‘Let’s see,’ Danny mused. ‘Travel across a country I’ve not seen in years on a motorbike I don’t really know how to ride, plant a bomb in the heart of a water reservoir potentially infested with android technology and make sure I get out of there before it either blows me up or I get drowned? I get the gist Bro.’
‘That’s about it Danny boy,’ said Logan. ‘Are we ready guys?’
They nodded quietly.
Logan picked up a gun from the table and handed it barrel first to Zack ‘Ever fired a gun?’
The base was quiet with everyone asleep in their rooms or dorms. The only people working through the night were either the lab technicians or the military. There were security cameras, but they hadn’t been switched on in years. There was no need. So, getting to the base exit was the easy part. Faye and Danny were the sharpshooters and lined up the tranquilizer guns at the two guards who were in the right place at the right time. So far so good. Logan counted down quietly ‘Three, Two, One, fire’ and the whistle of the darts went through the air, one of the guards slapping at his neck where the dart hit and then both slumping to the floor.
The exit ramp was hydraulic, and Logan hit the switch to open the ramp leading to the empty town above them. Nothing happened.
‘Logan?’ Tallulah said. He hit the switch again and the ramp started to move. He breathed a sigh of relief and put a hand on Tallulah’s shoulder.
‘Guys get yourselves and the guns into the jeep. It’s showtime,’ said Tallulah.
Danny stopped Logan before he got into the jeep and pulled him to one side. ‘I know I’ve been a stubborn idiot and I know we haven’t spoken for way too long, but I need to tell you something.’
‘Tell me when we’ve stopped all this and are back safe and sound,’ said Logan.
‘Logan. We are doing the right thing aren’t we? I mean not telling dad.’
‘He’s blinded by Goldsmith and the rest of those snakes trying to save themselves. He’s a good man Danny, but even good men make mistakes.’ He put his head against Danny’s. ‘Take care little brother. We’re counting on you.’
Logan got into the jeep alongside Tallulah and lent over and kissed her on the cheek ‘He loves you. You know that right? As in, he’s in love with you.’
‘I know,’ she replied and kissed him back.
The jeep pulled away and headed up the ramp and into the unknown. A few yards out of the tunnel a lone figure on a motorbike flew past the jeep with its shadow raising a hand as it cut across in front of the headlamps and veered off right while the jeep continued straight on.
Only a few hours had past and already the sun was starting to rise. The desert was already getting hot and the back of a stuffy jeep was already taking its toll on the crew who weren’t used to being above ground or the constant bumping of a jeep going over almost non-existent roads.
Scott and Seth were the only ones who genuinely looked like they were enjoying themselves whilst even Xander had stopped chain smoking and was looking a shade of green. Brad had been squirming for a good twenty minutes and stuck his head through to the front of the jeep. ‘Any chance of a pee break?’ He said.
‘Give it five minutes,’ replied Logan. ‘The satellite imaging shows that there’s a gas station ten miles up. We’re not desperate but if we can replace the gas we’ve already used it’ll be a bonus.’ Brad nodded and sat down again, slightly more relieved than he was before.
Ten minutes later they arrived at the Gas station and pulled in close to one of the pumps. The station was abandoned, and no-one had been there in a long time. The windows were covered in sand and dirt and the petrol pumps had long rusted and were empty. ‘Worth a quick look inside?’ said Chuck to Logan. ‘Yes. Take the twins and be careful. Guns up always. Take no chances.’
Scott and Seth were already circling around by the door so when Chuck gave them the nod they smiled at one another and opened the door to the shop. It was empty with only a few can’s littering the floor and shelves. ‘Hey, found a candy bar,’ shouted Seth to his sibling. Seth lifted the bar of chocolate and squinted, looking at some string tied around it. In that split second he realized that he’d made a huge mistake and before he could look up to where the string ended an arrow from a spring-loaded crossbow was a meter from his face.
Seth closed his eyes awaiting the inevitable but when it didn’t come he opened one eye slowly and then another, his heart pounding in his chest. He blinked and looked at Scott standing next to him holding a baseball bat with an arrow sticking out of it. ‘It’s a waste of a good bat if you ask me,’ said Scott. ‘Would’ve done less damage to that head of yours,’ he chuckled.
‘Let’s get the Hell out of dodge boys. There’s nothing but trouble here and we’ve already got enough of that on the horizon,’ said Chuck.
‘Find anything?’ shouted Logan
‘Candy bar?’ said Seth, all too happy to give away the thing he’d almost died for.
‘Ooh.’ Brad’s eyes lit up hungrily.
‘Really dude? It’s been two hours,’ Zack said nastily.
‘Let’s get going. Back in the jeep,’ said Logan, hoping to get further ahead and closer to their goal.
By Logan’s timings he had hoped to be in Mississippi within the ten hours it would take for anyone to realize they had gone missing. They then had to make their way to the prison and get into the prison without raising suspicion before tracking down the Professor. Truthfully, he had hoped that when everyone back at the base had realized they had gone missing that his father would stop the plan to release the toxin. Instead choosing to send a search party out for them. But he knew his father and he knew that it wouldn’t take him and the other board members long to realize exactly what they were up to and push the plan into action immediately.
Danny had further to go to the reservoir in Nebraska but with a good head start and with avoiding any major towns or cities Logan hoped he would have an easier journey. The reservoir was far enough from civilization that human beings would hopefully not be around to slow his brother down. The robotic system to keep the water flowing to the other states was a static system, unlike some of the android systems which were used at the nuclear plants. But Nebraska was where his father’s military would be heading as soon as they had cottoned on to what was happening, and he feared they would not let Danny stand in the way.
***************
Across the country Danny had made good progress, even with adjusting for the brightness of natural light and breathing in fresh air for the first time in forever. He stopped the motorbike in between two hills and looked down onto the valley below him. Everything was brown and dusty, not the green he remembered as a child. No plants lived here anymore and neither did any wildlife. If it had, it would have been hunted for food long ago. The skull of some kind of deer lay nearby and he got off the motorbike and picked it up trying to tap into the dead animals soul ‘Let’s not end up like you my friend,’ he said to himself and put the skull on the front of the bike, took a swig of water from his canteen, glimpsed at his map and then set off again.
Not much further on and the road was beginning to blur in front of him and he lifted the visor on his helmet to rub his eyes. No doubt about it his eyesight was progressively getting worse and he pulled to a stop on the deserted highway. Looking around he couldn’t see anything except the horizon in every direction. He stumbled from the bike and sat down cross legged on the floor dizzy. His head felt heavy and his eyes rolled back into his head as he slumped backwards against the motorbike.
***************
Tallulah tried Danny on the walkie talkie again ‘Tallulah to Danny, do you read? Over.’ She hung her head, waited twenty seconds and repeated the message. Nothing. ‘This isn’t good Logan,’ she looked up biting her lip. ‘What if he’s had an accident? What if the walkie talkie is broken and we can’t let him know if we fail?’
‘What if he’s riding between two canyons? What if he’s so focused on getting to the reservoir that the
walkie talkie is in his backpack? What if, what if? We can’t afford to think like that Tals. These are satellite communications so they will work anywhere in the world. He’s probably just not heard it and once he stops he will contact us.’
She looked unconvinced but went back to plotting the route on the navigation system.
‘What you said back at the base, about Danny,’ she said without looking up.
‘He’s always loved you. I knew back then, and I knew he wouldn’t do anything about it, but I knew I had to. Does that make me a bad person?’
‘No, of course not. It means you took a chance and it paid off. He was my best friend, but it was always you Logan. Danny was a danger to himself and everyone around him, but you made me feel safe and wanted. You made me love you and you were the one who was there for me when I needed someone to look after me when my father didn’t. It was meant to be,’ she said reassuring him.
‘I will always be there for you Tals, always’ Logan said looking at her then back towards the road.
From nowhere a loud bang sounded on the roof of the jeep just above Logan’s head ‘Dude, you know we can hear you back here?’ Faye shouted through the window. Tallulah and Logan smiled at each other and she put her hand on his knee.
The jeep juddered sharply ‘What?’ Logan looked at the petrol gage. ‘Something isn’t right.’ The jeep coughed and spluttered to a halt.
‘What’s going on?’ said Chuck jumping out the back of the jeep followed by the others.
‘It’s the gas. The gage says we’re out, but back at the gas station we had three quarters of a tank. Plenty to get us to the prison.’ Logan walked round to the petrol tank. ’Shhhhh, argh. It’s leaking. We’ve lost a whole tank of fuel thanks to a goddamn hole.’ He grimaced and put his hand on his head, walking around trying to think. ‘Right, we patch up the tank, use the spare tanks of fuel and hope we come across some kind of vehicle in the next thirty miles or so.’
‘Logan, I hate to break this to you man, but what spare tanks,’ said Chuck, ‘there aren’t any.’
‘What? These jeeps all have two spare tanks as standard,’ he said running around the side of the jeep refusing to believe what he’d been told. ‘No, No, No.’
‘Calm down,’ Tallulah put both her hands on his shoulders.
‘Calm down? This puts us five hours outside where we need to be without transport.’
’So, we walk until we find some other way of getting there. We don’t give up,’ she replied.
Xander who had walked a good twenty feet from the group to light up a cigarette shouted over ‘She’s right you know. We didn’t come this far to give up now,’ and flicked his match onto the floor igniting a trail of petrol behind the jeep. ‘Oh Shhhh.’
The group scattered throwing themselves to the floor watching the jeep explode in front of their eyes.
Once the flames had died down, they came back together, and Logan gathered them around looking each of them down in turn. ‘Xander was right,’ he said.
‘You mean before he blew up our only means of transport and limited supplies?’ Chuck smiled.
‘We have come too far to give up. People’s lives depend on us. We’ve lived a glorified life compared to the people in these cities and now our families want them dead so we can thrive. This is our time and that should be our decision, not theirs. I say we fight. For the people to make their own choices and for us to make our own choice. There’s no going back now.’
The group picked up what food and water they could salvage along with their weapons and started the long walk in the middle of the highway.
‘Wait, what’s that in the distance?’ said Brad, his eyes widening. ‘It’s a person. It’s an actual person.’
Chapter Nine
As they got closer, they could see that it was a person walking closer towards them. Still some hundred yards away they could make out that it was a man, or what was once a man but now a skeleton wearing skin. The sagging empty flesh hung from his half naked body; his modesty only covered by some oversized briefs like a diaper. The man’s head was lowered, and he hadn’t lifted it since Brad had alerted them that he was there.
The closer they got to him the more they noticed how he resembled a corpse rather than a living, breathing, person. His arms swung either side of his body as if they no longer had any use and his legs on the verge of breaking, but somehow, he moved forward getting ever closer to the group. Logan lifted his hand and made a fist indicating the others to stop, though Brad was still out in front, smiling at the fact that this was the first contact they had had with the outside world since leaving the base.
‘Brad. Step back. Let me handle this,’ Logan shouted out.
Brad just stopped in his tracks, mouth gaping at the man who appeared not to even notice them. Logan raised his gun towards the man suspicious of who he was and where he had come from. They were still some way from the city limits, and they hadn’t heard any vehicles approaching. There was wilderness in pretty much every direction. It was like the man had appeared out of thin air.
‘Hey you. Stop,’ he shouted. But again, the man kept walking and was now within ten yards of Brad. ‘Stop.’ Finally, the man cocked his head slightly, acknowledging Logan, but still staring at the ground in front of him and came to a standstill.
‘Sir, hello. My name is Logan Mathers. Who are you? What is your name?’ he spoke slowly, concisely and loud enough that the man would hear. ‘We are heading into the city. Do you know how much further it is? Would you like some water?’
The man stood completely still as if he was a statue. No sign that he had heard what Logan had said and no indication as to what his next move might be. Zack chuckled ‘freaking Zombie.’
Logan looked back at him and scowled taking a few steps forward towards Brad and the man. ‘Look, we have water, we can help you. What is your name?’
The eerie silence of no-one speaking made the fact the man wasn’t moving extremely unnerving for everyone except Brad, who was a buzz of nervous excitement.
‘I’m Brad,’ he chirped. ‘From Texas,’ he held out his hand and shuffled forward. ‘We’re here to help you. Well everyone really.’
‘Brad,’ Chuck worriedly spoke up. His voice more croaky than normal.
The man looked to try and raise his head, which looked like too much effort on his part. But Brad heard something. A whisper.
‘Guys, he spoke. Hey, don’t be scared man. What did you say?’
The man’s lips were now visible, although his face was not. His wispy hair was blowing in the very slight desert air and a noise, almost a very quiet whistle came from his mouth.
‘What?’ Brad said again, edging ever closer to the man. Logan followed, moving closer to Brad but keeping his distance and position away from the stranger. Again, the man tried to talk but the dryness of his throat just made a noise. ‘What?’ Brad was in touching distance now and along with the man everyone else was frozen, all with their guns aimed directly at him.
‘Food,’ the man said.
Brad’s eyes lit up. ‘He just wants food,’ he said smiling and turning around to the others.
In a split second the man reached for Brad and raised his head to reveal two dark sunken pits where his eyes should have been. The glimmer of the sun caught on the man’s mouth full of sharp razor teeth like a shark and his head jolted to the side. ‘My, you’re a fleshy one aren’t you,’ he growled, and the teeth cut into Brad neck ripping skin away from his throat, blood spurting everywhere.
Logan’s heart was racing, and he fell backwards onto the ground, away from Brad and the man, horror on his face and for only the second time in his life he was scared. So, this was one of the monsters that he had heard about in rumors around the base from the other soldiers. He had laughed it off like a firepit ghost story. Brad’s face was contorted, still smiling and looking at the others as if nothing had happened, meanwhile he had fallen to his knees and the man had straddled him and was eating into him as if he was pri
me rib.
Faye was the first one to fire, spraying bullets towards the man which she half expected to bounce off this sub-human being feasting on their friend. This shocked the others into action and soon bullets were coming from everywhere cutting the predator almost in half. Logan was horizontal on the floor but had regained his composure, lined up his shot and pulled the trigger on his handgun watching his bullet in slow motion as it cracked through the man’s forehead.
The sound of shells hitting the ground stopped, and again there was silence, apart from a spluttering gurgling sound which was coming from Brad. Logan stood up, looked around at the others and moved forward to Brad and the man who was now just parts of a body scattered on the earth. Xander retched and then puked, then lit up a cigarette.
‘What the Hell was that?’ said Seth, which gave permission for everyone to start talking at once, looking at each other for reassurance that this wasn’t a nightmare and that they were in fact awake and looking at the body of their dead friend.
‘Is this what we’re fighting for?’ Zack held his hands up. ‘For monsters?’
Logan looked taken aback as if in that moment everything he thought they were doing had been a mistake and in those few seconds of pausing the others saw it too.
‘We don’t know that they are all like this,’ Tallulah came to his rescue. ‘In fact, the intelligence that we have back at the base would all but confirm otherwise. We’ve heard the stories sure, and there is no smoke without fire, but for all we know he could have been living out here in the wilderness by himself for days, maybe weeks or months. Imagine what that does to a person’s mind, without food or water.’ She looked down at Brad. ‘If we give up now then he died for nothing. If we go on and we all die then at least we died, like Brad, trying to do something good in this world. I’m going on and you can either follow me and finish what we started, or you can turn back and admit that you will never ever be in control of your life.’
The Cure Page 6
