“Oh, God!” Kevin called out anxiously and, as they were stationary, Melissa yanked open the side door, leapt down and ran forward to look across Kevin at the driver’s seat. DeWitt had brought his left hand up to his throat, but blood was oozing from between his fingers and down onto the tactical vest he was wearing. He was still alive, but the level of blood loss was alarming. He gurgled an instruction as Melissa pulled the door open and started to look for something they could use to try to staunch the blood flow, but her attention was drawn to the front. The side door of the Reborn’s vehicle was open, and they were taking aim at them.
“Get down!” She yelled, grabbing Kevin and pulling him lower as the Reborn opened fire. Bullets tore the window apart, and several more eruptions of blood from DeWitt made Melissa certain he was beyond her care. When the gunfire ceased, she peered over at him and saw several large, bloody holes in his once handsome face. With no time to mourn his loss, she looked out and saw their aggressors advancing on them. They had left their vehicle and were approaching on foot. Melissa raised her weapon and fired, taking several quick precise shots through the passenger side window, shattering what remained of the safety glass. She killed two, but two more hid behind an abandoned car on the left, and she was certain she saw another lingering near the rear of their vehicle.
“Kevin, are you okay?” Melissa demanded, unable to see him clearly.
“Yes.” Kevin replied weakly, sitting up but ducking back down a fraction of a second before bullets from the Reborn tore through the ruined front windshield. Melissa was using the passenger door for cover, but it seemed they were focusing their fire more on the remaining FBI agent - likely as they were ordered to.
“DeWitt’s dead! We’ve got to get out and move on foot. Are you ready?” Melissa asked.
“O-Okay.” Kevin returned, clearly unnerved.
“Keep an eye on her.” She instructed Roy, shooting a deadly look at the Ancillary who was currently lying on her side, her bloody vestment now also partially coated in grime from the van’s interior. She looked a little more ruffled than she had at other times, and Melissa felt something akin to relief: perhaps she was human after all.
“They won’t get her.” Roy promised. Nodding in acknowledgement, Melissa returned her attention to the task in hand.
Peeking out from around the passenger door to survey the street, she saw no immediate groupings of infected, although she knew they could be lurking in the buildings on either side of the street, and having been attracted by the gunfire, were moving to attack. The Reborn launched another volley of bullets at the vehicle which slammed into the chassis, but none of them hit Melissa or Kevin as Melissa had extended the passenger door fully. It was then Melissa saw that across from her there was an overturned car, and instinctively knew what she needed to do.
“Cover me!” Melissa instructed, and as Kevin began to fire his weapon through the windshield, Melissa darted out, surging across the street as fast as she could and diving behind the vehicle as a few shots pinged the road behind her. Steadying herself and bringing her weapon to the ready, Melissa shuffled up against the side of the car until she was near enough to the edge to lean out and engage the Reborn. A couple of deep breaths later, she moved into a kneeling position, leaned out and fired a stream of shots at the enemy. Her timing was out by microseconds, as she saw him narrowly ducking down into cover to avoid the bullets. Shots rang out from her right, pinging against the car. Erring on the side of caution, she backed up a little, catching sight of Kevin blasting a volley at the other Reborn on the left. Hoping that she had pinned her target down, Melissa ducked out again, her weapon steady and her aim locked in; as soon as one of the two left Reborn emerged she fired a single, clean headshot causing a large, bloody print to appear on the white metal behind him. Melissa ducked back into cover and proceeded to the other edge of the car, careful with her footing as she moved past some oil leaking from the undercarriage onto the road. She observed that she was outside the doors of a furniture store, with a long display area behind already broken glass windows that ran beside, and ultimately beyond the final pair of Reborn. It gave her an idea of how to create an opportunity to take him prisoner. The remaining Reborn behind the car on the left fired, only to be driven back into cover by Kevin, so Melissa darted out and into the store, slamming her shoulder into the hardened glass door and pushing inside. She went as far as she dared into the darkened showroom and then hunkered down before advancing quickly, weaving between well presented and overturned furniture. A cry outside drew her attention, and she saw the Reborn Kevin had been targeting go down, leaving them with only one target remaining behind the vehicle the Reborn had arrived in. Blood pools and skeletal remains indicated that the infected had been here at some point, and whoever had sought sanctuary was denied.
Pushing away her dark thoughts, Melissa found herself three quarters of the way across the showroom and peeked over the top of an overpriced television stand. She looked through the front window to find she was directly alongside the Reborn. He was in a crouched position, and fortunately his attention was focused exclusively on Kevin. He rose up and fired off several shots, only to crouch down on one knee and begin to reload his rifle. Seizing the moment, Melissa rolled over the television stand and charged towards the window. Once she was a few paces away, she fired a few quick shots to draw his attention and then leveled her weapon directly at his head; the Reborn spun, his weapon not quite at the ready, and stared Melissa down. She shook her head, and gestured with her gun for him to drop his. He glowered at her, but as she stared into his eyes she saw fear; the only thing she wasn’t sure of was whether he was afraid of her or afraid of failing his mission. The former would end the battle with him surrendering, the latter with her taking another life.
The Reborn still hadn’t made a move one way or the other, so Melissa continued to stare threateningly into his eyes, but was prepared to fire at the first flinch of his muscles which indicated he was going to try to gun her down. As though it was inevitable, his shoulder jerked and he started to level his weapon towards Melissa; with a single shot, she brought the battle to an end.
Chapter Three
With the current Reborn dead and no infected in sight, Melissa and Kevin quickly scavenged the fallen for ammunition and anything else they could use, which was helpful as they had depleted much of their ammunition since leaving the restaurant. The vehicle they’d been using refused to start when Melissa keyed the ignition, and when she went to check the van the Reborn had been using, it too was dead. Melissa had never heard of the city they were in, and when she returned to Roy and Kevin, neither had they, making it pretty clear to Melissa it was impossible to even start their journey without a map to help them to decide the quickest and safest route.
“So, has the plan changed at all now that Agent DeWitt is... is dead?” Kevin asked. He looked more than a little shaken up.
“Not as far as I’m concerned.” Melissa told him. “But the Reborn are going to be riding us pretty hard. The meager amount of ammunition we’ve gathered and lack of other supplies...” Melissa trailed off thinking for a few seconds. “We’d do better if we took some time to scavenge the stores, not to mention finding a sturdier vehicle. It has to be something we can use to plough through the infected and anything else that’s in our way.”
“So, some kind of police or military vehicle?” Kevin commented.
“That’d work; or some kind of big rig - a vehicle that says don’t screw with me.” Melissa clarified.
“It would also be worth trying to get to a radio or a television so we can see what’s going on in the rest of the country. It might give us an idea what places to avoid so we can get there without too much trouble.” Roy suggested.
“Well, a city this big has to have a few police precincts, I’m sure we’ll find some of what we’re looking for there.” Kevin said after a second’s thought.
“Great. Any idea where to find the closest one?”
“Not really.�
�� Kevin admitted.
“Yeah, that sounds about right for our luck.”
Melissa sighed heavily. She rolled her neck and closed her eyes, allowing herself to slip into a calm place for just a minute. Roy was relying on her, Kevin too up to a point, and at this point in time she had no idea how to move forward. It felt like she was stuck in quicksand with no lifeline in sight. Melissa opened her eyes and found herself looking at the small, hardened bag hanging off the belt of the corpse of one of the Reborn.
“Okay, now we might be getting somewhere.” She said to herself as she hurried over to it, recognizing it as a pouch for carrying a tablet computer. Kneeling, she opened the pouch and carefully removed it; the screen was undamaged, and when it turned on easily her heart skipped a beat. Excitement flooded her as she thought that perhaps, just perhaps, there was a way out of the awful situation they found themselves in. She opened the internet browser and searched for the local police station. It took a few seconds, the wireless hotspot it connected to not working all that well, but a map came on the screen showing that there was a police station west and a little to the north of them, five blocks if Melissa was reading it correctly. She beckoned the others over and showed them the map, causing a flicker of visible hope to rise in the other pair of survivors. Melissa quickly removed the pouch from the Reborn’s belt and attached it to her own, securing the tablet within in case they had further need of it.
As Melissa looked up and down the street, remembering the view from the map and applying it to what she could see before her, she observed that a number of the infected had shuffled into the street - drawn by the sound of gunfire - but now it had ceased, they were lost as to what they should do.
“Okay, we move quickly and quietly. No gunshots; if we need to kill the infected for any reason, we do it with knives.” Melissa stated and the men nodded in agreement. Before leaving the corpses, Melissa retrieved a leg holster and wrapped it around her right leg, securing the sidearm she’d been carrying in it rather than keeping it shoved down the back of her jeans. After that, Melissa retrieved the Ancillary and kept her in front of her, marching the woman without having to pressure her with the gun. Melissa was still amazed at how calm and compliant the Ancillary was, and perhaps that frightened her more than the infected and the Reborn combined.
The slog through the city streets was slow, and more than anything, depressing. Stores, houses, apartments and buildings of every type had been ransacked, whether solely by the infected or some combined front of the infected and the Reborn it was impossible to tell. What was clear was the devastation that had been left in their wake: blood, skeletal remains, torn fragments of clothing, hair attached to pieces of scalp and even more blood. It had soaked the sidewalks, splashed broken windows, sprayed walls and doors and splattered vehicles, the latter of which were in various states of destruction or abandonment. Police vehicles had clearly been attacked by the Reborn; bullet holes having shredded their metallic exterior and shattered the windows. Whenever they came across what remained of police firing lines they tried to scavenge more ammunition or supplies, but the truth was there wasn’t much left. In their desperate last stand, most police firing lines had expended almost all their ammunition before succumbing to the infected and Reborn. Fires burned inside some of the buildings, smoke billowing out into the darkening sky as the flames devastated whatever remained within. Walking through the desolation, Melissa wondered if this was what the rest of the world looked like, and just how many people had died in the slaughter of Brownwater; how many had fallen to feed the appetites of the infected, and how many had turned and clambered back onto their feet to continue the slaughter? It was impossible to say. She freely admitted however, all were victims of the Teacher and his army of Reborn. In this city alone there were thousands of infected. They’d passed by - and sometimes through - large groups of more than a hundred at a time. As they were gently jostled out of the way, the infected, with pitiable moans escaping their lips, seemed to be lamenting their terrible affliction. Although Melissa hated the killing - hated the violence that had engulfed the recent years of her life - every blank, emotionless face she passed made her wish she could grant them peace; grant them final rest. But there wasn’t enough time and the thought of using her knife to end them all... it was an insane thought which Melissa believed would push her over the edge. So Melissa remained task focused, ordering the sequence of things that needed to be done in her mind so she could process them. First, they had to reach the police station. Second they had to find a better vehicle than the one they made their failed attempt to escape in, and third they had to get the hell out of town and find their way to Roy’s wife. Beyond that, Melissa didn’t have any thoughts, although she didn’t expect the Ancillary would stay with them all the way. Maybe they’d drop her off at a police facility, or maybe she’d try to escape and then... well, whatever happened then would happen.
While working their way methodically, quietly and carefully through another crowd of the infected, Melissa came across a large bus that had come to a sudden halt in the middle of an intersection. It was at an angle, as though the driver had applied the brakes mid way through a turn. There were a number of crushed infected in a bloody swathe behind it, and judging by the smeared viscera on the exterior, when it stopped there had been a clamoring to get inside. It did fit the criteria for their escape vehicle, however, being big and with enough power to push through most of the obstructions that came to mind. Melissa looked back over her shoulder and through the gaps in the infected, caught Roy and Kevin’s attention before she gestured toward the bus to indicate her deviation from their original plan. They nodded in response, and together they worked their way towards it.
It was a little clearer of infected when they neared it, and Melissa was able to pass off the Ancillary to Roy while she approached the open bus doors. The blood continued up the steps and along the aisle for as far as she could see. She wasn’t keen to step in it, but determinedly pushed aside her queasiness, and, after unsheathing the knife from her combat vest, climbed the steps and moved towards the rear. It was the kind of bus she’d seen driving between states in movies and television, and could only assume that either before or when the carnage first began, they had driven into the city. Perhaps, she mused, they had been in need of supplies or perhaps they had hoped to rescue anyone they could before they turned around and quit Brownwater.
The why was largely irrelevant, however. Melissa saw the driver was still sitting in his seat, a massive wound in his neck where an infected had ripped into his flesh and through the back of his skull was a metal spike of unknown original purpose. Seemingly, as the bus was overrun, someone had either put the bus driver down on purpose or had actually missed an attack on another infected and killed the driver as he was turning. Down the aisle there were a few skeletal remains wrapped in scraps of shredded clothing, as well as a half dozen more infected, some of whom were likely to have been passengers. Melissa undid the driver’s seat belt, dragged him to the steps and tossed him outside. Feeling revulsion, she tried not to sit in his blood pool as she took his place behind the wheel. Turning on the ignition, but not actually starting the vehicle, she saw that the fuel gauge indicated it was about half full. She clicked it off, now knowing if the police station held nothing for them the bus could provide them with a means of escape, as long as they could gather the necessary supplies. Melissa exited the driving seat then quickly set to work executing the other infected with her knife. She left their bodies where they fell, deciding they could clear the bus if they needed to later on. Melissa emerged, wiping the blood off her knife on the uniform of the driver before sheathing it back in its housing.
“It’s drivable.” Melissa whispered, barely audible over the constant, droning sounds of the undead. “Worst case, we come back and use it.”
“Why not now?” Kevin asked.
“We’ll need supplies: food, water, ammunition, that kind of thing.” Roy told him quietly, Melissa nodding as he spoke.
“We press on to the police station, keeping it steady and quiet.” Melissa stated firmly, before roughly grabbing the Ancillary’s shoulder and shoving her in the direction they needed to travel. The Ancillary, although stumbling initially, began to move without complaint... causing Melissa to frown.
Forging a path through the infected, they moved one block north and then turned west. Surprisingly, the infected herd thinned out considerably in this direction and they were able to increase their pace. They continued on, their eyes scanning left and right, each aware that at any moment they could be attacked by the Reborn or suddenly be faced with a rabid band of infected exiting a building. The latter would be less dangerous, but might still require them to deviate from their course, so they continued to keep a careful watch. Before too long however, they were able to see the police station ahead of them. It was a large, off-white two storied stone building, with a pair of double doors in the centre and a number of windows running roughly equidistant along the facade. There was a parking lot in front, with a low, ornamental waist-high wall beyond it, that ran around the area in front of the building with a small grassy area behind on either side of the central path that led up to the doors. Affixed to the right corner of the building was a high brick wall with a heavy metal gate in the centre. Melissa assumed it gave access to a secure area where prisoners could be dropped off or collected. She hoped it might also house an area with heavy duty police vehicles. Street lights illuminated the area, and there were several attached to the walls - perhaps coming on automatically as it was growing dark - which also highlighted the name of the building as well as the entrance. Unfortunately, it also highlighted a number of blood smears and swathes.
A World Reborn (Book 2): Global Outbreak Page 5
