Adaptive Instinct (Survival Instinct) (30 page)

But Riley couldn’t stay.  She had made up her mind and was going to do it.  And if she didn’t, who else would?  Shawn should be the next candidate, but he didn’t want to go.  Riley knew something was wrong with Shawn; there was something that had been broken on the inside.  Riley suspected something had broken in her too, but that she could fix it by getting Cameron back.  And maybe Lauren, Abby’s girlfriend.  She would also look for Alec’s brother-in-law given the chance, but Alec didn’t want to describe him for her.  He said he didn’t want to get his hopes up.

The sun wasn’t up yet, so Riley looked at the stars above.  She knew these stars so well.  Her father had taught them to her: the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, the Great Square of Pegasus, Leo, Orion, Draco.  She knew all the stars of both hemispheres.  Now that the power was out in the cities, she wondered how many people were seeing stars they had never seen before.  How many people were even looking up at the sky?  Many would still be in the infected zones and
stargazing wouldn’t be a priority.

Riley mentally went over her plan again.  She was going to take off from the lake before sunrise, and should be at Connor’s once the sun was up.  There, she would refuel as quickly as possible, then take off again.  The thought crossed her mind to go and see Connor, or at least the sheet that Mathias said he had covered him with, but decided that was a bad idea.  Not only was it unsafe, but it had been two weeks.  His body would have decomposed into a gruesome thing.  The sheet would be stained from having absorbed the fatty materials leaking out of him, and the smell would be so repulsive she would probably throw up despite her medical training.  No, she would not step foot inside Connor’s house.  From there, she’d fly down to Leighton, and probably circle the prison a few times to check things out.  Maybe she could hail them on the radio and have them meet her at some designated landing strip.  The hardest part would be if she had to get to the prison from wherever she landed on her own, on foot.  The place would have hundreds of zombies gathered around it by now.  She just hoped they hadn’t breached the walls yet.

“Still here, I see.”  Mathias walked up and sat down on the bench next to Riley.

“Still here.”

“I thought you were going to sneak off into the night.”  Mathias leaned back and looked at the stars with her.

“I am.  Just a little later is all.  The timing isn’t right at the moment.”

“Well, you can’t go without saying good-bye,” Josh spoke next, taking a seat on the other side of her.

Riley looked down from the stars and saw everybody gathering around the fire pit.  They had all gotten up in the middle of the night to see her off.  Or try one last time to stop her, she wasn’t sure which yet.

Misha had brought over some wood and kindling and began preparing a fire.  Apparently, Riley wasn’t the only one with an inner chill.

Nobody said much.  They all just watched as Misha built up a fire and then watched the dance of the flames.  Even Shoes had come out and was lying on Riley’s feet.  Riley wished she could freeze that moment.  That the sun would never rise, that there were no zombies, and no one outside the circle mattered in anyway to anyone.  But that’s not how the world worked.  Riley’s watch began to beep, killing the atmosphere.  As she rose, so did everyone else.  A kind of line formed so that they could all give her a hug and say their good-byes.  Riley planned to come back of course, but things didn’t always go as planned.  Their current living situation was a stark example of that.

“You take good care, Riley.”  Tobias got in first.

“Of course.  You take care as well.  Keep working on that film.  I’m sure you can get some great shots up here.”

“Come back alive,” this was Abby.  “I would love you forever if you found Lauren, but don’t go looking for her, okay?  Your own safety should come first, even above your sister’s.”

“I’m just trying to increase the number of X chromosomes around here,” Riley tried to make a joke.  “You and Milly have to make sure this place keeps what small feminine touches it has.”

Abby nodded and hurried away, tears in her eyes.

To hug Alec, Riley bent down to him.  He kissed her briefly on the cheek like her dad used to do and then held her at arm’s length.  “Just remember what I showed you about your rifle.”

“Keep everyone safe.”

Misha didn’t say anything. 
He just gave her a stiff hug, and then stepped back.  They may not have been close—Riley thought it was hard for Misha to be close to anyone—but she thought of him as a friend and hoped he thought of her as one too.

Danny wrapped his arms around her waist then looked up and said with earnest, “Can you try to find a Gameboy?  Or a PSP?”

Riley couldn’t help but laugh.  Mathias had told her that the kid was a video game junky, but they had nothing of the sort in the cabin.

“I’ll take a look,” she promised.

Shawn hugged her so tightly she thought her ribs might snap, and given their condition, that was a legitimate concern.  “Bring her back, okay?  You bring her back.”

After Josh hugged her, he planted a gentle kiss on her forehead.  Given the circumstances, she allowed it.

“Just remember, no matter how badly it itches, the cast doesn’t come off until tomorrow,” Riley left her patient with his last doctor’s orders.  “Let’s hope you make as good an attending, as you did a student.”

Mathias was the last one.  Riley didn’t know what to say to him.  He made it easy.  No words needed to be spoken as he kissed her, hard and warm, right on the lips in front of everybody.  It was awkward, but Riley also felt some of that inner chill alleviate.

She finally stepped away from him and surveyed the group.  It might be the last time she would see them, but she prayed that it wasn’t.

Riley went up to each of the dogs and gave them a big hug, a kiss between their ears, and an affectionate rub.  Rifle thumped his tail on the wood, his panting giving his face the appearance of a happy grin.  Riley was pretty sure he didn’t know what was going on.  Milly, on the other hand, whined.  She had seen Riley come and go
before, and clearly didn’t want the ‘go’ part to happen.  Shoes just rolled onto his back, wanting belly rubs.  Riley gave him a quick one.

Everybody followed her down to the water, where the Osprey was sitting on the shore, ready to go.  In the passenger seat was a large pack of gear, her rifle, a biohazard suit, and a Geiger counter.  She didn’t know if any of the nuclear facilities had exploded yet, but wasn’t taking any chances with them.  If they had, and the readings were high around the prison, then there would be very little Riley could do for her sister.

She climbed into the cockpit and strapped herself in with the harness belts.  Shawn started going on again about how the plane handled, and that if anything seemed wrong, she should come straight back.  Riley told him that she would be fine and pushed him away so that she could close the canopy.

Mathias, Misha, Shawn, and Tobias pushed Riley out into the still-dark waters.  Mathias was soaked up to his chest before he would let go.  Without thinking, Riley kissed the tips of her fingers and placed them on the glass.  Mathias couldn’t reach her anymore, but kissed his own fingers and held them out.

When the engine started up, the quiet was shattered.  The engine and its propeller lay behind and above the cockpit, so that, although Riley was wearing both a massive pair of noise-cancelling headphones and earplugs, the sound still roared all around her.  The men got out of the lake, and everyone gathered on the sand to watch.  Riley hoped she didn’t blow the takeoff and end up looking like a fool.  She might be going to her death, but apparently still cared about things like looking silly; Riley took that as a good sign.

The little plane circled the lake twice, building up all the speed it could in that manner.  As soon as Riley angled the plane to be in line with her designated runway, she pushed the throttle up to speed.  The Osprey rose much quicker from the water than Riley had anticipated and she cleared the trees at the opposite end of the lake with ease.  It turned out that circling the lake like she had wasn’t necessary—a manoeuvre they had to do in the Otter—but at least it gave her a bit of a feel for the controls.  Despite the fact she should be saving gas, she circled over the area once, just able to make out the waving figures in the dark.

Riley then pointed the plane’s nose toward Connor’s, and just like that, her family’s cabin and her friends were gone.

***

Riley loved flying at night.  There was just something special about the dark forests racing by below, while the stars shone overhead. Although the stars were already beginning to fade as they competed with the sun just beyond the horizon.  Riley had seen a few sunrises while in the air, and each one held a special place in her heart.  She remembered the first, when she was just a little girl of four.  She couldn’t recall where they were going or where they were coming from, just that they were over the ocean.  She had been sleeping next to Cameron, who must have woken earlier for some reason.  Cameron had shaken Riley profusely until she opened her eyes and looked out of the little window.  Outside, there was nothing but ocean and empty sky all around.  The sun was rising from the sea in a burst of colour, lighting up the line where water met air.  She and her sister huddled together, sharing the window with its special view.  Everyone else in the cabin seemed to be sleeping still, making the moment all the more special.

This sunrise wasn’t as glorious.  It was tainted by low-lying
thunderheads moving in from the east.  Far to the south, more clouds could be seen, but these were the fluffy white kind.  Still, that didn’t mean there weren’t more storm clouds beyond them.

As the sun rose higher, peeking over the curve of the earth, Riley could start to make out land markers.  She was farther from Connor’s than she had planned, but it wouldn’t be too much longer.  To pass the time, she repeated Lauren’s description to herself.  After that, she began going over everything she knew about the prison’s layout.  She would find James Brenner if she could.  Even though he didn’t help them out too much last time, he seemed to be somewhat on their side.  Riley didn’t think she could truly trust him, but could at least get some information out of him.  The hard part would be determining if he was lying to her.  Riley had never been very good at reading people; there were only two people she could read accurately.  The first was Cameron, because that was like looking into a mirror.  The second was Mathias, but he shouldn’t really count.  Everybody seemed to be able to read him like an open book.  Unless he didn’t want you to, that was.  He had the ability to become as understandable as a rock when he needed to, however
, those occurrences were rare.

Riley had actually become so consumed in her own thoughts that she nearly flew right over Connor’s place.  It was unusual for something like that to happen to Riley, and she didn’t like it.  So much of her internal workings had shifted since the Day.

She circled the little airfield and saw something that piqued her interest greatly.  Right where they had left it was Marble Keystone’s Ostra class helicopter.  Either Keystone hadn’t bothered to retrieve it, or, more than likely, something had stopped them.  Riley could come up with two things that could stop them: an uprising in the ranks, or too many zombies.  She hoped it was the uprising, but had to bet on the zombies.  She guided the plane out over another section of woods a fair distance away.  There, she began to circle.  The zombies in the area should be attracted to the sound of the engine, and should gather below her.  Unfortunately, this could also bring in zombies from distances farther away than she’d like, but it was the only way she knew to draw them away from the airfield.

Around and around Riley Bishop droned.  She did so many circles, her head started to spin.  When she began to get queasy, she decided it was enough.  As she turned the plane to face Connor’s airfield again, she glanced down at the small meadow below.  It was so full of zombies that the grass and scraggly bushes couldn’t be seen.  Riley would have to make this quick.

She swooped in for a landing on her brother’s grassy strip, which was already starting to grow too long.  Riley wasn’t sure she’d be able to take off by the time she got back.  Good thing she didn’t plan on using the Osprey again.  Once the engine was killed, and it was safe to do so, Riley popped the dome and scrambled out of the seaplane.  She grabbed all of her equipment in one armload and made a mad dash for the helicopter.  The rear door had been left open and was clear of zombies, but Riley threw everything but her rifle into the front, then doubled back and slammed the rear door shut.  Afterward, she dashed for the edge of the hanger, which wasn’t too far.  Riley had landed the bird near the hanger two weeks ago for the purpose of getting everything and everyone into Connor’s plane with ease.  Now, it turned out to have another benefit as well.

At the edge of the hanger was Connor’s personal fuel pump.  It was expensive to have, but extremely handy, especially because he ran his own air tours company.  Riley pulled several coils of hose off the rack, grabbed the nozzle, and ran back out to the helicopter.  As Riley opened the gas cap, the first of the zombies appeared at the other end of the runway.  The distance made it impossible to distinguish any features, but so far the thing hadn’t seemed to notice Riley yet; it had just shown up because this was the last location the plane sounds had been heard.  The nozzle just reached the helicopter, and Riley began filling it up.  She urged the gas to flow faster, the tank to fill quicker.  She glanced back up the runway and saw that three more zombies had joined the first.  They were making their slow way toward the plane, perhaps realizing it had caused a change of scenery.  These were the dumb ones so far; the ones not fast enough or bright enough to make it to where Riley had circled.  It wouldn’t be much longer before the others showed up; the ones that could run and would spot Riley right away.

Come on, come on!
  Riley wanted to shout at the fuel, but didn’t dare.  When Riley had stolen the helicopter, it had a full tank, but she had forgotten to check the levels when she landed.  She had thought she would never see it again, let alone use it.  Only with a full tank could Riley be sure to make it to the prison.

Gas backwashed out of the tank, overfull.  The smell of it assaulted Riley’s nose.  Either the zombies could smell it too, or they had finally noticed her.  One of them made a sound similar to that of a seagull and began to lurch toward the chopper.  The others began making their own noises and followed suit.  Soon enough, the woods were alive with the sounds of zombies, and the runners would be bearing down on her.

Riley jumped into the cockpit, tossing her rifle onto her gear in the co-pilot seat, and dragged the door shut behind her.  She looked at the controls, momentarily forgetting what everything was, and this time she didn’t have Danny to help her.  The younger Cole had wanted to become a helicopter pilot, so Mathias had snuck out the schematics for the Ostra class chopper and given them to him.  Danny had been so proud of his knowledge.  Riley suddenly remembered everything she knew about helicopters.  Without bothering to strap in or put on the helmet, she pushed the big red go button.  The engine came to life, spurring the zombies on even faster.  She got the blades whirring, but had to wait for them to get going fast enough.  In spite of the fact that it would put the tail blades at risk, Riley wished she were facing the other way.  The direction she was facing now meant she had to watch the horde coming for her.  There were so many. Far more than when she had taken off in Connor’s DHC-3 Otter.  Riley had never seen so many people before.  But these weren’t just people, these were reanimated corpses with only one thing on their rotting minds: to kill Riley.

Finally,
the speed she needed was there.  Forgetting how sensitive the stick was, Riley jolted into the air, throwing herself back into her seat.  The chopper wiggled and shuddered sideways, coasting toward the trees.  Riley pulled higher, drifting over them and pummeling the upper branches with rotorwash.  She got the bird under control and pulled higher, slowly this time.  As she rose, she watched the zombies down below.  They were covering the airfield as they had that tiny meadow.  Some were even climbing trees in an attempt to reach the chopper.  And this was out in the middle of nowhere.  Riley could only imagine the swarms lurking in wait around the city.