The Phoenix Trilogy (Book 1): World On Fire (36 page)

    
Three days had
passed since Natalie had accompanied BJ and the other soldiers on their
ill-fated errand to recover the corpse of a new monstrosity. The ensuing
blacklist of their names had left the crew with relatively little to do, and so
their time had been centered on furthering Natalie’s training as a member of
the team.

    Bruises
covered a fair portion of Natalie’s body now, and as much as she would have
loved to say that they were markers of her education, she felt the reality of
her progress was less than impressive. Rico had been attempting to train her in
basic hand-to-hand combat, and the result was a series of grueling and
unforgiving sessions that left her more the worse for wear.

    If
she wasn’t being thrown repeatedly to the ground by Rico, she was barely
resisting the urge to murder Marco. He had been tasked with educating her on
the subtler nuances of her weapon, from how every piece works to how they each
can fail. The information was a simple enough thing to take in, but Marco made
for a horrible teacher. Thankfully, at least in that field, she was definitely
making progress.

    BJ
had spent very little time with them since the event. More often than not, he
was busy trying to convince Captain Wesley to act on his report of a new
creature. He never got close, but he refused to give up, and would spend hours
hunting for a meeting with the man. Natalie hated to say it, but she was
worried about the grizzled old-timer.

    At
the moment though, Natalie was appreciating a rare moment of companionship with
her boys. Marco had returned from grabbing their supply of rations from Lia,
and they were all enjoying their meal together. The sun had even come out to
join them, giving Natalie the feeling that she was on a picnic trip with
friends.

    A
recruit passing by openly sneered in their direction, and Natalie had to resist
the urge to growl. Friends had become a precious commodity over the last couple
of days. Lia still took good care of them, and being in similar circumstances
had brought Thomas closer to their group, as well.

    He
kept to himself most of the time, but wherever they went, he was nearby. After
his interrogation and subsequent dismissal, word had gotten out about his
involvement with the failed mission and he had been ostracized.

    Natalie
didn’t know if she could call Thomas a friend, but they were always kind to
each other, and she could tell he badly wanted to be able to talk to people.
His burns were doing much better, though the majority of his head was still in
bandages.

    With
everything that had happened, Natalie didn’t know if his coming to the camp
with them had been an improvement for him or not. She could see him resting
against a nearby wall and she offered him a wave, which he returned
enthusiastically. Smiling to herself, she decided to believe he was better off
inside the walls.

    Natalie
was in the middle of taking a bite out of a particularly stale cracker when a
low rumbling made her pause. Glancing at the others, she saw her sudden concern
reflected back at her. Slowly, Natalie put her food away and readied her
weapon, straining her ears to hear anything further.

    Since
they had returned, the crew had made it a point to always keep all of their
gear on hand, just in case of an emergency. There had been a handful of false
alarms where the team had launched into action over a loud noise, a fact that
had been spread through the camp endlessly, but they were willing to endure the
mockery. Whether anyone believed them or not, they had seen the truth with
their own eyes, and they knew there was a very clear and present danger around
them.

    As
another more insistent rumble thundered around them, Natalie abandoned all
pretenses of indifference. BJ and the others were in agreement, all of the crew
now standing alert and ready. A handful of the soldiers nearby chuckled at
them, cracking jokes at their expense, but Natalie wasn’t paying attention to
them.

    Her
eyes had locked on Thomas. He had bolted to his feet, and appeared to be
hyperventilating. Staring wordlessly at the ground, he began shaking his head
violently from side to side, his mouth working overtime in an attempt to form a
sound.

    “Thomas.”
Natalie said only his name, but it was enough to convey her point to the
others. As each of them saw his panic attack, they came to the same
realization: they were about to be fighting for their lives.

    BJ
tried to bark a warning to the other soldiers, but before he was able to
finish, gunshots began ringing out through the city. First one, then a dozen,
and then too many to count. What followed after was a cacophony of screaming
and gunfire that chilled Natalie to her core.

    Thomas
had barely registered that Natalie had come to his side when a digger erupted
from the ground nearby, immediately slamming a surprised soldier to the ground
with a sickening crunch. In the daylight and without injuries, the monster
looked more terrifying than Natalie remembered. Two massive and nearly all
black eyes were boiling under the sun, sending the monstrosity into a literal
blind rage as it began to shred anything that made a sound.

    BJ
opened fire alongside Marco and Rico while Natalie tried to bring Thomas back
to his senses. She looked away from the battle long enough to force Thomas to
meet her gaze, and when she turned back around, the situation had deteriorated
into a bloody chaos.

    Biters
were everywhere. They had followed the digger out of its tunnel and were
swarming into the camp, bearing anyone in their way down to the ground in a
swarm of teeth and flesh. All the while, the hulking beast above them continued
to rampage, scything through ranks of friend and foe alike, unable to tell the
two apart in its maddening newfound blindness.

    The
guards on the walkways above the slaughter had tried to stem the tide, but a
swipe of the digger’s massive hands tore the scaffolding out from under them.
Natalie barely heard their screams as they were swallowed up by the wave of
undead now pouring from the hole.

    Natalie
realized there was no fighting this, and BJ knew it, too. Rather than continue
firing fruitlessly into the ever growing swarm, he spun on his heel and
launched into a dead sprint toward Natalie and Thomas. The cousins were on his
tail, but so were more of the runners from the tunnel. As he barreled past her,
Natalie was at least pleased to see Thomas had returned to his senses and begun
running alongside them.

    Joining
BJ in his mad retreat, the crew was unable to even fire slowing shots behind
them as they fell back, for fear of hitting other friendly targets. The whole
camp had turned into a rampage of terror, diggers having torn their way into
the city from a dozen different locations, all of them followed by hordes of
undead. They had nowhere to go.

    BJ
led them ever forward, his giant frame clearing a path through the insanity as
he ran. People were being killed everywhere Natalie looked, and as she glanced
upward to the walkways above, she realized the guards were gone. Rather than
stay and fight, they had abandoned their posts entirely, likely to retreat back
to the inner ring. The refugees, almost entirely unarmed, were left to fend for
themselves.

    Natalie’s
mind was numb. Countless people were dead or dying all around her, and there
was nothing left to stop the zombies from attacking. She didn’t know where they
could possibly escape to, either.

    The
inner ring was closed off at the best of times, and with all of the death out
here, Natalie held no hope that it would suddenly be opened to them for their
safety. The front gate would let them out into the city, but there was no
promise that the undead wouldn’t be waiting for them when they got out.

    For
all the possible danger, it was the best choice they had. BJ must have already
reached the same conclusion, as Natalie recognized the path they were taking as
the shortest to the gate. A gunshot rang out from behind her as Marco dropped a
biter that had gotten close, and Natalie resisted the need to panic. Somehow,
they were going to find their way out.

    Ahead
of them, Natalie recognized a couple familiar faces leading a small group of
refugees in their direction. Stephen and Lia had organized some of the
survivors and were attempting to lead them to safety. They were armed with
makeshift poles and other slapdash weapons, and it looked as though they were
at the end of their rope.

    Lia
spotted BJ and began frantically pointing and gesturing to the rest of her
party. A moment later, and their company had swelled from five to fifteen, a
terrified Stephen keeping pace alongside BJ and speaking as quickly as he
could.

    “Came
from the gate. It’s all bad, B.” Stephen was barely coherent, choking down
gasps of air as best he could, but it was enough to stop BJ cold in his tracks
for the moment. “They’re all dead or dying or worse. It got hit hard, nobody
has been able to open the doors with all the undead around. Don’t know… don’t
know where else we can run.”

    There
was no time to stop, and nowhere left to go. All at once, the group lost its
fire. The only people refusing to give in now were BJ and Natalie, both of them
pouring over their knowledge of the outpost in the hopes of finding some other
solution before they were butchered on the spot.

    Nothing
that came to mind that was of any use, and as Rico and Marco began to fire more
relentlessly into the crowds, Natalie realized there was no way she could come
up with a path that Stephen wouldn’t have already considered. The man knew the
lay of the outpost better than anyone, and if he had no other ideas, then they
were trapped.

    Abruptly,
the answer to their problem struck her.
I’ve got it. Oh fuck me, I’ve got
it.
It had occurred to her the instant she thought of traps. Natalie knew
her solution was a terrible plan, but it had worked in the past and they didn’t
have any other better options. Locking eyes with BJ, Natalie motioned violently
toward the only chance they had left: the tunnels.

    Her
gestures were met with a sharp nod, and with no time left to waste, BJ began
his charge toward the closest tunnel within sight. The others, unsure of where
he was heading but not willing to be left alone, ran along behind him.

    It
was a long shot, but if Natalie was right, then all of the zombies were already
inside the camp perimeter. The tunnels might be clear, and she knew for a fact
that they led outside eventually. It was better than staying behind.

    The
instant the group recognized what the plan was, several people faltered.
Natalie couldn’t blame anyone, but neither could she stop to try and convince
them. Many refugees had already been brutally wiped out, and as their numbers
dwindled, it became more and more likely that BJ and the others would fall
under attack.

    As
BJ hit the crumbling entrance to the underground, only the original crew plus
Stephen, Thomas, Lia and four others were following behind. The rest had
hesitated, and in that moment been slaughtered by a dozen ghouls that had appeared
from nowhere. That meant Natalie and the others were only seconds away from
sharing the same fate.

    Down
into the darkness they ran, the footing rocky and uneven but their adrenaline
seeing them surge forward regardless. Natalie tripped more than once, and she
could hear others doing the same, but now that they were out of sight of the
general chaos above it looked as if they had become less of a target.

    After
several seconds of slow progress in the stifling dark, Natalie heard the sound
of water rushing ahead, a feat that seemed strangely out of place down here.
Everything already smelled foul, thanks to the legion of rotters that had been
waiting below, but she guessed they must be entering the sewer systems beneath
the city.

    A
light clicked on and revealed Rico wearing a thin headlamp, along with
confirming Natalie’s suspicions about their location. Quickly as he could, he
offered a matching light to each member of the crew.

    While
the lamps did give away their position, some kind of lighting was necessary in
order to move forward. They were all standing just near the beginning of the
freshly dug pathway where it merged into the sewer tunnel, and the group
quickly moved around the corner to try and shade at least some of their light
from the surface.