by S. J. Bryant
"They heal."
"They feel the need to eat us."
"They're fast."
"They stop if you shoot them in the head."
Nova nodded as they all put forward their thoughts. "And they're infectious."
Cara's head flew up. "But—"
Nova pursed her lips. "I don't think there's any denying that these are monsters created by HAV. In normal infection, it's airborne, but seeing as we're still alive, I'm guessing it's moved past that stage."
"Thank bloody hell for that!" Cara said, eyes glinting.
"But," Nova said. "The virus still runs through them. According to the legends, a Reaper's bite is deadly. We can't let ourselves be caught."
"Which is why he doused you before. But what about him?" Cara thrust her thumb towards Aart. "He was covered in blood from that last lot."
Nova gazed into Aart's eyes. "He's not infected."
"And how would you know? You a doctor now, too?"
"No."
"Well?"
"We'd all be dead."
Cara's mouth dropped and Maya hung her head.
"I'm beginning to think you guys should have just left me to be shot in the prison. It would have been a hell of a lot better than this," Cara said, throwing her arm wide.
Maya's lips pressed together and her eyes turned steely. "If I could go back and change it, I would."
Cara's gaze flicked to Maya and her mouth opened, but as their eyes met she snapped it closed and hung her head. "I'm sorry… about your friend."
Maya nodded. "Me too."
"I am grateful that you saved me. And that he…"
Maya nodded and drew a shaky breath. "He'd probably know just what to do with these bastards. He loved history, was always going on about the HAV outbreak and all that nonsense. I wish I'd paid more attention…"
Aart lay a hand on Maya's shoulder as her voice cut off in a choked sob. "Tommy was a good man. But more than anything I bet he'd want you to get out of this, to be safe. And that's exactly what we're going to do."
The back of Nova's throat stung and she turned away from the glowballs so that no one could see the tears glistening in the corners of her eyes.
Maya cleared her throat and ran her arm across her face. "You're right. We have to focus on getting away, not sit on the floor in some freezer crying."
Aart smiled and patted her back. "That's the spirit."
Maya gave him a crooked smile and sat up straighter.
Nova nodded. "Seeing as we're all alive and well, our first priority should be to get out of here without being bitten, eaten, or generally mauled."
Aart grinned. "That's why I keep you around; always know just what to say."
Cara slapped her hand on the cement floor. "Would you two be serious? What the hell are we supposed to do if we're not going to freeze to death in here?"
Nova scanned the cold-room, blinking against the ice that threatened to freeze her eyeballs. "We use the boxes."
"Hmm, good idea Nova," Aart said. "We'll hide inside the boxes and crawl out. The Reapers won't know what to make of it."
Nova rolled her eyes. "No. We use the cardboard for armour. It's not much but it's better than nothing; it could be the difference between getting bitten and not."
The others nodded and Aart smiled. "That just might work."
Nova shrugged. "It's all we've got. Start emptying the boxes and keep an eye out for tape, or anything to keep it in place."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Nova wrapped the last piece of cardboard around her forearm and tied it in place with a plastic cable. Similar pieces covered the rest of her arms and her shins while a small segment surrounded her neck like a collar. The others stood similarly armoured.
"We look ridiculous," Cara said, studying her arms.
Aart smacked his covered forearms together. "Better ridiculous than Reaper."
"So what now?" Maya said.
"We open the door, and we shoot," Aart said, spinning his gun on his finger.
Nova nodded. "We keep them outside in a bottle neck and kill them all."
Maya frowned. "Risky."
Nova shivered. "We don't have many other choices. Give us another hour and we'll look like them." She nodded at the bodies.
"Ready?" Aart said, his hand on the door.
"Ready," they replied.
Aart gripped the handle and pushed it open, bracing himself to stop the Reapers pouring in.
"Die you bastards!" Nova said, firing through the gap.
She'd expected Reapers to stream through the opening but instead, a long-fingered arm flopped through the entrance, dead on the freezer floor. Other Reapers lay in bloody piles, burning wounds smouldering and sending up tendrils of smoke.
"Whoa! Watch it you crazy bastards. Do you want us to leave you—" A burly man with a thick red beard stepped through the door and froze, hand flying to his gun.
Nova and the Hunters levelled their weapons at him as three others crowded around his back, a woman and two men, all with guns pulled.
"Who the hell are you?" the bearded man said.
"Bill, it's Janey and the others," a thin man with black hair whispered at the man's shoulder, motioning towards the frozen corpses behind Nova.
Bill's gaze dropped to the freezer floor and the bodies. "What have you done?! Is this some kind of joke from that crack-pot, no good, son-of-a-bitch? I hope he burns in—"
"We're Hunters," Nova said, stepping forward.
Bill's grip tightened on his gun. "What did you do to Janey?"
Nova glanced at the corpses. "Nothing. They were like that when we got here."
The woman with Bill stepped to the side and knelt by a frozen body. Her tangled hair hung in knots down her face, hiding her eyes. "They froze to death. There's not a mark on them."
Bill swung his arm and slammed the butt of his gun against the freezer door. "Dammit! If we'd got here sooner..."
"There was no way," the thin man said. "The Reapers..."
"I know, Wren... I just..." Bill's face glowed red and his eyes glistened.
The third man who'd been silent stepped forward. "Doesn't explain them."
Dark shadows surrounded his eyes and a bloody gash ran down the side of his face. Purple bruises bloomed on his cheeks and arms where they peaked from beneath his tattered clothes.
Bill straightened and aimed his gun at Nova. "No. It doesn't. Answer the question. Who are you, and what the hell are you doing here?"
Cara stepped forward and folded her arms across her chest. "We could ask you the same question. There's no way the four of you could have killed all those Reapers, so what, are you working for the Watcher?"
Bill's eyes narrowed. "I asked you—"
"They'll be back soon." The woman by the body stood and walked past Bill without looking at Nova and the other Hunters.
"We should leave them here; we can't trust them," said Wren.
Bill frowned. "Bloody hell! They'll have to come with us, if they're on our side we can't just leave them here."
"And if they're not?"
Bill shrugged and turned to Nova. "You'll come with us to our safe-house. Keep your guns out, there'll be more Reapers. But if you people try anything... you'll be deader than those Bleeders." He nodded at the pile of corpses outside of the freezer.
Sid stood back and waved Nova and her companions through after Bill, taking a place at the rear. They hurried out into the relative brightness of the store. The neatly stacked beans now lay scattered across the floor, tins dented. The shelves hung from broken supports and spilled their contents on the ground.
Nova stepped over the piles and followed the new group out into the sun. It glowed orange, close to the horizon, creating a glimmer across the road. Distant shrieks echoed between the buildings, mixed with snarls and breaking glass.
Bill turned away from the noise and jogged in the opposite direction towards a low-set building with a solid metal door. The woman with tangled hair already stood in front, gun
drawn and one hand on the handle. As soon as they reached her, she shoved the door open and they piled inside.
Flickering yellow lights lit up two rows of beds and a rickety table with chairs. Tins of food stacked against the far wall along with an axe and three long hunting knives.
Aart raised an eyebrow and let out a low whistle. "Why didn't we come here instead of that freezer?"
"You'd have been killed before your hand touched the door," the woman said, sliding a thick bolt across the closed door.
Bill flopped onto a chair and glared up at Nova and her companions. "Alright, we saved your lives. It's time for answers."
Aart folded his arms across his chest. "We might have made it. I'll have you know, we—"
Nova kicked him in the shin with her boot and stepped forward. He glared at her. "Thank you for your help... Bill. My name is Nova, this is Aart, Cara and Maya."
Bill stroked his beard and nodded. "You know me and Wren. The quiet one is Sid and she's Vayla."
Nova nodded to each of them in turn.
"What are you doing here? And what the hell are you wearing?" Bill said.
Nova glanced at her cardboard-covered arms. "The best armour we could think of with short notice."
Bill nodded. "Clever."
"And we're here probably for the same reason you are. We were tricked."
Wren stood to their right and his hands twitched. "We can't trust a thing she says. She's probably working for HIM."
Bill sighed and laid his gun on the table. "We have no way to know."
"So we kick them out, let the Reapers deal with them."
"Oh, thank you very much," Maya said, whirling on Wren. "Maybe we should do the same with you? We don't know any more about you. You could be working for the Watcher for all we know."
Wren's lips pulled back and his hand tensed around his gun.
Maya squared her shoulders and gripped her own gun tighter.
"Maya, put it down," Nova said.
"We can't trust them," Maya said.
"This is our place and you're trespassing," Wren said.
"Firstly, you brought us here. Secondly, if you're dead it won't make much difference, will it?" Maya said, lifting her gun.
"Maya!" Nova's voice cut through the dim room like a knife. "Put. It. Down. If it weren't for them we'd be freezing to death or having our faces bitten off."
A muscle flickered in Maya's neck but she lowered her gun.
Bill waved a meaty hand at Wren. "You too."
Wren mumbled something under his breath but lowered the gun to his side.
"Good. Now we can talk like civilised people," Bill said.
Nova nodded and sunk into the chair opposite Bill.
Bill nodded. "For the moment I'm going to assume you're not servants of the Watcher, but rather unfortunate Hunters who fell into the same trap we did."
Nova frowned and looked around the bunker. "It looks like you've been here for weeks."
Bill nodded. "Where have you lot been hiding? The Prison?"
"We've only been on Kopet for about four days."
"Five at the most," added Aart.
Bill hung his head. "There was evidence of people being in those catacombs before us. I never thought there'd be people after…"
"He's done this before?" Aart said, falling into the chair next to Nova.
Bill nodded. "Multiple times if you're anything to go by."
"And I'm sure he'll organise another group after us," Nova said.
Maya stayed standing near the door. "If he'd been calling Guild Hunters in for so long someone would have noticed."
Bill spread his hands. "I think he's only just started contacting Guilds. Based on the bodies – people – we saw in the catacombs, they didn't have much experience. They were probably rookies or not even Hunters at all."
"Practice," Aart said.
Nova frowned. "If you supposedly got through all the challenges, how do you explain that bastard with the crossbow?"
"The Hunter?" Bill said, his eyebrows lifting almost to his hair.
Nova nodded, tense and ready to snatch her gun.
"We barely got away from him. Lost two good people doing it."
"You managed to run away?" Aart said.
Bill nodded and took a deep breath. "He was right on our heels, we wouldn't have made it another ten minutes, but then he just stopped. Five minutes later we burst out of the trees into this hell."
"Something keeps him away from the Reapers," Nova said.
"Self-preservation?" Aart said. "Even he wouldn't have been a match for fifty Reapers."
Bill's head tilted to the side. "Wouldn't have?"
"We burned him," Aart said.
"Bastard won't be shooting anyone," Nova said, running her good hand across her injured shoulder.
"Got you, aye?" Bill said, nodding to her arm. "Me too." He lifted his shirt to show a bloody gash running along his ribs. "Another few inches over and he'd have got my heart."
Maya stepped away from the door. "All this reminiscing is fine, but what the hell are we supposed to do now?"
Wren glared at her but the others dropped their eyes to the floor.
"There's no way out," Bill said. "Unless you somehow managed to pack a miracle, you should get comfortable."
Maya whipped her head to the side. "No way. We're getting out of here. We'll make a break for the trees."
Wren sneered and Bill shook his head. "It's no good. They'll come at you as soon as you try it. You'll be dead before you reach the forest."
"It's worth trying," Maya said. "Better than rotting here."
Bill flew to his feet. "You think we haven't tried it? A good man died trying to make it. We rested all our hopes with him; if he could get away, he could get help. He died not twenty metres from this room."
Bill towered over the other Hunters, his chest heaving.
Maya's jaw tensed, but she said nothing.
"He was the fastest of all of us and he didn't stand a chance," Bill said, dropping back to his chair. "The forest is no good."
"So what?" Aart said. "We're going to dig our way out?"
"Solid concrete walls," Sid said, making everyone jump at the unexpected voice. "Can't dig through them."
"How many Reapers are there?" Nova said, biting her lip.
"I've counted at least fifty," Vayla said.
"Eight of us," Cara said. "We should be able to take them down. That's only a bit over six Reapers each."
Bill shook his head. "It sounds fine but once you're out there, it's different. They're too fast, heal too quickly, too vicious. We'd be dead in a minute."
"Is there any way to pick them off in small groups?" Nova said. "A sniper outlook or something?"
"No," Vayla said. "All of the buildings can be easily overrun and the only other places are like this one, no shooting opportunities."
Nova threw her hands into the air and slumped in her chair. Her shoulder ached in time with the rest of her body and her brain refused to come up with any other ideas. In her imagination she saw Reapers waiting on the other side of the door, shoving against each other to get to her.
"I think we should all get some sleep," said Bill. "Maybe we'll have some better ideas in the morning."
"And where are they sleeping?" Wren said, his mouth twisted.
"In the other beds," Bill said, nodding to the tussled sheets. "The others won't be needing them anymore."
Wren frowned. "But surely—"
"Wren! I've put up with your snivelling and back-stabbing for long enough. Keep whining and I'll throw you to the Reapers myself!"
Bill stormed to the far wall and lay down on an unmade bed. His broad shoulders poked out over the edge of the thin mattress as he closed his eyes and turned away from them.
Sid and Vayla went to their own beds, leaving Wren glaring after Bill. Nova and the Hunters hurried to beds of their own and lay down, although Nova kept a hand on her gun the whole time.
"And Wren, get the lights!"
Bill's voice thundered through the bunker.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Nova lay in the dark, eyes open. The sounds of breathing filled the small bunker, but outside something scratched at the door, like long fingernails on rusted metal. She gripped her gun underneath her pillow and pulled her knife close to her chest. The creatures outside made her stomach clench, but it was Wren that kept her awake. His uneven breathing betrayed his sleeplessness.
Nova kept her own breaths slow and steady as she gazed into the inky blackness. She wanted nothing more than to sleep, her body screamed with the need for rest. Her lost blood seemed like a chain pulling her towards unconsciousness, but every time the shadows drew in she pinched herself. If she fell asleep and Wren attacked, there'd be nothing to stop him.
Thoughts of his pallid skin and greasy hair made her skin crawl. He gave off waves of deceit, like a snake. She had no doubt that he'd turn on them the first chance he got if it meant saving his own skin.
She shivered and gripped her knife closer.
Her eyelids drooped and she forced them open, but a moment later they flickered closed again. This time she let them be; she couldn't see anything anyway. Instead, she strained to hear past the breathing and the scratching.
Something heavy thumped to the floor.
Nova's eyes flew open and she shot out of bed, gun and knife out. Adrenalin poured through her veins, making her heart pound against her ribs. Every muscle in her body stretched taut, ready to spring.
Bright light stung her eyes. She blinked and stumbled back.
"Take it easy," Bill said.
Nova lowered her gun and squinted against the glare. Bill's broad form stood near the table, hands on his hips.
"Why are you up?" Nova said, glancing at Aart who got out of bed and came to stand at her shoulder.
"Because it's morning and that's what people do."
Nova's frown deepened. "We've only been asleep for an hour at most."
Bill snorted. "You must have needed a nap. You've been down for eight hours at least."
Nova swallowed and met Aart's eyes. He nodded and stretched. She tucked her knife into her belt and holstered her gun before running a hand down her face. She wanted to kick herself; she'd fallen asleep, left them unprotected. What if Wren had attacked?