Manny jumped behind Rini as she started the Gator’s engine.
“Ready?” She tossed over her shoulder.
“Go!”
The ATV lurched forward joining the queue. The German shepherd and Golden Retriever raced beside them barking at the rats, catching a few in their teeth then flinging them in the air.
Manny swung his torch beside the vehicle. Through the dust ahead, he watched the last two wagons maneuver between the people and the rats.
Brown arrowed into the stream of people. Screams rent the air.
Shots rang out.
Manny grasped Rini around the waist as the ATV trundled over the rats. Flames flickered and heat licked his face. They maneuvered into the middle of the dozen ATVs. The motorcycles raced ahead and then fell back, blocking the people as best they could. Smoke thickened. The lead wagons and horsemen disappeared.
The brown wave slipped down the banks into the wash. Pink tails erect. Beady eyes glistened. He kept swinging the torch. Rodents screeched. The air filled with the pungent scent of burning hair and flesh. The ATV bumped over the vermin carpet as they swerved, swept along by the furry stream.
Rini leaned forward against the handlebars, steering them back to the others.
More screams sounded ahead. Gun shots rang out with greater frequency.
The German shepherd leapt onto the back basket. He snapped at the rodents, plucking one off Manny’s thigh and flinging it over his shoulder.
Manny moved the torch back and forth as they climbed the ramp. The seething carpet carried them to the edge, threatening to topple them into the wash. He reached around Rini. Gripping one handlebar, he helped turn the wheels on the backs of the vermin.
The fur carpet stretched for miles and bubbled up the hill. Ahead, a red wall of flames raced along the northern edge of the field. The vermin flew into a frenzy trampling each other. People went down under the mass. Here and there, a hand emerged, before it melted back into the sea of brown and the lump lay still.
The torches created red arcs but didn’t slow the rampage.
Manny kept swinging. Ahead, fire raced across the access road. The motorcycles surged through it. They darted to the side as the fire died down to reveal a large truck. Soldiers with flame throwers and guns stood in the bed of a truck as it backed toward the running people. Every once in a while, flames washed down the side and swept aside the rats climbing the tires.
The lead ATV slowed. A figure wearing rats from the waist down, threw himself across the boards on the back. Rats flew off him. The first ATV approached another person. The vermin tide swept him over the bank.
Soldiers lifted people into the bed of their truck, one after the other. Slowly, they cleared the main body. The stragglers lagged further and further behind. And their numbers were dwindling.
“We have to go faster!” Manny shouted.
The vehicle lurched forward.
The German shepherd leapt from the back of the Gator onto a rat-covered man as they passed. The man struggled to his feet. Manny watched Falcon slow long enough to pick both up.
Gunfire came in one uninterrupted burst now. Rat bodies bounced as they were hit by the bullets.
Manny flung the shovel aside as they approached a couple carrying a young child. The man swatted at the rats with a branch as they slogged forward.
“Them.” Manny pointed so Rini could see them.
Nodding, Rini slowed.
Rats clawed up his leg. Clenching his thighs tight, he reached for the woman.
The man stopped to throw her. She landed in the back and the ATV bucked in the front. Twisting in his seat, Manny slapped aside the rats on the bloody woman. The man went down on one knee. Rats swarmed over him.
A torch swept over the bunch and he lurched to his feet. The ATV driver stopped and dragged him from the sucking swell of vermin. Shaking off rats, they staggered to the vehicle and took off.
After tossing the last rat off the woman, Manny turned back around. Nothing but the carpet of rats undulated across the road. The soldiers’ truck began the bumpy ride forward with the ATVs close behind.
They zoomed through a line of fire and he almost pitched forward as Rini brought them to a quick stop.
Henry sat in the front of a supply truck. More trucks formed a line on the side of the road where soldiers with flame throwers fed the fire line repelling the vermin tide. “Bring the wounded over here. We can’t stop for long.”
They puttered forward and a soldier in camouflage glanced at the woman in back. They lifted her and the child free.
The rest of the ATVs zoomed through the smoke and drew to a halt.
Standing in the middle of the chaos, Sergeant Major Dawson tugged down his mask and smiled. “About time you guys got here. We were getting ready to leave when we saw the first wagon emerge from the river bed.”
“You waited for us?”
“Of course.” The soldier tossed him a bag of cookies before setting his face mask back in place. “We would have found you sooner, but the smoke renders the satellites useless. Now, let’s head out. We should be at base camp in another couple of hours, then we will relax.”
Manny tore open the cookies, before offering one to Rini.
She peeked inside before taking one. Lifting her mask, she nibbled on one corner. “We’re safe now, aren’t we?”
“Yes.” He stuck a whole one in his mouth. “Yes, we are.”
And their tribe had gotten a whole lot larger but that was a good thing.
Rini drifted forward bringing their ATV alongside Falcon’s and into the convoy. In a couple of hours, they would reach their new home.
There’d be no more rats.
And no more dying.
Chapter Fifty
Night shoved against red flames making a jagged edge on the horizon as David’s truck pulled into Mavis’s neighborhood. Parked military vehicles tilted drunkenly from the curb. Black ghosts shuffled along the sidewalks and streets while yellow flashlights punched holes in darkness. The headlamps cut across the face of a donkey. The animal shied away before the handler got it under control. Slowly a cart trundled by. Limbs protruded from the bodies in the back and flopped about as the cart bumped over a pothole.
“It had taken us the whole day, Big D, but I think we did great finding Wheelchair Henry, Manny, and all. Plus, those animals are gonna come in real handy feeding everyone.” Robertson nosed the personnel carrier into an empty spot and killed the engine.
“The Doc will be pleased.” About the people. Who knew if she’d planned for more animals. He scanned the crowd. Where was Mavis? Had she gotten worse? He checked his cellphone. No message. But that didn’t mean one hadn’t been sent. Around the burning valley, cell towers had been destroyed, rendering coverage spotty at best. He pushed open the door and jumped to the asphalt.
General Lister spied him from the opening of Mavis’ cul-de-sac and marched over. “Bout time you showed up. The Doc was getting worried. That we don’t need, Sergeant-Major.”
“Yes, Sir.” He gestured to the wagons being herded deeper into the neighborhood. “We found some survivors.”
“Good.” Lister rubbed the stubble on his chin. “How many sick?”
“More than half.” He didn’t bother counting actual numbers. There wasn’t much point. “We’re told many passed in the night.”
Metal screeched as the trucks’ gates dropped. Soldiers, Airmen and Marines formed queues nearby, personally sorting the arrivals and leading them to different locations. Fatigue and helpless bowed many square shoulders at the number of sick children. So many sick children.
“Death is going to be our constant companion for the next couple months.” Lister sighed as a trio of coughing toddlers were carried by. “This is a hell of an enemy to fight.”