13
I scrambled to my feet, trying to ignore the pain I felt in every muscle. Ahead, the brake lights on the Mastiff shone red as Sam stopped the vehicle. He had seen me go overboard and was probably now watching me in the side mirror. He knew I was still alive and he wasn’t going to leave me here.
I looked back along the road. If I didn’t move fast, Sam wouldn’t have a choice, he would have to drive on. The hybrid horde was gaining on us.
Lucy and Tanya appeared on the roof, waving at me to move my ass. The Mastiff began reversing toward me.
I tried to run as best I could but my hips seemed to have seized up. Gasping, I made my way toward the vehicle, hearing the approaching boots of the hybrids behind me as they ran along the road.
The girls disappeared from the roof and then the rear hatch opened. “Come on, Alex,” Lucy shouted. I could hear panic in her voice, which made me wonder how close the horde was.
The lights glared red again as Sam applied the brakes. I reached the vehicle and Lucy and Tanya pulled me inside.
“Go, go, go!” Tanya shouted to Sam.
He hit the gas and the Mastiff lurched forward.
Through the open rear door, I could see the hybrids no more than twenty feet away.
Lucy closed the door. She was breathing heavily and her forehead was dotted with beads of sweat. “Are you okay, Alex?”
I nodded, unable to speak. Everything hurt, including my lungs and throat.
“I took out the guy on the hood for you,” Tanya said.
After a few moments of heavy breathing, I asked, “How many of them were there?”
“Including the two on the hood, there were eight,” Lucy said. “We shot five of them, knocked two onto the road by smashing their hands, and Tanya kicked one overboard.”
“You weren’t kidding,” I said.
They both looked at me with questioning expressions.
I said, “You really were discussing new ways to kill hybrids.”
They smiled and pulled down one of the seats, helping me to get into it and strapping me in with the harness.
“You okay back there, man?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I said. I was sure that nothing was broken. I was going to be bruised and sore for a few days, but I’d live.
Tanya went up front to sit with Sam. “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC was coming out of the speakers now.
Lucy buckled herself into the seat next to me and reached across to take my hand. “I was worried about you,” she said.
I attempted a reassuring smile but I was sure it looked more like a grimace. “I fell off a moving truck. It was no big deal.”
“No big deal,” she said, laughing lightly. “Is this the same man who complained every step of the way up a mountain in Wales?”
I laughed. “Yeah, things change,” I said.
Her face grew more serious. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to look at the survivor database. Maybe at the next camp, you’ll find out where your family is.”
“Maybe,” I said. After being disappointed at Camp Apollo, I wasn’t going to get my hopes up anymore.
After a moment’s silence, she said, “I can’t wait to get back on the boat.”
“Me too. It’s the only place I feel safe.”
She nodded and then said, “After this is all over, do you think we’ll ever want to live on dry land again?”
“Probably not. I don’t think I’d be able to relax in case there was another outbreak.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“Besides,” I said, “do you think this will ever be over?”
Someday,” she said. “We have the vaccine now.”
“Sure, we have the vaccine but imagine how many hybrids there are out there. It doesn’t matter how many survivors are vaccinated against zombie bites, there are thousands of hybrids waiting to kill them.”
“The army will deal with them,” Lucy said. “They’ll find a way to wipe them out.”
“Their resources are limited. Every hybrid means one less soldier. The military has lost so many personnel already. And how are they going to fight the hybrids? With tanks and infantry? They’ll turn the country into a battle zone.”
“It’s already a battle zone,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said, looking toward the cockpit and out through the bloodied windscreen at the darkening sky. “I guess it is.”
14
The sky had turned a dark, deep blue by the time we reached the potholed road that led to the village. I hoped that by the time it was fully dark, we would all be sitting in the dining area of the Easy, eating a warm meal and laughing off the day’s events.
Then, after a good night’s sleep, we could sail south tomorrow morning in search of a vehicle to take us to Camp Prometheus.
But first, we had to get to the Zodiac.
“What’s the plan?” Sam asked from the driver’s seat when we could see the village in the distance. “Whatever it is, we need to move quickly. Those hybrid bastards aren’t far behind us, man.”
“How about we drive through the barricade and all the way down to the harbor?” Tanya suggested. “Then we make a run for the Zodiac. Sam and I will lay down covering fire while you two get the boat into the water and get it started.”
“You think the Mastiff will be able to get through those cars?” I asked Sam.
He patted the dashboard lovingly. “Hell yeah. Betty won’t even break a sweat.”
“Betty?” Tanya looked at Sam as if he had lost his mind.
“Big Betty, man. That’s what I’ve named her.”
He was taking his love for this vehicle way too far.
“Okay, let’s do it,” I said, checking that my harness was fastened tightly. I was hopeful that the Mastiff—I refused to think of the vehicle as “Betty”—could slam through the barricade. I just wanted to make sure that the impact didn’t slam me into the opposite wall.
“Cool,” Sam said.
I checked that all my weapons were fully loaded.
Lucy did the same. “This shouldn’t be too difficult,” she said. “All we have to do is run to the Zodiac.”
I hoped she was right.
“Hold on tight,” Sam said.
I braced myself. Lucy took my hand.
A sudden impact threw me forward against the harness. There was a screech of metal against metal. The Mastiff slowed down for a moment and then shot forward.
A second impact shook the vehicle.
Sam whooped and shouted, “We’re through.”
“Any sign of the zombies?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, they’re everywhere.”
Lucy tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the SDU screen in the corner. The image showed the road ahead through the roof-mounted camera. The residents of Muldoon were on the road and coming out of the houses, shambling toward the Mastiff as it rolled through their village.
We drove past the Kingfisher pub and on toward the harbor. I could hear thumps on the front and side grilles as we collided with the zombies on the road.
“Nearly there,” Tanya said. “Sam, park this thing as close to the Zodiac as possible.”
“No problem, man.”
The harbor seemed to be free of zombies. As long as we got the Zodiac in the water before the hybrids arrived, we should be able to get out of here without too much of a problem.
Sam hit the brake and killed the engine. Looking back at Lucy and me, he said, “Okay, let’s do it.”
I unbuckled myself and went to the rear hatch, which Lucy was already opening. We jumped down onto the pebbles and began to sprint across the beach to the Zodiac.
I glanced back the way we had come. The road leading up to the village was crowded with zombies. Sam and Tanya started to shoot into the mass of bodies. Some of the zombies fell.