Succinct (Extinct Book 5)

by Ike Hamill

  “Romie, get up,” he said.

  She was startled by his stern tone. Sensing that it might work, he continued.

  “You get up right now. We have to go home, pack, and hit the road. We’re not staying here any longer.”

  She sniffed, let go of his leg so she could wipe her nose, and then nodded.

  When he offered her a hand up, she nearly pulled him down. Leaning on each other, they finally reached the door.

  Outside, with the birds singing and the sun continuing to rise, she stood straighter.

  “We’ve been through too much together,” she said. “I thought all the hard stuff was done.”

  “It is,” Brad said. “We’re all done with the hard stuff.”

  “What if they don’t come back—Lisa and Ashley. What if Robby and the kids up in Donnelly didn’t survive?”

  “Don’t think about it. We’re all going to be back together before you know it.”

  He glanced up at the sky. There was no use in thinking about what would happen if the jagged tear reappeared. It would take the power and maybe even their sanity again. They would be left without any way to survive and unable to trust their own motivations.

  He realized that he had stopped moving. For a moment, he had been paralyzed by the uncertainty of what awaited them. Romie tugged on his arm. Their roles had switched again and she was the one urging them forward.

  Chapter 87: Corinna

  When she saw the brake lights on the green truck flash, Corinna wanted to veer around them and keep going. She wanted to wave goodbye and head back north. With a quick mental calculation, she figured that she had plenty of fuel to make it to the first fuel depot that had been set up between the Outpost and Donnelly. That thought was what stopped her from abandoning Beth and Red. She didn’t see them often, but they were just as much a part of the community as the people back in Donnelly. They were all one extended family.

  She slowed as they came to a stop.

  Corinna rolled up to the driver’s window as Beth put it down.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  Before Beth could answer the question, Corinna saw what they were looking at. Up the hill on the right, the forest was a tall canopy over the terrain. One rock jutted out and caught the sunlight. It was notable because of the color splashed on the granite—blood red.

  “What the…”

  Corinna’s voice trailed off as she spotted the source of the blood. There was a furry carcass wedged between two trees. Streamers of red flesh ran down from naked bones. A few yards away, something moved in the shadows. Corinna didn’t get a good enough look to identify the animal. When she heard its growl, her right hand moved automatically, giving gas to the motorcycle’s engine. Corinna popped the clutch and spun the tire on the sandy pavement before it shot forward.

  She ran fast for a mile and then slowed in a spot where she had good visibility on every side. Her head spun fast for several seconds, looking for anything moving in the woods. When she saw the green truck in the distance, it nearly spooked her into running again. Instead she waited for Beth and Red to catch up.

  The window was still halfway down.

  “It didn’t follow,” Beth said.

  Red nodded and then said, “I don’t think it wanted to be out in the sun. Maybe it’s like the people who were infected.”

  “Let’s not make any assumptions,” Corinna said. “From here out, we need to be extra careful. People are relatively slow. Whatever took down that deer must have been fast.”

  Red nodded.

  “Lead on,” Corinna said.

  As they pulled away, Corinna suffered a moment of indecision. She could flag them down and pile into the rear seat of the truck so she wouldn’t be exposed on the motorcycle. Every time the road passed near a thick patch of woods, there was a chance that something would leap out and knock her off the motorcycle. But climbing into the truck would be surrendering to someone else’s reactions and instincts.

  Corinna let the green truck pull away a little so she could keep a better eye on things. They were like bait—if something moved at the sight of the truck, she would see it.

  Before long, they had descended out of the woods and Corinna felt better. The grass and brush was tall on either side, but in the middle of the road she felt safe from anything springing out. The green truck turned onto a dirt road and Corinna let them go even farther ahead so the dust would settle a bit.

  The way the vehicle’s lights flashed and then went out, Corinna guessed what was happening. She skidded to a stop and watched carefully from a distance. Beth spilled from the driver’s door and Red from the other.

  “Shit,” she whispered as Beth staggered and then fell next to the truck. Red made it a little farther before he collapsed.

  Corinna let the motorcycle roll forward in neutral as she took deep breaths and prepared herself. The moment that the engine began to misfire, she dropped the motorcycle, took one last breath, and she ran for Beth.

  The woman was limp. Corinna lifted her under her armpits and dragged her backwards toward the bike. There was no way she was going to make it. Several good paces from the imaginary line that crossed the road—the Death Line, Corinna had come to think of it—the air burst from her chest as her body rebelled, begging to draw in fresh oxygen.

  Self-preservation told her to let go of Beth so she could fall backwards across the Death Line before she passed out. Corinna ignored the thought and pumped furiously with her legs to get them both across. Her vision was swimming in black swirls. Her lungs burned with acid. With one final lurch, she collapsed. Beth landed on her legs and came back to life with a gasp that hurt just from the sound of it.

  Beth scrambled backwards as she regained her senses. One foot stomped directly in Corinna’s stomach.

  “Watch it,” Corinna yelled.

  “Sorry. Sorry,” Beth said panting. “What happened?”

  “Give me a hand up. We have to get Red.”

  There was panic in Beth’s eyes as Corinna explained what they had to do. Neither of them would be able to carry Red along. It was going to take coordination, and there was no time to convince Beth. Corinna ordered her and hoped like hell that the order would stick.

  When Beth opened her mouth, Corinna expected an objection.

  Instead, Beth asked, “What about them?”

  Corinna followed the pointing finger and saw them. Just beyond the truck, the animals were mostly hidden by the tall grass. Their brown and black coats blended perfect with the brittle straw and thistle. It was their eyes that Corinna locked in on. Pairs of intent, black marbles, locked on the two women. The coyotes weren’t moving forward. They were on the other side of the Death Line.

  “We’ll deal with them after. Deep breath,” Corinna said.

  Beth followed Corinna’s lead as they took three deep breaths and then strode across the Death Line.

  It was already too late—Corinna knew that. She tried to calculate how long Red had been there, without oxygen. They each took an arm and pulled. Corinna could feel his joints pop. She adjusted her grip and pulled by his armpit instead. The man snagged on something and they had to jerk him free. Corinna saw one of his boots pop off.

  The urge to breathe was nearly overwhelming. Corinna kept reminding herself that her body wasn’t the limiting factor. Her grandfather had told her once that her body could go at least fifty-percent harder and longer than her brain would allow. It wasn’t a question of mind over matter. They key was shutting down the mind and letting the matter do what it was possible of doing.

  Corinna closed her eyes and dug deep. She forgot about breathing, the coyotes, and Red’s popping shoulder. For that moment, she was a simple machine dedicated to nothing more than moving forward and pulling the load. Suddenly, the body that she was pulling felt like it was mired in concrete. Her eyes flew open.

  Still holding onto Red’s arm, Beth had collapsed. The two of them were anchored together and the motorcycle was still ten feet away. Corinna had
no chance of making it.

  She let go. Stumbling toward the imaginary line, Corinna’s chest hitched with the urge to breathe. The air in her lungs, regardless of how depleted, was better than what was available, but her stubborn mind wouldn’t believe it.

  Her mouth opened, expelling the good air and sucking in the bad.

  Corinna collapsed.

  The world was red, and then sparkled with pinpoints of brightness.

  She stared up with wide-open eyes that couldn’t make sense of the light. Corinna knew there was a fight coming before she could remember precisely why. A cold nose nuzzled up under her shirt. Then the teeth grabbed her skin.

  “Hey!” she screamed, sitting up.

  Her backhand caught the animal in the side of the head. It yipped and dodged before she could smack it again. Rolling over, she crawled and then stumbled toward Beth. Another coyote was trying to bite through the woman’s jeans. It didn’t want to leave its bounty, even when Corinna brought a fist down on the back of its neck.

  The coyote snarled and snapped at Corinna.

  She kicked at another that had already bitten into the skin of Red’s belly. Its bloody lips peeled back into a snarl. They were circling her, like they knew that she couldn’t defend both of the bodies. They were right.

  One tugged at Beth’s foot, moving the body a couple of inches while Corinna swatted at another that was darting in to rip more of Red’s skin open.

  She would have lost them both if Beth hadn’t screamed. The woman came back to consciousness with a primal roar that startled Corinna so badly that she nearly lost her balance.

  Beth returned a coyote’s snarl with one of her own. For a moment, Corinna thought that the woman had lost her senses and maybe become like the Dianne-monster. But Beth was focused only on the coyotes. She picked up a rock and brained the nearest beast, sending it howling back into the grass. The others followed quickly, breaking off their attack, as Red came awake with a groan.

  “What?” he asked in slow confusion.

  His hand found the flap of skin and then raised a bloody hand up to his eyes.

  “What?”

  “Put pressure on it,” Beth said, moving toward him.

  “Is it bad?” Corinna asked. She immediately regretted the question. Red pulled his hand away from the wound to asses the injury and fresh blood seeped from under the flap of skin. Beth shot her a look and then pressed down on Red’s shoulder, guiding him toward the ground. He collapsed under the gentle pressure, giving in.

  “First aid kit,” Beth said. “Back of the truck.”

  A horrible thought crossed Corinna’s mind. Everyone carried first aid kits with them in their vehicles. They were all their own doctors at times. Jackson was the one exception. On the back of his motorcycle, wrapped up in a towel, Jackson carried his own idea of a first aid kit. He always said, “If I get hurt bad enough, this is the only help I’ll need.”

  Wrapped in the towel on the back of Jackson’s motorcycle was a revolver.

  Corinna had the horrible thought that she was going to find nothing more than a gun in the back of the truck. It was the old mandate—the one that people didn’t adhere to anymore. Back in the early days, people would have preferred to die than be a drain on the community. Many did.

  Still a few paces from the truck, Corinna stopped. It wasn’t the idea of a gun that made her halt, it was the memory of how they had gotten into this predicament. The coyotes had been ready for them. Maybe that meant that this Death Line wasn’t as temporary as the others that Corinna had encountered.

  Just in case, she took a deep breath and jogged to the truck. It only took a second to locate the white box with the red plus sign. She ran it back to Beth.

  Red’s thoughts had apparently strayed the same way as Corinna’s.

  “Let me be,” Red said. “I’ll make it far enough to lead them away from you.”

  “That’s bullshit, Red,” Beth said. She held one hand down on his abdomen as she flipped the latches on the first aid kit with the other. Grabbing some pads, she held them out to Corinna to unwrap.

  “They tore open my guts, Beth,” Red said. “You know I’m not going to last long.”

  Beth took one of the pads and made a quick transfer. She straightened out his skin and then slapped the pad down on it before the blood could really start to flow again.

  “Quit that fatalistic nonsense. They only ripped your skin a little. They didn’t even make it into the muscle.”

  “Then infection will take me. You’re putting yourself in danger just to prolong my agony.”

  Corinna looked back and forth between them as they argued over Red’s wound. The weird part was that she was fully capable of seeing the situation both ways. In Red’s shoes, Corinna would easily choose to sacrifice herself. Even if it wasn’t about being a burden on others, Corinna would never want to prolong her own life just to live with a miserable injury. But when Beth talked, Corinna saw it her way. The wound wasn’t much. It would be nothing more than a crusty scab in a couple of weeks and a jagged scar next year. Red was making too much of it.

  “The big bandage,” Beth said to Corinna. “I’m going to wrap it around him like a belt.”

  Corinna nodded and grabbed one of the packages. It seemed to take forever to peel away the plastic while Beth waited.

  The delay gave Red another chance to moan.

  “I’ve had a heart attack,” he said. Corinna knew it, and she figured that Beth must have known it, too. Red’s heart attack had been big news back up in Donnelly when it happened. That had been a good ten years before.

  “I should have taken my leave when I had the heart attack. I’ve been nothing but a drain on everyone since.”

  Dr. Matthew had drawn Red’s blood when his indigestion had turned into a sharp pain. The test showed that Red’s heart had been damaged by an “incident.” Red had eventually accepted some pills, but he had declined any other treatment.

  “A drain?” Beth asked. She started to wrap his midsection. “You do just as much as anyone else. Hell, I don’t think the Outpost would be able to produce a half of the corn that we do without you.”

  “I’ve been sucking down meds for years.”

  “The pills are going bad anyway. Might as well have you using them up.”

  Again, Corinna’s opinion fluctuated as they argued. Memories of those times were filled with pain. Faced with life-threatening injuries, many people had chosen to go off on their own, never to be heard from again. Eventually, the community had tried to write a mandate that banned self-harm. That caused nothing but trouble. The only way that people had been talked out of going off to die was pointing out the pain that they left behind. Donnelly had rallied against suicide with a single voice.

  “Leave me,” Red said. “Leave me and I’ll catch up if I can.”

  “No,” Beth said. “Sit up so I can finish this.”

  She added layers of pads until the blood no longer seeped out from his wound.

  “No sudden movements,” Beth said. “Help me get him to his feet.”

  Red was unsteady at first. His stance seemed to firm up as he blinked and looked around.

  “Where’d they go?” Red asked.

  “Keep your eyes on the truck,” Beth said.

  “Wait,” Corinna said. Her logic seemed to return as she stood erect. “We can’t. The truck is on the other side of the Death Line.”

  She glanced around for the coyotes. They were gone, or at least well hidden. “Did you put it in park?”

  “Huh?”

  “The truck looks like it’s on a slight hill. When you stopped—did you put the truck in park?”

  “I… I guess?” Beth asked.

  “Do you have the keys?” Corinna asked. Beth patted her pockets. Of course the answer was no, but Corinna had to be sure before she made a run for it. “You two stay right here. Don’t move an inch.”

  Corinna took another deep breath and jogged for the truck.

  Just to be sure, s
he tried to crank it. The truck didn’t even click when she turned the key. Then, she put it in neutral and prayed that it would pick up enough speed to carry her beyond the Death Line before she suffocated.

  “Beth is back there—she will revive me,” Corinna thought. That wasn’t good enough. There was no way that Corinna was going to rely on someone else to save her.

  When the truck was still gathering speed, she flipped the switch for the hazard lights, jumped out, and ran for the Death Line. Back across, she gasped for air and then panted, standing next to Beth. They watched the truck roll down the road. The tires were guided by the ruts of the dirt road and it stayed on course. It was still in motion when the blinkers started flashing.

  Corinna ran back and jumped in.

  It started right up.

  She backed up next to Beth and Red and then tapped her foot while she waited for Beth to load Red into the back seat.

  “Everyone hold their breath when I say—can you do that?”

  They nodded.

  In order to get more speed, Corinna steered around her motorcycle and put some distance between the truck and the Death Line. Then, she put the truck in drive and floored it.

  As they passed the motorcycle again, she said, “Deep breath in. Now hold it.”

  She put the truck in neutral just before it conked out. Corinna barely looked at the road, keeping her eyes locked on the dashboard. As soon as the lights flickered, she reached to start it back up. The engine ignited again on its own. They were gathering speed on the other side on the line in no time. The truck frightened some of the coyotes, who were slinking through the tall grass on the other side. Somehow, they had adapted to the phenomenon and it appeared that they had found a way to capitalize on it. The truck passed the carcass of a big deer that had been stripped down to ribs and fur.