There is always a way out.
Jack sat listening for the creatures’ howls, but could only hear them in the distance. Crawling out of their muddy root cave, he pulled George up and lifted him onto the bank.
Pop… Pop… Pop.
Jack spun around, back toward the dam. That was gunfire. Muffled, but definitely gunfire.
Hesitating, he listened as it intensified. The sounds of two distinct gunshots came down the river, reverberating off the limestone cliffs. Perhaps some kind of rifle? Jack couldn’t be sure. Then the unmistakable boom of a shotgun rang out. He recognised it straight away.
Those idiots are going to bring that whole nest out…
Jack stood rooted to the spot, listening to the battle. Finally, having decided what to do, he gave George his pack. “Hang on to this, buddy.” Then he grabbed George’s hand.
The two of them waded back out into the river. He nestled George in the lifesaver’s embrace once again, to keep both their heads above the water, then let the current take them downstream, away from the gunfight.
He could see the sun poking through the fluffy white clouds, its rays reflecting off the river and into his eyes.
A loud BOOM echoed down the river. He grimaced. Was that explosives? Hell. Whoever was at the dam, they were serious. He heard the motorboat engine revving and, looking back, he saw it tearing around the corner, heading straight for them.
The monsters’ howls and screeches followed, piercing through the roar of the engine. Jack looked to the tops of the cliffs. Fascinated, he watched as a black mass flowed over the tops. There had to be hundreds of them now. Standing near the back of the mass, closer to the dam, he could see the Alpha leader towering above them, arms outstretched, urging his brethren on.
The motorboat was coming up fast now. Jack raised his free arm, signalling to it as best he could.
The boat swerved around him. Slowing, it fishtailed around. Jack could see the tall teenager and a bearded man looking at him. Slumped in the back of the boat was a smaller figure.
Finding his voice, Jack yelled, “Help, please… I have a boy.”
The boat floated toward him. Or was he floating toward it? Coaxing his tired arms, he held George up. The bearded man, who somehow managed to remind Jack of Gandalf, hauled George into the boat, then reached back for him. Strong, gnarled hands yanked him out of the water.
Collapsing into the boat, Jack looked up. “Thank you,” he gasped.
The howls and screeches of the creatures became deafening, but a splashing sound made Jack turn his head to the cliffs. More splashes followed. The monsters had lost their fear of the water. His heart sank.
“Boss! GO!” yelled the bearded man.
Jack felt the bow of the boat lift as the teenager opened the throttle, and grabbed whatever he could hold on to.
He watched in horror as more and more monsters threw themselves off the cliffs, trying to reach the fleeing boat. Some managed to actually land on the edge of the boat. Digging their claws in, they moved toward the people.
The bearded man lifted his rifle and started firing. Then he yelled back over his shoulder, “Dee! Get it together! We need you!”
Despite everything happening around him, time slowed down for Jack. Dee? Here after all that? Is this real?
Turning to the stern of the boat, Jack looked into those beautiful eyes staring back at him.
As covered in mud, blood, and God knows what else as he was, he launched himself into the arms of the one person who meant the most to him in the world. His rock, his shelter from the storm.
All those years alone had been worth it to spend the last three with her. She was a woman of beauty, intelligence, and magic. She had taught Jack so much about life, about ways to appreciate it.
Even after these nightmares had torn his world apart, he had never given up the hope of finding her again. It had been his motivation, his energy.
Jack and Dee embraced each other sobbing, afraid to let go.
“Dee! Come on!” shouted the bearded man.
Dee pulled herself out of Jack’s embrace and, racking her shotgun, she started blasting at anything that moved in the water.
“Jack! In that bag! Grab a gun!” she yelled at him.
Looking down, Jack saw the bag she was indicating. He hadn’t fired a shotgun for a few months, not since that day at the firing range shooting clay pigeons. Jack gritted his teeth in anger.
He looked around him. At the howling monsters, throwing themselves into the river. At the little red-haired boy, George, huddled against a seat. At his wife, Dee, firing into the black mass of monsters. At the teenager steering the boat down the river. At the bearded man, rifle held to his shoulder, firing quick, controlled bursts.
Each of these people was fighting, fighting to stay alive. Fighting for the human race.
Jack checked that the safety was off, that shells were loaded. Then, planting his feet, he tried to get his balance in the moving boat. Frustration boiling up, he joined the fight.
The Variants continued to throw themselves off the cliffs, aiming for the boat. A couple more managed to land on the bow of the boat, but between himself, the bearded man, and Dee, they dealt with them quickly.
The boat swung from side to side, dodging the beasts. Jack fired at a creature swimming toward him, taking off part of its head. He watched as it sank under the waves. Looking up, he could see a clear path. The teenager driving saw it too, and pulled the throttle hard down, launching the boat free of the raining terrors.
As the boat pulled away, a loud bellow echoed down the cliffs. They all looked upwards and saw the Alpha, glaring down at them. With one last bellow, he turned, and his army of demons followed him, howling and screeching. Jack saw the bearded man raise his rifle. Jack figured he was looking through his scope at the Alpha.
Dee was holding on to Jack once more. She watched Ben as he lowered his rifle.
“Why didn’t you shoot?”
“No point. I don’t think this calibre would penetrate through all that bone and hide.” Looking at the mud-covered man in Dee’s embrace, Ben added, “I guess this is Jack?”
A smile broke out on Dee’s face, so wide she felt her muscles complaining. “Yeah, it sure is. After all that, he was floating away downriver!”
Dee didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Her Jack was alive! He was back in her arms, his bright blue eyes smiling at her.
“Ben, Jack, Jack, Ben. And the tall one driving is Boss.”
Jack and Ben acknowledged each other with a nod. Dee could see a bemused look on Jack’s face.
“Boss?”
“Another time, Highlander.”
Jack grinned at her, smiling wide.
Boss turned. “Hey. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“You have? Well, I would’ve got here a bit sooner, but I ran into a bit of bother with some locals.”
Jack reached down and ruffled George’s hair. “This little fighter is George. He saved me.”
Dee crouched down to George. “Hey, little guy.”
Jack’s heart skipped a beat when the little red-haired kid wrapped his arms around her. He’d known she would like him. Perhaps, in spite of the apocalypse and the horrors they had faced, he and Dee had found that missing piece.
Jack could hear the howls of the monsters in the distance. The high limestone cliffs had finally given way to tree-lined banks. Boss turned the boat for shore, heading toward a 4x4 parked under the trees.
Ben turned from scanning the bank with his scope. “All right everyone, stay frosty. We need a quick transition to the 4x4, no dawdling.” Seeing everyone understood, he carried on, “Dee, you drive. I’m going to radio the chopper. With those pursuing Variants, that LZ is going to be hot as hell.”