Wildfire (Book 1): Leap of Faith

by Bailey, Emily

We were quiet for some time after that and drank instead. Ten beers later and it was a whole different story.

  Evan was slurring ‘you, you are an irritating legend’

  ‘That’s hardly fair’ I slurred in return.

  ‘I trained you too bloody well, I’m irritated with myself’’ he roared with laughter.

  ‘You gave me a mighty scar for your troubles you bastard’ I laughed back and pointed to my head.

  He fell off his chair laughing ‘you mean I actually laid a decent hit?’ he said between gasps for air.

  ‘No, you kicked me through a fucking window’ I was laughing uncontrollably.

  ‘Why would I do that?’ he clawed his way back into his seat.

  ‘It was early on in training and I thought I could catch you unawares, I was mistaken’ he choked on his drink.

  ‘I see you’re having fun’ Rafe appeared at the table he looked at both of us and then all the empty bottles’ he laughed ‘ha! You’re going to have fun training tomorrow’.

  ‘Pffft, walk in the park’ there is a possibility that I’m an overconfident drunk. It explains a lot when you consider year one and two my main liquid was alcohol.

  ‘Right, I’m off!’ Evan staggered back and pointed at me ‘I’ll see you, in the morning!’ with that he was out the door and hailing a cab.

  ‘Home?’ he looked like he doubted I could move.

  No faith. ‘Yes, please. I have something for you’ I purred.

  ‘Oh yeah? What’s that?’ he slid his arm around my waist to keep me steady.

  Outside, it was cold, I visibly shivered. Rafe threw his jacket around me. I objected but he wasn’t having any of it.

  ‘I will show you at home in bed’ I waggled my eyebrows at him.

  He looked incredulous ‘no. You are way to drunk for that, I like my women to be sentient’

  He opened the car door for me and went to kiss me. He abruptly pulled back.

  ‘Bloody hell, your exhaling pure fumes’ he went around to his side and pulled out of the lot.

  ‘Women, how many were there? Your skills have clearly been homed over time’ I snuggled into the car seat, so I could watch him on my way home.

  ‘You really want to know? This isn’t a trick question’ he looked at me trying to gauge my expression.

  ‘I wouldn’t ask anything that I didn’t want to know’

  ‘A lot, I haven’t had many relationships. It’s hard to meet people on this job; when I tell people what I do, that’s all they want to talk about’.

  ‘It’s the glasses’ I laughed.

  ‘How was your first day in the gym?’ eager to change the subject, I see.

  I smiled softly ‘it was really good, I actually enjoyed myself. It was nice, in an odd way I was back with a part of my family’.

  ‘Good, I knew you would enjoy it. I saw you, you looked like you were in your element. Especially when you took on all those agents at once. Nicely done.’ He sounded proud, it made me feel all warm inside. Or it was the beer.

  ‘I love you’ I spoke softly.

  ‘I love you too’ he slipped his hand into mine.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Oh man, I drank way too much. My head is pounding. I’m lying completely atop Rafe who is sound asleep beneath me. He looks peaceful, poor guy, what must I do to him? I need to be less of a pain in the ass, I’ll add that to my goal list. Although, maybe tomorrow. I start to climb off but fail miserably and fell ungracefully to the floor. It hurt, everything hurts.

  ‘Morning’ Rafe looked over the side of the bed, amused by my disheveled state on the floor. ‘You are a delightful drunk, in case you didn’t know. Very cheerful, very chatty and my personal favorite is that you are full of compliments’.

  I stuck my head in my hands ‘oh god’.

  ‘It was great, you were in a fantastic mood, you jumped on Ben’s bed and shouted hello at him. Then you talked about everything and anything and then topped if off listing your favorite things about me. I am truly grateful that you think my ass is by best asset. It was closely followed by my chest’, the mocking bastard is enjoying himself too much,

  My overconfidence gives me strength to share information, Rafe now knows yet another weakness of mine.

  ‘Shut up’ I mumbled from the floor.

  ‘You also told me that you love me, a lot. I mean you said it over and over just to make sure that it got in my dense skull as you so nicely put it’, floor please swallow me whole.

  ‘You have a lovely skull, I probably meant that your stubborn’ shovel, dig me out please.

  His grin is so wide, I resent it. He climbed off the bed and jumped over me, ‘come on’ he helped me up, ‘breakfast’.

  I arrived to work and just sat down in the gym, staring into nothing and trying to slowly drink m coffee. Evan arrived shortly after and sat next to me, he looked as bad as I felt.

  ‘That probably wasn’t the best decision we ever made’ I tried to laugh but winced straight away, my head was pounding.

  He could only sigh in response.

  ‘I have an idea’ I looked over to Evan, he just stared waiting for me to continue.

  ‘I bought my memory cards, there is so much footage of the snappers. They need to see what they’re dealing with, also that will minimize our workouts’.

  He looked pleased with my idea, then slowly walked off. I didn’t follow, my head wasn’t forgiving when I moved. One of the group came and sat down next to me.

  ‘Hard night was it?’

  ‘You could say that’ I ground out.

  Evan walked into the room dragging a trolley with a projector. He turned the lights off on his way in. My head was grateful. I went over to the trolley and plugged in the laptop and scanned through the home movies looking for a good shot.

  Evan quietly addressed the room, ‘okay everyone, we’ve some clips of what you may be dealing with. Look at it, absorb it and get to know your enemy’.

  He pressed play and the home movie started. The camera was left running, abandoned on the roof of a car. It was looking out over a field, while my family were moving around in and out of shot readying their weapons. Me and Sam threw ourselves over a hedge on the far side of the field, I was limping, badly.

  Sam had his arm around my waist pulling me with him, he was nearly dragging me through the field. We were running adjacent to the group, to get out of the way so the group could make a shot. Gunfire erupted; my family were shooting them as the dead climbed over the hedge. They were fast as they were newly deceased. There was about fifty of them, the camera picked up the noise of their mouths snapping. When their meal is in sight, they become alert and determined. Some of the snappers parted from the group and ran towards my family.

  They turned their fire away from us and towards the group sprinting towards them. Some of their shots missed and caught, arms, legs, chest and it didn’t slow them at all. Sam tripped pulling us both to the ground,

  They were on us. We shot the first ten or so with the bullets left in our guns. Sam leapt up, I staggered to my feet and drew my knife. Together we fought, there was about twelve of them running at us. We stood about six feet apart, to give us room to maneuver; but still close enough to assist the other.

  I turned to look at the group, they were all transfixed on the scene developing. Some of their faces were drained of blood, the snappers are hard to imagine and the reality worse than you expected.

  They watched how Sam and me, protected each other. At first it looked like we were leaving each other to it. We knew what the other could handle and when it looked like one more would be too much the other would take them out. To buy more time we would kick them away, well Sam did anyway.

  I could barely put weight on my leg, so I was using their momentum to throw them past me while I dealt with another. The snappers don’t slow when they get to you, they are like a tsunami and don’t stop. Their only goal is to get to you as fast as possible.

  The gunfire stopped and the last of the snappers co
ming at us were lying motionless on the ground. A handful of our family were crouched on the ground over the body of the grandfather of the group, he had been bitten in the mayhem. We stood still for a moment, letting the loss sink in.

  Blinding pain shot through my leg, one of the snappers had hold of my foot and yanked me to the ground. I shrieked in agony and shock. I couldn’t pull my leg away and stab it in the head at the same time. Its teeth were millimeters away from my skin. Sam grabbed it by the legs and tried to pull it back, I kicked it in the face with my good leg until it lost grip.

  It turned on Sam, snapping at him, it had him pinned to the ground. I sat up onto my knees and sunk my knife into its head, it ceased immediately. Then I fell back panting in agony.

  Not wanting to watch the fallout from grandpa dying I stopped the screening. He wasn’t my actual grandpa, but he was as good as, he looked after everyone. I took a moment of silence, thinking about the happy times.

  ‘They aren’t what you pictured are they?’ I addressed the room, while Evan turned on the lights.

  Someone spoke from the back ‘they were faster than I thought they would be’.

  ‘They are at their fastest just after they turn, it declines slowly from there. Eventually, they’ll move as fast as a slow jog. But that takes months.

  ‘Do they always snap their mouths like that?’

  ‘It never stops, it’s a horrific sound isn’t it? It has its positives though; it makes them unmistakable from the living. It also helps to alert you to their presence. Even when they are dormant, they still snap occasionally’.

  ‘Dormant?’ another asked.

  ‘If they are locked in a room or somewhere quiet so nothing stimulates them, eventually they just stop. They stand there, unmoving, like a statue. Just their mouths snap’. The thought of them in their dormant mode creeps me out. They are motionless, so still that sometimes you don’t notice them right away. Then fast as lighting they come at you.

  The next question was asked quietly ‘who was the man that died?’ I was surprised, I didn’t expect anyone to ask.

  ‘His name was John and he was a retired mechanic. He was the diplomat of the group, putting out arguments as they rose and pulled us together. John made it a family and was sorely missed by all’ it sounded like I was giving his eulogy, in some way I was. We didn’t have time to bury him, we were overrun so quickly. Our gunfire had attracted every snapper in the vicinity.

  ‘They look like people, I expected them to be more deformed… isn’t it hard to take them down’

  ‘When you see them rip into and kill your friends your opinion changes quite rapidly. I look at them and feel no pity, so sadness, just pure anger. They are not people anymore, they are monsters. If I turned, I would hope that someone put me down straight away, I wouldn’t even want to spend a minute like that ‘, I said that with more venom than I expected.

  They didn’t ask any more questions after that and Evan took over and led the drills. Training these people would only help them, this needed to be rolled out nationwide and all around the globe. No country was safe, one by one, they all became overrun. Everyone needs to know what to do.

  I realized in that moment that if the virus went out, we were doomed. I had a choice, stay here and watch it all happen again, or leave. Where would I go? No where is safe. Well, that’s not strictly true, the less populated areas are a good place to be when the outbreak starts. Less people mean less of the dead. After a few months, herds would begin to arrive as they move around following random noise, constantly hunting for food.

  All I could do was to help those around me and do my best to protect those that I love. Rafe would try to stop the outbreak and I would prepare incase he failed. I needed to work out the best place to hole up. What state? How would we get there? Who would I be able to convince to come with me?

  At the end of the day, not knowing where to start I went up to Katya’s office. Her door was open and she was sat on the couch looking at papers.

  ‘Hey’ I smiled sweetly at her.

  ‘Oh, hey Peyton! Good to see you! I was hoping to join in one of your sessions soon, I heard that they were… illuminating’ unusual choice of words.

  ‘The consensus that bad is it?’

  She waived off my concern ‘no, everyone’s talking about them. You’re a badass so I hear, the others are a bit overwhelmed, I think. Your show and tell made it all real to them I think’. That pacified me somewhat.

  She tilted her head and observed me ‘you want something’, she grinned.

  Smartass.

  ‘I was hoping to use your computer, I want to print somethings out’ I tried to act nonchalant, she raised her eyebrows at me. I’m not fooling her.

  ‘You can, if you tell me what you want to look at’ her innocent look didn’t fool me either.

  I thought about lying, then it dawned on me that would only waste time. She would see through me.

  ‘What exactly do you do here?’ I looked around her office for clues.

  ‘Psychologist, they use me to get into the minds of the unlawful’ she laughed.

  Definitely not getting anything past her then. At the very least she might understand my reasoning, I hoped.

  I took a deep breath, preparing myself to speak the truth ‘I want to make a plan B’.

  I surprised her.

  ‘Do you not think that they will succeed in stopping it, or at least contain it?’ she seemed concerned by my negativity. She motioned for me to sit on the couch and she closed the door before joining me.

  ‘They have a hell of a task in front of them. I hope with every part of me that they succeed, I will do as much as I can, give them all the information that they need and train the shit out of the agents. But… there is a chance for failure, and I do not want to be in the same position as last time, blindly walking through the world hoping to come across a sanctuary. I need a plan B’.

  She just looked at me, gauging me, then nodded her understanding.

  ‘You are strong I see that; I can see why Rafe likes you so much’ she grinned. ‘If having a plan B will help you, then knock yourself out, she pointed to the computer’.

  ‘Thank you, really. You’re awesome’ I did my signature surprise hugs, in and about before she could react. She blushed.

  I walked around her desk and started my research. I looked on maps for the least populated areas, but not so unpopulated that there wouldn’t be access to any food. Somewhere between a hamlet and a town, but far away from the cities. Ideally it would need to be elevated so it was easier to protect and good land so I could grow food. I thought then, that the eco complex we lived in, that took us years to just wander across was perfect. It just needed better protection. I searched for other complexes to see if one was in a better position. Bingo.

  It would be two days drive; it’s still being built but close enough to completion that it should have all the necessities. Also, it was barely advertised so not well known. It was tucked away on the fringes of a town, with gorgeous views for those on spa days. For me that meant it was quiet, hard to find and with the open expanses you could see who was coming. I could protect the shit out of that.

  I printed off maps of the area, some zoomed in, others broader. All satellite images. I checked builders’ merchants for supplies to protect it, stores to raid and anything else I could think off. I was at it for hours, Katya left me to it ages back. She said everything on her computer was password protected so please only use the internet, it was a pain to unlock it if someone else fails to many times.

  I hastily gathered my last list of places to raid from the printer and stuffed them it the folder Katya had given me. I had already filled it up.

  A presence at the doorway made me look up, Rafe was standing there holding one of my print outs, ‘what the hell is this?’. He’s mad.

  I had absolutely nothing, I couldn’t think of any reason why I would have a list, labelled places to raid. Fucking idiot.

  ‘I need a plan B, if thi
s all goes to shit. I can relax if I have a plan’ I acted as if this was totally normal and I was just doing some shopping. I probably should have felt guilty, but I needed to protect myself.

  He just stared at me, for a long time ‘you think that we will fail’.

  ‘I don’t think you will fail; I just need to know that there is a plan in place. I survived it once, barely. If it happens again, I want to be in a much better position’. I tried for a placating tone; he still looks mad.

  ‘You’re giving up on us’

  I blew out an exasperated breath ‘I never said I was giving up, I just need a fucking safety net in place’.

  ‘If you’re making a safety net, then your heart isn’t in it. You need to focus on succeeding’ his voice is raising.

  ‘This isn’t a fucking job interview, this is my life, your life, Bens fucking life. If you’re stood in the road with a car coming at you, you don’t just stand there and assume the brakes will work, you find your fucking escape route. That’s what I’m doing. I hope the brakes will work, but if not, I’m going this way!’ and I slammed my hand down on my maps.

  I expected him to yell back, I expected an argument, I didn’t expect defeat ‘that’s fine Peyton, you focus your energy on the end of the world and I’ll focus mine on saving it. Have a good night’ with that he left.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I spent the next three weeks alternating between pushing the groups hard (so much so, I was running out of things to teach them) and working on my plans. My research was really coming together, I had everything in place, how to get there, what to take, where I was going to get it from, I had even bought a car that I have been filling with supplies.

  I barely saw Rafe, he didn’t come around anymore, but I know he kept tabs on me through Ben. I saw Daniels a lot, as Rafes best friend I think he was on Peyton watch duty. I didn’t care, we had fun. I refused to cry over Rafe. Well, the first few days I was angry (no surprise there), I was mad that he couldn’t understand where I was coming from. I tried to see his point of view, but without the Plan B I probably would have given up. Having it, relaxed me enough that I could carry on fighting. He was acting like the Plan B was my fucking dream, no one wants Plan B, they want Plan fucking A.