by Dirk Patton
Igor reached inside his coat then held up one of the gold coins.
“More than the old rust bucket is worth. This will buy a lot of vodka.”
12
“Maybe he lied,” Natalie said.
Lucas had pulled the Rover to the crest of a low hill and they were outside as he surveyed the surrounding terrain with a night vision scope that had come from the safe house. After nearly two hours of searching, they had failed to find any sign of Rachel.
“Maybe, but I don’t think so,” Lucas answered as he started another slow circle.
“Well then, why can’t you see her with that thing? She couldn’t have gone that far.”
“You’d be surprised how much ground someone can cover if they’re frightened. And as far as ‘this thing’, it only lets me see so far.”
Finishing the circuit, he lowered the scope and sighed in frustration. Checking on Dog, he hoped his keen nose would detect Rachel, but he remained alert but calm. All that confirmed is that she wasn’t to their west, the direction the wind was coming from.
“Then what do we do? How are we going to find her?” Natalie asked.
“Going to keep looking. Unless she was recaptured after escaping, she’s got to be out here somewhere.”
He turned to look at the battered Rover. Walking to the back, he crawled inside and released the latches that held the rear portion of the roof in place. With Natalie’s help, it was lifted off and placed on the ground.
“Why are we doing this?” she asked.
“You’re going to drive and I’m going to stand in the back. I’ll have a few more feet of elevation and maybe we’ll get lucky. Just keep your speed down so you’ve got time to avoid rocks and holes.”
“Should I mention I’m a terrible driver?”
Lucas grinned as he waved Dog into the vehicle and climbed into the back, standing with his upper body above the roofline of the Rover.
“Can’t be as bad as my missus and I’m still here,” he said.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Natalie got behind the wheel, started the engine and looked over her shoulder before starting them moving. “Which way?”
“South. Wind’s from the west and Dog didn’t scent her.”
She sat there for a moment, slowly looking around at the dark terrain.
“That way,” Lucas said, pointing when he recognized she had no idea which direction was south.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, turning the wheel and easing the Rover down the side of the hill.
She drove slowly, which was exactly what Lucas wanted. The last thing they needed was to hit an unseen obstacle and disable their only form of transportation.
After nearly forty-five minutes of creeping along barely faster than idle speed, he called a halt and asked Natalie for the odometer reading.
“Almost twelve K from the airstrip,” he said when she provided the numbers. “Long way to go at night without a destination.”
“I wouldn’t go this far,” Natalie said quietly.
Lucas nodded, then reminded himself that Rachel had been fighting and running from the infected for a long time. She’d almost certainly learned that putting as much distance between herself and a threat, as quickly as possible, was the best way to improve one’s odds of survival.
“Okay, three more K, just in case, then we’re turning around.”
Natalie nodded and got them moving.
“What about that road we crossed?” she asked as she drove. “Why didn’t we check it. She might have started walking on it.”
“Maybe,” Lucas conceded, “but she’s carrying that Russian’s rifle and I think she’ll feel safer out… hold on…”
Natalie brought the Rover to a stop and looked up to see Lucas peering intently into the darkness to the right, the east.
“What do you see?” she asked after several long moments of silence.
“Saw movement at the very limit of the scope’s range. Could have been anything, but it’s the first sign of life I’ve seen. Let’s go check it out.”
He extended his arm in the direction he wanted her to drive and Natalie swung onto the new course.
“Fuck me,” Lucas growled a minute later.
“What’s wrong?”
“Infected. Five females, and they’ve spotted us. They’re coming fast.”
“Infected?” Natalie asked, her voice less than steady. “You mean like was on the telly from America?”
“Exactly,” Lucas said, clicking the night vision scope onto his rifle and pulling it up to his shoulder. “Stop.”
When the Rover stopped moving, Lucas waited a few long seconds then began firing. The suppressed rifle was quiet and he was able to put all of the females down at a safe distance without alerting the entire countryside to their presence.
As the last one fell, he swept the area to their front before lowering the weapon and glancing at Natalie. She looked on the verge of panic.
“You just killed them?”
“Them or us,” he said gently. “Forget those bleedin’ idiots that were goin’ around blathering about making peace with the infected. Ain’t fuckin’ happening. Makes about as much sense as trying to befriend a shark.”
Natalie stared at him for a moment, shivering despite the warmth of the night.
“What now?” she asked after a pause to compose herself. “What if Rachel met up with them and… well…”
“Doubt it. She survived from the very start in America. No way she’s going to wind up being taken down by only five of them, especially with a rifle in her hands. We just haven’t found her yet.”
Natalie considered that for a beat before nodding. She wasn’t agreeing with Lucas as she knew nothing about Rachel, but acknowledging that she accepted he was probably right.
“So, where next?”
Lucas hesitated, then made his decision.
“Back toward the airbase. Maybe I can find something that’s still able to fly. Starting to think we aren’t going to find her from the ground.”
Natalie slowly accelerated, adjusting to the direction Lucas pointed out for her.
Five hundred yards to their east, hidden amongst a thick stand of bushes, Rachel watched as the vehicle slowly returned to the north. She’d been keeping an eye on it and the females for some time, hiding from both. Without magnified optics, which the rifle she’d taken off the Russian didn’t have, she had no idea it was her rescue party that was slowly driving over the horizon. As it disappeared into the night, she stood and ran the opposite direction.
She had no idea where she was. But, she’d seen the direction the females had approached from. There had to be some sort of civilization that way. A group of women wouldn’t have just been wandering around in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully, she’d find a vehicle, and at that point was confident she’d be able to make her way to Lucas’s compound.
She was nearly out of her mind with worry over John, but knew all too well that he could take care of himself. First, she had to reach safety. Once that happened, she could figure out how to find him.
13
The screams of the females that were searching for the girl quickly drew in additional infected. At first, I didn’t know they were coming, unable to hear their answering cries and fast footfalls over the raging storm. But as they kept pouring into the area, it was impossible to not be aware of their presence. Huddling in the bushes with the young girl, we were afforded an occasional glimpse of them as the wind whipped leaves and branches aside.
As I was watching a pair of females not more than forty feet away from our hiding place, the girl slid across the muddy ground until she was next to me. I guess she’d decided that I wasn’t a danger, or at least a lesser threat than the roaming infected. Sparing a glance to the side, I understood the real reason. She was using me to gain some shelter from the storm. I couldn’t help but grin.
“What do they want?” she mumbled right next to my ear.
“Us,” I said. “We stay quiet and
still, maybe they’ll move on. If I have to fight, stay close.”
My words may have provided her with a degree of comfort, but they sure as hell didn’t help me. I knew very well that when the infected think they have prey cornered, they don’t give up unless something else comes along to distract them. But there wasn’t any point in burdening her with that knowledge.
Shifting slightly to the side, I peered across the broad lawn at Barinov’s building. A few lights were on, powered by the generator, dimly visible through the driving rain. And there were also far too many females to make a break for the safety behind the sturdy doors. We’d be run to ground in a matter of seconds.
Maybe, if I’d had a few soldiers with me, we might have been able to make it. Maybe. But there was no way in hell I could get both the girl and myself inside.
I looked to the side when she grabbed my left arm. Movement in the bushes that I’d failed to see because of being blind on that side of my body. I watched intently, catching a glimpse of a female pushing through the foliage. It was only dumb luck that had prevented her from coming in directly behind us, but I’m not one to trust in getting lucky twice. Things had just gone from bad to worse.
Signaling the girl to remain in place and silent, I squirmed through the mud, circling around her and placing myself closer to the female. A quick check of the area around us confirmed that, at least so far, this was the only one in the planter bed.
Drawing the Russian knife I’d acquired from the armory, I balanced on the balls of my feet with my ass resting on my heels. I’d be able to uncoil in one smooth motion, but hoped I wouldn’t have to. There was no doubt I could kill the female, but the risk of her making a noise that would attract the others was too great. Unless she gave me no option other than to attack.
I strained to track her. The near constant lightning had played hell with the Russian night vision goggles, rendering them useless. Every time there was a flash of light, the auto-dimming feature would activate, shutting down the optics. By the time the electronics realized darkness had returned and began restoring, the fucking lightning would flash again. As a result, they were worthless in a thunderstorm.
The wind was gusting harder, the rain now coming in horizontal sheets. Behind me, a tree branch gave way with a loud crack and I cursed under my breath when the female stopped and looked directly at me. I was low to the ground, drenched and covered with mud, so she didn’t see me. For a moment, I thought she’d continue on her way, but an even louder snap sounded, drawing her forward.
Well, if that’s what it was going to be, this bitch needed to go down without a sound. I wasn’t about to take my attention off her as she pushed through a low growing palm, but could hear the screams of at least three females less than a dozen yards to my left. If I didn’t do this with absolutely no fanfare…
The infected cleared the palm and stopped, slowly turning her head as she scanned the deep darkness where the girl and I were hidden. She was less than ten feet directly in front of my position, which was still a little too far. I needed her close so she didn’t have an opportunity to sound a warning to her sisters.
One step forward, then she stopped again. Why the hell was she being so cautious? She obviously hadn’t seen me and I didn’t think there was a chance in hell she could have smelled either of us in the midst of the storm. But that didn’t change the fact that she was being extraordinarily careful.
Finally, another step. Five feet. Close enough to guarantee a kill, but still far enough that I couldn’t ensure it would be instant. And silent.
‘C’mon, bitch!’ I screamed in my head.
My legs were starting to cramp. I could handle the discomfort, that wasn’t what worried me. It was the necessity of swift movement that could be hampered by protesting muscles that was of concern. And with the female so close, I wasn’t about to shift even a fraction of an inch to relieve the stress.
After an interminable wait, she stepped forward again. About damn time! With the knife in front, I drove up and forward, the blade leading the way. The infected immediately reacted, far faster than any human could have, but I was too close and there was no way she could stop or deflect my momentum.
The knife came up along the centerline of her body, the tip penetrating the soft flesh where her chin met her throat. With all the force of my strike behind it, the blade sank to the hilt in her skull, instantly snuffing out the light in her eyes.
Following through, I wrapped her up like I was hugging a lover to prevent the corpse from flopping to the ground and making noise. Slowly, I lowered her body into the mud and rolled it beneath the spreading branches of a bush. Wiping the blade clean of blood on her wet clothing, I moved back to where the girl was huddled in the darkness.
“Are you here to take me to Baralku?” she asked when I was next to her.
I was taken aback. That was the mystical island of the dead the Aborigine in the hospital had thought I was from. What the hell? I tried to get a better look at the girl, but could only see a slight, dark outline. Was she one of Australia’s native people or was the whole fucking country unhinged?
“You see my soul?” I mumbled as I scanned for more infected.
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m not what you think I am,” I said. “And right now, we need to move before another infected comes in here and stumbles across us.”
“There,” she said, pointing in the opposite direction of Barinov’s building.
“What’s there?” I asked, then held my hand up for quiet when a female screamed from twenty feet away.
We huddled silently, watching the infected that stalked along the perimeter of the landscaping where we were hiding, but she didn’t seem to be interested in pushing into the bushes. At least for the moment. After a long minute, she moved on and I turned back to the girl.
I knew we shouldn’t be talking, but I was pretty comfortable that the din of the raging storm was effectively covering any soft sound we made with an intense wall of white noise.
“What’s there?” I repeated.
“See that tall building? The one on the next street?”
I leaned to the side to see through the wind tossed bushes, spotting the structure.
“Yeah…”
“Car park beneath. On the lowest level, you can get into the tunnels. That’s where I was. Came out because I didn’t know how bad things were.”
“Tunnels? You sure they’re safe? No infected inside?”
“They were safe when I left.”
I had a hundred questions about the tunnels and why they were there, but now wasn’t the time to satisfy my curiosity. At the moment, I had a decision to make. Trust the girl and make a run for it, which was in a direction that didn’t seem to have any infected at the moment, or stay put and trust to more dumb luck. I don’t bet my life on luck.
“Let’s go,” I said, shifting around to the far side of the bushes.
14
Moving to the edge of the planter, I paused and scanned the open area ahead. The girl, apparently past any fears she may have had about me, tucked in tight against my back.
The broad residential street was empty, a pair of upscale, low rise apartment buildings on the far side. Each had a car park entrance guarded by a lowered security gate.
“Which building?” I mumbled.
“That one,” she said, pointing to the left.
“You know how to get past the gate?”
“There’s a door on the side. It’s unlocked.”
It had better be. Hidden amongst the bushes was a better option than being stuck out in the open for the infected to come along and find us.
The females that were searching had moved closer to Barinov’s building and were still screaming to each other over the roar of the storm. For the moment, it was as clear as it was going to be.
“Stay close,” I reminded the girl and set off at a fast run.
In the open, the wind and rain pelted me hard enough that it took a concerted effort to
not be blown off course. It was difficult to see as I had nothing to protect my eye, but couldn’t lower the night vision goggles because of the nearly constant flashes of lightning. But we made it across the street without being swept away or encountering any infected.
I stopped us at the front wall of the apartment building, taking a minute to ensure none of the females had spotted our dash across the street. We’d apparently made a clean getaway. The girl tugged on my arm, pointing at the corner and I carefully moved to the edge.
Stopped again, I tried listening for any threat, but could only hear the ferocity of the storm. Poking my head around for a quick look, I came face to face with a female who seemed as surprised as I was. For a fraction of a second, we looked at each other, then she screamed and lunged, hands grabbing for my neck.
Twisting, I brought my forearm up to deflect her momentum and push her to the side, losing the knife in the process. She had managed to grasp the rifle sling and as she stumbled past, I was pulled off balance. Impossibly fast, she was on me with a piercing scream, her snapping teeth mere inches from my face.
“They’re coming!” the girl squealed as I fought for my life.
Her shout galvanized me. I didn’t like taking on females in hand to hand combat, but I could. One or two at a time. Not a whole group.
My left hand was on the infected’s throat, holding her away from my exposed flesh. Pushing harder, I shifted again and swept her legs from beneath, driving her to the ground and being pulled on top by her iron grip on the sling.
When we landed, she immediately went still. I knew what had happened, having felt the brutal impact as the back of her head came down on a concrete curb. At the very least, her skull had been crushed, but I was pretty sure I’d also felt her neck break.
Ripping the sling free of her dead hand, I looked across the street and saw at least twenty females charging through the storm in my direction. Spinning, I hesitated when the girl was nowhere in sight. Sparing another glance at the swiftly approaching infected, I dashed around the corner, didn’t see her but did spot a door swinging open. Running directly into the teeth of the wind, I slapped the NVGs in place as I charged through the door into a dark garage.
