by Keary Taylor
Avian walked over to it as well and crouched on the ground to observe them.
The one was a male, fairly young if I had to guess. He couldn’t have been infected for long. The tips of his fingers were worn away, exposing patches of metal bones and wires. For the most part though, he looked human. His skin was light and his hair was a brilliant red like Wix or Victoria.
The girl looked a bit more advanced. Her dark-as-night skin made for sharp contrast to her exposed innards. Her left arm was shredded, like she had maybe tried to claw something off of it. Or out of it. She had fought against her infection. Her face was damaged too. She looked a bit farther along, maybe two years infected.
Sleepers sleep for a long time.
“How far out were they?” Avian asked without looking back.
“About eighty miles,” I responded.
Avian nodded, running a hand over his shaved head.
“We came across six Hunters today,” West said. “Up in the northern borders. Only sixty miles out. Graye’s got twenty-four hour patrols going. He’s having Royce call everyone back into the hospital indefinitely.”
I swore under my breath. “That’s dangerously close.”
West nodded. “We need the brainiacs to finish that device now.”
“Yeah,” I said as I turned to go find Royce. “We do.”
Royce and his teams swore the device would be finished in less than forty-eight hours. I doubted any of them would sleep until it was completed.
“I should be out there,” I said. I stood at the front doors of the hospital, looking out as the evening light faded. Somewhere outside these walls were Tuck, Tristan, and many others keeping our borders safe. The Bane were getting smarter. Eventually they were going to figure out how to get past them or infect them.
“You’re doing a good job of doing as you’ve been asked,” Avian said as he walked up from behind. He leaned in the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked out at the Bane that were now back to standing in the glass box. They had fought at first, tried to get out. They’d broken their flesh and revealed more of what was beneath the surface. But they were both back to sleeping now. They only had so much energy at this stage.
I took a deep breath. It felt like it shook my interior, rattled my heart, my lungs. Once again, a sense of urgency burned in my blood. “The wait is killing me.”
“You’re covered in grime from your Bane wrestling match earlier,” Avian said, running a finger down a particularly dirty streak on my arm. “Why don’t you take a shower and try to relax?”
“I don’t know that relaxing is possible when the world is about to end in just a few days,” I said. My words were annoyed, but my tone was not harsh. This was Avian, after all.
“Come on,” he said, taking my hand. I didn’t fight him as I was grateful for any distraction. He led us up the stairs and down the hall to my room.
He closed the door behind us and suddenly his hands were on my hips, steering me around and pressing my back against the door. His lips were at my throat and his body molded to mine.
“I feel as if I barely get any alone time with you anymore,” he growled into my neck as his lips traced their way down.
My eyes slid closed as everywhere his body met mine, leapt to life. His hands slid up and pinned mine against the door. In the same movement, his lips rose to mine, taking them with urgency.
Avian smelled like hard work and gun powder and I tried not to think about why he smelled like he’d had to shoot at something. Instead, I pulled at his lower lip with my teeth.
His hands once again on my hips, he hoisted me up until my legs wrapped around his waist. He reached back and pulled my boots off and kicked his own into the corner. Somehow we made it to the bathroom and Avian twisted the water on in the shower. Clothes still on, he stepped the both of us inside. He once again pinned my back against the shower wall as lukewarm water cascaded down on us.
I pulled at his shirt until it finally came over his head, exposing his bird tattoos and beautiful chest. A wicked grin spread on Avian’s lips as the water clung to his eyelashes. The water cascaded down on us like raindrops in the summer.
His hands were hot and cold at the same time as they slid under my shirt and slowly worked their way up. Not thinking about it, I unsnapped my pants and let them fall to the floor of the shower. I kicked them free as Avian’s hands came to either side of my face.
His lips devoured mine as my hands came to his sculpted chest. My fingers met the raised scars from where he’d been shot that night so long ago on the transformer.
The world might end in days, really at any moment, but I could stay here forever and die happy. Screw the rest of the world.
Avian’s fingers rose to the clasp of my bra, his face buried in my neck when one moment the door to my room burst open, and the next West swore and was shielding his eyes.
“What the hell, West?” I exploded as I reached for a towel. Avian turned the water off.
“Seriously?” Avian growled as he took a menacing step toward West, water dripping everywhere.
“I’m seriously freaking sorry,” West said, his face violently red. “But a Bane slipped past security detail and they can’t find it. We need you to track it down, Eve. Vee’s downstairs, ready to help if you want her to.”
This time I swore and quickly set to drying off. Dropping the towel, I darted out of the bathroom and into my room.
“You could look away,” Avian growled from behind. I looked back at them to see West clear his throat and look at the ground. The redness of his face was spreading to his ears and neck.
“Which direction did it come in from?” I asked as I pulled a dry set of pants on over my wet underwear. Next, I tugged on a long sleeved t-shirt and set to lacing my boots back up.
“South,” he said, still not looking back in my direction even though I was fully covered. Avian had toweled off and was looking for dry clothes. He had quite the stash in my room.
“No,” I said, crossing the small space and placing a hand on his still bare chest. I shook my head as I looked up into his burning blue eyes. “You are not coming out there. I’m not risking you.”
“Eve, I—”
“I mean it,” I said, giving his chest a small shove, just enough to show him I was serious. “You’re staying here. West,” I said, looking over at him. He finally met my eye again. “I mean this; do not let him outside this hospital. You owe me a big one and I’m cashing in on it today.”
“Eve!” Avian protested as I turned toward the door.
“I’m not kidding about this, Avian,” I said as I pulled the door open and looked back at him. West had stepped forward, placing himself between Avian and I. “That storm we’d talked about is coming and I’m not letting you become a victim of it.”
I slipped out the door and sprinted for the stairs.
When I got to the ground floor, I found a flurry of soldiers in the lobby. Bill crossed to my side as soon as he spotted me and handed over a fully loaded assault rifle and a utility belt stocked with grenades and more ammunition.
“There are two of them now,” Bill briefed me as I walked swiftly toward the front doors. “Both from the south. Four others seem to have caused a diversion and they got through our perimeter.”
I nodded and spotted Royce on the radio just outside the doors. Vee stood to the side of him, armed as I was.
“And you’re sure about that?” Royce said into the radio.
“Yes, sir,” someone crackled back.
“What’s going on?” I asked. Bill handed me a radio which I secured to the utility belt. He handed Vee one as well.
“The two Bane that got in seem to have split up, or there’s more of them,” Royce said. He pulled out a set of binoculars. Night vision I had to assume considering how dark it was. “One of our people said they saw one ten blocks west of here. Someone else said they saw one about two miles south of the hospital. They’re moving fast.”
“Get everyone ins
ide,” I said, looking back at the crowd that was gathering inside the lobby. “I’m assuming you’ve got a guard up at the transmitter?”
Royce nodded.
“Good. Lock things up. Don’t open the doors until I radio in that we’ve taken them out,” I said, scanning the roads before us. “Keep in contact with our men and women out there. And Royce,” I said, looking back at him. “You’d better be ready to get that Extractor powered up just in case.”
The look on his face told me he’d already thought of this possibility.
Two other soldiers suddenly buzzed around the side of the building on ATV’s. They hopped off and Vee and I climbed on. Bill started explaining how it worked to Vee.
“Go get those bastards,” Royce said with darkness in his eyes. I just nodded back.
“You head south,” I said, looking over at Vee. “I’ll head west. If we don’t find them in the next fifteen minutes, I’ll call them out to the water. I don’t want to have to do that though unless I have to. Who knows how many I’ll call into the city doing it.”
“Got it,” Vee said.
We both peeled away from the hospital.
The night air whipped my hair back and made my eyes water as I ripped down the street. The very last of the day’s light disappeared behind the tall buildings, casting me in darkness.
I’d only gotten three blocks away when I was suddenly engulfed in headlights one second before the truck slammed into me.
For one freeing moment, I was airborne, sailing through the night. And then the next I was skidding over the concrete. My skin grated away like cheese and my vision flickered in and out. The pain my brain didn’t allow me to feel threatened to knock me out.
Snatching my rifle up, I climbed to my feet and fired at the truck as it started racing toward me once more, driving right over my crushed ATV.
Five—six—seven shots and the tires were blown out.
The glass of the front window shattered as the Bane within erupted through it. It landed on top of me, its hands wrapping around my throat as we rolled over the pavement. It had just pinned my head to the ground when I saw another truck go barreling down the road.
Straight for the hospital.
“Get off me!” I screamed and the Bane didn’t hesitate in climbing off. Grabbing my rifle once more, I pointed it at the Bane and the next second its head shattered into a thousand metallic pieces.
Darting back into the road, I caught sight of the raging truck. One block from the hospital. Our soldiers were firing at it.
Turn around, I thought. Turn around now!
The tires screeched and skidded as the back end of it suddenly whipped around. It tipped up on two wheels for a moment before slamming back down.
Hatred and fury burned through my veins as I focused once again.
The truck picked up speed, racing back in the direction it had come. And then plowed right into the side of a concrete building.
The explosion of fire was brilliant.
So was the amount of Bane parts that exploded from it.
I darted across the street, careful not to get too close to the flames. The back of the truck had burst open and within, I could see at least half a dozen demolished bodies.
They’d tried to sneak an entire truck full of them into the city.
I picked up the radio and held it up to my mouth as I started sprinting back to the hospital.
“Royce, you copy?”
“Loud and clear. What the hell were they trying to do?” His voice was full of fury.
“I believe they planned on ramming that truck into the hospital to get in,” I said as I closed in on one block. “The back of that truck held half a dozen Bane.”
By this time, I’d gotten back to the hospital and tucked my radio back into my belt.
“Bill, Raj, Banner!” Royce was shouting. “Bring out the tanks! I want one positioned on this side of the hospital, the east side, and the west side. Alexa, you take the solar tank to the north side!”
“Vee, you copy?” I asked into the radio. My breathing came out harder than I expected. Hot acid burned through my veins.
“One second,” her voice came through. Two moments later we all heard a faint boom and the sky lit up with flames ten blocks from the hospital. “The threat has been exterminated.”
“You don’t see anything else out there?” I asked. I snatched Royce’s night vision binoculars from him and held them up to my eyes. I scanned the streets.
“Nothing,” she said, and I heard her ATV growl back to life over the radio. “I’m coming back in.”
Royce swore under his breath. “You get to the medical wing,” he said, glancing at me. “You’re freaking me out.”
I glanced down at my left arm. My shirt and jacket hung in tattered shreds. My mechanical bones shone from underneath. I reached up and felt my jaw. Most of the flesh there had been ground away.
“What if there are more of them out there?” I asked, handing his binoculars back. He took them and resumed scanning the streets.
“I’ve checked in with our other soldiers, no more reports of activity,” he said, but there was something in his voice that didn’t sound right.
“What is it?” I demanded.
He glanced over at me, his eyes unsure and regretful. “We haven’t heard back from Jeb yet.”
It took me a moment to remember who Jeb was. He’d been one of the members of the Underground. He’d joined security detail a while back.
“Where’s Vee?” I said, turning back toward the street. “She wasn’t that far out. She should be back by now.”
Suddenly there were shots fired, no more than two blocks from our location. There was a scream at the same time. And when the shots stopped, someone started shouting, frantic and panicked.
“Vee!” I shouted. I was about to dart back out when Royce grabbed my wrist. I looked back at him. He shook his head with grave eyes.
“That’s enough for tonight,” he said. “I shouldn’t have let you out in the first place. We can’t risk you getting killed.”
“But Vee—”
Just then she shot out into the road on her ATV. And on the back of it was Jeb.
“He’s been touched!” she shouted as she rolled up. She came to an abrupt halt and Jeb fell off like a rag doll. “I’m not sure what’s wrong with him,” she said as she climbed off and just looked at him. “The Bane grabbed him, but he isn’t injured.”
“Probably in shock,” Royce growled as he and another woman darted forward to grab him. “Let’s get him up to the Extractor!”
They disappeared through the door. Just then, Graye rolled up in a truck, followed by Tuck and Tristan. The majority of the soldiers that had been out with security climbed out. Almost all of them darted inside the hospital.
“What are you doing?” I asked, nabbing Tristan with my good hand before he could duck inside. “What if there are more of them out there?”
“Holy…” Tristan jumped, stumbling back from me two steps. “What happened to you?”
“What do you think?” I said, glaring at him and feeling annoyed. “What are you all doing back here?”
“Graye’s ordered us to tighten the perimeter,” Tristan said. There was fear in his eyes. More than I hoped to see. “We can’t watch such a wide circle close enough. He’s closing it off to a five block radius. We had to come back for more ammunition. There are still a few of us out there.”
I nodded, and let him go.
“How many did you run into?” Vee asked as she walked to my side.
“Two trucks,” I said, shifting from one foot to the other. My body was still ready for action. “There was just one Bane in the first. The other was loaded.”
She nodded. “There were two in the truck I took out. I found another on foot. And then that one who got your soldier. The soldier was headed back for the hospital when it tackled him.”
I swore, my fingers tangling in my hair. “I don’t dare try to call them out,” I said, shakin
g my head. “I’ll just draw more of them into the city.”
“Eve!” Avian suddenly called from behind me. I turned to see him running up to me, rifle in hand, West behind him.
“I told you to keep him inside tonight!” I shouted at West, pointing a finger at him and taking two aggressive steps forward.
“Sorry,” West said as the two of them stopped beside us. He was eying my injuries. Avian was asking what had happened but I was ignoring him for the moment. “Royce’s orders sometimes have to overrule yours. He asked Avian to keep you inside for the rest of the night.”
“What?!” I bellowed, looking up toward the blue floor. But I couldn’t see through the windows. They were covered once again by steel security doors. “But they’re likely to keep coming at us.”
“I’ve got it covered, Eve,” Graye suddenly growled as he came marching back out of the hospital. “We’ll watch the perimeter and we’ve got the tanks in place. You get inside and stay alive.”
“This is ridiculous,” I said, my jaw tightening. “I am needed out here.”
And as I turned my eyes back to the road leading up to the hospital, I saw a figure.
A Bane was standing in the middle of the road, just staring at us.
I brought my rifle up and fired a shot that missed by an inch or two. The Bane turned and ran in the opposite direction.
“Bane don’t run away,” I shouted as I darted after him. “This is a diversion! Be ready to fire!”
I was a block away before I realized that Avian was racing alongside me.
“I’m not letting you go out without me again!” he said before I could try and argue.
And I did want to argue, but all I could do at the moment was smile and shake my head.
The Bane took a quick right and as we rounded the corner after it, I saw it scaling a ladder up the side of a building. I launched myself at the ladder, catching hold of the rung ten feet off the ground.
The Bane scrambled over the ledge as we climbed, disappearing from my view.
