by Mark Lingane
The soldiers woke and milled around, becoming restless and occasionally aggressive toward each other.
After he came to the attention of some of Clint’s friends, Sebastian decided to scout around the area. He wandered the perimeter of the camp, looking closely at the ground. A couple of paw prints close to the camp surprised him. He wondered if the animals were braver here in North America, or, more worryingly, hungrier than they were back in Australia.
There was a sudden crack from one side, behind a fallen tree. He dived for cover under the large trunk and held his breath. He strained his hearing until he thought his ears would bleed, but heard nothing beyond natural sounds. He was about to move when he heard the thump of a heavy foot behind the trunk. He froze.
Another thump.
Then another.
Something big and heavy was walking on the other side of the fallen tree. He let his mind unwind, quietly tolerating the pain. He sensed something long, thin, and sharp. A weapon. There was a long, low growl, followed by a snuffling, then a similar sound by his feet. He cursed himself for leaving his sword behind; he was defenseless. He could feel his heart pounding.
Something itched on his head. He gently, and silently, shook it. The itching intensified. The footsteps continued slowly on the other side of the trunk. The itching was becoming maddening. He slowly moved his hand up and rubbed his scalp. He felt a sudden burning sensation and snatched back his hand. It was covered in spiders.
He let out a tiny gasp. The footsteps stopped. The growl returned.
The trunk shuddered as something heavy slammed into it. Another heavy foot thumped down on top of it. Mud, bark and dirt cascaded down over him. The shadow of a large hand appeared on the ground next to him. He’d seen its kind before. He prepared to run.
A gunshot echoed from the other side of the camp.
There was a grunt from above Sebastian’s head, followed by a soft whistle. Heavy footsteps hit the ground on the other side of the trunk and rapidly thumped away. He jumped up and looked over the other side of the tree. The ground had been trashed. Plants had been dug up, ripped out and pushed over, leaving a quagmire. A set of tracks headed into the forest.
There was another gunshot. He turned and ran back to the camp.
“Where the hell have you been?” roared Thomas.
“There’s something else out there,” he shouted. “Sulliv—”
“Not now, Sebastian. We have to go.” Thomas turned to Will. “Have you still got that pistol?”
Will nodded frantically.
“Then use the damn thing,” he shouted.
Will fired several shots into the trees.
Thomas reined in the panic running through the camp and rounded up the men before getting them into defensive positions. “Men, get your packs. We have to go.”
They scurried around, picking up their belongings.
Thomas went to Brad. “Can you move?”
“I’ll do my best.” Brad grimaced as he stood up. Memphis stood by him, providing support.
Will fired a few more shots.
“Don’t waste the bullets, Will, we only have a limited supply,” Brad called out, instantly regretting it. “And don’t shout, Brad, we have pain in unlimited supply,” he muttered as his face contorted in pain. He sensed a stillness, which he took to mean that their attacker had possibly retreated.
The troops stood still. There was silence. The silence continued.
“This is our chance,” Thomas called out. “Move!”
They cautiously made their way out of the camp. Will led the way, his pistol up and ready to fire.
27
THE MILES CRAWLED past, as did the hours, until they stumbled across a stream. Memphis, who was dripping sweat and aching from supporting Brad, eased him down onto a log and collapsed onto the ground in a star shape.
Sebastian quickly emptied his water flask down his throat, refilled it, and handed it to Memphis. She upended it over her face and dropped the flask on the ground.
“Will, what do you make of this location?” Thomas asked.
“It’s pretty solid.” Will glanced around the area. “Good cover to the north and west. Good visibility over the lower ground.” He nodded to himself.
“I agree. Give the order to rest.”
Will puffed up with the surprise authority and gave out the command. To his surprise, the men obeyed him.
Thomas went over to Brad, who was pale and wincing with every breath, and examined the wound. “It’s not great, but it could be worse. Medic, what have you got … medic?”
Memphis was asleep on the ground.
Thomas got up and fished through the traitor’s pack. He pulled out a small green tube and smiled. Dom would be using the medical supplies to cover up the symptoms of his addiction. “Hah, kaleen, the first bit of good news today. I didn’t see this in the dark last night.” He opened the tube and smeared the potion on the wound. “This will help.”
Brad bit his tongue, and his head lolled forward as he fought against the pain. He went as white as a sheet and collapsed back against the log.
Thomas sat back beside him and felt his own head sag forward with exhaustion. He looked at the young men and wondered what had happened to his own youth. It didn’t seem so long ago that he was one of them. Decades had disappeared. He had survived continual war, and now he was here, aching from head to toe from what was basically a forced march. Everything had been so much simpler when he was young. Good was good. Bad was bad. The enemy was the enemy, and you did what you were told. Now, everything had changed. His head fell forward and he drifted off into sleep.
Will looked over the men. The two warring sides seemed to be settling into a tight unit and were now having halting conversations. He felt a sense of pride that he had been given a position of responsibility. He enjoyed the thrill of authority. He looked out into the forest, then sat down and leaned back against a tree, folding his arms.
He watched Sebastian wander off, staring down at the ground and making his way out beyond the camp. Five minutes later, he returned and approached Will.
“Are there animals out there?” Sebastian asked.
“Like what?” Will continued his stoic gaze out into the wilderness.
“Dogs. Wolves. Zebras.”
Will looked sideways at him. “No zebras. But some wild coyotes have survived, which are like dogs or wolves.”
“Are they big?”
Will shrugged. “Not really. Maybe about two foot tall for a fully grown one.”
“Can you train them?”
“No. Why?”
“We’re being tracked,” Sebastian said.
“How do you know that?”
“Back home, we have people who are amazingly skillful at tracking people and animals.”
“And you brought one with you?”
Sebastian sighed and ignored the sarcasm. “I spent some time with them and learned a few basic techniques. At the last camp, I nearly ran into a …” He paused, not knowing how much to tell him. “A heavyset guy with a couple of big, dog-like creatures. The same tracks are out there.”
“You think it was a Charger? Did you see a uniform?”
“No. I was hiding.”
“That was brave,” Will said.
“We don’t have any weapons. Well, the rest of us have no weapons.” Sebastian indicated the pistol on Will’s belt.
“Couldn’t you use your powers?” Will wiggled his fingers in Sebastian’s face.
Sebastian knocked Will’s hand aside and glared at him. “There’s a physical cost to it, you know.”
He walked away and sat down next to the slumbering Memphis. He thought about waking her. She’d understand, he thought. These people really were idiots. What worried him the most was that Will hadn’t picked up on the threat from the mysterious creature in the woods, and the wolf-like beasts. They were out there, nearby, and waiting. But Will was too pig-headed to listen.
When Sebastian woke, general commotion had
erupted in the camp. Men were preparing food, and the smells drifted over toward him, making his mouth salivate. Thomas was in deep conversation with Will. Memphis was sitting on her own, crouching forward over her food, cautiously watching the men.
Brad stirred next to him. Thomas noticed, nodded to Will, and made his way over. Brad was able to sit up, but was still pale.
“I see the kaleen shot’s working. You want food?” Thomas asked.
“You’re not going to feed me.”
Thomas laughed. “I’ll get one of the men to heat you a ratpack. I doubt you’d like our foreign food. You still want to continue?”
Brad nodded. He indicated for Edward to come over. “How far to the dam?”
“I’ll get the fullback to check the grid,” Edward replied. He saluted and went back to the other men.
“Get me a pack, too,” Thomas shouted. He gave a wink to Brad.
Within minutes, Edward was back with two ration packs.
Thomas looked up into Edward’s face. “Do you have any actual men on your team, Brad? How old are you, boy?”
“Don’t call me boy,” Edward said. “I’m eighteen.”
“I don’t blame you. I was eighteen when I joined up. I say joined up, but what else are you going to do? Full of righteousness and confidence, I was. Ready to take on the world. Twenty years down the track and I’d say the world is winning.”
Brad laughed, then regretted it as his shoulder reminded him he’d been shot. Color returned to his face, but moving presented continued difficulty. “How many active Chargers are left in the south?” he asked Thomas.
“It’s hard to gauge. Everyone ran for it when the infected starting rampaging. There was no stopping them. You’ve never seen anything like it. They moved so fast it was impossible to fight back in any organized way. We fell like dominoes.”
“The outlaws are bad enough,” Brad said. “We don’t need any more independent enemies.”
“The infected are not enemies, they’re victors. The battle’s already lost.”
“Not if we can help it,” Brad said.
Thomas looked around at the sorry collection of exhausted soldiers. “I think you’re being unrealistically optimistic.”
“We might have a few surprises yet.”
Sebastian and Memphis sat to one side as the soldiers finished eating and prepared to leave.
Memphis nudged Sebastian. “I need to go to the bathroom. I don’t want any of these lug-heads barging in on me. Could you keep a lookout?”
He nodded.
They got up and walked a short distance into the trees. Sebastian decided not to tell her about the mutant beast and its monster wolves that were running around the forest after them. Or at least they were in his imagination.
Memphis found a bush that she felt was appropriate. She stepped behind it and Sebastian blushed and quickly turned his back. He sat down on a log a short distance away and let his gaze wander over the surrounding area. The back of his calf started to itch. He rubbed it and the irritation passed.
From behind the bush, Memphis was back onto her pet subject of how useless the soldiers were.
The itching came back, now on the back of his other leg. He scratched furiously and looked down. His feet were in the center of an ant nest. Suddenly, both legs felt like they were on fire. He jumped up and furiously swatted at his legs, but the insects were running up his thighs. He yelped, ripped open his belt and pulled his pants down. His legs were alive with the crawling and biting ants.
“Jeez, what are you doing out there?” Memphis said from behind the bush.
“Ants! Pants!” he managed to get out. He manically brushed them off his legs, feeling the relief as the pain ebbed away. “Ants,” he reiterated.
Memphis looked down. The ground was alive with ants. She shrieked and jumped up. The ant colony was swarming over her boots and onto her legs. She shuffled backward with her pants around her ankles. She yanked them up with one hand and leaped over to Sebastian, holding onto him as she swept the creatures away. Her foot caught and she toppled over, landing on the ground on her hands and knees.
Thomas appeared through the bushes. “We’ve been looking for you two everywhere … what are you doing?”
“Nothing. We’re not doing anything. We were searching for a secluded place …” Sebastian stumbled over his words, trying to be delicate.
“I can see that with your pants around your ankles. This is not the time or place for any inappropriate behavior.”
“What? No.” Sebastian quickly pulled up his pants.
“No!” Memphis yelled, struggling to pull up her pants and stand at the same time.
There was a shuffle behind Thomas and another soldier appeared. Memphis hung her head in embarrassment. Sebastian and Thomas gasped.
“Dom …” Thomas said.
Memphis’s head snapped up. She scrambled backward, trying to hide behind Sebastian.
Dom stepped forward and pointed his pistol at them. There was a large silencer screwed onto the end. Thomas and Sebastian raised their hands slowly.
“Step away from the girl,” Dom drawled. His eyes were milky, and the pupils were fully dilated. His skin was waxy and pale, with several dark red splotches almost the color of a birthmark.
Thomas glanced over toward Memphis. “Dom, you need to be reasonable. You’re outnumbered here, and we have weapons, too,” he lied.
Dom flicked the gun from side to side, indicating that they should both move away from Memphis.
“Dom, this is a bad idea,” Thomas said. “You need to give yourself up. We can work things out.”
Dom twitched. “I … I … you can’t offer anything. The deal’s been done.”
“What deal? Who have you—”
The bushes rustled and another Charger appeared, catching them all by surprise.
Dom wheeled around and shot the man, who clutched at his neck and collapsed. All they heard was the sound of compressed air. Dom let out a manic laugh, quickly turned, and ran. Thomas shouted and lunged after him, but the man was gone in the blink of an eye.
Edward came charging through the undergrowth, spotted the fleeing Dom and leaped after him. Dom twisted around and smashed the butt of his pistol into the side of Edward’s head. Edward crashed to the ground, landing heavily on his side, but he quickly rolled over, jumped up, and ran after the madman.
Dom disappeared before his eyes. He blinked in disbelief. He felt blood trickle down the side of his head and wiped it away.
He returned to the others, who were gathered around the unconscious Charger. Edward recognized him as the man who had swapped his lunch. He quickly dropped his pack and knelt down beside the fallen soldier. He opened up the man’s shirt and examined the wound.
“Pass me the medipack,” he said.
Thomas searched through Edward’s pack until he found the familiar green pack with the large white cross. “They’re the same as ours,” he said before handing it over. “They must be from the same supply source. Where do you get yours from?”
“The Peacemaker,” Edward said.
“So do we.”
When the man was bandaged, Sebastian and Edward carried him back to the camp. The men were standing around the fire, catching the last of the heat before they extinguished it. They were surprised to see the wounded soldier and quickly gathered around.
“What happened?” Brad said, as he hobbled over.
“Dom turned up,” Thomas replied.
“I nearly had him,” Edward said, “but man, could he move. I could use that drug if it makes you that fast.”
“It doesn’t,” Thomas said. “Crisis numbs your brain and slows you down. Something else is affecting Dom, and that’s worrying.”
The fallen Charger shuddered out a long breath.
Edward quickly knelt beside the man. “He’s gone,” he said, standing up.
Thomas pursed his lips as anger washed over his face. “We need to bury him.” He looked around at their surroundings.
“We need to be quick, though. There’s no telling when Dom will be back.”
There was a loud crack. The man next to Edward collapsed to the ground. Most of his head was missing. The bullets came slicing in. The fire exploded as a round landed in the flames and ignited.
“Take cover!” Brad yelled to the men.
Will ducked instinctively. “He’s still out there,” he shouted. “We’re easy targets.”
“If we stay here, we’ll all be dead targets.”
The soldiers leaped for cover behind trees. Bark exploded as the bullets pounded into the trunks. A round lodged into a tree next to Edward, who panicked and fell to his knees.
Thomas and a Forty-niner helped Brad to his feet, and they quickly ran behind a clump of bushes.
“What worries me is that he’s got a new weapon,” Thomas said. “Where and how?”
“I’m thinking the no-weapons idea wasn’t such a good idea,” Brad said.
Will fired several random shots into the vegetation and took cover behind a large tree. Tyler, the heavily muscled Charger tackle, was already there. Tyler tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to his left. Will was breathing heavily and sweating with fear.
“Calm,” Tyler hissed. “Wait, aim, and shoot.”
Will gave the older man a dark look. He took a couple of slow breaths, moved around the trunk of the tree, sighted down the barrel out into the foliage, and waited.
“Memphis, you got any explosives left?” Tyler called out.
She checked her belt. “Yes, a few,” she called from her hiding place behind the tree next to him.
“Will, when you get movement,” Tyler said, “give the coordinates to Memphis.”
More shots came in. A bullet grazed Will’s arm, ripping through his uniform and leaving a thin red line. He stood his ground and waited. Something moved and he fired. There was a quick shuffle between trees.
“Target. Eight o’clock,” Will called to Memphis.
Memphis aimed and threw an explosive just as a number of rounds impacted around her. She dived back for cover. They all heard the thud as the grenade landed. They also heard the ripping of leaves followed by frantic footsteps charging through the undergrowth.