The Alpha Plague (Book 5) Read online

  As much as Vicky wanted to tell Flynn no, she had to let him make his own decisions. He’d survived through a lot more than most of the people in the community, and she couldn’t deprive them of his talents.

  Although less enthusiastic, Vicky got to her feet too and locked stares with Hugh.

  Silence hung in the canteen for the next few seconds and Hugh looked over the place. Most people averted their gaze by either looking down at their tables or watching the monitors with the pack of diseased on them.

  After a shake of his head and a heavy sigh, Hugh nodded at Flynn and Vicky. “Come on, let’s go.”

  As Vicky walked toward Hugh, she watched his sneer of disgust at the rest of the canteen. As clear as his thoughts were about their cowardice, he said nothing to the room.

  Chapter Nine

  Hugh stopped at the front door to Home and handed baseball bats to Vicky and Flynn. “I’m afraid it’s all we have.”

  With the bat in her hands, Vicky wrung the grip and shrugged. “Good enough for me.” A glance at Flynn and she saw the colour had drained from his angular face. Although he’d filled out a bit since he’d arrived at Home, he currently looked paler and more withdrawn than ever. “You okay?”

  When Flynn flashed her the kind of look a child would flash an embarrassing parent, Vicky didn’t ask again. He needed to do this without her undermining him.

  On their way out of the canteen, Hugh had grabbed a skinny boy of no more than about twelve years old. Although slight, he stood tall for his age. When Hugh nodded at him, the boy snapped the top lock of the door free with a crack. A shake took a hold of him as he leaned down to the second one at the bottom. So much for the monitors desensitising them to the threat of the diseased; the boy looked ready to throw up. When the loud crack of the second lock snapped through the small entranceway, Vicky’s stomach tensed. A deep breath did nothing to ease the grip fear had on her guts. Before she could think on it any further, Hugh led the way and they all stepped outside.

  The first time she’d left Home since she’d arrived there, Vicky stood in the open space as the wind crashed into her. The strong breeze buffeted her ears and blew her hair back from her face. The air might have been fresh, but it also had a tinge of rot that lifted the hairs on the back of her neck and set her senses on edge. She’d been here before and she knew just what to do. Regardless of the rest she’d had in Home, a decade of fighting the horrible fuckers had ingrained the warrior spirit in Vicky’s psyche.

  Hugh led the way around the back of Home and they all followed. The entrance sat embedded in the side of a small hill. A couple of metres’ climb and Vicky saw the sea of black that spread away from them. “Wow,” she said. “How many solar panels do you have out here?”

  “Three hundred and twenty-seven,” Hugh replied. “Every one of them still works. It’s how we run Home and, second to water and food, it’s our most precious resource. I come out here at least once a week to trample the grass so they can get as much sun as possible.”

  Despite her fascination with the solar panels, Vicky could only look at them for a brief spell. Weaving through the field of black, she saw close to thirty diseased. As she watched the creatures, the wind hit Vicky so hard she had to widen her stance to avoid getting knocked over.

  At present, the diseased meandered without focus because they clearly hadn’t seen Vicky and her gang. That couldn’t last forever.

  When Hugh pointed to a grassy mound on their left, Vicky looked at the large elevated patch of grass. A perfect lump, it stood a few more metres taller than its surroundings and it seemed like it had been put there on purpose; like some kind of burial mound. Although, in all probability, it had been a pile of dirt dug from the ground when they built Home. It had now become a prominent pimple on the landscape, as covered in long grass as its surroundings.

  “We should get on top of that and defend ourselves,” Hugh said. “It’s our best chance.”

  Without another word, Hugh took off and the gang followed.

  Vicky ran next to Flynn and checked across once or twice to be sure he seemed okay. Although pale, Flynn had a stubborn set of determination on his boyish features. He’d be all right.

  With Jessica, Serj, and the large man on her other side, Vicky focused on the grass mound. A defendable position, they could get to that and have a good chance at taking the fuckers down.

  In the blink of an eye, Serj tripped and hit the ground next to Vicky. He yelled out as he fell. When Vicky looked at the diseased, her stomach sank. Where every one of them had stared at their feet as they shuffled through the long grass, they now all looked up at the pack. Dried blood in their eye sockets, dark mouths hanging loose, the horde screamed as one.

  Although Serj had fallen, Hugh picked up his pace and yelled at them, “Come on, we need to get to the top of that mound to stand a chance.”

  Jessica stopped to help Serj, but the rest of them carried on.

  Vicky looked from the horde to the downed Serj and back to the mound and said, “Fuck it. You go with them, Flynn.” She then turned back to help Jessica and Serj.

  Jessica had gotten Serj to his feet and the man had his arm around her. He didn’t look like he could hold his own weight, and Jessica couldn’t fight while she carried him.

  “Get Serj to the mound now,” Vicky shouted at Jessica. “We can defend him from there.”

  Fear had left a glaze on Jessica’s eyes as she stared at Vicky, but she didn’t speak. Instead, she stood frozen for a second.

  A glance at the approaching pack and Vicky saw they all headed her way. She turned back to Jessica and shouted, “Get the fuck to that mound. Now!”

  Jessica set off slowly with Serj toward the others. Vicky rolled her shoulders, raised her baseball bat, swallowed against the dryness in her throat, and drew a deep breath to still her hammering heart. Now the closest to the pack, Vicky found herself to be the focus of the chaotic hive mind heading their way.

  Chapter Ten

  Each solar panel had been elevated on short stilts that lifted them to about waist height. The diseased moved as an enraged pack through them. They might have all taken a different route through the gridded maze in a strange, hip-snaking dance, but they all shared one goal: get to Vicky.

  With her bat still raised, Vicky stepped back several paces so she stood with the drop of the hill that led down to the front of Home directly behind her.

  Just a few metres until the first diseased got to her and Vicky checked to see Jessica drag Serj closer to the group on the mound. They were about halfway between Vicky and the others and needed more time.

  The first diseased screamed as it came at Vicky, its mouth spread wide as it issued a long and drawn-out hiss. At the last moment, Vicky darted to the side like a matador avoiding a bull. The diseased steamed past her and fell down the hill on the other side.

  Two more came at Vicky. She avoided the first and drove the fat end of her bat into the centre of the face of the second one. It sank into its nose with a wet crack and knocked the creature backwards.

  When Vicky looked at the mound again, she saw Jessica help Serj to the top.

  Surrounded by the smell of rot and excrement, Vicky hit the next diseased with her bat just as the one she’d already knocked down got to its feet.

  Vicky spun sideways to avoid another diseased and spun back the other way to avoid the next one. Both of them stumbled over the top of the hill and fell down the other side.

  With the main bulk of the group nearly upon her, Vicky took off toward the mound with the others on it at a flat out sprint.

  The group, including Serj, had formed a ring on the mound with their backs to one another. It seemed like a solid plan.

  The slathering and out-of-breath pants of the diseased chased on Vicky’s heels. She felt the vibration of their footfalls more heavily through the ground with every step. The long grass dragged on Vicky’s momentum as she ran, but she gritted her teeth and pushed on with all she had.

  The
group behind Vicky got so close that the hot reek of rot and shit partially choked her, restricting her breaths into her already tight lungs.

  As she got to the bottom of the mound, Flynn jumped from the top, ran past her, and she heard the tonk of his baseball bat connecting with a skull.

  At the top, Vicky fell into the circle, turned her back to the others as Flynn rejoined them, and wrung the baseball bat in her sweaty grip as she waited for the rest of the pack to catch up.

  Vicky didn’t know these people like she knew Flynn, but she had to trust them, or at least try to. If anyone got it wrong, they’d be overwhelmed in a heartbeat. Shaking the thought from her mind, Vicky yelled out as she brought her bat down on the crown of the first diseased to come up the small hill at her.

  The creature fell. Its legs buckled beneath it and it rolled backwards down the small mound, knocking another diseased over on its way to the bottom.

  Cries, screams, and heavy blows lit the air up around Vicky, and as much as she wanted to spin around every time she heard a diseased yell out behind her, she focused on the next one in front and trusted the others. Five to six diseased each; if they killed that many without getting bitten, they’d get out of this mess.

  The group stood separately enough from one another that Vicky didn’t feel restricted while fighting. But they didn’t stand so far apart for the diseased to find holes in their defence. The size of the mound worked out perfectly for them.

  The second diseased to come at Vicky received a heavy blow to the bottom of its chin as she drove the bat in an uppercut at it. It had the desired effect and nearly lifted the creature clean off the ground on its way back down the small hill.

  A slight lull and Vicky glanced next to her. She froze for the briefest moment when she saw Flynn; he looked more like Rhys than he ever had before. The whites of his eyes glowed in his red and sweating face as he slammed diseased after diseased with his bat. It seemed that half the pack came at him and he drove every one of them back with ease. The little boy she’d known at the containers had well and truly left him.

  A scream, no more than a metre away, snapped Vicky’s attention back to the diseased running at her. A skinny woman, who would probably have been in her early twenties before she’d turned, sprinted up the hill. With time to jab her bat and nothing else, Vicky drove the diseased woman back with a stab to the face. The woman hit the ground and jumped straight back to her feet.

  The second time she came at her, Vicky set herself better, widened her stance, and caught the woman in the temple with a full-bodied swing. A vibration ran up the bat, and in the briefest moment before the monster fell away, Vicky saw her left eye burst from the blow.

  After the woman had fallen to the ground, Vicky panted where she stood and looked around. She couldn’t see any more diseased, and other than the heavy gasps from their group, she heard nothing.

  When Vicky looked at the rest of her party, they all looked back at her and at one another. Had anyone been infected? Did they need to deliver another fatal blow? But no one wore the anxiety of someone hiding a wound. Instead, they returned relieved expressions and even a half smile from Hugh.

  Before anyone could speak, Vicky looked at Flynn. The pair shared a nod and both ran down the mound. Hard to tell if any would get back up or not; Vicky and Flynn knew they shouldn’t risk it. When she found a diseased that looked unconscious rather than dead, she gripped her bat in both hands and held it so the fat end pointed down. She then released a yell as she drove the bat into the centre of the monster’s face. It sank through its skull with a wet squelch and hit the ground beneath it with a thud that ran all the way up into Vicky’s tired shoulders.

  After she’d wiped some of the sweat from her brow, she looked up to see Flynn do the same to one of the downed monsters next to him.

  ***

  It took a little longer for Hugh and Piotr to join Vicky and Flynn down at the bottom of the mound. They too set about attacking the fallen diseased. In a world where mistakes could be fatal, it was always better to be safe. A symphony of squelches from skull after skull being crushed surrounded Vicky as she looked back up the mound at Jessica and Serj. Jessica had returned to holding Serj up. The man sweated more than anyone and looked to be in a lot of pain still.

  Once they’d worked through every possible reanimator, Vicky went to Jessica and Serj and let Serj put his other arm around her.

  At first, Serj seemed reluctant, but Vicky laughed at him. “There ain’t no room for pride in this world anymore. If you’re alive, you’re winning.”

  Although he initially frowned at her, Serj nodded and let Vicky help bear his weight as they shifted down the hill.

  “I’m sorry,” he said as they walked. “When I fell, I twisted my ankle badly and I couldn’t do anything. I’m so sorry.”

  “Do you think it’s broken?” Vicky said.

  A shake of his head and Serj winced, clearly from his pain. “No.” He made Jessica and Vicky stop when he turned to Vicky and hugged her. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

  Jessica didn’t speak. Instead, she walked over to Vicky and also gripped her in a tight embrace. When she pulled back, Vicky looked into her blue eyes at the stark gratitude of someone still in shock over their near loss. Vicky leaned her head forward and Jessica mimicked her until the two women touched foreheads. In that moment their relationship changed. They then pulled away from one another and bore Serj’s weight again as they led him back toward Home.

  Chapter Eleven

  Hugh and Piotr strode ahead of Vicky, Flynn, Jessica, and the injured Serj. They did it under the guise of making sure the way was clear, but it conveniently took them closer to the safety of Home too. For all of Hugh’s bravado, he could get infected as easily as anyone could, and he’d already proven he would leave people behind to save himself.

  As Vicky and Jessica helped Serj down the small but steep hill, the strong wind battered them and made walking unstable. Despite squinting, the fierce gales still made Vicky’s eyes water. With a grip around Serj’s waist, she used her other hand to keep his arm in place around her neck. They had to get him back inside as quickly as they could.

  Although Jessica fought for breath once they’d reached the bottom of the hill, she still managed to force her words out. “I know I’ve already said it, but thank you for helping me save Serj. We’d both be dead were it not for you.”

  The humbling experience seemed to have banished Jessica’s ice queen persona.

  Before Vicky could respond, a scream ran across the open space and she snapped alert. The sound came from in front of Piotr and Hugh and it bore down on them like an owl on a mouse.

  Anxiety flipped Vicky’s stomach and turned her mouth arid as she watched both Hugh and Piotr freeze in the face of the diseased’s onslaught.

  Just before Vicky let go of Serj, Hugh sprang to life, screamed back, and ran straight at the lone diseased figure to meet it head-on. He hit the large man with a heavy whack of his bat, swinging so hard it spun Hugh around after he’d connected, and he stumbled to the point of nearly falling. It knocked the monster down, but the diseased remained active as it writhed on the ground. Hugh stood over it with his bat raised again and used both hands to bring it down on the diseased’s head. The creature screamed in reaction to the attack. A wet squelch cut it dead and silence followed, a silence so complete, even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

  Hugh panted for a few seconds before he looked in Vicky’s direction and raised a thumb at them. He could have simply looked in Vicky’s direction and nothing more than that, but in that moment, it seemed that he looked straight at her. Almost as if to prove he could do the right thing.

  ***

  The same skinny twelve-year-old boy Hugh had put on the door to Home opened it for the gang when they returned. Vicky, Jessica, and the wounded Serj took up the rear, and once they’d entered, the boy slammed the door behind them and cracked both locks into place.

  In the heat of the moment, Vicky ha
dn’t noticed it. And maybe it would have taken longer had the boy not stared at her, clearly horrified, his features hanging slack. But now that she stood in the safety of Home, Vicky felt the weight of her clothes. Soaked in the fetid blood of the diseased, she felt like a walking biohazard.

  Were the canteen not the first place she had to enter to get to her room, then Vicky would have taken another way round and avoided the crowd completely. If the place didn’t have so many people in it, then maybe she would have walked through there in just her underwear. Currently, she could do neither, so she kept her bloody clothes on and she continued to help Jessica lead Serj down the stairs.

  Although Hugh, Piotr, and Flynn slowed down for the wounded member of their party, they still entered the canteen moments before Vicky, Jessica, and Serj. The roar of what sounded like the entire community nearly knocked Vicky backwards when she followed them in a second later, and she looked at the open joy focused on her.

  A couple of young teenagers rushed over with a chair and gave it to Serj, who nodded his thanks and winced as he sat down on it.

  Unable to hear much over the celebration, Vicky accepted a hand wash from two older women. The women said nothing as they cleaned her, and once they’d finished, they passed her two biscuits and a bottle of water, dipped nods at her, and backed away.

  The wash of noise in the high-ceilinged canteen spun Vicky out and made her dizzy. It took for Hugh, who chewed on one of the biscuits given to him by the community, to stand on his chair and cut the air with a chop of his hand. The crowd responded and the sound died down.

  As Vicky watched the leader of the community stand tall and strong on the chair—his thick arms folded across his chest, enhancing his already large upper body—she bit into one of the biscuits given to her. The sweet and crumbly texture made her salivate, and, unable to control her impulse, she put the entire thing in her mouth.