Adaptive Instinct (Survival Instinct) (60 page)

“Clear,” one of them near the back hissed.

Boyle unblocked the bus door.  He opened it up and disappeared from view, searching under the bus.  Lauren could just make him out when he stood back up and placed a pair of binoculars to his eyes, looking down the length of the convoy.  Satisfied, he hopped back into the bus.

“Looks like they’re gone,” he told everyone.

A great whoosh of air escaped the lungs of just about everyone.  Many kids started laughing with relief, or finally sobbing from the terror.

“Let’s get that blockage out of the way.  Now,” Boyle ordered the soldiers.

They dispersed from the bus, although one remained just outside the door.  Several soldiers from farther back came jogging up the sides, both to give their reports and to help.

Lauren was kept very busy trying to calm down the children.  Nearly all of them wanted a hug, so she made her way down the bus, comforting each in turn.

“I want to go back to the motel,” Leelo cried into her shirt.

“Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry.  We can’t go back there.”  Lauren stroked her hair.

“Why not?”

“It’s not safe there.”  Lauren turned to address the rest of the bus, realizing that all the kids should hear this.  “We can’t go back to the motel.  I know it’s scary out here—I’m scared too—but where we’re going is much better.  Much safer.  Do you remember when we got attacked in the night?  That could easily happen again.  Where we’re going, that won’t happen.”  Lauren wasn’t so sure it wouldn’t happen, but she needed to be sure for the kids.  “There will be more food too.  And fresher, tastier food.  It’s okay to be scared, but you won’t have to be soon.  You were all so brave today.  I’m proud of each and every one of you.  Just continue to be brave for a little while longer.  Can you all do that for me?  Can you keep being brave?”

The majority of the kids’ heads nodded, and then Lauren continued to go from child to child again, providing more personalized comfort.  She even helped a few locate toys that had been packed away, especially the stuffed animals.  Although she had also hidden under the seats with the kids, Mary seemed to be in a far off place, stroking her bear.  This was probably for the best.

“Everyone in here all right?”  Private Winchester hopped back on the bus just as Lauren took her seat.

“Close enough,” Lauren sighed.

“Okay.  Well the blockage has been moved, we’ll be able to press on shortly.  Does anyone need to pee?”

Lauren stood up and asked everyone on the bus.  A few kids nodded.

“All right, boys, you’ll be with me and fireman Dan on the far side of the bus.  Girls, go with Lauren and Officer Norjek.  They’ll show you where it’s safe to go.”

All the kids that needed to pee got up.  It was at this time that a few admitted they had peed their pants, so they were asked to come along so they could change into what spare clothing they had.  Lauren led the girls off the bus where they met up with the policewoman named Norjek.  Other women from the convoy were also getting out of vehicles to pee; every group had at least one armed woman escorting them.  In the bushes, a few girls were shy about it, but Lauren insisted that they could only ever have the trunk of one tree between them and her.  And that Officer Norjek had to check out the other side of the tree first.

Once the bladders were emptied, the toilet paper buried, and the pants that needed changing changed, everybody got back on the bus.  Lauren performed another head count, getting Jon to do the same, and determined that everyone was still present and accounted for.

“Where do you think so many of them came from?” Jon asked Winchester as they began moving again.

“Toronto,” Winchester answered.  “My bet is that a whole pile of Torontonians headed north.  Now, the faster zombies were able to keep up, but those were all the slow ones left behind.  Since they were headed north to begin with, they probably just kept going, swarming over any poor sap left behind by those fleeing.”

“So all those zombies are going to head to Leighton?” Lauren asked, concerned.  She couldn’t think of anything else to the north of where they were.

“Very likely, yeah.”

Hundreds of the things had passed them by, and who knew how many were travelling through the trees or up busier roads and highways?  Lauren prayed for everybody still back there.  They had no idea what kind of monstrosity was headed their way.

***

Hour after hour dragged by.  The only other time they stopped again was when enough people had expressed a need to pee.  A few times, they had spotted groups of zombies, but never in the kind of horde that had passed by before.  The groups had always been small enough for them to blast through.  They also didn’t run into any more blockages like the last one.  In spite of there rarely being a straight path down the road, they could always weave around, push through, or even drive a bit off road to get by.

When the forests and
farmlands gave way to suburbia, a terrified excitement buzzed in the bus.  Everyone was scared because there were bound to be more zombies here, but they were also excited because it meant they were closer to their destination.  It was also exciting for many of the kids because they hadn’t seen suburban housing in roughly two weeks.  The motel in the woods had been an essentially foreign place to them.  These houses, although in a different city, were laid out in familiar patterns and routes.

The houses quickly began to disturb Lauren.  All over the place, windows were shattered.  Cars were abandoned in unusual places, or smashed into poles, other cars, trees, and even a few of the houses.  The mesh hanging from a basketball net waved in the light breeze, a corpse still clinging to the top of the post where the person had taken refuge and died.  Road hockey nets were set up on one street; the sticks, balls, and gloves were abandoned between them while a burnt house smouldered in the background. 
Help
was spray painted on a roof, but no one was up there, and all the windows of the house below were broken.  Here was a turned over tricycle, there was a shotgun surrounded by expended shells.  A flag flown at half-mast, a car through a picture window, a torn-up rose bush scattered across a lawn, a naked dead body in the street, a dog running past with a leash dragging behind it, and everywhere smoke and the smell of dead flesh.

Lauren couldn’t look anymore.  She held tightly onto Peter, who was playing with a pair of blocks in her lap.  Claire was asleep beside her, her head on Lauren’s shoulder.  Across the aisle, Jon stared at his hands.  As she looked back, Lauren saw that nearly every kid was avoiding the windows, where they had first been so riveted by the suburban sights.

“Are we almost there?” Lauren turned and asked Winchester.

“Soon.  Maybe ten, fifteen more minutes,” he answered.

Lauren nodded and went back to watching Peter smack his two wooden blocks together. 
Clack, clack, clack,
were some of the few sounds on the bus.  She thought about playing another game with the kids, or starting another song, but she couldn’t muster the energy to do it.  They rode the rest of the way in a whispered silence.

***

It was impossible not to get excited when the airport finally loomed ahead.  They wove through crowded roads, scraping past the vehicles of those who had tried and failed to escape the city by plane.  It was obvious that a path had been cut through for them by someone else.  Cars were shifted and jammed together in ways they hadn’t been on other roads.  That and the shear volume of cars suggested a high improbability for a pathway to appear naturally.

The Hummer in front of their bus passed through a massive chain link fence that was topped with barbed wire.  Signs on the fence announced that it was electrified, although the current had probably stopped running through it quite
a while ago.  Lieutenant Boyle stood by the fence, holding the gate open for everybody.

On the other side of the fence, they entered a massive field of cement.  With so much space, their bus could move alongside the Hummer and give everybody a good view.  They were on the tarmac.

Monstrously huge hangers loomed to one side, a 747 hooked up in one for repairs that would never be completed.  Hulking masses of planes towered over their vehicles as they drove along.  Some of the planes were a smaller kind, nestled amongst the behemoths, but it seemed like the smaller the plane, the more likely it was to be gone.  Probably easier to escape in, needing only a small crew.

Lauren had flown places before, but seeing the planes so close and from ground level was an entirely different experience.  She felt like a child again, wondrous and amazed.  The kids were ecstatic.  At first, they had been silent, too amazed to speak, but then they began shouting to each other, pointing out all the awesome stuff.  The vehicle had gone from a silent hearse, to a school bus again.

“There’s our ride.”  Their paramedic driver pointed out through the windshield.

Lauren leaned forward for a better look.  Out on the tarmac, like monstrous beached whales, were two massive 747 planes.  They sat as closely together as possible, facing each other and overlapping, with their noses next to one another.  As the convoy got closer, people could be seen hanging around the landing gear.  Lauren’s first thought was that they were zombies, but they started to wave in a friendly manner.  These were other survivors.  The vehicles rode up and parked not far from the planes.  The other survivors began walking toward them, smiles on their faces.  Lieutenant Boyle rode up on Jon’s bike to greet them.  After a few words were exchanged, he waved for everyone to climb out.

“All right, kids!” Winchester ordered as they bounced in their seats.  “Stay with your buddy and stay close to Lauren and me, okay?  We don’t want anyone getting lost or separated.”

The other soldiers and their driver got out first, lugging the big supply bags with them.  Once they were out and all the kids’ things were repacked into their own bags, Lauren got them to stand up.  She carried Peter off the bus and did a headcount outside the door.

The kids all grouped together, excitedly bouncing up and down, looking at the massive planes and all the space that surrounded them.  When Lauren looked to the new survivors, she saw most of them looking at the kids.  One woman was in tears at the sight of them.  They probably hadn’t seen such a large herd of children in awhile.

Mobile steps were driven up against the sides of both planes, and the doors popped open.  All the survivors who had been living in the planes came out to meet the new people.  Lauren’s group was vastly larger than
theirs was and they were ecstatic to see so many live faces.  They had only three kids among the lot of them.

After the important introductions were made, some men got into the vehicles to drive them over near the buildings, out of the way for when they would take off.  The kids loved being in such a massive, open space, so Lauren let them play a game of freeze-tag, provided they didn’t go too closely to the landing gear.  Having all their armed guards around and being able to see anything coming from a long way off, Lauren felt very safe.  There was a man with binoculars on each wing providing an even earlier warning system.

“All right, I think we should get them settled inside.”  Winchester finally walked over.  “We’re not sure when the others are going to get here, but we want to be ready to go when they do.  Besides, I’m sure they’re hungry for a real meal.”  On the bus, they had eaten mostly snack foods.

“Okay kids, locate your buddy!  We’re going to check out the inside of the plane, find some seats, and get some food.  What do you say?” Lauren called to them.

Some groaned, having too much fun, but they all obeyed.

At the top of the huge flight of steps, a man in a rumpled pilot’s uniform greeted them.

“I’m Forrest, I’ll be your pilot when we take off,” he said.  He introduced himself to all the kids when they came up, telling them that they could see the cockpit later if they wanted.  Many of them liked that idea, especially Jason.

“We’re going to be flying?” Leelo asked as they found seats.  All the kids’ seats were along the right side of the plane and there was much arguing over who got the window seats.

“Yes, that’s why we’re here.”

“I don’t like flying.”  Leelo sounded genuinely frightened.

“But flying’s fun,” Jason told her.  “I got to fly all the way to India once when my cousin got married there.  It took so long, that we slept on the plane, and they showed movies on these screens.  Have you ever flown?”

“No, but I don’t like heights.”  Leelo was one of the only kids who didn’t want a window seat.

“You’ll be fine then, especially if there’s clouds.  When you fly over clouds, it’s like sailing on a ship through snow.”

“Really?”  Leelo looked at him sceptically.

“I promise.”

“Will you hold my hand if I get scared?”

“Of course.”

Lauren gave Jason a smile of gratitude as he led Leelo to find them a pair of seats.  He and Jon had both been really big helps.  She would have to find some way to thank them.

As she took her seat and a real stewardess came around with dinners for them, Lauren looked out the window.  She couldn’t help but think about Leighton and that massive horde of zombies heading toward it.  Wherever Abby might be, Lauren prayed she didn’t run into them.