by Dulaney, C.
“Why hasn’t the siren went off yet?” Mia asked.
The three turned in their saddles and looked up to the roof of the old store. Atop it sat an old air-raid siren, and had been used for a number of things over the years. Since the world ended, it had been used only in times of extreme emergency, since, until recently, loud noises only served to draw danger. But when the siren did sound, the people living in the community would go to their basements and not come out until the Guard members went door to door, sounding the all clear. It was a drill they practiced often, minus the siren actually going off.
Kasey turned her horse a bit so she could look around the town. People stood on their porches, but made no move to come closer and ask what was going on. They knew by now, after surviving all they had, that if a group showed up out of nowhere and went straight to the Guard post, nothing good was about to happen.
Kasey decided to improvise. She waved one arm over her head to make sure all eyes were on her. She pointed to the siren, then pointed at the houses, and repeated the gestures a few times. The folks watching looked uncertain, until a few of them began to move back towards their front doors. It didn’t take long for the message to spread. People ran, doors slammed, and before long, Kasey, Jake, and Mia were the only ones left outside.
“Hope they got the point,” Jake said.
Mia snorted. “Hope their basement doors hold.”
As if on cue, a shriek cut through the air.
Then the stupid siren went off and all hell broke loose.
Chapter Six
Kasey knew from experience, before the fighting had even started, that they’d never survive against a large force of terminators. They might be able to hold out for a little while against a smaller number, but it’d still be a losing battle. Most people knew this. It’s why everyone still alive was so thankful that the terminators had been on their side. And now that the terminators seemed to be hunting them with the same tenacity as they had hunted the zombies? They were all dead.
Just as the siren went off and a high-pitched communication began between the terminators, the blades on the helicopter behind the old store began to move. That noise grew louder and louder until Kasey finally noticed it above the rest of the racket. The terminators had just broken through the tree line and come to a stop for some reason, so Kasey moved her horse around until she could see behind the store.
Some old, tall dude in a suit, a woman with long red hair, and another suited dude were bent over and walking toward the helicopter’s open door. There was someone already inside, standing behind a large weapon that was mounted to the deck. It was all too far away for Kasey to make out what the person looked like or if that was an automatic fifty caliber, but it didn’t matter. It was pointed right at them, so she didn’t dare raise her own to get a better look through the scope.
“Kaaaseey?” Jake said. He was getting twitchy.
“Just keep an eye on those things.” Kasey looked back toward the terminators. The things didn’t watch them. They watched the three people moving toward the helicopter.
The good news was it didn’t look like the entire horde had followed them, so instead of dying fast, they’d die slow. Maybe that wasn’t good news, after all.
“Why are they watching them,” she said to herself and twisted in her seat to look back at the helicopter. The tall man in the suit climbed aboard first, then the other two started arguing.
The man grabbed the redhead and shoved her into the helicopter, then climbed in after. The tall man in the suit leaned over toward them. His mouth moved for some time, and he gestured back at Kasey while he talked. Inside the helicopter, the redhead sat with her head in her hands. Kasey wondered what the hell the Suit was saying.
Whatever it was, she didn’t like it.
“Gettin’ tired of waitin’, Boss,” Jake said. “They’re just standin’ out there, makin’ nice targets. Can we open fire now?”
Kasey spared a final glance in the helicopter’s direction. Whatever was going on over there, she had no control over. But what was in front of them, she did. She turned her horse and moved back beside Jake and Mia. He was right; those damn things still waited about seventy-five yards out, on this side of the trees.
In the open.
“Take ‘em out,” Kasey said.
She didn’t care that the terminators hadn’t attacked first, and she didn’t care what the consequences might be for killing them. They posed a threat, and that threat was going to be eliminated.
Two rifles cracked on either side of her, over and over, and when her friends stopped to reload, she took up the firing. Even as the front rank of terminators fell, the ones behind didn’t move on them. They stayed where they were and watched the people in the helicopter. What were they waiting for?
It didn’t take long after the gunfire started for those inside the old store to come running. By then the siren had been shut down, and even the terminators had stopped with the shrieking. The only sounds left were the whoomp-whoomp of the helicopter blades and crack of rifles going off. Michael, Caleb, and Jonah ran up between the three horses and knelt, raising their rifles and joining in the slaughter. Behind them, the helicopter lifted off the ground. Kasey didn’t dare look; she moved her scope from one head to the next and squeezed the trigger.
She noticed through her scope, before putting a bullet between their eyes, that the terminators were looking up, tracking the flight of the helicopter. It was bizarre. So bizarre, that her brain didn’t register the new noise that came from her left until it was almost too late.
She swung her gun around. Terminators poured from the spaces between the company houses. They’d been flanked again, with the things out front serving as a distraction.
“Left! Left!” Michael yelled.
Jake and Mia finished putting down the ones in front of them, while the others scrambled around to open fire on the ones running in on their left. The horses behind Kasey weren’t tied up, and had decided that they’d had enough of this shit. They bolted. Kasey’s own horse tried very hard to join them, and she missed more than she hit just trying to keep the beast from throwing her. Jake and Mia had the same problem.
The three soldiers burst outside and shouted for them to hold their fire. Kasey thought she heard one of them give a warning, something about lowering their weapons or they’d be shot. By that time, too many terminators had made it through the kill zone. Caleb fought hand-to-hand, and Michael swung his rifle like a club. Kasey jumped down from her horse and did the same. She whacked one in the back of the head just as it was about to tear into Michael’s neck. Jake appeared next to Jonah and kicked the knee out of one. A terminator ran straight at Jonah, passed him entirely, and tackled Mia. It clawed at her belly and a second later her shirt was red.
The soldiers watched all this, still yelling at Kasey’s group to stop, with perfectly good rifles hanging from their shoulders.
Kasey tried to fight her way to Mia. She pulled her pistol and took shots where she could, but the fighting was so close and chaotic that she risked hitting someone. Something hot sprayed up her neck and across her face. Someone screamed. Then something hit her in the legs and she fell to her side. Between the shuffling feet and dirt being kicked up, she stared across the ground at Mia.
Mia kicked and punched at the thing pinning her to the ground. Whenever it could, it swiped its nails across her belly. Mia screamed into the thing’s face and fought. It occurred to Kasey that she might be watching her friend be gutted. Then her dad’s face appeared before hers.
“Get up!” he yelled and jerked her up by the arm. She tried to turn, to get back into the fight, but Caleb pushed her in the back, hard. “Run!”
Kasey watched Jonah shove his way through the bloody mess, trying to get to Mia. The damn terminators ignored him.
He grabbed and held them for Michael, Caleb, and Jake, who dispatched them pretty quickly, then threw the fucker off Mia and killed it himself. Jonah scooped her up in his arms and hurried in
side the Guard station.
Gradually, the fight fell quiet, the kind that usually falls after something like that. A quiet filled with gasping, gurgling, wet noises. If their group had been larger, Kasey might have heard a few cries or screams. But small as it was, the noise was small.
Her eyes dragged across bodies on the ground and standing in front of her. She couldn’t tell if the things on the ground were her friends or dead terminators. Her mouth felt like it was full of cotton and her chest burned. Everything was the same color, which, incidentally, matched the color of the stuff that had rolled out of Mia’s belly.
Kasey pulled her pistol again, turned, and shot each of the so-called soldiers in the head.
✽✽✽
They’d all been wounded in some form or another. The only difference was the severity. Mia was the worst. The terminator had torn through her flesh, exposing and lacerating her intestines. The veterinarian who tended to her said it would either be blood loss or infection, but either way it wouldn’t be long.
The vet had given Kasey a sedative before dressing the nice claw mark that stretched from collar bone to boob. Someone had set Gus on the cot with her; he rested on her legs and didn’t take his eyes off her.
Caleb had suffered a multitude of bites and scratches, some of them savage enough to have caused death by blood loss, had the fight went on much longer. Kasey could see him if she twisted just right and raised her head. Each time she did so, her dad would catch her eye and wink.
She couldn’t see Mia. Her friend was hidden behind a privacy curtain, tucked away in the corner of the room. She could be dead already, for all Kasey knew, and the others were just too afraid to tell her.
The infirmary was one large room, and Jonah, Michael, and Jake stood off to the side and spoke in hushed tones while the vet took care of Mia and Caleb.
“I don’t know who those soldiers were,” Michael said. “If they were Guard, they were transferred in from somewhere else, because I didn’t know them.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “Those were the same dudes who were here when I brought that message.”
Jonah, arms folded and one hand holding his head, said nothing.
Michael continued, “And I don’t know what the hell that heli was doing here. I didn’t recognize those guys, either.”
Jonah made a noise in the back of his throat.
Michael turned for the door. “There should be a satellite phone or something in their office. I’m going to try and raise Blueville.”
Jake waited until Michael was gone, then turned to Jonah and said, “If you got somethin’ to say, please, by all means, say it.”
Jonah motioned with his hands. “Keep your damn voice down.”
Jake licked his lips, looked around, and lowered his voice. “You can start by tellin’ me what the fuck that was? They didn’t pay any attention to you!”
“I’m still processin’ it.”
“Process… you’re still processin’ it?” Jake made a move toward Jonah, but rapid movement of the curtain surrounding Mia froze him in place.
They heard Caleb moan a small, “No,” and Jake took off like a bolt. It was only seconds after he swept behind the curtain that he appeared again, his face ashen and slack. Kasey sat up on the cot. She and Jake stared at each other a long time, then she laid back and squeezed her eyes shut.
✽✽✽
Sometime later, Caleb came around the end of the cot and grabbed Kasey’s hand. Over by the wall, he saw Michael, Jonah, and Jake with their heads close together, having a quiet and animated discussion.
“Dad,” Kasey said, “they’re too fast. Too strong. They’ll kill everyone now. We have to warn them if we can.”
“Yeah,” Caleb said. He gave her hand a squeeze. “I’ll take care of… what needs taken care of.” Then he strode past Michael and out the door.
Kasey slid off her cot and made her way to Mia’s bed. She stood there, head in one hand, for some time before Jake finally joined her. He stayed quiet for much longer than what was usual for him.
Without lifting her head, Kasey said, “What is it?”
“Michael talked to Rabbit,” he said softly.
“Same bunch of people, isn’t it.”
Jake nodded, even though she didn’t see. “Yeah. Same group at the CC as before.”
Kasey snorted out a laugh. “Should’ve known. We should’ve known shutting that place down the first time wouldn’t have stuck.”
Jake looked down at Mia and took her cold hand in his. “What do we do?”
“Haven’t figured that part out yet.”
Jake nodded and said no more.
✽✽✽
Caleb ended up finding a Chevy Suburban with a third seat, and a small car whose wheels weren’t rotted off and still ran reasonably well. The townsfolk traded the vehicles for the horses, though Kasey was determined to take what they needed whether the people agreed to it or not. Michael thanked Caleb for negotiating the trade, because neither man was certain they could have stopped Kasey or the bloodshed that would’ve followed had the town not given her what she wanted.
Michael and Caleb loaded Mia’s body into the backseat of the Suburban. Gus kept trying to jump into the back with her corpse, so Caleb had to pick him up and hold him until they were ready to leave. The others gathered all their saddle bags and what supplies the Guard post still had and packed it in the back of the car. They didn’t plan being on the road very long, but shit happened sometimes and it was better to have supplies and not need them than need them and not have them.
By the time they all piled in and started north, they’d wasted nearly twenty-four hours recovering and arguing strategy, so Michael decided they’d take the most direct and shortest route to Gibson, which was not the same route they’d taken south, and probably was not the same route the terminators were taking on their sweep north. Jonah reminded them that he didn’t think the terminators would go directly north, that they would start fanning out. They’d slow down and get more methodical in their search for “normal people.” That phrase struck them as odd, but Kasey, Caleb, and Jake didn’t say much to that, since it seemed to them that if the terminators were killing regular folk now, fanning out would be a given. Michael was the only one giving Jonah shit about it, pressing for more information and insight, but she thought that was mostly due to the fact that Jonah couched everything in “I have a feeling” and “I’m just goin’ with my gut.”
Jonah was very good at avoiding questions.
Caleb and Gus rode with Michael in the car ahead of the Suburban, since Caleb knew the road they were taking, Michael had the map, and Gus had been determined to sit on Mia’s body. Kasey drove the lumbering SUV.
“You know we’re fucked if there’s trees down,” Jake said from behind her. He took up the middle seat and sat twisted so he could keep a hand on Mia in the very back.
“We’ll deal with it, right?” Jonah said. He occupied the passenger seat next to Kasey and had a booted foot propped up on the dashboard.
“Right,” Kasey answered.
“See?” Jonah glanced back over his shoulder at Jake. “We’re not fucked.” He turned back around and chuckled under his breath.
Kasey stayed quiet and kept driving. Michael must’ve had his foot in the pedal, because she was really having to give the gas to the Suburban just to keep up.
Jake narrowed his eyes and said, “So, you’re some kinda superhero or somethin’?”
Jonah snorted. “That’s the dumbest shit I ever heard.”
“Huh.” Jake’s head bobbed up and down a few times, and he chewed his lower lip. “So you can’t, like, fly and shit?”
“Not hardly.”
“Okay…” Jake looked up at the rear view mirror, caught Kasey’s eye, and gave her a look. She shook her head.
“So.” Jake turned back to Jonah. “You just know stuff.”
“How long you known me?” Jonah huffed again and looked out his window. “I’m a tracker.” He said it
like it was an obvious answer and Jake was stupid for asking.
“And? So’s Kasey, but she doesn’t figure out the kinda shit you do just by lookin’ around. Ya know, I never really paid attention to it before, but now? Dude, it’s like you see shit that isn’t even there. And why the hell didn’t the terminators attack you?”
Jonah let out a long breath and, with a slow turn of his head, gave Jake a look that usually came from Mia. “I can see shit that isn’t there because I’m the only one pays attention. And they didn’t mess with me cause who fuckin’ knows.”
Kasey’s eyes flicked toward Jonah.
The Suburban shook and jarred everyone in it.
Jake yelled up at Kasey, “What the hell was that?”
Kasey gripped the steering wheel and stayed on the gas. “Look out the back window.”
Jonah and Jake both looked. Spread across the road behind them were bones and mounds of yuck. A few were intact just enough to give away what they were.
“Ew, shit,” Jake said. “Guess you don’t see everything comin’, do ya.”
“Not everythin’,” Jonah said to himself.
The road quickly disappeared behind them. It was hard to tell from this distance, but Jake couldn’t make out any movement. He wondered if the roadkill zombies were dead dead already, before Michael and Kasey had run over them, or if some terminators had put them down.
No, he thought. They didn’t kill the ones in Riverton...
They went around a turn and the mass of bone and flesh was gone. Jonah and Jake turned around in their seats.
“That reminds me,” Jake said. “We gonna do anything about that bunch of deadheads in Riverton? It’d be awful nice to have all the shit in that Rite Aid. Hell, that whole town’s a goldmine.”
Kasey traded a look with Jonah, grateful that Jake’s train of thought had been interrupted, then found Jake in the rear view mirror. “That was the plan, but we don’t have time for it now. We’ll get it later. That stuff’s not going anywhere.”
Jonah kept his eyes on Kasey even after she turned hers back to the road. He didn’t like the set of her face just now, how the skin tightened at the corners of her eyes. And when she started chewing her bottom lip, he knew.