“Dee, get ready to jump, okay? Into the river!”
Shell-shocked from the last twenty minutes, she nodded.
Ben reached into his vest, took out a small grenade, and threw it back down the tunnel. Then, joining Dee at entrance, he grabbed her in a hug and launched them into the river.
Dee felt the shockwave of the grenade as she fell toward the river wrapped in the embrace of this gentle giant. Before she hit the water, she saw Boss coming up river in the boat. She grimaced as the cold shock of the water hit her.
She was still alive.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jack took out the last of his meager supplies and shared them with George. The poor kid sat hugging his knees, rocking back and forth. Jack wasn’t surprised. It had been a hell-filled few days for them both; he felt like hugging his own knees and rocking. Watching George, Jack wanted more than anything to survive, to find Dee. To keep George safe.
After going through so much, and fighting every step of the way, he didn't want to give in now, no matter how hopeless it seemed.
There is always a way out.
Jack sat listening for the creatures’ howls, but could only hear them in the distance. Crawling out of their muddy root cave, he pulled George up and lifted him onto the bank.
Pop… Pop… Pop.
Jack spun around, back toward the dam. That was gunfire. Muffled, but definitely gunfire.
Hesitating, he listened as it intensified. The sounds of two distinct gunshots came down the river, reverberating off the limestone cliffs. Perhaps some kind of rifle? Jack couldn’t be sure. Then the unmistakable boom of a shotgun rang out. He recognised it straight away.
Those idiots are going to bring that whole nest out…
Jack stood rooted to the spot, listening to the battle. Finally, having decided what to do, he gave George his pack. “Hang on to this, buddy.” Then he grabbed George’s hand.
The two of them waded back out into the river. He nestled George in the lifesaver’s embrace once again, to keep both their heads above the water, then let the current take them downstream, away from the gunfight.
He could see the sun poking through the fluffy white clouds, its rays reflecting off the river and into his eyes.
A loud BOOM echoed down the river. He grimaced. Was that explosives? Hell. Whoever was at the dam, they were serious. He heard the motorboat engine revving and, looking back, he saw it tearing around the corner, heading straight for them.
The monsters’ howls and screeches followed, piercing through the roar of the engine. Jack looked to the tops of the cliffs. Fascinated, he watched as a black mass flowed over the tops. There had to be hundreds of them now. Standing near the back of the mass, closer to the dam, he could see the Alpha leader towering above them, arms outstretched, urging his brethren on.
The motorboat was coming up fast now. Jack raised his free arm, signalling to it as best he could.
The boat swerved around him. Slowing, it fishtailed around. Jack could see the tall teenager and a bearded man looking at him. Slumped in the back of the boat was a smaller figure.
Finding his voice, Jack yelled, “Help, please… I have a boy.”
The boat floated toward him. Or was he floating toward it? Coaxing his tired arms, he held George up. The bearded man, who somehow managed to remind Jack of Gandalf, hauled George into the boat, then reached back for him. Strong, gnarled hands yanked him out of the water.
Collapsing into the boat, Jack looked up. “Thank you,” he gasped.
The howls and screeches of the creatures became deafening, but a splashing sound made Jack turn his head to the cliffs. More splashes followed. The monsters had lost their fear of the water. His heart sank.
“Boss! GO!” yelled the bearded man.
Jack felt the bow of the boat lift as the teenager opened the throttle, and grabbed whatever he could hold on to.
He watched in horror as more and more monsters threw themselves off the cliffs, trying to reach the fleeing boat. Some managed to actually land on the edge of the boat. Digging their claws in, they moved toward the people.
The bearded man lifted his rifle and started firing. Then he yelled back over his shoulder, “Dee! Get it together! We need you!”
Despite everything happening around him, time slowed down for Jack. Dee? Here after all that? Is this real?
Turning to the stern of the boat, Jack looked into those beautiful eyes staring back at him.
As covered in mud, blood, and God knows what else as he was, he launched himself into the arms of the one person who meant the most to him in the world. His rock, his shelter from the storm.
All those years alone had been worth it to spend the last three with her. She was a woman of beauty, intelligence, and magic. She had taught Jack so much about life, about ways to appreciate it.
Even after these nightmares had torn his world apart, he had never given up the hope of finding her again. It had been his motivation, his energy.
Jack and Dee embraced each other sobbing, afraid to let go.
“Dee! Come on!” shouted the bearded man.
Dee pulled herself out of Jack’s embrace and, racking her shotgun, she started blasting at anything that moved in the water.
“Jack! In that bag! Grab a gun!” she yelled at him.
Looking down, Jack saw the bag she was indicating. He hadn’t fired a shotgun for a few months, not since that day at the firing range shooting clay pigeons. Jack gritted his teeth in anger.
He looked around him. At the howling monsters, throwing themselves into the river. At the little red-haired boy, George, huddled against a seat. At his wife, Dee, firing into the black mass of monsters. At the teenager steering the boat down the river. At the bearded man, rifle held to his shoulder, firing quick, controlled bursts.
Each of these people was fighting, fighting to stay alive. Fighting for the human race.
Jack checked that the safety was off, that shells were loaded. Then, planting his feet, he tried to get his balance in the moving boat. Frustration boiling up, he joined the fight.
The Variants continued to throw themselves off the cliffs, aiming for the boat. A couple more managed to land on the bow of the boat, but between himself, the bearded man, and Dee, they dealt with them quickly.
The boat swung from side to side, dodging the beasts. Jack fired at a creature swimming toward him, taking off part of its head. He watched as it sank under the waves. Looking up, he could see a clear path. The teenager driving saw it too, and pulled the throttle hard down, launching the boat free of the raining terrors.
As the boat pulled away, a loud bellow echoed down the cliffs. They all looked upwards and saw the Alpha, glaring down at them. With one last bellow, he turned, and his army of demons followed him, howling and screeching. Jack saw the bearded man raise his rifle. Jack figured he was looking through his scope at the Alpha.
Dee was holding on to Jack once more. She watched Ben as he lowered his rifle.
“Why didn’t you shoot?”
“No point. I don’t think this calibre would penetrate through all that bone and hide.” Looking at the mud-covered man in Dee’s embrace, Ben added, “I guess this is Jack?”
A smile broke out on Dee’s face, so wide she felt her muscles complaining. “Yeah, it sure is. After all that, he was floating away downriver!”
Dee didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Her Jack was alive! He was back in her arms, his bright blue eyes smiling at her.
“Ben, Jack, Jack, Ben. And the tall one driving is Boss.”
Jack and Ben acknowledged each other with a nod. Dee could see a bemused look on Jack’s face.
“Boss?”
“Another time, Highlander.”
Jack grinned at her, smiling wide.
Boss turned. “Hey. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“You have? Well, I would’ve got here a bit sooner, but I ran into a bit of bother with some locals.”
Jack reached down and ruffled George’s hair. �
�This little fighter is George. He saved me.”
Dee crouched down to George. “Hey, little guy.”
Jack’s heart skipped a beat when the little red-haired kid wrapped his arms around her. He’d known she would like him. Perhaps, in spite of the apocalypse and the horrors they had faced, he and Dee had found that missing piece.
Jack could hear the howls of the monsters in the distance. The high limestone cliffs had finally given way to tree-lined banks. Boss turned the boat for shore, heading toward a 4x4 parked under the trees.
Ben turned from scanning the bank with his scope. “All right everyone, stay frosty. We need a quick transition to the 4x4, no dawdling.” Seeing everyone understood, he carried on, “Dee, you drive. I’m going to radio the chopper. With those pursuing Variants, that LZ is going to be hot as hell.”
Jack felt the keel of the boat nudge the bank. Wrapping George in his arms, he picked him up. Then he followed the others into the waiting 4x4. Jack liked this guy, Ben. The waiting vehicle was planned, the boat in the river, everything. A chopper, coming to get us? To where? Safety? Jack had so many questions buzzing around in his head, but the ever-closer howls and screeches meant they had more pressing matters to be concerned about.
The 4x4 tore up the middle of the country road. Glancing in her side mirrors, Dee could see the Variants closing in from the sides and rear. Urging the vehicle faster, she jammed the accelerator to the floor. “Guys, we got company!”
A couple of lead Variants slammed into the back of the 4x4, rocking it from side to side. Their claws tore into the fleeing vehicle, trying to get a purchase.
Dee looked over at Ben just as he jammed a fresh magazine into his rifle.
He leant out the passenger side window and tried to get a bead on the chasing pack.
She could see the two Variants clinging to the back of the vehicle. “Boss, Jack, see if you can get these bastards off us!”
Jack twisted around in the back seat, and saw the two monsters clinging on. One started smashing its head into the rear window, causing it to crack. He pushed George down into the footwell. “Cover your ears!” he urged the boy.
He blasted the headbutting monster. The boom of the shotgun rattled his brain. Jack looked at the shattered window. The monster still clung to the back of the vehicle, mocking him.
Then it began to crawl in through the back, howling, its sucker mouth smacking so close Jack could see the rows of tiny sharp teeth. He pulled the trigger again, this time taking off half its head. The black gunk sprayed all over him. He heard another boom of a shotgun and saw the last one fall onto the road behind them, tumbling over and over before righting itself. It started to chase them again, sprinting down the road in rabid pursuit.
Hell, these things are hard to kill.
Jack crawled into the back. Using the shotgun, he pushed the corpse of the beast out. Beyond, he could see hundreds of them chasing, moving in a weird wave as they scrambled over the fields, hunting them tirelessly.
“How much farther? These things are gaining fast!” he yelled.
Without putting down his rifle, Ben replied, “About half a click. It’s just up over that rise.” Ben let off another shot. “This is going to be tight. Chopper is still ten minutes out.”
Jack reached down into the ammo bag and reloaded his shotgun. He crammed extra shells into his pockets, filling them as much as he could.
They finally pulled into the small airfield. Long grass surrounded it, baked dry by the hot sunny days. A small tin shed sat next to a couple of larger buildings. Jack could see a concrete pad with a big capital “H” painted in bright yellow. He scanned the sky to the west for the chopper; he could just make out a tiny speck flying out of the clouds.
Dee slammed on the brakes, bringing the 4x4 to a skidding halt between the buildings. Turning to look back down the road, she saw the mass of Variants charging toward them, already down the other end of the runway. Their screeches and howls filled the air. Raising her rifle, she sighted one through her scope. Pulling the trigger, she watched as it stumbled, fell, then kept on charging. You’ve got to get these things in the bloody head!
She looked over at Ben, firing into the mass. Dee could see the odd one staying down. In that moment, she realised this was it, their last stand. Unless the chopper arrived in the next few minutes, they were dead.
She looked over at her husband, searching out his eyes. She wanted to look into them and feel the love of his soul one last time. She had fought through loneliness, anger, and frustration to find him. She had battled Variants, killed them, watched people get torn apart. Almost got raped.
For a few glorious moments, she had held him again.
She saw Jack grinning at her. As covered in grime, mud, and Variant muck as he was, she still thought he looked handsome.
She could see the little red-haired boy, George, peeking out the car door, his ice blue eyes staring at the oncoming mass. She looked over at Boss as the wisecracking teenager loaded shells into his shotgun.
Dee turned back toward the mass of monsters. So be it, but I’m going to take down as many of you bastards as I can.
Raising her rifle back to her shoulder, Dee saw a stack of red tin barrels off to one side, next to a large tank with a bowser attached. Of course! AV gas! Do we have time?
“Jack! Boss! The fuel!” she yelled as she pointed. Not waiting for an answer, Dee ran over to the barrels.
Seeing what she meant, Jack and Boss followed immediately.
Dee reached up and unhooked the bowser, then depressed the trigger. Fuel started pouring out onto the grass. She sloshed it around as far as she could, and watched as Jack and Boss rolled some barrels out onto the grass, straining with the weight.
“Soak the grass between the buildings. We’ll burn the bastards as they funnel through.”
She watched as Jack and Boss grunted with exertion. They unscrewed the caps, letting the high octane fuel soak into the grass.
“Ben, how close are they?” she yelled.
Without pausing his firing, Ben yelled back, “Back in the truck, they’re coming up fast. We’re going to have to make a run for it.”
Dee, Jack, and Boss jumped back into the 4x4. Ben leant out the window and cracked open a flare. As Dee pulled away, he threw it into the pool of fuel.
The fuel ignited instantly, spreading outwards and into the mass of Variants as they funneled into the gap. Many of them were caught in the firestorm, screeching. The smell of burnt flesh reached Dee as she glanced in the mirrors. Even more of them were flowing around the buildings, chasing, snarling, toward their prey.
CHAPTER NINE
Jack could hear Ben yelling into a handheld radio, but he wasn’t paying too much attention. He focused on the spreading fire and the rolling black mass of monsters. The fire did its job in slowing down the vanguard, giving them the precious time they needed. Dee had driven them out into the middle of the runway. He heard Ben tell her to head for the fenceline surrounding the bush-clad mountain. Jack dared to have a little hope again. Having volunteered on the mountain, he knew it well. The whole mountain was surrounded by a three-meter-high pest-proof fence. Several New Zealand flightless birds, such as Takahe and the North Island brown Kiwi, had been reintroduced to great success.
The 4x4 bounced over the rough farmland toward the fence. Jack spotted the service road running along it.
“Dee, head left. There’s a entry gate on that ridge.”
He watched, mesmerised, as another mass of the monsters closed in from below the gate.
This is going to be close.
Jack tapped Ben’s shoulder. “There’s a shed next to the gate. That’s where they keep some quad bikes.”
Ben nodded as he gripped the door handles. “Just take your guns. We have to hightail it up to the summit. The boys in the chopper are going to meet us there, okay?”
Everyone murmured understanding.
Jack watched as the mass of monsters flowed ever closer. They had perhaps only a f
ew minutes to get the bikes and go. A chance is better than no chance at all.
Dee drove right up to the gate. She could see a small enclosure built through the fence with doors at either end. She remembered coming here with Jack when they were first dating.
It was designed so only one door could be opened at any given time, a pest prevention safeguard. Dee jumped out and, grabbing George by the hand, headed for the enclosure. She could hear the howls and screeches getting louder.
Dee looked over at the others. “Hurry!”
Ben raised his rifle up and fired off a few rounds. “Go! Go! Inside.”
Dee didn't hesitate, and pulled George through the first door. Boss, Ben, and Jack followed. She could see sweat dripping off Boss as he watched the nearing mass of Variants. “Boss! Go with Jack, hurry!”
She watched them head to the shed. Refocusing, she raised her borrowed rifle.
Looking through the scope at the Variants, Dee couldn’t help but admire them a little. The Hemorrhage Virus had changed humans. Modified them into something else. Something almost beautiful, in an evil way. Killing machines. Perfect killing machines. The great white shark of the new world order.
Man’s arrogance had finally led to his downfall.
Dee heard engines revving in the background. She fired off a few rounds as the lead monsters slammed into the fence. Dee lost herself in the heat of battle and held her finger down on the trigger, screaming at the beasts.
Ben grabbed her shoulder. “Let it go! There’s too many of them!”
Dee let Ben pull her away from the fence. She climbed onto one of the quad bikes with Jack, little George jammed in between them.
Jack gunned the engine, then tore off up the track leading to the summit. Dee watched, shocked, as the rest of the Variant horde reached the fence, and started to climb after the fleeing human survivors.
Jack worked his way through the gears, willing the Honda 420cc engine to go faster. His nerves were frayed beyond anything he could ever have imagined. Blissfully unaware of the virus for the first couple of days, it hadn’t been until he’d reached the hut and cell phone coverage that the nightmare had begun.
Extinction NZ (Book 1): The Rule of Three Page 9
