Kansas Settlement; Morning

Its raining again, pouring actually. The rain sheets pounding heavy on the half broken down buildings. Its been a good few days since rain has fallen and its welcomed by mostly everyone. Kansas is a place that has unpredictable weather, and its good that at least the rain isn't skipping out on them like it did last year. Gabriel is less than thrilled however by the rain. It makes his job of getting around the settlement much harder - and wetter.

He enters an old building that once was a car lot. The stench of rust and rot hanging heavy in the air. Cobwebs upon cobwebs weave through the corners and old rags are strewn about. There's a pile of blankets in one corner that shifts as he nears, making Gabriel jump a near foot into the air.

Its only a raccoon.

He shoes it away with his foot. The raccoon gladly disappears through a hole in the wall on the far side of the building. Gabriel shakes his head in dismay. There's probably no way to make a home out of this place. Nor a secret base for that matter. He turns to go, but stops as he catches sight of something from the corner of his eye. A doorway he hadn't noticed before, lit up dimly by the light of a gas lamp. There isn't much electricity these days, so he isn't surprised by the use of the old time lamp.

His footsteps are near silent as he creeps towards the doorway, softly pushing aside the old door to view the room in its entirety. Its freshly painted, bright white with a bed pushed against one corner. A desk on the other, with millions of old news paper articles littering one wall. He recognizes them as being news papers from the military. Mainly just ways that the soldiers get word around. In another corner lays a gun, and a trail of blood. Gabriel follows the trail with his eyes, and lets out a low gasping noise.

The man is covered by Cordyceps, his head pulsing a faint orange color. His head is caved in on one side, probably from some kind of blow to the skull, perhaps by the gun. What really gets his attention though is the speckling of dust he hadn't noticed before in the air. But it isn't dust...Its spores.

Gabriel reels away from the room quickly, slamming the door behind him and covering his mouth. How much had he inhaled? Or had it gotten to him at all. He didn't know, and wouldn't for a while now. The infection never could be times, it could be a few minutes, or a few days. The most recent time had been a week. A full week of nothing but waiting and wondering if they were going to go insane from the fungal infection. He exits the building quickly, returning back into the rain. He should report the Spores, they could get into the air outside the room and infect the whole settlement. But he isn't brave enough to tell the military he has been lurking around abandoned buildings in search of a secret base to place the other Smugglers at.

Also, he doesn't want them to scan him. Because if its found that he's infected....No, he would just go pack his shit and get the hell outta dodge before things got bad. That's all he could really do after all. As he's running he barely notices the eyes that follow him from the shadows, or the sound of heavy breathing behind a gas mask.