Surprised, the soldier went down, Mike on top of him. They rolled down the slope, struggling against each other.
The gun went off.
A black cloud of starlings flocked from the trees at the sharp sound.
Mike and the soldier lay still.
I went down to see if my friend was still alive.
Slipped on the pine needles.
Slid to the two bodies.
Mike pushed himself away from the dead soldier. He picked up the pistol.
A dark blood stain covered the soldier’s combat jacket.
I didn’t care that a man was dead, I had seen what they were doing to the people in that camp. I only cared that my friend was alive.
Mike looked down at the dead body. He held the handgun loosely in his right hand.
The soldier’s radio crackled from where it had been jammed beneath a tree root during the struggle. “Peterson, we heard a shot fired. Confirm. Over.”
I grabbed it and switched it off. Stuffing it into my coat pocket, I put a hand on Mike’s arm. “We need to go, Mike.”
His eyes never left the dead soldier. “Yeah, man.”
Lucy appeared at my side. “There are more soldiers coming.”
We could hear them coming through the woods below us, twigs cracking beneath their boots. If they found out we had killed one of their number, they might not even put us in the camp. A cold-blooded execution by the roadside was possible. In this society where the army kept citizens in cages and killed the bitten before they turned, what was to stop these soldiers from killing us in cold blood? The fate of the girls might be even worse than that.
“We need to move,” I said, vocalizing my thoughts. “This way. We can follow that stream down to the road and get to the Land Rover.”
“Then what?” Lucy asked as we slipped and scrambled across the slope towards the stream that trickled down from the higher rocks.
“We have to go through the checkpoint. We don’t have a choice now.”
We climbed down carefully. The water gurgled over rocks and fallen branches in its unchanging course down the slope. Like this stream, society had forced its way constantly forward, cutting through barriers in its way until it got to the point it was at today. Perhaps the virus was inevitable, the result of what we had done to the planet, to other species, to our environment.
Maybe this was payback and all that lay at the end of our road forward was death. Unless survivors came out of this apocalypse unscathed, all that would be left of mankind would be a few shambling, rotting remnants.
How long would they last before they rotted away for good? The zombies would eventually die out just as humanity had and all that would be left of us would be dust.
The virus had chosen a host that was simply a collection of blood, bones, tissue and bacteria. The host would eventually rot and then the virus would be killed.
A memory entered my head but it meant nothing. It was something I had seen on TV once. A fish swimming in the shallows of a river being picked up by the hunting beak of a heron.
Why had that come to mind? I tried to remember more about the show but being chased by armed soldiers wasn’t conducive to remembering old TV programs.
We managed to get down the slope without breaking any bones and found the Land Rover. I climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine. The smell of petrol as the engine roared to life was comforting.
The girls climbed into the back and Mike slid into the passenger seat.
“Hit it, man.” His shock at killing the soldier seemed to be gone.
I slammed the gear stick into first and guided us out onto the road. In the rear-view mirror, I saw two soldiers break from the trees. They dropped to a kneeling position, bringing up their rifles.
“Get down,” I said, sliding down in my seat.
I stomped on the accelerator and got the Rover up into fourth gear as we sped along the road. Ahead, the dark bulk of the armoured personnel carrier blocked the road. On the right, a green Land Rover was parked in the dirt. On the left was a small gap. Standing by the APC were three soldiers.
Judging by the surprised looks on their faces, they hadn’t been expecting a Land Rover to come speeding towards them.
Two of them threw cigarettes down onto the road. The butts sparked orange before dying.
Three thuds from the back of the vehicle told me we’d been hit. It sounded like the bullets tore into the back panel. I still had control of the wheel so at least they hadn’t hit the tires.
The APC grew in the windscreen as I increased our speed.
The soldiers fumbled for their guns.
I wrenched the wheel and we left the road. The steering wheel shook in my hands as we hit undergrowth and uneven ground.
The dark green metal armour of the APC passed by my side window.
I pulled the wheel to the right and we slammed back onto the road.
In the rear view, I saw two of the soldiers running for their Land Rover.
They pulled onto the road behind us and the passenger leaned out of his window, aiming his assault rifle and sprayed us with a hail of bullets.
We weren’t going to make it to the coast.
nine
“Put your foot down!” Mike shouted at me.
I had the accelerator pushed down to the floor. We were doing nearly a hundred miles an hour. The scenery flashed past the windows like a streaky oil painting. The sounds of shots from the soldier’s gun were like exploding firecrackers. I looked in the rear view. They were gaining on us.
“Why don’t you shoot back at them?” I said, indicating the gun on Mike’s lap. “Try to hit a tire or something.”
“Yeah, right. Like that’s going to happen.”
“Give me the gun,” Lucy said from the back seat. “I’ll do it.”
He looked back at her. “You know how to shoot?”
“My dad’s in a gun club. I go to the range with him all the time.”
Mike looked surprised. He passed the gun back to her.
I heard clicks as she checked the magazine and slid it home. “Colt M1911,” she said. “Only five rounds left.” Cold air rushed into the vehicle as she slid the window open and leaned out, facing backwards, gun raised.
She fired.
And missed.
“Stop moving all over the road,” she demanded. “I need a steady shot.”
I kept the wheel steady.
She fired again. In the rear view, the military Land Rover swerved.
Lucy came back in and closed the window. “You’re going to have to outrun them, Alex. Shooting from a moving vehicle isn’t as easy as it looks in the movies. We can’t waste these bullets.”
I nodded and kept the pedal to the floor.
The road twisted around the mountainous terrain and I had to hit the brakes at every bend, gearing down to take the turn before flooring the accelerator again. The soldier driving the chasing vehicle didn’t seem to be any more familiar with these roads than I was. They dropped back on the tight turns and the distance between us and them increased.
I followed the road signs for Swansea, knowing I would have to take a different route to the coast once we got near the city because of the huge number of zombies that must be in that area.
I had no idea how we were going to be able to stop the Land Rover and find a boat before our pursuers either killed or caught us. That was something we would have to think about once we got to the sea.
Mike had the same thought. “What are we going to do when we have to stop, man?”
“I don’t know. We may have to run for a boat.”
“This is a bad idea, man.”
“Any other suggestions?”
“I can’t be put in one of those camps,” Elena said.
After what we had seen, none of us wanted that.
The soldiers had stopped firing on us now, content to follow and wait. We couldn’t outrun them forever.