The Alpha Plague 3 (18 page)

The next branch Rhys stood on bowed beneath his weight and he instantly jumped back. He’d climbed high enough. When he looked down to see Larissa his stomach lurched and he only saw darkness. Hopefully she hadn’t moved on without him.
 

The call of the diseased had grown louder still. He should have just kept going. Why did he think climbing a tree would be a good idea? It was like his five year old self had taken control of his senses when he’d been on the ground.
 

For most of the climb the woody smell of tree filled Rhys’ sinuses but then he caught a whiff of something else. Maybe not even something else, maybe the same woody, dusty smell of his surroundings but soured slightly. Another sniff and he caught it again. The slight rotten vinegar kick of the diseased had a way of curdling every scent, almost as if their festering wounds permeated their surroundings.

Reluctance tugged on his limbs, but now that Rhys had climbed this high he had to see. He reached out and pulled a couple of branches aside. He saw the road behind them and the sight damn near ripped his stomach out. His dizziness returned with a vengeance and he lost the strength in his legs again.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

About forty minutes ago

The mob of diseased, at least two hundred members deep, paused and stared at Vicky and Flynn. Vicky wrung the steering wheel and her pulse hammered when they screamed. Seconds later they rushed toward them. “Oh fuck.”

After she’d thrown the car into reverse Vicky headed back the way they’d come from. The car shook and wobbled as she reversed at high speed. Maybe she’d done more damage when she’d hit the curb than she first thought. Hopefully the car would hold together long enough for them to get away.
 

When the road widened she yanked the wheel left until it locked. The front end of the car swung and the tyres screeched as the vehicle whipped around one hundred and eighty degrees.

Vicky’s hand shook as she fumbled with the gear stick and shifted the car into first. The car’s wheels spun as she accelerated away back in the direction they’d come from.
 

When they came to the dead end road on their left that they’d hidden down earlier Vicky almost went past it. But at the last minute she hit the brake and turned hard into it. The sudden drop in sped shot Flynn forward in his seat and he hit the dashboard with a
crack.
The boy held his head but he seemed okay.

Vicky returned her attention to the road ahead and the wall at the end of it. It didn’t matter where she went because London had fallen. The helicopter that had dropped the diseased had without a doubt succeeded in infecting the place. Her only hope would be to lure the monsters after her and then give them the slip.

When she looked in her mirror she saw the first of the diseased appear at a full sprint behind her.

With the wall directly in front of them Vicky accelerated down the quiet street. She watched the tachometer redline but did nothing to change it.
 

When she got close to the end of the road she turned a sharp right and pulled the handbrake up. With sweaty and aching hands she had to hold on extra tight so as not to lose control of the car. The tyres skidded as the car snapped sideways and crashed into the wall at the end with a
crunch
. The impact ran a violent snap through her body and shook Flynn in his seat, but the wall held. It left Flynn unable to get out of his side of the car.

Vicky popped her seatbelt free and held her hand out to the boy. “Come on we need to go.”

As Flynn hopped over Vicky popped the door open and kicked it wide. The screams and roars of the diseased sounded twice as loud.

Once outside the car Vicky lifted Flynn onto the roof. The thunder of hundreds of feet hammered a war cry that descended on them. Their roars damn near deafened Vicky.

Vicky had to shout to be heard. She pointed at the wall she’d wedged the car up against. “You need to climb over that now. I’m coming straight after you.”

So close she could smell their rotten stench, Vicky turned around to look at the wall of insanity as it bore down on them. Open mouths, bloody eyes, flailing arms. She stepped onto the car’s wing mirror and boosted herself onto the roof as she watched Flynn disappear over the wall.

Once on top of the car she peered over to find Flynn. He’d gripped onto the top of the wall but hadn’t let go. With no more than a metre drop Vicky looked back at the diseased before she turned on him again. “Let go, Flynn.”

“No, I can’t.”

“Let go. If you don’t I can’t climb over.”

Another shake of his head and Flynn stared at Vicky.
 

She grabbed both of his wrists and pulled him away from the wall. She then lowered him down until he had about half a metre drop. When she let him go he screamed.
 

The first of the diseased crashed into the side of the car with a loud
boom
and the vehicle shook beneath Vicky’s feet. A second later and they’d swarmed around it. The car shook some more as they bashed and thumped it. Vicky hopped up and straddled the wall.

Just before she lifted her leg over the other side she heard the screech of car tyres. A glance up the road and exhaustion overwhelmed her when she saw the flame red sports car.

The diseased crammed the street but Brendan drove through them regardless. The man obviously cared more about revenge than he did his own well-being. Some moved but it still sounded like the man had hit a line of cones when Vicky heard the
thud, thud, thud,
of diseased bodies meeting the car’s bumper.

Vicky nearly pissed herself when she locked eyes with the crazed Brendan. Just before he got to the end of the road she lifted her leg over the wall and dropped down onto the other side.

Flynn had waited for her. The street on this side seemed quiet.
 

A
crash
sounded. Brendan must have driven straight into Vicky’s car.

When Vicky heard the car door open on the other side of the wall she tugged on Flynn’s hand. “Come on, let’s go.”
 

The pair ran away.

***

The virus seemed to have spread to most of the suburb’s residents already. To try and outrun it would be madness so Vicky looked for somewhere to hide.

At that moment the phone Vicky had taken from the diseased in the last town rang. She grabbed Flynn’s small hand and darted down an alleyway. After she’d pressed the answer button she fought to level her breath and said, “Hello.”

“Vicky? Where the fuck are you?” Rhys said.

She lowered her voice and gasped. “I’m
trying
to get away from Brendan. I can’t see him, but he hasn’t given up on our trail. The guy’s a
psychopath
.”

The diseased on the other side of the wall roared. Hopefully they had Brendan.

“Is it bad where you are too?”

For a moment Vicky didn’t reply. She finally said, “London’s fallen, Rhys. It’s fucked. When I was waiting for you in the police car I saw a helicopter fly over with a cage of those creatures. I think they’ve dropped the disease onto it. Flynn and I have to turn around and head back toward Summit City.”
 

“Flynn’s okay is he?”
 

After she looked at the shocked and dishevelled boy Vicky said, “He’s fine.”

Vicky heard Larissa in the background. “Let me speak to him.”

“Focus on driving, Larissa,” Rhys replied. “Vicky, we need to think of somewhere we can meet.”

“I agree. We need to go south too because there’s nothing left of London.” She listened to the diseased and moved off again down the tight alleyway. “How about Biggin Hill Airport?” Vicky said. “There’s an old industrial estate next to it. I can’t imagine there’ll be many of the diseased there.”

More screams sounded out behind Vicky, and when she rounded the next corner her entire body sank at the sight of yet another dead end.
 

“Okay,” Rhys said
.
“We can get to Biggin Hill Airport. Can you meet us there in an hour?”

Vicky looked at the tall brick wall that barred their way and tried to keep the sound of panic from her voice when she finally said. “Yes, I can.”

“Can we speak to Flynn?”

Vicky continued to watch the wall as she handed the phone to Flynn.

“Dad?”
 

His shrill voice called out in the night and Vicky nearly snatched the phone away from him. Instead she pressed her finger into her lips and glared at the boy.

Flynn lowered his voice to a whisper. “I’m
scared
, Dad.”

The boy listened into the phone for a few seconds before he shouted again, “Mum!”

So shrill Vicky lashed out without thinking. She caught the boy’s small hand and knocked the phone from it. The handset hit the hard ground with a
crack
that echoed in the tight alleyway. When Flynn stared at Vicky, his entire body slumped, she said, “You were making too much noise. Do you want to give us away?”

Flynn opened his mouth to reply but before he could get the words out, Brendan’s deep voice echoed in the tight space. “Too late for that, my pretties. Did you
really
think you could get away from me?”

When Vicky peered around the corner she saw the dirty man just metres from them as he limped up the alley.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Although dark that evening Rhys didn’t need much light to comprehend what was behind them. The thin sliver of moon painted a silver highlight over what looked like thousands, maybe tens of thousands of heads moving at a steady jog. Although uncoordinated they travelled as an army hell bent on destruction. This world would be theirs. With the strength drained from his legs Rhys froze as he watched the sheer force that bore down on them.

Blind because of the dark Rhys slipped off the first branch and landed awkwardly. He whacked his shin and the sharp sting ran straight to his stomach. A deep breath and he continued down.
 

On his way to the bottom he misjudged where every branch would be. Each slip resulted in another whack and another instant bruise.
 

When he got close to the ground Rhys slipped again. The next branch caught him with an uppercut beneath his chin and fire roared through his tongue as he bit into it. Stars swam in his vision and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. An angry pulse throbbed in the cut. He spat out the contents of his mouthful and continued down.
 

With the ground just a few metres away he jumped. Another branch lifted his shirt up and raked his back. He wanted to rub the burn but he didn't have time. When he landed next to Larissa he said, “We’ve got to go.
Now
!”

While he heaved for breaths Rhys felt the wide-eyed scrutiny from his ex-wife.

“What did you see?” she asked.

With blood in his mouth there was no good way to rehydrate his throat as he moved off and croaked, “We’ve … got to … go … now.”
 

Larissa followed him.

About twenty metres down the road Larissa asked again. “What did you see, Rhys?”

Another deep breath and he finally found his words. “A fuck load of diseased,”—he paused—“and they’re running this way. I don’t think we can out pace them forever but maybe we can get to Biggin Hill before them.”

After she’d looked behind Larissa swallowed and nodded. “Okay, let’s speed it up.”

With the city aglow on their right Rhys searched and saw the sign on their left; the next exit led to Biggin Hill. A check behind and although he saw nothing, he heard them for sure, the groans of torment … of agony … of
hunger
.
 

The pair ran up the slip road and followed the signs to Biggin Hill. “I don’t know what we’ll do if we bump into more of them up here,” Rhys said.

Larissa shook her head. “We can’t think like that. We just need to keep going.”

The groans behind them got louder with every step. “I can’t keep this up,” Rhys said. “Biggin Hill’s too far. We need to do something different. We’re not going to outrun them.”

When Larissa pointed, Rhys looked over and saw it as well, a car park full of cars. One of the overflow car parks for Summit City it served as parking for those who’d yet to be given a permit to get into the city. They left their cars here and got a bus into work. Rhys looked at it and frowned. “What’s your point?”

Larissa didn’t reply. Instead, she ran at the car park and Rhys followed.
 

The wall around the outside stood less than a metre high. Enough to stop the cars from being driven out, it didn’t need to be any higher. Larissa hurdled it and Rhys followed behind much slower. He winced as he stepped over the low barrier.

When the screams behind sounded louder than ever Rhys looked and saw a few of the diseased at the front of the pack. “Larissa,” he said. When she looked at him he pointed over his shoulder.
 

Once she saw them she instantly dropped to the ground.
 

Rhys did the same and hit the road so hard it stung his elbows and knees; like he needed any more fucking bruises.
 

They rolled under one of the cars in the lot.
 

Closer than they’d been in years, Rhys lay so near to Larissa he felt her body heat. The strong smell of oil surrounded them as they both recovered from the short run. “So what’s your plan?” Rhys asked.

Larissa raised her eyebrows. “I hadn’t really thought it through. I knew we needed somewhere to hide and this seemed like as good a place as any.”

“Are you fucking
kidding
me? I would have been better up the tree. At least we know the diseased can’t climb. If they see us here we’re fucked.” More blood had run into Rhys’ mouth. The rich metallic taste flipped a heave through his stomach. After turning his tongue against itself to probe the slimy cut he spat on the ground next to him.

For a few seconds Larissa watched where he’d spat with a look of disgust before she said, “What else could we do? We tried running and they’ve caught up. Your plan to keep moving hasn’t worked. At least they haven’t seen us yet, and we’re not far from the airport.”