The Forever Song (35 page)

“Broken,” he gritted out, clenching his jaw in pain. “I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere with you, vampires.” He looked past Kanin, to the burning lab, and grimaced. “Though I do thank you for not leaving me to that.”

“Dr. Richardson,” I said, sweeping up to him. “You said that Sarren left not long before we arrived. Do you know where he went? Where he is now?”

The human nodded. “He’s going to spread that virus,” Richardson murmured darkly, his expression taut with pain. “But he needs to get off the island first. So, there’s really only one place he could go.”

“The docks,” Zeke said, his voice suddenly hard. “He’ll be at the docks. If we catch him there, we can still stop this.”

I blinked. The lab was gone, the research destroyed, and the cure was lost. A second ago, he’d seemed ready to give up. I’d thought I would have to convince him to keep going. But he didn’t look defeated or horrified anymore. He looked like a pissed-off vampire. His fangs were out, and his eyes gleamed with anger and determination as he backed away, beckoning to us all. “We’re not far,” he said. “I know the fastest way.” He paused, giving the human a solemn look, as if realizing we couldn’t take him with us. “Dr. Richardson…?”

“Go,” the scientist whispered, waving us on with his good hand. “Don’t worry about me. Stop Sarren. Stop Requiem. Nothing else matters.”

Zeke nodded once, and we went.

The streets were chillingly empty of rabids as we fled back the way we came, following Zeke down the narrow, twisty roads of Eden. I wondered where they all were, until I took a quick breath, searching for hints of rot and decay on the wind, and caught a trace of fresh blood in the air. No wonder the streets were empty. Wherever that smell was coming from, that was where we’d find the rabids.

Zeke turned a corner, and the rows of buildings suddenly ended, coming to a stop at the edge of a road. Across the street, I could see a parking lot surrounded by a chain-link fence, and beyond that, a long cement pier stretching out over Lake Erie.

It was empty.

We hurried on to the dock, leaping the fence, and ran to the end of the pier, frantically gazing around. Several boats bobbed on the surface of the water, simple rowboats, probably used for fishing and now forgotten in the chaos. But Sarren wasn’t in any of them.

Then Kanin gave a weary sigh and pointed out over the lake. “There.”

We followed his gaze. Far away, over the vastness of Lake Erie, I could just see the hull of a massive ship, vanishing into the darkness. Even from this distance, it was huge, one of those enormous barges like the one outside Old Chicago that held all the raiders’ bikes and vehicles. I glared at the ship, frustration and helpless despair threatening to crush me. We were too late. Sarren had been right here, and we’d let him get away.

“Shit.” Jackal’s voice was tense. He kept one hand at his neck, his voice tight with pain. “Looks like our ship just sailed.” He grimaced and leaned against a post, looking exhausted as he stared after the vanishing ship. “Though why the psychopath would use a slow-ass barge to get off the island is beyond me. Unless…”

He trailed off, as the realization hit us all at the same time. Behind us, Eden lay empty and abandoned…because Sarren had loaded a huge barge full of rabids and sailed it right into the heart of the city. And now…

“Oh, God,” I whispered. “The checkpoint. That’s how he plans to spread Requiem. He’s taking the infected rabids
back,
to turn them loose on the refugees. Once that barge hits the checkpoint…”

It would be over. Requiem would be loosed on the world. The rabids would slaughter the refugees and then spread out, carrying the virus to every rabid and human they came across. It would be the end of everything, just like Sarren said.

“No,” Zeke growled, heading back the way we’d come. “It’s not too late. We can still catch up. Follow me!”

He led us down the pier to another set of docks, where several smaller boats bobbed in the water, small, sleek crafts with engines instead of paddles, built for speed. Steel drums stood at the edge of each pier; fuel for the boats, I guessed. But instead of heading toward the docks, Zeke jogged up to a tiny building at the edge of the pier, almost a shack. It had a simple wooden door on the side and a window with a counter at the front, and I had no idea what it was for. “Zeke, what—”

Ignoring the window, Zeke walked up to the door of the small hut and kicked it open, flinging it back with a crash. “The boats on Eden are communal property,” he stated as we ducked inside. Jackal and Kanin hovered in the frame, as the room was barely big enough for two people. Fishing poles, spears, nets and other supplies leaned against the walls or on shelves, and a single stool sat before the window. “Anyone can use them,” Zeke continued, “as long as they bring them back. This is where they record which boats are gone and when they’re returned.”

A panel hung beside the counter with several keys dangling from hooks in the board. Snatching one, Zeke checked the tag that hung below it and nodded before turning around. “All right, let’s go.”

A shrieking sound interrupted him and made my blood freeze. From a nearby warehouse, rabids emerged, a pale swarm against the darkness. I drew in a breath, and the scent of blood hit me like a slap in the face, coming from the long metal building. Sarren had been one step ahead of us, again.

The rabids screamed and turned toward us, and my skin crawled. It was the same pack from earlier that night, except for one thing. Several of them had fresh gouges down their arms and faces, and many were ripping at their skin even as they came forward, moving like jerky puppets.

“Shit, they’re infected,” Jackal snarled, and shot a hard glare at Zeke. “Come on, puppy, let’s move!”

We ran across the pavement, the mob of screaming, infected rabids at our heels. Swerving onto a wooden dock, we followed Zeke over the water to the very end of the pier, to where a small, faded white boat sat bobbing on the waves. Leaping onto the boat, Zeke hurried to the front, jamming the key into the ignition, while the rest of us huddled at the edge of the planks and watched the rabids swarm closer.

“Come on,” Zeke muttered behind us as the boat engine gave a raspy cough and died away. “Come on, turn over.” He wrenched the key again; the engine gurgled, sputtered and faded out again. “Dammit.”

“Get out of the way.” Jackal stepped onto the boat, shoving him aside. “I’m guessing you know as much about boats as you do bike engines.” He crouched down, his face intense. “Just keep the crazies off my back for a few seconds.”

A scream at the other end of the docks made me jerk up. The rabids leaped onto the pier, screeching and hissing, tearing at themselves. I drew my katana, roared a challenge, and stepped forward to meet them.

The first rabid leaped at me, swiping at my face with terrible speed. I jerked back and cut the head from its body, knowing that was the only way to make it stop. Another sprang over the first one’s corpse and lunged at my throat, but Kanin was suddenly there, stabbing his thin blade through the creature’s temple, kicking it off the platform.

“Jackal!” I snarled, desperately fending off a rabid reaching for my face. It hissed and scrambled over my blade, heedless of the edge cutting through its chest. “Not to rush you, but if we don’t get out of here soon it won’t matter if Sarren gets away or not, because we’ll be dead. Hurry up!”

A shot rang out from Zeke’s pistol. I heard it strike the barrels on the corner of the docks, clanging off the metal. I glanced back, and saw him standing at the back of the boat, arm raised toward the end of the docks. He fired again, puncturing the drum, and a stream of clear liquid began to stream from the center.

A searing pain erupted from my neck, making me gasp. In that split second of distraction, a rabid had gotten through my defenses and sunk its fangs into my throat. With a desperate hiss, I slid the katana between us and shoved hard, cutting off its head. The monster fell away, releasing my neck, but I stumbled in pain, seeing the rest of the horde closing in. Zeke shouted something, maybe about getting back, but the agony and screaming rabids made it hard to hear what he was saying.

Another monster sprang forward, lashing with its claws, but Kanin spun, knocking it away, and grabbed me around the middle. As he pulled me back toward the boat, I looked up at Zeke, still at the back of the boat, and saw him raise his arm. A strange, bright orange gun was clutched in his hand, and he fired a single shot at the pier.

The shot flared a brilliant orange-red in the darkness, hissing and sparking, trailing a stream of fire as it streaked through the air and struck the barrel he’d shot at earlier. There was a flash, and a massive fireball erupted into the night, sending rabids flying into the water. I felt the blast of heat from where I stood with Kanin, and turned away, shielding my eyes.

When I looked back, the end of the pier blazed with tongues of fire, licking at the posts and snapping hungrily over the wood. My vampire instincts cringed back, urging me to get as far from the flames as I could, that even this distance was too close. Beyond the roar of the inferno, I could hear the rabids screaming.

“There,” Zeke growled as he stepped back, the flare gun dropping from his hands. “That should hold them off long enough to—”

And the rabids came right through the flames.

I jerked, barely getting my katana up in time as the entire swarm, not just one or two, sprang through the fire like it wasn’t there and rushed the docks again. I slashed wildly at the first rabid who lunged at me, its back and arms wreathed in flames, and my vampire instincts shrieked in utter terror.

“Jackal!” I shouted as Kanin kicked a burning rabid into the water, spun, and smoothly beheaded another. From the corner of my eye, I saw Zeke leap from the back of the boat, sail over the water, and slam his machete into a rabid as he landed beside me. “You can get that boat started anytime now!”

“Not if you keep bitching at me!” came the terse reply from the boat helm. The rabids screamed and pressed forward, crowding the pier, claws and teeth raking me from all sides. I caught flashes of Kanin and Zeke beside me, fending off the rabids that surrounded us, but in a few seconds we’d be overwhelmed.

“Got it!” The boat gurgled, roared and died away just as quickly, killing my sudden surge of hope. “Well, damn. False alarm! What the hell do these bloodbags use for fuel, their own piss?”

“Jackal!”

No reply, but a second later the engine sputtered, coughed and finally roared to life in a plume of white smoke. “All right!” Jackal called as we started edging back from the relentless press of rabids. “The last ship from bat-shit crazytown is sailing, so cut the ropes and let’s get the hell out of Dodge.”

Kanin threw a rabid off the platform, turned and slashed through the rope tying it to the dock. The engine gurgled, and the boat began to pull away, moving down the pier and out into the water. We fought our way to the very end of the dock, Lake Erie at our backs and a murderous swarm of monsters still coming forward, while the boat pulled even farther away. We needed to jump, but the rabids would pull us down as soon as our backs were turned.

“Jackal!” I yelled, cutting a monster’s head from its neck a second before its teeth would’ve found my skin. “If you leave us, I swear to God whatever is left of me will hunt you down and strangle you in your sleep!”

A laugh rang out behind me, and from the corner of my eye Jackal appeared at the side of the boat, which continued to drift over the lake. Something small and orange flashed in his hand as he raised his arm.

“Oh, sister. You really have no faith in me at all, do you? Duck.”

The flare exploded from Jackal’s hand, streaking past me as I cringed, and tore into the mob of rabids in a flash of heat and light. “Jump!” Kanin ordered over the screams, the rabids flailing back in blind confusion, and I did. Turning, I hurled myself over the water, hitting the boat railing and grabbing it with one hand, clinging desperately to my katana with the other.

Fingers clamped around my wrist, and someone dragged me over the edge and into the boat, setting me upright. Jackal smirked and dropped my arm as Kanin landed gracefully on deck and Zeke pulled himself up the side of the railing.

I looked up at Jackal and winced. This close, I could see the black circles under his eyes, the skin that was paler than normal. The ominous black veins had spread, crawling over his throat, and his golden eyes were bright with pain even through the ever-present smirk. My stomach twisted. The infection was spreading fast. At this rate, Jackal might not last the night.

“Don’t look at me like that, sister.” Jackal gave me a sneer and stepped back. “You forget—I always come out on top, no matter the circumstances. So, don’t worry your pretty little head. I’ll survive. I always find a way.” His eyes narrowed, flicking to the blood staining my neck. “You, however, might need to get to Sarren quickly. Mocking the puppy just won’t be the same without you around.”

A rabid exploded from the water before I could answer, latching on to the rails and baring its fangs in a scream. “Oh, for the love of fuck!” Jackal snarled, whirling and smashing a coil of rope across its face, sending it crashing back. “The bastards don’t give up, do they?”

More rabids clawed themselves onto the deck, dripping wet and snarling. It seemed their fear of deep water had vanished along with their aversion to fire. “Get us out of here!” I snapped, and leaped to help Zeke and Kanin kick rabids off the boat. A pale face heaved itself over the railing, hissing at me, and I split it in two before moving on.

As Kanin, Zeke and I darted from one side to the other, repelling our inhuman boarders, the boat jerked forward, picking up speed. As the docks receded, the rabids fell away, and I watched Eden grow smaller and smaller until it was swallowed by the darkness. Jackal turned the boat toward the southwest, and we sped off through the waves, the wind and spray whipping at our faces, praying we’d catch our target in time.

The race to stop the End of the World had begun.

Chapter 18

“There’s the barge!” Zeke called, peering over the front of the boat. I joined him at the railing, watching the massive rectangular ship get closer and closer, looming to an impossible height against the sky.