The Survivors (Book 1): Summer (25 page)

As I was returning to the front of the queue to check on the guys, something in the distance caught my attention.
 I stretched up as tall as I could and I shielded my eyes against the sun.  Something was moving, and moving with far more vigour than a cow or a sheep.

"
Guys."  The low, urgent tone of my voice got their attention immediately.  "Did any of you bring binoculars?"

Without a word, Michael drew a pair out of his vest and handed them to me.
 They were small with a low magnification, but they were enough.  I focused on the movement in the distance, and then swore softly.

"
We have a pig incoming," I told them softly, keeping my voice low and calm to disguise my concern.  Then, something else caught my eye, another flash of movement.  Smaller and quicker – and running for its life.  My whole body tensed.  "It’s chasing a person!"

"
A living person?"  Michael strained to see what I was seeing, which was a solitary survivor fleeing from 350 kilograms of rampaging, infected pork.

"
Definitely alive – for the moment."

The others looked at me for guidance, but I wasn’t sure what to tell them.
 If I were on my own, I wouldn’t have stood a chance so I would have had to leave that survivor to his fate.

But between the four of us, though…

I looked amongst them, and saw faces that ranged from determination to fear.  It was Michael that made the decision for us, though, in that soft, deep, commanding voice he used when he’d made up his mind about something.  

"
We can’t just leave him to die."

We all nodded, and I battled a mixture of relief and terror.
 We were going to fight a pig.  A massive, undead, rampaging wild boar.  This was madness.  

Still, someone needed to organise us now that the decision was made, and they were all looking at me.

"Doctor Cross, I would appreciate if you stayed with the girls."  I glanced at him, and saw his relief.  "You’re our last line of defence in case the worst happens."  He nodded his agreement and moved off, leaving me with Michael and Ryan.

I turned to them and pointed at the gun Ryan held.
 "That little peashooter won’t do anything more than piss it off.  If it gets close to you, use the axe."  

He nodded.
 I turned and handed the shotgun to Michael.

"
What about you?"  Michael looked concerned as he took the weapon, but I just smiled and pulled out my taser.

"
I’m bait," I answered with a giddy kind of confidence that was based more on bravado than real courage.  "Remember, these things charge.  They’re much stronger and faster than they look, but they can’t turn quickly.  Stay light on your feet."  Suddenly, I was feeling almost buoyant, charged full of adrenaline – ready to do the impossible.

The survivor saw us and turned, pelting towards us as fast as his legs would carry him.
 The paddocks were uneven and full of hidden obstacles; I silently prayed he wouldn’t lose his footing.  If he fell, the creature would be on him in a heartbeat.

The taser cracked to life in my hand.
 I strode forward, and felt the two men fall into place on either side of me with their weapons at the ready.  

"
Be prepared to scatter," I told them softly, calmly.  "We should be able to confuse it.  It won’t have much of a brain left."

The stranger was shouting and waving at us, so I waved back and gestured for him to keep coming.
 He was close enough now that I could see the sweat glistening on skin the colour of milky coffee.  I wondered how long he'd been running for, because he looked close to collapse.

The pig was hot on his heels, its head down and snorting furiously.
 Then it saw us, and it squealed a terrible sound.  The running figure was forgotten as it turned its attention onto us.

"
Wait for it."  I kept my voice low and soft, to keep them calm.

The creature stopped and stared at us, making the kind of noises that would echo in my nightmares forever.
 Low, deep squeals, sounds that no pig should ever make.  It stomped its hoof, slowly swinging its head from side to side.

The horrid thing was already half decomposed, with innards hanging out in places and patches of muscle lay bare beneath tattered skin.
 Its spinal column stuck out, white and naked against rotted flesh.  I focused on that, and flexed my fingers on the taser.

Then, suddenly, it charged.

The three of us scattered in a neat three-pronged formation, just as we planned.  The men with the guns put distance between themselves and the pig, while I cut it so fine that I could smell the pig’s terrible stink as it barrelled past me.  I struck without hesitation, and jabbed my taser at the exposed bone of its spine.  Electricity surged along the biological conduits intended for an entirely different kind of current, and the creature screamed.

It was slow to turn towards me, hindered by my attack.
 As I retreated, Ryan darted in and struck at it with the axe, swinging the weapon overhead with all the strength in his one good hand.  He struck in the same place that I had, aiming for the exposed bone, but he missed and the axe bounced off.

The shotgun roared a moment after Ryan retreated, peppering the beast’s side with hot shrapnel.
 It screamed again, a terrible, blood-curdling sound.  It was turning on the spot, almost spinning in place, struggling to decide which of us to charge first.

It chose Michael.

The pig took him by surprise and bowled him over, knocking the breath out of him.  It was on him in a second, and he barely had the chance to get the gun up in time to defend himself.  It bit down on the shaft of the gun, which did little damage to the weapon itself but it prevented him from firing and forced him to twist himself awkwardly to keep out from beneath trampling hooves.

Ryan and I leapt forward and went on the offensive.
 I struck it behind the ear with my taser, while Ryan hacked away at its spine.  Finally, one of his blows slid between the vertebrae and severed its spinal cord.

The pig’s hind-quarters collapsed, distracting it for the few seconds that Michael needed to yank his gun around into position to fire.

The shell exploded in the pig’s mouth, and penetrated the soft membrane at the back of its throat.  Shrapnel exploded within it, and sent hot shards scattering about, dicing what was left of its brain.

The pig died unceremoniously, and this time its death was permanent.

It took all our combined strength to drag Michael out from beneath the corpse before it collapsed, but we got him free just in time.  I was relieved to find he was uninjured aside from some bruises and the ringing in his ears from the shotgun blast so close.  He shook his head to clear it as we hauled him to his feet, then we looked down at the pig with a mixture of amusement and confusion.

Then Michael looked up and grinned at us both.

"Bacon, anyone?"

***

It felt amazing to laugh together, all of us feeling the rush of victory.  We made our way back to our convoy together, slapping each other on the back and administering high fives all around.

When we arrived, we found the stranger leaning against one of our vans, talking to Skylar and Dr Cross.
 He looked exhausted and was out of breath, but as we drew closer we could hear his words.

"
—sickness.  They sent a couple of us out looking for a treatment.  Then the fucking pig—"

"
What are the symptoms?"  Dr Cross interrupted him, adjusting his glasses absently.  His face was already set in the scowl he wore when he was thinking about something intensely.

"
Diarrhoea mostly, you know, real nasty diarrhoea.  Vomiting.  Some of them have a fever."  The kid glanced back over his shoulder and his expression brightened when he saw us closing in.  "Hey!  Oh man, I owe you fullas my life.  I don’t know what I woulda done if you hadn’t been here."

"
Glad to help, mate." Michael took the lead and approached the stranger with an extended hand.  The youth grabbed it and shook it enthusiastically, reaching out with the other to clap him on the shoulder.

"
I can’t believe that fucking pig, man.  I heard about them on the news but never seen one before.  It bowled me right off my bike.  Hell, you folks are heroes!"

"
Hell’s the word for it; that was one scary bundle of demon-pork," Michael agreed, then he glanced back at me and gave me one of those smiles that made my heart race.  "Luckily for all of us, we have an expert along."

I felt my cheeks burn
, but I hung back and sidestepped behind Ryan.  My inner paranoia warned me away from the stranger-danger, but the others seemed relaxed and the stranger looked friendly, so I wasn’t in too much of a panic.

"
An expert?  Damn.  You’re real lucky."  The stranger shook his head and ran a hand back through his tight black curls.  "Bro, I’m still freaked out."

"
You and me both," Ryan commented dryly, then shot a curious look at me when he realised that I was hiding behind him.  "Let’s not do that again anytime soon."

"
Agreed."  The stranger nodded, then extended his hand to Ryan as well.  "Hey, I’m Hemi."

"
Ryan." The redheaded youth awkwardly shook the offered hand with his one good one, and then he proceeded to introduce the rest of us.

"
So what are you doing out here?"  Michael asked curiously, and shot a glance at the doctor.  "You were saying something about a sickness?"  

"
He was telling me that his
whanau
live near here, and that a lot of them have been getting sick recently," the doctor piped up with the information he knew, and then Hemi nodded exuberantly.

"
Yeah, man.  Real nasty sick in the stomach.  Puking and crapping all over the place."

Now there was a pleasant thought.

"Did you get sick, young man?"  The doctor fixed Hemi with an intense, wary look.

"
Nah, I’m good.  That’s why I volunteered to go looking for medicine."

"
I’m rather relieved to hear that." I peered at the youth with natural suspicion, but he didn’t seem to mind.  He just laughed and nodded.

"
Me too, man.  Me too."

"
So, you guys have a community?"  Skylar suddenly joined the conversation, her curiosity getting the better of her at last.

"
Yeah, there’s about a dozen of us.  We built us a
pa
southwest of here."  He used the Maori word for a fortified town, but it was a word that most of us were familiar with from the time before the plague.  Then he looked around at us and gave us a lopsided smile.  "We can trade, if you have medicine.  We’ve got cows and sheep, so we can trade beef, milk or lamb.  Or wool, if any of you guys are knitters.  Maybe other things, depends what you want."

"
Weapons?"  Yes, that was me.  Surprise, surprise.  I felt exposed, like we needed more to protect ourselves.

"
Guns?"  He shook his head.  "Nah, sorry.  We only have one old rifle and we use it for hunting.  A few knives, but nothing good for fighting with."

Damn.
 Couldn’t blame a girl for trying.

"
It’s okay."  Michael shrugged.  "If we can help you, we will.  You can return the favour later.  It’s more important to get your people feeling better."

Hemi’s eyebrows shot up, and he gave Michael a long, sideways look.
 So did I for that matter.  We had the opportunity for trade, and he was willing to just give away our advantage?

As though reading my mind, Michael looked back at me and gave me one of his sweet smiles.
 I melted a little bit, and smiled back; his smiles were so addictive.

"
That’s generous man, real generous."  Hemi bobbed his head thoughtfully as he mulled it over, then he flashed another one of his lopsided grins.  "Not a lot of trust left in this world, but I ain’t gonna say no when the
whanau
need help, you know.  Appreciate it, guy.  We owe you one."

Michael nodded, and gestured for the doctor to do his thing.

While Dr Cross spoke to the young man in great detail about all kinds of colours and consistencies I didn’t want to think about, Michael drew me aside.  Together, we walked to the front of the convoy, and put the Hilux between ourselves and the others.

Once we were alone, he took my hand in his and drew me in close to him.
 The kiss was quick and feather-light, for fear of sneaking Skylars hunting us down.

"
You were amazing out there." His voice was a breathless murmur as he wrapped his arm around my waist to draw me up against his lean frame.

"
Me?"  I was bewildered by the compliment.  "You were the one that killed it."

"
No,
we
killed it, with teamwork. " He slipped his other arm around my shoulders, and his fingers softly caressed the back of my neck. "But you... you were magnificent.  So confident and graceful.  I didn’t know you had it in you."