Indestructible: V Plague Book 7 (18 page)

The water was cool as I waded in.  The sand floor of the
chamber sloped gradually into the pool and I wasn’t submerged much beyond my
waist after walking ten feet.  Everything was strapped as tightly to me as
Katie and I could get it.  My big concern was the rifle sling that could snag
on something and cause me to drown, but it was now under my vest and pulled as
tight as possible.

Katie wasn’t wearing enough clothing to have to worry about
getting caught up on anything.  She stood next to me, water to the bottom of
her breasts.  Reaching out I took her hand and squeezed it.  She smiled at me
and squeezed back, then jackknifed into the pool.  Her bare ass broke the
surface, quickly disappearing, then her feet came up and started kicking as she
dove.

Taking two quick breaths, I gave her a moment to gain some
space, drew the deepest breath I could and followed.  There wasn’t much light
in the pool, but whatever it was that was growing on the cavern walls and
giving us illumination was also floating in the water.  It was slightly
disorienting, but I focused on my wife’s kicking feet and followed her deeper.

In only a few strokes I was beyond the sandy shelf we’d
walked out on and was suddenly in the pull of the underground river.  The
current was strong, grabbing me and sucking me down.  Every instinct in my body
wanted to fight against it, but I knew this was exactly what I needed.  Let the
force of the water do the work.  The harder I worked the sooner I’d need to take
a breath.

There was a time in my life when I could hold my breath for
four minutes.  I was young, in incredible shape and hadn’t ended most of my
days with a margarita and a couple of cigarettes.  Not that I wasn’t in good
shape now, but I knew I had two, maybe two and half, minutes at the most before
I was in real trouble.

Katie, on the other hand, was part fish.  She loved the
water and could swim circles around me.  As we were drawn deeper into the pool,
moving faster as the current approached the opening where the water drained, I
knew her odds of making it out alive were significantly better than mine.  And
I was OK with that.  If this was where it ended, well, I’d made sure she at
least had a fighting chance.

The small pieces of glowing matter were being pulled down
with us and I realized they weren’t living in the water but were caught by the
current when they fell from the walls and ceiling.  Though not much, they
continued to give us a little light.  Just enough for me to see Katie disappear
into a large hole in the side of the pool.  A moment later I was swept into the
same tunnel.

I accelerated once in the tunnel, shoulders continually
banging into the smooth rock walls.  The constant flow of the water had
smoothed the rock and for this I was grateful, otherwise I’d have been ripped
to shreds by rough outcroppings.  The impacts still hurt, but at least I wasn’t
being torn open, and hopefully neither was Katie who didn’t have any clothing
to protect her bare skin.

We rushed along and my lungs began to burn.  I didn’t even
have a guess how long we’d been in the water, having forgotten to start
counting when I took the big breath.  At this point I guess it didn’t really
matter.  I’d hold my breath until I couldn’t, then I’d just be another piece of
debris flushed out of the caverns.

It was completely dark now; the water apparently having
destroyed whatever biological reaction was in the lichen that made it glow. 
There was no discernible difference between closing my eyes and having them
open.  The only way I knew Katie was still in front of me was the tunnel was
too narrow for me to have passed her without knowing it.  It was like what I
imagined being flushed through a large pipe would be like.

Without light I couldn’t see the bend coming, unexpectedly
slamming into a smooth wall.  Half the air in my lungs was knocked out of me
and it took a concentrated effort to not inhale water.  I was in trouble and I
knew it. 

Still being rushed along by the current I couldn’t see
anything.  I’d lost half of my air supply, and the half I still had felt like
it was turning to acid as my body screamed at me to take a breath.  It didn’t
care that there was only water to breathe; it only knew that it was time for me
to exhale the stale air and draw in fresh.  Fighting the urge, I registered a
moment of pain when my head struck rock as I was shot through another bend,
then I blacked out and my body drew in a breath exactly like it’s programmed to
do.

I was no longer caught in dark water, hurtling along beneath
the Oklahoma countryside.  Warm sand was under me as I lay on my back.  The sun
was bright in my eyes and Katie was leaning over me, kissing me, wet hair
hanging around my face.  But something wasn’t right.  Had I been drinking? 
Everything was dulled, like I was experiencing it through the fog of too much alcohol.

Then my chest spasmed and I coughed.  Strong hands rolled me
onto my side and I coughed again, feeling water coming up my throat and being
expelled out of my mouth.  The coughing intensified, my throat burning as I
continued to purge my lungs.  After what seemed like an eternity, the urge to
choke and cough eased and I rolled onto my back, gulping huge lungfuls of air.

“Welcome back,” Katie said, leaning over me and wiping sand
and spittle off my chin. 

I looked up at her, then over her shoulder at the moon.  It
was almost painfully bright after the complete darkness of the underground
river, and must have been what I thought was the sun.  I was glad to touch the
ground beneath me and find it really was warm sand.

“What happened?”  I croaked, trying to sit up and sending
myself into another coughing fit.

“You drowned,” Katie said when the spasms subsided.  “I
didn’t think I was going to get you back.  You were out for a while.”

“How long?”  I asked between gasps of air.

“Don’t know for sure when you got the water in your lungs,
but I dragged your big ass out of the river at least five minutes ago.”  She
said, her hand resting on the side of my face.  “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve felt worse, but I can’t remember when.”  I said.

“Well, brain damage after drowning is common.”  Katie said,
looking intently into my eyes.  She must have seen the panicked reaction she
was hoping for as she began laughing at me a moment later.

“Bitch,” I said in a hoarse whisper.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing!”  Katie said, leaning
down and pressing her lips to my forehead.  “And don’t you dare scare me like
that again.”

I pulled her to me and we just rested for a few moments
until all my synapses started firing again.

“Where are we?”  I asked, sitting up.

“No idea,” she said.  “But we’re out of the caverns, alive,
and there aren’t any infected around.  Well, not that I had time to look, but
we haven’t been attacked.”

I struggled with my vest and rifle, finally getting
everything over my head.  Trying to scan our surroundings, I cursed when I
realized the night vision scope was damaged.  It had apparently impacted a rock
as it was bent at a severe angle, the lens at one end completely missing. 
Water ran out of it when I tilted the rifle.  Great.  The one advantage we had
was gone.

Standing, I flipped the quick release levers on the scope
mount and tossed it away as I surveyed the dark landscape around us.  We were
next to a small, lazy river, the water gurgling softly as it flowed around the
roots of a couple of large trees.  We were obviously back on the rolling
plains, but where?  I turned a couple of circles and was unable to spot the low
hills where I’d left Rachel, Dog and Joe.  Then I looked down and realized I
was a good ten feet from the edge of the river.

“How the hell did you get me all the way up here?”  I asked
Katie, gesturing at the open sand that showed two clear drag marks left by my
feet.

“I just pulled until you were out of the water,” she said,
seemingly noticing how far she’d dragged me for the first time.

“Ten feet?  You know how much I weigh.  How the hell…” I
started to ask, then stopped.

The virus?  The same way I suspected it was helping her
heal, maybe it had made her stronger, just like the infected.  Was that even
possible?  I wished Joe and Rachel were there for me to ask.

“Yes, sir.  Receiving them now.”  Tech Sergeant Zach Scott
said.

He was speaking to Captain Blanchard over an encrypted comm
channel.  Blanchard had been concerned that the Russians would intercept any
radio traffic, so before the Bradley had left Tinker he’d had it equipped with
one of the FSOC – Free Space Optical Communications – units that the Air Force
had at Tinker.

The system uses lasers to digitally transmit voice and
data.  The unit on board the Bradley had locked onto the orbiting NSA satellite
with its laser, as had Blanchard from the secure communications room at the Air
Force base.  The system was eavesdrop proof, as the only way to intercept the
data stream was to physically interrupt the laser beam.  If that happened the
system would detect the intrusion and shut down.

“That’s definitely her,” Scott said when the image of Rachel
taken by the satellite appeared on his screen.  He clicked a couple of icons on
the display, causing a terrain map to appear, the location of the Bradley and
Rachel showing up as blue and green pulsing dots.  A fat yellow line traced the
system’s recommended route and next to it the distance to target and several
other pieces of data appeared.

“Any hit on the Major?”  He asked.

“Nothing so far.  I just spoke with the Petty Officer at
Pearl that is running the system and she said we got very lucky to find Rachel
this quickly.  The satellite’s search pattern was only on its third circuit out
from the starting point when it found her.

“What she explained to me is that it starts at a central
point, in this case the crashed Osprey, and searches progressively larger
concentric circles until it finds a match.  If he wasn’t somewhere that the
camera could see his face when it scanned the area he’s in, we’ll have to wait
until it re-scans the same area.”  Blanchard said.

“OK, sir.  We’re fifteen minutes away from Rachel.”  Scott
said.  “How are conditions at Tinker?”

“The Marines are keeping the infected back, but the numbers
are growing.  The herds from Texas and Colorado are moving slightly faster than
predicted and we’re expecting the leading edges several hours earlier than the
original model forecasted.”  Blanchard answered.

Scott stared at the screen for a moment, thinking.  “Is
there anyway for me to access the real time satellite feed?”

Blanchard was quiet for a moment, “Let me see what can be
done, Tech Sergeant.  I’ll have to call Pearl.  I don’t have admin control,
just access into the feed.”

“Thank you, sir.  Anything further?”

“Negative.  Just get a move on.  Your window to make it back
before being completely cut off by a herd is shrinking fast.  Good luck.” 
Blanchard cut the connection, the system beeping softly to let Scott know the
call had ended.

Scott shut down his end of the link and spent a moment
looking through the system to find the commands he wanted.  Locating what he
hoped was the right icon he clicked on it and selected a couple of options from
the window that popped open.

“Irina, check your screen.  Do you have a map with a route
highlighted?”  He said over the intercom.

“Yes, I’ve got it.  Is that where we are going?”  She said a
few moments later.

“That’s where Rachel is.  We get her and hope the Major is
somewhere close.”  He answered.

Irina didn’t answer, but almost immediately the Bradley
lurched forward as she gave it full throttle.  Scott was thankful he was
wearing a seatbelt or he would have been thrown to the floor and most likely
skidded all the way to the back of the vehicle.  He’d ridden with aggressive
drivers before, but the Russian woman would put all of them to shame. 

“You know this thing has more than two speeds, right?”  He
called over the intercom.

“What do you mean?  There’s another gear?”  She sounded
hopeful of finding a way to go faster.

“No, thank God.  What I mean is we don’t have to either be
stopped or at full throttle.”  Scott’s voice was choppy from the heavy vehicle
bouncing across the prairie.  

The ground looked nice and smooth in his periscope, but
Irina seemed to have a knack for finding the roughest path possible.  Despite
his irritation, he couldn’t help but smile as she started laughing at him.

“This is how we drive in Russia,” Irina said when her
laughter died down.  “Didn’t you ever wonder why we build everything so tough?”

Scott was shaking his head, trying to think of something to
say to that when Igor called out over the intercom.

“Zombie!”  He sounded delighted and a moment later the motors
that rotated the gunner’s turret whined.

“Nyet!”  Scott shouted before Igor could start firing. 
“Irina, remind him to not start firing unless we absolutely have to.  We need
to save our ammo.”

Irina began speaking in Russian, going back and forth with
Igor for nearly a minute.

“He says you are still taking all the fun out of this,” she
finally said.  “But he agrees with you and will not expend ammo until he has
to.”

“Tell him thanks,” Scott said.  “And remind him they’re not
zombies.  There’s no such thing.  What’s he going to see next?  Bigfoot?  Maybe
Vampires?”

Irina translated.  Igor was quiet for a moment, then said
something in a slightly more excited tone.  He could see Irina adjust one of
her periscopes before answering in Russian.

“What’s going on?”  Scott asked, peering through his but
seeing nothing.

“To our eleven,” Irina said.  “Twenty degrees above the
horizon.”

Scott swiveled his scope to slightly left of their direction
of travel and elevated the objective.  At first he thought it was a dust cloud,
but it was moving too fast.  The night vision was already activated, blurring
then clearing as he spun the zoom wheel.  He cursed when he got a clear view of
a huge colony of bats completely obscuring the horizon.

Looking down he checked the navigation screen, which
displayed a marker to indicate the direction his periscope was pointed.  It was
directly in line with the pulsing green dot that indicated Rachel’s location.

“Irina, can this thing go any faster?”