“Let’s assume,” I said, my blood racing and pounding in my ears. “Let’s go!”
D was indeed for drive and we rocketed forward, clipping another vehicle as we swung wildly out of the parking lot and onto the street.
“That woman was touched,” I said, bracing myself as we swerved madly. “She had probably gone out to look for food or something when a Hunter must have found her. West, this means they’re starting to come back into the city.”
The speedometer crept up to eighty miles an hour as we peeled back onto the onramp. Just as we pulled onto the freeway, there was a figure ahead of us. There was no time to stop and the truck plowed right into it.
The mechanical body broke right in half, completely cybernetic by this time. The upper half of the body crashed into the windshield, shattering it.
We both screamed as the glass burst into tiny glittering pieces and an arm dangled between the two of us.
“Holy…” West bellowed as the truck swerved violently back and forth and we ran over the lower half of the body.
“Keep driving!” I shouted. I was about to reach for the shoulders of the body, when its hand suddenly flung out at me, and wrapped around my throat.
West swore loudly. “It’s still alive?!”
“Keep…” I gasped for air as West swerved in an attempt to put distance between himself and the Bane that was somehow still attacking. “Driving!”
Wrapping my hands around the wrist, I squeezed until the cybernetic bones crumpled and bent and the hand let go. Plowing the heel of my hand into what was left of where its nose should have been, its head whipped back with a sickening crunch. The thing was instantly still.
But still carrying active TorBane.
I coughed violently, unbuckling my seatbelt.
“You okay?” West asked, wild fear in his eyes as he attempted to drive straight. He leaned as far to the left as possible, attempting to put some space between him and the mangled Bane.
“Yeah,” I croaked. My throat was probably bruised. “Keep driving. I’ll take care of this.”
I half stood as well as I could in the cramped space. Placing my hands on its shoulders, I gave a good shove. The body slid forward two feet and to the right. But one of its arms slipped down the front of the hood and caught in the grill.
“Oh, come on,” West said, looking at the body in disbelief.
“Keep driving,” I repeated. I used my boot to knock out the rest of the glass hanging around the frame of the window. Crawling up onto the dash, I slowly worked my way out onto the hood of the truck.
As we drove over the bumpy freeway, the arm wedged its way tighter and tighter into the grill. Finally, I simply snapped the arm off at the elbow. The rest of the body crashed to the ground. I tried yanking the rest of the arm free, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Get back in here, Eve!” West shouted. “We can have it melted down later. Sit down before I kill you!”
An amused chuckle worked its way through my lips as I carefully climbed back up the hood and into the vehicle.
“Well, this turned into an exciting day,” West said, shaking his head.
“Yeah, I think the Bane are getting back into the city,” I said, pushing my windblown hair back off my forehead. “That store was supposed to be fifteen miles inside our perimeter. They’ll be getting back into the center of the city soon. I thought I’d cleared all of them out for five hundred miles after the beacon went off.”
“Just another day in the world of the Evolution,” West said. “Must have been a Sleeper that recently woke up. It could have been inactive when you called them all out to the desert.
“For once, could the element of time just be on our side?” I said, exasperated.
“What,” West said, smiling at me as he swerved around a particularly large crack in the road. “And make life simple and boring?”
I shook my head and laughed. “Seriously.”
West was quiet for a moment as he continued to make our way back to the hospital. “I’m really sorry for how I’ve treated you the last few months. I’m glad we can be friends again.”
I looked over at him, a smile pulling on my lips. “Me too.”
And I meant it.
“Avian!” I screamed as we burst through the front doors of the hospital. I sprinted toward the medical wing, where I was sure I would find him. “Avian!”
We collided with each other as I turned the corner, tumbling to the ground.
“What’s wrong?” Avian asked as we rolled to a stop. He pulled me up to my knees and placed his hands on my upper arms. His eyes started scanning me for injury.
“We found the mom,” I said, searching him over for any early signs of infection. His eyes seemed normal, still burning blue. “She had a hand-shaped bruise on her. She was infected Avian. She shot herself and her kids.”
“It’s okay,” he said, shaking his head furiously. “I’m fine. I had the kid tested with the CDU. He wasn’t infected.”
I swore, my hands rising to knot in my hair.
“It’s okay,” he said, pulling me towards him into an embrace. “I’m fine.”
I shook my head and took a deep breath. My hands shook. It was crushing when West got infected. I wouldn’t survive it if Avian was taken from me.
“Okay,” I said, calming my nerves. I pulled back and rose to my feet. “Do you know where Royce is? I need to talk to him.”
“Right here,” I heard him call from inside the medical wing. I turned to see him talking with one of the doctors.
“Royce, they’re closing in again,” I said, walking toward him, Avian in tow. “One of them infected the mother of that kid, and then West and I plowed into another on the freeway as we were headed back. We were fifteen miles inside the perimeter.”
Royce swore, his hands interlocking behind his head. “Well, we always knew it wasn’t gonna’ last.”
“How much longer until the Pulse is fixed?” Avian asked.
“Dr. Beeson’s crew has been so busy working on everything else, they haven’t had any time to devote to it. They’ve been working on the solar tank nonstop for the past two and a half weeks. And then they’re supposed to start in on the Nova.”
“Have Graye get security detail back on perimeter watch,” I said as I started pacing. There was too much adrenaline coursing through my body and not enough space to do anything with it. “We’re going to have to risk them staying on the outskirts for now. You can’t turn the WTS back on until after we leave with Dr. Evans. We’ve got to get that transmitter built.”
Royce gave a snicker and a smile pulled in the corner of his mouth. “Well yes, ma’am.”
His sudden amusement broke through my nervous pacing and pulled a smile from myself. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to get bossy.”
“Hey, it’s good practice, kiddo. You will be the boss in two days,” he said with a wink. He then turned and started walking back down the hall. “Leadership looks good on you.”
“How’s the kid doing?” I asked, turning back to Avian.
His eyes darted to a room, I assumed that was where the child was. “Not good. He’s extremely dehydrated, malnourished. He’s basically starved to death. That bullet wound is disastrously infected. He’s got lice and all sorts of other critters living on him. I’m pretty sure I need to go burn these clothes now and wash myself with bleach after touching him.”
He rubbed a hand over his head as he crossed the hall and peered through a window to the child’s room. “We’ve got him on IV fluids and antiobiotics and they’ll wash him up as soon as he looks a tad more stable. But I think he’ll live.”
That familiar pride I had so often felt for Avian back in the mountains returned. Avian had little need to practice his doctorly duties now that there were three other physicians here, but this was one of his best elements. He was so good under pressure.