Rose smiled and moved across the room giving Jamie a kiss on the forehead. “Tomorrow’s going to be a big day,” said Rose grabbing her rifle and slinging it over her shoulder. “I’m going to head up to the roof, I’ll be able to get good view up there. Will you be ok down here?”
“Me and Ol’ Blasty here will be just fine,” smirked Jamie patting her shotgun.
Rose gave Jamie a wink before looping out of the room bound for the roof.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was still spring, a fact Rose was reminded of fairly quickly standing on the roof for a few hours in the dark. The wind had picked up when she’d first gotten up to the roof, but had since died down leaving her to huddle in her hoodie on a pile of cold cinder blocks. Boston blazed like a jewel across the river casting reflections in the rippling water. It was almost completely silent aside from the occasional gust of wind. Rose couldn’t hear any noise coming from the city, but she knew that wasn’t unusual being this far away. Rose doubted she would be able to see any movement either.
What Rose could see, aided by the lights of the city, was a large wall that seemed to start just beyond the shoreline and encircle the city. She could only see a small portion of the wall, but it seemed reasonable to her the wall went all the way around the city. It was hard to tell exactly how high it was, but from her vantage point seemed higher than the building she was currently standing on top of. Rose made a mental note to study the wall more in the morning. Military patrols, electricity and high walls were all good signs of a persisting human population, something Rose and Jamie were now becoming eager to rejoin. But they still needed to be cautious, their past had taught Rose a hard lesson about that.
The night dragged on uneventfully, the lights constant and unmoving across the water, dark and quiet destruction surrounding Rose. At one point, sometime past midnight, Rose had gone down to the bedroom Jamie was sleeping in to check on her. She’d been fast asleep, lightly snoring in a tangle of blankets in the corner. Jamie looked so peaceful, Rose couldn’t bring herself to wake her so she let Jamie sleep on, returning to the roof instead.
It was probably Rose’s imagination, but it seemed to get fractionally lighter as the night dragged on past 3am and approached 4am. Rose was yawning now, struggling to to keep her eyes open as she sat on the cold dark roof. Once or twice, Rose thought she may have dozed off for a few seconds before reawakening with a start. In an effort to keep herself awake, she paced the roof taking in all the other dark sides of the building. The pile in the front of the building from the wing that’d collapsed was easily the highest rubble pile around the building reaching up four or five stories.
Rose had just turned a corner away from the rubble pile when she thought she heard the faintest of sounds. It sounded like the tumbling of a few stones down the pile, but she was unsure exactly what she’d heard. Rose, very slowly, turned and peered over the edge of the building down at the pile. At first she couldn’t see anything. Maybe just the rubble settling? Some small animal disturbing the pile? Rose stood there silent and unmoving, ears straining for any further sounds and eyes scanning the darkness. Rose had almost given up and was about to turn away when more rubble tumbled down the same pile, this time louder and more distinct.
Straining all of her senses to try and locate what was causing the movement, Rose finally caught sight of the source. It appeared to be a man, but being so dark, Rose couldn’t be sure. There was no doubt he was infected, scaling the rubble pile on all fours, picking his way up the pile to the peak where it met with a rather large hole in the apartment building. As the infected got closer, Rose could see more details: he was naked and dirty, his hair long and matted, and a scraggly beard was hanging from his face.
The infected man didn’t give any indication he’d seen Rose, he was still cautiously and slowly picking his way up the rubble pile as if he was exploring. The man finally reached the hole in the side of the building and paused there, looking around skeptically sniffing the air before slowly moving inside the building and out of Rose’s view.
Once the infected disappeared, Rose sprang into action moving to the stairwell and down to the bedroom Jamie was sleeping in. The infected entered the building on the 5th or 6th floor, but Rose knew that the building was full of holes and missing sections of floor and wall. The infected man could very quickly get to Jamie’s location. She needed to be warned.
Flying down the stairs as fast as she could as silently as possible, Rose found Jamie still asleep, curled up in the corner. Without waking her, Rose closed the room’s door as quietly as possible, grabbed their dinner table and hefted it over to the doorway, leaning it against the door, partially blocking it. Rose then grabbed their chairs and propped them up behind the table holding it in place. The barrier wouldn’t, by any means, keep the infected out, but it would at least slow him down.
Moving from the door, Rose went over to Jamie and shook her lightly. Jamie just snorted and rolled away from Rose pulling a blanket over her head. Sighing, Rose shook Jamie harder. “Jamie,” she whispered urgently. “Wake up! Come on Jamie!”
Jamie was not responding to the shaking so Rose had to take it up a notch. Grabbing Jamie by both shoulders and lifting her off the ground, Rose shook Jamie violently. Instead of just waking, Jamie let off a high-pitched yelp followed quickly by a loud, “What the fuck Rose!”
“Shhh damn it!” whispered Rose loudly. “There’s a fucking infected in the building!”
Before Jamie could answer, they both heard it: running. Something, the infected man, was very clearly now running through the building and ascending the floors. Rose and Jamie could hear debris being smashed as the infected made a beeline for their room, louder and louder the closer it got.
Rifle and shotgun at the ready, Rose and Jamie waited as the infected got ever closer. And closer. Finally, Rose could hear the infected man crash into the room directly below them, pause, and they continue on searching them out. It occurred to Rose how methodical, how controlled, the infected’s search appeared to be. He’d heard the noise and had almost perfectly zeroed in on them, missing them by only a floor. That was equally impressive and frightening.
Rose checked her rifle instinctively making sure the safety was off and she had a round in the chamber. Jamie did the same and both raised their guns pointing them at the table blocking the door. The infected was now on their floor. They could hear him stomping closer and closer checking room by room. Finally, Rose could hear the footsteps stop on the other side of their door. The infected slowly opened the room’s door almost instantly hitting the table pinned against it. He paused and then gave the table a light push with the door which moved it only very slightly. Then silence.
Rose didn’t know where the man had gone then...Blam! The table and the chairs behind the door exploded in a burst of splinters as the infected smashed through them and into the bedroom. Rose fired a shot but missed as the infected dove away from them. Jamie also fired and missed, her shot punching a hole in the floor where the infected would have been if he’d not rolled away.
Across the floor he rolled. With unbelievable agility, the man sprang up into the air, planted his feet on the wall at a 45 degree angle and, without touching the ground, launched himself like a lizard toward Rose. Rose only just avoided the man by squatting down, but he grabbed the back of her sweatshirt and spun her deeper into the room before slamming Rose on stomach, her rifle flying off into the room. The infected landed on the ground next to Rose, but instead of stopping, used his momentum to continue his roll away from her. Jamie, on the other side of the room, fired off two quick shots as the infected rolled, both ripping holes in the floor and both completely missing the man.
Finally ending his roll, the man half stood, half squatted on his powerful legs, muscles rippling with coiled energy. He let out a beastial roar and dove for Jamie. She tried to bring her shotgun to bear in time but the man was too quick grabbing Jamie’s shoulders, wrapping his legs around her waist and slamming her into the
floor. Jamie’s shotgun bounced off the man’s muscle hardened chest and fell away as he sunk his teeth into the fleshy part of Jamie’s upper left arm.
Jamie’s scream of pain spurred Rose into action. She ran over to them and drop-kicked the infected in the side of the head as if she was kicking a field goal. The infected man’s head snapped back ripping flesh from Jamie’s arm. Momentarily stunned, the man staggered and fell a few feet away. Jamie was conscious but bleeding freely from her arm. Grabbing a nearby blanket, Rose wrapped it around Jamie’s arm and tied it as tightly as she could.
“How bad is it?” asked Jamie in a strained voice.
“Not too bad, we’ll need to clean it but…” started Rose.
“I’m infected,” said Jamie matter-of-factly.
“Look Jamie, we’ll figure something out. Maybe…” Rose didn’t finish her sentence, the infected was back and returned the favor landing a meaty kick of his own in her side.
As Rose tumbled across the room, she could feel an intense pain in her ribs and breathing immediately became much harder. Rose had no time to assess her injuries as the infected had followed her tumble. Another kick to Rose’s face caused her nose to break and she blacked out momentarily. Stars in her eyes, Rose was brought to reality but a sharp pain in her upper right arm. The infected had bit down on her arm, piercing her skin in several places, her sweatshirt preventing a deeper bite. Rose yelped in pain and tried to pull her arm away. At the same time, Jamie unleashed another shotgun blast. The infected man jerked away at the sound, spinning away from Rose and dropping her to the ground.
Blinking blood out of her eyes, Rose could see the infected now had his back to her and was stomping back over to Jamie a few feet away, blood dripping from a small wound in his side. Jamie must have just grazed the man, but it was enough for him to forget Rose and redirect his focus. Jamie was kneeling. She tried to stand but was knocked to the ground by a powerful punch to her head from the man. It was like he was swatting a fly. Towering over Jamie, the man was sizing her up. Jamie made a desperate kick at the infected’s knee cap, but he just lazily batted it aside. Rose realized there was something more going on here. There was something more to this infected. He wasn’t the mindless killing machine Rose had encountered before...This man was an animal yes, but an intelligent one that had hunted them down with purpose. One that was now toying with them.
Coming to her senses, Rose put her hand down on the floor to rise and realized she’d found the strap of her lost rifle. In one fluid motion, Rose grabbed the rifle without looking at it, instinctively raised it and fired off a round from her hip at the man without looking. The round ripped through the man’s upper right thigh spraying Jamie with the man’s blood. He unwittingly dropped to one knee as his leg buckled. Jamie took this opportunity to land another kick, but instead of batting away her leg, the man instead grabbed it and pulled her in close sinking his teeth deep into Jamie’s right inner thigh just above the knee. There was the briefest of howls from Jamie, but this time the pain appeared to be too great and passed out.
Horrified, Rose raised her rifle and rammed the butt into her shoulder firing off three blasts into the man’s chest. The man unlatched from Jamie and roared in pain, standing and facing Rose. Rose then unleashed another five rounds into the man’s chest leaving several large gaping holes, gore painting the wall behind the man. Growling, his upper body and face covered in blood, his beard dark and glistening, teeth glossy and red, the man took two steps toward Rose before collapsing face-first to the floor. No sooner had the man’s head stopped moving than Rose put two more rounds through his skull. Thinking better of it, she released the butt of the rifle from her shoulder and rammed it into the back of the man’s head over and over and over. Lost in a red haze of revenge, Rose wasn’t sure how many times she’d slammed the man’s head, but what remained was unrecognizable as human.
Slinging her gore-soaked rifle, Rose went over to Jamie. She was breathing but her breaths were faint and shallow. Grabbing another blanket, Rose wrapped up her leg. The bandage on her shoulder was soaked through, a deep shade of red. Jamie was losing a lot of blood and wouldn’t make it if Rose delayed. Hefting Jamie up onto her shoulder and wincing at the shooting pains in her chest, face and arm, Rose pushed it all aside. Jamie. She needed to save Jamie. That was all that mattered.
Chapter 9
The night was gone, dawn greedily eating up the darkness. The sun was just starting to creep over the horizon and sending rays of bright light into the nearly cloudless sky. It was going to be another clear day, sunny and bright. Rose however, had no time to notice this. Soaked in sweat and blood, both hers and Jamie’s, Rose was exerting every ounce of energy and adrenaline she had remaining to her. The pain in Rose’s chest was acutely intense making breathing, let alone carrying Jamie difficult. The swelling in Rose’s face was starting to obscure her vision but she pushed it all aside. Rose had a mission. Jamie’s life was at stake. Readjusting the still-unconscious Jamie on her shoulders, Rose huffed down the final few flights of stairs, stumbling out into the lobby of the building.
Scattered with large chunks of debris, dust and the occasional pale white bone, Rose staggered through the obstacle course of destruction to a hole in the front wall that used to be the front doors. Smashed and destroyed, Rose was able to pass through the opening easily and emerge out into the early morning sun. It was already starting to get warm and the sweat on Rose’s face only added to her misery making her eyes sting, literally adding salt to open wounds.
Rose had a hard time recalling where exactly they’d parked. Being out in front of the building, she was on the opposite side of the building from where they’d originally entered. Rose’s thoughts seemed to jumble together then skip around, she could hardly concentrate on one thing and found herself going over the same things again and again. Did she had a concussion too? It was likely. That punch had broken her nose easily.
Picking a direction and going with it, Rose lumbered down the empty street. She would have prefered to move more stealthy being unarmed, the rifle and the shotgun left behind along with the supplies she and Jamie had brought into the apartment building, but speed was all that mattered now. Rose tried to be as quiet as possible, but she knew she was likely doing a terrible job. They’d barely survived just one attack, Rose didn’t want to attract any other infected, Jamie wouldn’t survive it. Their only hope was Boston now. If there was a way for Jamie to survive, it was in Boston. It felt so true, Rose hoped she wasn’t becoming delusional as well. Rose grabbed ahold of that hope and held on for dear life.
Looking over her shoulder, Rose could see Jamie’s face, pale and listless. She looked near death and Rose hoped she wasn’t already gone. She couldn’t stop to check Jamie, they needed to find their car, they needed help.
Several wrong turns later, Rose finally spotted the car in the distance. It appeared untouched since the last time they’d been at it. Stumbling up to the car and leaning against it for support, Rose fished around in her pocket producing the keys. Rose placed Jamie into the passenger seat and checked her pulse. At first, Rose couldn’t find it, but on her second attempt, she was able to find one, but it was very weak. Jamie somehow looked even more pale now, color draining from her lips. Slamming the door, Rose ran as fast as she could around to the driver’s seat. Firing up the car, they were off.
Rose only had one chance to save Jamie. One option. One guess. Rose had to throw all she’d learned surviving out the window and place all her faith in people she didn’t know or trust. It was all or nothing now.
Driving back the way she’d come carrying Jamie, Rose swerved her car out onto the main road between the apartment building and the river. She caught sight of a street sign which named the road Memorial Drive. It was a wide road with paved sections separated by a green space between them. Taking a left, Rose drove as fast a she dared. This was the same direction she’d seen the soldiers patrolling but she saw no sign of them now.
It wasn’t long be
fore Rose spotted what looked like a bridge up ahead. The bridge appeared to lead right over the river and into Boston where all those lights had been shining so brightly the night before. As Rose approached the bridge, the road curved before ending at a large barricade of debris which seemed to block a small tunnel under the bridge. Rose had to slam on her brakes and skid to a stop. She reached over and held Jamie into the passenger seat, preventing her from flying forward into the windshield.
Rose spied a green space now overgrown with grass and trees nearby. Throwing caution to the wind and hopping the curb, Rose plowed through the grass section avoiding the trees. She could hear things bumping off the bumper or clanging against the undercarriage but Rose continued, intent on getting onto that bridge. Cresting the small hill, Rose found the entrance to the bridge with another street sign: Main Street/MA-3.
Taking that as a good sign, Rose spun the car into the road and again floored the gas, ascending the bridge over the river. About half way across the bridge, there were two stone towers built into the bridge, each about three stories high with small windows and domed roofs. Rose could see guards stationed in and around these towers, rifles slung on their shoulders dressed in urban camouflage. The guards clearly hadn’t been expecting Rose and just gaped at her with stunned expressions on their faces as she sped by them at nearly 70 miles per hour.
The road was still unobstructed at this point but that was going to end quickly. Rose could see up ahead, just beyond another set of stone guard towers, the huge wall she’d seen the night before. Same concept as the barrier wall around the military base at Estcourt Station in Maine, this wall was far more permanent and far better built. Significant time and effort had been put into the wall’s construction and while it was still an amalgamation of several different types of building materials, primarily metal, stone and concrete, it had been built to last, built to defend and built high.
Jordan Rose Duology (Book 2): Homecoming Page 10