by Lahey, Tyler
The female sergeant set her jaw, and her eyes went wide. She affirmed the order with the radio and stepped aside. “Everyone in the truck, now!”
Bennett and the others clambered up beside her, and Adira felt the truck belch gutturally as it started. Her head craned around, looking for the east. There was no sign of dawn.
“Sir, we don’t want to be moved. We actuall-“
The sergeant cut Jaxton off immediately. “I don’t care. Get in.”
Jaxton gritted his teeth in rage and seated himself opposite Adira. A soldier jumped up beside him and slammed the metal door shut.
“Where are you taking us?!” She shouted over the engine.
The fresh-faced soldier picked at one of his many red pimples. “South.”
Their truck exited the neighborhood and entered a convoy of vehicles moving quickly down a two-lane road.
“Don’t worry. We probably should have done this in the first place,” Bennett mumbled to her. She smiled and clutched his hand. “I’m glad you’re with me.”
She looked up, to Jaxton. He looked away immediately.
“What’s going on?” A man in his late 50s leaned over and asked. His portly belly was stretching a short-sleeved polo to the breaking point. Why did he have white tennis shoes on with those slacks?
Adira shook her head. “My phone died.”
Another woman, across the truck, leaned in. She brushed a strand of long hair from her face before whispering with wild eyes. “There’s an infection in New York. The news people are going crazy. They’re saying the Army was already retreating from the New Jersey. The Boston evacuation started last night.”
“What is it?”
“Some sort of virus, transmits through body fluids. They say New York was bombed with fire. Can you imagine?!” The woman slapped her knee and cackled. Adira looked away.
The engine roared as the truck struggled to clear a rise, and they abandoned conversation. Everyone had wild eyes, Adira noticed. Their faces were worrisome and quivering. All save one. Jaxton’s jaw was set and his brow was furrowed in anger. She was glad he was with them.
The trucks peeled around a bend in the road as the trees rushed past them, dark and whispering. There was some sort of industrial strip mall, with loading docks that opened up to a riverbank. In that parking lot, a dozen trucks halted. The metal door clanged open, and Adira could see thousands of white pixels glittering overhead. She jumped as a clap of thunder rolled across the landscape. There were pops and booms that echoed in the night air, though she could not tell from which direction. All the electric lights below were out. The soldiers with their black masks indicated the wooden docks on the riverbank. “Move!”
Adira and her friends joined the mass of civilians, three hundred strong, as they stumbled through the dark towards the waiting river. She could feel Bennett clenching her hand tightly, and she reciprocated. She kept her eyes on Jaxton’s broad back though, and let him shoulder his way through the crowd. His limbs looked tight, like coiled springs ready to explode.
A small platoon of soldiers in combat gear awaited them on the wooden docks, which floated and shifted with the flow of the murky waters. There were nearly two dozen rubber pontoon boats resting in the dock ports, each with a driver and an armed soldier standing vigilant.
“I don’t like this,” Harley said. The other civilians began to board the boats, calmly. Harley didn’t move.
“C’mon Harley, It’ll be ok. We’re going south,” Liam said, still clutching a tissue to his nose. The bear of a man approached her and wrapped an arm around her slender waist. “It’ll be ok.”
Bennett boarded one and reached out to help Adira. Next came Jax and Tessa. Still Harley remained motionless, holding her arms out for balance as the civilians around her were reduced to a dozen.
“No. I don’t like this. I don’t want to get on,” she said emphatically, resisting the form that was urging her along. She shook her head even as Adira noticed the booms growing louder, so they shook her eardrums with their successive thumps.
Liam stopped, and drew closer to her as several soldiers began to look on and approach. “Harley, we don’t have a choice. They’re forcing us to evacuate.”
Harley shook her head as a soldier drew up before her, his gloved hands clutching an M-4 assault rifle fitted with a night-vision scope. “Get in the boat,” he ordered. His voice was muffled by the gas-mask. The other civilians were watching the discussion with manic interest, their eyes wide in the night.
Harley shook her head, and got a little push from behind. “It’s for your own safety, miss. Into the boat now.”
Harley threw her elbow back wildly and accidently caught a soldier in the jaw. He roared and cursed. His mates used their assault rifles to herd Harley closer to the pontoon, and then shoved her aggressively. Liam drew up and cocked a fist. “NO!” Jaxton shouted. “Get in, Liam.”
Liam faced down the two faceless soldiers with trembling lips. He spun on his heel in frustration and lumbered into the pontoon boat.
Adira heard a radio crackle, and a soldier shouted. The boat’s motor kicked and whined, and then they were lapping quietly across the sluggish river, moving deeper into night’s embrace. She could hear the other boats beside them, but it was still too dark to see much of anything. The opposite bank drew closer, blocking out the stars, even as dawn rushed to greet them. By the time they were approaching the other dock, the landscape was glowing with a soft yellow hue. She heard another chorus of artillery.
“Aren’t those coming from this bank?” She asked suddenly.
Bennett narrowed his eyes and focused. “I can’t tell. Jax, can you?”
Jaxton turned around, his brow furrowed. “I can’t either.”
They peered into the morning gloom. The opposite dock was vacant. The water lapped lazily at the rotting wood as Adira scanned the trees beyond.
She had an odd feeling.
The pontoon boats motored quietly to the floating wood, and the groups began to disembark. As the civilians began to gather on the docks, they eyed the tree line warily. The soldiers urged them to pick up the pace. Jaxton steadied himself as their boat rocked against the wooden dock. “Everyone out,” a masked soldier on the dock ordered them.
“Where the fuck is the Thor platoon?” The driver asked harshly.
The soldier on the dock shifted uneasily, “Lt sent em to the highway system ahead, to check on the traffic jams.”
“I don’t want to do this,” Harley whispered again. “I don’t want to do this.”
Liam exited the boat and reached back for Harley, who did not move.
Several of the other pontoon boats were now totally vacant, and the civilians began to mingle on the shore, though there was only a single road that extended to greet the docks from the wall of greenery.
There was a snap of sonic thunder, and a series of quicker pops. Adira froze, and Jaxton turned to look.
“Tommy what the fuck was that?” The driver asked.
Soldiers with gas masks un-strapped their rifles and brought them to bear. The dawn was coming swiftly. Its hungry glow made the water shimmer, and the soldiers were cast in shadow.
Adira looked to the other boats, where the soldiers were beginning to stand and listen for more noises. The crowd of civilians mingling on the docks froze in place, like deer caught in headlights.
There was an explosion of small-arms fire somewhere in the woods ahead of them, and the entire contingent froze in place.
“What was that?” Adira heard a woman shriek.
Adira turned and gripped the driver, though he barely looked at her. The red lollipop fell out of his mouth and he frowned at the forest. “This is the south bank. I’m sure everything…is ok.”
“Get ready to turn this fucking boat around,” Jaxton ordered the soldier, though he wasn’t paying attention. The radio crackled. All the soldiers were transmitting from their hand-helds.
A frantic voice exploded in over the airwaves. “Odin Compa
ny are you at the South docks?”
The commanding officer, standing stiffly on the wooden dock, calmly brought his radio to his thin lips. All eyes were on the tree line, bursting bright green in the prime of spring. “Thor, copy. Odin Company is at the South Docks with another package delivery. What was that small-arms fire? Over.”
The civilians began to crowd around the sergeant, clustering closer to the boats. They shot fearful glances over their shoulders. Liam stepped back into the boat.
The voice exploded through again, in a whiny contrast to the sergeant’s measured drawl. “This is Captain Wilkerson. Get those civilians off those fucking boats right now. They’re on this bank, over, they’re on this bank!”
A flock of tiny birds soared into the air from the forest as another series of pops snapped the cool spring chill. The tree line was dark, ominously dark. The tight-lipped officer unsnapped his holster and raised a single-shot flare gun. A white illumination flare stretched skyward, hurtling up between the coming dawn and the lingering night. In that sterile, white, light the gaps between the trees began to become visible. Adira clutched Jaxton’s arm, and her mouth twitched. “I saw something,” she hissed.
At the same time, the civilians began to hurry back to the boats, stumbling and shouting as they did so. The soldiers looked to their officers for orders.
The radio sounded again, “Get them OFF THE BOATS! WE’RE COMING IN HOT!”
There was a moment of indecision as the civilians looked to the sergeant, who remained motionless on the docks. When it appeared he would not act, they began leaping towards the boats like frantic children.
“WAIT!” He called out. His boots snapped on the old wood and his face was stone. “Offload the cargo!”
No one moved. The river-water lapped lazily at the boats’ rubber sides, and the air seemed crisp and clear. Adira inhaled. It wasn’t clear.
There was gunpowder in the air.
The tree line exploded with motion. Thirty ragged, exhausted soldiers in camouflage came bursting out of the forest simultaneously, up and down the line. Most were missing some part of their equipment. They waved their arms frantically and screamed, their limbs pumped ferociously. A full second later the tree line filled with another wave of figures.
The infected pounded down the hill in a flailing mass, one hundred strong in pursuit. Their tattered clothing and flashing limbs sent a rolling panic across the docks. The civilians screeched in panic, and charged the boats. Adira saw several soldiers struggle to keep their boats clear and empty for the retreating soldiers, while others beckoned the civilians back aboard. The commanding officer and several others formed a firing line to halt the infected. The rifles rocked back against their shoulders, and the snaps filled the air with kinetic fury. Their weapons spat a continuous barrage of hot lead, but the infected did not falter.
Adira saw two children stumble off the wooden planks and tumble into the river. Another burly man with a backwards baseball cap leapt into a pontoon boat and wrestled the soldier on board to the ground. The boat-captain drew his pistol and struck the man on the back of the head with the handle. The burly civilian tumbled into the water, unconscious. Every boat erupted into a struggle for survival as the infected bore down on them, two hundred feet away and closing rapidly.
Jaxton looked to Bennett, and the two men shared burning eyes. Their guard on board brought his rifle to bear and shrieked, “Everyone get off!”
Liam roared in primal desperation, and barreled the camouflaged figure over, sending him shrieking into the murky river. As Adria struggled to reach the end of the boat, she saw fleeing several soldiers trip and falter. Their tired limbs gave out and they tumbled on the dusty riverbank. The infected were on them instantly, their canines flashing red and white. These sick humans were nurses, construction workers, teachers, soldiers, children, parents, and businessmen. They crowded around the fallen soldiers, their mouths covered in scarlet as they feasted. The others blew past them at a full sprint and continued the pursuit with bloodshot eyes and snapping teeth.
Two soldiers turned their empty boat around and gunned it for the opposite bank. Another boat’s engine fired, manned entirely by civilians, and ran headlong into the dock, where it got stuck under the wood. Everywhere she looked, people battled for control of the boats. The civilians and soldiers scrambled and brawled, tumbling and bleeding. The arrival of the fleeing soldiers turned the tide. The returning soldiers barreled through the civilians, sending women and children falling into the water. They ripped old men and women from the boats and took their place, then urged the boat captains to flee with all speed. The soldiers were utterly lost, and Adira shuddered to behold the shame of their desperation.
“We need to get the fuck off this dock!” Jaxton roared.
The boat-captain shook his head. “We can’t leave without them!” He stammered.
Jaxton froze, and stared at the carnage drawing ever closer to them. The soldiers had been driven off the bank entirely, and were spilling back onto the rotting wooden planks. Half the boats had already left, or were preparing to leave. Less than twenty feet away, a pack of infected barreled through the commanding officer’s corps and swarmed a pontoon boat overloaded with civilians. The boat’s motor caught a woman struggling in the murky water and ripped the skin from her jaw and left eye socket.
“Now! Take us back now!” Harley shrieked.
They saw a soldier crane his arm back to fling a grenade when an infected priest slammed into him, sending the live explosive tumbling. It detonated near a screaming mass of overweight civilians, ripping into their soft flesh with hot metal fragments. The poor fools collapsed to the dock, screaming in pain as their detached limbs tumbled into the waters around them. Jaxton looked to the tree line as the illumination flare finally extinguished itself and disappeared. In the final flash of light, he saw another wave at full sprint.
Jaxton made a sudden move for the wheel, shoving the captain aside with brutal force. The soldier’s face turned bright red and he cocked his arm back to deliver a punishing right hand. Before he could unleash it, Bennett caught his shoulder.
Jaxton and Bennett wrestled the boat captain to the boat’s slippery floor, where they took his heavy side-arm. His red face looked about to burst as Jaxton pinned his shoulders down. “Take us back. NOW!” Jaxton roared.
“Get the fuck off me and we’ll go.”
“We don’t need him. Send him over!” Another civilian cried.
“No! No!” the soldier shouted, barely twenty years old with a shaved head and a hint of facial hair. “I’ll take you.”
He manned the controls as Jaxton and Bennett stood beside him, willing him to make a wrong move. As the boat rotated to leave, Adira crawled to the back with Tessa. Before they made it ten feet away from the rotting docks, several infected leapt into the water and attempted to swim for them. Their faces became smaller and smaller as the waters lapped at the sides of the pontoon boat.
In the shimmering light of a spring dawn, the infected smashed into their prey, sending them careening. They fell upon soldiers and civilians still grappling in their own blood. Several boats never made it off the dock, and were swarmed by infected even as their captains tried to turn them around. The infected leapt into the waters and attacked those trying to make for shore. As the two distinct sides became a mindless blur of motion from afar, Adira felt the urge to puke. The air still smelled like gunpowder.
Chapter Ten
2 days after Outbreak. Maryland
Bennett turned away from the stink of vomit. He gripped his hands together and tried to stop the shaking. It was futile. The soldier guiding the boat closer to the northern shore was staring straight ahead, his hands white with tension.
No one wanted to look at each other.
Liam dropped the assault rifle haphazardly and Harley buried her auburn hair into his burly chest. His chest was rising and falling rapidly, in the throes the hyperventilation.
“Was that them? They were so fa
st. I can’t… what will we do?” Adira pleaded, her dark eyes glittering in the morning sun.
Jaxton shook his head. “We need to get out of here, away from people. Nothing has changed. We go to Cold Spring. The valley will protect us.” When he spoke, his voice was hoarse and raw with emotion. “C’mon, c’mon we can make it. We can make it, c’mon,” he muttered to himself. Jaxton picked up the weapon gingerly, and the lone soldier stared at him with unseeing eyes. He stuffed three extra magazines into his jacket gingerly, and stood straight. Jaxton held the weapon unnaturally in his hands, and he felt the eyes of all his friends on him, bloodshot and desperate.
There were soldiers on the docks.
“You there! No one’s answering on the comms, what’s the situation private?!” A burly officer demanded. “We have another load of civvies coming in soon.”
Jaxton stepped off the dock first, and reached back to help Adira out. The boat’s driver sunk onto his chair and stuttered, “it all happened so fast, they were there, on the other side, I mean-“
“The infected? Spit it out! How many were there?”
The officer shoved past Jaxton and Adira and rounded on the driver. “Why didn’t you take the sick into custody? Like the order specified? Why are there civilians on this boat?”
Liam’s eyes burned as he made eye contact with a man equal to his stature. Liam reached back to help Harley, who leaned into him as soon as she stood on the floating wood.
“Stop right there! Private this man has one of our weapons!”
Jaxton halted several feet away from the Lieutenant, his broad back frozen. The Lieutenant’s boots clacked loudly on the wooden planks as he approached.
“What do you think you’re doing?” He stood inches from Jaxton’s face, and there was white spittle collecting at the corners of his mouth. Several dozen soldiers with gas masks and rifles stood on the grassy shore nearby, watching the scene.
“Why do you have a US Army rifle?”
Jaxton said nothing, but his hands balled into little fists at his sides, a reaction not unnoticed by the blustering officer.
