The drones sounded like grit in a sandstorm peppering the SUV's body. Metallic pings echoed hollowly inside the truck, sounding virtually inoffensive. Then Max spotted the tears in the sheet metal of the hood just before the first of the drones smacked into the windshield.
More drones struck the windshield, penetrating into the glass. Spiderwebbed fractures ran across the glass instantly. As the safety glass broke into cubes the way it was designed to do, some of them blasted over Max and Valenti. The glass cubes weren't harmful, but they served to let Max know that the windshield wasn't going to stand up to the battering. If the attack kept up, the drones were going to tear through the glass and rip like arrows into the flesh-and-blood targets on the other side.
"Max," Isabel called, maintaining control with effort.
Understanding, Max threw up his hand. Energy and blue-white light pulsed from his hand, creating the force field he'd used before. He started with a surface on the other side of the windshield, watching as the drones struck the shield and burst into brief, sparking wisps that died almost at once and sounded like popcorn popping.
Valenti cursed, not at all happy with how close the attack had come. One of the SUV's headlights burst in a muffled explosion.
Max kept the shield in place, straining himself and making the protective surface bigger, bending it until it became a bubble that protected them all the way around.
Keeping the shield intact while aboard a moving vehicle made it even harder.
The SUV slowed slightly.
"Drive," Max said.
"People," Valenti groaned. "There are people ahead."
Gazing ahead, trying to keep focused enough to maintain the force field, Max saw figures suddenly lurch and stumble from the shadows. The single cone of light that remained from the SUV's headlights played over the swaying figures of men and women. Blood covered their faces. Some of them were missing arms and legs, and others dragged their broken bodies with their hands.
18
Freakin' zombies," Michael griped from the back of the SUV
Looking at the sprawling group of undoubtedly dead people who filled the dirt road ahead, Max silently agreed. The zombies turned like a pack of predators and started toward the SUV even though it was racing toward them. Max kept the energy shield in place, aware that more drones smashed to pieces against the glowing barrier.
Valenti pulled his foot from the accelerator and shoved down on the brake. The SUV stuttered across the uneven surface of the dirt road, scratching up bigger clouds of dust. Realizing that the vehicle wasn't going to stop in time, Valenti started cutting the wheel, slewing the SUV sideways.
"Max!" Liz called. "I don't see anything. I don't see any zombies."
Shuddering across the rough dirt road, the SUV rocked to a stop. The motor growled. The cloud of dust caught up in their backdraft suddenly blew by them, playing out like a wave washing up onto the beach.
Max kept the force field in place with effort. The number of drones shattering against the energy barrier were almost nonexistent, but some still came, leaving miniature fireworks to mark their destruction.
Beyond the energy barrier, though, the zombies lurched toward the SUV
"You see them, don't you, Max?" Valenti asked. He stared at the crowd of dead people. "You see them."
"Yeah," Max said, "but… "
"We've got to get out of here." Valenti threw the transmission in reverse, looked over his shoulder, and floored the accelerator.
The SUV bucked in protest, but the tires slashed through the desert dust and caught hold of the road.
"No," Max said. "They're not real." He put his hand on Valenti's shoulder.
Valenti hesitated, braking again. He stared at the approaching figures. "They're real, Max."
"No. It's an illusion."
Valenti shook his head weakly.
"Think about it," Max said. "You have to know those people. Who are they?"
Valenti wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Accident victims. People I've seen die or already dead along the highways. Automobile accidents. Fires. Murders and suicides. All those people died hard."
"They can't all be here," Max said. "This isn't real."
"It looks real."
"This isn't real," Max repeated calmly.
"Dad," Kyle spoke from the back, "I can't see anything. Nothing's there but empty road."
"The drones are trying to scare us off," Max stated, staring Valenti in the eye. "Just like they're trying to scare off the Mesaliko and the people in Roswell." He reached out and slipped the transmission into drive. "We go through them. We're not stopping. We're too close to quit, and we may be the only chance there is to shut this down."
Valenti wiped his mouth again. His eyes looked fever bright. He nodded. "Okay. Okay, let's get this done." He put his foot on the accelerator and roared forward again.
Straining, brain hurting from the effort required to maintain the energy shield, Max watched as the SUV barreled down on the lurching zombies reaching toward them with outstretched arms.
"Not real," Valenti said under his breath, barely audible over the roaring engine. "Damn it, they're not real!"
Max halfway expected the zombies to disappear when his force field touched them. Instead the zombies passed through the energy barrier and hurled themselves at the SUV
Valenti started to take his foot from the accelerator. Max grabbed the steering wheel with his left hand and jammed his left foot on top of Valenti's foot, keeping the accelerator pinned to the floorboard. "No," Max said. "We're going through."
Incredibly the zombies caught hold of the SUV They clung to the vehicle and peered in with dead eyes through the shattered glass as they writhed and tried to crawl through. A woman with half her face missing stared at Max.
Almost unnerved himself despite knowing the drones were creating the illusion, Max stopped projecting the force field and reached for Valenti. He pressed his palm against Valenti's temple, thinking that if the drones were using whatever powers they had against Valenti that the force had to somehow be neural, biological, or chemical in nature. As such, he hoped the effect was compatible with his healing powers.
He poured energy into Valenti's mind, feeling the wrongness there, like a thorn embedded in tender flesh. The thorn held only a moment before his healing touch, then it crumbled. As soon as the thorn vanished and Max couldn't feel it anymore, the zombies disappeared as well. He took his hand away from Valenti's temple.
Glancing around, Valenti said, "Not real. They weren't real after all."
"No," Max said, slumping tiredly back into the seat. He scanned the night for more of the drones but didn't see any.
"Not much farther," Isabel said. "One more turn and we're going to be on foot."
Max got out of the SUV at the base of the tall hill Isabel's directions had brought them to. The encounter with Valenti's zombies was five miles back, and now they were at the end of even the dirt trail they'd been able to use.
The forlorn promontory was all windswept rock, a place apart even in the isolated desert. The moonlight silvered the sand, but the ridge left a lake of shadows where it blocked the moon's glow. The wind moaned in the distance, racing across the broken terrain as dark clouds scudded and obscured the starlight.
"Creepy, huh?" Liz asked. She stood on the other side of the SUV.
"Not as creepy as it was the night the storm hit," Michael said as he vaulted from the rear of the SUV He landed on the sand and was actually smiling a little, like he was enjoying the thought of the coming confrontation. "Compared with that, this is practically a walk in the park."