And there was no way the boys would survive an encounter like that.
"Oh my god!" Bix exclaimed. "Are you freaking nuts? No way am I crossing this!"
Finn frowned. "I'm supposed to be the one afraid of heights, remember?"
He reached forward and slapped one of the metal cables on the bridge. It barely moved, proving that the structure was solidly anchored, as if the thick aluminum posts embedded in concrete weren't enough to convince them.
Three years of neglect had had no noticeable effect on its integrity at all.
"We're not going to fall, Bix."
"Well, ain't gonna lie," Adrian said, and gave the boys a wide grin at the irony. "It's possible y'all could fall."
Full introductions had been made the day before, which is when they discovered Adrian was really Father Adrian Bowman. Despite knowing he was a religious man, the boys were reluctant to entrust more to him than their names.
The woman's name was Jennifer McCoy.
Father Adrian pointed at a metal cable running eight feet above their heads. "Used to hook people up to that in case they slipped. But we ain't got no harnesses."
"It's not the fall I'm worried about," Bix said, peering over the edge. "It's the landing. That's a long way down."
Adrian handed his reins over to Jennifer and got off his horse to join the boys. "I done crossed this bridge dozens of times myself. It's perfectly safe. Nothin to be skeered of." He gave the boys a mischievous wink. "Long as y'all don't look down."
"Adrian!" Jennifer scolded. "Don't go scarin them like that. You boys don't listen to him. He likes to tease."
"It's all right, Miss McCoy," Bix said. "Like I said, I ain't crossing it."
"Ain't?" Finn said. He was beginning to lose his patience with him. "Fine, I guess we'll be walking an extra forty or fifty miles out of our way then."
"The reverend will cross over with you, won't you?" Bix said. "I'll go with Miss McCoy. We'll be fine."
"It's Jennifer, please. Or Jenny."
Since rising that morning, it had seemed to Finn that Bix was paying her an inordinate amount of attention, feeding her an unending stream of flattery that bordered on blatant flirtation. Finn kept waiting for Father Bowman to get angry, but the man seemed as amused with Bix's hapless attempts to curry Jennifer's favor as she appeared to relish in the attention. "I think yer partner there's tryin to sweet talk his way into the lady's heart," Adrian confided to Finn along the way.
"More like trying to sweet talk himself into a permanent seat at her kitchen table."
The man had laughed heartily, though quietly. It was a wheezing sound, nearly silent. Both he and Jennifer were always careful to keep their voices down. They never dropped their guard.
As they rode along on the horses or walked alongside so the boys could rest, they always kept a hand on the stun guns in their hip holsters and their eyes constantly on the trees about them. They listened intently both before and after speaking.
They had made their night's camp soon after Finn felt steady enough to walk. There was still ample daylight left but, as Adrian said, it was better to settle in with light to spare than to enter the darkness ill-equipped.
Both boys found their preparations fascinating. The couple picked out their spot with utmost care, quietly weighing the strategic advantages and weaknesses of the location. They then established a wide perimeter around a central point, which would be their campfire, and they strung bare wires about them using the trees as posts. One was at shin height, the other two feet higher. To these, they added motion sensors.
"The alarm is a siren," Adrian explained. They had learned that the noise confused the Wraiths — ferals, as they called them. Simultaneously, flashing spotlights would be triggered, which had a similar effect on their senses. Then, around the outside on all sides, they carefully placed claymore mines.
The setup was powered by a pair of twelve volt batteries, which they unloaded from the packs balanced on the horses' rumps.
"Don't touch the wires," Adrian warned. "Not unless y'all enjoy gettin a little juiced." he clutched his sides as he laughed, as if the image were hilarious. The boys exchanged uncertain glances before chuckling. "And don't step outside the wires, neither."
"Don't pee on the wires, either," Bix whispered to Finn. Jennifer snorted in amusement, bringing a grin to Bix's face.
"You shouldn't encourage him," Finn told her.
The couple took turns keeping watch; not a minute passed when one of them wasn't prowling the edge of the campfire. Bix slept like a baby, but Finn couldn't seem to settle down. And despite his offers to take a turn guarding the camp, neither Jennifer nor Adrian would hear of it.
They had set out early the next morning after disassembling the alarms and traps, and it was then that the boys learned how the pair had settled in at a sprawling ranch on a small lake about a day's hike north of where they were.
The ranch had been a hunting lodge before the Flense, probably owned by some television celebrity. It was empty when they found it, free of Wraiths because of its remoteness and the ten-foot rock wall surrounding the compound.
"You live there alone?"
"Us and the boys, Billy and Luke," Jennifer told them. "But people come and go all the time. Father Adrian ministers to them as needed."
They had installed electrical wires along the wall as an extra precaution after moving in. There were additional measures for security, which Adrian promised to tell them about later.
To Finn, the place sounded like an impenetrable fortress, and once more the specter of worry raised its uninvited head. He hated that he was being so paranoid.
"With that kind of protection, why leave?" he asked. He was curious what they were doing so far away.
"Tryin to figure out why there are more ferals lately," Father Adrian reminded them.
"And we have to gather food and supplies, of course," Jennifer said. "But then there's also our work."
"Work?"
"Figurin out how to rid the world of the sickness," she explained. "What else? That sometimes means leavin the safety of home behind."
"A scientist and a minister? How does that work?"
She smiled. "First, I ain't no scientist, though I do take a more logical approach." She shrugged. "Adrian's way is more . . . ."
"Spiritual," he said.
"He believes the ferals can be saved."
"Y'all make the best of what yer given," Adrian said. "I am the good Lord's instrument."
Finn turned to Jennifer. "Have you had any luck?"
"Some," they replied together.
"We were trying to figure it out, too," Bix said. "Inside the dam—"
"Cabin," Finn quickly interjected. "The dam cabin we were in. In the woods. But we're not scientists either, and we never got very far. Do you have any idea how the Flense, you know, how it works?"
He hoped Bix picked up on his caution. The last thing he wanted to share was what Seth Abramson had told them a few days before.
"Well, like I said, I ain't got no formal scientific schooling," Jennifer said. "I know about medicines, bein as I worked in a pharmacy. But there's school learnin and there's life learnin, and I've lived a lot of life these past three years. We know, for example, that these stun guns can do more than just slow them down. The shock seems to block their ability to infect."
"Really?" Finn asked, surprised.
Both Adrian and Jennifer nodded. "That tells us something, right? Once we figure out how to completely stop them from spreadin the disease," she went on, "then maybe we can cure the poor souls."
"Physically and spiritually," Adrian added.
"That'd be truly awesome," Bix remarked, sounding more and more like he was possessed with the spirit of Scarlett O'Hara. The fake accent had initially amused Finn, but by the time they reached the footbridge, it was really starting to grate on him.
The sun was fully up, though a chill still lingered in the air. The cloudless day promised to be a hot one.
; "We're sticking together," Finn said, putting the subject to rest. "No splitting up."
He stepped out onto the narrow metal grate that formed the base of the bridge and bounced on it. It felt as solid as the ground.
"Either we both cross here, or all four of us go all the way around. I don't know about you, Bix, but I'm tired of sleeping on the ground." He stretched, and his back gave an audible pop.
"I slept just fine," Bix countered, though Finn could tell his resolve was weakening.
"Course y'all did," Jennifer said, winking at Finn. "Nothin like fresh air and sleepin out neath the stars. But I bet a real bed sounds real nice, don't it?"
Bix gave the gorge a wary look.
"We get back early enough, I might even have time to cook us up a decent meal."
"Fried chicken?"
"Maybe tomorrow. How does fresh bacon and eggs sound?"
"Oh my god. Bacon? Seriously? You guys promise to meet us on the other side? You won't ditch us?"
Finn rolled his eyes.
"Truth be told," Adrian said, "we're actually real fortunate runnin into y'all. We're in the middle of a project at the ranch and could use some strong hands fer a day or two. That sound like we're gone ditch y'all?"
"What kind of help?" Finn asked, suspiciously. "And what do you mean by a couple days?"
"Two days at the most," Mister Bowman assured him. "We're in the middle of raisin a new barn."
"His church," Jennifer said, drawing air quotes with her fingers.
"The last one collapsed. We really could use some strapping boys in gettin the sides up."
"And the fence needs repairin," Jennifer reminded him.
"Fence always needs repairin. But I cain't ask fer yer help on that. Not unless y'all decide to stay a bit longer."
"I don't know . . ." Finn began. They hadn't discussed spending more than a single night.
"Y'all are eager to be movin on. We get that. But give us a couple days, three at the most, and we'd be much obliged to return the favor."
He turned and addressed Finn directly. "Y'all must see how ill prepared you are for the challenges ahead."
Finn hesitated before nodding. Seeing the precautions the couple took to protect themselves told him that he and Bix had been lucky that their first encounter had been with nice people instead of Wraiths.
"Then it's agreed? We meet up again on the other side. Tonight we dine in style!"
They told the boys which roads to follow after crossing, and provided them each with a stun gun and a rifle to share between them. "Doubt you'll be needin either. We done cleared out the other side of the river a while back, but those things do move about. And with the activity lately, it's better to be safe than sorry."
Finn watched them go, then turned toward the cable bridge. He expected to have to pull Bix onto the structure by force, but his friend was already twenty feet out and moving steadily toward the other side.
"Guess I know what to bribe you with from now on," Finn called over to him, and set a foot onto the walkway. "Bacon."
"Bacon or Scooby snacks. Or Cheetos."
Finn's stomach growled. He grabbed the metal cable rail and began to follow. "Least you could do is wait for me."
"I'm out of bullets!" Nami shouted, kicking the dead Wraith off the roof of the bus and onto the hood. It hit with a sickening crunch, bounced, then slid off onto the ground.
Another shot rang out, this time from the rear of the bus. Nami looked back in time to see the Wraith, a shallow, bloody notch carved out of its skull, reaching out for Kari. It almost looked like it was pleading with her not to shoot it again.
But then it bared it teeth and began to pull itself higher.
Kari drew a foot back to kick it, but the creature suddenly disappeared, pulled down by another climbing up to get at them.
The children huddled in the middle of the roof of the bus, near the hatch they had used to climb up top. Eddie Mancuso stood between them and Nami, guarding the group from any Wraiths that might scale the sides, while Harrison Blakeley and Kari protected the back.
"You out?" Nami called.
"One more!" Kari shouted back. She held Jonathan's pistol with both hands, waiting for another Wraith to breach the top.
"Make it count!" Nami said, and turned back. Susan stood with him, stomping and kicking at the skeletal fingers as they searched for something to grab onto.
Kari had driven them five miles out of town before stopping to see if the Wraiths would follow. They had, appearing in the distance on the moonlit road just over twenty minutes later.
What had happened back in the town shocked them all, and they were still unable to process that Allison was dead. Or that they had left Jonah and Danny behind. They had no idea where to go or what to do.
"Go back," Susan told her. "We need to get Jonah and Danny."
Kari started the bus up again and shifted it into gear, but instead of turning around, she drove on, putting more distance between them and the town.
"Did you hear me?"
"We need distance," Eddie said, drawing Susan away. "Thirty, forty miles."
"Why the hell for?"
"Because we don't know what's happened to the guys. We may have to search for them, and that'll take time. Plus, we're in seriously bad shape." He pointed at the oil pressure gauge. "Engine's heating up. We need that oil Kari and Nami found, and that'll take time, too."
"We think we found," Kari clarified. She didn't sound so sure anymore.
They arrived at another crossroads about twenty-five miles outside of town, and there ensued another argument. Kari preferred to avoid another encounter with the creatures, whereas Susan was all for running them down.
In the end, they decided to take the side road and return from a different direction rather than risk heading back the same way.
They waited for three hours at the intersection, keeping the engine in idle as they didn't dare to shut it off again, before the first ones showed up or the horizon.
"Don't those things ever give up?" Hannah asked.
Nobody answered or challenged Eddie when he turned onto the side road.
They had less than five miles to go when the bus hit a deep sand drift and became mired.
Eddie, Harry, Susan and Kari got off to dig them out, while Nami, the two teenage girls and both Rollins boys climbed up onto the roof to keep watch.
The desert shone with an eerie silver light beneath the nearly full moon, but eventually clouds began to form, erasing what features they could discern.
"Hurry up guys," Nami hissed down at them.
Three times they returned to the bus. Three times they tried to drive out of the drift. Three times they failed.
Nami and the others had just climbed back topside when Bren detected movement a hundred yards away. "Oh my god! They're here! They're coming!"
All but Jonathan managed to make it onto the roof. He was too sick, too weak to move, despite the others pleading for him to hurry. They held the hatch open, but then his coughing abruptly stopped, and they knew the Wraiths had made it inside the bus.
Their only consolation was that the sky was beginning to lighten by then. Blessed morning was creeping across the desert. If it hadn't been for the advantage the light afforded them, the Wraiths would surely have taken them within minutes.
"We can't hold them off forever!" Kari yelled.
"How many are there?"
"I count seven," Eddie said, hurrying over to kick another one loose. The bus rocked as the creature lost its grip and fell off.
The shift caused Nami to lose his footing. His legs were already weak with fatigue, weaker than the others because of his three years hiding inside a dank cave and perpetual near-starvation conditions. He simply had no stamina. He fell to his knees and found that he simply had no more strength to stand up again.
"Behind you!" Kari shouted. "Get up!"
Something grabbed Nami's boot and pulled. There was a snap! and a bolt of pain tore up his leg. "Help me!" he
screamed.
Without thinking, Susan grabbed his arms to keep him from sliding off. There was nothing to plant her feet onto. She leaned back but began to slip as another Wraith climbed up, using its companion as a bridge.
"Let go of him!" Harry yelled. He jabbed at a Wraith pulling itself up from one of the bus's windows. It snarled at him and slapped the weapon away, sending it flying to the ground nine feet below. "Jesus Christ, Susan, let go of him! He's going to bring the rest of them up! Let go!"
"No!" Nami shrieked. "Oh, god. No! I'm not infected!"
His knee hyper-extended, twisted the wrong way. One of his hands slipped out of Susan's grip, and he began to slide over the side.
"I'm sorry," Susan said. She shook her head. "I can't hold you."
"Noooo!"
With a roar of defiance, Eddie leaped over the huddled children and landed hard on the roof beside Susan. He grabbed Nami's flailing hand and pulled. Susan fell back, letting go to catch herself from tumbling over the other side of the bus.
Eddie lifted Nami by the arm, drawing the two Wraiths up with him, and lashed out at them with his foot. One fell immediately, slamming into the dirt. The second emitted a vicious growl and lunged at him.
Nami's body twisted as he tried to avoid being touched. He screamed in pain and grabbed at his dislocated shoulder.
The Wraith let go and scrambled onto the slick surface of the bus. A half second later, it regained its feet and charged. Eddie let Nami fall from his grip. The man crumpled to the roof, writhing in agony. Susan screamed in terror. The creature was too fast.
But Eddie was even faster. He stepped aside at the last possible moment, just as the Wraith leapt. The snarling creature flew past him, its arms and legs a blur, and disappeared over the other side.
"We are not losing anyone!" Eddie shouted.
"They've stopped," Kari said. "They're leaving!"
Eddie turned to look. The Wraiths had indeed retreated.
"What are they doing?"
Six were all that remained. They seemed to have given up. But then they regrouped.
"They're heading to the front!"
The survivors knew that they couldn't defend against a concentrated attack, not when those things could sustain a seemingly endless assault. Even with Eddie's help, the risk of being touched was too great.
Condemn (BUNKER 12 Book 2) Page 5