Infection Z (Book 5) (18 page)

“
C
ome on
. We don’t have much time.”

The sky was getting lighter, now. The weather was still cool. Up ahead, Hayden saw a road stretching onwards. His stomach writhed with the pain of a stitch, not to mention all the other pains that he was experiencing right now. Sore legs. Tight chest. The fever was intensifying.

But he and Amy had been jogging for the best part of an hour.

They only had around two hours before five thirty a.m., according to Amy’s watch. Two hours until this entire country’s destruction.

Their destination was still around two hours away. And that was in a car.

“Don’t think I can… I can run any… any further,” Amy said.

“’Course you can,” Hayden said, as much as he too was struggling. “Just hold on to my hand and let me do all the work.”

“I can’t feel my legs.”

“That’s a good thing then. You can keep on running.”

“Can’t we find a car?”

“I’m trying, Amy. I swear I’m trying.”

And he was. He looked around at the empty streets, listened to the sounds of ancient crisp packets and drinks cans scraping across the ground in the breeze. He’d been searching every car he could, without fail. Truth was, he was a waster. He’d never been a pro at sneaking inside cars and stealing them without a key.

Sure, he needed a car. He needed some kind of vehicle if he was to get to the final extraction point in anywhere near the time he needed to.

But it had to be a car that already had the keys inside it.

On paper, in the midst of the panic at the beginning of the apocalypse, that shouldn’t have been too difficult.

On paper, anyway.

Because he hadn’t found anything of the sort yet.

He stopped. Put his hands on his knees. The stitch in his chest was crippling.

“You okay?” Amy asked.

Hayden nodded. He had to be okay, for her. But he wasn’t. His headache was getting stronger. His body, on the other hand, was getting weaker. He could feel himself slowly slipping away.

And that was okay. He’d accepted death might just be a by-product of this current situation. He’d accepted death once before, months ago, when he shot that infected bullet into his chest.

As long as he got Amy to safety, that was all that mattered.

All he’d cared about was making sure his people were safe.

Amy was the last one of his people remaining.

And as painful a truth as that was, it made Hayden even more determined to protect her. Even more serious about doing things he didn’t want to do; about doing things he was damned terrified of doing.

Because if he couldn’t protect her, then she’d die on this rock, and a whole life would go down the pan, wasted.

“Watch out!”

Hayden heard Amy’s voice.

But it was already too late when he realised what was happening.

He felt the fingers dig into his left side. Felt them punch the life from his kidneys.

He turned and saw an infected snapping its jaws right beside him. Its eyes were nothing but sockets. Maggots crept inside it, eating away at its skull.

Its teeth were crooked, wobbly.

But it was hungry.

He pushed back against it. He didn’t have much strength or energy left inside him. He tried to reach for the gun he’d taken from Colin’s dead body, but the infected latched on to his hand.

He was about to ask Amy for help when he heard her yelp.

He looked over at her.

Three infected surrounded her.

One of them clung to her arm.

Pulled it closer to its dead lips.

Hayden felt anger burning inside. He felt frustration. All the pain of everything he’d lost, of everyone he’d lost, all of it bubbled up inside him, spewed over the surface.

He dragged his arm away from the infected. Fought the burning sensation, blocked it out, denied it.

And then he stuck his thumbs into the infected’s eyes.

Wrestled it to the ground.

He bashed its skull against the road. Kept on bashing it until it let go. Until he knew for certain that it was down—for now.

And then he rolled down his sleeve and ran over to Amy.

He lifted the gun. Popped a bullet in the head of the first infected, the one pulling on her arm.

And then he lowered the gun and lifted his knife.

Rammed the blade through the side of the next infected’s head.

Slashed the next one across its neck, kept on going until he was sure it was dead.

“Hayden!”

He heard Amy cry out again. And he didn’t understand why, not at first.

Then he saw the half-body of an infected dragging itself across the road.

Its mouth wrapped around her ankle.

Started to lower down.

Hayden threw himself at it. Landed on top of it.

He dragged its head away. Stuck his hands in its mouth and made sure its jaws couldn’t close, as powerful and as hungry as they were.

He pulled them. Pulled open the infected’s mouth. Pulled it ’til he heard a crack, then kept on pulling after that.

And when the infected’s jaw split apart, Hayden reached for his gun.

Stuck it down the infected’s throat.

Fired three bullets, right down into the empty space towards its spine.

The infected shook a few times. Shook, like it was having a seizure.

And then it went still.

They sat there a few moments, Hayden and Amy. Sat there, catching their breath. Hayden’s head spun. He didn’t want to think about what had happened. He didn’t even want to consider the new truth of the situation.

And he didn’t have to.

“Keys,” Amy said.

Hayden lifted his head. Looked at where Amy was looking.

She was standing by the side of a Land Rover. Inside it, dangling out of the partly closed window, there was half of the body of an infected.

The lower half of the infected that he’d just killed.

“These keys,” she said, holding a fob of keys. “They were—they were in its hand.”

Hayden stood. He walked over to the side of the car. Took the keys from Amy. “Please be legit. Please, please be fucking legit.”

He hovered his finger over the key fob.

Held his breath.

And then he pressed down.

The door clicked. Hayden’s shoulders loosened.

“Yes, yes, yes,” he said.

He cleared the remains of the dead man out of the Land Rover. Climbed inside. His hands fizzled with anticipation, with adrenaline.

“Is it good?” Amy asked.

“If it has petrol, it’s good. Let’s hope the gods are shining down on us today.”

“Isn’t it angels that shine?”

“Gods, angels. Whatever. We need something. That’s the main thing.”

He put the key in to start up the car.

Closed his eyes, prayed to everyone he’d lost.

And then he turned the key.

At first, Hayden heard the engine splutter, and his stomach sank. Fuck. They’d found a car, but there was no petrol. They’d have to get some petrol and bring enough to the car to run it until they reached a petrol station or some supply place at least.

But that would eat into their time. And they didn’t have a lot of time. They didn’t have a lot at all.

“Is it working?”

Hayden sighed. He turned the key again. “Doesn’t look like…”

This time, the engine didn’t splutter.

The Land Rover came to life.

Hayden sat there for a few seconds. Sat there, his eyes opened now, startled by the beautiful music that was the Land Rover’s engine.

“We did it,” he said.

Amy cheered. A wide smile spread across her face. She looked the happiest Hayden had seen her since all the chaos went down yesterday. Strong kid. A survivor, the kind of which the new world needed.

He put his hands on the steering wheel. Looked at the road ahead. The petrol gauge wasn’t showing full, but there was enough to get by on. Enough to get them close to the extraction point at least.

He hoped.

“We’re doing this,” he said. “We’re… we’re really doing this.”

He put his foot on the gas.

Drove.

Drove, without trouble, without disruption.

Until 5.05, anyway.

When the clock hit 5.05, Hayden wished he hadn’t got so optimistic so soon.

When he saw the crowd of infected in the distance.

A crowd of them, at least one-hundred thick.

All of them walking towards him.

“
C
lose your eyes
, Amy.”

“But I don’t want to—”

“Please. Please just… just close your eyes.”

Hayden stared ahead at the oncoming horde of infected. The rising shone from behind them, illuminating them, making them look somewhat devil-like. Beyond them, Hayden couldn’t see the road ahead. He knew the next extraction point was some way in that direction, approximately half an hour from here.

But these infected were going to slow down progress.

If he even managed to get the car past them at all.

They only had twenty-five minutes left.

He listened to the engine rumbling. Outside, the groans were getting louder, the footsteps even more prominent. He gripped the steering wheel with his clammy hands, the seat below him vibrating with the slightest movement of the engine.

He couldn’t just stay put. He couldn’t just waste petrol.

He had to move.

As reckless as it was, he had to move.

He could smell the exhaust fumes mixed with that recognisable tang of rot. He knew soon it would surround it. That the smell would turn into taste. And it wasn’t a good thought. It was a damned horrible thought.

But he had to get Amy to safety.

He had to get her to that extraction point.

Everything depended on it.

He looked over his shoulder. Looked through the back window. Part of him thought about just turning back. Heading back to New Britain once again.

But it was too late for that now. Besides, he knew it was the wrong decision. Crawling back there always had been the wrong fucking decision.

No. There was only one direction he was heading now.

Forwards.

He held his breath and lifted the handbrake.

“Keep your eyes closed. And hold on. Please.”

He started to accelerate slowly. He didn’t want to ram so hard into the infected that they smashed through the glass. He just wanted to get close enough that he could knock them down with the front of the car. Maybe that in itself was a mad ambition. Maybe it was impossible.

There was only one way to find out.

He watched as the infected got closer. His mind started to race. He heard voices in his head telling him he was being stupid, that this was suicide.

“Amy, if anything happens to me and you spot a gap, you run, okay?”

“With my eyes closed?”

“I…”

The kid had a fair point there.

“Just stay aware. Right?”

When Hayden glanced to his left, he saw that Amy’s eyes weren’t closed at all.

They were staring into the abyss, just like him.

He saw the infected rapidly get closer. They were just metres away now. He braced himself for the impact of the first one against the front of the car. He hoped he’d made the right call. Hoped this car was tough enough to take it.

Hoped it wasn’t going to just cut out again as it had before.

The first of the infected smacked into the front of the car.

Hayden bit his lip. Part of him—instinct—made him want to stop and reverse. But he forced himself to keep his foot down. To keep on pressing down on the accelerator.

The sunlight drifted as the infected surrounded the car, blocked the light.

Their smell seeped in through the air vents.

Their starved cries were deafening, insanity-inducing.

“You okay?” Hayden shouted, as he kept on moving slowly but steadily through the infected.

He looked around and saw that Amy’s eyes were closed. Her hands were over her ears. Just inches to her left, a hungry-looking infected snapped its teeth against the glass, the side of the car slowly peeling away the loose, decaying skin from its face.

Hayden looked back ahead. He listened to the hands and the legs kick out at the car. It felt like he’d been driving through these fuckers forever. Like he was in one of those automated car washes, only this was never-ending—and a shitload more intense.

But he kept his breathing steady. He kept his foot steady on the accelerator.

He knew he couldn’t be far from making his way through these monsters.

He knew he couldn’t be far from—

He heard a crack. A crack, over on the left of the car.

He turned. Looked back at the window beside Amy.

When he saw the glass splitting, his stomach sank. Every muscle in his body loosened. He saw flashes of what was going to happen. Of the infected breaking their way inside. Of them ripping Amy’s flesh apart.

“Get back!” he shouted.

He grabbed Amy’s shoulder.

Pulled her out of the passenger seat.

The glass caved in.

Hayden kept his foot on the accelerator but he felt the car jolting forward. He couldn’t keep control, not now six of those things were cramming their way inside through the window.

With one hand on the wheel, Hayden lifted his pistol. He fired into the necks of three of them. They just flopped down, dangled on, still shaking, still desperate to get inside.

And when they did fall from the side of the window, more of the infected just replaced them.

Hayden fired more bullets into them. He looked ahead. Still no sign of light. Still no sign of an end to this…

He heard another crack.

This time, it was to his right.

He looked at the window beside him and he saw the glass splitting.

He froze.

This was over.

They were getting inside.

They were going to crush them then eat them alive.

There was only one thing to do. One thing to try. It was risky. It might kill them. But if they didn’t try it, they were going to die anyway.

“Hold this,” Hayden said, putting the gun in Amy’s hand. “And use it if you have to.”

She looked down at the gun, perplexed, terror in her eyes.

Hayden listened to the cracking glass and he faced forward. Faced the wall of infected trying to smash their way in through the front windscreen.

He leaned back.

Held his breath.

“You stay safe,” he said.

Then he rammed his foot down on the accelerator.

Rammed it down. Hard.

He felt himself jolt backwards. And he heard the windscreen in front of him cracking too, splitting open as piles of dead weight cracked against it.

But he kept on pushing his foot down.

Kept on going, just determined to get out of this crowd, just eager to get out of the clutches of this army of the dead.

He saw Annabelle in his mind. Saw Martha. Saw Sarah, and Clarice, and everyone he’d lost.

He was keeping Amy safe.

No matter what it took, he was keeping Amy safe.

He heard the windscreen split. Felt glass hit his face.

And then he saw light up ahead.

Light beyond the infected.

His eyes widened. Hope filled his chest.

They were through. They were doing this. They were—

He didn’t think for much longer.

An infected hand grabbed the steering wheel.

The car spun to the right.

Towards a wall.

“Hold on—” Hayden started.

He didn’t finish.

The car crashed into the wall.

Silence followed.