Runner Series (Book 1): Runner 3 (13 page)

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Marcella asked with a scowl.

“Dean was a good leader until Peter died. Maybe the time away helped him relax and get himself back together. Besides, he was right. He’s still a Runner and if he wants to work with us, why stop him?” Audrey defended him.

“You’re not going to pass everything back on to him after this are you?” the other girl asked. “We’ve all been worried since you only took the position temporarily.”

“I think depending on how this goes today, I may go talk to the Council and accept the permanent position,” Audrey informed the other girl cheerily. “Leading the clear outs and keeping up with the schedules has made me see I can keep things going smoothly. I think I can do this.”

“We all know you can, but if this is what you need to decide then we’ll all do our best,” Marcella clapped her hand on Audrey’s shoulder and smiled. “You’ve got this.”

Audrey joined everyone at the supply shed and frowned. They were all quiet and most of them kept shooting glares at Dean’s back. Tension hung heavily in the air and Audrey wondered if it really was a good idea to let Dean come along.

Everyone quickly finished gearing up and followed Audrey to the hospital. The men were already waiting behind the fence that stood behind the home plate of the baseball field.

“Alright everyone,” Audrey said as they walked across the baseball diamond. “Lincoln, Cecil, Greg, Gemma, and I will be going inside. We’re going to clear things out room by room.”

“What will we do out here?” Max asked, fidgeting with the extra radio Marcella had given him.

“Marcella is going to issue instructions to everyone out here based on what we tell her. While we’re going through the inside she’ll lead a group around the hospital. You guys will keep the exterior doors on the ground floor open and exterminate all of the dregs that come out as quickly as you can,” Audrey expanded on the plan.

“How will we keep an eye on the workers if everyone is in the building or circling it?” Max questioned.

“You’ll stay close to them with Dean. Once you get the all clear, you guys will lead the workers to the big white spray painted X’s that are on the ground. We want to keep this under five hours so we aren’t still here when dregs start coming out again. Let’s get to it!”

The groups split up quickly and followed their leads. Audrey led her group slowly through the emergency room doors.

“Stay close,” she whispered. “Stay quiet. We’re going to go room by room. If you see any lone dregs in the hallways use your melee, save your ammunition for large groups and only if you absolutely need it.”

The Runners closed ranks behind her and maneuvered through the halls as a tight group. The first few rooms they checked were empty, but they soon encountered a small group of dregs near a, nurse’s station.

Audrey, Lincoln, and Greg quickly took care of them. After that there was a steady stream of dregs that seemed to come from every direction in the hospital.

After an hour had passed Audrey wiped her brow with the sweat band she was wearing on her wrist and rolled her shoulders back a few times.

They rounded a corner into the x-ray room where a small nest of dregs was gathered, “Easy work guys.”

She slowly opened the door, but instead of standing calmly like usual the dregs started to frenzy and moved hastily toward the door.

Audrey’s heart leapt into her throat and she took in a deep breath of air before she skillfully swung her machete at them. She disabled a few by taking out their legs while Lincoln swung at their heads to kill them.

The swirling pit in her stomach rushed to her head and energized her. She felt weightless and was hyper-focused on her movements.

When the last dreg in the nest fell she groaned at how tense the muscles in her back were. She didn’t realize she had been holding her breath until her head started swimming. She exhaled and breathed in, but almost instantly regretted it because the stench of rotting flesh that filled her nose almost made her vomit.

“Oh my gosh,” she swallowed to keep herself from retching. “Let’s take a second to regroup. Cecil close that door will you?”

The five Runners walked into a small room that connected to the x-ray room. They stood in the room breathing through their mouths.

“This is disgusting,” Gemma complained. “I swear I can taste the dregs in the air.”

Audrey’s eyes watered from the putrid smell and she nodded in agreement, “Does anyone know for sure how much we have left to finish canvasing before we’re done?”

“We’ve only done about a third of the hospital,” Cecil said looking out the small window on the door. “It looks like there’s a small group of them right…”

He trailed off and hastily scurried away from the window on the door. Everyone looked at him quizzically and he silently mouthed “get down” to them. That’s when they first felt the floor moving.

It was a soft rumble that was almost imperceptible, but then they heard a deep, loud roar echo through the halls and they all quickly dropped to their knees.

“What is that?” Gemma exclaimed as quietly as she could while trying not to panic.

“I don’t know,” Audrey whispered. She crawled to the door and stood up so she could see what Cecil had spotted in the hall.

Fear flooded her when a massive block of grey flesh quickly passed the door. She dropped to her hands and knees and moved to look out the window. She slowly raised back up and peeked out as a mutant the size of a small sedan angrily stampeded down the hall they had just finished clearing out with a group of dregs following it.

“Well?” Cecil asked impatiently when she turned back to them.

“Radio Max.
Now
. Tell him to get the workers by the field out of there. We need to go after that thing because everyone might be in serious trouble,” Audrey opened the door and charged into the hallway with the other four Runners close behind her.

The radio crackled and Cecil said, “There’s a big guy headed out there.”

“What do you mean ‘big’?” Dean’s voice responded.

“Where’s Max?” Cecil demanded angrily.

“He went to help the guys find all the white marks,” Dean answered.

“Warn the workers and all the Runners out there. There’s a giant beast the size of a car coming out and it’s angry,” Cecil released the button and pulled his pistol out of his holster.

“Can do,” Dean answered and signed off the radio.

The small band of Runners quickly made their way to the Emergency Room and out the front doors where they saw the giant mutant furiously swinging its thick arms at people who were in its way.

“What is that thing?” Gemma asked, horrified by the sight.

“It’s one of the Behemoths Albuquerque has talked about,” the blood rushed into Audrey’s head when she saw it barging toward Dean and the workers.

“Dean,” she whispered to herself and made a beeline in his direction.

“What the heck?” She heard Marcella yelp from the front of the hospital.

Audrey wasn’t sure if anyone was following her, but she ran as fast as she could. She sheathed her machete and pulled out her gun as she ran.

The Behemoth stopped every ten feet and pounded at the ground, like a really big toddler throwing a tantrum, before grabbing fistfuls of grass, dirt, and rock. She watched it throw its newly acquired projectiles at the people closest to it and prayed that no one would get hurt.

She stumbled when it throw its arms out to the side and let a loud roar into the air. The men from the construction crews had already dropped the poles and coils of fencing and were running as fast as they could to the gate. The sound of the metal clanging on the ground irritated the Behemoth and it focused on the group of men running away from it.

Her stomach dropped when she saw Dean running towards the creature with his pistol pointed at its giant body, shooting at it repeatedly.

“Dean!” she shrieked when she saw the bullets that pierced the Behemoth didn’t slow it down any. “Get out of there!”

He must not have heard her because he charged at the monster as quickly as he could. He yelled something Audrey couldn’t make out over his shoulder at the remaining workers and they rapidly ran back to the wall that protected Roswell.

None of the Runners knew what to do to take down a mutant that was so large. They all used the pistols they had to shoot at the massive expanse of back, but it continued to charge towards the walls and the community.

Dean was able to get closer to it when it stopped to beat at the ground.

He screamed and threw a rock at its head, “Hey over here you stupid thing!”

When the Behemoth didn’t respond he rushed closer to it and did something so stupid Audrey thought he would be killed immediately—he hit it in the middle of its face with his baseball bat.

It earned him a punch in the side and the undivided attention of the creature who turned to chase after him.

“That’s right! Come and get me!” Dean yelled feebly as he stood up, clutching his ribs. He started running to the gate.

“Dean, hurry!” Audrey cried out in horror, running as quickly as she could. She had run out of ammunition so, she pulled her machete out of its sheath hand. “Somebody help me!”

The other Runners were preoccupied with the hoard of dregs in the field that had come out agitated and ready to attack. She was relieved to see Lincoln had heard her and was running next to her.

What am I going to do?
She asked herself over and over.

The world seemed to slow down when the gigantic hand grab Dean’s leg and flung him at the wall. Dean landed hard and his body dropped to the ground limply.

“No!” Audrey screamed. A chasm opened up in her chest and she could hear her heart beating in her ringing ears. She immediately stopped following the rampaging Behemoth and hurried to Dean’s side.

She knelt next to him, lifted his head off the ground, and gently placed it in her lap. She checked the pulse in his neck. It was quick and shallow. She looked around trying to decide what to do.

“Dean, you need to get up,” she said under her breath.

She put her shoulder under his and wrapped her arm around his back. She struggled to stand up with him. She kept her feet wide and she walked backwards pulling him away from the scene as quickly as she could so she could keep him out of danger.

She took him across the street and laid him in an abandoned parking lot, “Please be okay.”

She checked his pulse again and put her fingers under his nose to make sure he was breathing when she wasn’t sure she could feel his heartbeat. She frantically tried to wake him up, even just a little.

“Come on, Dean,” she cried. “I can’t lose you.”

The brute advanced to the wall where the rapid firing of the gatekeepers with a barrage of hollow point bullets and shot gun rounds were finally able to slow it down.

Somehow it still had enough energy to forcefully break through the cement wall forcefully. It roared triumphantly into the sky and continued its rampage in the Commons.

When the wall buckled under the Behemoth’s strength the citizens of Roswell screamed in terror and scrambled away from the wall when the creature entered through the gaping hole.             

“Dean, I have to go,” her voice quivered. His breathing slowed and she choked back tears, knowing he probably wouldn’t make it out of this.

A wave of panic washed over her when she saw Lincoln followed the Behemoth into the town. He ran over the rubble that fell from the wall and disappeared from Audrey’s sight. She looked at Dean and brushed the tears off her cheeks.

“Dean, you better wake up,” she simultaneously begged and threatened him under her breath. “I’m not done being mad at you.”

She stood up and walked backwards away from him. She turned and ran to the hole in the wall to find people gawking at Lincoln while he darted around the Behemoth. He took swings at the massive body with his ax at every opportunity he could find.

Lincoln skidded onto the asphalt and was barely able to avoid being hit with a chunk of pavement that was hurled at him before he was hit with the back of the monster’s hand.

Audrey was rooted to the sidewalk afraid of what would happen if she got too close. She watched Lincoln land a hit in the middle of one massive forearm.

When the creature stumbled because it couldn’t hold the weight of its enormous body on its injured hands any longer, she found the courage to move so Lincoln wouldn’t be squashed by the body.

She raced to him as quickly as she could and pushed him out of the Behemoth’s path towards the onlookers on the side of the road.

The Behemoth caught itself and bellowed into the air. It regained momentum and started its destructive outburst again. It started grabbing street signs and swatting at people like flies.

Audrey looked around at the faces of the people observing the spectacle. Many of them were frozen in terror as they watched the infected mutant tear through the Commons.

The ugly thing shook its head and moved to find its next target. She saw it eyeing a family with small children and hurried to get them out of the way. She was hit in the side with a stop sign and stumbled to the ground. She gasped and took quick breaths.