August Burning (Book 3): Last Stand (9 page)

“You heard him, get moving!  Five hundred feet through those glades! Defensive positions in the ravine! MOVE!”

Jaxton led them under the light of the firebrands, and shuddered at the wailing that surrounded them.

…

“ROTATE!” Jaxton screamed above the din. His second line jumped to their feet, from where they had been resting ten paces behind the fighting line. He could see a break in the flow. He waited till the last infected was cut down by one of his axmen, and called the advance. “NOW!”

His front line of riot-shielders reeled back from the line and switched with a fresh batch of Lion troopers. They pressed their black shields into the blood soaked earth and took a step back from the line of corpses that littered the ravine’s floor.

“How long can we keep this up?!” A muffled voice cried out from behind a black balaclava spattered with blood.

“I don’t know,” Jaxton panted, wishing he could run to find a set of glittering dark eyes.

“Brace!” He heard his officer roar, and another five infected slammed into the riot shields, clawing and biting them in raw futility. Jaxton hefted a weighty tomahawk and placed his left hand on a shielder’s back. Using it as a brace-point, he leapt up and buried his axe in an infected’s skull, where it was lodged. “Weapon!” He cried. A younger boy raced to his side, gingerly stepping over the hacked corpses, and handed him a maul.

Jaxton turned to strike down another target when he saw a wall coming towards them. Most of the Lion froze, unable to process what was coming down the ravine at a breakneck speed.

“Reserves to the front! Reserves to the front!” Jaxton screamed. His second line rose with confused and exhausted faces, unable to comprehend why their rest period was being cut so short. Then they saw it.

The ravine was filled, as far as the eyes could see. The teeming mass that approached them was a mass of frenzied, bloodshot limbs and screeching faces. As they closed the final distance, Jaxton knew there were too many. He guided his shielders into position all the same, and braced against one.

The impact sent them reeling, as if the line had been struck by another group of determined men, but these were no men. The mass of infected, stretching back in their hundreds, pushed and clawed at the wall with renewed vigor.

“Take them down!” A brave soul roared, his husky voice rising up the rocky walls.

With a bloodthirsty cheer his men set to work, hitting the infected with spears and axes, mauls and cleavers. The foe’s severed limbs and bleeding torsos hit the ground faster than they ever had before, but another always took their place.

As Jaxton watched, his line began to buckle in the middle, where the weight of the infected was heaviest. The Lion’s line began to bow inward, the heavy shielders straining under the weight as their massive boots sunk into the bloody soil. Jaxton summoned all his men behind the wall and threw them at the center, where they hacked at the foe.

Jaxton heard a scream as the moon hid behind the clouds, and one of his own tumbled back from the line, clutching his hand. His compatriots rushed to him, but Jaxton took a step forward to end his life; he had been bitten. At the same time, a shielder fell forward into the mass of infected, bitten on the calf, around the back of his shin-guard. The line faltered, sensing there was a hole. As another man moved to fill the gap, the infected surged into it. There were no shielders in place as they broke through and fell among the rearguard.

Jaxton turned, caught in indecision. In that moment, an infected man rose behind them, his Lion patch shimmering. Jaxton cried out in horror, knowing this was the moment his precious faction failed. The strongest. The boldest. The Lion would die here. He could hear the horns behind him. The other factions were already retreating from the other ravines.

“The Citadel is being overrun!” One of his troopers screamed, pointing. Jaxton threw a glance behind him, to where a tower of black smoke rose from the valley’s center. The infected spearman sunk his teeth into a shielder’s meaty thigh even as another trooper struck him down with a broken spear.

The shielders could sense it, could sense their flanks were unprotected, and they began to tumble backwards, one by one at first and then in a sudden rush.

“RETREAT!” Jaxton bellowed the order.

In the frenzy Jaxton sought desperately to find his brothers, to find a Lion patch emblazoned in gold. His search was in vain, for they had all turned to scarlet.

The Citadel

The torchlight danced before her, and she jumped as a piece of the flaming rag fell onto her skin.

“Check them again. Just do it.” Adira turned, fuming. An infection was rolling through the Citadel, though it was not the virus. The fear was changing people, making them mad. As she moved down the hallway, she hoped they would listen to her. The best men were out in the field, and those left behind were the lazy, the cowards, and the infirm. When they told her all the exits had been sealed, she did not trust them.

“Adira!”

“Kylie! Thank God.” Adira embraced her fierce young friend, and didn’t let go quickly. “It’s falling apart.”

“Adira, what is going on? I can’t organize anyone. No one is willing to go back out. How can we help?” The girl desperately wanted answers, and Adira wanted to be the one to assuage her fears. But she could not. It had been hours since their return from the reservoir and the Southern Ravine. The infected were in the valley.
      

“There has to be someone. Someone has to be willing.”

Kylie clutched her stomach. “I’m so hungry.”

Adira she cursed the lack of food. As soon as the first alarm had been sounded a day before, the food had stopped coming in.

Adira wondered where Jaxton was, and ached to know if he was ok. She could scarcely focus on keeping the Citadel secure, which she knew was her duty as a faction commander. All the other commanders were in the field, fighting the infected to keep the valley secure. They would turn the infected back, she was sure.

“You alright?” A figure rounded the corner in the darkness.

“Billy, you startled me. Wait. What are you doing here?” She eyed the southern man in camouflage, standing before her with sluggish eyes.

He barely moved his jaw when he spoke. “We tried to hold. There were too many.”

A pair of women darted past them in the darkness, scurrying to find food.

“Wait. Wait. What was your position?”

“The northern ravine. I lost five men. All Wolf.” Billy could barely stand.

“Billy.” She clutched him by the shoulders. “Billy when did you get back? Have you told any of the commanders?”

Billy sunk against the wall, fighting the looming exhaustion. “Few minutes ago.”

She shook him. “Billy! Is the northern ravine open? Are they coming through?!”

Billy nodded slowly, his eyes opening and closing. “I’m sorry, miss. I’m sorry.”

“Is he ok?” Annabelle rounded the corner with her own torch. She knelt to his side, and her face stretched with lines of worry.

Billy smiled broadly as he sat, and he touched her face. “Hello darlin’.”

“Billy. What are you doing back?” She looked to Adira, who’s own eyes were wide in the yellow light. “What’s he doing back?”

Adira could not move. “The north ravine is open. They lost it.”

Annabelle stood. “What?” Her mouth rested agape. “Billy, there’s still men out there. Billy they’re all still out there.  They’re going to be attacked from behind! What is wrong with you?!”

Adira panicked, and fled, leaving the doctor and Kylie alone with the fatigued Wolf commander.

She hailed a man in camouflage as she entered the darkened lobby. “You! Are you Wolf!?”

He staggered to her, his rifle slung awkwardly across his front. “I am.” She saw the sigil.

“What’s going on? Did you send runners to the Lion? Where’s the Eagle?”

“We didn’t have anyone who would go,” the man said drearily. “We lost seven in the west.”

“The west! What do you mean the west?! You lost that one too!? Jaxton was supposed to be there. Did you see him? Did you see him!?”

He staggered back, disgusted by her frustration, and faded into the blackness.

Adira wailed, dropping to her knees. Jaxton was out there, in the dark. She didn’t dare contemplate what morning would bring.

They had agreed to use only one set of doors for all entrances and exits- the music wing. Who was on guard? Adira jogged through the halls, passing several more stunned and exhausted Wolf survivors, shocked into silence by their defeats.

As she wheeled down into the music annex, her heart soared. “Troy!”

Troy turned from the doors, flanked by two men with shotguns. “Adira.” His face was red and mottled with infection. “I’m sorry. I was just about to come find you. The ridges, they’re overrun. They-“ His eyes swam as he spoke.

She stopped him, “Troy, you don’t look well. You need to see Annabelle? Have you seen the doctor?”

Troy struggled to maintain his balance, and leaned on one of the guards for support. “There’s no time. Every entrance must be secured,” he whispered.

“Troy, I know. We need to get word to the others. Liam was on main street. Jaxton was at the Western Ridge. Wilder was at the Mansion. Bennett, Bennett…where is Bennett?”

Troy shook his head, and winced as if it pained him to do so. “Bennett left yesterday. Jaxton sent him with half the Eagle to save you.”

Adira’s mind reeled. “
What?
Bennett’s in the field too?”

“We haven’t heard from him. Adira.” Troy drew to her till she could smell the stench of musty sweat. His bloodshot eyes could barely focus. “We need to secure the Citadel. The infected are coming. It’s too late for everyone outside.”

Adira advanced on him, her fists shaking with rage. “Well we have to try! They’re going to be out-flanked and die out there! The infected are pouring over the ridges and they don’t even know!”

Troy looked away, out the plexiglass windows and he snorted. “Do you think I haven’t considered that? I am in command here.”

She stared him down, unwilling to let Troy escape her accusing gaze. “Your friends are dying out there. Help me get a team together. I have the vehicles. I need the men!”

Troy turned away from her. “It’s all for nothing. It’s over, Adira. Billy pulled the Wolf out hours ago. If Jaxton is still alive, he won’t be by morning.”

Adira howled and struck him in the face with her closed fist, which he bore silently. Then she retracted, her eyes burning. Racing through the halls, she found her way to the cot she shared with Jaxton. Pressing her face into the pillow, she wailed for a long time. She stopped suddenly, sensing someone was in the room with her. She turned, and was ashamed to see a friendly face. Joseph approached slowly, with kind eyes. Adira studied his walk; he had healed well from the beating at the hands of the Lieutenant.

He sat on the cot next to her, and she was relived at his presence, which, somehow, was immediately reassuring and comforting. He felt safe. He didn’t want anything from her, she knew. That had been a rare skill in the new world, when few could be trusted.

“I heard what is going on, outside,” he said slowly.

Adira wiped her eyes. “They’re dying out there.”

Joseph nodded his head a fraction. “We must not let them fall without trying to reach them.”

Adira looked up, a desperate hope burning in her breast.

“If the Lion is still trying to hold the western ravine, the infected will hit them from behind and they will all die. We must warn them.”

Adira stood. “I want to go.”

Joseph met her eyes. “I will go with you. And we will go now. It is a full moon tonight. If we move quickly, we can be at the ravine in two hours.”

“Why are you helping me?”

Joseph stiffened, and reached down to hand her a pistol. “I have no family left alive, and I don’t really have any friends left. But I see how much you care, and that is worth something to me.”

“I am in your debt forever.”

“Enough, let’s go. There is no time to waste.”

Chapter Nine

Near the Church

Jaxton stumbled through the trees, fearing his ankles would give out and break. All around him, his men ran through the dark. Close behind, he heard one tumble and cry out. Jaxton inhaled sharply, horrified that he could not be helped.

Jaxton shot a glance over his shoulder and considered going back. In the soft white glow of the moonlight, dancing in between the trees for miles back, the infected moved quickly in the pursuit.

“No sir. Don’t quit now. Keep running,” his officer growled beside him. Jaxton obeyed.

They passed through wild berry bushes and the thorns tore at their clothing. They had long since ditched the weapons. Jaxton looked to his left and right, and saw his fellows sprinting among the softly glowing trunks. They would be lucky if half made it back. It was four miles to the Citadel from the base of the ridge, and they would have to sprint all the way.