Infection Z (Book 5) (13 page)

H
ayden held
his breath as he stepped inside the giant opening of the tunnel.

The main tunnel seemed dark, no matter what time of day it was. But this one seemed even more so. Looking down into it was like staring into an abyss; like peering into somewhere that you knew you’d never escape from, no matter how much you wanted to.

Hayden had to hope he would escape from this place. He didn’t want to get trapped inside it. Not now he’d built up the courage to try this route in the first place.

“You alright?” Miriam asked.

Hayden swallowed a lump in his throat. He cleared it. He didn’t want to sound like he was too nervous, too unsure. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.”

Truth was, he wasn’t too good. He was so focused on the darkness ahead. So engrossed in focussing on every noise, every sound.

All he heard was silence. The wind echoing as it blew through it.

Miriam and Amy’s footsteps close behind him.

His stomach churned the further he got down this tunnel. He couldn’t remember the last time he ate. He hadn’t even had a lot for breakfast, from what he remembered. Not that it mattered anyway. He’d be out in the wild soon. Forced to find his own food again. Forced to hunt it, if there was anything left to hunt. Or steal it, if there was anything left to steal.

All this time cocooned inside these walls and Hayden was only just realising how lucky he’d been all along.

“There’s something behind,” Amy whispered.

Hayden turned. Looked behind. He could see the light from the opening of the newly constructed tunnel peeking through. He tightened his fists around his rifle. Even though it was empty, it made a perfectly decent melee weapon. “What?”

“I heard something. Something… Something behind.”

Hayden kept his focus on the tunnel entrance for a while. He knew Gary and his people would probably reach this point eventually, start looking for him here. But he just had to hope it wasn’t the first place he turned to.

He waited. Held his ground a few seconds. Made sure he definitely couldn’t see anything behind, or hear anything.

“Come on,” he said, breaking the total silence. “We need to keep moving.”

They walked further through the newly constructed tunnel. Hayden heard the walls creaking around him. Pieces of scaffolding dangled down all around. The ground was uneven, hard to walk on. The darkness didn’t make it easy, either. Every now and then, Hayden felt the ground descend underneath him. He knew there was a chance he’d reach a sheer drop. Knew there was a chance he’d go falling down. That’s why he was going first.

His main goal was to keep Amy and Miriam safe. To make sure he protected them, even if Miriam insisted she didn’t need protecting. He didn’t doubt she could protect herself. This wasn’t one of those clichéd sexist macho quests.

He just wanted to keep the person he cared about dearest as safe as he possibly could. Didn’t matter that she was a woman. He cared about her, and he wanted the best for her. That’s all it came down to.

“I heard it again.”

Amy’s voice made Hayden’s jaw tense inadvertently. He looked around again, back at the tunnel entrance. It was so far away now. So high up. He felt like he couldn’t get back through it, back to where he was, even if he wanted to.

“Amy, we need to keep going sweetheart,” Miriam said.

“But I heard something.”

“We always hear things in the dark,” Miriam said. “Especially the more we think about them. We’ve just got to be brave and fight the scary sounds. As hard as it is.”

Hayden looked down at Amy. Even though it was dark, he smiled at her. “You’re a strong kid. You’ve got this.”

He heard her sigh, then clear her throat.

He turned around and heard something snarl right in front of him.

He felt its hands press into his chest. Felt it push him back. It was an infected. No doubt about that. He knew that from the smell and from the sounds it was making.

He pushed back against it. Pressed into it with all his weight. But as he struggled, he felt the ground giving way beneath his feet. He was going to fall. Going to slide down into a pothole.

He just had to hold his balance.

Just had to—

He heard the growl grow more strained. More… liquefied.

And then he felt the infected’s strength seep from its body.

He pushed it back. Listened as its dead weight crashed to the ground.

“Thanks,” he said, turning to Miriam, catching his breath.

“Don't thank me,” Miriam said. “Thank Amy.”

Hayden couldn’t see Amy too well in the dark. But he soon became aware that she wasn’t behind him anymore—she was by the side of the infected that’d attacked him.

She was holding a sharp metal blade in her hand.

Hayden looked at her a few seconds. Looked at her standing there, confident, collected.

He nodded at her. And she nodded back at him.

He got the sense that this girl was going to get tough.

She’d need to be if she wanted to survive in this world.

They pressed on even further. The ground got harder to walk on, even more uneven and rubble-strewn.

“Don’t think there’s much further,” Hayden called, his voice echoing against the walls.

“You said that ten minutes back.”

“Really,” Hayden said, struggling to stay on his feet. He heard the scaffolding to his right creak. “I think… I think I can see light ahead.”

He stood there and squinted for a few seconds. Miriam and Amy reached his side.

“Shit,” Miriam said.

“What?”

“You’re right. I see it. I frigging see it.”

They got further towards the opening at the other end of the tunnel. Although it was hard to see properly, Hayden swore he couldn’t see anyone there, waiting on that other side.

And the further he got, the more his confidence grew. He was going to get out of this place. All of them—him, Miriam, Amy—they were going to get out of here and they were going to get away from Gary and his people before they could get to them.

And it didn’t matter that the undead were flooding outside. It didn’t matter that they were joined by runners, growing more terrifying, even stronger.

All that mattered was they beat this hurdle. That they conquered this step.

In the end, there was nothing more important than that.

Hayden felt a hand on his right arm. He turned and saw Miriam looking at him.

He could see her face in the dim light now. And he could see that she was smiling.

“You’ve done good,” she said.

She squeezed his arm a little tighter.

“Thank—”

A sound rattled through the tunnel. A sound accompanied by a bright flash of light. It knocked Hayden right back. Knocked Miriam away too. Sent them all flying to the ground.

Hayden didn’t understand what’d happened as his head cracked against the solid ground. He tasted blood as he bit through his tongue. His ears rang. The smell of smoke and a build in heat intensified.

“Miriam!” he shouted. “Amy!” But he couldn’t even hear his own voice.

He could just about see someone at the exit of the tunnel. Just about see them standing there, looking through the flames, staring down at him.

He didn’t have to see their faces to know who it was.

He saw some scaffolding to his right falling.

Saw it creaking down, tumbling to the ground, smashing all over…

Shit.

Miriam and Amy were under it.

Miriam and Amy were fucking under it.

He stood there and watched the flames build, listened to the foundations of the tunnel creak, smelled the stench of impending death in the air.

They’d blown the tunnel up.

Gary’s people had blown the tunnel up.

And it was caving in.

Fast.

H
ayden threw
himself at Miriam and Amy as they lay underneath the fallen rubble.

The air was thick with dust and smoke. It was so intense that Hayden could hardly breathe. His ears still rang away, like someone was constantly firing pistols by the sides of his head, no respite in sight. His mouth was filled with the taste of blood.

But as the tunnel collapsed around him, he knew there was only one thing that really mattered more than anything else.

Miriam and Amy’s safety.

“Miriam!” He reached the side of the rubble that’d fallen down onto the pair of them. He had images of seeing sharp shards of metal sticking into their flesh. Of looking into their eyes as they blubbered their final words, blood oozing from their lips. The sheer thought made him sick with fear, sick with rage.

Gary had done this. Gary and his people had done this.

They were trying to tear everything he cared about apart.

He reached down by the side of Miriam. Grabbed the scaffolding. He couldn’t stop coughing as the smoke from the fire gathered at the back of his mouth. He knew he’d pass out soon through smoke poisoning. And if he did or didn’t, the fire that was building around the mouth of the tunnel would spread to his position, eat him up.

He didn’t care.

He just had to save Miriam and Amy.

He just had to do everything he could to get them out of here.

He pulled the scaffolding up. Pulled it with all his weight, with every bit of force in his body. He felt his hands cracking. Felt blood pooling down them as the cold metal dug into his skin.

But still he kept on lifting.

Kept on dragging that metal up with every last resource inside him.

“Hay—Hayden.”

When he heard Miriam’s voice, he almost dropped the damned scaffolding.

He looked down. Saw her eyes were open. Not only that, but Amy’s eyes were open too.

They were alive. They were both alive.

He was getting them out of here.

“Quick,” he said, straining to hold the scaffolding up. “You’re—you’re gonna have to crawl from under there.”

“My head hurts,” Amy said. Her bottom lip was shaking. But there were no tears in her eyes. Blood on her forehead, too, and a bout of concussion no doubt. But no tears in her eyes.

She was strong. She was a fighter.

She was going to get through this.

“What—what happened?” Miriam asked, as she helped Amy out from under the scaffolding.

Hayden let it drop from his hands. He faced the tunnel exit. It was covered in debris and flames. “Gary,” he said.

“What?”

“Gary. Gary’s people. They did this.”

“Fuck,” Miriam said. “They’re—they’re fucking psychopaths.”

Hayden took in a deep breath. “No. They just want what we want.”

“What?”

“They just want what we want.”

“How can you possibly say they just want—”

“They just want to keep each other safe. That’s what matters to them. Just like it matters to us.”

Miriam was silent. She didn’t reply to Hayden. Just stood beside him, watching as the exit from the tunnel—the last safe exit from New Britain—fell apart.

“We have to go back,” Hayden said.

He turned. Looked both Miriam and Amy in their eyes. It was still dark in here, so he could only just make out the disappointment glowing in the oncoming fire lights.

“I know it’s not ideal,” Hayden said. “I know we wanted to get out of this place. But there’s no leaving. Not right now.”

For the first time in saying these words, Hayden felt a genuine disappointment at not being able to leave New Britain. He never used to. A part of him used to feel relieved that he could stay here, right in his perfect little bubble, as Miriam called it. That he could lock himself away again and forget about the horrors of the outside world.

But not anymore.

Now, Hayden felt frustration at having to return to this place. He felt disappointment. Pain.

Because he knew he wasn’t going back to a safe place anymore.

He was going back to somewhere even more dangerous than the outside.

“It’s all we have,” Hayden added, as he started to jog back in the direction of New Britain. “I wish… I wish it wasn’t, but it’s all we have. Now come on. We need to get back before this place falls completely.”

Miriam stood still for a few moments. Stood still, just staring at Hayden, as if she was trying to weigh up his motivations, get a read on him.

Then she nodded.

Tightened her grip around Amy’s hand.

Together, the three of them ran back towards New Britain. Back into the abyss.

As they ran, a strange feeling welled up inside Hayden. An unfamiliar feeling, certainly one he wasn’t used to.

He felt a sense of pride.

Pride, because he knew that even though they were heading back to New Britain, they were doing the uncomfortable thing. The thing he really didn’t want to do. It would’ve been more like him to stay in this tunnel and hide—to just hope it didn’t collapse on him, on all of them.

But instead, he was running back.

He was going back to somewhere that wasn’t safe. Somewhere dangerous.

And he didn’t know what the future held for him. For any of them.

Only one thing was for sure.

He’d die fighting for his people.

He’d die making sure they got to safety.

He’d—

“Hayden!”

He heard Miriam’s shout and he didn’t understand it at first.

Not until he felt the sharp pain crack into his head.

Tasted blood in his mouth.

He saw the rock fall to his right. His sense of balance distorted. And as it did, Hayden’s eyes flashed. Memories filled his mind. Memories of being in that deep, black coma-like state after shooting the infection into his veins.

Memories of all the people who had been immunised, who were now infected, hungry.

Memories of the look in Martha’s eyes when he’d been about to put her down.

The words she’d said.

“You’re going to get everyone killed.”

“Hayden!”

He felt himself falling. Felt himself hit the ground beside him.

More images flashed into his mind.

Clarice.

Clarice with the blade to her neck.

Blood spurting out of her jugular as Ally sliced her head from her shoulders.

He felt the pain of having to smother his mum. Of having to put down his zombified dad.

He felt it all building up, right back to that moment he’d found Annabelle hanging all those years ago.

“You’re going to get everyone killed.”

He heard Martha’s voice. And then he saw her. Saw her walking towards him, guts dangling from her torso, blood oozing down her mouth.

He felt hunger build inside.

An urge.

An urge to bite.

An urge to feast.

An urge to—

He felt a crack on his face.

He blinked. And suddenly, he wasn’t surrounded by darkness anymore.

He was outside. The late afternoon sky still glowed a little sun. The air was cool, but it was fresh. The smell of smoke that had lingered in the air just moments ago was gone.

“He’s awake,” Miriam said. “Thank God.”

Hayden rubbed the back of his neck. It ached like mad.

“You keep yourself still,” Miriam said. “It’s okay. We’ve got you. We’ve got you.”

Hayden opened his mouth to say something to Miriam. To thank her. Or to tell her he loved her. Something along those lines.

But then the ache in the back of his neck spread to his head.

His vision blurred.

Then blackened.

Darkness surrounded him.