‘Hey, since when did Darla become resident DJ?’
‘Shut up,’ Raine said.
‘Pass the CD back here and I’ll toss it out the window,’ Darla said.
‘I said shut up.’ Raine got them to do as she’d asked on the second attempt. ‘Listen. Do you hear that?’ she said.
‘Hear what?’ Salty said.
‘That!’
Now, the sound she was referring to was too prevalent to avoid their attention. First came the constant hiss of a high-powered engine, and then the robust whir of rota blades. The black, muscular shape of a helicopter appeared in the sky in front of them, partially cloaked in the haze of the low morning sun.
Salty took one hand from the wheel so he could use it to shield his eyes.
It zoomed over the top of them, extremely close to the roof of the Sedan, as Raine took a firm grip on the handguard of her rifle.
The three in the back twisted in their seats to watch the helicopter through the rear window.
‘What the hell?’ O.B. said.
‘It’s military. Combat chopper,’ Raine said. ‘What’s it doing now?’
‘Looks like it’s coming back around,’ Ethan said.
‘Step on the gas, Jake,’ Raine said.
‘The forests at least another ten-minute drive,’ Salty said. ‘We’ll never make it.’
‘Just go!’
Salty hit the accelerator and watched the speed dial creep up to 75mph. It was a straight patch of road and there were no obstacles in their way.
‘It’s on its way,’ Ethan warned.
As it whirred closer behind them, he noticed the sensor mounted on the aircraft’s nose and the cylinder-shaped chain guns situated under its forward fuselage.
The black chopper roared over the top of the car again, up into the sky ahead. Once it reached the forests of the wilderness, it tilted as it banked left to attempt another pass of the road.
‘Stop the car,’ Raine said. She cradled the assault rifle, ready to take aim.
‘Wait.’ Salty said, grabbing her by the arm before she could get out. ‘We don’t know what they want. We’re too far out for it to be Spear’s men. Besides, with the firepower strapped to that mother, they’ll tear us up in seconds.’
Raine flexed her bicep to resist him, but she relaxed when she had a moment to think about it.
As the chopper was upon them, it slowed down until it hovered just above the road. The glass of its black tinted cockpit made it impossible to see inside.
Salty hit the brakes. They were now at the mercy of the Apache’s heavy machine guns and Hellfire missiles. They sat in silence, waiting for a sign that it would open up on them.
Episode Two
The Insiders
1
‘Why is it just hanging there?’ O.B said.
The chopper held its position. Whoever the pilot was, their aviation skills were exemplary. It hovered with almost perfect balance.
‘Maybe they are looking for someone specific and they’re trying to identify us,’ Ethan said, peering between the front headrests.
Raine steadily reached for the door handle, clutching her rifle tight to her chest. Before she could release the lock on the passenger side, the helicopter took off again. It flew over the car and lowered itself behind them, facing in the opposite direction.
Everyone in the back looked out of the rear window.
‘I think they want us to follow,’ O.B. said.
‘If they wanted us dead, we’d be a pile of cinders already,’ Salty said.
‘Doesn’t mean they want us for somethin’ good though,’ Darla said. ‘I say we stick to the plan and head for the cold.’
Salty looked to Raine for some guidance. He could tell by the glare she gave him what she thought of the idea.
‘Drive,’ she said.
‘Fair enough, but if that thing confronts us again, I ain’t gonna test its patience.’ Salty hit the gas and continued on towards the dense forest.
Everyone kept a close eye on the chopper. It did rotate to face them again, but it chose not to pursue and eventually flew away in a south easterly direction.
The NY 10 became evermore desolate when they reached Wheelerville. The large body of water that formed Canada Lake was obscured from view by the hillside. They hadn’t seen an abandoned car for miles, but the only vehicle occupying their thoughts was the Apache helicopter that had blocked their path, tried to get them to turn around and follow it, and then promptly disappeared. The possible motivations of its passengers made them all uneasy.
They spied the water through the trees as they passed Green Lake. A few houses peppered its banks. They approached an old barn with a couple of boats outside, and as they got to the end of the bend in the road, Darla groaned.
‘Stop.’ She grabbed desperately at the handle before Salty could bring the car to a halt.
‘What’s wrong?’ O.B. said.
She stuck her head out of the open door and retched. The yellow bile drooled from her mouth and hit the asphalt.
‘Aww, Jesus,’ Salty said, rolling his eyes. ‘Just make sure you don’t get any of that shit in my car. It smells bad enough as it is.’
Darla shrugged off O.B.’s attempts to comfort her and stepped out completely, doubling up with cramps as she brought up more foulness from the depths of her stomach.
‘Let’s bring a junkie along! What could possibly go wrong!’ Salty said.
‘Give it a rest, Jake.’ Ethan said.
Seeing that Darla was going to take a while to recover, everyone else exited the vehicle to stretch their legs.
After she’d stopped retching, Darla remained hunched over, clutching her knees and trying to eradicate the acidic taste from her mouth by spitting onto the road.
O.B. approached her and thrust an open bottle of water underneath her chin.
‘Here,’ he said.
Offended by the distraction of the object in her peripheral vision, she swatted it away, knocking it out of his hand.
‘That’s just fuckin’ great,’ Salty said. ‘First you puke up the food supplies and now you’re wastin’ the water.’
‘I got it.’ O.B. snatched the bottle up again to save what little was left. He wandered to the car and threw it into the back seat, then crept anxiously to the edge of the trees.
‘What is it?’ Raine asked.
‘Erm, I could really use the bathroom,’ O.B. said.
‘Well, it’s your lucky day, Stimpy. See, this whole place is one big bathroom. Go over there.’ Salty pointed to the nearest tree.
O.B.’s cheeks turned a significant shade of red and he lowered his voice.
‘I don’t think I can go like that in front of everyone—not in the way I want to go.’
Raine shrugged and glanced at Salty for a solution.
‘Right,’ Salty said with a sigh. ‘Follow me. I’ll take a piss while you give birth.’
He started to walk into the forest and O.B. followed him.
‘Don’t stray too far,’ Raine said.
‘Yes, Ma’am,’ Salty said.
After they were under the shadow of the dense trees, O.B. forged on ahead, more desperate than he was before.
‘Hey, that’s far enough,’ Salty said, scanning around for signs of movement in the distance.
‘Just a little further,’
‘Christ, kid. Find a tree and dump. You’re gonna miss your window.’
‘My window?’
‘Yeah. Your shit window.’ Salty stood against a tree and unzipped the flies on his jeans. ‘Everyone has a window. If you don’t get rid of it before your window closes, you’ll be all backed up like rush hour traffic.’
‘Erm, OK,’ O.B. said.
Salty let out a slow breath as the sweet relief of urination ran through his body.
‘Aargh,’ O.B. cried, temporarily halting Salty mid-stream.
‘What is it now?’
&nbs
p; ‘All the grass is wet. It’s touching me.’
‘That’s a good thing. Use it to wash your ass with,’ Salty said.
‘Oh, man!’
‘Don’t knock it. The Japanese do that shit all the time.’
As Salty finished his piss and started to shake it off, he heard something heavy flattening the undergrowth close by. He saw a man standing in front of him, pointing a handgun in his direction. The stranger’s eyes darted about frantically and his hand started to shake. He seemed to be somewhere in his late fifties, his silver grey, shoulder-length hair as wild as his eyes; the skin of his face weathered and loose, hanging from his cheeks and jawline like ill-fitting leather. His clothes were mis-matched, as if he’d thrown them on in a hurry or stolen them from different places. A pair of green pants riddled with creases, a pale blue knitted cardigan and black shirt.
‘Easy there, pilgrim,’ Salty whispered. ‘No need to do anything foolish.’
‘I – I think that should have been my line,’ the man said with a nervous smile. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Just takin’ a piss is all. I’ll zip up and be on my way.’
‘Don’t you move.’ The man raised his pistol, squeezing tighter on its handle. ‘Not one inch.’
‘OK. I hear ya. I ain’t movin’ a muscle. Why don’t you slowly back up and keep the gun on me, and then when you’re satisfied, maybe we can both go our separate ways.’
The man glanced nervously over his shoulder.
‘No tricks from me. I swear,’ Salty said.
The man’s posture visibly loosened and he managed to calm the shaking in his hands.
‘Stay where you are until I say,’ he said.
‘Sure thing,’ Salty replied.
The man began to shuffle backwards, but before he could move any sort of distance, O.B. sprang from the bushes as he buttoned-up his pants.
‘Man, I never want to do that ag—’
His sudden arrival startled the man so much, he tripped on a fallen branch. On his way down, his gun went off and the single shot rang out.
Salty dived behind the tree he’d just been pissing against to take cover. He emerged to the sound of O.B. groaning behind him.
The white-haired stranger scrambled to his feet, saw what he had done, and sprinted off into the trees as fast as his old legs would carry him.
O.B. took one glance down and screamed. The bullet had entered his thigh just above his left knee. The wound was already pulsing with blood.
‘Oh, God. Jake, help me,’ he said.
Salty knelt by his side to assess the damage.
‘I know, kid. Just hold still,’ he said.
‘What do I do?’
‘You don’t have to do anything, except lay there and try not to bleed to death,’ Salty said.
‘Oh, Jesus!’ O.B. placed a hand over his eyes, breaking out into a panic-induced sweat.
Salty used the blade of his hatchet to cut a piece of material from the arm of his shirt. He twirled it into something resembling a tourniquet and then wrapped it around O.B.’s leg, just above the wound.
‘Now, this is gonna hurt like a bitch.’ He knotted the fabric and pulled it tight.
O.B.’s yelling helped Raine and Ethan to find them. They’d already heard the gunshot, so when they saw O.B. bleeding on the ground, they through themselves down as a precaution.
‘He was shot?’ Raine said.
‘Some asshole came out of nowhere. He took off over there,’ Salty said. ‘I don’t think he even meant to do it. He’s just scared shitless.’
‘I’m going after him.’
‘Miller, wait,’ Ethan said, grabbing her shoulder. ‘Don’t you think we have a more pressing concern right now?’
Raine looked back at O.B. The bullet had embedded itself deep into his flesh. It didn’t appear to have struck a major artery, but if it wasn’t dealt with quickly, he was going to bleed out.
‘OK, let’s take him back to the car and see what we can do about removing the bullet,’ she said.
‘Think you can stand, kid?’ Salty said.
O.B. peeped out from between his fingers, dismayed by the blood oozing through his pants.
‘Not sure. I’ll give it a try.’
Assisted by the others, he attempted to get up, but as soon as he put the slightest amount of weight on his left leg, he yelled out and fell into a sitting position.
‘Ethan, go back to the car,’ Raine said. ‘There should be enough blankets to make a stretcher from.’
‘Sure.’
Before Ethan could start back, they heard a shout coming from the trees where the old man had made his escape.
‘Hey there!’ The voice didn’t sound like the man they’d encountered. It was lighter—younger.
They ducked low. Salty pushed O.B. down so he was lying flat again.
Raine adjusted herself on the ground to aim her rifle in the approximate direction of the voice.
‘I know you had a run in with my friend here. Anyone hurt?’
‘Your friend there shot someone in our group,’ Ethan shouted back.
‘Oh, man. They hurt bad?’
‘Any kind of gunshot is bad out here,’ Raine said. ‘It’s a leg wound.’
‘Right, well listen. It just so happens that I can help you out with that,’ the man said.
‘You a doctor?’ Raine said.
‘No, but I know a couple. I’m going to come out so we can talk face-to-face. Now, I have a rifle with me, but I’m gonna hold it up when I step out. I’m trusting that you won’t shoot at me. I’d like to remind you again that I have the means to help your friend get the treatment they need.’
‘OK, let’s see you,’ Raine said.
The man made good on his promise and stepped out from the trees. He was tall and slender—over six feet. He was indeed holding a rifle over his head. The rifle had an unusually long barrel and a telescopic sight.
‘My name’s Don McCaffrey,’ he said.
The other aspect of McCaffrey that was immediately apparent to them was his combat fatigues.
‘Shouldn’t there be a rank in front of that name, McCaffrey?’ Salty said.
‘If you insist, that’d be First Lieutenant McCaffrey,’ he said.
Raine got to her feet slowly, never taking her aim from her target, using the closest tree trunk as cover.
‘Where’s your trigger-happy buddy?’ Salty said.
‘He’s here with me, and we aren’t really buddies per se. His name’s Edwards. He’s a civilian. Found him hiding in a house outside of Rockwood. He’s pretty shaken up and hasn’t spoken much since. I told him to stay put while I went to check something out.’
‘I guess he’s not so good at following instructions then?’ Raine said.
‘I guess not,’ McCaffrey said.
‘Having said that, your friend isn’t the one that makes us nervous. Our interactions with the military since the outbreak haven’t exactly been favourable,’ Raine said.
‘I hear you there. Many of them have gone rogue. I had to put two down myself recently. Tried to ambush me and steal my stuff. I can assure you, I’m not like them.’
Raine paused to take a few breaths. The thought of just pulling the trigger to be on the safe side had crossed her mind, but she wasn’t sure if there were other members of his group nearby and the O.B. situation didn’t look good.
‘Come closer. Tell the civilian to come out too,’ she said.
McCaffrey glanced to his right.
‘It’s OK, Father. They aren’t gonna shoot us.’
‘Father?’ Salty said under his breath.
‘Just what we need,’ Ethan said.
The white-haired man crept gingerly into view and stood next to McCaffrey.
‘OK, we’re coming forward,’ McCaffrey said.
‘Nice and slow,’ Raine said.
‘You got it.’
McCaffrey seemed more boyis
h in appearance as he got closer, but with an air of maturity about him; maybe because he was significantly older than he looked. His cropped brown hair was spiked and uneven.
‘I’m strictly under orders out here, and those orders don’t include ghosting civilians,’ he said.
‘Orders from whom?’ Raine asked.
‘The government.’
‘What government?’
‘The government.’
‘You’re in contact with them?’ Ethan said.
‘Not anymore. We lost communications over a month ago. After the outbreak, we were stationed at a facility in the Adirondack Mountains. The military unit was sent to protect and facilitate a scientific team.’
‘For what purpose?’ Raine said.
‘To try and figure out what the hell happened, and how we can combat it.’
‘And did you?’ Ethan said. ‘Figure it out?’
‘We were making some progress. That was until we lost contact with central control and most of the personnel started deserting. There’s only five of us left now—one other soldier and three scientists. The good news for your friend is two of these scientists happen to also be medical surgeons. If we hurry, they can patch him up and make sure his wound doesn’t get infected.’
Edwards approached and stood on his tip toes so he could peer at O.B. and the damage he’d caused to his leg.
‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do it,’ he said.
‘Let’s make sure he pulls through before you start lookin’ for atonement, Father,’ Salty said, still holding out his arm for O.B. to squeeze while he moaned and fought against the pain.
Edwards looked away in shame and lowered his head.
‘This facility’s in the mountains, you say?’ Raine asked.
‘Yeah. I have a van. I can drive you there,’ McCaffrey said.
‘We have our own vehicle. How about you go get your van and meet us on the road below.’
‘No problem.’
‘In the meantime, Jake is going to take your weapons and accompany you—make sure you get back to us safely.’
On Raine’s command, Salty stepped away from O.B. and allowed Ethan to tend to him instead. He walked over to McCaffrey and relieved him of his sniper rifle. McCaffrey gave it up willingly before Salty turned to Edwards, gazing down to the pistol he had tucked into his pants.
Everything Dies [Season Two] Page 4