She heard them down there, growling and pacing. The expanse stretched out under her and it seemed almost impossible that she could make it. The thought that the fall might be far enough to kill her was a little comforting. Better than being chow for the demons…
Her arms ached, already sore and worn out from earlier in the day. Her hands were sweaty and starting to go numb as she held them over her head.
She edged along, carefully sliding her foot along the rail. She paused a moment to wipe her sweaty hand on her soiled jeans and let some blood flow back into it. She repeated the process with the other. The bat swung on its makeshift sling with each shift of her weight.
She had to move so the others could come.
The distance seemed interminable. Occasionally she had to pause to rest and regain feeling in her hands and arms. Her shoulders were beyond sore, and her legs trembled with fatigue. She wasn’t sure if she was better off or worse off than some of the others.
This would be difficult for all of them except perhaps Jared and the soldiers. She had the feeling that it was cake for them, even Bradley with the old woman on his back.
“Paul!” she heard screamed several yards behind her.
She heard a slight swish in the air before the louder ring of a body slamming into the bar. She felt the vibrations through her feet.
“Hold on!” she shouted to the man.
But he was already gone.
“What happened?!” Jared yelled.
They all heard the thump of his body hitting below.
Skittering in the dark.
Snarling.
He started yelling. His screams brought tears to Anna’s eyes. Those monsters were mutilating him and there was absolutely nothing she could do to help.
A middle-aged woman near the back of the line sobbed. “He grabbed his chest and leaned over! His foot slipped!”
“Stewart,” Bradley said.
She heard a loud bang echo around them, and the man's screams stopped. The shot was so close it caused her ears to ring sharply. She clenched her hands tighter around the railing. She would not fall. They couldn’t stay here. They had to keep moving.
“Keep moving! Go!” Bradley shouted, echoing her thoughts.
They shuffled along. A grim line of survivors only thirty feet from death.
Her arms screamed at her to stop and put them down, to rest. She gritted her teeth and kept moving. She promised herself that she would start doing pushups and pullups when she got out of here. Her physical misery even eclipsed her fear of the feral, roving things down below.
After an eternity, she made it to the ladder. An equally difficult, but different challenge.
“Are you alright?” Jared asked.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Almost done,” he reassured.
If only that were true.
She reached from the rungs of the ladder. She would not look up again. She knew what it would look like. A ladder, leading up into darkness, seemingly endless. She slowly and steadily put one foot above the other after making sure she had a secure hold. Her hands were slippery with sweat, and she had to keep wiping them off.
Alejandro held on below her, with his father helping him to climb.
Below her, Juan groaned. “I’ve got a cramp! In my leg. It hurts! ¡Dios mío!”
Anna stopped and looked below her. She saw Alejandro’s frightened face and Juan’s agony. He had one arm wrapped around the ladder, while the other violently squeezed the spasming muscle. She couldn’t imagine the agony of having a leg cramp on the ladder and not being able to work it out. He could fall easily, and he would take out everyone below him.
“Alejandro, climb up to me!” she heard Jared say above her.
“¡Sigue! ¡Ya casi llegamos! ¡Alejandro, agárrate fuerte!” she heard Maria plead.
Alejandro climbed up to her slowly. As he reached her waist, she moved over, precariously perching on the edge, so that he could pass her more easily. She placed herself beneath him in case he fell. She would catch him. She stood and watched as he made it up to Jared, who pulled him in front of him the way Juan had. Alejandro was safe now.
“Juan, is it better?” she called down.
“Sí, it’s going away now.” His sweaty, pale face looked up at her and he nodded her to go on.
She resumed her climb. A moment later, she heard squeal and a clunk and looked up. She saw the stars.
“We’re almost there!” she called down to the others. The menace below was forgotten as the promise of freedom emerged overhead.
She climbed faster and reached the hatch at the top. Jared’s hands gripped her arms and pulled her the rest of the way out. She stood, breathing in the cooler, fresh night air.
“I love you too,” he said and pulled her to his chest. He grasped her chin gently with his hand and pressed a warm kiss on her lips and time seemed to stand still for a moment. She forgot the others. She forgot where they were. She even forgot the threat below. Too soon, he pulled away.
Their first kiss. She would never, ever forget it.
“I’m still going to yell at you later,” he said, and reached down to pull up Juan.
The others made it up to the roof without incident. Juan sat, immediately stretching his aching leg out as much as he could. Maria and the boys were close by, watching him anxiously. When they were all safe, she lay on the flat shingled surface and looked up at the sky. She felt better than she had in hours. She was still exhausted, but she was alive, and she was determined to stay that way.
“Paul…” the woman sobbed. “I think he had a heart attack. He didn’t have his medication. He ran out.”
Violet, the old woman, clutched her and shushed her. The older gentleman patted her on the back. Anna wished there was something they could do for her, but she knew there wasn’t. Nothing was going to make her feel better, except time.
“So, here we are,” she said as Jared came back to sit next to her. “What’s the…what are we going to do next?”
He smiled at her a little. “You learn fast.” He scooted closer and put his arm around her waist. “We’re going to climb down to the next roof, then the next, then the next.”
“What about when we run out of roofs? The lowest level is still about twenty feet up.”
“Don’t worry. We can use the banner to climb down. How are your rope climbing skills?” he asked.
“Rusty. Okay...nonexistent actually."
“Eh, I’ve got a plan.” He sat back on his hands and closed his eyes. He tilted his head up to the sky. “It feels weird being totally safe, knowing those things can’t get at us up here.”
“Jared, about your mom—”
“I’ll keep looking. If she and my sister made it out, then I’ll find them. If not, I’ll deal with that. Right now, I don’t want to think about it. We need to get back home. They could even be there waiting.”
She didn’t want to contradict him. The truth was that she didn’t think they made it out. There was always a chance though. She leaned her head on his shoulder and he leaned his on hers. She was going to rest as much as she could before they had to move again.
“You know what’s weird?” she asked.
“Hmm?”
“We were supposed to have our cheap date later tonight. I was going to go all out too…. filet mignon, a nice Cabernet Sauvignon, Opera tickets,” she ticked off.
“Ah darn, that’s too bad. Sounds like you had it all planned out perfectly,” he said.
“Yes.”
“You can make it up to me sometime. I think I have some beef jerky back home, and maybe some Welch’s. You can play me a tune on the harmonica. It’ll be almost the same.”
“Sounds a little highbrow for me. I’m just a simple country girl,” she said, fluttering her lashes. Her grimy, stinky skin and exhaustion kind of ruined the southern belle effect.
He chuckled and locked their fingers together.
“We need to go gather everyone up. Bradley has some thing
s to say.”
“Do I want to hear them?” she asked and yawned.
“Probably not, but you need to.”
Chapter Seventeen
Speed Bumps
“Gather around everyone. There are some things we need to discuss if we are going to do this correctly with the least amount of risk.” Sergeant Bradley waited until everyone was paying attention.
They navigated the stair-stepped roofs, with each drop only being about six feet from one to the next. They were now at the end of the building, near the fence, and the road was beyond. Jared’s truck was within running distance.
“Sergeant Stewart and I are going to rig up two lengths of rope using the banner hanging from the edge over there. That is good strong material. We’ll have plenty. One rope will be to climb up or down the side of the building. The other will be to raise and lower whoever is in the harness at the time. We’ll tie the harness for each individual and rig you up.” He stopped and looked around to make sure everyone was following.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” the elderly woman said.
“No more dangerous than riding on my back thirty feet above a crowd of cannibalistic maniacs,” he teased.
She smiled. “I suppose that’s true.”
“Sergeant Stewart will climb down and provide security on the ground for those we lower down in the harness. I want a volunteer or two to go down with him.” He looked around expectantly.
“I’ll go,” Jared said.
Bradley nodded. “Anyone else?”
An older gentleman also volunteered. Anna worried about his ability to fight if things went sour.
“I’ll go,” Juan said and raised his hand after a moment of silence.
“I worry about that leg,” Bradley said. “I’d prefer you to rest here. We can’t have you cramping up if we need to run.”
Juan nodded and Anna noticed that he looked relieved, as did Maria. Anna volunteered to go after the older man.
“Okay, we have our volunteers. Now, Jared has a vehicle parked in the front of the building. I suggest that you all ride with us to the armory out on the highway. It’s more remote and you can find vehicles near there if you prefer to leave.”
“I can fit six in the cab. The rest of you will have to ride in the bed. It could get hairy,” Jared warned.
“The men will ride in the back,” Bradley ruled.
If there was a man among them who was too scared to ride in the bed of the truck, they didn’t speak up.
“Now we need to speak about what happens if there’s an accident.”
Everyone perked up at this and looked worried. Anna pulled her ponytail loose while Bradley spoke, and rebraided her messy hair. It would keep it out of her face and hopefully be less of a temptation for any biters.
“I have been rigging up harnesses, rappelling, and climbing in general for twenty years. The chances are very slim that anything will happen. If someone happens to fall, we need to all stay calm. Sergeant Stewart and I both have basic medical certifications from military courses. The important thing is to do your damnedest to land on your feet and roll. We can deal with those injuries. What we cannot deal with is a head injury, okay?”
“What if only half of us are down and those things start to swarm?” the old lady wanted to know.
“Well Violet, we’ll just have to kill the damned things and get the rest of these folks down as quickly as possible.”
Anna nodded. That would leave them in a bad spot though. “Okay, so, the most capable fighters need to go down first?”
“Yes. However, I will need to stay up last to rig up the harness for the last person. Then I’ll climb down,” Bradley answered.
“Okay, she said. “So, when are we going to do this?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” He smiled.
“We don’t know if those things can see in the dark any better than we can. Or hear for that matter. So wouldn’t darkness give us a better shot at making it out without drawing them in?” Jared asked.
“Yes, doing this in the dark would be better, but it would make the climb down a bit more dangerous, and we wouldn’t be able to see the threats as clearly.”
“So, we would be trading one set of problems for another,” Juan commented.
“That’s the Army way,” Stewart said without a hint of irony.
“Well, let’s do it. I’m not getting any less tired or hungry just sitting here,” Anna said.
“Roger that,” Bradley replied.
◆◆◆
It took Stewart and Bradley twenty minutes to make a decent rope from the material, and another fifteen to salvage some climbing carabiners from Stewart’s ruck. The guy had some of the most random, and useful, stuff in there. It must weigh fifty pounds, but he slung it on and off his back like nothing. She wondered if he would climb with it.
Her question was answered a moment later when he lowered it down first with the second rope. He climbed down next, and she was almost amazed at how easy he made it look. Jared went next. He gave her hand a squeeze and lowered himself to his stomach. He gripped the rope and slid off the edge.
She watched, peering over the side carefully. His descent wasn’t quite as graceful as Stewart’s, but he was still obviously accomplishing it easily.
She scanned the parking lot anxiously, wishing they had though to put up a kind of temporary gate up where the other one had collapsed. That would have kept stragglers out. Too late now.
Bradley quickly tied a complicated-looking seat harness for the older gentleman. He had a kind of double loop knot wrapped around a pipe on the roof that he used to lower the man down. The man looked scared, even in the cooler night breeze he was sweating and pale. His hands trembled as he held on to the rope.
“Ready?” Bradley asked.
“As I’ll ever be.”
The man scooted to the edge and slipped off. She heard the scraping of his clothing against the brick wall. She needed to remember to try and use her feet.
“Let me go next,” she said.
“You got it.” Bradley lifted the harness after Stewart sent it back up and he retied it around her legs and hips. She made sure her bat was secure on its sling. It would really suck to drop it and take out someone below.
She scooted to the edge, much like the others had done. The rough edges of the brick scraped against her bandaged stomach, another thing they still needed to take care of. She hoped infection hadn’t begun to set in. There wasn’t anything she could do about it now, so she put her mind on the task at hand. Getting down without dying. Or killing anyone else.
Her feet dangled over the edge and it took a massive amount of willpower to push herself further and trust Bradley. She took a deep breath and pushed herself away from the wall with her knees.
Bradley lowered her slowly, and she had time to get her feet onto the wall. It helped keep her from getting any more banged up than she already was.
After the first few moments, her heart rate slowed, and she was able to focus on other things. She took advantage of her height and looked out over the town. She couldn’t see far because the moon was hidden behind a cover of clouds, but she did see that the parking lot looked empty.
They might actually get out of this thing alive.
She looked down at those waiting below. The men all faced different directions. Stewart was keeping an eye on her. As soon as she reached the ground, he untied her and sent the harness back up for the others.
Violet, Bradley, and the middle-aged woman were still up there. Maria, Juan, and the children would be coming down next. She wished they would hurry.
She unslung her bat and took a spot not too far from Jared. The more people keeping watch, the better.
It only took fifteen minutes for the rest of them to descend. It was a nerve-racking fifteen minutes. They were vulnerable. She felt ambivalent about being on the ground again. They were free, yes, but they were also prey again.
Stewart and Bradley didn’t say anything, they just
scanned the area intently.
“Can we go again?” Violet asked from her place in the middle of the group.
Bradley chuckled and patted her gently on the shoulder. “Tell you what, as soon as this mess is cleared up I’ll get you enlisted, and you can do all kinds of cool stuff.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she said, voice wavering with age.
“We’ll get the truck,” Jared said motioning for her.
“Make it fast. The noise will draw them in,” Bradley warned.
“Yep.”
Jared trotted off through the grass toward the parking lot and she followed. The dew coated her ankles, and she felt every inch of her sore body. She had never had such a physically or mentally strenuous day, even counting the day her mother died.
They reached the pavement and stopped. She looked around, trying to see through the thick darkness for anything stalking them. They decided to leave the headlamps off, preferring to stay hidden.
There were shrubs and trees planted at strategic sections of the lot. Beautification in better days, but now they were just useless obstructions, places they could hide. She kept a steady pace behind Jared, not wanting to leave him exposed to anything creeping. She also didn’t want to be alone in the dark. Negative thoughts raced through her mind. So many things could stop them from leaving still.
What if they truck didn’t start?
What if it was almost out of gas?
What if Jared had lost the keys?
She saw the headlights flash twice. Jared had unlocked the doors. They got in and looked at each other for a second before he turned the key. The engine turned over immediately. She sighed in relief, feeling silly for expecting the worst.
They drove over to the group. Jared completely disregarded the sidewalk and drove right over it and the higher concrete barrier. She was glad they hadn’t brought her car, not only would it not have made it over the barrier, but they wouldn’t have had room for everyone.
Bradley started loading folks up in the back. He sent Maria, the kids, the old lady, and the younger woman to the cab.
The Salvation Plague | Book 1 |The Turning Page 16
