yeah! Why was I so upset earlier? I'm gonna make frickin mayonnaise and nothing can stop me!"

Marcus ran down to the field on his map to get a ton of rapeseed. His survival shopping list also included garlic mustard, lemons and eggs. Surely lemon juice could compensate for the acidic vinegar and garlic mustard for actual mustard. He was optimistic either way.

Straining and grinding the oil from the rapeseed was a lengthy process. Marcus had to stop for a fruity, nutty breakfast. Garlic mustard still worked as a good stabiliser and you didn't need vinegar if you had lemon juice really. 'Lemons, grapes, garlic mustard... Am I somewhere in Europe?'

Marcus didn't have anything to weigh his ingredients so like with the bread, he had to guess and at least use his flask lid for measuring parts. "Ah, maybe it'll be too acidic or too oily on my first attempt but I know it'll still be tasty!"

Something Marcus was unaware of though, was the strangers watching him from the trees. They were specifically Marya, James, Samantha and Lana. The only reason they hadn't approached him like they planned to was because they had front row seats to his duck decimation.

Lana wanted to go over and tell him everything was okay. She pitied him and wanted to help but Marya being cautious made sure they observed him for at least a day first to make sure he was mentally stable. It was normal to kill wild animals for food. It wasn't normal to feed them, talk to them for a few seconds and then kill them...

All morning they'd watched him run back and forth gathering strange ingredients. At one point they perked up after hearing him howl with frustration. "Damnit!!! They separated again! It's not coming together! AHHHHH! WHERE'S THE LAMB SAU-"

Marcus had accidentally added the eggs to the oil so they didn't come together. He had to start all over and on his third attempt realised you had to add the oil slowly. "Why didn't I watch more Gordeen Remsey?" He cursed. "Or maybe I did but the memory is gone..."

Marcus soon got the chance to squeeze a lemon into his mayo and even season it with some lemony sorrel he minced up with his knife. It was more yellow than Marcus' broken memories could imagine but the flavour was familiar. If anything, it tasted better.

However, this was only step one of Marcus' plan. Next, he followed the same steps he did yesterday to make more bread. While he waited for it to bake in his adobe oven, he went to check his fish trap. There were two fish swimming aimlessly around in the pool so Marcus grabbed them both, culled them together and gutted them just as the bread was done.

He tried to mash up the fishy flesh into the sought of tuna again and gathered a large amount of sorrel, garlic mustard, dandelion leaves, as well as some gorse flower heads to complete his ultimate wilderness salad.

Then all it took was for Marcus to combine the salad, the bread, the fish and the mayo leaving him with... The SUPER ULTIMATE MEGA WILDERNESS SANDWICH!

Is how Marcus saw it in his mind. Even so, a mayonnaise and tuna salad sandwich was a brilliant accomplishment for someone to pull off in the wild. Even if it wasn't actually tuna. Just brown trout mashed into chunks. It even caught Marya's attention:

"Mmm! Hmm mmm! What's that smell?" Moaned Samantha.

"Is that fish cooking?" James swooned. Marya couldn't hold them back any longer. The group sprinted over to the smell of mouth watering cuisine before Marya could shout wait. Giving in, she too ran off so she could at least be the first to introduce herself before Marcus freaked out.

Marcus was just about to take a bite of his perfect survival sandwich. The eggs he'd used for the mayonnaise were large duck eggs! Except by the time he'd brought the best lunch he'd had in weeks to his mouth, he had to put it down again.

He didn't drop it like in the movies. He cared about it enough to not do that but it could certainly wait. It was hard to tell but a group of people were running at him with drool running down their mouthes. Just like the zombie he'd seen before!

Marcus grabbed his survival knife and a small stone. This was going to end now. 'No more zombies!' He slid his right leg round in an arc and then pushed off in a sprint. The zombies looked a little unsure of themselves.

They saw Marcus and decided to slow down until eventually they stopped. Marcus was confused and almost slowed down himself. Were these a different type of zombie? They didn't have rotten faces or torn clothes...

Marcus lowered his throwing arm until he also stopped as well. Were these humans? A more mature looking woman stood between the first two people just as Marcus came to a stop just in front of them. She said, "Hello Marcus. You don't know how glad we are to finally meet you." Marcus held his breath for a second.

"If this is some sick trick or a dream or a- or a new monster or... or maybe hallucinations then stop. Leave me alone!" Marya sighed and gave the others stern looks. They all finally understood the idea of how Marcus could have gone mad living alone. It had only been a week or so though, right?

"Marcus..." Marya eased. "This is real." She moved her arms in calming motions.

"Then how do you know my name?!" He yelled, finally realising all the stress he'd been bottling up. It was strange that people he'd never met knew his name though.

"Listen... let me explain everything before you jump to any conclusions. Please allow me to give you my story and you can tell us yours." Marya reasoned with a rational aura surrounding her.

"O-okay..." Marcus gave in letting out a long sigh. They followed him to the main cave where he used the remaining ingredients to make everyone a mayo, fish and salad sandwich each. Marya was impressed and didn't try to hide it. She never imagined making mayonnaise let alone baking bread less than a week after waking up.