The Survivors (Book 2): Autumn (22 page)

After a minute, I drew back and kissed him, quickly and repeatedly, indulging a need to express my affections as physically as possible
.  He understood and held me close, returning my shower of kisses with his own until I calmed down.

“I was afraid I’d never see you again,” he whispered to me, his arms still wrapped around my waist
.  His voice was huskier than usual and I detected deep emotion in it that made my heart lurch.

“I know, but… I had to
.  You know I had to,” I whispered back.  He nodded, silently telling me that he understood.  He always understood.  It was the same reckless abandon that had driven him into a violent rage when one of the undead had cornered members of our family, weeks ago.  Unlike him, I had not been driven into shock in the wake of my actions, though.  I had stayed calm and rational throughout.  It felt like it had happened to someone else.

“They’re fine
.  I’ve got them hiding under the bridge,” he told me softly, anticipating my question before I could ask.  I nodded and glanced at the corpses for a moment, then I suddenly remembered the blood I’d seen on the ground.

I shoved myself back and stared at him, inspecting his body from head to toe
.  Sure enough, there was a crude bandage wrapped around his bicep, and another around his left wrist.  He didn’t bother to put up a fight when I took his hand, and dragged him off towards the shelter of the bridge to get him cleaned up.

“I saw the first body, way back, and I saw your blood on the ground
.  I’ve been so worried about you,” I admitted as we retreated down the bank and ducked into the dark recess beneath the bridge’s span.

Very little plant life grew down there, since it never saw any sunlight
.  When my eyes adjusted, I spotted Priya sitting on a patch of hard concrete, her knees drawn up to her chest and arms wrapped around them.  Her eyes were closed and young face was a picture of misery, but the dog spotted us straight away and alerted her to our presence by letting out a happy yip.

The moment she saw me, her eyes widened
.  A second later, she had her arms around my waist and was clinging to me like she was afraid that I’d left her forever.  Even though I was anxious to see to Michael’s wounds, I understood her vulnerability and made no effort to detach her.  Instead, I led both of them back over to sit on that patch of concrete, the three of us all huddled in a row in the shadows.

Priya leaned against me crying quietly while I stripped away Michael’s makeshift bandages
.  I inspected the wounds, cleaned them, and then redressed them with proper, sterile dressings from my first aid kit.  Although it caused him pain, he clenched his jaw and bore up well to the discomfort.  I knew that he trusted me to only have the best of intentions for him, and he knew I would only cause him pain if it was for good reason.

For my part, I was relieved to discover the injuries were only flesh wounds, and none of them would cause him any real trouble unless they got infected
.  Of course, with someone as attentive as me to be his nurse, there was no way he was getting infected any time soon.  At least, I hoped not.  I’d had enough of infections to last a lifetime.

Hell, we had barely recovered from the last time we ended up in bandages
.  That was the last thing we needed.  Michael still had a tiny red pucker mark of half-healed tissue on his ribs from when he’d been shot with that air rifle ten days earlier.  He still had to cover it, but it was past the danger stage.

Michael had the presence of mind not to ask what had happened
.  Even if he had, I wouldn’t have told him with young, innocent ears sitting right there beside us.  A vague reassurance from me that our racist friend wasn’t going to trouble us any further was good enough for both of them.

After the wounds were cleaned, the four of us just sat catching our breath for a while
.  Priyanka finally stopped crying and clung to me in silence, while Michael stared off thoughtfully into space.  I sat in the middle, turning over in my mind the strange situation I found myself in this time.  I felt so protective of that young girl even though I’d only just met her, and I could see in Michael’s face that he felt the same way.

Was it animal instinct that drove us to protect the young, even when she wasn’t our child?
It was a strange feeling, but it made sense to me.  In little Priya, I saw someone who had an entire life ahead of her, one that was so full of promise and potential.  Although she’d come from someone else’s womb, in that young child I saw the future of my species.  We were on the verge of extinction, and yet she gave me hope.

She, and all the other children like her
.  Madeline, Priya, any children that Michael and I might have one day.  They were our future.  Without them, there was no tomorrow for humankind.

I didn’t realise that I was squeezing Michael’s hand until I noticed him looking at me with concern
.  I gave him a sheepish smile and relaxed my death-grip, but he seemed to understand.  He put his arm around me instead and drew me up against him.  I contentedly nestled against his side and closed my eyes.

Suddenly, the dog let out a yip and sat bolt upright
.  Startled, the rest of us looked at him and then at each other, trying to work out what the dog knew that we didn’t.  I started to say something, but Michael held up a hand to silence me; a moment later, I heard the sound as well.  There was an engine coming our way.  No, several engines.

“Stay here,” I whispered to the others, extracting myself from between their bodies
.  I crept noiselessly out from beneath the bridge and inched up the bank beside it, keeping myself hidden deep within the long grass.  Despite my instructions, I felt the warmth of a large body beside me and knew that Michael had followed me.  Side by side, we lay in hiding, waiting for the source of the noise to come into sight.

From the west, along the very same road we’d come down less than an hour before, came a small group of quad- and farm-bikes
.  The lead bike stopped when the rider spotted the corpses lying in the road, and the others came to a halt in a gaggle behind him.  After some discussion, the rider of the first bike hopped off and hurried over to the corpses to examine them.

As he drew closer, I recognised him, and heaved a deep sigh of relief
.  Shoving myself up out of my hiding spot, I waved to the startled rider until he realised who I was and waved back.

“Kia ora, mate!” Hemi shouted
.  “Fancy seeing you here.”

It took some explaining to get Hemi up to date on the situation that had led to us being in possession of a number of corpses, an elderly sheepdog, and a small, buzz-cut-wearing teenage girl.  Luckily for us, Hemi was good-natured and patient.  He listened with interest to our tale, and expressed relief over our survival.

Priyanka needed some time to adjust to the presence of more people in our group
.  When the others first arrived, she was too frightened to come out of her hidey hole under the bridge.  Eventually, curiosity won out over caution.  I felt her tiny presence manifest behind me.  When I looked down, I found her staring at the newcomers with enormous eyes.

By the time we finished talking, she was standing beside me instead of hiding behind my back, though she still clung to my hand
.  I glanced down at her occasionally, and each time I found her watching Hemi or one of the other men with intense fascination.  I decided that was most likely to do with their physical appearances.  Although they were still different to her, they looked much more similar than Michael or myself.

“Priya, this is my friend Hemi
.  Say ‘hello’ to Hemi,” I told her, trying to introduce her to the young man.  The girl stared at me, then ducked her head shyly and hid behind me again.  I exchanged a glance with the others and shrugged.  “Sorry, she’s had a bit of a scary day.  She’ll come back out of her shell when she’s ready.”

“Sweet as, man.”
Hemi grinned cheerfully.  He gave the girl a playful wave when he caught her peeking at him again.  She stared back at him, her mouth agape and eyes almost as wide as saucers.  Everyone chuckled.

There were four men besides Hemi in the group, and all of them were familiar to me from the time we’d spent with the tribe
.  I was pleased to see that Ropata, the carpenter, was with them, since his skills would no doubt prove invaluable in the task waiting for us.

Tane and Iorangi were there as well
.  The two men were brothers, who stood tall and imposing, but I’d learned that they were just big teddy bears full of good-humour and fun.  Tane was around my age, and wore his hair in long, distinctive dreadlocks.  Iorangi was a few years younger, but taller than his brother by several inches.

The last member of the group was a slender, wiry man in his mid-thirties
.  I knew his name was Richard, but that was about all I knew.  We’d only spoken twice before, but he seemed like a nice enough guy.  He was just quiet, and usually kept to himself.

Once the expl
anations were over, we set out on foot to find a better place to sit down and have lunch together.  The bridge followed the rim of the catchment dam for the power station down river, but it was bisected in the middle by a small island which was home to an overgrown picnic area.  It seemed like a good place to rest for a bit, since it gave us a clear view in all directions in case there were any more neo-Nazis coming after us.

After we had eaten, we gathered our belongings and moved on
.  The road continued in a long curve, but this time it didn’t just span water – it crossed the top of the Arapuni dam itself.  That was by far more terrifying than the first half of the crossing had been.  The river pooled placidly to our left, while on our right the only thing that separated us from a drop of more than a hundred meters was a tattered mesh fence.  When we made it safely to the eastern side of the river, I let out a deep breath to calm my frazzled nerves.  I’m not a huge fan of heights.

“Oi, Sandy
– we’ll give you a ride, eh?” Hemi called to me.  I glanced back and watched his group wheel their bikes the rest of the way onto solid ground.

“Sure
.  We’ll cover more ground that way,” I agreed.  I looked down at Priyanka, who still clung to my hand like a limpet.  “We’re going to go for a ride, okay? Go sit behind Hemi and hold on tight.”

Priya’s eyes just about bugged right out of her head
.  She shook her head frantically and ducked behind me.  “Don’t wanna.”

“C’mon, it’ll be okay,” I reassured her
.  “I’ll be right there, too.  We’re going to go fast.  You don’t want to get left behind, do you?”

Priya stared at me in horror, then looked back at Hemi.

“Go on, sweetie,” I said, leading her towards the bike.  “It’s okay.  I’ll be right here.  Hemi won’t hurt you, he’s my friend.  He’s a good boy.”

“Good boy?” Priya echoed softly, though she still looked dubious.

“Yeah, good boy.” I nodded firmly, and guided her up to sit behind him.  “Put your arms around his waist and hold on tight, okay?”

“O-okies,” she said, and did as she was told
.  I smiled and ran my hand over her head, then went to find my own ride.  Michael did likewise, calling the dog after him.

Although we were forced to travel relatively slowly so the elderly canine could keep up with us, we made much better time over the last leg of the journey than we could have hoped
to do on foot.  The nimble little bikes bounded over the tattered tarmac without complaint, their light weight and good suspension keeping us safe from harm.

Seated on the back of Tane’s quad bike with my arms wrapped around his waist, I watched the scenery pass in a blaze
.  Every so often I got smacked in the face by a dreadlock and had to shove it out the way, but I took it with good humour.  The last leg out of trip passed swiftly and painlessly compared to the first couple of days.

Within just a few minutes – about ten or fifteen, I estimated – we were bouncing our way out of the countryside and back into relative civilization
.  Abandoned buildings sprang up out of the overgrown lawns and gardens on the right, while the left side of the road was lined by heavy bush.

Remembering the instructions Rebecca Merrit had conveyed to us, I kept an eye out for something obvious to mark our path
.  She hadn’t been specific on what she’d be using, though.  I could see Michael looking around too, and in the end he spotted it before I did.  He shouted and waved, which brought our little column to a halt.

A moment later, I saw what had caught his eye – a bright yellow high-visibility vest tied to a tree, flapping languidly in the breeze
.  As she’d promised, it really couldn’t have been any more obvious.  As soon as Tane stopped our bike, I leapt off and hurried over to examine the flapping cloth, with Michael and Hemi hot on my heels.

“I think there’s a walkway back here.”
I reached out and moved aside a branch, revealing a deep, cavernous gloom beneath the trees.  It had the look of a tunnel, trimmed back to be easy to traverse on foot, but the branches hung too low for the bikes to pass safely.

“We’ll go find somewhere to hide the bikes, and then we’ll follow you, eh?”
Hemi glanced at me for confirmation.  I nodded, so he hurried off.  Priya scampered over to join us, looking refreshed and high-spirited after her exciting ride on the back of a quad bike, with the dog close behind her.

With Michael and me in the lead, and Priya behind us, we set off down the dark pathway to see what lay beyond
.  The passage was so narrow and dark that it felt like travelling through a cave.  Behind me, I heard Michael muttering as low-hanging branches tugged at his hair, and even I had to duck on occasion to avoid getting a twig in the eye.

Every so often, a metal pole divided the path into bike lanes; we could feel concrete under the leaf litter beneath our feet
.  Once, this had been a public walkway and cycle track, for tourists wanting to visit the power station.  Now, it was something else entirely.  The wilds had reclaimed it.  Walking that track was a strange experience but somehow comforting, kind of like being back in nature’s womb.

Eventually, I saw filtered sunlight dancing across the end of the path, startlingly bright after the tunnel’s gloom
.  I stepped out into the sunlight, raising a hand to shield my eyes – and drew a sharp breath of surprise.

“Oh, lordy,” Michael rumbled as he drew up beside me, staring at the bridge
.  The walkway terminated in a small, open area that bordered the edge of the Arapuni gorge.  A hundred metres below us, the river rumbled over rapids.  The bridge that spanned the gap was little more than rails and netting with a narrow walkway down the middle.

I picked my stomach up from about my knees, and took a long, deep breath
.  “At least the bridge is still intact.  No holes… I’m not sure I could handle holes.”

“I feel like I should make a joke about that,” Michael answered, “but I can’t think of one right now.”
He looked at me, his dark eyes unreadable.  “Do you want me to go first?”

“No… no, I’ve got this.”
I’m not entirely sure if I was trying to reassure him, or myself.  Regardless, I swallowed hard and stepped out onto the bridge, expecting it to bounce and sway beneath my weight.  To my relief, it didn’t.

As terrifyingly exposed as it felt, the bridge had clearly been designed with public safety in mind
.  The entire length of the crossing was lined by a mesh fence nearly twice my height; if I wanted to fall off, I would have to put some serious effort into it.  Unfortunately, I could still see through the mesh, so knowing that I was safe didn’t help with the vertigo.

As I stepped out further onto the narrow walkway I felt the bridge swing languidly in the wind, but it didn’t bounce or jostle the way many rope bridges did
.  This one was steel and chain rather than wood and rope.  Even the panels that made up the footpath had metal peeking out through the wooden veneer.  I let out a sharp breath and tried to relax, reassuring myself that I wasn’t going to fall.

When I heard the others filter out onto the bridge behind me, I paused to turn and check on them
.  Michael was assisting a nervous-looking Priyanka with gentle words, holding her hand as he led her out onto the span.  It was only then, when we were fully committed to the bridge, that we heard a voice call out to us.

“Hold it right there!”
It was a male voice, and it was shouting.  “Do not come one step closer, or I will drop you.”

I froze
.  Those words told me that the speaker was armed, and meant business.  Although it was completely against all of my basic instincts, I managed to release my death-grip on the handrails and slowly raise my hands above my head in the universal sign of surrender.  Closer to the start of the bridge, I saw Michael do the same whilst discreetly inserting his bulk between the gunman and our young charge.

“That’s right
.  Now, turn around slowly.  No sudden moves.” The instructions were obviously for me, so I did as I was told.  It was difficult to move slowly when every one of my instincts was screaming to get the hell off that bridge and back onto solid land.  “Identify yourselves and tell me why the hell I shouldn’t shoot you.”

“We were invited here,” I called back, mentally cringing at how out-of-breath I sounded
.  My heart was racing more and more the longer I stayed up there.  I could feel panic gripping at the edge of my psyche, running icy talons up the back of my neck.  “Rebecca Merrit invited us.  Check with her, she’ll tell you.  She said that you needed help, so here we are.  My name is Sandy.”

My answer was silence.

I realised suddenly that I was trembling all over, whether from adrenaline or basic animal terror; it felt like the chasm was drawing me over the edge even though I wasn’t moving.  My breathing had accelerated to the point that I was panting, and I felt the tickle of sweat gathering on my forehead.  If I didn’t get off that bridge soon—

“Why are you armed?” the voice demanded suddenly, interrupting my internal monologue.

“You told us it was pig country,” I answered, with a stab of annoyance.  They had asked us for help, and yet we were the ones getting interrogated? “By the way, you failed to mention that Pukeatua is neo-Nazi territory.  We almost got shot getting here.  Come on, Jim – let us off this damn bridge.  We’ve brought rum.”

“Rum?
But I asked for vodka,” the man complained, but my words had the desired effect.  He stepped out of the brush where he’d been hiding, a long hunting rifle nestled in the crook of his bandaged arm.  “Well, come on then.  Hurry up, we don’t have all day.”

Gun or no gun, I couldn’t get myself off that bridge fast enough
.  As soon as my feet hit solid ground, I nearly collapsed with relief.  A second later, Michael and Priyanka joined me, and the three of us clung together for a moment to recover.  The dog bounded along after us, showing no sign of being any the worse for wear for his adventure.

“I really don’t like heights,” I admitted, letting Michael’s comforting bulk steady me until I felt better
.  Then I turned and looked at the portly man that had briefly held us hostage, studying him.  He was an older fellow that I estimated to be in his late fifties, but it was hard to tell.  A ring of scrabby reddish-blonde curls stuck out over his ears, but other than that he was completely bald.  He had the heavy summer tan, rough skin, and beer gut of the typical Kiwi bloke, but there was a degree of intensity about his eyes that the average bloke didn’t have.

“You said it was just going to be two of you,” he accused
.  “You didn’t say anything about a kid or a dog.”