There were obstacles aplenty ahead, among them what looked like several houses that had been torn away by flooding, but we made good headway as forest replaced towns on the riverbanks. A little later than expected, I saw the river split up ahead of us around a larger island, and then another, with an additional canal on the northern side. Noah steered right for the smaller, left fork, where trees grew right up to the waterline. Tentative moans and the sounds of something moving beyond the trees came from that first island we’d just passed, hinting at more habitation between the few houses that I could see.
“Anyone else wanna take point?” I asked Hamilton and his merry men. “The island looks deserted, and I’m not catching anything landside, either.” What must have been the smaller part of the lock, leading toward the canal, was maybe a hundred yards from where Noah let the boat idle to a halt, the whine of the engine turning into a low rumble.
Hamilton gave the order that his boat would land first, with us keeping lookout on the river. Noah let the boat get dragged along by the currents until we were at the very peak of the island once more and I could see across the larger river fork. “Still got movement over there, but not much,” I reported, not sure anyone was listening. Even over the engine noise, I could hear the soldiers tear into the forest underbrush, sure they’d attract any attention there was to attract. Ten minutes later, Richards and his boat landed, and we followed after that. I didn’t need help to drag myself out of the boat and onto the cement blocks that made up the sides of the lock, but thanks to my limitations I was exempt from boat-dragging duty. From up there I could see the other side of the dam—lock, whatever—where a lot of driftwood had piled up, forever shutting down the mechanisms that had before allowed ships to be lowered and raised to accommodate the artificial elevation level of the river.
Aimes and his fire team returned from their brief scouting mission, reporting that this part of the island was indeed deserted—no wonder, since it was only reachable by boat. I would have loved to just sit down and rest now, but wasn’t really surprised when Richards called Nate, Burns, and me to go ahead and scout the northeastern part while Munez, Davis, and Murdock got the western side. Nate let me take point as it made the most sense, seeing as I had the least trouble finding my way through the trees.
The island was maybe two hundred yards wide but over a mile and a half long, all forest except for the middle part where we found what looked like some kind of park and an abandoned restaurant. Ines had warned us that there were some houses on the northern, narrower part but since we didn’t encounter any undead in the southern half—and no remains whatsoever—we returned to where the others had in the meantime finished getting the boats over the lock and back into the river.
“The urban sprawl of Paris starts north of here,” Ines explained to Hamilton just as we got back. “If you decide to rest, this is it. You won’t get another chance.”
Hamilton considered, still scanning the adjacent island on the other side of the lock where a few shamblers had found their way to the artificial barrier. “Two-man watch at the boats, the rest on rotation,” he decided. “Lewis is off the rotation because we’ll need her fresh and perky once we set out again, at oh-six-hundred.”
That order made me frown. It sounded like he’d planned this all along, so why make me think I’d have to pull an all-nighter? My consternation must have been rather obvious as when Nate bumped into me to make me turn around, he whispered, “Because he’s winging it.”
While the others got our late dinner started, I did my best to clean myself up. Rodriguez hadn’t managed to inflict any cuts—only some great blunt-force trauma—but she’d done a stellar job bleeding all over my shoulder and torso, and considering what had happened, I really wanted that shit off. I tried to tell myself that it must have been a fluke but didn’t quite buy it. I didn’t want to bring up the point, though, as there was no sense in that besides drawing even more ire from the others. No one was stupid enough to debate whether killing her had been necessary, but the way Aimes glared in my direction had now reached almost the level of balefulness he usually reserved for Nate. I got it—they’d spent a lot of time together, probably had been friends, not just comrades in arms, but it wasn’t like I’d had a choice.
The fact that Gita also eyed me cautiously was weighing way heavier on my mind. I wondered if I should have tried to clear up whatever that was all about, but decided that with what loomed ahead tomorrow, I could take another day for that conversation. Who knew, maybe we’d both be dead by then and that was one uncomfortable talk I didn’t need to have.
I slept like crap, and not just because the howls in the distance never quite died off. Ines had been right in as far as the shamblers who’d directly been drawn by the noise of the engines had lost interest eventually, but on the northern side of the river in particular there was obviously more going on than we’d encountered this far. Not being able to see them didn’t help, although I was glad that the air here, in the middle of the trees and the river, was clear once more. I knew I should also have been bothered by what we would find down in that lab tomorrow, but my mind refused to dwell on that. First, we’d have to get there, anyway. And then, well. Then I would do what these idiots had dragged me along for—if we were still alive.
It was after getting up and fetching some quickly downed breakfast that Cole ambled over to me, still a little bleary-eyed from having had last watch. His mood was somber but a far shot from Aimes and Wu’s open hostility. When he saw me glaring their way before I focused on him, he allowed himself a small smirk. “Didn’t you spend the entire time griping that everyone was doubting your competence? Well, congratulations—that’s cleared up now. Deal with it.”
It was the kind of backhanded compliment that could have come from Nate, and went down about as smoothly as if it had. I found myself staring after Cole as he walked over to his boat, considering, but we were off before I found a conclusion for myself—had it been a blessing in disguise or a colossal mistake on my part to prove to them that their misconceptions about me had been just that? Time would tell.
Chapter 10
The sun didn’t rise as much as the gloom surrounding us lightened gradually, fog hanging like a thick blanket over the Seine. Any advantage my good low-light vision might have conveyed me was instantly nixed. The undead didn’t care that they couldn’t see us or we them—they still made a racket as soon as they heard us. And hear us they did; just under an hour later of slow weaving around partly submerged obstacles found us nearing our refueling point, and it wasn’t as deserted as I would have liked it to be. I’d expected another island, but Ines steered right at where three larger ships—river cruise ships from the looks of them—had collided around the massive pylons of a bridge. And said bridge spanning the river, slowly emerging from the fog as it was, was teeming with zombies.
We weren’t even in shouting distance yet as the first already lunged over the rails and plunged down into the dark depths of the river, or thumped onto one of the ships, only to spin on and disappear into the water. The first time that happened it made me laugh from how comical it looked—but that laugh had a decidedly hysterical note to it.
“No way that we can avoid that, right?” I asked Noah, sitting next to me. The French scout silently shook his head. “Do we have to syphon the fuel from the cruise ships?”
Again, he negated my guess. “We have portable canisters stored on the blue one, just above the waterline,” he explained. “Just need to grab them.”
That sounded easy enough, but considering that another ten shamblers plunged to their wet death while we spoke, I had a certain feeling this was going to be everything but.
“Why choose this point? Wouldn’t one of the islands—or literally any other spot—be better than this?”
Noah gave a shrug that wasn’t exactly disagreement. “Two of our boats sank right there and the ships were close enough to salvage most of the canisters we’d brought. As long as there’s no flash flood that
tears the wrecks loose, it’s as good a place to store the fuel as any.”
At least his fatalism was admirable.
“Has anyone ever tried to retrieve fuel from your strategic hidey-hole?”
His smile was more of a grimace, really. “Didn’t need to yet.”
So much for that.
“Do we really need the fuel?” I asked more loudly, addressing our asshole-in-charge. “We might need a few more days if we simply float down the river rather than run the engines, but we’re just over the midway point to our deadline. Do we really need to risk this?”
Hamilton didn’t seem pleased that, yet again, I dared think for myself. “In the field, you never pass up a chance to get resources if you can,” he barked back. “And we have to cross under the bridge either way.”
“But there’s a difference between playing Frogger and zapping through, and halting in the very middle of it to try and get fuel from rusting wrecks.”
Even over the screams of the shamblers, Hamilton’s growl was audible, but he chose to ignore me going forward, instead calling out the order of the boats in which to approach the wrecks. Ours was last. He ended with, “And Miller? Shut that bitch of yours up unless you want me to drown her right this fucking second.”
I sent the brightest smile I could manage across the water toward the other boats. “Gee, you should wait another, oh, twenty-four hours with that. So close to your mission objective, would be a shame if you ruined it all right here and now.”
Nate seemed more annoyed than amused, but for the most part ignored us both. “The canister depot is on the right-most wreck, you said?” he asked Noah.
The scout nodded. “You can climb in through that hole in the hull. Impossible to miss once you’ve made the jump.”
I scowled toward the mangled ships. None of them looked exactly stable, and even ignoring the shamblers on the bridge above, it wasn’t an easy maneuver to get close—and that was ignoring how someone vaulting over, and presumably returning, would upset the balance of the boats. Suddenly, I was overly aware of the fact that my grip strength, both to hold on to something or pull someone back onto the boat, was shit. I hesitated for a moment but then looked at our designated driver. “Move over. I’m taking over the wheel.”
Ines looked at me as if I’d grown a second head—or claimed she had. “Do you even know the first thing about steering a boat?”
“Can’t be that different from other vehicles,” I shot back, trying not to appear the least bit worried. “Besides, I’ll be the least useful in retrieving the fuel. Let me free up some resources for that.”
I could feel literally all eyes on me as I traded places with her. I took a moment to glare toward Hamilton before I got my crash course in boating, or whatever you wanted to call it. Meanwhile, our boat got caught by the currents and started drifting downriver, giving me a good many yards to familiarize myself with the controls as I caught up to where the others were still idling. Davis and Munez, also in the same boat with us, looked a little green around their noses from my first attempt at a smooth bank which felt a lot more like a weird swerve.
“What could possibly go wrong?” I murmured to myself as I finally got the hang of it, steadying the boat for good. Someone snorted on the coms, making me glance up at the others. “What? I’m a hell of a good driver.”
Burns didn’t disagree with me, but his mirth had a darker tone than usual to it. “Last time I checked, you wrecked two cars in under four months.”
“The Jeep wasn’t my fault,” I grumbled. “None of us saw how unstable that bridge was. And considering how high I was when I sent the Rover down that collapsing mountainside, I’d say that speaks for me, not against me.” I didn’t miss the handful of smirks that last bit drew, making my ire rear its ugly head. “Raise your hand if you had the guts to do something insane like that? No one? Well, too bad.” Looking at the others in my boat, I did my best to put a lid on my ego, focusing on where Nate and Ines got ready. “I’ll do my best to get you as close as I can. Promise.”
“Never doubted you,” my dear husband enthused, then jerked his head toward where the first boat was starting its approach. “Simply avoid any undead dropping down on us. We’ll take care of the rest.”
I still didn’t like the entire concept of this, but having a little more control now that I was behind the wheel helped somewhat—even though I still wasn’t sure about half the controls of this thing. Oh well. What could possibly go wrong?
Antoine did some impressive swerving around dropping shamblers as he cut underneath one side of the bridge, where he executed a tight turn that made water spray up behind the boat, and several of its inhabitants cling on for dear life—making me doubly glad I’d traded places with Ines. Cole and Russell jumped across, making the maneuver look easy, although the wreck gave an impressive metal groan at their landing. They reappeared within moments, tossing several red canisters across before they returned to the boat. Russell landed perfectly, but Cole miscalculated, making the boat almost capsize as he went too far, only Richards quickly grabbing and pulling him, keeping him out of the water. The combined cursing was audible even over the screams of the still-dropping shamblers. As soon as the boat stopped rocking, Antoine gunned the engine, and with an impressive swerve away from the wrecks brought the boat out into the open of the river, plowing right through two zombies that were still splashing in the water, not having gone under yet.
The second boat set out, Raphael steering it with a lot less aggression and aplomb. He tried a slower approach that got the zombies really agitated, entire clumps of them coming down over the railing of the bridge. They all missed, but while he steadied the boat so Aimes and Wu could get their canisters, several of the shamblers managed to drag themselves over to the boat and wrecks alike, requiring some improvised pest control. I watched with a roiling stomach as Hamilton and Burns stood side by side, throwing shamblers back into the river as soon as their rotting hands could grab the boat. Raphael was much quicker in his retreat, leaving behind some nice waves that rocked our boat as well.
And then, it was my turn.
Looking up where the stream of zombies jonesing for a good ice bath still wasn’t ending wasn’t such a bright idea so I concentrated on how I’d have to maneuver to get the boat to where it needed to be. I almost called for Noah to take over for me, but I knew he was needed to catch the canisters, and maybe Ines and Nate as well. Timing the droppers was impossible as well—so I just went for it.
Speed was of the essence, so I allowed the boat to float back a few yards before I accelerated, making the bow shoot out of the water in a tight turn. Left, right, and then I sent it into a wide, long turn, almost sliding sideways underneath the bridge. Corpses dropped left and right, narrowly missing the boat, yet I ignored them in favor of getting closer to the wrecks, letting the boat drift the last few feet. As soon as the side bumped into the rusty hull, Ines leaped across, Nate following a moment later. He kicked off hard enough to push the boat away, forcing me to micro-steer it back to where it belonged. I felt the currents, irregular and strong where they broke around the wrecks wrestle with my control, making the boat waver and pitch to one side, then the other.
The first canister came soaring out of the wreck, Munez snatching it up more by chance than plan. I concentrated on keeping the boat level instead, my gaze every so often scanning for swimmers. There was a lot of splashing going on to my right side, making me wonder if they’d manage to build up from the river bottom until they could reach the boat from underneath. The current should have been too strong for that—and the Seine too deep—but in my paranoid mind’s eye, I saw ghostly white, rotten hands reach for the rudder—
“Keep the boat steady!” I heard Nate’s call, forcing my mind to snap to attention. As soon as I got it back where it should be, Ines hurled herself back across, landing in Noah’s waiting arms. He steadied her, then got ready for Nate. Our eyes met across the short distance, and I didn’t miss the grin flashing across Nate
’s features as he pushed off—
And landed safely on deck, the boat rocking hard.
I gunned the engine, sending the boat into another turn as it accelerated, heading right for the other two boats—
Until a dropper managed to clip off the left side of the bow.
The boat lurched out of control as the impact tore my hands off the controls, if only for a second, acceleration dropping away to zilch. The howling above us increased immediately, and a new slew of shamblers came down all around us. Grasping blindly, I hit the accelerator, making the boat shoot forward, aiming straight for the stern of one of the wrecks. Cursing, I tightened my hands on the wheel, forcing it into a controlled hard turn—and away from both the bridge and the water.
I may have laughed maniacally—and by the time the boat shot by the others that were idling in the middle of the river, I meant it, adrenaline making me loopy and stupid. Oh, it was a great feeling to be alive!
“You like cutting it close, no?” Noah remarked as he joined me at the controls, still looking a little harassed—and making no attempt to take over once more. Fine with me—sitting around was just making me stir-crazy, anyway.
“Sometimes,” I quipped back, grinning at my admission. “Life’s too short to always play it safe.” It was impossible to tone down the exuberance in my voice, and I didn’t really try.
He kept his opinion to himself, instead conversing with Antoine and Raphael for a bit, then pointed to the left riverbank. “After the next bend, make sure to stay on this side. There are canals, but the next island is several kilometers long, and the lock on this side is easier to traverse. And watch out for the wrecks.”
“Wrecks?”
His smile turned forced. “We’re close to the city now. You’ll see.”
Green Fields Series Box Set | Vol. 3 | Books 7-9 Page 86
