Welcome to the Silent Zone, page 16
The ferals, done with the slaughter, gathered around the Alpha. The cloud of dust settled. The sound of the jeep fleeing north was finally out of range, yet the Alpha stared into the distance, mesmerized. That smell. For some reason it had soaked into its pores, even dulled its insatiable bloodlust, and it was all the Alpha could think of.
Unable to determine what it was, the beast had to follow it. Without rest, at a frantic pace. It thought it was all in vain. The adrenaline rush was gone. The suffering and pain had returned. It wanted to rage as the darkness descended, but then the pack saw the lone jeep. And the smell picked up again, which led the feral to a new trace.
The Alpha ignored the explosion and his torn-apart companion. Its nostrils quivered, its mouth oozed a mixture of blood and saliva. It writhed, its veins throbbed, and the drive to find that scent was ripping its body apart. The pack headed for the motel, and when they reached it, the Alpha was one step closer to having its question answered.
2.
The Alpha could hear the sound of the engine getting louder and see the lights heading east, but the crack of gunfire was coming from the roof. It jumped up and clung to one of the first-floor windows. It tore the barbed wire apart with a flick of its wrist; the Alpha didn’t care that its horn-hard skin was scratched. It barely registered.
The wretch the Alpha landed beside watched it tower over him with widened eyes. The man had already raised his gun, but the Alpha was too fast. It didn’t even deign to bite, it just swiped. The man’s bloody hat flew off the roof. His scream, mixed with the fear of death, was replaced by a crackling, splashing sound. Blood covered everything.
The Alpha sniffed the air and opened its mouth, but that smell...
...was not what the beast was looking for.
The bus appeared in its peripheral vision, cutting through the grass and heading straight for the main road. Without thinking, the Alpha jumped immediately. Its steel muscles swung, faster than the wind, and the rest of the pack could not catch up with it. Its heart pounded in its ears, adrenaline flooded its body in waves, its strength sent it rocketing forwards. Closer and closer to the bouncing bus on the bumpy road, which was clambering up the asphalt with great difficulty, and which the driver was trying to straighten. Unsuccessfully. The vehicle swerved and lost speed.
The Alpha heard the sound of the engine. Its animal brain sensed that this was the last moment to catch the bus before it vanished into the distance. The monster was drawn by the smell, drawn by an invisible fishing line. It could sense it everywhere. The smell could only be coming from one of the people on the bus... but which one? Just a few more yards. In the darkness the passengers couldn’t even see the threat behind them. If it had stretched out its arm, the Alpha could have reached the bus, but it wanted to be sure. In two giant leaps, it was beside the vehicle. It slammed a shoulder into it, trying to push the vehicle off the road, but lost its balance as the bus bounced back.
The Alpha crashed into the roadside bushes with tremendous force. By the time it regained its strength and balance, the bus was far away, and all it could see was a flickering red light in the distance. The smell faded, the adrenaline slowly died down, and the suffering returned. The pain became unbearable again.
ON THE ROCKY ROAD
1.
She knew she couldn’t drag it out any longer; Abigail needed to tell Cassius what she had done.
The bus rumbled along the asphalt. Outside it was dark, and all they could see was the road lit by the Blue Bird, covered in places with debris. The noise of the engine, the wind whistling through the broken window, and the screech of the rusty bodywork drowned out the sound of the puppy whimpering in the box, and Cassius was already busy watching the roadblocks. Megan sat in the front seat, depressed, her head resting on her bag. Her shoulder shook with sobs.
Abigail touched her own forehead and hissed as she felt the bruise. Her right palm had been scraped by the shards of glass scattered across the bus floor, but she only became aware of the pain now, as the rush of adrenaline subsided. She didn’t dare think about what she had picked up with her open wound from the bus floor. She hopped down on one of the seats and rummaged through her bag with trembling hands. For a split second, the demonic face flashed before her as it had unfurled out of the darkness, snarling, slamming against the window, its huge hand raking the frame, bending the bodywork...
Cassius appeared beside her. He took disinfectant, bandages, and a flask from his own bag and sat down opposite her. Neither of them spoke, avoiding each other’s gaze for a moment. Abigail searched for the right words and watched with a sweaty brow as he took her hand and gently moved to disinfect her wound. She felt the nerves sting as the disinfectant penetrated to the very depths of the cut, but she clenched her teeth.
“I can see you’re mad,” she said when the bandage was finally ready.
“I’m not.”
“Come on, say it! I defied your orders again, I was irresponsible.” Her voice grew louder and more hysterical, but now it was driven by cold calculation. She had defanged him, so that he would have nothing left to bang on about. “I’ve forgotten my duty!”
Cassius stared at her speechlessly. Abigail could not bear the silence for long.
“Say something!”
“You were right, I was wrong.”
Abigail’s eyes widened, but before she could breathe a sigh of relief, Cassius shook his head in disappointment. His voice was calm, too calm, his lips pursed down in despondency, the words slowly enunciated.
“I expected too much from you. Perhaps you’re not as ready as I thought you were.”
“That was below the belt.”
“I can’t expect you to understand, but...”
“Oh, no, of course you can’t!”
Cassius continued without blinking an eye.
“But you act differently when you’re responsible for someone. You make different decisions, you have different thoughts. You only care about who you’re responsible for. Then life is no longer about what makes you feel better. I hope you’ll understand one day.”
“Maybe I do now,” she said with a dry smile, and stood up. Defiantly she straightened her spine. “I have a responsibility for someone.”
“What are you talking about?”
Abigail took a deep breath and squatted down by the box of bags. She lifted the lid off, but left one hand on the edge as if leaning against it. She wanted to signal that whatever was squirming there was under her protection, and there was nothing Cassius could do about it now.
“That’s what I’m talking about.”
She saw him blink, at first in incomprehension, then rise and lean over the box with a superior expression, as if nothing could surprise him now. The sound of the engine and the grinding of the bodywork could no longer suppress Soxy’s whimper. Cassius caught her gaze, his eyes wide open, seeing stars, searching for the right words.
“Are you out of your goddamn mind?”
“I found some formula at the old gas station, read what to do in one of your stupid books, and took care of him. I couldn’t just leave him there, and everything turned out fine.”
“Everything turned out fine?” Cassius snapped, so loudly that Megan perked up her head in the front seat. “Is that why you had no time to lay the Claymore? We could have died because of this!”
No answer. What could she have said when he was right? This irresponsibility really could have cost them their lives. She was ashamed.
“So, tell me,” he continued, “what was your plan? When were you going to tell me? Hm?”
The silence grew awkward. Abigail clenched her jaw so tightly that she thought it would crumble her bones in a moment. She wanted to speak out, to say that this was again unfair. Surviving is not the only goal!
“All right, enough of the fighting!” Megan came up behind Cassius and turned him forcefully towards her. “You go to the front next to David! There’s work to be done. Find out if we’ve got enough fuel, or where we’re going to stop to pee, or whatever. And I’ll stay here with Abigail and play tiger mom. Come on, come on!”
Cassius was about to speak, but the Blue Bird ran over something and shook, the chassis groaning as rubble scraped it from underneath. He turned his head worriedly, thinking the same thing that she was. If something happened to the bus now and they broke down, they were doomed. The pack would catch up with them.
“What’s this fool doing, for God’s sake?” he asked, starting forwards angrily.
2.
Abigail’s mouth was still trembling with nervousness. Megan, as if everything was fine, put her hands on her hips and sat down with a big snort. She tried to make herself comfortable, but discovered it was hard to find a position that didn’t make her ache in every inch of her body.
“It shows a lot of maturity the way you’ve cared for him,” she said, gently stroking the fussy pup on the top of his head. She smiled as her fingers touched the dog’s soft fur.
“It was nothing,” Abigail swallowed back tears and shrugged her shoulders. “It’s no big deal... it shouldn’t be.”
“Yeah, but even so. If I were you, I’d have done the same.”
“And will you tell Cassius that, too?”
“I think you’re old enough not to have to explain yourself.”
“Blasphemy!” They laughed. Abigail sniffled, then wiped her nose. “Now I’m almost begging you to talk to him, to see if you can bring him to his senses.”
Megan wiped a chestnut lock out of her eyes and glanced worriedly at David, who was trying to talk to Cassius while driving. They couldn’t hear the conversation, but Cassius’ shoulders grew tighter with each and every word the young man spoke.
“What do you think is going to happen to us now?” Megan asked.
“I know Cassius too well to worry. He plays the tough guy, but his heart always softens in the end.”
“What if we reach Headland? Then what?”
“I’ll convince him somehow.”
“I mean, what’s waiting for us there? What is it that everyone’s so scared of that they want to get as far away from the place as they can? I thought the city was nothing more than rubble.”
Abigail hesitated. She was searching for words because she didn’t want to scare the woman. After they tried so hard to go around the city, she was starting to have a strange feeling about returning to her home. Still, she brushed those thoughts away. Headland was just a name from the past. It might not be hell, but it could be one of its pits.
“A pile of rubble, indeed, but not empty at all,” Abigail said finally.
“Ferals?”
The girl shook her head.
“Remember the old posters? ‘Four-legged Paradise’ they called it.”
Megan nodded.
“Yeah. ‘The second-best place in the States to have a pet.’ They had wonderful parks there, I give them that. Not exactly Liberty,” she smiled sadly. “But I’m biased.”
“Yeah, well… After the quarantine, things changed. Most of the animals were neglected, either because their owners had become infected or because there was nothing left to feed them. The city was full of them, and the heaps of garbage in the streets weren’t enough to keep them all fed. First, they went wild, and later they too were infected by the ferals. In packs among the ruins, they hunted down everything that lived and moved, and the deformation didn’t spare them either. So, Headland is now famous for two things: infected pets... and man-eaters. Believe it or not, neither of them despises the other.”
Megan frowned, then her face pulled into a grimace. “You mean...?”
“Those bastards believe that by eating infected meat, the power of the animals will be transferred to them.”
“Then why don’t we go around it? There must be some by-pass.”
“There is, but none of them are options now. Because of you.”
“Because of me?” Megan asked, eyebrows raised. Abigail saw that the woman was fighting incomprehension and resentment, unable to decide whether to be offended or to simply ask for more information.
“Yeah. Going south would take days because of the swamp, and we don’t have days. To the north, there are the mountains and the bandits, and we don’t have enough fuel for the uphill ride nor enough ammo for the not-so-friendly parleys. Not to mention that the fields surrounding the city were mined by the army during the pandemic. So, all we can do is take a chance and hope we can cross without being seen.”
Megan shuddered and squeezed her shoulder involuntarily. They listened in silence to the monotonous rattle of the bus, which slowly lulled Soxy to sleep. Abigail watched the puppy’s even breathing. She envied him being able to sleep so peacefully.
In the east, the first thin streak of light appeared, and the darkness was replaced by a gloom. Megan mused as she looked at the glowing horizon slowly illuminate the landscape around them.
“After all this, I don’t know how you’ve managed out here. For so long. Alone.”
“Neither do I,” Abigail said. She added, whispering with a playful smile. “I hope the boat-town is as you say it is, and then Cassius will see we have nothing to fear.”
“Ah, so that’s your endgame.”
“What can I say? I’m not planning to grow old on an island.”
Megan noticed something outside. She crept closer to the window and gaped at what she saw. In the half-light the bushes and weeds were dotted with cars that had been pushed off the road. The wrecks went on as far as she could see, the remnants of chaos stretched to the horizon.
The bus slowed as they drew closer, and Megan glanced at Abigail, puzzled. Dozens of abandoned ambulances were stranded on the road ahead, one overturned, another with its back door torn open, a third pulled over to the side of the road. The only thing they had in common was that their aluminum bodies had been ripped apart by large caliber bullets. All around them were military Humvees with roof-mounted machine guns. Their windshields were smashed, though on some the damage couldn’t be seen, having been flipped over by an infernal force. They were the traces of an unimaginable battle.
The death-caravan. Twelve ambulances, on their way to the west, with infected strapped inside. They never made it to their destination.
The Blue Bird slow-danced around the vehicles, and Megan shook her head in dismay.
“I’ve heard of this place.”
“It happened after the battle of Headland. There were soldiers everywhere, and they wouldn’t let anyone move on. But people stopped waiting. Relatives of the militia members were in the ambulance vans. Their leader, Mason, wanted to take them to Atlanta in the hope that the CDC might have a cure.”
They passed by the last ambulance, followed by another line of cars with horrific signs of destruction. They could barely get around a bus that had overturned and they crushed a motorbike. Abigail bowed her head as she reminisced.
“And that’s nothing compared to what’s waiting in Headland,” she said, then turned back to Soxy.
3.
Perched beside David, Cassius watched the road. The broken-down vehicles they carefully navigated were left as static, rusting mementos of the destruction. If he had closed his eyes, he would have seen the panic of seven years before, as people jumped out of their cars one after another, clutching their children’s hands or the last of their valuables. But he didn’t dare close his eyes.
Instead, he thought about what might await them: where they could stop and when he would decide upon the dog’s fate. He glanced out of the corner of his eye and began to watch Megan. Grant’s words came back to him. What the hell was he thinking? What’s wrong with Megan?
“Kids, huh? And women,” David muttered, grinning stupidly at Cassius, who took out Grant’s map and held it up to him.
“Tell me everything you know about the road!”
“Everything?” David snorted. “Aren’t you asking for a bit too much? Okay, fine, I get it, straight to the point. If all goes well and we don’t stop, we can reach Headland before dark. The idea was that Trevor with the Wrangler would have cleared any obstacles or traps out of our way, but so much for that. We’re on our own. Grant’s plan was to stay on the 10 if the overpass is still up.”
“And if not?”
“In that case we take a detour on 275.”
“Towards Union City?”
“Yeah, but trust me, Grant didn’t want that either. The point is, we gotta get to the river somehow.”
“And then what?”
“Then we find the docks... assuming you still have the same plan.”
“You bet I do.” Cassius nodded. “We’ll get a boat and we won’t stop until we reach the sea. Any danger? Were you prepared for anything?”
“Not before Headland. The only safe place seemed to be Old Mike’s restaurant.”
“That crappy hash house with the chewy steaks? Why that?”
David howled.
“You know it, too? I dare you to tell Old Mike to his face,” he winked, as if he knew something the other didn’t.
Cassius froze.
“What?”
“Oh, well here’s something you don’t know. The old chap and Trevor used to talk on the radio regularly. He survived the Breakdown and pulled up in the restaurant. He wasn’t overly talkative, but he seemed nice.”
“Hold on a second!” Cassius raised his hand. “Did you talk to Cowboy Mike, who knows you’re coming?”
“I wouldn’t say he knows.” David waited for the effect of his words. Cassius’ hand clenched into a fist, so the young man swallowed and continued. “He’s been quiet for a few weeks, but we weren’t worried, it’s happened before. The last time his radio went dead.”
