“I’m not seeing anyone else die,” Jim shouted, and dived at Dan’s legs.
It brought Dan back to one knee, but he shook Jim off and made it up again, gathering the golf club from the fine grass on the way past. Jim stood, his legs buckling, and ran at Dan as he reached the gate. Again, Jim tackled his waist. Dan turned and threw a strong elbow. It struck Jim across the bridge of the nose, and he felt his feet disappear from under him. The back of Jim’s head struck the rocks and the breath flew from his lungs. He rolled over, tears forming in his eyes and wondered whether his nose was broken. Go then, Dan, he thought. Go to your death like all the others.
He propped up on one elbow, feeling the bridge of his nose, then the opening, where he expected to feel wetness. There was none. A hand touched his shoulder. He looked up, squinting into the bright sun, and used his forearm to shield his eyes. Dan stood over him, tears streaming down his face. He put out a hand and helped Jim to his feet.
Dan stared into the school grounds. “I wanna go in there and kill it, so bad, Jim. So bad. She didn’t deserve to die like that.”
Jim ignored the pain in his nose. “I know, mate. I don’t know what to say to make it better. There’s nothing I can say. What I will say though, is that if you go in there and try to take on that thing and all the others, you will likely die as well.” Dan remained focused ahead. “From a selfish point of view, I need you. I need you to help me find my daughters. I know that won't bring her back and it won't stop your pain, but it is a little purpose and it would help me immensely.” Dan took a step towards the gate. “Don’t do it, Dan,” Jim added. “You can’t save her now and you can’t stop them. Yet. But we’ll get our chance for payback.”
Dan looked around at Jim. “Promise?”
Jim nodded. “Come with me. Help me find my daughters. I can’t do it alone.” It was purpose Dan needed, Jim knew. Even if it didn’t mean a lot to him now, it would, in time. Dan gave the barest nod. Jim clapped him on the shoulder. “Thank you.”
From the rear of the Nissan, Mac gave Jim two boxes of shells, which Jim placed on the front seat of his Ford Territory.
“Good luck,” Mac said. “Hopefully we see you again one day, but in better circumstances.”
“Where are you headed?” Jim asked.
“Probably Mole Creek. That seems the most likely place to go. Hopefully the army has some semblance of control there.”
“I want to thank you guys for everything you’ve done,” Jim said. “Had you not arrived when you did, we might not be standing here.” Jim stuck out a hand and they shook. “Safe travels to you all.”
Mac nodded. “You too, mate.”
Jim and Dan climbed into the SUV and took off with a three-hour drive ahead of them. Jim wondered what the next hurdle for their survival would be, imagining it to be more of the same as they had just encountered. As long as he found his daughters safe, he could face anything.
10
January 11, 2014
4:01 pm
Latrobe, Tasmania
Juliet woke with a start. The heat pressed against her skin and down her throat. It stung her eyes, and the only way she could escape it was to drift off to sleep again. Most of the others had done the same. It beat feeling so thirsty, cracked lips under a swollen tongue, a parched throat.
Earlier, somebody had opened the door and tossed half a dozen bottles of water in to them. It had made all the difference, although, that had been hours ago now. At least somebody was thinking of them. Surely, they were due another visit, perhaps some more water, or even food. Juliet couldn’t understand Red Bandana’s angle. He’d saved them from sexual assault two nights ago, but had left them here with very little to eat or drink. He must have known they were in peril. The thin slice of hope she had in him had all but vanished.
And so, she had begun working plans over in her mind to escape. She’d thought about it relentlessly since the morning, when she promised Jessica that when their moment came, they’d be ready. Problem was, she hadn’t ironed out all the details yet, and she didn’t want to tell the others until the plan was solid in her mind. In hindsight, they might have missed an opportunity earlier when the water had been thrown in. Next time, they’d be ready.
Jess hadn’t moved from her curled-up position in the corner. Several times, Juliet had touched her arm just to see her stir, to make sure she was still breathing. Since her outburst at the morning visitor, she hadn’t engaged much at all. Juliet quite liked her, and the distress at seeing the woman so flat continued to grow.
Aside from the occasional question or short discussion about an incident that had befallen her since the world had gone downhill, Lory kept to herself. Even Meg had lost her zest for an argument. The day before, she would have contested almost anything. Today, her responses had whittled away to nothing. She often stood for long periods, looking out the tiny holes in the metal sides.
A voice sounded from outside the holding tank. The apathy and lethargy she had reflected in the others disappeared the moment they heard the sound. Juliet, likewise, sprang to her feet. Adrenaline kicked in. This might be their moment.
“You think they’ll bring water?” Lory asked. “Or maybe some food? I’m so hungry.”
“They can’t leave us like this forever,” Meg said.
Juliet didn’t want to tell her that such a thing was not beyond the realms of possibility, hence why they needed to escape. But she suppressed that thought and waved them closer. “Listen.” There wasn’t time to go through the details or the contingencies if it went wrong. She cursed herself for not ironing out the problems and mentioning it earlier. “Be ready. Follow my lead and just back me up, all right?”
“We will,” Jessica said, standing alert.
The bolt on the other side of the door squealed as it slid out of the latch. The door swung open with a screech and standing before them was a man they had not seen before. He was average height, with short brown hair and a scruffy beard. Both counts would make what was about to happen easier. His two hands supported a twenty-four pack of bottled water and atop it were several brown paper bags.
“Food. And water,” the man snapped, stepping into the holding tank. “Be grateful you’re getting anything.”
Juliet made way for him, heart thumping in her chest. She peered out the door to see if anybody else was with him. There was nobody directly outside the tank, either left or right of the road. They were clear but would have to act fast. She caught Jessica’s eye. The blonde woman held her gaze, and an understanding passed between them.
The man dropped the bottled water onto the floor of the tank with a thud, the sound reverberating through the small space. The food in the bags fell off, some of it spilling out onto the rusty floor. The man looked up, then around at them and laughed at his apparent carelessness.
Juliet’s heart thumped. “Go.”
She leapt at the man and grabbed him in a bear hug. Surprise washed over his face; he was too shocked to react. Juliet pinned his arms and tried to drag him to the floor, but strong legs resisted. Jessica came from the other side, then Lory, and even Meg, her face twisted into fury. They all wrapped their arms around him and together, their combined weight forced his base of strength to crack. His legs buckled, and he fell to the floor.
“HELP!” He jerked and twisted, trying to get an arm loose. “HELP!”
It sounded like rolling thunder as they clambered over the floor of the metal tank.
“Roll him over,” Juliet said. “We need to get him face down.”
With Meg on his shoulders, they got their hands underneath and rolled him over. Meg fell away. Jessica dove on the man, knocking him headlong into the metal floor with a clunk. Juliet and Jessica used their knees in the man’s back and pinned him to the floor.
Meg had climbed to her feet. She removed her outer shirt and proceeded to tear the thing in half, creating two long flaps of fabric. It was possibly the first truly valuable thing she had done since joining them.
Je
ssica wrangled one arm behind him, Juliet the other. Meg handed one strip of shirt to Juliet, who looped it over his head, covering his mouth. It did not prevent him making noise, but he wouldn’t be able to shout out. She took the other piece and latched it around the man’s hands several times until they were bound tight. When they were done, Juliet and Jessica stood, eyeing their prize, then turned to Meg.
“Brilliant work,” Juliet said.
Meg smiled her first genuine smile then reached down for a bottle of water.
“Just grab one bottle each,” Juliet said. “We’ve got no time for anything else.” They each took one. “Now, we stick together and head for the fence line just off to the side of that little brick building with the broken windows.”
Jessica nodded. Meg and Lory made faces that looked a little unsure. “Just stick right by me,” Juliet added.
She led them to the wide-open door of the holding tank and peered out. All clear. She stepped out and started along the gravel road towards the little building where she had planned for their escape route. Her heart thumped. Could it be this easy? Meg and Lory had smiles on their faces, anticipating they might actually make it. She returned the look, daring herself to hope.
At the same moment she spied the building thirty yards ahead, a noise sounded from the edge of the road. Standing in the shade of a small tree was Ponytail. He wore a sleazy grin, the kind that says got ya. In his hand was a steel baton. A sinking feeling filled Juliet.
“What did you do with, Doggy?” Ponytail surveyed Juliet in the front and Jessica just behind. “You can run—I might not catch all of you, but one of you will take the beating of your life.” Nobody moved. Juliet opened her mouth to say something, but the winning look on Ponytail’s face dissolved her words. “If you head on back to the tank now, we can forget this ever happened.”
The others stared at Juliet. She glanced at Jessica; her gritted teeth screamed hatred. He had them. If they split up and ran, one of them would get caught, and who knew what might happen. They had lost. Juliet reluctantly turned and started back towards the tank.
“What are—”
Juliet turned. “We can’t risk it, Jess.” From under the tree, Ponytail chuckled.
“What if he tells the others?” Jess whispered. “It might be better to take our chances and run.”
“And imagine he gets hold of one of us?” She glanced around at all of their faces. “Who’s going to get the beating of their life? Because Red Bandana won’t stand up for us if he knows we tried to escape.”
“Hurry up, ladies. I’ll give you sixty seconds to get back in that tank, or I’ll reconsider my offer.”
“Please don’t go run,” Meg said. “I know what’ll happen. I’ll be the one who gets caught. I don’t think I can handle it.”
“We’re not going,” Juliet said. “Come on.”
They all started back towards their prison. Jess was last to follow, looking back at Ponytail for a second longer.
Back in the tank, they untied Doggy’s hands and removed the gag. Ponytail stood outside the door with a big smirk on his face.
“Damn bitches,” Doggy spat, rubbing the spittle away from the edge of his mouth. “I bring you food and water and you do that.” He raised a hand and struck at Lory. She turned away at the last moment, but it hit the side of her face.
“Leave her alone,” Jess said, shoving him. Doggy snarled and raised his hand again. Jess raised both fists the way an old-time boxer might. “I swear to God I’ll punch your fucking nose in.”
Doggy stepped back.
“Come on, Dog,” Ponytail said, starting off. Doggy feigned another attack, then stepped out of the tank. Ponytail stopped and turned back to them. “Keep the food and water, but don’t think I won’t be telling Red about this, either. I’m sure he’ll be very interested.”
When the men were gone and the door was locked again, the women collected the food Doggy had left behind and ate ravenously, using their hands. Packet bread rolls and several tins of tuna had never tasted so good. When they finished, they turned her attention to what had happened.
“We’re buggered,” Juliet said, hands on head. “So buggered.”
Meg came alight, stepping forward with stiff shoulders and an angry expression. “Why did we try it then?” she snapped. “We had food and water. They haven’t hurt us lately. Maybe they were thinking about letting us go?”
Juliet glanced at Jess, then Lory. “Seriously, Meg?”
“Maybe the timing wasn’t right,” Jess said.
“I can’t believe either of you.” Juliet turned to Lory and said, “Any reason you wanted to stay?”
“No.”
Juliet threw her hands up in the air as if to say I told you so. “We have to take our chances. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.”
“And now? After the time that it doesn’t?” Meg asked. “We’re stuffed. He’s going to tell Red Bandana, and they’ll probably come back and kill us.”
“I don’t think he will. I think he’s bluffing.” But Juliet couldn’t be sure. Red Bandana would be pissed when he found out they tried to escape, and he was the only thing stopping the rest of them having their way. “And if he isn’t bluffing, we’ll deny it. We know those two don’t get along.” But she didn’t want to have that confrontation. She clung to the hope that Ponytail’s threat was empty.
Juliet circled them, chin up, looking each in the eye. “I won’t give up. We’re going to get out of here—you’re all going to get out of here alive, if it’s the last thing I do.”
11
January 11, 2014
4:30 pm
Latrobe, Tasmania
Jim drove away from the school with a deep pang of regret that he could not make it a sustainable place of refuge. His philosophy was to help people, provide safety, food, and water; a place where people didn’t have to be looking over their shoulder constantly for the infected. He had grand visions for it, but they had fallen well short. He would reflect later, after he’d recovered the girls, about how it might have worked. Now, he had a new purpose, and that was saving his daughters.
Dan sat in the passenger seat with his feet up on the dash, staring out the window. Jim had given his sermon. There wasn’t much more he could say. Only time would heal Dan’s pain. At least he had agreed in the end to come with Jim, even if it had taken an elbow to the face. Jim rubbed his nose now and winced at the tenderness. No doubt it would bruise.
They took the C706 through Sassafras, which reminded Jim of a western with tumbleweeds blowing down the street. There weren’t tumbleweeds, but the infected wandered outside the closed-up shops and alongside the abandoned cars parked at intervals in the street. Jim wondered if the owners were alive and holed up somewhere trying to survive—or if they were sick, or dead and now wandering in a forever state of senselessness.
He tried his phone every five minutes for the first half an hour, but almost as soon as they crawled out of Latrobe, the signal strength disappeared, and the word SOS came up in the top left corner of the screen. Jim knew even that was worthless. They went the long way around Deloraine to avoid the infected and took the C501 past Black Jack Hill Forest Reserve.
Occasionally, Dan mumbled something that Jim didn’t catch, and when Jim queried him, he would usually reply with “nothing.” But there was tension in his jaw, and he kept his left hand on the edge of the window, balled into a fist for a long time. Jim offered to talk, but Dan wouldn’t give him much. After another period of silence, Dan suggested he should have stayed and killed the thing.
Jim kept talking, trying to change the subject. “We used to come up to the central plateau in summer. Couple of really neat campgrounds that back onto the lakes. Cold at night, but in the day, it was perfect. Nobody about. Probably why my ex-wife brought the kids down here.” He reminisced about towing the caravan and setting up the annexe for the four-week adventure. One of the perks of being a teacher was the school holidays. “We had some damn good times.”
At Elizabeth Town they found a little fuel station with a gabled roof on a cracked, white weatherboard building and a single dusty bowser outside under the sun. Jim pulled up, not expecting to find any unleaded fuel but to his surprise, it flowed with vigour. Dan wandered inside and returned with armloads of food—mostly junk—and when Jim queried any inhabitants Dan shook his head.
They went through Exton soon after, where the fuel station hosted an infected conference. Jim was glad he’d followed his instincts and gone with the smaller one earlier.
A little while later, he tried talking to Dan again. “We’ll go south soon toward the Great Lake. My favourite drive in the whole world, I have to say. Quickest way to Hamilton, too.”
But Dan only gave a soft, sad smile. Jim soon stopped trying to make conversation. His constant companion was the phone, but as they got further south and more remote, he knew reception would be harder to attain.
They turned onto the C513 past Bracknell, and then the C514 towards Blackwood Creek. After that it would be Poatina and then the lakes section where million-dollar views would greet them. If only it were other circumstances. He imagined just him and the girls coming down with their four-man tent and the gas stove and their sleeping bags and staying out on a clear summer night, watching the stars.
Pushing the car up the meandering mountain slope, a veil of darkness settled over the land as the sun fell below the western mountain range. Jim spotted an army vehicle parked on the side of the road but couldn’t sight any military personnel. Shortly after, a roadblock came into view. Two soldiers stood in front of a wire gate. Giant steel poles had been secured into the dirt on either side of the roadway, and from the poles, tall wire fencing had been rolled out and staked into the ground. Several large army trucks were parked on the edges to reinforce the blockade. On the other side, a turret had been set up and now a man stood atop behind a large machine gun.
Invasion of the Dead (Book 5): Resolve Page 7
