“Strap yourself in, man,” Sam said. He sounded worried.
I got into my seat and fastened the harness. Lucy was buckled into the seat next to me again.
Zombies thudded against the rear of the vehicle as we reversed up the road and into the village.
“Why are we leaving the Zodiac?” I asked.
Then, the world beyond the windscreen became a flash of red fire. An explosion shook the Mastiff. Debris rained down onto the vehicle, pinging off the metal roof.
On the screen, I could see what was left of the harbor. Most of the boats were on fire. The beach had been torn up by the explosion. I couldn’t see the Zodiac. There were zombie parts everywhere.
A second explosion rocked us. Sam kept his foot on the gas, taking us back through the village as fast as he dared. We rolled over debris as a line of houses collapsed.
The world around us had become a chaotic inferno of destruction.
“We have to get out of here,” Sam said. “It’s a drone. They’re attacking the village with a drone.”
15
While the village erupted around us, there was nothing I could do other than sit tight and trust in Sam’s driving skills. We reversed past the pub. Sam twisted the wheel so that the Mastiff backed into a side street. Then he took the vehicle out of reverse and moved forward back onto the main street.
He floored the accelerator.
We shot forward toward the barricade of car bodies. Sam aimed for the gap he had already created when we’d entered the village and was accurate enough to guide the Mastiff through it without another collision.
Ahead of us on the road was the horde of hybrids.
A sudden explosion among their ranks sent bodies hurtling through the air. The road was ripped apart and black smoke spread across the remaining hybrids, the remnants of the road, and our vehicle.
The SDU screens showed nothing but blackness and the view through the windscreen was the same.
Sam turned the wheel sharply to the right. “We’ re going off-road,” he said.
We bumped along blindly until the smoke cleared and the screens showed us that we were driving over grassland.
“Where are the hybrids?” I asked. I didn’t want any of the damned things jumping into the vehicle again.
Tanya adjusted the view on her screen. The hybrids were being bombarded with whatever missiles the drone was firing from the sky. Each time a flash of bright fire appeared among the horde, the ground beneath the Mastiff shook. “They’ve got problems of their own,” Tanya said.
We continued driving away from the scene of carnage and destruction. When we reached the edge of the woods, Sam stopped the Mastiff and cut the engine.
Lucy looked at him. “We can’t stop. What if it comes for us when it’s done with the hybrids?”
“It won’t,” I said. “At least, it shouldn’t if the drone operator is thinking logically. Those things are controlled by operators that can see the ground below the drone through a camera. They sit in a bunker somewhere and remotely control the drone to take out ground targets. It’s like a video game.
“Whoever is controlling that drone has obviously been tasked with destroying zombies. They probably spotted the horde of a thousand hybrids on the road and followed them here. But they have no reason to attack vehicles. Zombies can’t drive.”
“Well, it sure seemed like they were attacking us at the harbor, man,” Sam said.
I shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t see us down there on the beach.” But even as I said it, I doubted that had been the case. I’d seen drone operator footage on the internet and knew that the cameras on the unmanned aircraft showed a clear and detailed view of objects and people on the ground. When the drone had attacked the beach, the zombies had still been on the road. We had been the target of the attack.
“We should get out of here,” Tanya said. “I don’t trust that thing.”
Sam started the engine and drove us over the grass and back onto the road. The road took us inland, past farmland and woods.
The drone didn’t follow us.
“So how do we get back to the boats?” I asked.
Tanya unfolded the map and found our current position. “There’s another village south of here. Maybe we can find a boat there and get back to the Escape and the Easy.”
We agreed to try it. As we set off for the new destination, I felt my energy dwindle. I had hoped to be onboard the Easy by now, eating a hot meal and enjoying the feeling of safety I only had at sea. Being back on board seemed like a faraway dream now.
Night fell as we drove along the road to the next village. The sky turned an inky black dotted with shining stars. The moon was a bright silver orb. There was no light pollution here in this isolated part of the country, so the night sky looked clear and dramatic.
“You okay, Alex?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah, I just wish we were back on the boats,” I said. “This was supposed to be the easy part of the mission and it’s already turned to shit.”
“We’ll be back home in no time. We should make a nice dinner tonight. There are some steaks in the freezer.”
“Sounds good,” I said. But I wasn’t optimistic about our chances of eating those steaks tonight. Nothing had gone to plan so far and I had a feeling that things were only going to get worse.
We drove in silence for half an hour, listening to Survivor Radio play a loop of eighties music. Then Sam slowed down and said, “Guys, I think this was the village.” He killed the engine and we all stared out through the windscreen at what had probably once been a quaint fishing village on the coast.
Every building had been reduced to rubble.
“We should go and take a look,” Tanya said. “There could be a boat in the harbor.”
I agreed. If there was even a leaky rowboat, I was willing to take it as long as it meant we could get back to the Easy and the Escape.
Sam started the engine again and drove us slowly toward the ruins of the village. On the radio, Iron Maiden was playing “Run to the Hills”.
Sam hit the brakes and pointed at the sky in front of us. The drone was difficult to see in the night sky. It was no more than a dark shape that blotted out the stars as it crossed in front of them.
“They’re patrolling the area, man,” Sam whispered, as if the drone could hear us.
We sat there for at least fifteen minutes with the engine idling, watching the drone as it flew back and forth along the coast.
“They haven’t attacked us,” Lucy whispered. “Maybe Alex was right and they only attack zombies.”
“I didn’t exactly say that.” I wasn’t going to take the blame if we became a target. “When that drone bombed the beach, there weren’t any zombies there, just us.”
Tanya turned in her seat to look at me. “Should we risk getting closer or not?”
When did I become the expert on drones? I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“What other option do we have?” Lucy asked. “If we can’t get back to the boats, what are we going to do?”
Tanya looked down at the map resting on her lap. “If we can’t get to the coast because it’s being patrolled, we only have one option: we’ll have to drive to Camp Prometheus and get them to tell whoever is in charge of the drones that we need to get to our boats because we have the vaccine on board.”
“Drive?” I said, shocked that she would even consider such a thing. “Hart said it’s a hundred and seventy miles from here.”
Tanya looked at me angrily, and I knew then that she was just as pissed off about us not being able to get back to the boats as I was. “What other choice do we have?”
I had to admit that I didn’t have a better idea. But the thought of driving all that way, even in the Mastiff, filled me with dread.
“We’ll check out the village before we go down that route,” I said, silently praying that we would find some sort of craft that would take us out to our boats..
Tanya nodded. “Yes, we’ll check it out. I don’t
want to drive to Prometheus any more than you do but it might be our only chance to eventually get back to the boats.”
I hated the word eventually. I wanted to be back on board the Easy before dawn.
We set off at a crawl toward the ruins. All eyes were on the dark shape in the night sky, watching for any change in its flight pattern.
When we were within a quarter mile of the village, the drone banked steeply and headed our way.
“It’s coming,” I said, trying to stay calm.
Sam slammed the Mastiff into reverse and backed down the road, taking us farther inland.
The drone turned slightly and resumed its patrol pattern, ignoring us.
“We’re not going to get close to the village,” Tanya said. “They’re not just hunting zombies; they’re targeting anyone who goes near the coast, living or undead.”
“I guess we know why,” I said. “They’re making sure nobody leaves. After the message you broadcasted on Survivor Radio, they probably think people might try to sail away.”
“Alex, you’re like a broken record.” Sam was busy turning the Mastiff around on the road so that we faced inland but he wasn’t so busy that he couldn’t get mad at me.
“Well, excuse me for being pissed off,” I said. “But it looks like your message to the people has ruined our chance of getting back to the boats. If you’d considered the results of your actions before taking over the radio station and getting on air, we might…”
“Hey, man, I seem to remember you being there at the time. You couldn’t wait to get on the radio yourself.”
“I was trying to find Lucy,” I said. “I wasn’t trying to start an uprising.”
“I don’t regret telling the people the truth, man.”
“No, of course you don’t. Only now, the army is patrolling the coast thanks to you telling the truth and we have to drive nearly two hundred miles across a zombie-infested wasteland.”
“Stop arguing, boys,” Tanya said. “Save your anger for the zombies. We’re going to find somewhere safe to stop for the night. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us in the morning.”
16
Twenty minutes later, we left the road and drove across a field to the edge of the woods. Sam turned off the engine and said, “We need to check the area for zombies but this should be as good a place as any.”
Lucy opened the rear hatch and climbed out. I followed her. The night was cool and dry with a slight breeze rustling through the trees. I stretched my muscles, trying to ignore the soreness I felt in my hips and shoulders. The fall from the Mastiff had left me with a few bruises, but I knew it could have been much worse.
Tanya came around the back of the vehicle with a handful of MRE packets. “I found these in the storage compartment earlier. You two check the area while Sam and I get a fire going.”
“Sure thing,” I said. Lucy and I checked our weapons before venturing into the moonlit woods. We listened for sounds that would give away the presence of zombies like footsteps in the undergrowth or a low moan but the night was quiet.
“It looks like the steaks are going to have to wait,” I said as we walked deeper into the woods.
“They’ll keep,” she replied. Then she added, “Maybe you should go easy on Sam. He did what he thought was right at the time. He couldn’t have known it was going to lead to this. Anyway, if they hadn’t taken you to the radio station, we wouldn’t have found each other again.”
“I know,” I said, “and I’m grateful to them for that. I’m not really mad at Sam. It’s just this situation. We’re setting off on a long journey tomorrow and that terrifies me.”
“It terrifies me too,” she admitted. “But it isn’t Sam’s fault. You said he hadn’t considered the consequences of his actions but what about your actions toward him? He’s not made of stone, you know. You’re hurting his feelings when you blame him for everything that goes wrong.”
“Not made of stone? Are we talking about the same person? Sam is so laid back he makes the Dalai Lama look tense.”
“Sure, if you look at the face that Sam presents to the world. He’s cool and calm and he calls everyone “man”. But how well do you know the real Sam, the man underneath all that bravado?”
“Well, I don’t,” I admitted. “I always thought he was exactly the person he seemed to be.”
“Alex, nobody is that shallow.”
“I’m not saying he’s shallow. He’s just…Sam.”
She stopped and looked around at the dark, quiet woods. “Come on, let’s go back. There aren’t any zombies out here.”
As we walked back to the Mastiff, I said, “I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings.” She had made me feel bad. I hadn’t known Sam long but I considered us to be friends. I’d taken my anger at the situation out on him and that made me feel pretty shitty.
When we arrived back at the Mastiff, Sam and Tanya had built a fire on a patch of bare ground near the trees. At the moment, only sticks and small branches were crackling and hissing in the flames. Larger logs were stacked nearby.
Sam was putting MRE food pouches into plastic packets and adding water from a canteen before folding over the tops of the packets and putting them into the MRE cardboard boxes. When he had done that four times, he set all four boxes against a fallen log, leaning them at a forty-five degree angle.
“Chicken noodles okay for everyone?” he asked when he saw us.
“What’s with the water?” I asked, sitting down next to him. I hoped we could talk on a friendly level and repair any damage that may have been done to our friendship. Also, I really didn’t know what he was doing with the water and the pouches.
“Those are smokeless MRE heaters,” he said. “You put the food pouch in with a heater pad. When water hits the pad, it makes it heat up. Some sort of chemical reaction. You close the whole thing up and put it into the MRE box until it heats up the food.”
“Cool,” I said.
“Hopefully not,” he said. “I prefer my food warm.”
“How much food do we have?” Lucy asked.
“Four more chicken noodles and eight meatballs in marinara sauce,” Tanya said. “That’s all there was in the Mastiff’s storage compartment.”
“We’re gonna need to get some more food and water when we’re on the road tomorrow,” Sam said. “And some more fuel if we can get it.”
Great. As if driving all that way wasn’t dangerous enough, now we were going to have to stop somewhere and get supplies. We had a stockpile of MREs on the boats but, like idiots, we hadn’t brought them with us on the so-called easy part of the operation.
Sam put a log onto the fire. It cracked and popped as the sap inside dried up in the heat. The wood-scented smoke drifted into the trees on the night breeze.
He passed the chicken noodle pouches around, along with metal forks that I assumed Tanya had found along with the food. I ripped open my pouch and put a forkful of the noodles into my mouth. These rations might not be the highest quality food in the world but at the moment they tasted as if they should be in a five-star restaurant. I had forgotten how really hungry I was until I tasted those noodles.
“These are amazing,” Lucy said.
We all agreed. Then we ate in silence, enjoying the noodles. When we were all done, Lucy said, “Maybe we’ll get to see the survivor database tomorrow.”
“Maybe,” Tanya said. She didn’t sound too hopeful.
“Aren’t there any names you want to look up on there?” Lucy asked her.
Tanya shook her head. “Not really. My parents retired to Hong Kong years ago. After I got a job that meant I had to travel all the time and my sister got married and moved to Colorado, they decided to go back to Kowloon where they both grew up.”
“You have a sister?” Lucy asked, in a tone that said she wanted to know more.
“Yeah,” Tanya said, looking into the fire. “Lisa. She’s older than me. We haven’t spoken in a long time. Years.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, why n
ot?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know. We just lost touch, I guess. I was busy trying to get news stories all around the world and she was busy with her home life. She has a daughter now but I’ve never met her.”
“That’s sad,” Lucy said. “I bet she’d like to meet her Aunt Tanya.”
Tanya shrugged. “I just hope it isn’t too late now. I lost touch with Lisa but there was never any real reason. I guess I just thought that there would always be time to contact her again. It would be easy to fly over to Colorado and see her family. But I never did it. Now, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to.”
“I’m sorry,” Lucy said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
“No worries.” Tanya smiled at Lucy but I could tell that she was thinking about her family. A sadness seemed to settle over her. It was evident in her eyes and her slightly slumped shoulders.
“How about you, Sam?” Lucy asked, trying to change the subject but probably digging herself into a deeper hole. “Anyone you’ll be looking up on the database?’
“No,” he answered flatly. “My parents are in New York. So is one of my brothers. The other is stationed in the Middle East. He’s a marine. I barely speak to my family.”
“Oh, God, I’m sorry.” Lucy looked into the fire and remained silent.
“Hey, no problem, man,” Sam said. “My dad owned a software company and he was a company man through and through. He virtually lived at the office. Max, my brother, is following in his footsteps. I wasn’t, much to my dad’s disappointment.
“I wanted to see the world, and not just a piece of it through an office window, so I spent most of my time rock climbing, mountaineering, surfing, that kind of thing. I had no goal in life other than the next adrenaline rush.”
“But you became a cameraman,” I said.
He nodded. “Yeah, man. I was on an expedition to Everest a few years ago and I met Vigo Johnson. He’d just signed a contract with a TV network to make the Sole Survivor show. He needed a cameraman who could go to all the places he could and film him demonstrating survival techniques in the wilderness. I said I could do that, and he hired me. In between seasons, I did some freelance stuff in war zones.
Wildfire- Destruction of the Dead Page 8
