August Burning (Book 2): Survival

by Tyler Lahey

  “He must be killed. When can we strike? Jaxton, tell me, when can we strike?”

  The other soldiers crowded around, the visions of their comrades being cut down a few nights prior still burning bright in memory. They were eager, and hurting.

  Jaxton sensed their pain. “The Citadel is too well defended. It cannot be there. He has doubled the night guards, and keeps the weapons under close guard. He suspects not all of you have been killed. Daily patrols go out, searching endlessly. No, it will have to be outside the sanctuary.”

  Adira racked her brain, forcing it to churn despite the malnourishment. “What about the hillsmen?”

  “Who?” Troy demanded, sensing an opening.

  “We don’t even know who they are. Agis has made speeches about them though, about the threat they pose. He’s trying to keep the survivors blinded, prevent them from thinking about the massacre, he wants them afraid. Agis wants to take the hillsmen down, on their own turf. He says the town won’t be ours until we do.”

  “Who are they? More survivors?”

  “Not quite,” Jaxton said. “They’re infected. I know that. But they’re different. They retain some mental faculties, it seems. It’s like they’re fighting the infection, or something. I don’t know.”

  Troy’s bloodshot eyes lit up. “Beta infected.”

  “What?”

  “They’re beta infected. Genetic mutation, or something. I don’t think they totally figured it out. It happens to a very tiny minority of people, .01% or something. Their bodies handle the virus differently. They are humans still…but barely. Their intelligence is severely reduced, with the instincts of an infected. Some can even speak.”

  “One spoke to us, to me. They could have killed us, but they didn’t,” Jaxton affirmed with bright eyes.

  Troy nodded. “It’s very hit or miss. There’s no telling what they will do. Their bodies are a constant battleground for the infection. The power of the virus, it changes like a pendulum. At times, the infection will dominate their psyche, and you wouldn’t be able to differentiate them from normal infected, from the alpha infected. Other times, they appear like incredibly sick humans, with dumbed down brain functions. Wild-cards. There’s a group of them, here?”

  “There is. They inhabit a certain area of the town, near the northern ridge. Deep forest.”

  “And this son of a bitch, this fucking Lieutenant? He wants to march out, and take them on?”

  “That’s what it sounds like.”

  Troy nodded ferociously, like a rabid animal. “That’s where we do it. We let him challenge the betas, and that’s where we take him.”

  …

  Bennett could barely keep his eyes open. They were being tugged shut. And his head was swimming. He reached out and knocked over a plastic bottle.

  “You’re too fucked up. Again.” He could hear Layla’s voice breaking through his delirium, and it comforted him. He wished it was Adira’s, though. His hands found purchase on her hips, and in the darkness he tugged. She gave way with a grunt of disgust.

  “What are you so worked up about?” He heard her ask.

  “Is there any more?”

  She tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her. “No. You snorted it all.”

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I shouldn’t have.”

  She stopped struggling. “It’s ok,” she sighed. “Are you ok?”

  “No. No, no, no, no. I’m not, you bitch. I’m not ok.”

  Layla tried to rise once more.

  “Wait, no, I’m sorry. I’m sorry again. Come back. Don’t leave me alone.”

  “God you’re awful like this,” she said with barely contained disgust.

  “I fucked up, baby, I fucked up.”

  “What did you do?” she asked, suddenly invested.

  “I shot at my friend,” Bennett wailed.

  “What friend? What are you talking about?”

  “Troy. He was friend, friend of mine from …college, before this.”

  “This Troy… he was in that army convoy?” Layla asked slowly. “The one that was going to attack us?”

  “They weren’t going to attack us.”

  Layla recoiled, as if struck. “Of course they were. Agis said-“

  “I know what Agis said. We attacked them. And I shot at my friend.”

  Layla shook her head in exasperation. “Ok, you shot at your friend. How do you know this? Did you see his face that night?”

  Bennett tried to look at her eyes, but he couldn’t find them. “Troy isn’t dead.”

  She grabbed him and shook violently. “What do you mean…Bennett what do you mean he isn’t dead?”

  “I heard…I heard Liam and Elvis talking…I snuck to their room….I wanted to find…Adira. But I heard them. And some of the soldiers are still alive out there, in the town. More than some. They’re alive. We didn’t kill them all.”

  Layla rose quickly. “Who else knows this?”

  “No one. Just me. Well, me and you. So two people….” His head swam. “Layla, my Layla, can you keep a secret for me?” There was no answer.

  “Can you keep a secret for me, Layla?” But Bennett was alone.

  …

  “Do you think they can understand him?”

  Troy shrugged, his trained eyes sweeping the woods beyond for any signs of motion. “Private. Get to that tree line. I want surveillance in case there’s anything out there.”

  A portly soldier took off at a trot across the field, holding his helmet with one hand.

  Troy sighed loudly. “Jameson, go with him.” A red-faced corporal took off after his struggling friend.

  The metal factory loomed over them all, red with rust and blocking out the winter sun. Adira could see Jaxton speaking with the hillsmen, just a stone’s throw away. She looked beside her. There were fifteen people left with Troy, mostly soldiers.

  Adira felt her stomach complaining. She tried forcing the anxiety away but it just came on stronger, rolling through her limbs as she watched Jaxton trying to communicate with the balding female beta-infected, her white dress stained as ever. Maybe the woman had even killed Tessa, all those moons ago. Adira suppressed her rage with effort and gripped her weapon. It was good to have a rifle again.

  Adira scowled as Jaxton’s voice grew louder, and he made grand gestures with his hands. Behind the lady with long strands of hair, the other hillsmen swayed and stared with pale eyes. Several were chained, and snarled like beasts. This was insanity. They were losing self-control randomly, and regaining it after a random period of time.

  “Perhaps this was a mistake,” Troy growled.

  “Give him time,” Adira whispered.

  They had to be back by nightfall from their “hunting trip”. Agis was giving a speech tonight, and any absences were likely to be met with suspicion. Liam, Elvis, Wilder and Duke awaited their return with feverish anticipation, she was sure. They had all clamored to come along, but Jaxton wanted to draw as little attention as possible.

  …

  Out of vocal range from his friends, Jaxton spoke to the infected woman. “Do you understand anything I am saying?”

  Her pale eyes appeared vacant. But she opened her mouth. “Yes,” she croaked. “You help us.”

  Jaxton shook his head. “Many of you will die. Do you understand that? If we wait to attack the bad men until they arrive here, many of you will die.”

  The woman swayed as she spoke, as did all the others behind her. Jaxton could see her rotting yellow teeth, stained with blood and flesh. “Better for you, though. To attack, here.”

  Jaxton frowned. Maybe this one wasn’t so dumb after all. “Yes, there will be more confusion. We have a better chance if we work together. Do you…understand? We work together.”

  Her strands blew on the wind, and one detached from her head and floated away on the winter wind. “Thank you. Thank you. You will help us.”

  Jaxton recoiled slightly, afraid he was being misunderstood. “Well, yes I suppose. I-“
>
  “We want one thing, if we help you.”

  Jaxton frowned, surprised she was able to formulate a demand. “Name it.”

  Within a second the woman stood two feet from Jaxton’s chest. He heard shouting behind him, but raised his hand to calm his friends. The woman’s vacant eyes remained locked on his as she drew the barrel of his gun up, to her head. She held it between her eyes. “Kill us.”

  Jaxton opened and closed his mouth. The woman spoke again, her stench almost unbearable at such proximity. “Kill us all, please. We don’t want, to live.” Jaxton froze, almost certain he sensed a trace of sadness in that emotionless face. Then it was gone.

  He took a step back. “I will,” he said. “Remember, help the blue faces.”

  The woman’s teeth snapped and Jaxton turned on his heel.

  Adira felt Troy relax visibly as Jaxton came striding back to them over the frozen field. Several rifles were lowered.

  “And?” Troy demanded.

  “They’re with us,” he growled.

  …

  “And…they’re just infected people, with a different strain?”

  The pasty ginger flashed his yellow teeth. “So I hear, sir. If you remember when we first arrive here, the other survivors described them as “hillsmen” when they made first contact. Our scouts found them holed up in an old factory north of town, near the ridge. They killed one of our men. Ripped his neck out. They all deserve to die.”

  Agis shuddered; Hernandez made him sick. Still, he nodded. “We’ll hit them tomorrow, then. We need to keep the people moving, keep their minds from thinking too much. Everyone will go. Weapons all around.”

  Hernandez licked his bleeding lips. “Even…Jaxton and the others? Do you trust them?”

  “Of course not,” Agis said as the watched the crowd filtering into the gymnasium. “We will take care of that problem tomorrow. A lot of things can happen…in a battle.” He saw Hernandez shaking with glee as he continued. “Let us see to it that they fall victim to some unfortunate friendly fire. Perhaps they turned infected, and needed to be put down. Whatever you like.”

  “And…what of the other soldiers?”

  Agis drew back from the stench of bad breath. “You failed me there. They were all supposed to die, that night.”

  Hernandez said nothing, staring at the floor like a scolded child. Agis reached out and touched him briefly, for as long as he could stand. “We will hunt them down when this is over. They are alone, and weak in the cold. We have them outnumbered five to one. Fear not. This is our time.”

  Taking a step away from Hernandez, Agis raised his hands and beckoned the crowd closer, like his favorite children. Their anticipation was palpable. They knew what was coming.

  “Friends. Come closer. That’s it. Now listen to me. We are so close. We are so close to achieving peace. By tomorrow night, this town will be ours. Just one more threat remains. One more threat to our safety.”

  Someone in the back cried out a complaint, and Agis was pleased to see him assaulted by two metal batons from his men. The others looked, but were too nervous to make any effort to help. Agis continued over his cries of pain. “Tomorrow, we will set out, as one people, one community, all of us, and we will destroy this scourge. These infected attacked and killed one of our brothers today. Felix will be missed, and his death will be avenged!” Some in the crowd roared approval. Others were silent, with nervous eyes that searched for the officers’ batons.

  “With our victory tomorrow we fight for the future we want! Stand with me!” His officers raised their batons and roared. Many more with bloodshot eyes and black rims hooted their loyalty, even as their bodies craved another high. Many remained silent, intimidated into complacency. Agis shrugged as the scattered cheering continued. Fear would keep them in line.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Elvis saw a figure cutting a crisp shadow against the tapestry of stars on that frigid winter night. As he approached, he marveled at his friend’s bulky form, bereft of any coat or outerwear.

  “What are you grinning about?” Liam demanded.

  “Would you rather I frowned when I saw you?”

  Liam dangled one of his feet over the roof’s ledge, “the others send you over here to drag me back?”

  Elvis rubbed his own arms against the chill and looked back across the roof. He could just barely make out several shapes huddling on the pointed apex of the school’s clock tower. “I just thought I’d make sure you weren’t brooding yourself into oblivion, over here.”

  Liam grunted, the cold beginning to work its way past his brawny muscles. “I’m thinking about tomorrow.”

  Elvis stood by his side, so both men were looking out over the school’s empty parking lot. “So am I.”

  Liam looked at the smaller man beside him, wondering at the changes that had taken place in him. “Who would have thought, Elvis, once the king of pompous swag, now a hardened bastard?”

  Elvis chuckled. “Who would have ever thought the once surprisingly sensitive Liam would make comments like that?”

  They shared a glance and chuckled softly together under the starlight. A long silence stretched between them, in which only the soft voices of their other friends could be heard floating on the frigid air.

  “Are you ready?” Elvis asked, his voice solid steel.

  “I don’t know. I think I am. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be here with you guys, if I wasn’t so selfish.”

  Elvis didn’t look over. “Selfish?”

  Liam sniffled aggressively, feeling a cold coming on. “If I hadn’t taken Harley from you. And if she in turn hadn’t left me for Agis, I don’t know if I would be here, ready to fight and die to bring that bastard down.”

  Elvis chuckled darkly, noting this was the first time Liam and he had spoken about the girl with auburn hair. “You didn’t take her from me. And I don’t blame you. Once a girl like that sets you in her sight, you’re powerless. It’s done. Only a man of supreme will would be able to deny her calculated advance.”

  Liam spat, and raised his glistening eyes to the stars. “Perhaps. But I betrayed you. And for that, I am sorry.”

  Elvis moved a little closer to communicate physically. “Forget the vixen.”

  “I hate him. Agis. I feel, for the first time, rage running through me. It’s a constant, like anxiety. But where anxiety saps, rage invigorates.”

  Elvis felt his heart beating a little faster, glad Liam would be at his side when the offered challenge to Agis. “Use it. But don’t be reckless out there. There’s no telling what will happen.”

  “That’s why you’re here.” Liam said with a twinkle.

  “To watch your back? You’re damn right.”

  Liam turned to regard him with keen eyes. “What happened to you? You are a different man, you know.”

  Elvis felt his stomach roiling with the toxic memories of that last day with his family. “I don’t want to talk about what happened. But I know what I have to do.” His words were harsh with emotion. “I must not fail you all. I was a coward once. That will never happen again, even if it means my life.”

  “Don’t talk like that,” Liam said quickly, feeling uneasy.

  “You have your motives, and I have mine. Let’s leave it there. Expect to see me at your side tomorrow though, and at the front where the fighting is the fiercest.”

  Liam turned, and would have laughed at their words were the looming prospect of death not rolling up on them as the earth continued to spin. Instead, it made him sick. But then he pictured Agis’s well-cropped, handsome face. And his hands shook with the greedy anticipation of violence against that man.

  …

  “What do you think they’re on about?” Adira looked to Wilder, the young man who had grown from a charming boy to a reckless and headstrong man in the span of a few months. Adira could only just make out the blond beard that covered his face.

  “They have unfinished business. It’s good they can talk this out before tomorrow.” Jaxton stood a
t the edge of the clock tower, fifty feet above the ground. “Everyone needs to make peace with any demons they have tonight. We can’t afford to carry those tomorrow.”

  “We’re ready. I prepped ten of the others, those who want to stand with us against Agis. They know the strategy,” Wilder assured them.

  Jaxton turned, his face hard in the pale moonlight. “You best have picked the right ones. One wrong move and Agis will be alerted to our plan.”

  Wilder bristled visibly, insulted his abilities were being doubted. “I know what the risks are.”

  Duke tugged a black balaclava up around his pudgy face. “I’ll watch his back. Don’t you worry.”

  “And the beta-infected are not to be harmed. I know. I know they killed Tessa. Which they will pay for. But we need them for now. Do you understand?” Jaxton demanded.

  Wilder looked away, out pasts the silent, dark forests to where they hid. “I do.”

  “Once the shooting starts, go for the officers, like we discussed. We are not at war with the people as a whole. The majority nurse their hatred of him in private, and they will come when we call,” Jaxton said confidently.

  “What of the infected? The hordes?” Duke asked quietly. Jaxton had told them all about Troy’s revelations.

  “We will not worry about them until Agis has fallen.”

  Liam and Elvis emerged out of the shadows. “Miss us?”

  As they joined the others, Adira held Jaxton close. “I’m coming with you.”

  Jaxton spoke slowly; he had already anticipated this. “I know. I want to argue with you, to tell you no. For obvious reasons. But… I think I’ve learned enough by now. You’ll come with us, but you will stay by my side and behind me at all times. In that there will be no discussion. Agreed?”

  Adira could see his light eyes gleaming with silent intensity. She held them for a long while, and drew from the vast well of his strength and passion. She let it warm her limbs on that cold night, and then she nodded. “I understand,” she whispered. He smiled a sad smile that shook her to the bone. There was fear there. And it drew her closer to him. She was so glad she had found him. She could scarcely contemplate her life in the cold, vicious new world without Jaxton.