The radio fell silent for a moment, and Shaw briefly wondered if Barnes had received the message. He wasn’t left wondering long, however, as first one then the other injured soldier stopped moving. Barnes had finished them off. Nothing dramatic, no final cries or pleas, just expert marksmanship and a steely determination to get the job done. The radio hissed. “This is Barnes, we’re on our way. Over and out.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Talikha and Sam sat on the wall next to one another. Humphrey and Meg continued sniffing at the air, listening, watching for anything that signalled danger.
“So are both of these yours?” Sam asked.
“No, just this one,” Talikha replied, stroking Humphrey’s head. “Meg’s owner is ... with my husband, back there.”
“Shit! I’m sorry. Look, who knows, they might be okay.”
“You are right. Of course, you are right.” She said the words but neither woman believed them.
“For what it’s worth, I got separated from my family too, so I know how it feels.”
Talikha looked across at her. “It’s funny. I thought I wanted to be alone tonight, but sitting here with you is making me feel a little better.”
“Not me,” Sam said, standing up. “I swear I’m getting piles plonked on that bloody wall.”
Talikha laughed and stood up too. “Actually, now that you mention it.”
They continued their vigil standing, staring down the road into the never-ending night. “Have you thought about tomorrow?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Well, y’know, we’ve got no food. I’m so hungry I could eat a scabby horse. We can’t stay here with nothing to chew on but fresh air.”
Talikha thought for a moment. “We have a number of people among us who can fish and forage. We can go out in groups for safety and collect as much food as we can.”
“You really think you can gather enough oyster mushrooms and berries and catch enough fish to feed five hundred people?”
“We won’t know until we try, will we?”
Sam laughed. “I suppose.”
“What is funny?”
“Sorry … nothing. You remind me of someone, that’s all.”
Talikha shrugged. “I would like to stay here a little while longer. This is where I was told to come.”
“You still think they’re alive.”
“Thinking and hoping are two different things, but I don’t want to give up on hope just yet.”
chapter 30
Blaze, Carlos and Peyton carried on through the woods. They had not seen or heard anything suspicious in the last few minutes, but their senses were still on high alert.
A loud clacking sound tore through the silent darkness. They all turned to the direction it had come from and started firing and running towards it. They continued past where the sound had come from, racing through the trees, eventually bursting through an overgrown fan of bushes and into a small opening. They shone their torch beams around, and as the rays intersected, they realised something was amiss.
“Where the fuck is Peyton?” Blaze said.
“He was right behind me.” Carlos looked towards the direction they had travelled from and then shouted, “Hey! Peyton!”
“Keep your mouth shut, you dumb son of a bitch,” Blaze ordered. There was no reply to Carlos’s call, and the two of them began to retrace their steps, moving much more slowly now, scouring every inch of their surroundings as they walked.
Carlos came to a juddering stop, pointing his torch towards his feet. Blaze pointed the beam of his own flashlight towards him and saw Carlos cross himself. “Santa Madre de Dios.”
Blaze went across and shone his torch down too. Peyton was lying dead, a gruesome mess, his torso full of machete-sized stab wounds.
“What the fuck?” Blaze’s voice tailed off.
They continued to stare down at the defiled corpse of their compatriot until something whooshed through the air. By the time Blaze looked up, it was too late to avoid the peach-sized stone. It smashed into his nose, cracking cartilage in a bloody, gory burst. “Fucking mother fucker,” he yelled, staggering backwards and bringing his hand up to his face.
Carlos began to fire in the direction the stone had emerged from. Chunks of wood splintered from trees, and branches fell as the spray of bullets chopped through them like a giant scythe, but the attacker had fled.
“Where did he go?” Carlos asked.
“I am going to tear this piece of shit a new asshole when we find him,” Blaze said, looking down at his blood-covered hand. “Come on.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Raj jumped to his feet and brought his rifle up as he heard movement in the bushes. He could see very little, but just pointing the rifle somehow made him feel safer.
“Raj, Jenny, it’s Shaw!”
Raj lowered his weapon. “From the gunfire, I am guessing they have found Mike’s trail.”
“Or he’s found theirs,” Shaw replied. “Come with me out to the road, they’re bringing the camper up.”
Jenny climbed to her feet, and the three of them walked back out into the moonlight as the VW and Land Rover came to a halt. George and the others climbed out.
“Do we go in looking for them?” Barney asked.
“While ever they’re still firing, it means Mike’s still alive. It would be really easy to have a friendly fire incident in the woods at night,” Shaw replied.
“So … what? We’re just going to leave him in there by himself?” Wren asked, horrified.
“I don’t like it any more than you do, Wren. But the fact is we could do more harm than good.” Right on cue, more gunfire sounded from deep in the woods.
“That’s bullshit!” Wren said.
“Wren!” George hissed.
“It is, Grandad. If that was any one of us in there, Mike would be after us in a heartbeat.”
George sighed, he couldn’t disagree with her.
“Look! I’ll go in alone,” Shaw said.
“No!” Barney replied. “I’ll go in. Let’s face it, your leg’s not great, and I’m a better shot.”
“Cheers Barney, but please stop before my head gets too big.”
“Come on, you know this is the smart move.”
“Okay, but don’t take any risks.”
Barnes placed his sniper rifle back in the campervan and pulled his Glock 17 out. “Wish me luck,” he said, but before anyone got the chance to say anything, he was sprinting towards the sound of gunfire.
✽ ✽ ✽
“How much ammo have you got left?” Blaze asked.
“This is my last mag,” Carlos replied.
“Son of a bitch! This is what he’s wanting. He’s wanting us to use up all our bullets.”
“Who is this guy? I mean what he did to Peyton; that was some fucked-up shit.”
“Don’t think about that. This is just some pissed-off local yokel who’s handy with a knife. I don’t care who the fuck you are; you get into an argument with a bullet you’re always going to come out the losing end. Now come on, soldier. Let’s put this motherfucker to bed.”
The two men continued in the direction they thought the assassin had gone, but they knew they were on a bug hunt and it was going to be harder than Blaze’s bravado suggested. They went deeper and deeper into the woodland. The vegetation became thicker, and every step they took made the whole expedition seem more hopeless.
“This guy hasn’t shown himself in a while. Maybe we got him and we just didn’t see the body.”
Blaze shone his flashlight in a full circle. Nothing looked out of place, but that didn’t make him feel any easier. “Maybe. Maybe not. I know this is getting us nowhere. Let’s start heading back towards the road, see if we can try to pick up a trail again. I’ve got bupkis here.”
“The road. Yeah, that makes sense.”
They turned and started to head back. “Whoa!” Blaze got his foot tangled up in a root and stumbled.
“Shit! You okay, boss?”
Carlos stood there looking at him then collapsed to his knees, wide-eyed and gasping. “Boss!” He fell face down, on top of his torch.
Blaze scrambled towards his own flashlight and shot the beam around. There was a spreading patch of red on the back of Carlos’s shirt. Not pausing for a second, Blaze started firing. Jesus, this motherfucker had murdered Carlos in front of him … literally. “Oh, you wanna play?” he said, jamming his last magazine in. “Let’s fucking play!” He fired in a wide arc; the bullets decimated the surrounding trees and bushes. When he stopped, he was panting and sweating. He started forward again. If it’s the last thing I ever do, and it may well be, I’m going to gut this bastard.
✽ ✽ ✽
Emma and Lucy each sat in an armchair watching Jules and hoping. They had turned all the lights and lanterns out so as not to attract attention in case any unwanted visitors passed by. Moonlight illuminated the room in a blue-white glow, and, while their friend was unconscious, that was enough.
“What do you think happens from here?” Emma asked.
“Well, let’s pray she wakes up. Then it’s—”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant with Safe Haven. What happens to Safe Haven?”
“I don’t know, sweetie. That’s a problem for another day. I suppose we have a lot of decisions ahead of us.”
“I suppose. Do you think they took out the soldiers at the North Ridge?”
Lucy didn’t answer. She stood up, walked to the window and looked out across the rippling bay. “So much beauty in the world, so much horror.”
“That’s always been the case.”
Lucy let out a long breath. “I suppose, but this place was always more beauty than horror … until today. We’ve had our ups and downs in the past, we’ve had casualties of war, but today we had real evil in town, the kind of evil from history books.”
“Lucy.” It was barely more than a whisper.
Both Lucy and Emma ran to the sofa and knelt down. Emma took Jules’s hand while Lucy touched her soft cheek. “I’m here, sweetie.”
“Em?”
“I’m here too, Jules.”
“How are you feeling?” Lucy asked.
“Like I’ve been shot.”
“Good. That’s how you should be feeling.”
“Where am I?”
“I’ll go get a couple of lanterns,” Emma said, rushing out of the door.
“You’re at our house. We managed to stop the bleeding and give you a blood transfusion. You’ve had antibiotics, and I gave you something for the pain too.”
“It’s not fuckin’ working.”
Lucy smiled. “I can give you some more soon.”
“You gave me Emma’s blood?”
“And Mike’s.”
“Oh fuck! I’m never going to hear the last of that, am I?”
Lucy giggled. “No, you’re probably not. Look, why don’t you just rest and not think about anything but feeling better right now?”
Emma returned with a pair of lanterns, a couple of candles and a bottle of water. She handed the water to Lucy, who angled Jules’s head up enough to give her a few sips.
“Where’s everybody else?”
“They’ll be back soon enough,” Lucy replied.
“Did you find my brothers?”
“Not yet, Jules. You weren’t out that long, but we will.”
“Mike’s not going to let me… I … tired.”
“Just rest.” Lucy stroked her friend’s head until she went back to sleep.
✽ ✽ ✽
Blaze regretted spraying bullets everywhere in anger. Not only had he wasted ammo, but there were so many broken branches and ruffled leaves that there was no hope of picking up a trail. He headed back to where he had left Carlos, to scavenge whatever he could use. There might still be a few rounds left in the magazine, and having a spare torch was never a bad thing.
He reached Carlos’s corpse and went cold. His jaw dropped open as he saw his friend’s face and body slashed and stabbed almost beyond recognition.
“What in God’s name?”
The shotgun blast took out Blaze’s right knee, and he crumpled like a matchstick tower. He wanted to fire back, but the pain coursing through him shattered any possibility of that. Before he had even come to rest on the ground, another shot blew his hand off, rifle and all. He didn’t realise he was screaming, everything seemed like a dream now. He lay on the ground with the torch by his head pointing straight towards his hand and rifle almost as if it was taunting him, laughing at him.
It was only as the blurred figure came out of the darkness that the last vestiges of self-preservation kicked in, and he reached for his sidearm. Another shot boomed, and he brought his arm up to see his other hand had been reduced to muscle, bare bone and bloody gristle. He looked down to see no sign of his gun, and a gory mess where the holster had been.
The figure flicked on his torch and pointed it in Blaze’s face. “Stop screaming!” he ordered, slapping Blaze hard. “You’re losing a lot of blood, and if we don’t act quickly, you’re going to die.”
“Fuck you,” Blaze said, trying to sound tough but, as tears of agony rolled down his face, not pulling it off.
“Your people killed an awful lot of my people, and, unfortunately, as you’re the only one left, you’re going to pay the highest price.” A feeling of calm came over Blaze as the blood flowed out of his body. He would be at rest soon, and then this nightmare would be over. Let this vengeful psychopath have his moment of glory. Nothing mattered now.
“Sure, whatever,” he said. The figure grabbed hold of him and dragged him towards a tree, propping him against it. He could feel his eyes drifting, but he looked down and saw that he was being tied to the tree. “What the hell?” His words were clumsy, his tongue tasted blood, and it felt twice the normal size. The psycho crouched in front of him and pulled something from his rucksack. It looked like a syringe. “What the fuck’s that?”
“Good question. We’re about to find out because I’m quite curious myself. My best friend was injected with just a little bit of this stuff, and he’s not around for me to ask anymore.”
The figure stabbed the syringe into Blaze’s neck and pushed the plunger until it was empty. For a few seconds, Blaze felt nothing; then he realised that he would never experience that warm, inviting eternal rest he craved so much. “What have you done to me?” More tears began to flood down his face, his physical pain forgotten. “What have you done to me?” he screamed. His attacker stepped back, flicked the rucksack back onto his shoulders and pointed the torch directly at Blaze.
“I don’t know how long the infected can live without food, but with no hands, no knees, and no way to untie yourself from that tree, I’m going to be able to find out. I’ll be sure to keep coming back to check on you from time to time.”
“No! No! Nooo!” He was freezing cold, a cold like he’d never experienced before … a fear like he’d never felt before. “Please. No. Kill me!”
“You want mercy? Like all your victims up and down this coast? Like all those people from Kyle? Like my friends? Mercy like that?” He crouched down again. “You can feel it, can’t you? You can feel it taking over you, taking over who you were.” The figure’s eyes reflected the fires of hell as he stared at him. “I am so hoping the answer is that you can live forever in this state. I mean I doubt it, but that would be really poetic, wouldn’t it?”
He was smiling … enjoying every second. What kind of monster was this? Blaze opened his mouth to ask, but nothing came out. This was it. His body was not his own anymore. That dark thing, the freezing cold entity rising up inside, it was taking over. He tried to plead one last time, but it was too late. It was here. The darkness clutched him like a g
iant’s hand, suffocating out the last of who he was and squeezing in the foul, rotting scent of death. No, not death, something more than that … darkness, sadness, anger, hate, evil—hunger.
Mike stood up and took a breath as the creature began to struggle and strain against the rope. “Fucker!” he said and turned around to leave. He looked up, and a small break in the canopy gave him all the information he needed to figure out where the road was. His heart was still beating fast as he walked back through the woods. The adrenaline was shooting through his body. He stopped and shone the torch around. He listened to the sounds of the forest. There were none of Fry’s taunts. Had he gone too far? No. He only wished he could have done the same thing to every last one of the marauders. Beth, Annie, John, Bruiser, David. They were his family, and when anybody hurt his family, there would never be mercy.
Mike froze as he saw a man with a torch and pistol spin around towards him. He remained glued to the spot for a second. “Thanks, Mike. Thank you for getting a little justice at least.”
Mike raised his own torch to see Barnes. He walked over to where he was standing and cast the beam down to the ground. It was the first soldier he had killed … more than killed, butchered. “They had it coming.”
“You get them all?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve got blood on your face.” Mike lifted his T-shirt and wiped his face clean. Barnes could see the look in his eyes. He could see the fire still burning. “Whatever you did, it was the right thing to do. C’mon, let’s go find the others.” Barnes placed a brotherly hand on Mike’s back, and the pair of them headed towards the road.
“I wish I could do it again,” Mike whispered. They continued in silence before reaching familiar looking ground.
“It’s Mike and me,” Barnes shouted as they stepped out from the trees.
Shaw appeared from behind the VW closely followed by the rest of the group. The bodies of the other soldiers still littered the road as a reminder of the day’s events, but that didn’t matter. It was all over.
“Oh man! Are we glad to see you.” Shaw’s limp was barely noticeable as he rushed to meet them. He shouldered his rifle and gave them both bear hugs.
Safe Haven (Book 6): Is This The End of Everything? Page 26
