Mass Extinction Event: The Complete Third Series (Days 46 to 53) (16 page)

Thomas

"This is the most amazing thing ever!" Quinn shrieks from the passenger seat. "It's like we're roving investigators on some kind of amazing road trip, and look! I can even ping the server remotely. We're technological road warriors in a post-apocalyptic landscape. It's almost as if we're living in a movie!"

As I keep my eyes on the road, I can barely even summon the energy to respond. We've been driving through the night, and while Quinn has spent the whole time enthusing about our plans, I can barely keep my eyes open. With the sun having finally risen in a cloudy gray sky, I'm starting to get to the point where I have to sleep if I'm going to keep from driving straight into a ditch. As Quinn taps excitedly at her keyboard, I bring the truck to a halt at the side of the road.

"What's wrong?" she asks, sounding worried. "Thomas, is there a problem with the truck? Do you know how to fix it?"

"No," I reply wearily, barely even able to find the strength to get any words out, "there's not a problem with the truck, there's a problem with me. I need to sleep."

"There'll be time to sleep later," she says dismissively. "Let's keep going for now."

I shake my head.

"Do you want something to eat? Would that help?"

"I need to
sleep
," I tell her again, starting to feel frustrated. Why the hell doesn't she understand?

"Oh, whatever," she replies, playfully punching my shoulder. "Come on, find some more energy from within. Did you know that we have enormous untapped reserves of strength that we never use? Our bodies naturally try to slow us down when we get to the halfway point, but with a little mental strength you can free up those reserves and use them for an extended period. It's a wonderful skill to have. How do you think I manage to remain so perky all the time? Just try to feel the enthusiasm rise up from your soul, Thomas. We'll be in the target zone in another nine or ten hours, you can -"

"I need to sleep," I say again, still staring at the road ahead. "It doesn't matter what you say, okay? You're going to have to drive."

"How?"

I turn to her.

"I can't drive," she continues, with a frustratingly blank look in her eyes, as if I've just asked her to operate a rocket ship or perform brain surgery. "I never learned."

I stare at her.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" she asks. "It never came up! I wouldn't know how to drive this thing if my life depended on it. Everyone has a blank spot in their skill-set, and I'm afraid this is mine. I can do so many useful things, but drive a vehicle? Sorry, no way."

"What about Kaylee?"

"She can't drive either," she replies. "She can't really do much at all at the moment. That's why I made her ride in the back of the truck." She leans closer and lowers her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "She's really just here to bulk up the numbers, you know. She's a bit of a red shirt, if you get my meaning. Still, she was in my dream, and who am I to argue with the forces of the universe?"

"So I'm the only one out of the three of us who can drive?" I ask, genuinely shocked.

She nods.

"Then we're gonna have to take a break, 'cause I need to rest for a few hours."

"You can't, Thomas," she exclaims, setting the laptop aside for a moment and turning to me. "Please, we need you.
Humanity
needs you. We're so close to getting some answers, and I know it's hard, really I do, but we're all having to extend ourselves a little further than we might want, and sometimes you just have to push yourself and summon up the strength from deep within." She pauses, as if she's searching my face for a sign that I agree with her. "Come on," she adds, forcing a smile. "I wouldn't have brought you on this trip if I didn't think you could do it. We're all operating outside our comfort zone here. Don't let the side down."

"You wouldn't have brought me if you didn't need my truck," I point out, "and I wouldn't have come if I thought I'd have to drive for a whole day without stopping. It's physically impossible."

"Your truck?" She lets out a faint laugh. "I could've just stolen your goddamn truck, Thomas. I mean, really, that's hardly a big stumbling block, is it? You've got to think about how the world has changed. People aren't always going to ask your permission when they want to use something. Often, they'll just take it. Hell, property rights have gone right out the window, haven't they? It's survival of the fittest, and the smartest, and the toughest. This truck, like everything else in the world these days, belongs to whoever can take it."

"I'm going to make this very clear for you," I continue, starting to lose my patience. "I can't drive without taking a few breaks every so often. If I try, we'll crash."

She stares at me, and there's a look in her eyes that makes it seems as if she's heart-breakingly disappointed in me. Frankly, her constant enthusiasm is starting to piss me off.

"Fine," I mutter, opening the door and climbing down onto the side of the road. Making my way around to the back of the truck, I find that Kaylee is wide awake, sitting in one corner with her knees drawn up toward her face. She looks terrified, which seems to be her default facial expression, but right now I really don't have the energy to be diplomatic. "You need to drive," I tell her. "It's the only way."

She stares at me.

"Drive!" I shout.

"I don't know how," she says quietly.

"It's really not that hard. There are no other vehicles on the road, so you just have to focus on following the signs and keeping the truck on the road. I'll show you the basics."

"I don't think I can do it..."

"You have to. I need to sleep, and apparently we can't even afford to stop for a couple of hours."

She stares at me, and it's clear that she's stunned by my request. The truth is, I'm too tired to really care about her feelings, and I'm starting to feel annoyed by the fact that both Quinn and Kaylee seem to have been relying on me to do everything. As I wait for Kaylee to show some sign that she's going to help, however, I realize that we probably wouldn't even be safe with her behind the wheel. At the same time, I really don't think that Quinn's going to be much use.

"I don't think I can do it," Kaylee says again.

"What's going on back here?" Quinn asks as she climbs out of the passenger seat and comes around to join us. "Are we having some kind of meeting? We really don't have time for long, meandering discussions, you know. The future of humanity is waiting for us, and even a half hour could make quite a difference."

"Either someone else drives for a few hours," I say, turning to her, "or we stay here while I sleep. There's no way I can keep driving. At this rate, I'm going to fall asleep at the wheel and then we're going to end up crashing. I'm not being lazy or weak, I'm just stating the obvious."

"But -"

"We'll die," I say firmly. "Either that, or we'll get injured, or at the very least the truck'll be wrecked. Can't you at least
try
to drive? It's just steering and choosing the right roads. You can even go a little slower than usual if that helps. Most of it's just about pointing in the right direction."

Quinn opens her mouth to argue with me, but finally a look of irritation reaches her face.

"Fine," she says. "I'll drive. Like you said, it can't be that difficult. I mean, billions of people used to do it. Even though I've got absolutely no experience with vehicles whatsoever, I'll just use my natural skills to work it out as I go along. Hell, a trained monkey could probably drive one of these things."

"It's a manual," I point out.

"A manual what?"

"Gearbox."

"I'm sure I'll work that out just fine," she replies, making her way around to the driver's side. "I pick things up fast, you know. Give me a few miles under my belt, and I'm sure I'll be driving like a professional."

A few minutes later, I'm sitting in the back of the truck as Quinn gets us underway. To my surprise, she doesn't seem to be having any problems at all, and I can't shake the feeling that she was lying when she said she couldn't drive. In fact, I'm convinced that she was just making that claim so she could get out of taking her turn, and now that she's got no choice, she's going to pretend that she's some kind of genius who picked it up in an instant. Settling into the corner, I close my eyes and try to get some sleep as the truck speeds along the road. After a moment, however, I open my eyes and see that Kaylee is staring blankly at me.

"You okay?" I ask.

She nods.

"You want anything?"

She pauses, and then she shakes her head.

Closing my eyes again, I figure I just need to ignore her. It's not as if I'm going to get a decent conversation out of her, no matter how hard I might try. Finally, as I sink into sleep, I find myself thinking again about George making his lonely trek to the north. Sure, he's never going to find what he wants, but at least he believes in something. Right now, I feel as if I'm on some kind of crazy journey with a mad woman and a girl who's borderline catatonic, and I can't shake the feeling that Quinn's not exactly the best person to leave in charge.

Elizabeth

"No!" I scream, still struggling as Toad gets in position next to my ankle. "Someone help me! Please!"

"It'll be over in a couple of minutes," he explains calmly.

Seconds later, I feel the edge of the saw being placed gently against my swollen throbbing ankle. As I try to get free, the blade moves a little and ends up closer to my knee. It's as if he's trying to determine the best place to start.

"You can't do this!" I shout. "I don't give you permission! You can't do this to me without my permission!"

"I'm going to cut here," he continues. "I need to be sure that I'm getting the entire damaged area, so I might end up taking an inch or two more than is necessary. Still, it's the best approach. I know you probably can't understand this, but -"

"If you even touch me," I shout, "I'll kill you!"

"Try to understand -"

"I'll kill you!" I scream, pulling on the rope so tight that it starts digging into my wrists. "I swear to God, I will kill you if you don't let me go! If you do this, and if I get better, I will wait until you're not looking and then I will kill you! I swear to God, I won't let you get away with this!"

I feel him adjusting the blade, getting ready to cut.

"I'll kill you!" I shout again, before breaking into a series of sobs. Tears are running down my face and although I'm still trying to get free, I feel completely helpless. "Please God, don't let him do this," I shout through the tears. "Somebody help me! Anyone! Please!"

Nearby, Rachel has finally started to cry.

"I'm sorry," Toad says calmly.

"Stop!!" I shout. "If you touch me, I swear to God I'll -"

And that's when he starts.

I let out a cry of pain as I feel the blade slice through my flesh and scratch against the bone, a little way below my right knee. To my shock, he immediately starts sawing, and I can feel my entire leg vibrating and throbbing with pain as he grinds the blade through the bone. The pain is beyond anything I've ever experienced in my life, and even though I scream as loud as I can manage, the agony quickly rises through my body until it becomes a kind of white hot flash in my mind, pushing all other thoughts away. For a few seconds, it's as if my personality has been pushed to the edges and the pain has become all of me.

The worst thing is the sound. I can hear the saw squealing as it grinds through my bone, like fingernails being dragged down a blackboard.

After a few seconds, the pain changes, becoming deeper and more intense. I can feel the blade going through the marrow in the center of the bone, and suddenly there's a jarring moment of agony as the saw seems to get stuck. I continue to scream as Toad adjusts his angle and resumes the job, but the pain is now so overwhelming that I can't even think. My eyes are squeezed tight shut and I try to scream even louder in an attempt to drown out the sound of the saw, and finally I feel as if I've reached a point at which it's no longer possible to feel any more pain.

And then I feel something snap in my leg. Something's different, not only about the weight but also the way Toad is holding me. It's as if my body has fundamentally changed. At first, I assume it must be the blade, but as Toad moves away from my leg for a moment, a more horrifying thought hits me.

That was my leg.

It's gone.

"Stop!" I scream, suddenly overwhelmed by a powerful sense of grief. I can't stop thinking about my leg -
my
leg - being take away from me. I want it back.

"It's okay," Toad says, his voice somehow getting through to me.

"Stop!" I scream again, unable to stop sobbing. "Please, stop..."

After a moment, I start to feel something warm and wet flowing from my body, and it takes me a moment to realize that it must be blood. Toad immediately raises my leg and applies a thick bundle of bandages. Opening my eyes, I find that I can barely see; my vision has become blurry, but I can just about make out a bloody red stump, with Toad holding some kind of instrument in his hand as he continues to work on me. The pain is still overwhelming and after a few seconds I tilt my head back and scream at the sky. I feel as if someone has to come and save me, but after a moment I realize that I might have briefly passed out.

"Where are you?" I whisper.

No reply.

"Toad, where are you?"

Again, no reply.

Suddenly I realize that I don't think I said those words out loud. They were just in my head. I try to move my lips, but somehow I seem to have forgotten how to communicate.

"Where are you?" I try to ask again, but it's useless. "Please. Talk to me..."

Looking back down toward the lower half of my body, I see through my blurred eyes that Toad is still working, although he seems to be a lot further along. I blink, trying to improve my vision, and finally I'm able to make out my raised right leg with a thick collection of bandages wrapped around the knee. Toad is frantically working, and eventually I realize that he seems to be trying to sew the edges of my skin together. I stare at him, and for a few seconds the pain seems to dissipate and I feel almost as if I'm watching him work on someone else.

Time seems to slow down.

Rachel is crying, but she sounds as if she's so far away. I can only hope that she doesn't understand what's happening, and that she can't see anything. Even though she's so young, something like this could scar her for life.

"It's okay," Toad says, his voice echoing in my head. "It's all going according to plan. You just have to sit tight."

I try to ask him what he's doing next, but I still can't quite manage to speak.

"You're doing great," he adds.

I open my mouth, trying to speak, but I can feel something moving through my soul. After a few seconds, I realize that it must be the pain. My mind has somehow found a way to block it out, but I know it's going to come back soon, like a huge wave waiting to break and wash over the shore of my consciousness. Holding my breath, I try to push it back, but I can feel my soul starting to strain under the pressure. Finally, it happens: the pain bursts through me and I let out an involuntary scream. I know it's crazy, but I just want someone to come and help me. I don't care who they are, just so long as they get me away from Toad and put my leg back on.

All I can think about is the fact that he should have left me to die. Anything would have been better than this. As another burst of pain rushes through my body, I scream again, and this time I can't stop.