Where the Dead Men Lie (21 page)

I looked up at the bell tower again. Ben was scanning the horizon.

I spoke into my walkie-talkie. "Guys, it’s Rebecca. I’m down on the street with you."

"What?" Kenji asked. "Get back up there. We can handle this."

"No you can’t," Ben said. "The more people down there the better. All you gotta do is, flush it out and draw it to me."

Yeah easier said than done, I thought.

"I see it," Ben said. "Jack, it’s moving towards you. Near that large warehouse."

"Ah, OK." Jack replied. "Now what?"

"It went inside."

"Um, do you want me to follow it in?"

"Yes. Wait. It’s moving again."

"Where? I asked. "Can you see it?"

"Yeah. It’s moved to the edge of town. You need to draw it to you."

"How the hell do I do that?"

"I don’t know. Maybe try making some noise?"

I walked towards the alleyway and the blood trail, where the nano-swarm had dragged Ed to his death. At the mouth of the alley were two small garbage cans. I picked up the lids and started banging them together as I walked up the main road back towards the town square.

Just before I arrived at the town square I noticed a general store.

The sign out the front read:

Johnson’s Family General Store. Since 1836.

There were a few notices stuck to the front door about the Oz virus. The military safe zones. The evacuation routes.

A sign read:

Closed until further notice due to Oz virus.

The front window had been smashed in. There was hand written apology left behind, signed by someone. The signature was illegible.

The note said:

"Sorry, Rob. We needed the water. I’ll reimburse you when this is all over."

I walked inside the store. It had probably been picked clean early on, but there might be some stuff that had been left behind.

Bottled water. Canned food.

Anything.

It was too good a chance to pass up.

"Rebecca, you there?" Ben asked.

"Yeah."

"I think you should get back out in the open."

"I’m just looking for water. I think there might be some in the storeroom here."

"No. Get outside now."

I paused in the center aisle. I could see some cases of bottled water towards the back of the store. "Let me just grab these, first." I said, as I picked up the bottles.

"Get to the street, now. It’s coming. It’s coming right for you. You need to get to the street and start coming back towards me."

I felt a cold chill.

It’s coming right for you.

"Are you sure?" I asked nervously.

"Run. Come on!"

I reluctantly dropped the case of water. But I figured if I needed to run, it would only slow me down. Besides, we could always come back for it later.

I made my way to the front of the store, my feet crunching on the broken glass at the entrance.

I paused. Looked left and right, up and down the street. I couldn’t see anything.

But I could hear it.

The hissing noise, like a snake. The noise became louder and louder, like a rattle snake that had been threatened. Ready to attack.

It seemed to grow louder and then fade.

"Where is it?"

"I don’t know. I lost it."

I walked out into the street.

The town square was still empty.

The rope that had been used to tie me up was still hanging from the light post. It was swinging gently in the breeze.

Another tumbled weed blew past. Darker in color. Almost completely black.

A flash of silver.

It was not a tumble weed.

The thing I thought was a tumbleweed began to distort and grow. It expanded in width and height, like black smoke from a raging oil fire, until it filled the entire town square.

"Looks like you’ve got its attention," Ben said.

"Yeah, now what?"

"Run!"

I didn’t really need to be told. I was already backing away when I asked the question. A heart beat later; I turned and ran. I ran back down the main road, back towards the harpoons. I could see their flashing green lights one block away. It wasn’t far. I could totally make it.

I glanced over my shoulder. The black smoke was following. But it was taking its sweet time, like a predator that knew its prey was cornered. It was sort of zigzagging down the street after me. I wondered how fast it could move. Would I be able to get back to the harpoons before it got to me?

"Come on," Ben said. "You can make it. Just stay calm."

I picked up the pace and started to sprint. I figured it was now or never. I wanted this to be over as quickly as possible. I was done with being live bait. I looked over my shoulder again to make sure it was still following but what I saw scared the hell out of me. It was doing more than just following.

It was chasing.

It was moving.

Fast.

Way faster than I could run.

In a matter of seconds it had caught up to me. A split second later it had moved ahead of me, and cut me off. I skidded to a stop. "Shoot! Do it now!"

"I can’t!" Ben answered. "You’re in the way. If I fire from this angle the harpoon will fly right through the smoke and impale you."

He was right.

And after watching the first two harpoons pierce and smash through the concrete sidewalk, I did not want to be anywhere near where he was shooting. It would probably, most definitely kill me.

"You need to bring it closer!" he said.

"How?"

"Make it chase you again!"

I was out of options. The thing had me cornered. It could move like lightning. And could kill just as quickly. I did not want to end up like Ed.

The smoke seemed to grow taller, rising up in front of me like a cobra rearing up, ready to strike.

I have no idea what came over me. Maybe I was still a little dopey from being drugged. Maybe I was dehydrated and starving. A combination of these things was making me brave and courageous and stupid.

I threw the EMP grenade at the black smoke. There was a bright bluish, purple flash. The nano-swarm seemed to disperse slightly. It lost its solid shape.

I charged it.

My actions seemed to momentarily catch it off guard. The whole thing seemed to double over itself as I ran toward it. Sort of like a giant, black wave.

I held my hands out as I ran into the smoke, covering my face, holding my breath. Everything became dark and distorted. My vision was obscured, like being in a dust storm again. I closed my eyes as tight as I could. I felt pin pricks on my skin, tiny little cuts, like razor blades.

A split second later I broke free, light returned to my world. I could see the harpoons directly in front of me.

I sprinted, passing through them, leaning forward at the last second like an Olympic runner crossing the finish line. "NOW!" I shouted.

As soon as I crossed the finish line, as soon as I passed through the harpoons, I felt something grab my ankle. I tripped over and hit the ground. But instead of skidding forward. I was dragged backwards.

The thing, the black smoke, the nano-swarm, it had me. My whole foot was engulfed in blackness. Again, my skin felt like it was being sliced with razor blades.

It was dragging me back into the abyss, like it had done with Ed, when it had dragged him into the alley. Just before the swarm swallowed me whole , I heard a sound. A whoosh crack. And then I felt the impact of the harpoon through the road. It actually lifted me clear off the ground.

The green lights on the harpoons turned red.

A pulsing bright flash sent me momentarily blind. The nano-swarm collapsed on the road covering the surrounding buildings, the sidewalk and me in black dust.

CHAPTER 32

I can’t really remember what happened next. I couldn’t really see. My vision had been reduced to a small little, circle. My hearing was gone.

I was coughing uncontrollably. I coughed so hard, my stomach muscles all cramped up at the same time. I probably would’ve thrown up if there was anything in my stomach. Mentally, I couldn’t think straight. It was like I was concussed or something.

I could see shapes moving, running towards me. It was the guys. Daniel. Kenji. And Jack.

All of a sudden, sound returned to the world.

"You’re one brave little lady." It was Ben.

He must’ve been standing right next to me. I couldn’t see him though. My vision was a blur.

He started patting me down. At first I thought he was patting me on the back trying to get me to stop coughing. But then I realized he was brushing the black dust off me. The remnants of the nano-swarm.

The rest of it was spread over the road and the sidewalk. At that moment it looked like harmless black dust. Like someone had emptied a massive, industrial sized vacuum cleaner in the middle of the road.

"Wait," I coughed. "You said this was only a temporary solution."

"That’s right," Ben answered.

"So there’s a chance the nano-bots could come back online or whatever and reform."

"Yeah."

"How long do we have?"

"I’m not sure. But I don’t want to hang around to find out."

"Yeah, me neither."

"We need to go now."

I tried to stand but I couldn’t. Every single muscled ached like I’d been beaten with a baseball bat.

Ben picked me up and carried me.

We found a car at the rear of the church. It was an old station wagon. It looked like it hadn’t been used in awhile. It was covered in red dust.

Daniel popped the hood and immediately began hot wiring the car. But he couldn’t get it going.

Ben sat me down in the back seat and then pushed Daniel out of the way. "Here let me try. Hotwired a million of these bad boys. Worth a fortune in chopped up parts."

"Should we try raid the supermarket warehouse they mentioned?" Kenji asked. "I think that’s where they were getting their food and water from."

"Yeah that’s probably a good idea," Daniel said.

"No," Ben answered. "We need to go now."

The engine finally ticked over, roaring to life.

"I agree," Maria said as she jumped in the car next to me. "I don’t want to spend any more time here."

"We can’t just drive off into the desert," Kenji said.

Ben sat in the front seat. "I’ll drive. I know the roads."

"But where the hell are we going?"

"We’re going to the Fortress."

Jack and Kenji jumped in the back as well. Daniel was up front.

"What about guns?" Jack asked. "I don’t like the idea of being unarmed."

Ben held up a hand gun and a shotgun. "This is it. The priest’s men, the one’s that got away, they took the rest of them."

"I think we should go and look for them," Jack said.

Ben shook his head. "We can’t stay here. It’s not safe. But don’t worry. Once we get to the Fortress we won’t need guns."

And that was the end of the discussion. The guys were satisfied with Ben’s answer. The Fortress was the best place to go.

It was a safe place. A refuge.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe Ben wasn’t the right guy to trust. Sure he had saved my life, but I got the sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t stable. To make matters worse, he we was beast of a man. At least seven foot tall. He had arms like freakin tree trunks for crying out loud. A Body that was carved out of stone, a face only a mother could love. A mother who was partially blind. And after I witnessed his strength first hand when he took down those, mutated monsters, I knew that if he wanted to, if he decided that he’d had enough of us, he could kill us all. Snap us in half like we were twigs.

Daniel wouldn’t be able to stop him. Not even Kenji with all his martial arts training.

The messed up thing was we needed him.

We needed to get to the Fortress. We needed to rest up. Drink. Eat.

At that point I was just glad to be sitting down in the back of a car. I was glad to be chauffeured around the desert instead of running for my life. Every single muscle in my body ached. My skin felt itchy. It hurt to breathe.

Maria put her arm around me. I think she said thanks but I couldn’t be sure. At that point I had begun to pass out. My last thought was that I had cheated death again. And that death probably wouldn’t keep letting that happen. Sooner or later he would come for us, swinging his scythe. Sooner or later he would collect us all in one foul swoop.

CHAPTER 33

I’m not sure when, but at some point during the drive I completely passed out. I had this weird dream where the car we were driving was a hearse. I hoped it wasn’t a premonition.