by Patton, Dirk
Smyth’s last finger folded into a fist, marking zero.
“GO, GO, GO!”
He was shouting as he ripped the door open. I activated the fuel pump and a tongue of flame shot out, narrowly missing him as he stepped behind the cover of the open door.
Bats clung to the surface of the door and clogged the opening. The ones who had gotten a free ride into the house burst into flight as the fire licked across their backs. I had to consciously resist the impulse to follow them with the flames so I didn’t set the structure on fire.
The ones massed across the opening were unable to flee because of the weight of the others stacked on top of them. I concentrated on the center of the mass, the stench of burning hair and flesh quickly filling the room. But they couldn’t stand against the weapon. In a state of seeming madness, they exploded out and away from the house, many of them trailing smoke and fire as they took to the air.
As soon as I saw an opening, I hurried forward. From the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Smyth already battling the handful that had been brought inside. He was using an old Cricket bat of Lucas’s he’d found in the basement, swatting them out of the air.
Passing through the door, I paused until I heard it slam closed behind me, then began moving again. All around, bats swirled in response to the fire, but just like before they didn’t attack. I still had no idea if the intense flames were protecting me, or if it was something to do with my condition. At the moment, I didn’t care. As long as the fuckers weren’t ripping chunks out of me, I was happy.
My destination was Lucas’s barn, slightly more than two hundred yards away. There were vehicles inside that could get me to Coober Pedy and back so I could get the medicine needed to save my friend’s life. Rachel still wasn’t happy, and for that matter neither was Mavis. Dog was just miffed that he wasn’t coming along to wherever it was I was going.
I moved as fast as I could, settling into a pattern with the long tongue of flame. Sweep it across the ground in the direction I wanted to move, then up and across in an arc to keep the bats from settling back. It seemed to work and I was moving forward unmolested.
Ahead was a particularly larger lump of bats and I held the fire on them for longer than usual to make sure they were cleared out. Their small bodies writhed in pain as they were consumed and fell away, revealing what they’d been clustered on.
Within the roiling flame I could make out an object, then realization dawned. Jerking the jet of burning fuel to a new direction, I released the pump button and threw myself to the ground an instant before a blast of light, heat and thunder knocked me even more senseless than I normally am. I’d forgotten about the extra jug of fuel Lucas had been carrying and had just managed to detonate it like a bomb.
Ears ringing, I sat up and shook my head in an effort to clear it. There were no living bats in the immediate area, though there was a veritable carpet of smoldering bodies. Released from the heavy plastic container, the fuel that hadn’t been consumed by the explosion was rapidly running across the ground in a flaming river.
It took a moment to get my body to respond, then I scrambled out of its path without a second to spare. Amazed I hadn’t been splashed with liquid fire by the explosion and turned into a crispy critter, I shook my head again and glanced at the bats above.
They were swirling in a solid mass, blotting out the night sky. The only light on the ground beneath them came from the burning fuel, which cast a hellish orange pall over everything. Looking behind, I was surprised to note the front of the house and a good portion of the roof was clear of bats. They were too far away to have been impacted by the heat or fire, so apparently the shockwave of the blast had caused them to leave.
Well, not leave. As I watched, the swarm of bodies in the air above began to descend. In seconds, the house vanished under a single layer, then they continued to pile on until it was once again a rippling mass covering every square inch.
They whirled around me at a dizzying pace, reminding me I wasn’t out of the woods just yet. Adjusting the flamethrower on my back, I pressed the battery button to ignite the stream of fuel. And nothing happened. No sparking. Nothing.
The fucking thing must have been damaged when I threw myself to the ground and there was no time to fix it. My first impulse was to shrug out of it, but I rethought that idea. I had to reach the barn, with or without it. Might as well take it along in case I could repair whatever was broken. It was the best way for me to get back into the house, and if I abandoned it I’d have to start from scratch.
Breaking into a run, I charged through the whorls of bats. Not that I didn’t do my best to avoid them without being pushed away from my destination, but it was about impossible to do so. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, were still frantically flapping around after the explosion. And not too surprisingly, even without the flamethrower they weren’t attacking.
Slowing to a fast walk, I kept moving in a straight line as bat after bat swept by my face. Sometimes they were so close I wasn’t at all sure they didn’t brush against my skin. Still, none of them attacked.
Reaching the barn, I came to a stop and stared at the door. Though not piled as deep as at the house, they were so thick on the surface that only a vague outline of the building was visible. The only way I even knew I was at the door was because it was at the corner of the building. And the only way I was getting inside was to somehow convince a few hundred bats to let me through.
They hadn’t attacked up to this point, and I was passing it off as likely due to whatever the virus had done to me. But what would they do when I had to physically move them so I could open the door? Not that I even wanted to touch the little bastards, but the only way in was for me to stick my hand into that seething mass and feel around until I found the door knob. Fuck me.
Now, I’m not afraid of or squeamish about critters and creepy crawlies. Never have been. Sure, I don’t like snakes or spiders or bats, but they don’t freak me out. Usually. But for some reason, I couldn’t make myself stick my hand out and thrust it inside the collection of bodies. Don’t know why, but I’ve learned the hard way that it’s usually a bad idea to ignore your gut when it’s trying to tell you something.
Standing there with bats swirling about, I looked around for anything or any way to move them off the door. Nothing other than an unbroken carpet of bodies. Back toward the house the fuel had pooled up in a low spot and was still burning furiously. Black smoke billowed skyward and this was the only place where the bats hadn’t congregated. I glanced at the house, and an idea struck me.
The bats had been affected by the explosion. Even more than fifty yards away, they’d taken flight when the blast occurred. Maybe that was it. Their already hypersensitive hearing had been enhanced by the virus and the intense wave of sound had overwhelmed them.
Drawing my pistol, I held it close to where I thought the knob was and fired three fast shots. Sure, it was nowhere near as intense as a couple of gallons of fuel touching off, but it was still a powerful sound. Immediately, a three-foot radius around the weapon cleared. It was difficult to see for a moment as the bats filled the air about my head, but I caught sight of the knob.
Grabbing it, I twisted and yanked the door open, rushing into the barn and slamming it behind me. I could hear the sounds of some bats who made it inside with me but ignored them since they weren’t attacking.
Fumbling along the wall, I found a row of switches and flipped them on. Overhead lights flared to life and I watched a few dozen bats flap about as they tried to escape to darkness. Dismissing them, I looked over the vehicles that were available. A ranch truck with a flat tire, one of Lucas’s big transit vans and two ATVs.
Shrugging out of the flamethrower, I ran to the van and jumped behind the wheel. And looked down to find an empty ignition. Well, doesn’t that just fucking figure. But I did my due diligence and checked all over the interior for a hiding place. Then got out and searched the barn. And found nothing. Shit.
For a few
minutes, I sat in the van and stared at the ignition. Considered the possibility of starting the vehicle the way I’d started the Ford truck Rachel and I had been trapped in. And shook my head. The truck had been at least twenty years old, if not more. This thing was almost new. There would be anti-theft features that didn’t exist when that truck had been built. Features I didn’t have a chance in hell of defeating.
With a sigh, I got out and checked over the ranch truck with the flat. No spare. Poking around the barn again produced a lot of unidentifiable equipment, but no replacement tire. Grumbling curses to myself, I eyed the pair of ATVs. Both had been manufactured in China by a company I’d never heard of, and they were beat to hell and caked so thickly with red dust that it was impossible to guess the original color.
Despite their decrepit condition, the tires were hard and had lots of tread. Closer inspection revealed the engines had been well maintained despite the appearance of the vehicles. Hoses and belts, while not new were in good condition. Pulling out one of the dipsticks, I was only mildly surprised to see clean appearing oil. Lucas had apparently not cared about cosmetics, only function and reliability.
Could one of these things make it all the way to Coober Pedy and back? And the other concern was the noise. I’d driven a couple of Lucas’s ATVs and they were loud. Not that it mattered for their purpose as transportation around his property, but it could be a big problem for me.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the world’s deserts, including living in a damn big one in Arizona. I knew that sound carried a very long way without vegetation to absorb and dampen it. If I fired one of these up and went zipping along, I’d alert every infected for miles around to my presence. And with a herd trailing behind the kangaroos, I’d be an impossible to resist target.
There would be no pushing through like with a van or truck. No protection from the grasping hands that would pull a rider off the seat to be descended upon by the entire herd. I shook my head and turned back to the truck. Considered using one of the van’s tires, but they were a very different size and lug pattern.
Turning back to the ATVs, I took a deep breath and puffed it out. I didn’t seem to have a choice. Lucas was running short on vehicles because of me. I’d blown one up on the Stuart Highway to take out a Russian helicopter, and the one his guys had driven… Fuck. No point in worrying over what had happened. I just had to deal with the current circumstances.
Resolving myself to the ATV, I set about checking it over with an eye towards a grueling ride. I’d made the drive and knew it was every bit of a hundred and forty kilometers to Coober Pedy, or nearly ninety miles.
Everything seemed good and the fuel tank was full. And that was another concern. Fuel. I had no clue how quickly the machine would consume gas. Especially with my big ass aboard and the throttle wide open. The built-in tank looked like it held perhaps three gallons at best, and I had an uncomfortable feeling that would go in a hurry. And there was nowhere between here and Coober Pedy to find more.
A neatly aligned row of red fuel jugs was along one wall and I went over to check them. The ATV had racks on both the front and rear and I intended to find a way to strap a few cans to them. Unfortunately, all rang hollow when I thumped them with my finger. Lucas had a large underground storage tank for fueling his vehicles and plane, but it was outside near the hangar. Fucking figures.
24
It took some searching, but I finally located a bundle of thick bungee straps stashed behind the truck’s seat. They were the heavy rubber kind with metal hooks on the end and were perfect for securing fuel cans to the ATV’s racks. I quickly got four of them tied down. With no idea if this would be enough for a nearly two-hundred-mile round trip, I spent a few minutes trying to come up with a way to carry a fifth. And struck out.
With the little vehicle as ready as it would ever be, I stood looking around the barn. My gaze traveled across a pair of sunglasses that had been carelessly tossed onto the truck’s dash and I reached through the open window and snatched them up. I had no idea how fast the ATV would go, but unprotected eyes at any speed over ten miles an hour will quickly become a problem I didn’t need.
Slipping them on, I took another look around in case there was something else I needed that I hadn’t thought about. Glancing up, I was taken by surprise to see the bats that made it into the barn. Not that they were there, but that they had lined up in a long, neat row on one of the rafters and were watching me. I could see their beady little red eyes.
And they weren’t attacking, just like the ones outside hadn’t. I’d seen how Nicole could move freely amongst the infected and even actually communicate and control them to a degree, so it wasn’t altogether a shock. It was just disconcerting that they recognized me as some sort of kindred, or something. Suddenly, I wasn’t so grateful for my viral enhanced condition. But it gave me an edge at the moment and I would take every advantage I could to save Lucas’s life.
Keeping half an eye on the bats, I twisted the ATV’s key and the engine instantly snarled to life. They didn’t react to the sudden noise, which surprised me as it was loud in the enclosed barn. But the two dozen or so in the rafters weren’t what I was worried about. It was the two million or so on the other side of the doors. It didn’t matter that no aggression against me had been exhibited. That could change in an instant.
I had repaired the flamethrower but wasn’t taking it with me. For one thing, it was too bulky and heavy for the trip to Coober Pedy. More importantly, I wouldn’t be able to use it on the bats. Not while filling the jugs with fuel. I damn near already blew myself up with the fucking thing, I didn’t need to give fate another shot at finishing the job.
Walking to the large door, I placed my hand on the button that would activate the electric opener. I only allowed myself to hesitate for a beat before taking a deep breath and pushing it. With a clank and a whine, the door began to roll up and I hurried to the ATV, leaping onto the seat and grasping the handlebars.
The door moved slowly, maybe because of the resistance of the thousands of bodies clinging to the outside. As the opening steadily increased, the bats were disturbed and took flight. I couldn’t even guess how many came into the barn, swirling around the space like a miniature tornado. As before, they would come within inches of me without making contact.
With my head reflexively turtled into my shoulders, I cracked the throttle open and the ATV shot forward. I drove through clouds of bats so dense I couldn’t see what was beyond them. Fortunately, I had a good mental image of where I was going.
Now that I was in motion, I expected to run into bats, kind of like a bug hitting the windshield of a car. Amazingly, despite my forward speed through the maelstrom of bodies, not a single one even grazed me or the ATV. I didn’t understand it, but I sure as shit wasn’t going to complain.
Pulling to a stop at Lucas’s fueling equipment, I looked around in awe as they continued to spin and whirl around me. Moving slowly out of fear of provoking an assault, I activated the pump and quickly filled the four jugs strapped onto the ATV. Throughout this process, the bats continued to fly and I finally realized I was at the center of a vortex.
Looking up, I could see open sky directly over my head, a dizzying mass of bodies forming the living walls that surrounded me. Suppressing a shudder, I gave the security of each of the jugs a final check before climbing back onto the seat.
Once again, when I began accelerating, they somehow managed to avoid me. For a few moments it seemed as if the vortex moved with me, then I accelerated. Quickly gaining speed, I emerged into open air, the moonlit desert stretching out around me. I took a breath of relief as I bounced onto the dirt track that led to the north and opened the throttle to the stop.
The ATV surged forward, quickly building speed. There was a mechanical gauge cluster and the speedometer needle smoothly swept past sixty, then slowed its advance and came to a hover over eighty. I was surprised until I remembered this was kilometers per hour, not miles. Oh well, it still felt fast as
hell as I leaned forward into the wind.
The snarl of exhaust was horrendous, and I cringed inwardly at the thought of every infected for miles around turning to bear down on my position. Fortunately, I was moving fast and away from the house.
Rutted and rough, the track was nothing more than something that had been worn into the desert by vehicle tires going to and from Lucas’s compound. There were several bad moments when I was certain I was about to lose control. Those moments where your ass grows teeth and bites down on the seat. But I somehow managed to keep it under control and the throttle wide open.
The ATV sported a small side mirror attached to the handlebar and I risked a glance, wondering if the vortex of bats was following. All I could see was a massive rooster tail of dust so dense it obscured everything behind me. Looking back to the front, I had an instant to react and slam on the brakes.
Fighting a skid, I held on for dear life as I plowed into a group of kangaroos standing in the middle of the track. I don’t know how many I hit before completely losing any semblance of control, then there was another violent impact that knocked me off the ATV to tumble wildly across the desert.
Several thoughts went through my head as I bounced across the rock studded sand. The first and foremost was that I was an idiot for having forgotten about the herd of animals that was passing through. The second was hope the ATV hadn’t been damaged. And, last but most importantly… FUCK, THAT HURT!
Sliding to a stop with a mouthful of dirt, I lay there for a moment. Unable to move. Then the body responded and I was on my feet, spitting and pulling my rifle around. Part of me recognized that after such a brutal impact and pounding, it would normally take a respectable amount of time before I’d have been up and ready to fight. But I was no longer normal, and the speed with which I’d recovered proved that beyond a doubt.
The ATV sat upright on its tires in the middle of the track, two severely injured kangaroos on the ground next to it. Half a dozen others were already advancing on me, using their thick tails as a third leg for balance as they stretched up on their toes to make themselves taller.