by Ike Hamill
“Well done,” he said. He began to slip past. She grabbed his arm.
“No. Look,” she said.
Jacob focused on the vehicle until he saw what was giving her pause. There was a shape moving near the driver’s door. The thing was slow and uncoordinated.
“What is it?” Jacob whispered.
“Wyatt,” she said.
Jacob felt icy fear wash through him. He shook it off.
“We go around to the passenger’s side then,” Jacob whispered. “I left all the doors open.”
Harper nodded. In the time he had known her—and grown to love her—Jacob had never seen Harper really afraid of anything. Her voice became soft when she talked about her time up at Coffin Lake, when The Wisdom had attacked her, but she was always strong, even then. As they came out from the protection of the trees and stared across the starlit pavement at Wyatt’s walking corpse, Jacob felt her fear through the hand she kept clamped on his shoulder.
Jacob moved forward with a confidence he didn’t feel.
Without a head to give it eyes and ears, the corpse somehow turned towards them as they approached.
The thing raised its arms and began to stumble towards Jacob and Harper.
Jacob turned his head to whisper to Harper. “Go around and get in while I distract it,” he said.
“I don’t know how to drive that thing,” she said.
Jacob nodded. He barely knew how to drive as well, but he realized that Harper wouldn’t even be able to get it moving.
“You go,” she said. “I’ll distract it. It doesn’t look too fast.”
Jacob nodded. He touched her hand as they split. The thing wasn’t Wyatt—he kept reminding himself of that. It was just a strange manifestation of The Wisdom. It wasn’t a ghost. As he circled, Jacob gave the thing several meters just in case. If the stumbling was a trick, he wanted plenty of time to react.
The corpse kept moving towards Harper as Jacob circled. Harper moved backwards at the same pace that the corpse advanced.
Jacob wasn’t taking any chances. He got around the corpse, but approached the vehicle carefully. He knelt down to look underneath and then spied through the windows to make sure that nothing was waiting inside.
“Hurry,” Harper said. Jacob looked over to see that the corpse had picked up speed. It almost looked like it was falling as it rambled towards her. Harper looked over her shoulder to make sure she didn’t trip over anything as she backed away.
Jacob opened the door and got in the vehicle. It stank of musty mold inside. He bent his body over the seat to verify that he was alone in the cabin and then tried to start the thing up. The engine didn’t respond.
He was stunned. Jacob looked at his hands like it could be their fault. He hit the ignition again—nothing. Jacob put his hands to his face. When he glanced through the windshield, he saw Harper turn to run. The corpse was done stumbling and she was done backing away cautiously. They were both running. As he watched, the corpse’s outstretched hands were getting closer and closer to Harper.
Jacob banged his hands on the dash and hit the ignition a third time. The vehicle came to life.
Jacob exhaled and hit the button to make the thing go. He had to catch his breath and calm down to make it move. When it started rolling, he began to settle down.
Jacob found the lights and caught the running corpse in the beams. He willed the vehicle to move faster. Harper stayed in the middle of the road. With her path lit up by the headlights, she turned and gained speed. He steered carefully and hoped that he could control the vehicle when the time came. It rolled faster.
The corpse found more speed and drew back within arm’s length of Harper. Jacob gripped the wheel tight. His nerves made the vehicle slow. When he took a breath and calmed himself, it sprung forward again. The distance closed.
He tried to think of nothing at all as the front of the vehicle surged forward and contacted the back of Wyatt’s corpse. The instant he saw its shoulders drop, Jacob pushed himself back from the wheel and clenched every muscle. The corpse bumped and knocked below him as he ran it over. For one terrible moment, the engine growled and he saw the vehicle want to overtake Harper too.
She turned back with terror in her eyes.
The tires ground to a halt.
Jacob exhaled.
Harper ran around to the passenger’s door and climbed in. She slammed the door and locked it before she turned and looked through the rear window. In the red taillights, they saw the shape of Wyatt’s corpse on the road behind them. It was trying to push itself back up to its feet.
“Take a left up here,” she said.
Chapter 46
{Distraction}
“ROCKS AREN’T GOING TO work here,” Elijah said. He looked across the cemetery at the turret. “There’s nothing solid enough to hide behind.”
Madelyn looked down at the headstone.
He answered the question before she could ask. “They’ll hold up to a few rounds maybe.
Madelyn looked over her shoulder and then turned. “Scarlett and Wyatt live over there.”
Elijah shrugged. “Scarlett is trapped in the safe harbor and Wyatt’s dead.”
“True,” Madelyn said. She ran towards the house. She was getting better at running. Elijah didn’t catch her until she slowed to climb the steps of the deck. The back windows of the place were boarded up. Working together, they pulled off a couple of planks and jacked up the window. Madelyn went first.
“There we go,” she said. There was no door on the coat closet. That’s where Scarlett and Wyatt kept their tools. She picked up the bow saw and sighted down the blade. Even in the dark, she could see how dull the thing was.
“It will have to do,” she said.
Elijah picked up an axe.
Weighed down by the tools, they didn’t run as fast to get back to the cemetery. Elijah stopped and looked up. He pointed across the open area until Madelyn saw.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I’m guessing it’s another present from The Wisdom,” he said.
They approached slowly. Madelyn shook her head and turned away. At first, it was just a hand. As they watched, the wrist and forearm emerged from the grass. Madelyn looked down the row of headstones. Other corpses were liberating themselves from their graves.
“Great,” she said.
Elijah took the axe into both hands. “Don’t let them slow you down.”
Madelyn nodded. She ran on the path that led between the sections of the graveyard. On both sides, she saw movement as the dead came back to life. Madelyn did her best to ignore the horrifying sight.
She found the edge of the road and glanced to the north. Headlights twinkled in the distance. She put the bow saw to the bark of the tree. It was the only tree tall enough, and she would have only one chance.
Elijah arrived behind her. He shook a clump of rotted skin from the head of the axe.
Madelyn took a second to spit in her hands and rub them together. It was something her grandmother had always done before she chopped down a tree. She said that it warded off blisters.
“Drink this,” Elijah said. He handed her a pouch. Madelyn looked at it and he gave her a nod, urging her on. The liquid was sweet. Madelyn remembered the taste.
“What is it?” she asked.
“It’s an energy drink I make. You’ve had it before.”
“I know,” she said.
Elijah looked at the gun and then up at the tree. “If you miss…” he started.
“I know,” she said. She cursed the dull saw. If they both lived through this night, she promised herself that she would teach the giant woman how to properly maintain her saw.
“We don’t have any cover if you don’t disable the…” Elijah began again.
“I know,” she said, cutting him off a second time. She finished her first cut and angled the saw to cut the wedge. Before she got more than a couple of centimeters, she moved around to the other side of the tree to sight the relief cut.
“It’s just that the tree looks like it wants to fall more…” Elijah started.
“Stop,” she said. “Just shut up.” She finished her wedge and knocked it out of the way. “Trees may look like they’re leaning, but they’re balanced. It will fall where I tell it to fall.” She prayed that she was right as she put the saw to the back side of the trunk.
As it started to creak, Elijah took a few steps back. Madelyn kept pumping the blade. The tree was gaining momentum, but she wanted the thing to drop fast. And it was starting to veer off-target. The branches swayed and jerked. The falling tree picked up more speed. Its velocity or proximity triggered the defense mechanism of the gun and the barrel began to turn. Madelyn kept sawing.
She wanted the impact to be perfect. Elijah had to pull her to the ground as the turret started to fire. The gunfire didn’t last long. One branch knocked the turret over and the trunk of the tree crushed it. Madelyn pushed herself back up. She smiled—the tree wasn’t blocking the road.
The red vehicle rolled up.
“Was that the signal?” Harper asked.
“I suppose it was,” Elijah said. He and Madelyn got to their feet and piled into the back seat. As soon as they shut the door behind themselves, the vehicle began to accelerate.
# # # # #
The alarm sounded. Ryan checked the display and then shut it off.
“We have another breach. Position number thirty-four,” he said.
Niren blinked and counted in his head. “That’s over near the road?”
“Right at the road,” Ryan said. “Take two more guns and set them up on either side. Also, you’ll need this.”
He tossed a little box towards Caleb, who caught it and turned it over in his hand. It had a switch and an indicator.
“Turn it on when you’ve got the new stations enabled. You’ll need it,” Ryan said. “After the new guns come online, I’m going to switch them over to three-sixty assault. I’m tired of losing turrets. We’re going to go on offense for a while.”
“If stragglers are coming in, it might not get them all,” Niren said.
“I’d rather take that chance than to keep having our perimeter breached.”
“What does this do?” Caleb asked, holding up the box.
“Anything within ten meters of that box won’t get targeted,” Ryan said.
Caleb and Niren nodded. They each picked up a crate and hefted them on to their shoulders.
“Move fast,” Ryan said. “Every second counts.”
# # # # #
Caleb and Niren hauled the crates over to position thirty-four. They set them down next to the limbs of the downed tree. Niren looked at the crushed gun. Caleb tapped him on the shoulder and pointed at the cemetery.
“Stragglers?” Caleb asked. They looked at the shapes that were clawing their way from the ground and pulling themselves towards Caleb and Niren.
Niren shook his head. “Whatever those are, they’re not alive. Let’s get these set up.”
They positioned the replacement turrets on either side of the road. Niren had to move to the other side of the tree to ensure that his turret would have a clear view of the surroundings. They set up the devices quickly—they had gained a lot of experience in the task that night.
With both machines online, they came back together in the road. Niren watched the slow figures moving amongst the headstones.
They heard the motor of one of the turrets come to life.
“Oh!” Caleb said. He pulled Ryan’s box from his pocket and hit the button. The light flashed and then turned solid green. Still, the motor on the turret turned. It stopped when the gun was pointed north. Caleb exhaled—at least the gun wasn’t pointing at them.
Still, he jumped when it fired.
Fifty meters away, a limping shape exploded into a cloud of rotting body parts.
The other turret came to life. It pointed towards another slumped figure. With a couple of bullets, the thing collapsed.
“We’re going to run out of ammo,” Caleb said. He looked at all the movement in the cemetery.
“Let’s get back,” Niren said.
Chapter 47
{Invention}
“I’VE DONE WHAT I can,” Amelia said. She sat back on her heels and looked at the device that she had created. The instruments showed that everything was working. The mess of boards and wires created an interference pattern of waves. The only thing she needed was an emitter.
“You think it will work?” Brook asked.
“No,” Amelia said. “We would need substrate, a reflector, and even then…”
She fell silent.
“Even then, what?” Brook asked.
“Even then we would probably create a feedback loop that would blow up Fairbanks. You remember what happened when we tried that in the old lab? Caleb just about lost his mind.” She turned and gave Brook a sad smile.
“He wasn’t as smart as he thought he was,” Brook said. “Don’t you remember the look on his face when his precious square wave couldn’t disable the Hunter?”
“I was busy watching Niren’s face dissolve,” Amelia said.
Brook shook her head.
“What about this thing?” Brook asked. She pointed to the machine mounted on top of the black tripod. Amelia had taken the panel off and poked around, but she had given up on it.
“That’s definitely a weapon, but it would only work on organics. It looks like it would project an array of energy and focus it after a certain distance. There’s not enough room in here to full try it out.”
They heard another scream from outside. They had been consciously ignoring the drama on the other side of the steel door. Penny’s team was fighting, and from the sound of it, they were losing.
Brook jumped when the door began to grind open. She checked through the gap and then moved the barrier aside.
Harper squeezed in. “Open it up. We have the device.”
Brook and Harper moved the cabinet and the door opened fully. Jacob and Madelyn carried the case inside. Elijah backed in after them. He held his knife out. He put it away only once the door was shut again.
“Trouble out there?” Brook asked.
“Just a little confusion over who the bad guys are,” Elijah said.
Amelia wasn’t paying any attention to them. She was focused on getting the plate off the top of David’s device. When she saw what was inside the machine, she nearly lost her balance. Harper caught her arm before she went down.
“I was all wrong,” Amelia said, staring at the contents.
Madelyn looked over her shoulder. The electronic components inside could be described as beautiful. Each individual element was like a tiny work of art, and they were connected with wires and ribbons shaped into curls and waves.
“What does it…” Brook asked. She stifled her question as she looked. “Is that?”
“I think so,” Amelia answered the question that Brook had barely formed.
“You guys want to fill us in?” Madelyn asked.
Amelia ignored her. She reached into the device to run her fingers over the components.
Brook looked up. “This is definitely David’s masterpiece,” she said. “This is the reason he was able to drive that vehicle around with impunity. Did it shut down when you removed it?”
Jacob nodded. “Yeah. The whole vehicle conked out.”
“That’s because this thing was not only the shield—it was the fuel for the vehicle as well. It had to be. Anything outside the range of this thing is not going to operate. If we fired it up right now, the building would probably go dark.”
“Definitely,” Amelia said. She didn’t look up from her inspection.
“I don’t understand,” Elijah said. “What does it do?”
“It would take a week for me to answer that precisely,” Brook said. “But theory aside, it creates a dead zone in the ether. We were looking to starve the Hunters, and this thing does it, but in a localized area.”
“Like the safe harbor?” Jac
ob asked.
“No—not exactly,” Brook said. “The safe harbor has permanent wave impediments for the bands that the Hunters travel through. Imagine a snow fence. The mesh slows the snow down and creates a bare spot downwind. It’s permanent, but it doesn’t disable the Hunters.”
“It just creates a spot where they don’t occur?” Madelyn asked.
“Exactly,” Brook said. “This thing is the opposite. This thing would actually repel them.”
“And it’s going to disable The Wisdom,” Amelia said. She reached up to the bench and pulled down a pouch of tools.
“You hope or you know?” Madelyn asked.
Amelia looked up to Brook. She didn’t answer Madelyn’s question. “We’re going to need to set up on the roof. We’ll need power up there to jumpstart the system, and we’ll need this emitter mounted as high as you can get it. Also, run a cable down to this performer block.”
“How much time?” Brook asked.
“Ten minutes,” Amelia said.
Brook looked up to the others. She started calling orders.
# # # # #
Madelyn and Elijah looked at each other. She raised her eyebrows. He nodded. Brook caught the signal and pulled the file cabinet away from the door. Jacob and Harper had the equipment. Madelyn and Elijah had to clear the way.
Madelyn swept the door open and exited to the hall. She pressed her back against the wall as Elijah took the other side. They waited for a second and then darted for the stairs. Gunfire erupted as they moved. Madelyn kept her head down. After hooking her way around the bannister, she threw the piece of metal. It clubbed the gunman in the head, knocking him back before he could target her. He lost his balance and tumbled down the stairs.
Elijah caught him and tossed him through the door of the building, out into the night.
Madelyn flew up the stairs and grabbed the rifle that the man had dropped.
A door to one of the apartments cracked open. Madelyn shot before the person behind the door could draw aim. Her bullet hit the top of the door, punching through the metal. It wasn’t meant to kill—just to warn the person back. Her shot worked.
