by Alex Barnett
Emily stumbled, her foot catching on something. She crashed to her knees with a cry, the bundle of supplies spilling from her grasp. Bottles and boxes escaped the hasty wrap of the blanket; their meager supply of pain patches and the skinsynth used for bandaging minor wounds rolled under bushes and bramble with more noise than things that small should be able to make. Lydia heard her swear softly, and start scrabbling to try and pick the things up. She turned to see Emily waving Iris and Jim on ahead.
“Go on, go on, I’m right behind you…just let me get this—”
“Emily, Jesus, just leave it!” Mr. Perry hissed, pulling his wife along.
“But we need it!” Emily protested. She shoved things back into the blanket, crawling on her hands and knees to get at the bottles that had rolled under the thorn bushes.
“Emily, come on!” Iris cried. Ava slowed as well, and started to turn back.
Just behind Emily, a shadow detached itself from the fence, slipping out of the cover of a large scrub bush.
“Emily!” Ava screamed, too late.
The Burnout—a female—was tall and thin, silver-veined skin stretched tightly over its bones. It had been slumped on the ground by the fence, and even now it didn’t rise to its feet. It lunged on all fours, diving for Emily, its inhuman eyes fixed on her prone body.
Grandpa whipped around at Ava’s shout and fired his own rifle almost before he had completed the motion, too late. His shot connected with its shoulder, but it didn’t stop. It fell on Emily like a starving wolf. Lydia had one perfect, endless moment to watch Emily’s face, watch realization set in; then terror. The thing’s skin started to glow brighter, the silver veins pulsing, seeming to move on its arms and legs. Lydia had no idea what was happening, but she knew it was going to be bad. Emily went down under the thing’s weight, collapsing flat against the ground. Too close.
They were too close together, Lydia couldn’t throw the Burnout away without flinging Emily across the ground as well. Her power burned and surged in her chest, but she didn’t know where to direct it and the Burnout was gleaming brighter, the silver light running like a living thing, tendrils of it seeming to reach out, sliding onto Emily’s skin. The liquidity was mesmerizing, almost beautiful, but Lydia’s hackles stood up and dread pooled in her stomach.
“Watch out!” Grandpa raised his weapon and fired again, this time hitting the Burnout full on. The thing toppled off of Emily, blood fountaining black in the moonlight.
At the same time, Emily’s screams changed.
This wasn’t a scream of fear—this was a banshee’s howl, a wail of pain and terror that made Lydia want to run as far and as fast as she could. She stood frozen to the spot, watching as the light pooled on Emily’s arms and shoulders…and started to spread. Everywhere it touched, the thick, silver-blue veins that marked a Burnout spiraled across Emily’s pale skin. Burning. She was Burning, and it couldn’t be. It couldn’t! It took hours; people didn’t Burn this quickly!
“Emily! No, Emily!” Ava screeched, and tried to run forward, only to be stopped by Caleb’s arms going around her waist. He bodily hauled her back, Ava lunging against his hold the whole time.
“She’s gone, she’s gone! There’s nothing you can do!” he grunted, pulling her back to relative safety.
Before Lydia’s horrified eyes, the silver veins spread over Emily’s face, appearing out of thin air. She bucked and kicked as though her skin was being eaten by acid…and then she just stopped. Her muscles went limp, her struggles ceased. The wrenching screams cut off as though someone had flipped a switch. The suddenness of it seemed to blanket the world in eerie silence. Emily lay perfectly still for a heartbeat.
Two.
Three.
Then she wrenched over onto her side with a motion so violent it seemed it should have cracked her bones. The whole group startled backwards, and Lydia couldn’t help shrieking. Emily looked up at them, and the shriek turned into a screen.
Her eyes were solid white.
“Keep moving,” Grandpa barked, raising the gun.
“But—but, no! Mike, no!” Ava wailed. Tears were already pouring down her face, and she sagged in Caleb’s arms now, her knees going out from under her.
“I said keep moving!” Grandpa snarled. The others flinched back, and a stricken look flashed across Grandpa’s face.
Emi—the Burnout…the Burnout—rolled to its knees with shaky, jerking motions.
“Oh God! They’re coming!” Iris Perry burst out, ending the discussion. She raised one shaking hand to point back the way they had come. Lydia followed her line of sight.
Several figures were stumbling out the brush and heading in their direction. The things were little more than pale shapes in the dark, but Lydia could see the glow of their eyes from where she was standing. Half dozen, a dozen, more…the Burnouts flooded through the hole in the fence, now, following them like dogs on the trail. The things picked up speed when they spotted the group.
“Go, now, go!” Grandpa ordered.
Caleb started dragging Ava away, only letting go when she began to take halting, stumbling steps on her own. She reached for Lydia as they passed, and Lydia grabbed onto her best friend’s hand, clutching so hard it had to hurt. The others turned and started running again, as the Burnout lurched to its feet, stumbling forward with increasing speed. Lydia forced herself faster, as though she could outrun what had happened to the woman who had been so sweet to her and Ava, outrun what she knew was going to happen next.
She didn’t look back to see if Grandpa was following until she heard the shot.
Zack stumbled over the rough ground, crashing against Caleb’s back. He’d lost his glasses somewhere, but he was still holding onto his armload of weapons with dogged determination.
“Okay?” Caleb asked, reaching back with one hand to steady him.
“Fine, just go!” Zack answered, readjusting his grip on his brother’s belt. Lydia nearly tripped over a sudden dip in the ground herself, only saved from falling by the anchor of Ava’s hand in hers. She gritted her teeth and pushed herself faster, though her legs—already sore from her earlier sprint—protested. The bushes and weeds tore at her clothes, brittle leaves and thorns catching on her jeans and shirt.
Her head pounded, pain coming in unmerciful waves. Too far…she’d nearly pushed her power too far, and now she was paying for it. It felt like every nerve ending from the base of her skull to the tail of her spine had been scrubbed over with sand paper, and her temples throbbed in time to her rapid-fire pulse. Even so, she slowed down long enough for the others to catch up to her and Ava, letting go of Ava’s hand when the Jim and Iris passed them.
“What are you doing?” Grandpa shouted, skidding to a halt next to them.
In answer, Lydia turned around and threw out her hands, leaning her whole body into it as her power burst forth. She pushed hard, sending a wave against the Burnouts that toppled the frontrunners to the ground, sending others tripping over their bodies.
She stumbled as she let go of the power, crying out and nearly choking on the bile that rose in her throat. She wanted to throw up. Grandpa grabbed her arm, steadied her, throwing a frightened look back at the Burnouts.
“We have to keep moving,” he urged.
She could see the end of the fence line—the looming outline of the closest house to Meadowbrook Court. She forced herself to keep up with Grandpa and Ava. Another few hundred feet and they would be out in front of their barricade. The ground became smoother, less weed-choked, and at last they swung around the corner of the Royces’ fence. The grass gave way to hard pavement and they stumbled out onto the sidewalk in front of the barricade.
And were instantly forced to stop.
“Oh, God,” Ava breathed.
The truck was right where they had left it, parked haphazardly in front of the barricade. It was only a few yards away. It might as well have been a few miles, though. There were at least fifteen Burnouts between them and it. Possibly closer to twenty. The
things were scattered on the street, the largest bunch of them clustered together at the barricade, almost grouped around the truck. For one wild, insane instant it looked like they had been waiting for them. Lydia shook her head, dismissing the thought as soon as it occurred. It didn’t matter how the Burnouts had gotten here…all that mattered was that they were here.
“Shit!” Caleb took a step back and shoved Zack behind him.
“I hate it when you say that,” Zack sighed. “We always have to run when you say that.”
“Lydia?” Caleb asked, turning scared eyes on her.
Lydia’s head swam sickly at the thought of trying to use her powers on that many Burnouts. She was too close to a major backlash. “I-I don’t think I can…Caleb, there’s too many…”
“There’s nowhere to go!” Ava wailed. Grandpa leveled his rifle at the nearest Burnout between them and the truck.
“Put them down,” he barked. “Reed, you’re with me! Iris, help the kid. Jim, Lyddie, you’ve got the rear! Get to that truck, no matter what!”
He charged. Ava reached back to grab Lydia’s hand, squeezing it once, before they followed. Jim fell back, while Iris wound one hand around Zack’s elbow, pulling him to stand with her. Caleb raced forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Grandpa. The roar of guns and blasters sounded again as Caleb and Grandpa fired at the mass of Burnouts heading for them. Lydia divided her attention between the carnage going on in front of her, and the way they had come, watching for the first of the group chasing them.
They moved as a unit, Grandpa and Caleb edging them up to get the barricade on one side of them before plunging forward for the truck. The Burnouts swarmed toward them, more disturbing in their silence than ever. They were predatory in their speed, the sharpness of their movements, but their faces were utterly smooth and serene. As fast as Caleb and Grandpa could put one down, another appeared. The numbers in the street grew thicker, figures appearing from in between the houses. In the center of their group, Iris wrapped one arm around Zack’s shoulders and pulled him close as Jim leveled off a few shots. Moving as they were, he wasn’t nearly as accurate as Grandpa and Caleb, though, and Lydia was afraid he was just going to waste the ammunition.
“Lyds!” Ava’s scream snapped Lydia’s attention back to the rear. Her stomach dropped. Several Burnouts staggered around the corner of the Royces’ fence, lurching out of the brush. With shaking hands, Lydia leveled her blaster at them, taking careful aim at the ones that were moving the fastest.
It was difficult in the dark, with only the moon for light. Her first shots went too wide, and her mouth went dry. They were being flanked from both sides. Ava stepped closer to the barricade, and Lydia followed, trying to keep them in a more or less circular formation with Grandpa and Caleb. In the center of their little group, Jim was trying to help as best he could, firing at Burnouts that were slipping through the wall of shots that Caleb and Grandpa laid down.
“Stay together!” Grandpa roared. “We’re almost there—stay together!”
“Lydia!” Ava sounded as scared as Lydia felt, pressing as close to Zack and Iris as she could.
“We’re gonna make it, Av. We’re going to make it,” Lydia repeated and knew she was lying even as she said it. The truck was just in front of them; they were getting closer with every second.
They weren’t moving fast enough.
The swarm spilling out from behind the fence was growing larger and larger; more eerie, terrifying bodies appearing each second. The street was bathed in the silver glow of the veins that crisscrossed their skin, and the hair on Lydia’s neck stood up. She would Burn if that light touched her. The things were advancing too fast, and she couldn’t hold them off by herself. Jim was helping where he could, but his aim wasn’t good enough…not on the move, and not in the dark. For every Burnout they put down, another three appeared. The noise was drawing more and more of them from the depths of the neighborhood, a crowd almost bigger than the one she and Caleb had led away.
They weren’t going to make it. The knowledge blanketed Lydia’s mind with cold certainty, chilling her down to the marrow. Her pulse kept time with the pounding in her head. They weren’t going to make it, just like Eric hadn’t, and Jill and Andrew hadn’t. Just like Emily hadn’t. The rest of their group was dead and they weren’t going to make it. The Burnouts were coming for them. For Ava and Grandpa; for Caleb and Zack; for Iris and Jim—and for her. The Burnouts were coming for them, and the rest of their group was dead. Jill and Eric and Andrew might already be among the figures stalking them.
She might be able to make one last, desperate stand with her powers, but what then? Even if they managed to cram everyone into the Reeds’ truck, where would they go? They had minimal supplies, no other vehicles. No guarantee of safety even if they escaped Meadowbrook. Leading the swarm of Burnouts away from the barricade was supposed to save them—not buy them a few extra minutes before they met the exact same fate as if she’d done nothing!
The roaring sound in her ears reached a fever pitch. Caleb screamed something, while Grandpa shouted over and over for them to keep their guns up. Ava was making a high, steady keening sound she probably wasn’t even aware of. Iris held onto Zack and her voice rose in desperate prayer. The charge cartridge on her rifle locked after her next shot, her ammunition finally running dry. With a cry, she let the rifle fall from her grasp and pulled out her blaster, determined to make every shot count. Ignoring the pounding in her head, she focused on a trio of Burnouts that was closing the distance between them.
Ava moved alongside the barricade, trying to act as Lydia’s eyes on their side. Too late, Lydia realized that they had forgotten all the Burnouts that were still on the other side of the barricade. An unexpected sound reached Lydia’s ears, audible even over the gunshots and Burnouts. It was a cracking, creaking noise, wood being pushed to its limits.
Lydia’s eyes flew to the barricade, where a section made up of a dining room table and some bookshelves was rocking. Ava was less than three feet away from the section, all her attention on the Burnouts racing toward them. Lydia opened her mouth to scream a warning, but even as she sucked in a breath the barricade exploded outwards. Furniture broke free of the ties and nails holding it together, crashing to the ground. One of the bookshelves fell to the asphalt and broke into pieces. A kitchen chair nearly hit Ava in the head.
Burnouts boiled out of the newly-created hole like angry wasps. A Burnout threw itself through the gap in the barricade and went tumbling to the ground right in front of Ava. It had been a teenage boy, not much older than them. It wore only a pair of ragged sleep pants, and the silvered veins stretched across its entire torso, emitting light that seemed almost white hot. Almost as soon as it hit the ground it was up, lunging at Ava.
Ava shrieked. The thing tackled her around the legs, bringing her to the asphalt with a crash. Her head cracked against the pavement, and she lay stunned as it swarmed over her. Ava. It was going to bite Ava. More Burnouts were following over the barricade, and Grandpa was yelling, terrified and hopeless. Ava was going to Burn.
Everything.
Just.
Stopped.
The gunfire, Grandpa’s shouts, the crashes and scuffling—it all faded until there was nothing but the roar of her blood in Lydia’s ears. The blaster fell from her hands to clatter on the pavement. She didn’t think about it, didn’t stop to consider the possible consequences.
Ava blinked up at the Burnout looming over her, and jolted to life, kicking and struggling against the thing’s weight. The Burnout’s hands dug into her shoulders, pressing her back down on the ground. The silvery light seemed to race across its arms and chest, shifting and coalescing into thick lines that slipped over the thing’s skin, towards Ava. And then it wasn’t.
Lydia screamed out loud and shoved at the Burnout, the power bubbling up out of her in a rage. The Burnout that had pinned Caleb down earlier had been lifted up and heaved backwards. This one was flung up and off Ava. It sailed throug
h the air almost ten feet before crashing to the street, knocking a small cluster of the things to the ground in a tangled heap.
Every cell in Lydia’s body protested. White-hot pain burst behind her eyes. Her vision doubled, then tripled. Bile splashed against the back of her throat, and she thought she might throw up. Never. She had never tried to do anything like this so many times in a row before. It had never been so difficult and painful to use her abilities…she felt like she’d wrenched something loose inside of her. None of that mattered, though, because Ava was scrambling to her feet with a wild yell.
“Ava!” Lydia cried, still firing at the Burnouts closing in on them.
Her friend stumbled back against the barricade, ducking away from hands that reached through the holes appearing in it as more Burnouts surged against it. They had all formed a loose semicircle, with the barricade at their backs, but they weren’t getting any close to the truck. Every time they seemed to be making headway, they were forced back—and more Burnouts kept appearing. What could they do? What could they do?
“Lyds, wait—” Ava called suddenly. She touched something on the side of the barricade, a piece of thick wiring that wound through the slats of a bedframe. “Lydia!” she screamed. “The shield!”
“What?”
“The shield!” Ava turned and scrabbled alongside the barricade, peering through the gaps. “The shield’s still hooked up!”
“That doesn’t help us!” Lydia fired at a Burnout that was about to lunge at Caleb, dropping it. Her stomach clenched when the indicator light on her blaster flashed red—she was running out of charges.
