A Dark Evolution (Book 2): Deranged (23 page)

Andrea glared at them from her spot by the fire. She had made a makeshift sling out of a shirt to hold up her arm. Kala didn’t know what they would do, and she tried not to care.

“Stop looking at them Kala,” Mae said gently. Kala looked away from the rearview mirror and over to Mae. The quiet girl sat behind the steering wheel, hands at the ten and two ready positions. The sun had fallen, and darkness was seeping in from over the hills. It would be dark enough to try soon. As long as they had a rabbit. Kala prayed they wouldn’t have to wait long, or it would be an intolerably anxious night in the car. She checked the slide and action on her Kalashnikov again, then removed the magazine, pressing down on the top bullet to make sure there wasn’t room for more. Then she slammed the magazine back in place. She had repeated this process several times, but it seemed to calm the static energy building within her.

Behind her, Sophie snored softly in the middle seat. Kala thanked her stars that the little girl slept in the car well. She glanced over her shoulder to see James looking down the road anxiously. He held the AR-15, ready to thrust it out the window at any moment. Today’s attack by the two dead ones had shaken them all, and after his initial frightened hysteria wore off, James had gotten into a bit of a funk. She understood, nothing less than their mortality hung in the balance of this nighttime run.

“How’s Dylan doing back there?” Kala asked quietly.

James peered into the backseat. “Still unconscious.” He turned back to her and shrugged. “He’s tied in good though.”

They had laid him out prone and used the seatbelts to secure him in place. Sophie was dealing with her brother’s condition surprisingly well, even offering to help them coax water into his lips now and again. Kala hadn’t gotten the image of his rotting, infected leg out of her head. It was serious, as serious as things get. She tried to tell herself that the infection was in the flesh, that amputation could save him. But if it was already in his blood, rotting him from the inside, well, there was not much they could do at that point.

Kala didn’t know how long she had zoned out, but when clarity returned to her, the night was black. She saw a flicker of firelight behind them where Andrea and Tom still sat beside the fire, talking quietly among themselves. They looked angry, or frustrated.
Well, I would be too.

“Kala,” Mae whispered, and Kala looked up quickly.

Mae pointed to the south, down the black road. There was a very faint light, so soft she thought it might not really be there. But as it grew in intensity, they knew they had their rabbit. It took minutes for the oncoming vehicle to reach them, and when it came close, she saw there were actually two.
Even better,
she thought.

“Get ready,” she said. Mae nodded. Kala glanced back and saw that James was upright and alert in his seat, staring down the road. Her heart started thumping loudly, and she caught her hands trembling as they held the automatic rifle. “As soon as they pass.”

Mae shifted the big SUV into gear and held down the brakes. The cars were approaching fast, highway speed at least. They were less than a hundred yards out, then fifty, thirty. As their bright halogen lamps lit up the night around them, Kala realized they weren’t normal cars.

“Are those-” James began.

“Hummers. Two Hummers!” The vehicles roared up to their location and Kala saw gun mounts on the top. “Those are National Guard trucks!” Then they raced by into the borderlands. “Go Mae!”

Mae stomped on the gas. The tires squelched a little on the grassy earth, then bit down and the truck leapt forward onto the road. She had to double-hand the steering wheel to keep them on the road after the sudden jolt, but then she accelerated fast, following the trail of lights before them.

“Remember, we turn off as soon as we clear the trees.”

“Got it.”

“All right James, windows down,” Kala said and rolled her window down, ready to aim and fire if needed.

The Hummers were traveling at ninety miles per hour and Mae had to keep the pedal nearly floored to keep up with them.

“Okay, this is close enough Mae.”

The Hummers approached the edge of the trees. Kala’s breathing was so hard it was burning in her chest, making tingles spread out from her core. Then the Hummers shot out into the black borderlands, and Mae followed behind.

“Right here, turn!”

Mae cranked the wheel to the right and the big SUV veered off the road with a lurch, bumping and rumbling over the uneven ground.

“Okay, slowly now, but keep moving.” Once they were fifty feet from the road, Kala told her to turn toward the fence. They crept forward in the darkness, praying they didn’t slam into a tree trunk or void in the earth. Kala watched for the helicopter anxiously. Five second passed and nothing, then ten, then-

“There it is!” James called, and Kala saw the spear of light approaching from the west followed by the thump of fast moving rotor blades. James was sucking in hard breaths just like Kala, and if she could see his face in the darkness, it would probably be terrified. They all watched the helicopter screaming toward the two-truck caravan that streaked across the borderlands.

“Just keep going Mae, nice and steady,” Kala said shakily, trying to calm the girl, whose hands were clenched onto the steering wheel like irons.

“Here it comes,” James said. The chopper was almost within range, and Kala thought she could almost hear the big machine gun spooling up to fire. Then, an explosion of light erupted from the second Hummer and Kala shifted her gaze. A trail of fire burned through the sky, heading out from the Hummer toward the helicopter.

“Holy shit!” Kala yelled. “An RPG!”

Kala looked on with exhilarated shock as the helicopter tried to bank away from this unexpected attack. The rocket propelled grenade still found it though, slamming into its aft side wing and exploding into a ball of orange flames. The helicopter bounced and pitched in the sky, then Kala heard its machine gun open up. They were still trying to fire on the convoy even though they were mortally wounded. Then another flash erupted from the Humvee and a second rocket streaked through the sky. This one impacted the front of the helicopter and the bird exploded, blown into flaming pieces of human and metal. Kala hardly breathed as she watched the wreckage fall back to the earth.

“Mae, get back to the road!” Kala screamed.

“What?” she asked, “I thought-”

“The plan has changed, go go go!”

Mae jerked to the left and the truck soared over a rut, crashing down through a pile of burned out brush and tree limbs. Kala hoped they didn’t get lodged under the car. The SUV roared with all ten cylinders toward the road, bouncing so hard it sent the three of them scrambling to hold on to keep from hitting the roof. The Hummers were a hundred yards ahead now, still running at full speed. Small machine gun fire started up at the guard posts as the convoy came into gun range, and every available soldier poured lead in their direction. They continued to drive with no lights, Mae was just following the lights ahead.

“Oh my god Kala, they’re going to break through for us, aren’t they?” James sounded like he was hyperventilating.

“Yes,” Kala breathed. “Those weren’t rabbits, they were wolves.”

Just as they started to see sparks flashing off the hides of the trucks ahead of them, the Hummers opened fire. Though she couldn't see the gunners, she knew each of these military Hummers had a .50 cal machine gun that could be fired from the roof, and now they both roared. A deadly storm of invisible death roared out from the stolen Hummers as they sent thousands of rounds out toward the border guards. Kala watched in awe. They took out the towers first. From inside their SUV, they could hear the roar of gunfire, then saw the guard towers erupt in sparks. The soldiers inside were chewed to pieces by the antipersonnel rounds, jerking and spasming as their posts were decimated. It was a damn tragedy for the soldiers, who were caught completely off guard. They were only fifty yards from the fence now and the Hummers weren't slowing. The lead vehicle was using the gun to sweep wide arcs over the bottom of the fence, mowing down soldiers like a weed whacker cuts grass. Anyone who came out of cover was gunned down. The efficient brutality of this tactic was both fascinating and terrible. Suddenly a flash of light streaked over from a guard tower several hundred yards away.

“RPG!” James yelled. The rocket struck between the two Hummers, momentarily bathing the second one in a ball of fire. But it kept on going. A second rocket streaked overhead, missing them all. Then the first truck hit the fence. It was a colossal sight, and Kala was instantly thankful they hadn’t tried to ram the fence on their own. The Hummer struck and the fence bowed in on the bottom. They could hear the horrible screams of metal tearing, but still the fence held, unwilling to yield. Then the second vehicle struck the first in a fantastic crash that forced both through the failing fence. The Hummers made it another twenty feet before a third RPG hit the one in the lead, setting it aflame. But to their amazement, it didn’t explode, and four men dove out of the side doors.

“They must be armored,” Kala whispered. The soldiers flocked toward the second Hummer, which was now under fire from soldiers hiding behind cover.

“What do I do now?” Mae asked, as they rapidly approached. There was a gap between where the first Hummer was burning and where the second one stood waiting for its comrades to join, spewing gunfire out at the soldiers in hiding.

“Run right through them, Mae! Keep the lights off and blast right through the middle!”

Mae stomped on the gas and the SUV flew into the space left by the shredded fence. It leapt into the air as she hit a small incline and came down right in the middle of the firefight.

“Fire!” Kala screamed. She and James opened up out of the windows, firing at anything that moved in the shadows. She wasn’t hitting anything, but keeping anyone out there pinned under cover. In five seconds they reached the downed Hummer. One of its occupants about to cross over the gap jumped back in surprise when the shiny black SUV roared by, nearly running over his feet, escaping into the night. Then they were through, and Kala saw with tears in her eyes, the lights of a city ahead.

Kala ran ahead of James into the emergency room of Sunnybrook Memorial hospital. James was not far behind, the limp Dylan carried like a baby in his arms. Kala was again impressed by the young man’s strength despite his small stature. Mae stayed in the SUV with Sophie, hiding the bullet-riddled vehicle out of sight in the parking lot.

“Help us!” Kala screamed as she burst through the automatic doors. A security guard was instantly at her side, wide-eyed, and with one hand on his gun belt, prepared for trouble.

“My stepbrother has been shot,” Kala cried. “We’ve been trying to get him here for days but the highways were down.”

Just then James burst in, holding the pale black man in his arms. The guard quickly assessed them for weapons, then clicked his radio and issued a number Kala didn’t hear. Less than a minute later, two male nurses rushed out through large double doors with a rolling bed. Their eyes widened a little as they observed Dylan’s frail body, but they were professionals, and took the boy from James, lifting him together and securing him quickly to the gurney.

“Where is his injury?” one of the men asked her.

“He was shot in the calf by some crazy man, it’s really infected though, I think he has gangrene or something,” Kala answered, trying to give them information they needed without revealing where they’d come from.

“What is your relationship to him?” the other nurse asked, slipping a mask over Dylan’s face.

“He’s my stepbrother,” Kala answered. Then, with a downcast look, she added, “Our parents were killed.”

The nurse touched her arm briefly, “We’ll take care of him.” Then they wheeled him through the double doors. Kala watched the doors shut and stood with James, he put his arm around her shoulders.

“It’s out of our hands now, Kala,” James said, “it’s up to God now.”

“That’s what worries me,” Kala murmured. Then they were motioned over by an intake nurse to fill out paperwork. It would all be fabricated, but what did that really matter anyway. They had made it to the city. They were safe, and Dylan was finally getting the help he needed.

They sat for two excruciating hours in the waiting area. Kala stared at the television mounted near the ceiling across the room. There was no sound, but she didn’t need any. There was no mention of the border attack, or of the black SUV that had escaped the south carrying five refugees. The news was dominated by the increasing wave of infection that was spreading throughout the country. They showed a map of the infected areas. The south was lit up with bright red. The infection faded out near where the new border was being constructed, except to the west, just past Oklahoma, where the infection was heading north. Kala figured that’s where the border was the newest and weakest. Still, she wondered why the infection was strengthening, instead of dying off. The lifespan of the infected was so short, she thought that nature would eventually eliminate this scourge.

A new face appeared on the screen, one she recognized as Nolan Peterman, the ecologist who was always pushing for awareness of climate change and animal endangerment issues. The banner at the bottom of the screen read, “Flareback.”
Flareback?
Where had she heard that before? Seems like something her father had told her about once. Maybe.

Her thoughts were interrupted when a tall woman in blue scrubs entered the waiting room. She approached Kala and James, and Kala’s heart began to thump. She stood to meet the woman.

“Ms. Wolfgang?” she asked.

Kala nodded.

“I’m Jessie Hafner, I’m the on-call trauma surgeon here. Let’s sit down a minute, honey.”

*****

“She told me all the things I did not want to hear. I knew the infection was bad, of course, that much was obvious. But I guess I still held onto hope that they could save him.”

Kala looked around her. She had been lost in her own story for so long, the faces around her had changed. The young ones had gone, asleep or wandering through their makeshift halls. The faces that remained were teenagers, and a few adults. Mae was there, sitting on a homemade bench, leaning back against the cool stone wall of the cavern. When she saw Kala watching her, she held up a steel coffee carafe. Kala nodded and Mae approached.

“How are you doing, Kal?” Mae asked. She was still quiet, but no longer looked at the ground. Mae was an essential piece of the machinery that kept their community alive. She was bright, and thoughtful, and insightful in ways that Kala’s cold logic could never reach. Kala smiled weakly at her and took the cup of black coffee Mae offered her.

“Our oral history is one of the most important things we have. We need to understand what the world was, so that we can grapple with what it has become.”

“I know that honey, but how
are
you?”

Kala shrugged, but Mae pulled her chin up to look into her eyes. The long scar down Kala’s cheek reflected the lamplight with its shiny twists and ripples. “I’m okay. It’s painful, but I feel like talking about it, teaching about it - well, I think it helps.”

Mae smiled at her. “Are you all about ready to call it a night?” she asked Kala’s small audience.

A few shrugged, some shook their heads. It was late now, not that they could tell by the light of the sun. They were buried so deep in the earth that the only ones who ever saw light were their hunters. Which reminded Kala, she was going out in the morning.

“Only a few more minutes, Mother Mae,” Kala told her, using Mae’s nickname around the camp. Mae smiled her acknowledgement at what she had always thought of as a complement. She was twenty years old now, or Kala thought she was anyway, time had a surreal quality nowadays, but she mothered and took care of the camp as if she had been born to the responsibility.

“Fine, but don’t keep these kids up too long.”

Mae snaked through the group in front of Kala, disappearing into the next chamber of this enormous cavern system and Kala turned back to her group, sipping the bitter black liquid in her cup. Mae made it strong, so strong it burned her taste buds.

“The surgeon took me up to the operating theatre where Dylan was lying unconscious on a bed. They had stripped him down and covered his private areas with blue paper, I’m assuming for my benefit. He was pale, as he had been for days, and they had many wires hooked up to his body, monitoring all of his vital functions. Little sticky white patches were stuck all over his head and chest. The surgeon lifted one of his eyelids and shone her flashlight into his eye, showing me his dilated pupils, unresponsive to the bright stimulus.”

“What does that mean?” a male voice asked.

“It can mean a lot of things, Jax. His head was being read by something called an
electroencephalogram, or an EEG, it monitors brain activities. Even though he had a pulse, and his body was breathing - alive, the EEG showed no brain activity. The dilated and unresponsive pupils indicated that even with a harsh stimulus, his brain wasn’t processing information from his optic nerve.”

Jax nodded in the dim light, and Kala continued. “I understood what that meant, but the surgeon wanted me to be sure. She poked him in several places with a pin. Even asleep, our bodies will respond to pain, but he had no response. He was brain dead.”

“What killed him, then? Was it the gunshot, like shock or something?” This time it was Alexis that spoke, her curious voice a staple at these evening storytelling sessions.

“Not the bullet, not directly anyway. When he didn’t receive medical care right away, he developed a nasty infection called necrotizing fasciitis.”

“I’ve heard of that,” Jax piped up. “The flesh-eating bacteria disease.”

“Yes, it is. The fasciitis literally eats the flesh around the wound. The body mounts a huge immune response, flooding the area with white blood cells, but they cannot kill it. This immune response leads to massive swelling and high fever. After some time, the bacterial infection entered Dylan’s bloodstream and infected other parts of his body.” Kala paused, composing herself. The only way she could get through this was to be matter-of-fact. “So his body kept trying to fight, and his fever grew higher and higher until it was so hot that his brain cells began to die.” Kala choked a little on the last words and then cleared her throat. “And that was it for Dylan, it was over. James and I went back to the truck where Mother Mae and Sophie were waiting. I didn’t know how to tell Sophie that her brother had died, that came later.”

“So how did you guys end up here, then?” Alexis asked, even though Kala knew she had heard it before. Kala smiled at her pretty, round face.

“You all know how we got here. The infection wasn’t contained by the ‘border,’ it never could be. When the great flareback of mosquitoes started, the country was drowned by the infected; it didn’t matter where you were, the zombies were everywhere. They killed and spread and then killed more. We didn’t know what to do, and we knew that nowhere was safe until winter came and killed off the mosquito population.”

“So we found these caverns,” a deep voice echoed through the chamber, and all of the faces turned, whispering a little as James walked in. He was a bit of an idol for the kids. The young man Kala had met had turned into a hardened warrior, and his very presence drew respect from everyone he met. “And we were just in time, too, because the government began its bombing campaign shortly after.”

“What are you doing down here, James? Shouldn’t you be resting up for our hunt tomorrow?” Kala asked.

“Hey, if you can stay up, so can I. You’ll never out-hunt me anyway!”

There were a few chuckles and someone said, “Ooh.”

“Well, I guess we’ll just see about that,” Kala laughed and rose, walking over to give him a hug. “Okay kids, time to turn in.” There were a few grumbles.

“You okay?” James asked.

“Jeez, why does everyone keep asking me that?” Kala scoffed and pushed past him. She followed the teens out of the chamber and through a narrow hallway. “Is the gate down?” she asked James.

“Gate’s down, we’re secure for the night.”

“Good, I have a feeling those psycho assholes will try to hit us again soon,” she said darkly.

“Well, there will be less psycho assholes in the world tomorrow then,” James replied, nonplussed.

Kala nodded. “Be sure the watch knows to report absolutely anything.”

“They know.”

Kala gave him a tight grin. “I’m sorry you lost Ryan yesterday; I know you two had gotten close.”

James looked away and didn’t respond. Kala skirted around the tunnel that would have brought them to the sleeping dorms and slipped through the large crevice that led to their ‘kitchen,’ where Mae was pouring more cups of acidic coffee.

“I thought I heard you two,” she said. “How are you?”

“Ugh, don’t ask,” Kala said. “We’re all fine.”

Mae gave her a scolding look and held out the cups for them to take. When they each had a steaming cup in their hands, Mae raised hers. “To Dylan,” she said.

“To us,” James responded.

“To survival,” Kala said, and they clinked their cups together.

The End