by Burgy, P. J.
The Red Brethren were firing up flares into the night sky. Down below, on the grass within the fort walls, Kara saw the Infected, pale bodies glowing red, scrambling around as if lost and confused. A horn blew once, and then a second time, and the horde grew agitated, retreating back through the breach in the wall. The turret guns were blasting away at them, and men called to one another back and forth outside.
Kara became vaguely aware of a voice calling her name and felt a strong hand take her arm. Russell pulled her around and forced her to face the island.
A tiny figure was jumping up and down on dock, waving her arms in the air. It was Lena Kalamon, crying out 'Kara' over and over. Russell gave Kara a push.
Kara lifted her visor, turning to Russell. “What is it?”
“The water.” Russell pointed at the surface of the lake.
“What?” Kara asked.
Kara stared, eyes searching for anything in the dark waters. When another flare burst in the sky above the fort, she thought she saw movement near the far dock. Something pale in the small, cresting waves. Lena turned on her heel and sprinted away from the edge of the dock, but not before something began to pull itself onto the bridge. Muscular. Pale. Long, white hair slicked along a thick back.
“Shit. Shit.” Kara aimed her rifle at Michael and ran down to the shore. She leaped onto one of the rafts and turned back to Russell. “Come on!”
Russell would not move.
Realizing her poor judgment, Kara cried out a second time. “Gencho! One of them reached the island! Hurry up! He's after Lena!”
Gencho's helmet twisted toward Kara's direction. Before he could take his first step, Meredith dropped down from the roof of the garage, and landed beside Gencho. Her brother barely had any time to react when he was grabbed by the throat and thrown ten feet to the left.
He crashed into the grass, rolling to a stop. Renshen Bui heard the commotion and came out, firing once at Meredith. She dodged, but did not escape unscathed. The bullet left a deep, red gash in the side of her face and she lunged at Renshen, throwing him to the side as well. Hooper dove in and was lifted off of the ground, hurled at the garage wall with a tremendous force. Planks of wood snapped, bending inward, and Hoop fell to the ground.
“Kara,” Meredith's voice did not sound as melodic as it had earlier.
Kara spun, aiming her rifle at Meredith. Russell was in the way for a split second, preventing Kara from getting a clear shot at the woman. The light of the flare was fading, leaving only the faint glow of the UV light, which was pointed away from where Kara stood. Hearing Lena screaming, Kara pulled her attention away from the shore and back to the island. She couldn't see what was happening, the moonlight was not bright enough.
“Damn you!” Kara turned around again and saw that both Russell and Meredith were gone, and Kara was alone on the raft.
Kara jumped back onto shore, running to her father first and helping him back onto his feet. He was grumbling, rolling his shoulder from an injury that Kara couldn't see. Gencho jogged over to them.
“Where'd she go?” Gencho asked.
“I don't know, but I'm going to kill that bitch when I find her,” Kara hissed.
“Hoop?” Renshen Bui went to his friend and rolled the man over, taking off his helmet. There was blood on Hooper's chin, his mouth open. “Hoop, come on. Wake up, man.”
Hooper made a soft gagging sound in the back of his throat.
Kara heard Lena screaming her name again and quickly glanced at the far left shore. Another flare in the night sky lit up the fort below. The guards there were firing at more Infected, though these were not the mindless Wailers from before.
She recognized Frankie Reed, saw him tearing a man's arm out from the socket and kicking the sentry's flailing body toward the edge of the water. Frankie would have done the same to a second guard, his hands reaching outward, if he hadn't been shot in the back of the head with a pistol. Tommy Reed took off his helmet and stood over his brother's body for only a moment before continuing to shoot at the twenty or so Infected trying to overtake their campsite. The guards had fallen back behind Gencho's shack again and Tommy was rejoining them.
Kara's gaze swept across the fort and she took off her helmet. Another flare exploded and in the lingering glow of the red light she was able to spot Michael, Lena flung over his powerful shoulder, on the far southern shore.
Kara pointed, turning to Gencho and Renshen. “Shit! There she is!”
“Guess we're shootin' our way through, Yusha,” Renshen said and then began to jog left, toward where the other guards had made their camp at Gencho's shack. “Come on!”
“What about Hoop?” Gencho asked, kneeling next to the fallen man.
“He's out cold,” Renshen said. “I don't want any of those things gettin' their dirty hands on 'im. Put him in the Bella, boy!”
While Kara and Renshen made their way to the shack, Gencho did as he was instructed and carried the unconscious Jensen Hooper to the garage.
At the shack, Kara saw the huge and intimidating shape of Broderick Tate, the tall, lanky Tommy Reed, and a smaller fellow who had to be Sam. They were deeply invested in shooting at the swarm along the western shore.
There were three other sentries there, their helmets masking their identities, firing at the Infected who kept coming from around the side of the lake.
These were a mixture of the mindless and the sentient, Kara could see that. More of the slobbering, dead eyed Wailers had begun to spill back into the fort, through the breach in the southern wall, as the battle with the Red Brethren subsided outside. Fewer rovers were running. Fewer turret guns were spraying bullets into the horde. What was left of the Red Brethren battalion that had come for her was desperately trying to fend off the Infected, or were retreating. But, they had served their purpose; there were far fewer Wailers screaming out in the darkness surrounding Blue Lagoon.
Kara got Tate's attention and he paused, leaning toward Kara as she shouted over the sound of the gunfire. “We have to move south, now!”
“There's a shit load of them, Kara. They keep coming,” he replied.
“We have to clear them out!” Renshen hollered.
Sam took off his helmet, taking a step toward Kara, and he gagged as he spoke. “They're strong! We keep shooting them, and more keep coming. How do we clear them out, Kara? One killed Hodges. It ripped his arm off!”
“We just have to. We've got to get through. Look!” Kara pointed toward the far shore, at Michael. Lena was struggling on his shoulder while he casually adjusted her and pivoted as if he'd been alerted to something in the water behind him.
“Shit.” Tate said.
“He's got her. We've got to get through,” Kara repeated.
“Where's Hoop?” Tate asked.
“Knocked out,” Renshen replied, and waved over to Gencho.
“Then where's your Infected boy?” Tate asked.
“I don't know. He boogied out. Fuckin' coward boogied out,” Gencho said. “It's just us, man.”
Kara wanted to argue with Gencho but she didn't have the strength, nor the time. She saw Tate's helmet tilt and she watched him reload his rifle. He was rolling his massive shoulders and then moving forward.
“Okay, you idiots. You stay behind me. We're going through,” Tate said.
There were thirty of them and Kara couldn't tell which were aware and which weren't. All she knew was that they were charging forward, guns forward, shooting at them, running into a swarm of slobbering, shrieking Infected. Sam had mounted a UV light to his rifle and had it trained at them, breaking apart the wall of jerking, pale bodies into a scattered and confused few. They were easier to pick off one at a time, head shot after head shot, when they weren't huddled together.
Kara's eyes had finally adjusted to the low light of the moon and stars. She wasn't blind anymore. As a unit, they moved together, following Broderick Tate.
The Infected didn't fall back.
Tate smashed into the first few, us
ing his free arm to fling the things to the ground. The rest of the guards, Kara included, picked off the ones he pulled from the swarm, staying behind Broderick Tate by at least ten feet before Gencho picked up the pace and began to shoot into the mass of bodies.
Even at a time like this, when pride should have taken a back seat for survival, Gencho Jones would not let his jealousy rest. Kara wanted to yell at him, order him to drop back with the rest of them, but she knew he would not have listened even if he'd heard her.
Renshen was yelling at him, and his voice was drowned out, thin.
It seemed to be working, they were most of the way to the southern shore and Kara could see glimpses of Michael through the horde. He hadn't gotten away yet. In fact, Kara didn't see Lena on his shoulder anymore. Instead, he was holding a guard up by the throat.
Kara wanted to see and ran toward the water's edge.
At first, she wasn't sure who the small framed guard was, until she saw the face. Miranda's short wet hair clung to her forehead, her fingers wrapped around Michael's thick forearms. The bloody holes in Michael's torso and side were fresh and he lifted Miranda up and broke her neck. Miranda's arms fell loosely to the side and her feet kicked briefly.
As if aware of Kara watching, Michael tilted his head and turned her way. She pushed herself forward, running along the very edge of the shore, unable to focus on the horde to her left. She held Michael's gaze and saw him toss Miranda's limp body back into the lake.
Kara began opening fire on Michael, still too far away to get a clean shot. He didn't move, even when the bullets hit the grass around him. “You son of a bitch!”
“Kara!” Tate called from behind her.
There were two Wailers charging right for her.
“She's mine,” Michael held out an arm, and Kara saw him smiling.
The Infected that had been going for her changed direction and went for the guards clearing the way. They had obeyed Michael instantly. Kara shot at him and he finally moved, dodging the bullets like he was made from liquid.
Right as she reached him, she ran out of the bullets and stopped dead, her boots skidding on the grass. She tried to reload before he got his hands on her. She was too slow.
Michael grabbed her by her shoulder and threw her bodily to the ground.
“Your kind is so predictable. Even with your guns, and your walls, and your burning lights, you never think. You run in, blind and stupid. Your fear controls you,” Michael said, and stalked over to where Kara struggled on the ground. “And you call us animals.”
Kara grabbed for her machete and when Michael reached down to take her by the neck, she swiped at him, slicing his arm. She had aimed higher, anticipating his quick movement when he drew back. Michael laughed at her, unaffected by the bleeding wound.
“We could have shared paradise with you, you know,” Michael told her. “She wanted to. Meredith saw something in you, something special. But do you know what?”
Kara did not respond. She pulled herself to her feet and swiped at him again with her knife. He stepped back each time, amusement evident on his face. His black eyes searched hers.
“I saw you for what you were,” Michael said.
“Oh yeah? And what's that?”
Michael showed his teeth. “Prey.”
“Come get me then, asshole.”
Michael lunged for her and Kara swung her blade, cutting his face right near his jaw. He fell back again, grinning like a maniac, dark blood running down his chin and across his neck. He lunged twice, snapping his teeth at her and chuckling. His poise was predatory, but he was playing with her, his bare feet dancing in the grass.
“Kara!” Lena's voice could be heard somewhere close by and Kara grimaced.
“Does it frighten you? Being an endangered species?” Michael asked Kara.
He bobbed up and down, swayed to and fro, moved in and ducked back, narrowly avoiding being slashed again when Kara threw her knife out ward him. They moved together, apart, back and forth. The sound of the battle raging around them grew quieter in Kara's ears as she found herself lost in a trance, his movements hypnotic.
“When I was a child, I watched your kind slaughter mine. I watched from the hidden places that I knew they would never look, because we were smarter than they were. We knew where to hide. And do you know what I learned about you? About your people?” Michael asked her.
Kara slashed at him again and rushed forward. Michael simply slipped out of the way and positioned himself somewhere else, equally close but just out of her reach.
“I learned that you were hateful, mindless things that feared change. You feared the unknown, and the darkness. I read in books how you destroyed yourselves, your own people, out of fear and hate. Your kind has always been proficient at killing one another. Guns. Bombs. Knives. Fire. Biological weapons,” Michael said, his lips pulling back from his teeth. “Viruses. Us.”
He leaped at her, grabbing her by the wrist and slamming her into the metal sheeting of the fort wall directly behind her. She hadn't even noticed how close they'd gotten to it during their fight, and Kara tried to kick at him, her weapon shaken from her hand. It was useless. He was too strong. He had one hand pinning her wrist to the wall and the other hard against her shoulder, her free arm forced to her side.
Michael's mouth was at her ear. Kara felt around inside of her pocket, finding something metallic there, and she gripped it in her fingers.
“Don't blame us for your extinction, Kara. It was you. It was always you,” Michael whispered, and then pulled away to grin at her.
“You can blame me for yours then too.” Kara sneered at him, her breath short as she wrenched her free hand up. She held Renshen's angel pin, the wing protruding out from her clenched fist, and with all of her strength she swung it toward Michael's face, jamming it into his eye. It wasn't much of a knife, only an inch or so of metal, but it was enough to hurt him.
He pulled back, hand on the side of his face, covering his blinded eye, and shrieked. The sound was horrible, like a Wailer's cry, and Michael glared at Kara with his good eye. The pin still clutched in her hand, Kara dove away from the wall and went for her machete on the ground. Michael swooped in and kicked it, sending her blade skittering across the grass many feet away. He was crouched on the ground, jaws open, tongue hanging out, his bloodied face tilted up toward her.
Lena cried out for Kara again and Michael, grin returning, sprinted off toward the sound of her voice.
“Get back here and fight me, you asshole!” Kara gave chase.
She saw where he was going.
Lena was halfway up one of the ladders to a crow's nest, looking down toward the ground. It was a good one hundred feet away from where Kara was and she pushed herself into a hard run, looking for a weapon on the ground in front of her. There were Wailer bodies, but no guns.
The Wailers on the ground were still avoiding Kara, dashing behind her to attack the group of guards further back. She could hear Tate crying out and when Kara spun on her heel to look she almost toppled over at the sight. He was covered in the Infected, throwing them to the side, punching them, trying to wrestle them away. He'd run out of bullets and the others were trying to free him from the tangled mass of Wailer hands and teeth, using any means at their disposal. While Sam was shooting at the things from a distance, Renshen was up closer emptying a pistol into them and kicking their flailing corpses to the side.
Gencho was hacking away at one of the things, but there were just too many.
Again, Lena called, and Kara forced herself to look away. She wouldn't reach the lookout station before Michael did. He was closing in on Lena, who was trying to climb up and away. She was almost at the top. The mindless ones weren't going after her, probably at the behest of their Queen, Kara thought.
From the side, seemingly out of nowhere, Russell charged out and tackled Michael.
Kara's heart lifted.
The two grappled, Michael the stronger of them, and Russell was slammed into the ground at
full force. Russell kicked upward, hitting Michael in his stomach, and sent the other backward. The two titans fought as Kara sprinted over. Michael's back to her, she threw herself, shoulder first, into him to try knocking him off of his feet. It was like running full force into a stone statue, and she felt her breath leave her.
He whirled around on her, backhanding her and sending her flying. The impact was painful and Kara spun, landing on her side. In an instant, she pulled herself back to her feet, her head spinning.
Michael roared, muscles standing out along his arms, his neck, his one good eye focused on Kara. Russell jumped on his back, his elbow catching Michael's throat. Michael somehow managed to peel Russell off of his back, twisting his body around to get a better grip. He punched Russell once, hard, in the face, drawing blood, and then slammed him down to the grass. Russell got a hold of Michael's arm and wrenched him off balance, rolling across the ground before again trying to get the other into a headlock. Neither had any space to throw too much force into their blows, and it became a close grapple with both men attempting to use brute strength to overpower the other.
Russell managed to bash Michael's head into a flat remnant of cinder block left in the grass before he lost his grip and was tossed off. Michael gripped Russell's throat, raising his fist.
A shot was fired off and Michael staggered away from Russell, reaching up to grab at the side of his own neck. Blood poured down his pale chest in thick rivers and he shrieked again. Kara turned and saw Gencho standing there, rifle aimed at Michael. The others weren't too far behind, the Wailers cleared out behind them. They were short a person; she didn't see Broderick Tate.
Russell rolled onto his stomach, heaving, vomiting up black gunk.
“Go help Lena, Little Sister!” Gencho said. “I've got this asshole.”
Kara ran toward the watch tower and scowled in dismay when she saw that she wasn't the only one headed in that direction. From the right, around the curve of the lake, ten Infected were dashing her way. Kara saw Lena, now fifty feet from her, hanging onto the ladder, eyes wide and confused.