Nano Z (Book 2): Salvation

by Brad Knight

  The third raider had a spiked wooden baseball bat. He managed to dodge the moving vehicle. Out of immediate danger, he swung and stuck one of the nails embedded in his weapon into the vehicle’s back right tire. All the team members inside heard a loud pop.

  “Shoot that son of a bitch!” yelled Daniels as he turned the wheel sharply while still accelerating. He tried to turn the vehicle around.

  Sparks flew as the rim of the right back wheel scraped against the pavement. Dr. Bawja stuck her rifle threw the chain link and started firing. Freddy hesitated. He’d shot meat puppets before but never a living breathing person. It gave him pause.

  Due to the erratic movements of the SUV and her bad aim, the doctor didn’t hit anyone. It wouldn’t have mattered if she did. Because more raiders started coming out of the buildings on both sides of the street. Fighting clearly wasn’t the answer. They needed to flee.

  “Simon, Stephanie, Karin! Open fire!” ordered Ulysses right before he started shooting.

  Muzzle flashes and bullets flew from every window of the SUV. Though they hit some of the raiders, there were many more who ran through the gunfire and almost reached the team. Daniels managed to turn the vehicle all the way around.

  “Time to leave!” yelled Daniels as he put the SUV in “D”.

  Over the gunfire, and screaming, Dr. Bawja heard helicopters. That was bad. Only Galatea and the military had copters. And the military abandoned Los Angeles a long time ago.

  Dr. Bawja watched as the raiders around the SUV were turned into bloody mists by high powered guns. The helicopters were firing on them. Then through the chain link, she saw a missile flying towards them.

  “Missile!” shrieked the doctor.

  Daniels cut the steering wheel sharply. He meant to dodge the incoming explosive projectile. Neither he nor the SUV was fast enough. Instead of dodging it, he put himself in its way.

  What happened next was mostly a blur to the passengers in the modified vehicle. There was an explosion, and everything inside went upside down, then right side up. That happened several times over. Through smoke and fire, Dr. Bawja watched as her team members tumbled around the inside of the vehicle.

  When all was said and done, the SUV was turned over on its side. In it, the team members struggled to either regain consciousness, or their bearings. All of them moved, except for Daniels.

  ***

  The driver of the SUV was destroyed instantly. Force from the explosion mashed his organs to pulp and tore the flesh off his bone. There was nothing left of him but his hands which still gripped the steering wheel.

  Daniels was the only one who died in the explosion and crash. But everyone else got injured. Some worse than others.

  Freddy tried to open the trunk door. It didn’t seem to want to budge. The crash warped and bent the metal making it harder to operate. So he braced his back against the seat and kicked at the door.

  After a little work, Freddy managed to open the trunk. He shook Dr. Bawja awake. Stephanie, Karin and Simon tried to open their own door. Ulysses groaned.

  From outside, every member of the team heard screeches and helicopter rotors. If they didn’t get out of the wrecked SUV, meat puppets or Galatea would finish them off. None of them had any intention of letting that happen.

  “Hurry. They’re coming. We need to get out of…” Ulysses was interrupted by the passenger side door above him being ripped off. A split second later a pale black veined hand reached in, grabbed him and dragged him out.

  “Ulysses!” shouted Karin. “We need to help him!”

  “We need to get out of here first,” said Simon, before managing to open the door above her.

  As Simon, Stephanie and Karin climbed out, Freddy and Dr. Bawja were already outside on the street. A pack of meat puppets shambled towards them. Almost all of the creatures were in advanced stages of the infection. They were more metal than man. In other words, they were the last thing the team wanted to run into.

  The two trunk dwellers looked around for Ulysses. They didn’t see their leader. But they heard his screams from inside a nearby abandoned nail salon. It was too late to help him.

  “Help them get out. I’ll hold these things off,” said Dr. Bawja as she fired on the advancing meat puppets. Due to the concussion she suffered in the crash, her aim was off. Most of her bullets completely missed. Those that didn’t ricocheted off metal bones. None of her shots had any effect.

  Freddy climbed on top of the turned over SUV and helped his remaining teammates. First he got Simon out. Then came Karin. Then Stephanie. And they got out just in time.

  A swarm of additional meat puppets joined the ones Dr. Bawja was firing at. There was no beating them or even keeping them at bay. The only viable choice was to run.

  Maybe it was her police training or the fact that she was the least injured in the crash, but Karin took the lead. She ran to and over the road block that earlier halted the team’s progress. The rest of the team limped after her.

  Just as the team made their way into what was a hat store before the outbreak, the Galatea helicopter that took out their SUV flew by. It was looking for them. They didn’t know that for sure but they felt like they were being hunted.

  “Stay down. I’m going to see if there’s a back way out,” instructed Karin as she headed towards the rear of the hat store with her sub machine gun raised.

  The team kept low and quiet. They watched as the meat puppets passed by. All of them were thankful that the monsters weren’t particularly smart. In that moment it worked to their favor.

  “Okay, c’mon,” said Karin as she came back to get the rest of them.

  Stephanie, Simon, Dr. Bawja and Freddy followed Karin out the back. They found themselves in some pretty open alleyways. There weren’t any meat puppets in sight.

  “I know you’re all hurting. I am too. But we need to get back to New Babylon. And we need to get back quickly. The others need to be warned that Galatea is in the city.” Karin led the team through the alleys.

  ***

  “This isn’t happening,” muttered Freddy in disbelief.

  The team made it to New Babylon around sunset. They expected to find a safe haven, their home. Most of them had families or friends that were waiting. What they found was destruction.

  New Babylon had been reduced to smoldering rubble. Nothing was left standing. The team was in shock.

  Freddy slowly walked towards the debris. Dr. Bawja tried to stop him but he shrugged her off.

  “There’s no one left, Freddy. There’s nothing here for us.” Dr. Bawja tried to reason with the distraught teenage boy. She failed.

  “My grandmother. She’s in there,” said Freddy as his pace picked up.

  “Freddy! We need to keep moving. They could come back,” Dr. Bawja pleaded. She had no idea what else to do. The doctor couldn’t relate to what he was feeling. His grief wasn’t something she shared.

  For Dr. Bawja, the ruins of New Babylon represented more deaths on her conscience. It was something else to feel guilty about. All of it, the outbreak, the millions of deaths, the fall of human civilization, the destruction of New Babylon, it was her fault. At least that was what she believed. If she hadn’t gone to work for Galatea, none of it would have happened.

  “There’s nothing here for us!” said Dr. Bawja as she hugged Freddy from behind to restrain him.

  Chapter 9

  : The Highway

  “Looks like this is about as far as we go,” said Mack as he turned off the engine of the jeep the marines generously let them take. The soldiers didn’t try to make them stay at their camp. They were good men. Instead they gave the duo a vehicle, water, weapons and a box of rations.

  Part of Mack wondered if he’d made a mistake by not taking Lt. Spence up on his offer for sanctuary at their camp. There they’d have protection, food, water and shelter. But they’d have to put their safety and trust in strangers.

  The other part of Mack’s mind was glad that he didn’t take the kind marine
up on his offer. Sure, they seemed like they were nice. Problem was the last time they trusted anyone and settled down, they both almost died.

  “I’m sure we can find a way around them,” suggested Amber.

  No, there really isn’t. And even if there was, it would take us hours to make our way around them. “We go on foot. First we need to hide the jeep, in case we need it later.”

  Amber looked around. The highway in front of her seemed to be endless. It stretched out to the horizon. And it was stuffed with cars. Los Angelinos tried to get out of the city when the nanite virus hit the city. Evident from the amount of abandoned vehicles, most of them never made it out.

  “Where are we going to hide it?” asked Amber. They were out in the open. Where could they hide a military grade jeep?

  “In plain sight.”

  Amber followed him out of the vehicle. “We’re just going to leave it here?”

  Mack walked over to a nearby minivan. He chose it because its interior was covered in blood. To Amber’s disgust he stuck his hands into the gore.

  With hands covered in stranger’s blood, Mack started making streaks on the jeep exterior. It became clear what he was trying to do. He wanted to disguise their vehicle as just another abandoned car.

  “That should do it,” said Mack as he wiped the strange blood off on his pants. He reached into the driver’s side of the jeep. When he came back out it was with a modified assault rifle. The weapon had several attachments including a night vision scope that would almost certainly come in handy. Amber had the same.

  Guns, food and water wasn’t all the duo got from the marines back in Nevada. They gave them belts with extra ammo, backpacks and even flashlights. Once Amber and Mack put on all their gear, they looked like paramilitary.

  After stuffing their packs with as much food and water as they could carry without slowing them down, they started walking down the car clogged highway. The teen periodically looked up in the air to make sure there weren’t any infected crows like the ones that attacked her back at the Oklahoma and Texas border.

  Mack kept an eye out for human infected. With so many vehicles on the highway, some of their occupants must’ve gotten turned. After all he’d been through, he knew that meat puppets had an uncanny ability to pop up out of nowhere.

  The other thing that both Mack and Amber kept an eye out for was an exit. They knew that their current path was dangerous. Highways offered little to no cover. In the post infection world, being out in the open was too dangerous.

  This is just depressing. Mack led Amber through the maze of abandoned cars. In those forgotten vehicles were remnants of normal families and lives. It reminded him more than the silent cities of what was lost.

  Mack stopped at a minivan. Inside he saw a gruesome scene, even by the lax standards of the new world. Through steamed up windows he saw what looked like a family. Their corpses were a greenish grey. Flies flew above their maggot ridden remains.

  There were what looked like blood splatters on the back window and passenger side of the minivan. The man behind the driver’s seat had a revolver in his hand. It didn’t take a detective to figure out what happened there.

  “Why’d you stop? What are you looking at?” asked Amber as she climbed over a car hood towards him.

  That could’ve been her. That could’ve been Amber. Don’t let her see. “Nothing,” said Mack as he turned his attention form the minivan to helping his young charge down off the hood.

  “Doesn’t look like it was nothing.” Amber tried to sneak a peek inside the minivan. Then they heard the screeches.

  Shit. Mack knelt behind a nearby automobile. He grabbed Amber and brought her down to his level. The screeches multiplied.

  Mack pointed under the car. Amber gave him a look of disbelief. He gave her one back that told her that he insisted. Both of them crawled underneath.

  From beneath the abandoned car, they watched meat puppets pass by. They saw worn sneakers, deathly pale bare feet and even boots. Instead of being scared, all Mack could think was: who wears boots in LA?

  Once they were sure the meat puppets were gone, they climbed out from under the car. They looked down the highway and saw the meat puppets were long gone. Both of them thought it was safe to keep moving. And that’s what they did. Because the afternoon had almost passed. Evening fast approached.

  How long have we been fucking walking? I’m going to enjoy getting on that boat. No dry land under my feet would be nice. Mack and Amber walked. It took them hours. Night fell with them still elevated above the streets of Los Angeles.

  Progress hadn’t picked up much. The abandoned cars were packed so close together that they had to climb over some. Others took to squeezing past to advance. Some, like trucks, were avoided.

  This was a mistake. I should’ve figured the highway would be hard. If we don’t get off it’s only a matter of time before... ah shit.

  Mack spotted red dots of light about half a mile down the highway. They were heading straight towards the duo. He took a look through his night vision scope. There was nothing good about what he saw.

  The meat puppets that came down the highway towards Mack and Amber had advanced infections. They were more metal then organic. Leading the pack was something they hadn’t seen before.

  A hunched over, bloated meat puppet that dragged its feet with pulsating blister like bubbles all over its skin was at the front of the pack. Bodily fluids leaked and dripped out of every orifice. It was a sickening sight.

  “What are we going to do?” asked Amber, clearly worried.

  Good question. “Give me a minute.”

  Mack looked around. They couldn’t hide again because the approaching pack of meat puppets were more evolved then those before. And their numbers were greater. He and Amber would certainly be found.

  With hiding out of question, Mack had to consider fighting. It wasn’t something he wanted to do. But it started to look like they’d have to. Luckily they had the armaments to do it.

  Then Mack saw something that peaked his interest. Just up ahead there was more highway below them. Essentially it was an overpass. If they managed to get down there, they might be able to get away without a fight. The prospect of not wasting ammunition or risking their lives appealed to him.

  How do we get down there without hurting ourselves? Underneath their overpass was a truck with a large storage container. He figured that they could jump down to it without seriously injuring themselves. Was it a risk worth taking? The screeches from the meat puppets answered that question for him.

  “What are we doing?” asked Amber again. Her rifle was up and ready to be used. She thought they were going to have to fight.

  “Follow me,” said Mack as he hurried forward towards the pack. That took Amber by surprise and gave her pause. But she trusted Mack and did what he said.

  Meat puppets had no expressions. If they did, they would have been shocked. Their prey ran straight towards them. It was only a matter of minutes before the pack collided with Amber and Mack.

  Suddenly Mack diverted his path towards the edge of the highway. He slung his assault rifle over his shoulder and held out his hands for Amber to take. His plan was to help her down to a gentle landing on top of the truck below.

  Unnoticed by Mack and Amber, the fat meat puppet started to move fast. It quickly closed in on them, followed by the other creatures. In less than a minute, it would reach the duo.

  Amber slung her weapon over her shoulders and took Mack’s hands. She climbed over the railing meant to keep people and their vehicles on the highway. Still holding on, she was slowly let down onto the storage container attached to the truck below.

  All of Mack’s attention was focused on getting Amber down to the highway below safely. He didn’t notice or care about the fat meat puppet who was just a couple of yards away. The creature lunged at him.

  Mack felt himself get pulled backwards. He had no choice but to let go of Amber. She fell to the storage container hard but unharme
d.

  As soon as she collected herself, Amber unslung her gun and aimed up. She saw Mack get pulled out of view. Unfortunately, meat puppets jumped over the railings of the overpass and landed all round her.

  Mack was thrown away from the railing into the side of a nearby car. Glass shattered upon impact with his back. The blow stunned him. Before he knew it the surprisingly fast fat meat puppet had a hold of him again.

  The pulsating blisters on the obese meat puppet exploded. Clouds of what Mack could only guess were made up of the nanite virus blew into his face. He was immune. Instead of choking on the mini clouds, he took out his knife and stabbed his attacker in its forehead.

  Free from the fat meat puppet’s grip, Mack took out his assault rifle and emptied almost an entire clip into the grotesque monster. While finishing off the creature, metal tendrils flew towards him and wrapped around his leg.

  Amber was outnumbered. So her position on top of the truck storage container was fortuitous. She had the high ground, allowing her to pick off the meat puppets who tried to climb up and get her. But due to their strong, metallic skulls, the creatures took a lot of bullets to fell. If she wasn’t careful, she’d run out.

  Literally swept off his feet, Mack hit the asphalt hard. Then whatever creature the tendrils belonged to started to pull him in. After struggling to find a handhold, he managed to grab onto a tire. He grunted as he felt his leg get pulled out of socket.

  Despite being in a considerable amount of pain, Mack managed to reach his side arm. With one hand holding on to the tire and the other a pistol, he followed the tendrils to an advanced meat puppet’s chest. He aimed his gun and unloaded on it till the creature let him go.

  Free from the tendrils, Mack quickly got up. An acute pain rippled through his body originating in his injured leg. He didn’t have the time or knowledge to pop his limb back into socket. With no time to think he did the only thing he could. The Viking steeled himself, ignored the hurt and limped quickly to the railing.

  In an effort to conserve ammunition, Amber slung her assault rifle back over her shoulder. She took out her pistol and knife. With efficiency usually reserved for experienced, trained killers, she picked off meat puppets that tried to climb up. When possible she used her blade instead of gun.