Melissa kept moving forward, Rochelle still clinging like a limpet behind her, and tried not to think about the infected in a personal, human way. She was always aware that they were once people - that just a few hours ago they had been alive and afraid - but she had to detach herself from this knowledge. It was necessary in order to fight and kill them with the raw ferocity it took to slaughter them in large numbers. However, moving through them and knowing how quickly they would turn on her and Rochelle without the collar she wore brought back memories of the Seraph, particularly of the slaughter in the Money Pit. She’d always kept her emotions in check in front of the doctors and nurses - and even Roy when he came to visit her in the hospital - but Melissa had wept when those memories surfaced. The tears would come in long, endless streams when she thought about the horror of those fear-filled innocents who had died at the hands of the infected, perhaps to rise up after being turned into one of them or becoming fodder for their voracious appetites. Melissa was a survivor, and doing whatever was necessary to survive had come with surprising ease, but it wasn’t without a toll that she paid in private.
They cleared the area filled with the more sparsely packed infected and were approaching the summer toys aisle. From there, Melissa planned to turn left and move, a little more quickly, down the main avenue and out through the front doors. She let her mind wander forward to the journey back to the police station. Once clear of the parking lot they could probably separate and run side by side, as the infected hadn’t been overly plentiful. All they needed was for Kevin to be back with the bus and then... Melissa paused, causing Rochelle to bump into her. She reached for the radio and changed it back to the prearranged frequency, in case Roy or Kevin tried to contact her. She’d been so wrapped up in getting Rochelle out that she’d forgotten to change it back and could only hope they hadn’t been trying to contact her.
Turning the corner at the end of the toy aisle they started down the main avenue. Melissa looked ahead. She could see the large group of infected near the main doors. Once they passed them they would be home free, and for a few, fleeting moments Melissa allowed herself to feel hopeful... this feeling passed almost immediately however. Working their way through the infected, she spotted four individuals, likely Reborn by the way they were garbed and armed. Backing them up, another four pushed through, their weapons raised as they scanned the vicinity. Melissa hurriedly guided Rochelle down the nearest aisle on the left, ensuring the pair of them were out of the line of sight. She looked over her shoulder at Rochelle and brought a finger to her lips, then prized the almost iron grip of the latter’s fingers away from her stomach and indicated she was going to move alone. With extreme reluctance, Rochelle released her. Melissa shuffled to the edge of the aisle and then peaked down it towards the store’s entrance. The Reborn were establishing a perimeter, making a semi circle out of their number as they surveyed the immediate area. As Melissa peered at them she noticed there was an extra attachment to the barrel of their rifles; it was wide and bulky, and was, in Melissa’s opinion, a suppressor. Looking at her own rifle, Melissa felt a pang of frustration. They could fire with less chance of drawing the immediate attention of the infected, while one shot from her would cause a massive disturbance.
The Reborn in front removed his balaclava, revealing he was a bald, tan-skinned man who was giving instructions to the other Reborn via hand gestures. He lowered his weapon and strode forward confidently, working his way around the scattered infected in the entranceway and striding towards the main avenue.
“Witness!” He called out, his voice loud and clear and momentarily attracting the attention of a number of infected, who, when he fell silent, simply slipped back into a subdued stupor.
“Shit.” Melissa whispered. She didn’t know how they knew she was there, but they were blocking her intended point of escape, so the only way out was through a backdoor, a delivery entrance or fire escape. And, Melissa mused, there was no guarantee they weren’t covering those exits too.
“I only want to talk!” The Reborn called out. Melissa continued to observe and saw his team execute several infected that had started towards them with knives; obviously riled up by the loud speech.
Melissa wasn’t sure what to do. She was sure that just talking wasn’t on his mind but Melissa knew she had a bargaining chip: the Ancillary. If she could find some way to use her as leverage then perhaps she could secure a way out for her and Rochelle. Not that she would actually give up her prize, but they didn’t need to know that, Melissa told herself. She glanced at Rochelle to attract her attention, and then whispered quickly.
“Stay here.”
Melissa started to move away from the woman so that she could slink out from around the corner, but Rochelle surged forward and grabbed her arm tightly, holding her in place.
“Wait! What are you doing?” Rochelle hissed quietly.
“I’m going to try to get us out of this.”
“Please, don’t go.” Rochelle pleaded. Melissa recognized the fear in her eyes and the desperate need to not be left alone again. She knew leaving her behind wasn’t without its risks, the most pressing one of which was that she would be outside the protection of Melissa’s collar. But if she was quick it wouldn’t matter as there weren’t any infected in line of sight. Melissa put her hand on Rochelle’s and squeezed it in a supportive way, but then started to move again.
“I’ll be right back, don’t worry.” Melissa assured her. Rochelle barely managed to open her mouth to argue before Melissa pulled away. She moved into the main avenue of the store, her weapon half at the ready and her gaze focused on the Reborn team leader. He saw her, and began to calmly walk towards her, his arms raised at the elbow with no weapon in his hands. Melissa moved a couple of aisles closer and came to a stop. The other Reborn had seen her too, and had shifted to make sure they each had her in their line of fire. As the leader came to a halt, Melissa began to wonder if she’d made an unwise choice.
“Witness, it’s such a great honor to meet you.” He announced cordially.
“The honor is all yours.” Melissa assured him.
“My name is Angelo, and we’re here to collect you and help you prepare for your meeting with the Teacher. First, we need you to take us to the Ancillary.” Angelo explained.
“That’s not going to happen.” Melissa stated firmly.
“But it is, Witness. Our forces are covering the city; even if you leave this place, we’ll be able to find you before you get very far. You really have no option.”
Melissa gestured slightly with her gun.
“I’m thinking I’ve got a few.”
“I wouldn’t advise that, Witness.” Angelo told her. “We have numbers and the presence of the infected on our side.”
“If you kill me you’ll never find the Ancillary and my friend will make sure you don’t find her alive.” Melissa threatened.
“We’ve no intention of killing you, Witness. Our orders are to recover you alive, at any cost - even the Ancillary’s life.”
Melissa realized she didn’t have any leverage; the Ancillary wasn’t a bargaining chip, she was just another cog in the machine, as expendable as any of the Reborn soldiers; knowing the Ancillary, she was probably perfectly fine with that.
“Our duty is to stimulate your desire to willingly join us, but we won’t simply be laying down our lives. We’ll hunt you and use extreme force to bring you in, and believe me when I say our forces are descending on this little city en masse: drones, helicopters and boots on the ground. We’re not leaving here without you, Witness, so it’s in your best interest to surrender yourself and lead us to the Ancillary. It’s in the best interest of the young FBI agent currently trapped on a bus being pursued by a team of our snipers, and it's in the best interest of Mr. Snipes, who we’ll find sooner or later.” Angelo continued. His hubris revealed one thing, Melissa noted, and that was they still didn’t know where Roy and the Ancillary were. If she could get out of here, find Kevin and go straight for Roy
, they still had a chance; not a good one, but any chance was better than none.
Glancing around, Melissa knew she was going to have to fight her way out, and that wasn’t going to be easy. There was one thing in her favor, however.
“So, no matter what happens, your orders are to take me alive?” Melissa wanted to confirm.
“Correct, Witness.” Angelo affirmed, though with an unstated implication written clearly on his face that she could be wounded.
“Good to know.” Melissa responded. She quickly raised her weapon and fired, the loud explosion of her gunshot reverberating around the store, which was followed by a short yelp of pain from Angelo as the bullet tore through his upper leg. It was a calculated attack; not only did it incapacitate him, the blood and the sound would draw the infected. He collapsed backward onto his rear, and began reaching for his weapon. Melissa was already on the move however, sprinting back towards the aisle where she hoped Rochelle was still hiding. She rounded the corner to the sound of bullet impacts all around her, followed by a frantic call from Angelo.
“Be careful you fools, we need her alive!” He roared, the tone of his voice conveying both pain and anger.
Melissa grabbed Rochelle by the arm and pulled her along, while bullets hit goods at the end of the aisle behind her. The sound of their weapons firing was significantly reduced - a dull thump instead of an explosive bang. It would still draw in the closer infected, but it decreased the sound sufficiently to encourage a belief that the groups further away might not even notice. Melissa wouldn’t have that luxury, so she needed to either remove their advantage or limit her actions against them as much as possible. Her first thought was to repeat what she’d done in the Seraph; find a fire alarm and trigger it, which would certainly incense the infected. Unfortunately, though she scanned around quickly, Melissa couldn’t see one, so when she emerged at the end of the aisle she turned left, heading vaguely back in the direction of the garage area. She could see the massive group of infected ahead, straying towards the sound of the gunshot. Rochelle suddenly screamed; it was a loud, explosive sound of fear as her self control finally broke. She was moving, but it was almost entirely under Melissa’s control; had Melissa not had her hand around her arm, Rochelle would undoubtedly have simply collapsed into a heap on the floor and waited for the end.
“Shut up!” Melissa told her harshly as she pulled her into the aisle housing garden tools but Rochelle wouldn’t, or perhaps couldn’t, control her panicked, fearful screams. They were loud and constant, only diminishing when she needed to draw fresh breath for the next powerful explosion of sound to escape her lips... and Melissa wasn’t the only one to be aggravated by it. She could hear the howls and growls of the infected as they started to surge, probably just those closest at first, but slowly the horde by the garage was turning; the undead interest in flesh piqued by the sound of a meal almost within their grasp. Suddenly, goods on the shelves at waist level beside them exploded, with fragments of plastic and ceramic flying out. The Reborn had advanced up the narrow aisle towards their position and if she didn’t act fast they would find themselves under attack from both ends. Releasing Rochelle, Melissa crept up towards the main avenue, leaned out and brought her weapon to bear. She fired quickly, her shots imprecise and more about forcing the Reborn to duck into cover. Still, she knew she clipped one in the shoulder and saw two other Reborn darting down an aisle dragging their injured comrade with them.
Melissa spun, grabbing Rochelle by the arm and pulling her round the corner into the next aisle. Melissa was fleeing blindly; she knew nothing more about the layout than what she had seen on her way in, but there would almost certainly be a door into the warehouse from the store and through there she hoped there would be another way out. Loud crashing erupted from above and Melissa skidded to a stop. There had been, so it seemed, skylights in the ceiling, and now, above the shattered glass fragments falling to the floor, she could see two pairs of Reborn sliding down rappelling ropes, beams from a light mounted on their weapons waving about as they held them in one hand while they used the other to control their descent. With no hesitation, Melissa raised her weapon and fired a stream of shots at the first pair, killing one before he had a chance to locate her, his body dropping down on top of a freezer before rolling off onto the floor of the aisle. She leveled her weapon at the second, squeezing off a series of quick, precise shots that definitely wounded him, but from his yells of pain, he wasn’t dead by the time he dropped. The sound of Melissa’s weapon fire was definitely agitating the undead as their cacophony of moans were rising up all around them; the closest groups and individuals further down the aisles being pulled violently from their collar induced stupor, while the horde in the distance became more and more active. However, her most pressing concern was the second team of rappelling Reborn soldiers. They started firing at Melissa, shots peppering the floor around her and hitting the shelving unit. Melissa scrambled to get out of the line of fire, bumping into Rochelle in her haste, who stumbled and hit the floor.
Melissa glanced over her shoulder to ensure the wailing Rochelle was uninjured, but her attention was immediately drawn to a trio of infected shuffling around the corner. Before she could take action a fresh salvo of gunfire blasted apart a number of goods on the shelves beside her, forcing her to duck further back. Rochelle crawled away, her voice becoming hoarse from her constant, fearful screams. The infected roared and surged towards the pair, hungry and, because of the gunfire and Rochelle’s terrified shrieks, seeing them despite the suppression of the collar. Leveling her weapon Melissa spun about. She took aim at the closest infected and executed it with a precise shot through the forehead. Twisting, she aimed at the second, but as she squeezed the trigger the lights suddenly went out, plunging her into complete and total blackness... and she immediately understood why the rappelling Reborn had lights attached to their weapons. The scene was illuminated briefly as her finger squeezed the trigger, the flash from the muzzle showing that the first infected had dropped to its knees. She had no idea if her shot had hit the second one, and with no way to see, she couldn’t do anything about the third.
Things continued to get worse; she heard a metallic clunk from her collar and when she looked down the light was out. She didn’t understand why it would stop working now, but realization dawned on her; in the Seraph they’d turned off the collars when it became obvious that the Reborn had lost the battle, so most likely, they had disabled the collars of all fallen Reborn soldiers in an effort to deactivate hers. Perhaps it was an effort to force her to surrender, but in truth the why was unimportant. The brutal fact she had to face was that she was trapped in the dark, surrounded by the Reborn, plus the infected, and didn’t have a working collar. On the plus side, Rochelle had stopped screaming.
“Oh shit!” Melissa muttered as she looked behind her at the beams of the rappelling Reborn’s flashlights aimed in her direction. She looked further and saw that across the main aisle and down two side aisles on the left, she could see a steady beam of light. One of the Reborn she’d shot was there and if she could get to his weapon she’d have some light.
Melissa heard a guttural growl coming from behind her and so she swiftly stooped, reaching with her free hand to find Rochelle’s arm and yanked the woman to her feet.
“We’ve got to move!” Melissa instructed.
“I-I can’t, I just, I... ” Rochelle started, her voice rough and croaky from screaming.
“Damn it, Rochelle, we’ve got to keep moving!” Melissa snarled crossly as she ejected the clip from her weapon, knowing it was mostly depleted. She fumbled to find a replacement, rammed it into its housing, and once it was reloaded, took a much needed deep breath in preparation. She was acutely aware at least one infected was closing in on them in the darkness. They needed to move... and move fast.
“Grab my belt.” Melissa commanded, and when she didn’t feel Rochelle following her directive snapped her head back and repeated her instruction angrily. Tentatively, she felt R
ochelle’s fingers tightening around belt, so Melissa prepared to move.
“We’re going to have to move fast. If I run, you run. If I stop, you stop. You with me, Rochelle?”
“I-I guess.” She stammered in response.
“Then that’ll have to do.” Melissa told her brusquely. She braced herself and then surged forward. She knew that the only advantage she had was that the Reborn weren’t shooting to kill, although, being suspended from a rope would limit their accuracy, so she figured that perhaps she shouldn’t rely on that too much for their safety.
A World Reborn (Book 2): Global Outbreak Page 10