Jeremy’s neck gave a stiff nod.
‘Good. That’s sorted. Go find your weapon – the other men have made you look like a fool, one of them will have it.’
Jeremy stalked away leaving Erin with the Lieutenant.
‘The rest of you,’ he said to the room, ‘go back to your own business, the show’s over.’ Noise from a hundred conversations filled the air as people present turned their attention away from them.
Bourke looked back to her once more and pulled out two seats at a table away from the main crowd and motioned for her to sit with him, a questioning expression now on his face.
‘Did you really knee him in the balls like I heard you say?’ When Erin nodded, he let out a brief laugh. ‘I would have paid money to see that. I guess you didn’t get this far through the plague without having some steel in your spine.’ His expression became stern once more. ‘Do you have his pistol?’
‘No.’
‘Let me rephrase that. Have you had his weapon in your possession at all?’
Erin said nothing, her face blank. Bourke regarded her for a moment, before letting out a sigh. ‘If you do have the weapon, and I don’t really want to know - keep it out of sight. If the ship breaks apart, or Jeremy tries to shut you up permanently - you’ll need it. In return, I want your help. You were friends with the girl that was murdered?’
Erin nodded and relaxed a little, sheathing her knife again inside her pocket.
‘I’m not convinced that her killer was one of the camp’s men, but I can’t prove it as yet. Do you know anything that might be able to help me?’
‘I can tell you who did it.’
‘Is it Jeremy?’
‘Yes.’
‘I knew that dirty bastard was escalating, but I didn’t expect him to kill anyone. I’ll start pulling the levers to get him court marshalled, but in the meantime, I want you to stay safe. Don’t go anywhere by yourself. I’ll try and keep him busy, but I won’t be able to watch him every minute of the day. With the way that ship’s likely to break apart – he’ll be stationed on the beach at pretty much all times.’
Erin was stunned. ‘You actually believe me?’
‘Why wouldn’t I? I’d take the word of a tough kid over that of a bully any day of the week.’
At his words, Erin felt tears of relief threaten, and blinked furiously to keep them at bay. ‘What do you need to charge him? He admitted to me that he did it, but will that be enough, surely it’s just my word against his?’
‘From what I understand, he’s orchestrating a group of easily led cretins. If I can turn one of the others against him, get them to talk to lessen their own punishment, I should be able to corroborate your testimony. All I have to do is threaten the bastards with a transfer to the mainland. Let’s face it, they’ve already proved themselves to be cowards – shouldn’t be too hard to unnerve them.’
Bourke stood up, straightening his uniform. ‘You were smart in seeking a crowd here. See if you can get yourself a bunch of extra shifts in the kitchen to fill the daylight hours. You got any questions for me?’
‘Yeah. What happens when that cruise ship finally dumps its cargo of Infected on our doorstep? Will the navy stay and fight?’
‘We’ll take them on. You have my word on that. How successful we’ll be – well, that’s a whole different matter. If it was my choice, I’d burn that fucking ship to the water before it happens. Just don’t get stuck in that maze of bloody tents. Fall back to the main buildings, find a place to hide and lay low. The Navy can’t afford to lose too many soldiers in a defence, so I wouldn’t put it past them using fairly crude methods to wipe out the main body of Carriers before risking a landing party.’
Erin vainly tried to swallow in a throat suddenly dry. It was down to a waiting game then, whether it was Jeremy, the Infected, or both – she had one hell of a fight on her hands.
Chapter Fourteen
Jai finished setting up the last of a series of mortars, situated twenty metres inside the Fort’s defensive wall. He folded out a bipod leg setup that propped the barrel at a steep angle skywards and secured the bottom to a circular baseplate. In the fight to come, the mortars would lob explosive bombs in an arc over the wall to explode amongst the attacking Carriers, ripping apart limbs and hopefully slowing their approach in the process.
Now finished, he stood up and stretched his aching back while checking out the progress along the Fort’s wall in quiet amazement. Things had moved fast; the army didn’t waste any time when it came to preparation for a fight. A bulldozer had been found less than a stone’s throw from the army base. It had been used to push a mound of soil against the inside of the Fort’s curtain wall, forming a walkway that allowed the soldiers to stand with the top of the bricks at waist height. The surface had been compacted, and a wooden retaining structure built at the base to stop the dirt from sliding out beneath the defenders’ feet.
High points with lines of fire above the wall were all utilised. Behind him stood a tall black lighthouse, used in normal times to guide ships through the narrow entrance of the bay. Encircling the lantern at the apex was a steel walkway, now home to a trio of sharp shooters around the clock.
‘Jai! Stop gawking like an idiot and get your bony arse over here,’ shouted Mark. ‘I’ve got some people to introduce.’
Jai turned at the sound of his name to see Mark with two soldiers he hadn’t met; re-deployed marines by the look of their uniforms.
‘This is the kid I told you about. The little bastard took on a paddock full of Carriers back at the farm. Fixed a broken bit of defensive kit that drew the swarm away from the house – if not for him, we wouldn’t have seen the morning.’
‘It wasn’t just me, Mark,’ said Jai with a furrowed brow. ‘If Penny hadn’t come for me, I wouldn’t be here.’
Mark frowned. ‘Too true. I wish she made it out the other side as well, mate. Jai, I want to introduce you to the Sergeant and Corporal I’ve managed to score for our platoon.’
Jai discreetly looked the two men over, both as different from each other as water and oil.
‘This is Sergeant Vinh Tran, and Corporal Nate Turner. I’ve fought with both of them earlier in this campaign, and their skills are second to none,’ said Mark.
Jai extended his arm, firmly shaking hands with both men. Vinh met his gaze, coal black eyes giving nothing away of his thoughts, whereas Nate was clearly more interested in appraising the changes in the wall than his newest colleague.
‘Have any of you heard what the plans are for the fight?’ asked Jai. ‘Anything fancy or are we just doing a straight defence of the walls?’
‘The strategy’s simple,’ said Mark. ‘Nothing worse than trying to follow some complicated bullshit; always ends up as a bloody mess. The major part of the job will still come down to accurate shooting from the wall, but a key challenge will involve keeping the numbers of attacking Infected manageable. I’ve seen the swarm in town, and although the walls are high, those buggers could crawl over each other and straight over the top if we’re not careful. A series of Improvised Explosives have been buried along the front wall to clear out the piles of bodies if they get too high. Our platoon will have a section of wall facing the road toward town, so we’ll have plenty of action.’
Steph had spotted the group talking and was coming over to join them. Jai saw the Corporal’s expression change as he watched her and glanced to see if Mark had registered Nate’s interest. Mark was oblivious as he pointed out key features of the defensive setup to the group.
As Steph arrived, Nate didn’t bother waiting for an introduction, sticking his hand out, ‘I’m Nate, the new Corporal attached to Mark’s platoon, and this here is Sergeant Vinh. Don’t let his midget size put you off – he’s a tough bastard to kill. What’s your name, Private?’
‘Steph,’ she said, accepting his handshake and nodding a greeting to the Sergeant. Vinh grimaced at his mate’s pitiful joke, one it seemed he’d heard before.
‘So,
what have I missed out on?’ Steph said, turning her attention to Mark and ignoring Nate. Mark flashed her a brief smile of welcome and began to fill her in on the plans as they stood. Jai inwardly smirked as he saw the disappointment plain on Nate’s face at her dismissal.
As Mark finished off describing the key parts they would play in the defence, he looked at his watch. ‘We better get moving with the next job. Our crew has been told to establish an ammunition dump here for access by those on the wall.’
‘How long until the fight kicks off?’ asked Jai.
‘We have until tomorrow evening to complete our preparations, then the following morning will show if the defences are good enough.’
Jai felt the now familiar mixture of excitement and fear squirm in his gut at the thought of the fight to come. But hell, he was in a professional army this time and behind the walls of a fort. With such secure defences, surely it would only be a matter of time until the Infected were culled from the field of battle.
Chapter Fifteen
Erin stood at the window of her demountable, staring out into the storm. The weather had deteriorated once more that morning, slowly building into gale force winds that lashed the temporary camp with heavy drops of rain and howled between the flimsy buildings. Many of the tents had been ripped free of their pegs, canvas walls torn and frayed. Her building had taken in another half dozen children that slept head to toe in the bunks and lined the floor like sardines in a can.
Erin looked toward the beach, and although it was blocked from sight, she still feared what would eventually come from that direction. Word had spread that the cruise liner was not faring well in the storm, continuing to break apart on the rocky headland. A Navy Frigate stood out to sea, waiting to send reinforcements if Carriers managed to reach land from the ship. The whole detachment of navy guards had been redeployed along the beach as a thin line of defence. Although she held no confidence in the guards’ ability to hold back the Infected, it had been some comfort to know that Jeremy’s attention was held by different matters than her. Lieutenant Bourke’s words had also reassured her that at least one adult in the camp had her back. After his veiled advice, she had retrieved the pistol from its hiding place and now carried it everywhere in conjunction with her knife, hiding the lumps of metal in her waistband with heavy winter clothes.
Erin locked the door and wedged a piece of hardwood under its bottom edge to stop it shuddering in the wind. She sat down and began to shimmy into her sleeping bag as quietly as she could to avoid waking the kids. Knowing that she was the eldest in the room, Erin had given up her bed to three little ones and taken a position as sentry behind the front door, sleeping on a thin camping mat. If Jeremy or anything else tried to get in, she was damned if they were going to get past her. Erin was still fully clothed with boots on, and she’d made all the other kids in the room do the same: ready to bolt at a moment’s notice. She checked once more that the pistol was on safe, then placed it next to her head alongside her knife.
Erin rolled onto her back, and looked up at the ceiling, her eyes unfocused as she listened to the violence of the storm outside. Around her, the children had fallen asleep, the sound of their slow breathing lost beneath the howls of wind. It pulled at something within her that they trusted her unquestioningly, believing that she could keep them safe when in reality she couldn’t even guarantee her own safety. Erin closed her eyes and focused on her own breathing, concentrating on the feeling of her belly rise and fall, determined to block out the incessant yapping of anxiety that gnawed at her resolve. Eventually it worked, her thoughts stopped as her body relaxed in sleep.
***
A surge of adrenaline and her mind was instantly awake, heart racing and eyes open. Everything was silent. The storm had blown itself out while she slept, leaving an absence of noise that was more jarring to her senses than the previous onslaught of wind and rain.
There it was again.
A key moved slowly in the door above her head until the latch opened with a muted click. None of the other kids had woken to the sound. Erin pulled her knife free of its sheath and clenched it in her teeth while she unzipped the sleeping bag rapidly. Free of the bag’s confines, she drew her feet under herself to crouch by the entrance, waiting. The top of the door bowed inwards as pressure was applied from outside, but the base remained jammed in place by the wedge Erin had shoved under prior to sleep.
‘Erin – I know you’re in there. Open up, we need to have a little chat,’ said Jeremy, his voice muted by the door.
‘Go away, Jeremy. It’s the middle of the night and there are little kids in here,’ said Erin, managing to keep her voice steady.
‘You think I give a damn if you’ve surrounded yourself with children? That’s your problem, not mine. If you don’t open this door, it won’t just be you that gets hurt!’
Erin looked back at the kids in the room. Most were now awake, looking at her with wide fearful eyes. ‘It’ll be ok,’ she mouthed to them, not really believing her own words.
The door smashed inwards, narrowly missing Erin’s face. Jeremy stood outside the entrance, lowering his foot after his violent kick at the door. His frame was backlit by the waning moon, leaving his face hidden in shadow. A loop of blue nylon rope hung from his right hand, the same type he had used so effectively to snuff out Rachael’s life. A glint of white teeth showed as he grinned menacingly and began to step forward. Erin gripped the handle of the pistol and slipped off the safety mechanism. She was not going to become his next victim.
Suddenly an explosion echoed from the beach, the floor beneath her feet vibrating slightly as her ears were buffeted by the sound. Jeremy stepped back out of the entrance down onto the path and looked in the direction of the noise. Clear of the building’s shadow, Erin could now make out the expression on his face – excitement had been replaced with fear and uncertainty.
A second, then third explosion rocked the night, followed by small arms fire. Finally, the realisation hit home – they were under attack.
Another guard ran past, sprinting for the beach. He hit Jeremy on the shoulder on the way through, ‘Come on! We’re needed at the rally point! Fucking plague’s hit the shore!’ The guard kept going, not waiting to see if he followed.
Jeremy turned back to Erin, anger twisting his features as he looked at her. ‘You’ll be fucking dead by the end of the night anyway,’ he snarled, then ran in the previous guard’s wake.
The silence of a few moments prior was dissolved in a wall of terrified noise as people emerged from their tents and buildings, unsure what to do. Erin took a deep breath and stifled the scream that wanted to burst from her lungs. She looked at the kids and forced a tight smile.
‘Right guys, it’s time to get going. Everyone grab the hand of your friend, just like we talked about yesterday. We’re going to jog over to the main building where we should be safe, ok?’
A few white faces nodded back at her, while silent tears began to roll down the face of a four-year-old boy. In a back corner of her brain, Erin marvelled at the lack of noise in the room, before realising that every kid here had survived the mainland – they already knew that silence and hiding was the only defence their little bodies could muster against the unfeeling violence of the Infected; to cry out loud was to invite a monster’s attention.
She picked up a little boy, propping him on her left hip to leave her dominant hand free. Erin had sheathed her knife but held the pistol openly in her right hand as she ushered the children out of the small building onto the path. Running bodies shoved past her in the darkness.
‘Everyone grab onto the back of the person’s shirt in front of you and don’t let go! If you get separated, make for the main entrance to the big building and I’ll find you there,’ she yelled. ‘Let’s go!’
Erin took off at a slow jog to ensure all the kids could keep up. The boy she carried bumped painfully on her hip and within a hundred metres her arm ached dreadfully at his weight. She gritted her teeth, ignored the pa
in and kept going. The closer she got to the building, the thicker the crowd became. Seeing the young children that she led, most people moved aside to give her access to the front of the line.
Finally, the front doors came into view, and the reason for the crowd’s stagnation became apparent. They were closed and locked, with no-one in sight to open them. Due to the attack, all guards had been pulled from other duties through the camp to assist. Men and women hammered on the glass, screaming for the attention of anyone inside.
The crowd behind Erin was growing as more of the camp descended upon the main building, pushing her and the kids painfully against the locked doors. Gunfire was creeping closer to them through the camp, and between the sharp cracks of rifles, Erin heard a familiar noise that made the hair on her neck rise: the snarls of the Infected. Panic filled the crowd as others recognised the sound and surged forward. Many of the kids screamed in the press as some were stood on. Erin pulled one child off the ground who was about to be trampled.
‘Pick up the little kids!’ she pleaded with the adults around. ‘They’re going to get crushed!’ Her pleas worked, with each kid small enough soon finding themselves hoisted onto shoulders, safe for the next few moments.
An approaching shape caught Erin’s eye inside the building. Someone was coming! It was the older chef who had taken up permanent residency in an office behind the kitchen. The woman ran up the hallway to them and hit an emergency release button unlocking the doors. Erin nearly fell as the doors gave way before her and had to run forward to avoid being knocked to the ground. She moved to the side of the hallway and collected the kids to her again from the adults as they passed. Most people continued onwards, deeper into the building. Soon it was only the chef and her left standing near the entrance.
The snarls and gunfire were closer, but the guards were still out of view. The people that had entered the building were only a portion of those housed by the camp. Others must have decided to lock themselves inside their demountables or scaled the fences to escape. They had made their choice, and there was little more that could be done.
Plague War: Pandemic Page 12
