August Burning (Book 1): Outbreak (15 page)

“City center isn’t
far. There’s a pharmacy,” Bennett urged them forward. After another half-mile
it became impossible to keep to the forest. The seemingly endless tracks of
woodland gave way to more closely packed houses, all with flaking paint and
sagging porches. The trio abandoned the trees and strutted boldly among them,
finally arriving on the main street. They struggled to look casual under the
threat of glaring eyes.

Jaxton resisted the
urge to unstrap his rifle. The great green walls of the valley arced above them
to the east and west, dotted with lonely houses. An armed man with an oily mustache
stood atop a general deli. He stood with his hands on his hip, a rifle
positioned against his leg. He called to them as they drew in. Jaxton didn’t
even feel comfortable wiping another wave of sweat from his forehead.

Adira hissed out of
the corner of her mouth. “Not a word.”

“Easy now!” The
portly rogue spat and shifted his grip on the hunting rifle. Jaxton saw a flash
of movement to his right, and noticed two tan and disheveled looking youths
armed likewise across the street.

“How can we help you
today?! You lost?”

Jaxton frowned at the
man’s dialect. He didn’t realize they were so deep in the boonies already. Cold
Spring would be close, nestled near the wealthier towns in the north.

“We’re just looking
for some help, sir.” Adira shouted up.

The man eyed her
slowly, and made no point of hiding that he liked what he saw. His lips curled
into a friendly grin. “Well, how can we help?” His mountain-drawl got even
thicker.

Adira smiled back,
though she noticed three more men emerge from some shop down the street and
begin pacing towards them. Jaxton shifted closer to her.

“Our friend is sick.
We were hoping to see what your pharmacy had and-“

“Sick?! What kind of
sick?!” The man’s friendly demeanor evaporated and he jumped up with a start,
his eyes wide with fear.

“Just a sore throat!
Nothing else. We would only need penicillin.”

“Where is your
friend?” The new group had arrived. Three men, all armed with rifles, stopped
within ten feet of the trio. Their leader was a clean cut country boy, who
looked bulky under his plain T-shirt. Both his rough hands gripped his rifle.

“Back two miles along
the road, just outside of town.”

The young man
frowned. “Where are you heading?”

“Cold Spring.”

The man nodded
thoughtfully, his eyes full of peering suspicion. “You from there? I know the
place. You can’t pass through here.”

“What do you mean?”
Jaxton took a step forward.

Raising his rifle,
the man’s face became a mask of anger. “You can’t pass through our town,
especially with a sick one.”

“You think this is
the infection?! He’s got strep throat for fuck’s sake.”

Adira grabbed his arm
hard, hauling him back.

The man indicated the
hills behind with his gun. “Get outta here, and do it now. Don’t let me see you
comin’ round here again.”

Adira turned on her
heels and snatched Jaxton by the shoulder. His face was bright red, but he
complied. “C’mon.”

They didn’t speak
until they were back in the forest alongside the road. Jaxton was shaking his
head violently, “We ought to sneak in, after dark, and raid the pharmacy.”

“Again with the
hothead,” Bennett challenged. Staring Jaxton down, he continued. “These people
have good reason to be suspicious. No one has any idea what’s going on, or how
this infection spreads, or where it even is!”

Jaxton sneered
angrily and set off back up the hill with a moody grimace. It was nearly dark
by the time they had returned. “Where are they?” Jaxton paced around the rocky
summit, seeing no traces of the other three. His hands immediately
un-shouldered his rifle. In a roaring voice he cried, “LIAM!”

A twinkling of lights
emerged in the valley below as the gloom settled in the vale. A light evening
mist crept in from the north, blanketing the forest in a grey cloud. The lights
shone through eerily. Bennett motioned his friend to be quiet. He had heard
something.

“Yo!” They turned,
their limbs quaking in subconscious terror. Had they been followed back?

There was a figure
waving at them from a rock off to the east a hundred feet. Jaxton raised his
rifle, and motioned them forward. Drawing closer, they saw it was Tessa. She
beckoned them excitedly. “We found a house for the night! Totally empty! It
even has power. And you have to watch the news, hurry.”

“Where’s the house?!”
Bennett yelled nervously, the electricity of fear coursing through his words.

“It’s on the main
road! Not five minutes!”

“Lead us, quick!”
Jaxton jogged forward and indicated angrily. Tessa stared in disbelief.
“They’re a bunch of fucking rednecks, they’re afraid and they’re armed! Go!”

She turned and ran.
They followed, using the last vestiges of fading light to guide their path down
the eastern side of the slope, and cut straight for the road.

They burst out of the
forest and ran, their feet pounding hard on the rough pavement. The road
stretched on ominously through the growing gloom, leading to the city center.
Tessa banked a hard right, and cut through a field of tall grass. A two story
colonial style house sat in the embrace of several massive oak trees.
 

“Wait!” Jaxton
hissed. “Get down!”

Their figures
crouched in the dark waves of gently shifting grass. “Were those there before?”

Two ATVs were parked
next to the gravel driveway. Tessa shook her head fiercely, mouthing “no”.

Jaxton craned his
head up. Through the holes in the clouds, he could see a tapestry of white
stars. No one spoke.

There were two
figures standing in the dark, though they could make out no more.

“Where are Liam and
Harley?”

“Uhh, she had him in
a bedroom, second floor. That one with the lights on, just there. Oh fuck, what
are they going to do?”

“Let’s get a little
closer.” Jaxton dropped to his hands and knees, and crawled through the grass.
The little tendrils tickled his face as he moved. His stomach groaned in pain-
it had been almost ten hours since his last meal. His pace thumped relentlessly
as he scanned the shuttered home. He strained to peer through the boards of
wood covering the windows.

“What do you want to
do?” Adira hissed at him, realizing only after that she hadn’t even considered
someone else to ask.

Jaxton dragged the
rifle off his back and fingered the grip. He had only fired a gun a handful of
times in his life, and he recalled the alarming power of the weapon he now
held. Feeling in the total darkness, he flipped off the safety on the rifle.

Bennett drew up
beside him, “Lets not do anything rash. Let’s talk to them first. It was a
misunderstanding.”

Jaxton was breathing
heavily, shaking his head. “I don’t like this at all. We should have heard
something by now. We need to do something!”

Adira felt her own
pulse quicken. She was terrified Jaxton would charge the house. “Bennett, come
on. Tessa stay with Jaxton. We’ll call if something goes wrong.”

She felt a hand on
her shoulder as she prepared to crawl forward. It was Jaxton. “Be careful.”

She looked back
towards the house, and saw Bennett’s brow furrowed beside her. “We’ll be fine,
I’m with her,” he said fiendishly.

As they approached,
Adira heard the low murmur of voices and an answering crackle from a radio. She
arced her neck backwards. The sun was gone. Half the sky was still awash with a
light pale glow that faded more every second.

“Do you have a plan?”

“No,” she answered.
“But did you see him? Jax was going to come up here and kick down the front
door. He lost a little something at the river.”

Bennett shook his
head. “There’s always been a little crazy inside him. It’s going to get us in
trouble one day. C’mon.” Bennett rose silently with the grass blowing around
him. Adira followed as he mounted the porch and paused in front of the wooden
door.

Before he could knock,
it burst open. There were crumbs in the man’s bushy ginger beard. The other’s
camouflage baseball cap was stained and rested atop a round head at an angle.

Before Adira could
take in anything else a shotgun barrel was three inches from her face.

“Where are your
friends?” The portly ginger snarled.

Adira’s eyes rested
on his mottled, ruby red cheeks. “We just want to leave.”

“Step back now y’all!
I’m warnin’ you.” When the other spoke, his voice rattled. He strode forward,
forcing Bennett and Adira back onto the grass.

Adira’s hands were in
the air when Bennett stopped retreating. “We’ll get our friends, and be on our
way. Around your town. We mean no harm, no harm at all.”

There was a muffled
cough from somewhere upstairs, and the two men stared at one another with wide
eyes. “I told you to check the fuckin attic!” Without another word the two men
blustered into the house once more, with Adira and Bennett in close pursuit.
The rogues raced up the stairs to a panel in the ceiling with a tiny
draw-string. Yanking it down, Adira heard Harley’s scream from above.

The ginger hauled
Harley out by her thick auburn hair and her hazel eyes flashed defiance. “Get
the hell off me!”

“Come down real slow,
now.”

Their shotguns were
trained on the last figure to emerge, a sickly beast of a man. Liam stumbled
down the collapsible staircase and tumbled onto the floor. When he rose, he
stood a full head over his capturers.

“What do we do now?”
The skinnier man in soiled camouflage whispered.

“Stay back! He might
be tryna bite ya Timmy.”

Liam stared with
vacant eyes. “I’m not sick like you think I’m sick. I’ve got the flu or
something. Let us go.”

“We gon’ let the boys
decide what to do wit chu.”

The ginger reached
tentatively for his walkie talkie, and lowered his weapon. In that instant
Harley leapt forward and bit his hand. The portly oaf dropped the device,
shrieking, as Liam threw everything he could muster into a punch.

“Go. RUN!” They
clambered down the stairs, leaving the howling rednecks lingering above.

When Adira burst
through the front door, she could hear boots thudding on the second floor. Adira
felt Bennett take her clammy hand as the grass tickled her through the holes in
her jeans. A light bulb went off in her head. “The ATVs! Start them!”

Two figures sprang to
life in the gloom and darted towards the machines.

As they approached,
Adira saw Jaxton roar over the engines. “Where are they?!”

Adira shook her head
violently. “Just go!”

“Oh, fuck.”

Adira jerked her head
around, back to the house. Two shadows were stumbling towards them, shouting
abuse in heavy mountain-drawls. There was only moonlight now, though faint
shadows could be seen. Jaxton snarled beside her, and in one motion brought his
rifle to bear. His breathing was ragged though he tried to control it. There
was an intoxicating energy that flowed through him, heating his blood. He
didn’t even have to think; his adrenaline had removed that need. Jaxton simply
moved, without preamble. He took careful aim at the two figures barely
illuminated by the soft porch light.

Adira saw his face
contort into a savage picture of fear and confusion. He pulled the trigger. A
single round exploded from the rifle and hit one of the shadows with a
sickening thud. A fountain of dark blood erupted from the wound and he fell in
the shadows. The sound echoed in the valley.

They could hear the
second man scream and fumble with his shotgun.

Jaxton inhaled and
squeezed the trigger five more times, willing himself to make the shot. The
weapon thundered and spat its charges forth in quick succession, the rifle
rocking back against his shoulder in a low recoil. Jaxton heard a screech, and
he knew he had shot the man. The ATVs fired behind him, their engines exploding
with noise in the previously calm night. They hopped on, three to a vehicle,
pressing together to fit.

Adira leapt on behind
Jaxton, to his delight. He could feel her body pressing up against him, and it
filled him with delicious excitement. Jaxton twisted the handle of his ATV and
they took off back down the gravel road, leaving a wounded man twisting and
screaming in the night.

Jaxton flicked the
headlights on. They tore down the main road, closer to town. He swung a left on
a dirt road leading up the right flank of the vale. It wound up the hillside,
cutting through great swaths of continuous forest, which were now mosaics of
black leaves and trunks. Adira tapped his shoulder. He looked down to the left,
back through the trees to the valley floor so far below. An army of headlights
was moving fast through the trees, seeking their tail. The wind whipped
Jaxton’s hair, and made it hard to keep his eyes open. He snapped the throttle
back even further and felt the precariously loaded ATV snap forward, its large
engine working frantically to keep them moving at high speed. The road took
them to the very top of the ridge, where it continued north down the opposing
arm of the valley. They passed the town of twinkling lights sometime in the
night. At some point, Adira rested her chin on his shoulder, and leaned up
against him. He prayed the road would never end.