Adaptive Instinct (Survival Instinct) (61 page)

24:

Nicky Hui-Chang – Day 17

When Nicky woke up again in the truck, absolutely everything hurt.  It was a dull hurt though, not sharp, as she had expected.  She remembered being saved by Brunt, but not much else.  When she tried to open her eyes—well, eye, apparently, the other was still swollen shut—a light from above stabbed into it.  She quickly closed it again with a groan.

“Nicky, are you awake?” a familiar female voice spoke from nearby.

Nicky tried to open her eye again, more slowly this time.  The light wasn’t as painful, and she could finally focus.

The woman near her looked like someone she knew, but the hair was all wrong.  “Cameron?”

The woman laughed, sounding just like Cameron.  “I’m her sister, Riley.  Cameron’s over there.”

Nicky looked to where the woman was pointing.  Sitting on the other side of the truck, for that’s now where she realized they were, was the same woman but with very short hair.

“Do you know where you are?” the woman named Riley asked.

“Back of a white truck,” Nicky answered as she tried to sit up.

Riley and Cameron both assisted her in sitting upright on the floor, handing her a bottle of water in the process.  Nicky sucked down several, large swallows of water.

“That’s good.”  Riley quickly checked her pupil reflexes.  “Do you remember what happened?”

“I was climbing, and then falling.  Brunt grabbed me.”

“What about after that?”

Nicky slowly shook her head.

“Well, you got shot in the leg for one thing,” Cameron told her.  It was weird hearing the same voice from two different sides.  It was as if one person was constantly moving around her.

“Shot?”  Nicky looked down at her calf where it was heavily bandaged.  She became aware of all the bandages she was wearing at that point, including a splint over her mangled fingers.  “Who shot me?”

“I did.  Sorry,” Riley apologized.  “You had a zombie hanging off your leg that we had to take care of.”

“She’s also the one who patched you up though,” Cameron defended her sister.  “And before you ask, Isabelle and Jasmine are fine.  They’re in the other truck right now, and we’re heading back to the prison where the evacuation should be occurring shortly.”

Nicky nodded, and took another drink of water.  Her thoughts felt like they were on a delayed timer, always taking a moment or two to process.

The ride back to the prison was blissfully uneventful.  Nicky managed to remain conscious the whole way, eating, drinking, and receiving doses of painkiller when Riley allowed it.  The woman was apparently a doctor, and a godsend whenever a dose was injected.

When the ride suddenly got consistently bumpy, Nicky knew they were back at the prison, running over zombies.  They stopped, listening to the hammering of zombie hands on the outside of the truck.  A rattle of gunfire went off, but not near them.  Nicky figured they were the second truck to pass through the gates, which meant waiting for the other truck, the truck Orson and Hank had stolen, to go through first.

Riley looked especially nervous about the banging and moaning from outside.  She sat with her shoulders hunched in a defensive posture, her hands gripping her knees, her head still, but her eyes darting about.  Cameron also looked uncomfortable, but less so.  Nicky was so doped up she didn’t care at all about the zombies.

Finally,
they got to roll forward, and the hail of bullets rained down around them.

Once the truck was parked, the back was quickly opened, and the women inside were rushed out.  Well, as rushed as they dared move Nicky after seeing her pummelled face and body.  Riley and Cameron were quickly moved off.  It was clear the evacuation was already underway, and they were being moved toward the mobs of other people.

“Nicky,” Brunt called out, running over to her.  He replaced the mercenary who was currently helping her stand.  “You’re going to be riding in the helicopter.”

“Helicopter?”

“Riley brought our helicopter back.  We’re using it to move the worst of the injured, which includes you.”

Nicky remembered in a flash that Riley Bishop had been one of the people to steal their helicopter.  Why would she bring it back?

“Others should use it,” Nicky insisted.  “I can ride in a truck again.”

“No way.”  Brunt shook his head.  “Those trucks are going to be jammed pretty tight.  With your leg, we can’t risk it.”

“Nicky!”

Nicky looked up and saw Edward Owen running toward her across the yard.  She tried to smile for him, but it was painful and lopsided.  She saw the pain cross his own face after seeing hers.  When he reached Brunt and Nicky, Edward draped her other arm across his shoulders and helped carry her toward the prison.

“What medications have you been given?” Owen asked, taking over as her doctor.

“Umm.”  Nicky wasn’t sure.  She couldn’t even remember how many times Riley had injected her.  Could have been anything between two times and a hundred.

Brunt rattled off a list of what was in the back of the truck, one of which was morphine, and Edward figured it out from there.

“How’s the evac going?” Nicky asked as they entered the building.

“Fine, don’t worry about it,” Edward answered her.

“And Crichton?”

“He’s going along with it.  In fact, he’s running it.”

“What about James?”

“Not sure where he is at the moment.  I think he’s in the tower.  Some sort of zombie siege by Roy.”

“Zombie siege?”  Brunt asked the question this time.  He must not have been radioed about it.

“Yeah, Roy’s come out of the woods with a bunch of zombies in tow.  I haven’t listened much to the reports he’s giving, but they’re doing some weird things over there.”

“I have to help.”  Nicky tried to pull away from the boys, but in her doped-up state, it wasn’t effective at all.  They were able to tighten their grips on her waist before any weight could be put on her injured leg.  She was hauled even more quickly to the prison stairs.

“You don’t need to do anything outside of doctor’s orders,” Edward told her.

Nicky leaned against Edward and whispered suggestively in his ear.  “You’re a doctor.  I bet you could give some real good orders.”

Edward flushed an embarrassed red, refusing to respond in any other way.

Nicky then turned to Brunt.  “These drugs are good.”

“It certainly looks like it,” Brunt laughed.

“Brunt, Brunt, Brunt, sounds like grunt.  Also rhymes with cu-”

“That’s enough of that Nicky,” Edward cut her off.  “You need to calm down a little.  And I think it’s best we don’t give you any more morphine.”

“Probably,” Nicky agreed, returning to herself a little.  She was both ashamed and proud of herself for the brazen pass she had made at Owen, but it certainly wasn’t like her to do that.

They reached the roof at last, and Brunt left Nicky completely in Edward’s care.  He helped her across the roof toward the sleek, black body of the aircraft.  Through the open side door, Nicky could see the rest of the sick and injured already strapped in.  By the way they looked at her, Nicky knew she was pretty badly off and finally accepted that a helicopter ride would be best.  Edward helped her in and began strapping the harness belt around her.

“It smells like pee in here,” she complained, because it did.

“Sorry, it smelled like that when we got it,” Edward apologized and began strapping himself into the seat next to her.  Dr. Milo was already in the helicopter, and it looked like they were going to be the only two medical staff on board.

Nicky looked out past Edward, past the edge of the building, and past the outer wall.  She could just make out Roy’s white lab coat standing in the field, but not much of what was really going on over there.  She couldn’t even be sure that she really saw Roy.  Their pilot suddenly showed up as if appearing out of thin air and slammed the door closed, leaving those inside with no view of the outside world. 
They really should have built this bird with windows
, Nicky thought.

She leaned her head on Edward’s shoulder.  He took her hand, the one with working fingers, and held it in his own.  As the blades started up overhead, Nicky fell asleep.

***

She didn’t wake again until they had landed, and then, only because Edward shook her awake.

“Nicky?  You okay?”

“Yeah.  Just tired,” she mumbled.  The morphine had begun to wear off on the flight.  Things hurt again. 
However, the haze clinging to her mind hadn’t seemed to dissipate at all.

“We’re here.  Let’s get you in the plane.”

Nicky took a second to remember what he was talking about.  She couldn’t remember that there was a plane involved until she looked out the door and saw the massive thing.

Edward frowned at her confused expression.  He took out a penlight and shone it in her non-swollen eye.  Nicky squinted and groaned.  It hurt when he did that.

“Why does everyone keep shining lights in my eyes?”  She guessed she was asking Edward but the question wasn’t really directed at anyone.

“Just making sure you’re okay,” Edward told her.  He helped her out of the helicopter.

As they moved toward the planes, Nicky began to get really sleepy again.  She leaned all her weight on Edward as her heavy head began to drag her down.

“Nicky?”  Edward shook her lightly.  “Don’t go to sleep again.”

Nicky got her head back up, but it was only seconds before the weight of it began to drag it down once more.

“Nicky!”  Edward shook her more forcefully.

She didn’t want to respond, she wanted to sleep.  It didn’t hurt when she was asleep.

“Nicky!  Don’t sleep, Nicky!”  His shaking became distant like his voice.  “Nicky!  You may have a concussion.  If you sleep, you could slip into a coma or even die!”

At that, Nicky tried harder to stay awake.  She didn’t want to die.  Things came into focus again.  She looked up at one of the planes and saw the faces of children pressed up against the windows, watching her.  So many children; maybe the morphine was still working?

She fought her heavy eyes and heavy head, but she couldn’t do it.  Despite Edward shaking her, shouting at her, Nicky’s mind pulled away.

She fell asleep.

25:

Bryce Christopherson – Day 17

Bryce was dragging his feet through the dirt.  His legs felt like lead, and his shoulders throbbed with every step.  He couldn’t keep walking; Becky was just too heavy for him.

“I need to stop,” he panted.

“Fine with me.”  Larson collapsed where he stood, startling Maggie.  She sniffed him all over, but when Larson unclipped her leash, the retriever began to patrol the area.

Bryce found a spot where he could put Becky down without waking her up.  She was taking her afternoon nap in the papoose carrier, which Bryce had worn like a backpack.  They didn’t get very far before her weight began to feel like that of a grown elephant.  The carrier had a stiff but padded back so when Bryce laid Becky down, it was almost like being in a bed.  At least that was Bryce’s hope.

They were in the woods again, but constantly kept the road to their left and in sight through the trees.  They had decided the trees would be safer after they had seen one of the monsters trapped in a car.

“What are you doing?”  Bryce asked when he saw Larson start looking through his backpack.

“I’m hungry.”  Larson frowned at him.

“We don’t have a lot of food.  I thought we agreed we wouldn’t eat anything until Becky woke up from her nap.”

“But I’m hungry now.”  Larson turned back to his pack and rummaged through it.

“Larson-”

“Bryce, I’m hungry.  Shut up, okay?  If you want to wait to eat, then wait.  I’m eating my share now.”  He pulled out some crackers and began munching on them.

Bryce couldn’t do anything beyond roll his eyes.  He started to rub his sore muscles, knowing they had a lot farther to go.  They needed to find some place with walls and a roof before nightfall came.  Bryce didn’t like the idea of sleeping exposed.  They didn’t even have a tent.

Next to him, Becky murmured, squeezed her eyes shut tighter, and clenched her little fists.  Bryce stared, willing her to stay asleep longer.  She did.  Her body relaxed again, and she went on dreaming whatever she was dreaming.  Bryce hoped it was about something nice, like ponies.

“How much farther do you think we have to go?” Larson asked around a mouthful of cracker.

“I don’t know.”  Bryce shrugged.  “Probably not too much further.”

“We should have checked out the motel.”

“But a bunch of those things were there,” Bryce reminded him.

“So?  We could have avoided them.”

“No we couldn’t have.  I barely escaped the one in the woods.”

“That’s because you were weighed down by Becky.”