A World Reborn: The First Outbreak (26 page)

She stepped out and advanced cautiously but
quickly. Neither of the Reborn broke cover and Melissa was able to reach the
door of the first suite on the right. She used the doorway for cover, but when
she wasn’t attacked, she continued her assault. Melissa fired a spray of
bullets left, in the direction of the uninjured Reborn soldier, and then hugged
the wall, hurrying along until she saw him more clearly. She fired a burst of
shots again, with a pair of them definitely hitting him in the shoulder, and
then she aimed low, shooting his leg from under him. The Reborn closest to her,
at the right hand corner, peered out, crouching low. Melissa was so close to
him she was able to kick him in the face before he could bring his rifle to
ready. Pressing her advantage, she swiftly approached and executed him with a
single shot to the head. The last Reborn, recovering from his wounds faster
than Melissa expected, brought his weapon up and pulled the trigger in one,
smooth movement, hitting her cleanly in the upper thigh. Melissa fell down,
twisting as she did so and immediately returned fire. A second shot from him
hit her body armour, the harsh impact hurting her chest. She hadn’t been able
to kill him outright, but a pair of her shots did hit his chest, winding him.
Instinctively, Melissa directed her weapon at his head to finish him off, but
unfortunately, he was doing the same. It was an evenly matched race, one
against the other. Melissa fired, hoping and praying her aim was true. The
bullet clipped his shoulder, making him wince and drop his aim. She squeezed
the trigger again, but her gun was empty. Without a seconds thought, she
dropped it and grabbed the body of the Reborn beside her, raising him up until
he was on his side and she could tuck her head down below his. Her slight frame
allowed her to protect her head and upper torso with the body of her dead enemy,
with only her legs exposed a little. Hoping for a lucky shot, the Reborn fired
blindly, and she felt the impacts hitting the body. When he stopped, Melissa
dropped the corpse and picked up the fallen rifle, aiming and firing at the
prone Reborn. She ground her teeth and managed to kill him, one of her four
shots hitting his head, killing him instantly.

Breathing deeply, Melissa released her grip
on the rifle, reaching instead for the wound on her leg. She was grateful it
wasn’t the same leg that had been bitten earlier in the night, but it was quite
bloody. However, the wound didn’t appear to be life threatening, more on the
outside of her thigh, with the bullet having passed through the meat. Thinking
of her own body like that made her feel slightly sick, but she fought through
the wave of nausea and pressed down on her leg. She managed to stand, but pain
flooded her, so she knelt down by the nearby fallen Reborn and pulled off his
belt, before using the knife to cut the arm off her jacket. Next, she wrapped
the arm of her jacket around her wound, and then secured it by pulling the belt
tight around it; hoping it would staunch the flow of blood. Finally, Melissa
scooped up the rifle and took a couple of spare ammo clips from the dead
Reborn. She decided it was best to check through the rooms on the way to the
rooftop stairwell, just in case the Ancillary was waiting in a room.

As quickly as she could, Melissa checked
each executive suite. Inside the rooms she found nothing, except in one room,
there was a broken glass near one of the windows and a glass of wine on the
coffee table. Realising her quarry was almost certainly going for the
helicopter, Melissa hobbled into the corridor and went for the roof access
staircase. She expected to find more guards inside the stairwell, but
strangely, there was no one. After cautiously going up the stairs, Melissa
approached the roof door and opened it with one hand, keeping her rifle raised.
The door opened inwardly and she saw the helicopter on the top of the raised
helipad. A female figure was standing nearby and Melissa’s heart skipped a
beat; she was still in time to catch her. She hurried as fast as she could,
using all her willpower to push the pain in her leg away, crossing half the
distance before stopping, all the while keeping the Ancillary always in her
sight.

“Don’t move!” Melissa called out. The
Ancillary turned and walked calmly to the edge of the helipad.

“I’m not surprised you made it this far,
Witness. After what we heard about you in Africa we expected a certain level of
ferocity; a will to survive that would serve you well if you were to make it to
the new world we’re going to create. The Teacher chose you well.”

“Tell your pilot to get out of the
helicopter or I’ll fire.” Melissa instructed curtly.

“You won’t.”

“You really think I won’t?”

“I know you won’t. I’m unarmed. And
although I’m responsible for what happened in there, you’d never kill an
unarmed person who truly poses no threat. I’m not about to turn into one of the
infected, I’m not going to do anything to harm anyone else, for now at least.
Your sense of morality will prevent you from pulling that trigger. I guess
that’s the difference between us, Witness.”

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But I don’t
have to kill you to stop you from walking away.”

Ignoring Melissa entirely, the Ancillary
continued.

“I will kill all those who deserve it. And
although the Teacher told us you’re special, that you’re to see what’s to come,
you’ve taken away my Sebastian. And that... well that deserves retribution.”

“Your Sebastian?” Melissa scoffed. “What
about all the other people’s loved ones you’ve killed today? Don’t they deserve
retribution?”

“Is that what you’ve become? A force of
retribution? An avenger for the fallen?”

“I’m tired of listening to your rhetoric.
Tell the pilot to—”

Melissa didn’t get to finish her demand.
She felt a hard blow on the side of her head which both sent her crumpling to
the ground and caused her to drop the rifle. A second blow to the tourniquet on
her leg made the bullet wound flare in pain afresh and Melissa cried out
involuntarily, stunned and surprised by the sudden assault.

“Have fun, Witness.” The Ancillary imparted
as she boarded the helicopter. Melissa was twisting her head to look up at the
person assaulting her, when she was kicked viciously in the side. Rolling onto
her front with the impact, Melissa quickly forced herself up onto her knees and
turned her head to face her attacker, just in time to see a leg swinging,
deliberately aiming at her face. The brief forewarning allowed her to time react;
Melissa grabbed her assailant’s limb and yanked hard, sending her aggressor
tumbling to the floor. Despite the pain in her leg and the disorientation from
the blow to her head, Melissa rose quickly to her feet and adopted a fighting
stance. She looked down at her opponent, who was hastily rising, a look of
almost insane ferocity shaping her face into a murderous scowl. Melissa
realized it was the same woman who had attacked her in the executive suite
earlier in the night, except now she looked even angrier.

“I’ll claw your eyes out!” She yelled at
Melissa.

“Try it!” Melissa taunted back. She heard
the engine of the helicopter starting up, the distinctive whoop of the rotor
beginning to turn the blades. However, Melissa couldn’t worry about the
Ancillary now, as much as she hated to allow her to leave. The woman in front
of her was determined to kill her, with her bare hands if necessary. The crazed
female lunged at her, faking a punch towards Melissa’s gut, which she
instinctively dodged, but a second later her other hand caught Melissa with a
vicious swipe against the side of her head. The blow completely disoriented
Melissa, making it easy for the woman to jerk free the knife on Melissa’s vest.
The rabid female aimed a swipe at Melissa’s mid-rift with the knife, but she
managed to dart back and avoid the low slice that would have caught her just
below the vest. For the second assault, the woman lashed out at Melissa’s face,
but Melissa managed to lean back far enough to avoid the sharp, cutting edge of
the blade. The third attack was a thrusting stab, again straight towards her
face. Melissa twisted away from it and retreated backwards a few pain-filled
steps. Across from her, the woman, breathing heavily with fierce anger, tossed
the knife from hand to hand menacingly, and then ceased her playacting and took
a firm hold of it with her right. Melissa saw the broken finger on her right
hand was crudely splinted, and recognised it as a weakness. In her peripheral
vision, Melissa could see the rotors of the helicopter beginning to spin faster
and faster and she inwardly cursed the imminent escape of the Ancillary. This
momentary distraction was perilous under the circumstances; it allowed the
woman to lunge forward, bringing the knife down in an over-head assault.
Melissa raised her hand to try and grab the woman’s wrist, but whether she
adjusted her move mid-strike or Melissa simply drastically miscalculated was
irrelevant to the outcome: the knife plunged through her hand. Melissa screamed
as the blood flowed freely from the penetrating wound. The gloating female
pressed home her advantage by pushing down hard on the knife, thrusting
Melissa’s hand towards her own face as she reached out with her free hand to
try to grab Melissa’s throat. She succeeded, and Melissa felt the woman’s hand
begin to choke her.

The pain from her wounds was taking a heavy
toll. Melissa was fatigued, the assault was ferocious and Melissa felt pin-pricking
doubts creeping into her mind that she would survive the encounter. She was
however, determined to keep fighting, and this fierce resoluteness in the face
of such a strong adversary prompted her body to release a powerful surge of
adrenalin, which both boosted her confidence and her flagging energy. With her
free hand Melissa reached across and grabbed the up pointing, splinted broken
finger of her opponent and twisted, making her scream loudly as the broken bone
was wrenched beneath the binding. The grasp around her throat diminished a
fraction, so Melissa grabbed her opponent by the wrist and twisted it away from
her throat. Although it was agonising to do so, Melissa then forced the knife,
which was through her left hand and inching slowly towards her face, to move
out of the way, giving her the space she needed for her next attack. Pulling
her head back, she thrust it forward, butting her antagonist’s face as hard as
she could. She heard the female’s nose break, and when she looked up, Melissa
saw two rivers of blood streaming from her nostrils. The strength had ebbed
away from the woman’s arms, and though she hadn’t let go of the knife, she was
clearly not holding it as tightly as she had been. Melissa followed up her
assault by releasing the woman’s wrist and slugging her as hard as she could; a
tooth-loosening blow that sent a stream of blood and teeth flying from her
mouth. The woman let go of the knife as she stumbled backwards. Instantly, Melissa
pulled the knife free and advanced towards her enemy. The woman was recovering,
looking up at Melissa through watery eyes, the tears running down her cheeks
and mixing with the blood staining her lower face.

“I’ll rip you open!” She yelled; her pure, unadulterated
hatred giving her the force to surge at Melissa, who raised the knife and
plunged it straight into her chest.

“Not today, bitch.” Melissa retorted. Her
antagonist’s face sagged, but her eyes still radiated an unnatural anger.
Melissa looked at her without mercy, then twisted the knife, forcing it in as
far as she could. As the woman died, Melissa pulled the knife free and slammed
it overhead into the top of her skull, just in case she was equipped with the
same virus injection system as the Reborn soldiers. She dropped to the ground and
bled profusely. Melissa let go of the knife and went over to the rifle, picking
it up and hobbling towards the stairs leading to the helipad. The rotors
sounded incredibly loud, and as Melissa struggled up the stairs, she saw the
helicopter lifting away into the near dawn light.

“No!” She shrieked, hurting, bleeding and
filled with fury that the Ancillary was escaping. The helicopter was turning
away and Melissa could’ve sworn she could see the Ancillary smiling at her out
of the window. She raised the rifle and thought about firing, but the
helicopter was already away from the top of the building. It was over the city
now, and if she hit the wrong part, if a bullet penetrated the armour and
clipped the fuel tank or some important mechanical component, then it could go
down over the city, and then she would be responsible for the casualties. A
part of Melissa realized that she couldn’t fire on the helicopter for another
reason. The Ancillary was unarmed, she was fleeing, and killing her wouldn’t be
an act of self defence; perhaps it would be an act that would protect others,
but if in killing her it led to more innocent deaths when the helicopter
crashed, Melissa couldn’t live with that. She lowered the rifle, and slumped to
her knees on the floor, feeling pain from every wound she’d suffered between
now and when she first woke up and discovered everything had gone to hell.

“It’s not over.” Melissa said through
gritted teeth, directing her words to the Ancillary, even though there was no
way she could hear her.

“Melissa? Are you there?” Roy’s anxious
voice came over the radio. After a minute or two, Melissa unclipped it from her
belt and answered it.

“I’m here.” She issued despondently.

“What happened?” Roy solicited, and because
Melissa hated to admit that the Ancillary had escaped, she simply released a
long, drawn out sigh, which told him everything he needed to know.