42.
ON THE monitors, the Rages had stopped and turned to peer in the explosion’s direction. They were slow to react as if even their thoughts were slow to form. They turned on the spot and began to funnel out of the wreckage and toward the noise. First one, then two, then entire fists. They were like sheep. Get a few moving and the rest would follow.
Lucy smiled. It was working.
43.
THE CLOTHES were still being torn, but the sound was fading. The Rage was heading in the opposite direction. Away from the two would-be warriors. Fatty let a smile dawn on his face. Jamie wiped away the sweat accumulating on his forehead. His mouth had never been so dry.
44.
DR. BECK, standing on the edge of the precipice, glanced over the side. He flinched, clenching his eyes shut tight, suffering from vertigo. He forced one eye open and watched as the tiny shadowy figures lurched from the hole and headed toward the valley mouth in the direction of the explosion.
He reached for his beeper and input a message. Hit send.
45.
THE LIGHT flashed at Donny’s waist. Checked it. Smiled.
WORKING.
46.
LUCY’S PAGER sat on the table beside her. She hardly glanced at it as it flashed. She already knew it was working. She could see it on her monitors.
And then something strange happened.
The Rage in the corridor paused.
Lucy glanced at Jamie and Fatty. They were still, silent, unmoving. They hadn’t caused, neither heard, a noise. So what was getting the creature’s attention?
Whatever it was, it was growing in strength as the Rage made an about face and continued its journey down the corridor.
In Jamie and Fatty’s direction.
47.
JAMIE WAS relieved beyond measure. It was always scary to take on a Rage. Even one, because they had most of the advantages. They could get cut and wouldn’t have taken much notice. They felt no pain. They never tired. They didn’t require any special training to carry out their attacks. They simply flew at their targets with clawed hands and snapping jaws. A single scratch and your life was forfeit. Avoiding a fight with a Rage was always a victory.
So distracted, he didn’t hear the Rage closing in on his position.
48.
LUCY’S PAGER flashed silently again. She glanced at it. Then froze and had to look again.
PLAN NOT WORKING
She looked at the monitors. The single Rage was continuing to head down the corridor toward Jamie and Fatty, who were still blithely unaware of their approaching doom. But Dr. Beck couldn’t have been aware of that single creature in the corridor. So what was he referring to? What could he see?
With haunted premonition, she raised her eyes to the upper monitors. The ones showing the outside of the facility, where the Rages had previously been accumulating. They were returning.
Donny’s charges had failed to distract the Rages.
What was she going to do?
49.
JAMIE WAS hungry.
Standing ready for a fight was exhausting work. He’d cranked his senses to their highest level to detect the Rage and needed to rest. He’d listened for every single filament of sound his ears could pick up on. He’d managed to hear the sound of a single item of clothing rubbing against the mutilated remains of a human converted to the undead faith. It’d worn him out and consumed his reserves of energy.
He spied something out the corner of his eye. Fatty was waving his hand to get his attention. He was pointing at himself, then at Jamie. He wanted to join his friend so they could go back up the stairs and leave this place. Probably to eat.
Jamie shook his head. They weren’t finished here yet. Fatty put his hands together, making a praying gesture. Pleading. Jamie shook his head again.
Then Fatty’s expression changed. Jamie was used to seeing that haunted, terrified expression on his friend’s face. It took a moment for him to recognize it for what it was.
Panic.
50.
THERE WAS no way for Lucy to get down to their level before the first Rage had attacked them. Even with the elevator, she would be far too late.
The pager. Why hadn’t they noticed the message from Dr. Beck? Either they hadn’t noticed or didn’t think it applied to them. What were they doing? Relaxing. Relieved because the danger had already passed.
Except it hadn’t. It was still very much present. Even more dangerous now because it was unexpected. They might panic, might poorly defend themselves.
She needed to warn them. Or else distract the Rage herself. But how?
Within your skeleton are hundreds of connection points. Any one of which can connect to a computer terminal.
The idea terrified her. And yet, what other option did she have? Sit here and wait for two of her friends to be murdered or—perhaps worse—turned into one of those things? No. She had to try.
She thought about the keypad, about how she’d figured it out by sensing what was instinctively right. She calmed her mind as best she could and let what came naturally surface.
Somewhere, a calm wave washed against a shore. The water wasn’t clear or blue but tinted a vibrant green. Odd. But Lucy went with it. And the shore. It wasn’t the yellow warmth of sand but some kind of purple material.
It was waiting for her, she sensed. She had to feed it a question. How do I help my friends? What should I do?
The water continued to wash against the bank. Doing nothing. And then she noticed something. Her own hands, beginning to rise in front of her face. She opened her eyes to find she was looking at the tip of her index finger.
She glanced at the monitor. The Rage was a matter of minutes from discovering the boys. She needed to act fast.
She pressed her thumb and index finger together. A soft click, as the tip of her finger opened. A tiny hatch. She felt sick. It didn’t hurt but it wasn’t exactly the most reassuring thing to see. She pulled it open and tugged out the wires. She ducked under the desk and located the motherboard.
Motherboard.
Watch out, sucker. Mother is about to board you.
She patched herself into the system.
51.
FATTY HAD seen the red light of Jamie’s pager flash. He glanced down immediately at his own pager, snatching it off his pants. Goggled at it.
PLAN NOT WORKING
It was only then, senses suddenly heightened, that he heard the sound that would have been obvious to him if he hadn’t been so certain he wouldn’t hear it.
Tearing cloth.
The stink of it was already filling his nostrils. As it rounded the corner, Fatty could already feel his bowels relaxing.
52.
WITH NOTHING prepared for the warning she wanted to give, Lucy sputtered:
“Jamie! Fatty! Look out! Behind you!”
She was already too late.
53.
THE SPEAKER system echoed through the door Dr. Beck had left wide open on the mountaintop. It was Lucy’s voice. Coming over the speaker system. She’d done it. She’d connected to the computer system. Despite her frantic message, he smiled.
54.
THE BOYS panicked. Having a Rage suddenly turn up in your face, eyes wide and teeth bared, would have turned anyone’s legs to jelly. The Rage caught sight of Fatty immediately and wasn’t shy with its affections.
It swung at him with clawed hands. Fatty backed away, tripping and falling over, clutching his axe like a child with its favourite toy. His face screwed up in abject fear, gibbering something Jamie couldn’t understand. Tears spurted from the corners of his eyes. He wailed, which only drove the Rage to act with more aggression.
It was the worst of situations for Jamie. It was difficult for him to attack from his angle. He might miss the Rage altogether and slice Fatty open, creating an easier entry point for the virus to invade his body. He was a bigger target than the Rage, which was essentially only skin and bone.
The Rage fell on top of Fatty
. Its weight wasn’t the problem. It was the hideous grasping claws and snapping jaws that made it difficult to adequately defend yourself.
Even if Jamie missed Fatty and struck the undead creature, he would only be slicing the Rage open and again making it easier to infect Fatty. The safest way was the only available course available to him.
As the creature fell on top of Fatty, Jamie seized the Rage by its denim jacket collar, gripping it tight. With his other hand, he slipped his blade through the creature’s ribs. If the clothing tore—which it most likely would as it had already been strained by its movement down the corridor—Jamie’s sword would catch on the Rage’s ribs.
If those bones were rotten—again, another likely scenario considering the Rage’s condition—it would fall another few inches forward before Jamie’s blade caught the creature’s spinal column.
Three chances. That was all Fatty had. If those failed, the creature would fall the remaining distance onto Fatty. There would be no stopping the creature from tearing into him after that.
The creature’s jaws snapped like a bear trap, looking for anything to bury its chipped teeth into. Fatty’s flesh was ideal. Its fingers scrabbled for purchase at the sleeves of Fatty’s T-shirt.
Fatty wisely kept his mouth shut and turned his face to one side. A single drop of the Rage’s blood or saliva from its slobbering jaws and his days were numbered.
The Rage’s shirt tore. Jamie braced himself to catch the weight of the creature’s body. It caught on his blade. And held. That was good. He pulled the creature back and held onto the sword hilt as he slammed the creature into the wall.
Jamie wouldn’t lose another friend to these things. Not again. Not after Nester.
The Rage would immediately reach for him, Jamie decided, changing target. Jamie was ready for it, and twisted, shifting his own bodyweight forward, using the creature’s momentum to launch it forward.
He let go of his sword, let the creature’s body take it to the floor. He couldn’t risk the sword failing to come free and remain trapped in the creature’s ribcage.
Jamie reached down. He didn’t take Fatty’s expectant hand to help him up but instead grabbed the axe. Fatty let him take it and got up by himself. Jamie swung the axe around in an arc as the Rage got to its feet with sporadic movements.
Jamie didn’t aim for its head. That would have been an ideal blow, but its head was a much smaller target than the rest of its body. He aimed lower and successfully struck it with a powerful blow to the chest.
The bones snapped, but that made little difference to a Rage. It was already flailing to regain its balance and launched forward. Jamie swung the axe around again, and this time, bellowing as he brought the axe head around at head height, he smashed the Rage’s skull.
It dropped to the floor. Black blood oozed from its shocked jaw. Its hands and arms were still moving. Alive, but with no one behind the wheel.
“Thanks,” Fatty said.
Jamie handed the axe back to Fatty and withdrew his own sword from the body. He used the creature’s torn clothing to clean his blade.
“That was too close,” he said.
“If it wasn’t for Lucy’s voice on the speaker I’d be dead already,” Fatty said.
Right. Lucy. Just how had she managed to do that? And then the full scope of the situation dawned on him.
“We have to go,” he said. “Lucy’s voice would have attracted more of those things. We have to go now.”
As if on cue, screeches erupted from a dozen Rage throats, echoing down the corridor. They couldn’t stand against that many. Never.
Jamie and Fatty took off at a run up the stairs.
55.
LUCY’S WARNING over the speaker system had been a starting pistol to the Rages. As a swarm, they ran into the City via the hole. They were already inside. But perhaps Dr. Beck could reduce their number.
He set his charge for thirty seconds and beat a hasty retreat.
56.
DONNY FINGERED the explosive charge and waited for the signal to set it off. His beeper flashed red.
Finally.
He did a doubletake at the beeper.
RETURN TO CITY NOW. MEET IN WEAPON RESEARCH ROOM.
Huh?
Momentarily confused, Donny dropped the charge. He hissed through his teeth at being so stupid as to drop it. It could have blown him to smithereens. He left it without a timer. Wasn’t of much use to him now anyway.
He leapt into the Mustang and hit the gas.
Something had clearly gone terribly, terribly wrong.
57.
THE EXPLOSION rocked the mountain top. The explosion was a deafening thunderclap. The shockwave, buffeted by the earth and the facility walls, roared. The entire world shook violently.
As Dr. Beck had only just stepped inside—Damn! Why didn’t I set the timer for a little longer?—he was knocked to the floor, walking stick sliding from his hands. His arms weren’t strong enough to stop him from falling hard.
The roof groaned and dust fell from a growing crack in the ceiling, sprinkling his head. Dr. Beck covered his head with his hands and prayed for it to stop.
58.
THE ENSUING rock slide succumbed to gravity and rushed down the mountainside like a giant wave. Donny couldn’t make out the Rages from his angle but he could imagine them now, ineffectively rushing to avoid the great squash.
In the forefront of his mind, like a splinter, he was painfully aware of the two innocent souls alongside them. Donny hammered the steering wheel with his palm. He never should have let Jamie go down there. He’d had a bad feeling about it from the start. What kind of brother was he to let his baby brother confront the Rages? He wasn’t alone, but he took little consolation in the thought Fatty was at his side.
Out the corner of his eye, something squirmed at the base of the mountain. Their heads bobbed as they sprinted. Rages. Looking for another entry point now that the main entrance was shut to them. How could they be so far out already?
The answer hit him like a cold punch to the stomach. Because he’d set a charge to distract them. This was what was supposed to be happening.
Donny hit the gas and shifted into top gear. He wouldn’t be deterred. He drove faster, heading directly for the mountain, where the vehicle entrance was.
He hoped it would open in time. He had zero intention of slowing down.
59.
THE AVALANCHE consisted of tons of dirt and rocks. Some were small and insignificant, others giant, hefty boulders. The shadowy figures didn’t stop when the dirt rained down on them, didn’t even pause when their comrades suffered concussions from the smaller varieties, only forced to stop when the boulders crushed them into the earth, flattening them. Others struggled on valliantly but were drowned by the great dirty brown wave.
The screens turned dark one by one, the mountain covering them with a mighty hand. Another camera, dirtied and half-coated by the soil showed what remained of the Rage horde. They simply split off, not missing a beat, heading both left and right to identify a new entry point.
Relentless. Lucy shivered and hoped they would not find another way in. But she knew, deep down in her heart, that eventually, they would. It was only a matter of time.
Inside the facility, the dirt had smothered the former Weapon Research Division wreckage. One Rage found himself buried up to the waist. He clawed at the soil, accidentally digging and working himself free. Then small pockets of earth shuffled, jittering like its own private sinkhole was developing. Something buried, but still close enough to the surface was fighting for survival. A hand burst out, thrusting like the epilogue of a bad horror movie, grasped at the soil and pulled, extracting itself from the earth. Born again.
Three, then four, more figures pulled themselves from the wreckage. They stopped a short distance away and raised their noses, sniffing, listening, for something—anything—to stimulate them into motion. As one, they snapped to attention in the same direction—where the other Rages had gone
. Perhaps one had made a noise. It was a starting pistol.
The earlier Rages were already rushing, streaming into the facility, winding down each corridor like a river. Most went in the same direction, trailing the leader, who had the best claim on a juicy meal if he was running so fast. Still, some of the others had broken off and taken alternate courses, heading in multiple directions. These wayward souls stood still, moving only after they heard something that garnered their attention.
The pager was flashing once again with Dr. Beck’s latest message.
RETURN TO CITY NOW. MEET IN WEAPON RESEARCH ROOM.
Lucy unplugged herself from the computer, drained, and yet somehow, invigorated. She didn’t know if it was the electricity from the computer system coursing through her veins that gave her the extra pep, or the feeling she was getting a small—in fact, according to Dr. Beck, tiny—taste of her true power.
She ran.
60.
DONNY DROVE in a straight line, heading directly for the cliff face like a suicidal maniac. He was getting close. A little too close. If the doors didn’t begin to open soon, he would smash into the mountainside.
After the Fall- The Complete series Box Set Page 32
