Adaptive Instinct (Survival Instinct)

by Stittle, Kristal

  Becky was startled awake by their sudden flight, getting jostled around by Bryce’s uneven gait. She started crying, wailing for mommy.

  “It’s okay, Becky!” Bryce told her as he ran. “It’s okay! I’m here! We’re playing horsey back! You like horsey back, remember?”

  Facing forward in her papoose carrier, she kept crying, but stopped screaming. She grabbed at Bryce’s shoulders and neck. He raised one hand up to his shoulder to hold hers.

  When Bryce took a chance to look around, he didn’t see Larson anywhere. He had no idea where his friend had gone. Maggie either. It was just him and Becky.

  He kept running and running. Something was chasing him. He could hear it crashing through the woods behind him, and it was too big to be Larson or the dog. Becky was heavy, weighing him down, but there was no way he would leave her behind. He would drop dead first. He would perform the same sacrifice his mom had probably just made if he needed to.

  Ahead, a lake appeared between the trees. It was small, just a pond really. Without thinking, Bryce headed straight for it. There was a little dock jutting out into the water that he targeted.

  “Becky, do you remember swim time?” Both of the Christopherson children took swimming lessons. “Swim time, Becky?”

  “Smim!” Becky responded. She liked swim time.

  “We’re going to have swim time now. Hold on tight.” Bryce’s feet hit the wooden dock. They pounded down the boards until they reached the end where Bryce flung himself and Becky over the edge. Becky squealed, from fright or delight was unknown.

  They hit the water with a splash, sinking quickly. It wasn’t deep and Bryce’s shoes hit the bottom. He quickly pushed up and back so that when they broke the surface, they were under the dock. Becky started coughing and crying. Gently taking the carrier off his back, Bryce floated Becky around in front of him. He found a place he could stand and hold her, quietly coaxing her into silence.

  A pounding resonated down the dock overhead as their pursuer caught up. Bryce watched as it reached the end of the dock and flew off the end, landing with an even greater splash than Bryce had made. The monster looked like an adult human, like the ones in the White Box. It was tall enough to stand at the end of the dock, but continued to flounder out deeper, toward the centre of the pond. Becky kept silent, sucking her thumb, while Bryce watched the monster. It got to a point where it couldn’t stand and sank beneath the surface. Despite waiting a full five minutes, Bryce didn’t see it surface again.

  He slogged his way out from under the dock and up onto shore. His legs were aching and his lungs burned from the effort. He helped Becky out of the wet papoose carrier once they were on shore. He knew they couldn’t stop, not so close to the pond. He slung the carrier back onto his back and took Becky’s hand, leading her toward a dirt road that headed away from the dock. He figured this must be someone’s campsite or fishing hole. There was now a rather exotic fish in the pond: one you wouldn’t want to catch.

  Becky was babbling in a confused and excited manner. She mentioned mommy a lot and kept looking around for her. She was wondering where mommy was. Bryce wanted to cry.

  To the side of the path, the bushes started rattling. Bryce was too tired to run. He placed a protective arm around Becky and pulled her close to him.

  A head covered in golden fur burst through the brush, followed by a long, golden body.

  “Maggie,” Bryce smiled as the dog trotted up to him, wagging her tail happily.

  Following Maggie out of the bushes came Larson. He was panting heavily, holding his sides. Not caring about what nine-year-old boys were supposed to do and not do, Larson and Bryce immediately hugged one another. Both of them were too exhausted to express their gratitude at the sight of the other in any other way. Becky hugged Bryce’s waist.

  The three of them, plus Maggie, started walking down the road. Larson looked through his bag and found some trail mix they could all eat. Bryce was careful about what pieces he gave to Becky, and gave her only one piece at a time.

  Bryce cried as they walked; he no longer cared who saw. He wanted to hope for the best for his mother, but he knew that it was foolish. If she had been healthy, that would have been another matter, but she wasn’t. She was sick and already dying, so she gave herself for her children.

  Larson cried too. He missed his mom and his dad and didn’t know where they were. Something inside said the answer was bad.

  They walked slowly, not only from being tired, but because Becky could only walk so fast. She walked next to Maggie, her little hand raised up and holding onto one of the dog’s floppy ears. The retriever didn’t seem to mind.

  As they walked, totally lost, they began to hear some sort of siren in the distance. It was a long way off, but they picked roads and paths that headed in its general direction. Although Bryce’s mom had said that roads would have more monsters than the woods, they didn’t want to risk walking in circles through the trees. At least the roads and the siren gave them some sort of bearing.

  At last, they came out upon a hill, looking down on a paved road. On that road, a hodgepodge of vehicles was driving past, ranging from a school bus to an ambulance. They had found people.

  “Wait!” Bryce screamed at the top of his lungs. He began running headlong down the hill, heedless of all else. “Please stop! Wait! Please!”

  His screaming was useless. There was no way they could hear him inside their vehicles at that distance, but Bryce couldn’t stop himself. They had to stop; they just had to! They had to see him!

  He finally reached the road but they had already driven past. All that was left was a bit of dust and dirt they had kicked up. Bryce could still see them, barely, in the distance. Then the last vehicle turned a corner and was gone.

  By the time Larson, Maggie, and Becky got down the hill, even the siren in the distance had fallen silent.

  They were alone. Although Bryce had wept for his mom, he hadn’t realized just how alone they were until then. Two kids, a toddler, and a dog, all alone in the woods that were filled with monsters.

  Bryce started crying again, but this time it was for himself, his best friend, even the dog. But most especially it was for little Becky. If they could survive even one night on their own, it would be a miracle.

  20:

  Riley Bishop – Days 16-17

  “You what?” Cameron shouted loudly enough to draw the attention of the others. They looked toward the twins, worried that something was wrong.

  “Everything’s fine,” Riley told them. She pulled Cameron deeper into the pharmacy they were sheltering in for the night. “It just kind of happened.”

  “I can’t believe you were that stupid.” Cameron ran a hand through her short hair. She might have been coming across as harsh, but Riley knew it was because she was scared.

  “We don’t need to deal with this now. It’s not an issue at the moment.” Riley tried to comfort her sister. She herself was taking it rather well. She figured she would be terrified or confused. Maybe it was because she didn’t quite accept it at the moment. It seemed unreal, like it was happening to someone else.

  “But it is an issue now,” Cameron insisted.

  “No, it’s not. Right now, the issues are finding Nicky, Isabelle, and Jasmine, that Shawn is a lying, deceitful asshole, and the zombies. This can be put aside for a few weeks.” Riley put the pregnancy test on a shelf next to her, not looking at the little plus sign in the window.

  “But-”

  “But what, Cameron?” Riley cut her off. “The only decision that would need to be made this early is whether I want to bring it to term or not. If I do decide to do it, nothing at this point needs to change. If I decide to abort it, then I want it done right, by another doctor, which can’t be done right here and now. Nothing at this moment needs to be done. Hell, I might not even live long enough to have to deal with it.”

  Cameron tightly pursed her lips. “I still can’t believe you were dumb enough to have unprotected sex with a guy. How lo
ng have you known him?”

  “It was just one time. After that, I ended it. And I’ve known him long enough. I don’t think you should be one to judge me.”

  “I’m not pregnant.”

  “Yeah, but we’re only out here because you volunteered. I bet you’ve known these people for less time than I’ve known Mathias, yet you’re willing to stick your neck out for them, put your life on the line.”

  Cameron scowled because she knew Riley had a point. It was dangerous. Since dropping Edelstein and his crew off at the nuclear storage facility, they had lost two of their party members. The first had been the round doctor woman. They had been searching an apartment building, and she had been careless. She was too fascinated by the virus and dead bodies, and was being too analytical as if she weren’t there. The second had been the lanky, snake man. During the same search, he and the big man had gotten trapped in a room. To escape, they went out on the balcony and tried to climb to another. The big man, who Riley learned was named Brewster, had managed to get to safety, but the snake man hadn’t been strong enough and had fallen. They had been fourteen stories up when it happened. They had also lost a third member of their party, but they weren’t sure if he was dead or not. The first night, the homeless-looking man had just slipped out and disappeared.

  Riley hated this searching. In spite of the fact that the truck Orson had stolen had a transmitter in it, they couldn’t pinpoint the location. They needed cell towers for that, and the towers had run out of power some time ago. They could get a rough estimation from a satellite high up in orbit, but to do that, they had to be stationary. It was tedious, and they had probably passed right by them, just one street over. The apartment building they had been searching was chosen because, apparently, the fugitive named Hank had once lived there. They had also searched Orson’s apartment, but that time they had all stuck closely together.

  Giving up on the argument, Cameron left and joined the others. Riley trailed after her. The pharmacy had all of its windows intact when they came across it, so they figured it was unlikely to have zombies roaming around inside. They went in, checked the place out, and then moved racks to cover the windows. Their truck was parked next to one of the panes of glass, providing extra protection. Although the truck was safe to sleep in, nobody liked being in such a small, dark place, with limited exits and no way of seeing what was going on outside. The previous night they had spent in a dollar store.

  Cameron went over to sit with Brewster and the acne-covered kid, who was named Thomas. Riley went over to Brunt and the cat-eyed, Indian woman named Shaidi. They were currently setting up the equipment to connect with the satellite. Shaidi carefully placed and angled the mini-dish while Brunt typed on the laptop.

  “Now?” Shaidi asked, her voice heavily accented in such a way as to make Riley think of a cat’s purr.

  “Not perfect, but I think that’s the best we’re going to get,” Brunt told her.

  Riley looked over his shoulder at the screen. A bar was slowly filling as it tried to connect with the satellite roughly 22,000 miles above them.

  “So what was that about?” Brunt noticed Riley’s presence.

  “Just a sister to sister argument.” He didn’t need to know the specifics.

  “I don’t have to worry about you two trying to scratch each other’s eyes out, do I?” He looked up at her with a boyish grin.

  “Not likely, but if it comes to that, I’ll be sure to inform you first.” Riley sat next to him. Shaidi also walked over and stretched out her lithe form on a nearby sleeping bag.

  They sat quietly while the computer connected. When it did, they all watched as it began to calibrate and finally begin tracking the location of the other truck.

  “Do you think they already stopped for the night?” Shaidi wondered.

  “If they’re even stopping for the night at all,” Riley pointed out.

  “I’m sure they are,” Brunt said in his slightly southern-American twang.

  Technically, their group had enough drivers that they could search all night in shifts, but they had all decided against doing that. Even though the truck they were looking for was big and white, they could still easily pass it by in the dark, especially if it had pulled over onto a tiny side street, or into a garage of some sort. Not to mention that zombies would be a lot harder to spot once the sun was down, which could spell trouble when they needed to pull over for bathroom breaks.

  “If they’ve stopped, that means we’ll get a more accurate reading for tomorrow, yes?” Shaidi purred.

  “That’s right.” Brunt nodded.

  As the satellite narrowed down the location, they saw it was still a good distance away from them. The fugitives seemed to be going in random, purposeless directions so far. It was impossible to predict where they might be headed next. Considering that they always had to stop and wait to use the satellite, they were always a certain distance behind. Maybe tomorrow they would manage to close the gap.

  “Are you going to call Crichton tonight?” Riley asked Brunt.

  “No, he said to call him at sun up.” Their last communication with the prison had been just past noon. The news was basically that they needed to hurry the hell up. They were being given tomorrow and the following day to find them, but after that, they had to head back. Apparently, Edelstein had called in with some very bad news about the storage facility.

  “So, Brunt, why do they call you that?” Riley had been meaning to ask him for a while. “Your name’s Pike, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, Andrew Pike. Brunt’s just a nickname. I got it back in middle school, before going off to military school. It came about because I was always the brunt of the joke.” With his soft, round features, Riley could see that happening. Although he always handled himself well, and was likely of reasonable intelligence, the slight accent, combined with his doe eyes, made him come across as dim-witted.

  “That sounds awful. Why would you let them call you that?” Riley would pound on anyone who gave her such a name.

  Brunt shrugged. “It bothered me in middle school, but when the guys learned it, they never used it to make fun of me. To them, it became just a meaningless nickname like so many of them already had. Like Saint Louis. He has no connection to the place, he’s far from being a saint, and his real name is nothing like Louis, but all the guys call him that anyway.”

  Riley still found it strange, but that was because she had never really known such camaraderie. Her parents, her dad especially, had raised her in a military-like fashion, but she had never had the experience of the tight brotherhood that formed between those who served together. Going through her residency was the closest she had gotten, and even through that, she had always been the outsider. She looked over at her twin. Cameron was the only one she really knew. She got up and walked over to her.

  “Cameron?” She tapped her on the shoulder.

  Cameron looked up at her, ready to be combative again.

  “Can I talk to you for one more second?”

  Cameron could read Riley as well as Riley could read her. She knew instantly that it wasn’t going to be another fight. “Sure.”

  They stepped a short distance away.

  “I just wanted to say, that whatever happens, whatever I decide, I want you with me.”

  “Of course.” Cameron frowned, indicating that such a thing never needed to be said. “I’ll always be there, just like I know you’ll be there for me when I need it.”

  The two sisters hugged in mutual understanding and walked back over to Brewster and Thomas.

  “I’ll never understand women,” Thomas said as they sat down. “One minute they’re fighting, the next they’re best friends again.”

  “Don’t even try, boy,” Brewster grumbled. If Shaidi were a cat, then Brewster was a bear. “Just go with the flow and don’t think about it.”

  “And remember, we’re always right,” Cameron added, and they all laughed. Since travelling with them, Riley now understood why Cameron had volunt
eered. These people were her group; she was attached to them like Riley was to her own group back north.

  As they sat awake a little longer, Riley kept finding herself unconsciously placing her hand on her belly. She quickly removed it every time, hoping nobody noticed.

  ***

  Riley sat bundled in her sleeping bag, despite how warm the night was. It was her turn to keep watch while the others slept, and being wrapped up made her feel better. She wished Mathias were here, with his arms around her. She was finally admitting to herself that she wanted him in her life. Maybe even needed him. He certainly made her feel better. Although cut off from her own emotions for most of her life, ever since the Day, they had flooded Riley. At night, especially in the infested city while everyone slept, was when she felt the most fear.

  Part of that fear was for the others still up north. Cameron had told her what Shawn had done. Most of Shawn’s story was true, about how they had saved Cameron and taken the horses, about how their dad had died. It was when he talked about running into the Marble Keystone mercenaries that he had become a liar.

  For obvious reasons, Cameron had been mistaken for Riley. The soldiers had demanded her capture. Cameron and their mom had been ready to fight back, despite being outgunned. Shawn had betrayed them though. He had made a deal with the mercenaries, that he would subdue Cameron for his own freedom. Cameron and her mom had been shocked. Riley’s sister couldn’t bring herself to fight Shawn, and so she had been handed over to the pack of mercenaries. That’s when their mom had flipped out. She had tried to free Cameron on her own and gotten shot. Shawn had run away at that point and Cameron had been locked up in the truck.

  Shawn had done this to his own family, so who knew what he might do to a bunch of strangers.