The Alpha Plague 3 (20 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

About twenty minutes ago

Tears ran warm tracks down Vicky’s cheeks as she stared at the crazed man that came toward her. A twisted and hellish version of the person she’d loved, he seemed to fill the tight alleyway with his wide and tall frame. Her pulse raced, her throat dried, and she shook where she stood. Her life would end in that alley, but what about Flynn? Six years old and she’d just condemned him to death. So much for the promise she’d made to Rhys. Hopefully when he fell to the diseased the pain would be nothing compared to what Brendan had in mind for him.

With her baton held in a tight grip Vicky watched the lunatic limp toward her. She looked down at his thigh and saw his jeans were soaked from where he’d clearly lost a lot of blood. Another look at the man and she suddenly saw his crazed glare as something else. Sunken sockets in his pale face, she then noticed the shake that ran through his weak body. Maybe he didn’t have long left. Maybe he only kept going for revenge, and once he’d achieved that he’d fall flat. Maybe she
could
get out.

As if he knew she’d seen his frailty, Brendan laughed. The deep boom of his voice echoed in the alley and vibrated against her chest. “When we pulled away from The Alpha Tower after we’d freed the virus I thought I’d seen the back of Summit City. But then we found out about how the city had been set to incinerate. You
knew
about that didn’t you?”

Vicky shook her head. “No.”

Brendan said something Vicky didn’t understand. It sounded Chinese. He smiled. “Didn’t know I was fluent in Chinese did you? There’s a lot about me that you
don’t
know. I’ll repeat what I just said shall I?”

She gulped but said nothing.

“I said, ‘don’t lie to me,
bitch’
.”

Vicky stared at the man and clenched her jaw tight. She didn’t need to argue with him. It didn’t matter if he believed her or not.

After several deep breaths, his brow soaked in sweat, Brendan said, “They sent me back to override the order. Just in case I didn’t manage to do it, they airlifted the diseased from the city and dropped them first in London, and then around the country. They even sent a few over to mainland Europe. That’s why the streets are infected now.”

The cries of the diseased filled the air and Vicky kept her ears open to the noise. A spike in their frenzied calls would tell her that maybe Flynn had fallen. Nothing yet. She stared at Brendan. “Good job they did that, eh?”

“Huh?”

“Well, you clearly
failed
in your task. The city has gone up in flames.”

“Your new boyfriend stopped me. He tied me in the room with a lab coat bound to the handles. But I managed to pull a strip of metal away from the point where the bottom of the wall met the ground. It was slim and sharp enough to both slip through the gap in the door and cut the lab coat.”
 

With only a couple of metres between them now Brendan continued to shuffle forward. When Vicky noticed his piercing eyes roll in his head, she drew another deep breath. She could get past him. The longer this played out, the weaker he became.
 

“You know … ” Brendan had to pause to catch his breath. “I would have left you alone if Rhys hadn’t been such a cunt. If I’d have been allowed to complete my task and get out of the city I would have done that and moved on. But because of Rhys, I’m going to make sure
everyone
he holds dear pays. You first, then his little shit of a boy. Then I’ll hunt Rhys down.”

The man obviously didn’t have it in him. Despite the front, Brendan had no fight left.

“I’m going to torture his little boy when I find him, diseased or not. Nice trick sending him over the wall, although I doubt he’ll last two minutes on his own. Even if he does manage to hide from the diseased, I’ll find him and make him suffer.”

When just a metre separated the pair Brendan lunged at Vicky. He moved as if in slow motion, his injury slowing him down. In one fluid movement Vicky dodged his long arms and jabbed her baton into his thigh.
 

Brendan yelled out and fell to the ground. With his hands clamped to his leg he roared like the diseased that surrounded them.
 

Without the room to swing her baton Vicky jabbed him again, this time across his chin. When Brendan fell to the ground she hopped over him and ran off down the alley.

***

As soon as she’d left the alley Vicky found Flynn on the side of the road. He’d huddled in a ball as he waited. Good job she’d come out and not Brendan.
 

When she went over and touched his shoulder he jumped and snapped his head up. Bloodshot eyes stared up at her, red from tears rather than the disease.
 

The groans of perpetual suffering came at them from every direction. Before long the diseased would find them again.
 

A quick glance around and Vicky saw a truck with its door wide open. The lights were on as if it had been abandoned.
 

She pulled on one of Flynn’s tiny hands. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”
 

At first the boy didn’t budge. Shock and fear seemed to have paralysed him. After another tug he got to his feet.
 

The sounds of the diseased grew louder so Vicky picked the boy up. Too heavy to carry any great distance she managed to lift him over to the truck. A quick check and she saw the key sat in the ignition like she hoped it would be. She twisted the key and the large vehicle shook and then roared to life. After she’d dragged Flynn around to the passenger seat she slammed the door. When she looked up she saw a horde round the bend at a full sprint.
 

She ran around to her side of the truck, hopped in, slammed the door, and hit the central lock. Not that it would do any good against the mob. They’d tear though concrete to get at their prey.

As the diseased closed in on them Vicky threw the truck into first gear and accelerated away.
 

The mob filled her rear view mirror for a few seconds, but as she picked up speed they grew smaller.
 

After she’d negotiated the tight streets and swerved around the occasional diseased Vicky got out onto the open seven-lane highway. She rested a hand on Flynn’s knee. “It’s okay. We’ve left the bad man and the diseased behind. It’s okay. We’ll find your mum and dad, I promise.” She squeezed his leg again. “I
promise
.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

As Rhys and Larissa reached the tree line the truck went up with a loud
whoomph
behind them. Seconds later a hard gust of hot air shoved Rhys in the back and he stumbled. The rapid change in temperature brought a layer of sweat to the surface of Rhys’ skin. When he looked at Larissa he saw how the light glistened off her damp skin too.

Once they’d entered the dark cover of the trees they both stopped and peered out. Rhys watched the truck they’d ignited burn on its own. As one, the diseased descended on the blazing wreck. The bright flames picked out their twisted faces and snapping jaws.
 

The first of the diseased reached the truck and screamed as they caught on fire. “What the fuck?” Rhys said.

Larissa shifted to see out of the trees too. “They’re not running away.”

And they weren’t. As one fell to the flames three more ploughed into the vehicle.
 

The ignited diseased bridged the gap to the next car and it caught on fire too. A few seconds later Rhys flinched at the blinding flash and second loud
whoomph
.

This time the gust of hot air brought the sweet and fatty smell of seared flesh with it, and Rhys vomited a small amount of bile into his mouth. The sharp and bitter kick twisted his face and he spat on the ground, but the acidic burn remained in his throat.
 

A continuous monotone ring hummed in Rhys’ ears from the loud explosion as he watched the car burn, and he blinked repeatedly to take the flashes from his vision.

Before he’d fully recovered his sight another two cars blew up and the ground shook. The double explosion pushed out another hot gust that rushed toward them and blew the hair back from Rhys’ forehead.

When Larissa tugged on his arm Rhys saw she’d stepped farther back into the woods and he let her pull him in with her.

By the time the next explosion happened Rhys had turned his back on it. If he stood there and watched every one of the expolsions his night vision would be shot to pieces, although maybe he didn’t need night vision with the bright glow from the car park. Another several cars went up and drowned out the sounds of the diseased as they burned alive.
 

The cars continued to blow. Three, four, five, six at a time and each explosion rang louder than the last. They lit up the night and shook the ground.
 

“When shall we move on?” Larissa said as another three or four cars exploded.
 

Despite the ring in his ears Rhys just about heard her. He shook his head. “Not yet. If we can wait this out then maybe it’ll kill all the diseased and we can get back on the road.”

Rhys watched Larissa open her mouth to reply, but the screech of tyres cut her dead.
 

When Rhys looked up he saw a truck. It came from the same direction they’d come from and it had lost control as it snaked down the road toward them.
 

When the truck got closer the bright flames showed Rhys two people in the cab, a woman and a boy. “Oh
fuck
!”

His entire body tensed when the truck finally lost it, flipped, and went into a barrel roll. The large vehicle crunched and popped as it lost its wing mirrors, panels dented, and the windows broke. After a particularly loud
pop
that had obviously put a window out completely, Rhys heard the scream of a little boy.

The truck came to rest against the small wall that surrounded the lot. It lay on its side just feet away from the burning cars. Panic stole his breaths and he only realised how hard he gripped Larissa’s arm when he saw her wince. He eased off and said, “That’s Flynn and Vicky.”
 

“How do you know?”

A wall of flames separated the burning diseased from the wrecked truck. It would hold them back for a time. A line of explosions then ripped through the car park away from Vicky and Flynn. It took out yet more diseased, but they continued to flock to the flames.

“Well?” Larissa said.

“Oh, sorry,” Rhys said as he watched the chaos. His eyes stung from the light and he sweated more than ever. “I just know it’s them.” He stepped out of the trees and the heat pushed against him. More cars exploded away from them, but all of the cars close to the first one had already gone up in flames; all except the truck with his boy in.

The screech of a second set of tyres stopped Rhys in his tracks. It too came from the same way Vicky and Flynn had, and it too cannoned toward the parked cars. It seemed to have its sights set on Vicky and Flynn.

It took for Larissa to speak for Rhys to realise she’d walked out of the trees with him and stood by his side. “Then who’s that?”

Chapter Thirty-Four

About fifteen minutes ago

The entire truck shook when Vicky hit a diseased. Flynn screamed next to her. His shrill cry stung her ears. She’d seen this one coming too late so she hit it head on. It rolled up over the bonnet and cracked the windscreen much like the one they’d hit in the car had.
 

Adrenaline ran a wobble through Vicky’s arms, and no matter how tightly she gripped the wheel she swerved from side to side on the wide road.

On their right, Summit City still burned. On their left, the dark woodland peered out at them.
 

They hit another diseased. Another thud shook through the truck and the diseased flew off to one side.

“I’m scared, Vicky.”

Vicky reached across and squeezed Flynn’s arm. “Don’t be, honey, everything’s okay. This is a big, strong truck, and it’ll get us to where we need to be. Don’t worry. Remember, in Call of Duty: Zombies, the idea is to kill the zombies. Think of the points we’d get for driving into them.”

Flynn remained curled in a ball, his feet pulled up onto the seat with his heels pressed into his bottom, but he lifted his head and looked out of the window at the road. “Kinda hard to see now, isn’t it?”

Cracks ran all the way across the windscreen, but Vicky still managed to see the next diseased. At the last moment she swerved to avoid it.
 

Flynn laughed.

“What’s so funny?”
 

The boy relaxed his tense little frame and pointed out in front of them. “That was an easy fifty points and you
completely
missed it. I think
I
should drive.”

“You cheeky … ” Vicky left it there and the smallest hint of a smile lifted her lips.
 

When they passed the drawbridge Vicky slowed down a little and frowned hard as she stared into the dark. The police car remained in the same place, though that was hardly a surprise considering she’d thrown the keys away earlier. The booth that controlled the bridge also remained unoccupied. Not that it mattered. The orange glow from Summit City showed it still burned, so even if someone did lower it now all they’d find would be ash. Vicky put her foot down again and the large diesel engine pulled them on.

***

When they came to the exit signpost for Biggin Hill, Vicky turned to Flynn. The boy had his feet on the ground now and had relaxed a lot more. They’d not hit, or even seen a diseased for the past half a mile or so.

The cracks in the glass dragged lines of light across Vicky’s vision, but she didn’t need to see that well as long as she stayed on the wide road. “We’re close to the airport now, Flynn. Don’t worry, we’ll find your mum and da—”

Before Vicky could finish she saw the headlights on the road behind her and a chill snapped her body taught. It could have been anyone, but Vicky knew. “
Brendan
? Not again.”

The mention of the man’s name caused Flynn to straighten in his seat, turn around, and look out of the back window. “Is it the
man
, Vicky? The
zombie
man?”