by SD Tanner
She twisted against his grip. “Let go of me.”
“You need to get out right now,” Ark said steadily.
Without questioning Ark, he immediately climbed to his feet. “Go. Go. Go.”
As they began to back away from the mound, Ark said, “Go faster.”
While he turned and broke into a run, he asked, “Why?”
He never heard Ark’s answer, but the earth replied for him. Drilling its way from beneath their feet, a black creature covered in dirt and sand emerged. Trigger blew its head off with the shotgun before it had a chance to fully escape from its grave. In the dimming light, he could feel and see the hard earth moving around them.
Grabbing Lexie by the arm, he roared, “Run!”
Scattering along the wide path towards the other shooters, they all began to sprint. Hitting the fast release on his pack, he let it fall to the ground behind him. Tuck had Lexie by her other arm, and they both held onto her as they raced down the path. Tracer fire was lighting up around them, and he guessed the two shooters they’d left behind were covering their flight back to the trucks. He had the Desert Eagle and Tuck had an M26. They wouldn’t have time to reload and he shouted, “Conserve your ammo.”
In front of him, a critter was struggling to climb onto its spindly legs out of a hole in the ground, and he took aim with his Desert Eagle. The weapon had a real kick to it, and it wasn’t the sort of gun you fired while running at full speed. He waited until they were almost on top of the creature, and fired a center mass shot. The bullet did its work and blasted its torso in half. The critter folded and they ran over the top of it.
Reaching the location where they’d left the other two shooters, he called, “Go! Go! Go!”
As he ran towards them, they were leaping to their feet to join them in their sprint. Just as one of them was grabbing the sniper rifle, a black critter leapt from a hole in the ground and dragged him down. Before he could raise his gun again, more critters leapt on the man, and he was buried under a frenzy of black movement.
“Keep going!” Trigger shouted from behind him.
He wanted to stop and help the guy, but Trigger was right, and he was most certainly dead. Even in the gloom, he could see more bursts of dirt erupting into the air as critters exploded from the ground. They were screwed. Without enough firepower, there was no way they could fight their way out. It was then he heard the distant sound of machine gun fire and it was coming closer. Ark must have talked to Jenna and sent her forward. He was really starting to like Jenna, the woman was reliable in a crisis.
They’d just run what he guessed was close to a six-minute mile, and his lungs were beginning to burn. He still had a firm grip on Lexie, and without the sandy surface, she was still running strongly.
“Trucks,” he gasped.
Their vehicles came into sight and there was tracer fire in every direction. Now he was worried they might shoot them, and to make a smaller target, he called, “Single file.”
Letting go of Lexie’s arm, he pushed her forward towards the oncoming trucks. It took less than a minute for them to reach their position, and the gunners were keeping up a steady rate of fire. As he ran over to the truck, Jenna’s squad were already pulling Lexie inside. Hitting the side of the truck, a critter launched itself onto the roof, swiping wildly at the gunner who immediately ducked down. Trigger appeared by his side, and grabbing a skinny leg each, they roughly yanked the creature down. While Trigger slammed his boot into the critter’s abdomen, he fired another round into its head. The Desert Eagle bucked in his hand, and the sound reverberated against the side of the truck, but there was no head left.
The gunner had reappeared at his post, and they scrambled into the back of the truck, hearing the doors bang shut. The driver was turning in a wide arc to follow the path to leave. Even over the roar of the laboring engine, he could hear banging on the outside of the truck. Suddenly the gunner dropped inside and said, “Shit! Just go!”
“Man the gun,” he said urgently.
The gunner gave him a look of horror. “I can’t. Some of these fuckers are airborne.”
He looked back at him in shock. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Realizing he didn’t need an answer, he said, “Get us outta here. Top speed.” Lexie was still breathing heavily, and he grabbed her arm. “What do you see?”
“They’re everywhere, in the air, topside and below.”
“We have to get to CaliTech,” he said grimly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: Mankind redefined (Jonesy)
He’d spent the morning looking for transport that he could use to get people out of the city safely. They needed guns and reinforced, reliable vehicles. Jas had suggested they use the fire trucks, but there were less of them, and they weren’t designed to carry people. The Albuquerque police drove Dodge Chargers, and their distinctive black and white sides made them stand out. Cops were issued with Glock 17 or 19s, plus their vehicles should have Tasers or Remington 870 shotguns. If he was really lucky, he might even find a stash of personal weapons including AR-15s.
So far, they’d found two cop cars that were still working, plus they each had two shotguns. He had no idea where the police driving them had gone, but the blood in the passenger and driver’s seat told its own story, so he didn’t bother to think about it. He had thousands of people trapped in buildings surrounded by homicidal maniacs, only that title didn’t suit them anymore. The black, rubbery creatures they’d turned into reminded him of insects and not humans. He and Jas had seen one that had twenty legs and a stumpy body. It had scuttled along, much like a cockroach, and had moved just as quickly. Typical of a cockroach, when cornered, it had the ability to fold in on itself and fit into narrow cracks.
The streets were deserted and he and Jas were driving along a main road. Whenever they stopped, the creatures would slowly emerge from the buildings and alleyways to investigate, and they’d learned it paid to keep moving. Bodies were still piled along the sidewalks and on the roads, and the city had taken on an abandoned look, but it was far from empty.
Jas pulled alongside his car and wound down her passenger window. “Where do we stop?”
It was a good question. This had been his city for thirty years, and he wasn’t ready to abandon it or its people. Jo had told him he needed to step up and he had, but now he didn’t know what to do. They could only fit about eight people in each vehicle, and that assumed they weren’t large. Between them, they had enough capacity to move sixteen people per trip, but he wasn’t sure where to take them. His idea to stay in the city and help people had been noble, but he suspected it was impractical.
“I dunno. We need to get around sixteen people into the vehicles and outta the city.”
“Where are we gonna take them?”
“Anywhere, but here. The city is a death sentence. At least in the country they’ll stand a chance.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“No, I’m not, but I dunno what else to do.”
She was risking her life staying in the city with him, and he guessed she’d signed up to the force for all the right reasons. Like him, she wasn’t prepared to walk away and abandon the very people she’d promised to protect. They were slowly cruising past a row of office buildings, when he noticed a frenzy of rapid movement down a narrow alley.
Slowing to a stop, he waited until Jas pulled alongside again and said, “Keep moving. Drive around the block and meet me back here.”
“What are you doing?”
“There’s something going on down there.”
Peering down the alley, dead bodies were lying limp and in impossible positions against the wall, and there was rapid movement in the shadows. The frantic activity was happening in a corner against a dumpster, but all he could see was a blur of black bodies. They formed an angry swarm over something tucked against the large metal bin, and he wound down his window hoping to get a better view. Whatever they were doing, they weren’t easily distracted, and he pulled his Glock out of its holste
r. Using the window frame to hold his arm steady, he pumped three shots into the vibrating throng. The effect was immediate, and they all raised their heads and looked in his direction.
Expecting them to attack, he held his foot over the accelerator, preparing to slam it down and get the hell out of their way. The alleyway was dim, but several of the creatures broke away from the group, and began scuttling over the corpses. Each had twenty long thin legs, and they stopped and hunched over a dead body. While he watched in disgusted fascination, one buried its small oval head into the gut of the rotting corpse. The body was bloated with bluish lines running along the face and exposed arms, and while the creature ferreted inside, it moved as if it was coming back to life. With a seemingly delighted leap, the creature tipped itself up so its rear was in the air, and it began to twitch rapidly.
It was only then he understood what it was doing. It was feeding. The bodies left to rot on the street were their food. While some of the creatures were slowly advancing towards him, a collection of realizations crashed through his numbed mind. Ever since he’d found his wife, Jenny, in their apartment, he hadn’t been thinking too cohesively. Surviving from one moment to the next, he’d been moving around in a fog, lacking any real plan and surviving on instinct. Watching the creatures feeding, he now knew they wouldn’t kill everyone in the city, and they were intentionally letting some people live. The creatures were demonstrating intelligence. It was as if they had a plan or had done this before. Their once loved city was now a cage, perfectly designed to keep their cattle, and humans were their source of food.
Screwing up his face with contempt and disgust, he opened fire, futilely emptying his rounds into the oncoming creatures. The Glock didn’t have enough power to kill them, and he wished he’d used his shotgun.
Jas’s car pulled alongside him again and she shouted, “Stop it, Jonesy. We can’t deal with them this way.”
“You know what they’re doing.”
“Yeah, I saw enough, but we have to go.”
She was right, and he eased his foot against the accelerator, while he pressed the button to raise his window again. He would have left the area, but a woman ran out of a building to his left. She was clutching a small bundle against her chest and waving at him. He hoped she would make it to the car in time, and pressed the button to lower the rear passenger-side window. Seeing his action, the woman suddenly darted forward and threw the bundle into his car. He expected her to follow, but she was whisked away in a blur of black movement. More people were emerging from the building, pushing and dragging children with them. The doors to his car opened and bodies tumbled inside.
“Drive!”
“Go!”
The sudden jumble of movement inside the car caught him by surprise, and he turned to look at their faces. They were young and old, and every single one of them looked terrified. Unable to think of anything to say, he pushed his foot down onto the accelerator, and the car sluggishly began to move.
Jas’s car was now behind him, and through his rear vision mirror, he could see she too had a car full of people. Some of the people who’d left the building hadn’t made it to their cars, and they were being swarmed by the black creatures. Trying to ignore the scene unfolding behind him, he continued to roll slowly down the road. They couldn’t speed down the crowded street and they didn’t need to either. He’d already learned, as long as they kept moving, the creatures didn’t bother to attack.
Navigating his way along the road, he asked, “Is this everyone in your group?”
“No,” A man replied grimly. “There are hundreds of people left in there.”
“So, why did only you people leave?”
Through tears, a woman in the back of his car replied, “We saw your cars and argued about who would get to go. They let me go because I’m pregnant.”
“Who’s they?”
“The others,” she replied unhappily. “They sent the kids as well.”
He quickly glanced at the man next to him. “Why did they let you go?”
“They didn’t,” the woman replied bitterly.
The man twisted in his seat to face her with a fierce expression. “It’s survival of the fittest now.”
He wanted to boot the man out of the car, but stopping would have been more dangerous than letting him stay. “That was an asshole way to behave.”
The man gave him a twisted smile and pulled a handgun from his jacket pocket. Waving the gun at him, he said, “Drive and I’ll let you know when to get out.”
He clearly thought he could steal their vehicle and leave everyone stranded. After everything he’d seen over the past two days, a man with a gun was the least of his worries. Maybe three days ago he would have been alarmed, but now all he felt was offended. A small part of his mind registered he was more outraged by their situation than the man with the gun. The city he’d protected for thirty years had fallen to cockroaches, and this man was willing to kill even more people just to save his own skin. They’d lost everything overnight to something that he should have been able to crush under his shoe. Without thinking, his right arm shot out, and he punched the man in his scowling face. Not content with the one blow, he continued to hammer his thick fist into his face in sharp aggressive bursts. The man’s head was slamming against the window, bouncing with each blow.
Through the sound of his fist against the man’s face and his painful grunts, he could hear someone laughing behind him. The woman, who only moments earlier had been crying, was now howling with unrestrained delight. Tears were still streaking down her face, only now they were no longer despairing.
In between gasps of giggles, she said, “It’s about time somebody punched that jerk.”
The man seemed dazed by his repeated blows, and his gun had fallen from his hand and into his lap. Snatching up the weapon, he could already tell from its weight that it was empty.
“Actually, it was kinda stupid. I’m lucky his gun was empty.”
A pale hand reached between the two seats. “You’re kidding? He’s been threatening to shoot anyone and everyone.”
“We should kill him,” a young girl said angrily.
“Hush, sweetie,” the pregnant woman replied. “Don’t talk like that.”
He’d lost count of how many kids had been pushed into the back of the car, but they complicated his next steps. He could hardly kick them out at the edge of the city as he’d planned.
They’d reached an open parking lot still filled with cars and he stopped. Leaning across the dazed man, he opened the door and said sternly, “This is your stop.”
When the man didn’t move and continued to look confused, he twisted in his seat and shoved him out of the open door. The man tumbled onto the tarmac, and he leaned across even further to pull the door closed again.
“What happened to him?” Jas asked, once she’d pulled alongside him.
“He pissed me off.”
“Now what?”
“What have you got in your car?”
“Two adults and four kids.”
Doing a quick headcount, he replied, “I’ve got one adult and at least five kids here.”
“We’ll have to take them back to the base.”
Driving along the road leading out of the city, he was surprised when another man flagged them down. Seeing he was going into the city rather than out of it, he stopped the car. The man looked to be in his mid-forties, and he was carrying a military-style backpack.
Stopping near the man, he called, “Turn around. The city isn’t safe.”
The man jogged to his window. “I need to get to University Hospital.”
“Why are you going there?”
“I was there with some kids, but the army got us out and took us to Kirtland Air Force Base.”
“Why’d you leave the base?”
The man looked down the road towards the city. “It’s no safer there than it is in the city. There’s no military at the base, only civilians.”
“Is that why you lef
t?”
“No, I want to use the equipment at the hospital to analyze the…things.”
Since punching out his frustration at the man who’d tried to carjack him, his brain was finally working clearly. “You’ll never survive in the city. Come with us, we’re heading back to the base.”
“There’s no point. People are already turning there as well. Believe me, it’s not safe there.”
“Then where else do you suggest?” Flicking his thumb over his shoulder, he added, “I’ve got five kids and a pregnant woman in here. Jas has more kids in her car.”
The man nodded. “I can see that. I’m a doctor, well, an Oncologist.” He was clearly torn about what to do next, and he peered through the passenger window at the children. Sighing, he seemed to make a decision. “A Colonel brought me to the outskirts of the city. He and some other soldiers are heading to Johnsondale in California.”
“Why are they going to Johnsondale?”
“There’s a secured site there with some tech and weapons they think they can use against these things.”
He was growing worried about being parked for too long and asked impatiently, “I thought you said there was no military.”
“There isn’t. I think the army are running a bit wild, I mean, they’re not doing anything bad, but the soldiers I met seemed to be operating independently. I think their command structure has fallen apart.”
If the base wasn’t safe, then there was no way he was going to dump the kids and pregnant woman there. He didn’t want to leave the city, but there was nothing he could do for it. His wife was effectively dead, his home was gone, and his much-loved city was a hellhole.
Warily watching the area through his windshield, he said, “We’ve gotta keep moving, so you need to make a decision.”
The man didn’t answer, but walked around the front of his car and opened the passenger side door. Dumping his pack in the well, he climbed into the seat. “I’m Dayton.”
“I’m Jonesy. So, where exactly is this safe site in California?”
“They gave me a map. If I found out anything useful, they wanted me to head to a company called CaliTech.” Pulling a folded sheet of paper from his pocket, he added, “You need to head west along the I-40.”
