Project - 16 (27 page)

I moved between the pines with practised ease, taking long
strides through the snow and stepping over the tracks the dogs had
left. I was grateful that they'd chosen this morning to pass
through here. It'd mask my footprints better than anything I could
do.

I stopped from time to time and listened, opening my mouth
and breathing slowly. Far ahead I picked up something just on the
edge of hearing. I strained my eyes left and right, catching the
slightest movement from a falling leaf or bounding
rabbit.

I took another few steps forward and stopped again, always
using the largest tree as cover. I heard it again. Something like a
snapping branch. My calves were burning as I crouched. I listened
again. It was nearer, but from where?

I moved right, looping counter-clockwise around the source of
the sound. Another. And another. It was a cocking rifle, the action
of the bolt being pulled back over and over. Mumbled words.
Cursing.

I continued moving slowly until I saw something move between
the trees at the edge of my range. A flash of dark green fabric.
More sounds. Words becoming clearer. I pressed on until I saw them
in a gap amongst the trees. There were three of them, three green
shapes that I wondered if they stood still would disappear into the
pines.

Using the trees as cover I moved closer in, never taking my
eyes off them. I could see blood in the snow now - splatters of it
where teeth had rendered flesh with violent tears. Ahead, maybe a
metre or two, was a leg daubed in bloody fur. There was more gore
further on. Bits of neck and shoulder. A rib.

“
Fucking piece of shit,” said one of them and it came through
the woods as clear as a bell. I froze to the spot, staring down the
narrow gap amongst the trunks. The soldier was struggling to free
the jammed round in his weapon and the others were watching with
silent amusement.

“
In your own time, Healy,” said another. “It's not like we're
in a rush or anything. I want to get up there and radio it in so we
can fly back to the ship.”

“
It's bad enough we have to be out here in the first place.
Shitty fucking weather, shitty fucking weapon,” said the guy with
the jam.

“
Can't we just pipe it in now, boss?” said the third guy. They
all sounded the same from this distance.

“
Shut up. It's up that hill, nothing more. I saw the damage
from the frigging 'copter. She didn't survive that, not on my
fucking life.”

The man with the weapon suddenly cheered as the round popped
out of the chamber and dropped to the ground. Then they began to
move again, heading south-west towards the ridge where Riley would
be waiting. Could she shoot Americans in cold blood? I didn't know
if I wanted to find out. I suddenly realised I was concerned for
her, a former Ranger, who could easily look after herself without
my help. Was it concern or something else?

I followed the three soldiers but now I began to close the
distance. There were the remains of two more dogs along the way and
I used their mess to further hide my trail. A plan was forming in
my mind and I hoped that not all the dogs had fled, that some of
them were still out there somewhere.

“
It's just up there,” said the leader, pointing through a
clearing to the rise of the cliff face that Riley had fallen from
just days before. “Come on.”

The man who'd had the jam dropped back a little to poke the
remains of a dog with his boot. The other two carried on tramping
through the snow. I circled to the right again, coming within two
trees distance of him. Already I had a length of paracord strung
between my hands and wrapped around my knuckles. He still had his
back to me until the boss shouted for him to catch up. When I
looked I realised he was within line of sight of the two of
them.

I followed. They weren't far from the edge of the woods now
and soon I'd hear Riley begin firing. If she nailed all three of
them we'd have no information other than what they were carrying,
which might be nothing. I quickened my pace, keeping close to the
straggler as he struggled to catch up with the others.

Then it happened. He stumbled and it almost seemed theatrical
- like it'd been planned. He began laughing to himself but the
other two were now out of range of him. I began running, closing in
on him. My breathing turned into harsh, tearing sounds as I felt
the adrenaline surge. I dropped to my knees behind him and he
turned, his flushed face now ashen pale as it dawned on him what
was happening.

With the same movements I'd used on many an animal I slid the
cord over his head, bringing both my hands in towards my chest and
throwing my weight backwards into the snow. The cord snapped tight
around this throat and he buckled, falling back but with his knees
still beneath him. He writhed on top of me, kicking his feet free
and I pulled my head close in behind him, shutting off any hope of
him smashing my skull with his own. Far off a crack of thunder
sounded and it was rapidly followed by another. Riley had taken the
two soldiers and this man was now alone.

He fought for his life but he needn't have bothered just yet.
As soon as he passed out I released my hold on him, putting him on
his side and tilting his head back. His neck was bleeding where the
cord had cut into the flesh but his breathing had started again. I
used the cord to tie his hands behind his back, then another piece
to bind his ankles.

The next part of the plan was to communicate to Riley that it
was over, that there'd only been three of them without getting
myself shot. I left the soldier still breathing and followed the
tracks of the other two, coming across their lifeless bodies just
outside the edge of the woods. Both had been dispatched with
precise shots to the head - the backs of which were open like
smashed melons. I kept far back from them and hid behind a tree,
just in case.

What to do now? Wait until dark? I didn't want to keep my
prisoner out in the woods that long. If my plan was to work I
wanted the dogs to come back and preferably not whilst I was there.
It meant that Riley needed to come down and help interrogate the
soldier.

With my heart firmly in my mouth I stood up and put my arms
in the air, walking towards the edge of the woods, waiting for the
sound of the rifle and the impact of the bullet in my skull. I
guessed I wouldn't feel it but the fear was still there. I just
hoped she was the skilled marksman she claimed to be and didn't
fire before identifying me.

I stepped out between the bodies and stood there, arms up
like a fool and waited. When the silence told me what I needed to
know, I nodded, gave the thumbs up to where I thought she might be.
Then I began looking at the two dead soldiers.

On closer inspection I could see they were young - too young
to be of any danger to us and more than likely they were on some
kind of shitty assignment to try and impress their superiors. The
'boss' was no older than twenty and the other was seventeen at the
most, fresh out of training. A quick search turned up a wallet with
his I.D in - I'd been a year out. The 'boss' was nineteen, the
other eighteen.

They had no packs, only waist belts with twenty-four hour
survival kit in. They expected to be picked up that day, maybe
within the hour. There was a radio on the boss - their means of
telling the 'copter crew they were ready to be picked
up.

By the time I'd stripped their bodies of anything valuable, I
began to hear footsteps and saw Riley coming across the snow,
limping considerably on her bad leg.

“
G. Is,” she said. “Kids.”

“
You okay with that?”

“
Guess I'll just have to be, won't I?”

“
I heard them - they were looking to make sure you were
dead.”

“
Me? No mention of you?”

“
No,” I said. “Radio, no packs.”

“
Then they'll be missed. The helicopter will be back.” I
showed her the radio. “How many?”

“
Three. The other one is back there,” I said. He was coming
around now and his legs started to move. Riley began to make her
way over to him whilst I gathered the stuff we could use. I left it
in a pile where I could find it again, then began dragging the body
of the boss back into the woods. By the time both corpses were
lying face-up next to our prisoner, Riley was talking to
him.

“
What's your name?” she demanded. He was still on his side but
he was looking up at her with terror in his face. When he didn't
respond, she yelled at him. “Name and rank, soldier!”

“
Morris, Tom, Private.”

“
What are your orders, Private Morris?”

“
Morris, Tom, Private,” he repeated.

“
We don't have time for this,” I said. I took the coat off the
larger soldier's body and passed it to Riley to hold. I wasn't
going to take the guy's pants but I took his gloves, hat and scarf
that were in a pouch on his belt. I replaced both wallets on the
bodies where I'd found them.

“
Private Morris, I'm a former US Ranger. Are you aware of
that?”

“
Morris, Tom, Private...” he said and Riley smashed the butt
of the rifle into his knee. There was a loud snapping sound and
Private Tom Morris began to scream.

“
Private Tom Morris. Your orders. Now.”

“
Morris, Tom, Private.” Riley stepped on the smashed kneecap
and leaned forward. Private Tom Morris began writhing and bucking
under the pain. “Our orders were to make sure you were dead! Please
stop!” he cried. Riley stepped off him.

“
Do you know who I am?”

“
They said you were a terrorist, a traitor who was trying to
finish us off with a chemical weapon.”

“
Who said?”

“
Colonel Korban. He's in charge, he's been giving the
orders.”

“
Since when?” Sadly, the boy found some courage and began
reciting his name and rank again. I winced as Riley smashed his
other kneecap into fragments with three successive blows from the
rifle. When the screaming finally stopped, Private Tom Morris was
ready to talk.

“
Colonel Korban took command after the President killed
himself. He ordered us to board the
Revenant
and we sailed here last
week.

“
A carrier? Where?”

“
Just off the Isle of Mann. He said the terrorists responsible
for killing our families were here. We were to hunt them down and
kill them. You were one of them. You're supposed to be
dead.”

“
Well I'm not - but a good friend of mine is. What's happening
back home, Morris?” she said.

“
They're dying. All of them.”

“
How?”

“
We don't know. Something in the air. We wanted revenge so
bad. That's why we signed up when Corban asked us to.”

“
Revenge for what?” said Riley. “What the fuck is going on
back home?”

“
It's all over - millions are dead. There's no government now,
no command, no nothing. All my family are dead... all dead...” He
began weeping and his tears dripped into the bloody
snow.

Riley turned away from him and looked at me, her own face now
pale with horror and fear. I didn't know what to say or what to do.
Our eyes met and she began to shake her head softly from side to
side.

“
It's all true,” she said. “Everything I feared.”

“
Are you sure? He may be lying,” I said.

“
No,” she replied. “He's only confirming what I already knew
deep down, what I guessed. The riots. The panic. It happened and
now they're all gone.”

“
Not all of them - there'll be survivors, something, some kind
of hope...”

“
I... I don't know... What do we do now, Miller? What do I
do?”

I looked at Private Tom Morris. I looked at the dead bodies
of the soldiers. I looked at Riley with her gorgeous sky-blue eyes
that were begging me for answers, for a solution. A Mr. Fixit
option. I only had one.

I took the rifle from her trembling hands, pulled back the
bolt and killed Private Tom Morris.

10.

The dogs came back later that night as we sat huddled around
the pile of ashes, waiting. We heard their howls and the sound of
them fighting each other for a piece of the three bonus meals we'd
given them. We heard the helicopter come flying past, stopping to
scan the ground with its enormous search light. We heard it lower
someone down who began firing at the dogs with sustained automatic
fire until they could identify the remains. Then the helicopter
gathered altitude, turned around and headed back northwards,
satisfied that their team had been killed by a pack of roaming
savage dogs who'd fled the city in search of food.

Eventually I lit the fire I'd prepared earlier, heaping logs
on the roaring flames until we were finally warm again after the
longest day we'd had together. Riley sat alone, her back against
the wall, just staring into the hypnotising fire, somewhere else a
million miles from me. We'd survived. It was what I'd been doing
since Dad could teach me what the word meant, but there was one
thing he'd never told me - how to work out the cost.