Tears glistened in Piotr’s eyes. “I ran around the outside of the school to get to my wife and son. I knew they would have locked themselves in our room and thought that maybe I could get in through the window. By the time I’d reached the room, I watched the diseased smash the door down and swarm the place. I saw them attack my family.” Several tears ran down Piotr’s cheeks when he looked at Flynn. “Alexander, or Sasha as we called him, would be your age now.”
It suddenly made sense to Vicky to see this side of Piotr. His shut-off nature and coldness except for when he looked after Flynn. “You did everything you could have done,” she said.
The large man pulled his shoulders back and lifted his wide chest with a steadying breath as he stared at the bank of monitors. “It doesn’t feel like it,” he replied.
Silence for what felt like the longest time before Vicky said, “So, we meet in the foyer at nine tomorrow morning.” She didn’t give the others an opportunity to reply. Instead, she turned around and left the room.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
A disrupted sleeping pattern had left Vicky all over the place. Her eyes stung as if they’d been bathed in chlorine, and she fought to push her panic down every few seconds as it rose inside of her. To sit down made it worse, so she got to her feet and paced up and down in the canteen.
Vicky currently had the space to herself, but that would soon change. Even after years of not having to get up for work, it seemed like at least at third of the community were early risers. As an insomniac, she obsessed about other people’s sleeping patterns and always saw the same faces at similar times of day.
A look at the screens on the wall and the time read 5:45. Another five minutes would be ideal, but she couldn’t wait any longer.
As Vicky walked down the corridor towards the monitor room, she increased her pace to try to wake herself up and spend some of her nervous energy.
The sharp bite of bleach in the air seemed to make her eyes sting worse than before.
When Vicky got to the monitor room, she looked up and down the corridor. It seemed clear. She knocked.
It sounded like Serj had been sleeping from the way he said, “Uh … hello?”
Vicky walked in to find him blinking as if trying to wake up, and she raised an eyebrow at him. He blushed but didn’t say anything.
“It’s ten to six,” Vicky said. “I reckon we can go and wake Scoop up now and get her down here.”
When Serj stood up, his wheeled chair scooted out away from him. He stretched up to the ceiling and groaned before he bent over and touched his toes.
“We ain’t got time for yoga, you know?”
“Nice,” Serj said.
“What?”
“I get it, because I’m Indian, I do yoga.”
Even with the stress of what lay before them, Vicky smiled. “Do you?”
A sharp sniff and Serj straightened his back. “That’s not the point. Don’t be so racist!”
When Vicky said nothing in response, Serj snapped, “I’ll meet you in the canteen in five minutes. I need to piss first.”
“Fine, I’m going to get a crossbow and some hammers for the people in Moira’s prison. I’ll hide my harness and weapons in the canteen so Scoop doesn’t see them.”
***
The canteen still remained empty by the time Serj entered, and the screens now read 5:55. As the man walked toward her, Vicky pointed for him to wait in the corner with her things. It would be better if Scoop thought him to still be in the monitor room. She then walked up the short flight of stairs to Home’s foyer.
As Vicky had expected, Scoop had fallen asleep again. She walked over to the woman and gently tugged on her shoulder.
Scoop woke up with a deep inhale, her eyes spreading wide and fixing on Vicky. “Have you found her?”
The tiredness returned to Scoop’s face when Vicky shook her head and she screwed up her features. “Then why the fuck are you waking me up?”
“It’s your turn in the monitor room.”
A scowl remained on Scoop’s face and Vicky readied herself to defend the woman’s attack. But she seemed to wake up a little and shook her head before she got unsteadily to her feet. “I’ll go to the toilet and then relieve him.”
Vicky smiled in acknowledgement to her.
A second after Scoop left, Serj appeared in the foyer and handed Vicky her things. She slipped her harness on and strapped her crossbow to it, held onto the three small hammers, and unlocked the front door. “I reckon we have five minutes to get out of sight,” she said. “She’s going to the toilet first, so that gives us a little bit longer to get out of the monitor’s field of vision. You ready for this?”
Instead of nodding, Serj raised his eyebrows.
Vicky couldn’t argue with him. How could he be ready with what they had to face? “Okay,” she said and pulled the door wide, the fresh morning air rushing into the place. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The early morning chill lit up Vicky’s skin with gooseflesh. Although she’d be bound to warm up soon with the pace her and Serj moved at. The dewy grass soaked her combat trousers and whipped at her thighs as she sprinted through it. Her feet coped with the uneven ground just fine, and she screwed her face up against the light pinpricks from the cold mist.
Vicky pushed on with a new crossbow and harness strapped to her, her knife down the back of her trousers, and three small hammers in her right grip. Once they’d checked on the diseased, she’d drop the hammers with the prisoners in Moira’s community. She listened to Serj pant as he ran next to her.
Before long the June sun would burn away the mist, but at six in the morning it would be a little while still. Vulnerable to an attack due to their lack of visibility, neither of them spoke as they looked for the diseased, their breaths turning to condensation in the sharp air.
“Hey!” The sound cut through the still morning. A startled crow cawed as it burst to life beside Vicky.
Vicky spun around, all three hammers raised as she faced the direction of the sound. Not that she needed to panic. Ten years of living with the same person made them easy to identify, whether they were hidden by the mist or not.
Before he appeared, Vicky lowered her hammers.
At first a silhouette, Flynn became more recognisable the closer he walked to them. He threw his arms in the air. “What the hell are you two doing? I thought we said nine o’clock.”
Although Serj drew a breath to speak, Vicky cut him off. “We’re checking on the diseased. We need to make sure everything’s okay before we go to Moira’s community. And we want to take these to her prisoners.” She held up the three hammers.
“Bullshit.”
Vicky frowned at him. “Huh?”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Watch your tongue. And why would I lie about taking the hammers to the prisoners? They need to smash the concrete up so they can get the fence free from it and escape. We need to get these to them before we set the diseased loose.”
No more than a metre separated them at that point and Flynn shook his head. “I didn’t say you weren’t going to drop the hammers off first, but why do it now? Why so early?”
“So I can do it while most of Moira’s community sleeps. Do you fancy sneaking down there in broad daylight?”
A shake of his head and Flynn screwed his face up at her. “I’ve known you ten years, Vicky.”
They were now out of the camera’s field of vision, so Vicky remained stationary and scanned around for diseased. “What’s knowing me for ten years got to do with anything?”
“I know when you’re lying. You may have planned on dropping the hammers off with the community, but there’s more to it than that. You’re planning on letting the diseased out before nine o’clock, aren’t you?”
There seemed little point in hiding the truth from him now. “Look, there are a few very good reasons for that.”
“Like?”
“Meisha’s over there.�
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Flynn’s jaw dropped so quickly it looked like it had instantly dislocated. Once he’d recovered, he said, “Why haven’t you told Scoop?”
A look around again and Vicky saw nothing. The sound of the diseased rode on the wind toward them from the pen, but nothing else. “Does she know you’ve come out here?”
Flynn shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
Serj stepped forward. “Hopefully he got out before she made it to the monitor room. Does anyone know you’ve come out?”
Another shake of his head.
“Okay,” Vicky said. “We’ve not told Scoop because it won’t achieve anything. Meisha’s been bitten. If Scoop knew about that, she’d want to get her out and we can’t afford to do that.”
“She’s in the pen?”
Vicky looked at Serj, who seemed to be dividing his time between the argument in front of him and their surroundings. “Yes, but it’s not her daughter anymore. What’s trapped in that pen is a twisted version of the beautiful girl we all knew. She’s no more than a poisoned shell now. A rotting mess that doesn’t even know she’s Meisha.”
Flynn paused and stared at Vicky. “And what was the other good reason for you lying?”
Vicky said, “You.”
“Me?”
Tension gripped Vicky’s shoulders and lifted them to her neck. “Look, you’re not going to like this.”
“Just spit it out.”
“I wanted to protect you.”
A shake of his head and Flynn pulled his hair from his eyes. The sides of his jaw tensed and relaxed as he glared at her. “When will you let me grow up?”
The genesis of tears itched Vicky’s eyes. Her vision blurred. “I’m not sure I ever can. Whenever I want to let you take more responsibility, I think of your mum and dad. I think about what they would do and how they would feel if my decision led to your death.”
“You can’t protect me forever, Vicky.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to try.”
“I’m coming with you,” Flynn said and he walked off towards the pen.
Vicky caught up with him. “No, you’re not. You need to go back to Home.”
“If you don’t let me come with you, I’ll go back to the community, and I’ll tell them everything.”
Vicky looked at Flynn and then at Serj, who had also fallen into stride with them. What could she do? A deep sigh and she shook her head at him. “You listen to what we say, okay?”
Flynn nodded.
“I’m being serious. I don’t want any of your jumped-up teenager bullshit.”
Flynn nodded again.
“Right.”
The sound of the diseased had already grown louder for the few metres they moved forward. Maybe they’d been resting before. Maybe they’d heard the argument and had grown agitated. Whatever the reason, they seemed riled.
“I’m still not happy about this,” Vicky said as they crested the hill just before the pen. “And you’re not coming to Moira’s community with me. You and Serj can wait here while I …” She didn’t finish her sentence.
Although Vicky focused in front of her, she didn’t need to look at Serj and Flynn to know they’d be doing the same. Despite opening and closing her mouth, she couldn’t find the words.
Serj did a pretty good job when he said, “Fuck! They’ve got out.”
“Or they’ve been let out,” Flynn said.
Chapter Forty
Vicky stood frozen to the spot as she stared straight ahead. The other two on either side of her did the same. They all watched the diseased wander through the mist. Limp jawed, limp limbed, and uncoordinated, the monsters moved with an aimless ramble, ready to focus their hive mind on whatever presented itself to them.
“Who do you think did it?” Flynn said, leaning close to Vicky so she could hear his whisper.
“Who do you think?” Vicky replied.
Serj shook his head. “We should have let them out sooner. You know what, fuck it. After all the effort we’ve put in, maybe we should still lead them to Moira’s community.”
The clouds of condensation formed in front of Vicky with more frequency than before as her breathing sped up. Driven by her rapid pulse, she tried to slow it down, but she had no control over her panic at that moment. She lifted the hammers. “How will I get these to the prisoners?”
“It might be too late for them,” Serj said.
“But I made a promise.” Vicky shook her head and spoke to the ground. “I should have freed them days ago.”
“We need to do something. Standing here like lemons won’t help us.” When Flynn spoke, he’d raised his voice a little bit too loud and it carried across the quiet morning.
Vicky’s heart beat in her neck to see one of the diseased spin around and stare straight at him. Recognition—or as close to recognition as could register on the diseased’s face with its eyes still dead and jaw still limp—lit it up and it opened its mouth.
“Come on,” Vicky hissed as she tugged on Flynn’s shoulder.
By the time the diseased loosed its scream, the three of them had spun on their heels and were sprinting back towards Home’s entrance.
Just a few steps into their retreat, one scream turned into many.
Vicky had been here before countless times, but not often with Flynn beside her. She’d heard someone say they didn’t know fear until they had children. She finally understood that.
The long grass dragged on Vicky’s retreat. The diseased had to run the same path as them. Surely it would slow them down too. Enraged screams came after them in a wave.
A glance behind and Vicky nearly lost the strength in her legs. The pack had seemed numerous when penned, but now it looked like twice the amount.
Vicky turned back around and faced the entryway to Home, every footstep rolling as it coped with the undulations in the ground.
When Vicky got a few steps closer, she saw the mist had cleared a little, revealing the sign above the entryway to Home. The others clearly saw it too because Flynn uttered a breathless, “What the hell?”
A huge white banner—a sheet or something similar—painted red. From the distance between them and the banner, it looked like blood. If Vicky knew Moira at all, they’d probably find out whose fairly soon. It read We’ve found your pets. Now it’s time for you to join them.
Another look behind. Maybe they’d gained on them, Vicky couldn’t tell, but she couldn’t let up either.
The sound of her own ragged breaths rang through Vicky’s head as she sprinted, and she pulled her door key from around her neck. A stampede behind them, she couldn’t quite feel the thud of their feet through the ground, but much closer and it would shake as if an earthquake ran through it. The reek of rot had caught up to her, and with every lungful she inhaled the noxious stench. It damn near gagged her.
Before Vicky could pull the key from around her neck—her damp trousers chafing on her thighs as she ran—the door to Home opened and Scoop stood in the doorway. It gave Vicky the extra burst she needed and she opened up a gap between her and the other two, running into Home before them.
Once in the foyer, Vicky spun around and called out, “Come on! Hurry up. They’re gaining on you.”
Flynn looked almost as pained as the mob of diseased chasing him. He winced, his mouth open wide from the effort of the sprint.
Everything seemed to drop into slow motion at that point. Like Vicky had done, Flynn turned around to look at the mob behind him as he ran. Although, unlike Vicky, he tripped as he looked over his shoulder. One moment, Vicky watched him run, the next he vanished into the long grass.
Serj—who ran next to Flynn—continued on, clearly oblivious to his fall. He sprinted into Home like Vicky had.
“Where’s Flynn?” Serj said once he’d spun around, his entire body rising and falling with his gasps.
Vicky didn’t answer him. Instead, she darted outside and sprinted towards the fallen Flynn. Hammers still in hand, she wound them back
and swung them into the jaw of the diseased at the front of the pack. Two more came at her and Vicky dealt with them, each blow from the heavy metal tools cracking as they sank into a jaw and then a cheekbone. Blood sprayed away from the impact both times and the second and third diseased fell to the ground.
Before any more could jump them, Vicky reached down to Flynn, took his hand and pulled him to his feet.
The boy seemed hurt and unable to put pressure on his ankle. Hopefully no more than a twist, Vicky shoved him back toward Home. “Go, now. I’ll cover you.”
Vicky faced the diseased again and swung for the monsters as they descended on her. Each blow scored a hit and each blow drained her energy that little bit more than the previous one. No way could she fight them all.
Vicky took down the seventh and eighth diseased, the vibration down the handle of the hammers making her hands buzz. Now she’d taken down the lead runners, she didn’t have long before the rest of the pack caught up.
When Vicky looked behind to see Flynn had stumbled into Home, she took off after him.
The second Vicky sprinted through Home’s front door, Serj slammed it shut and slid the bolts across.
The only sound for the next few seconds came from the heavy breaths of the three as they recovered from their run. A few moments later the loud booms of the diseased crashed into Home’s front door and windows. One after the other, they peppered the front of Home like a meteor shower.
Scoop spoke first. She pressed her face against one of Home’s large windows and tilted her head to the side as her voice cracked. “Meisha?”
Chapter Forty-One
The Alpha Plague 6: A Fast-Paced Post-Apocalyptic Thriller Page 13