Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel (60 page)

Riley groaned and put her hands on her forehead, doing what minimum steering had to be done with her elbows.  This was going to be the longest drive of her life.  If her guns were up front with her rather than in back with the supplies, she would have been sorely tempted to shoot LeBlanc.  Right in the foot too.

“Do you think we’ll be driving at great speeds anytime soon?”  Cole turned to her and asked once LeBlanc had stopped shaking their ride.

“Does it look like we’ll be?”  Riley gestured out the windshield, turning her frustration on Cole.  She knew it was misplaced the moment it came out of her mouth, but she couldn’t help it.

“No, but I thought I’d ask.  I have to take a piss, and I figured you wouldn’t want me going in here.  I’m going to jump out, do my business, then run and catch up.”  Cole grabbed the door handle, taking Riley’s dark moods in stride.

“Fine.”  Riley shrugged, trying to ease off a little.  “Just take your rifle with you in case something happens.”

“Yes, ma’am.”  Cole opened his door and hopped out into traffic.  He dodged around the slow moving vehicles as he made his way to the side of the road.

“So
,” LeBlanc climbed into the front seat,  “it’s just you and me now.”  He raised his eyebrows in a suggestive way.

Riley turned her head and looked at the bald man in the convertible.  She was trying so hard to keep her anger in check, and it seemed like all LeBlanc wanted to do was bring it out.  It was easier to look at the pompous man next to them with his slowly sunburning head than it was to see LeBlanc’s smug grin.

“Seriously though,” LeBlanc’s tone took a sudden change,  “do you really think Cole’s brother will end up in the same place we’re going?”

“I have no idea.”  Riley turned slightly so she could see LeBlanc’s reflection in the glass.  His face actually held a serious expression to match the serious tone of voice, so she turned all the way around.

“His little bro means the world to him.  They’re the only family each other have.”  LeBlanc looked out the window quickly, probably checking on where Cole was.

“Why is that?  What happened to their parents?”  Riley knew she probably shouldn’t pry, but at least it seemed like a decent topic of conversation; something she didn’t expect to get a lot of with this man.

“It’s not my place to say, but I can tell you he’s had it rough.  It’s probably left some irreparable damage along the way too.  He may seem happy and light-hearted, but I know better.  The fact that we still might run into Danny is probably all the guy is holding onto.  If he asks if you believe that Danny will show up, you tell him you think there’s a good chance.”

“But I think there’s a poor chance of that.”  Riley had always preferred honesty.  It was, after all, considered the best policy.

“It doesn’t matter what you actually think,” LeBlanc gave her a hard look and a cold voice.  It actually made her somewhat uncomfortable to be next to him just then.  “You tell him there’s a good chance or else there’s a good chance we’ll lose him.  If we lose him, I’ll make sure you get lost as well.  Get it?”

Riley got it.  “You care a lot about him, don’t you?” she decided to divert the topic somewhat.

“Of course I do,” LeBlanc’s voice became chipper again.  His expression could change like the flip of a light switch could change the look of a room.  “He’s my best mate.  He’s saved my ass a few times, I’ve saved his ass more…”  He glanced out the window.  “Speaking of his ass, here it comes.  Oh!  Almost got hit by a pissed off driver.  And now I bet that pissed off driver just pissed his pants ’cause Cole pointed his rifle at him,” he chuckled.

Cole suddenly popped up next to the passenger window.  He was standing on the ambulance’s side runner.  LeBlanc rolled down the window.

“LeBlanc, get back in the back.”  Cole made a shooing gesture.

“I refuse to ride in the back of the bus!” LeBlanc put on an indignant voice with a southern accent.

Riley had to hand it to him; he would’ve made an excellent voice actor.  She wondered if his normal Irish accent was real or put on.  Some of the voices he put on completely lacked an accent.

“Well, if we were in a bus, I’d let you sit in the front, but as it stands, we’re riding around in an ambulance, so git!”  Cole opened the door and starting pushing LeBlanc.

“You make an excellent point.”  LeBlanc scrambled back between the seats.

“He didn’t harass you too much, did he?” Cole asked Riley as he settled into the passenger seat and shut the door.

“No more than usual.”  Riley justified to herself that that was the truth, since he
had
bothered her when he first climbed up there.

“Are you sure?  ’Cause I can always go back there and wallop him,” Cole offered holding up a solid looking fist.

Riley didn’t know if he was serious or not.

“You?  Wallop me?  I’d like to see that,” LeBlanc laughed.

Riley sighed and checked on the pedestrian who had been keeping pace.  He seemed to be fatiguing and had dropped back a few paces, unless they were going faster, but that seemed extremely unlikely.  As she turned her attention back out the front windshield, she had to apply the brakes.  They came to a complete standstill.  Although this wasn’t the first time it happened, every time it did worried Riley more.  She understood that one of these times they wouldn’t start forward again.  End of the line, as it were.  Even though the ambulance rode higher than most of the vehicles around it, they had been approaching the top of a ridge and couldn’t see anything beyond it.  A small puff of smoke caused more concern, and then the ensuing pillar of black smoke caused a lot of concern.

“I’m going to check it out,” Cole told her as he slid out of his open window.  Using the window opening as a foothold, he climbed up on top of the ambulance.

When he didn’t say anything right away, and they hadn’t moved, Riley opened her own window, put the rig in park, and scrambled out of it.  Cole saw her climbing up and gave her a hand.  He easily lifted her up beside him.  They stood on the roof of the rig and looked over the traffic.  Up ahead, a large semi had somehow managed to cross all lanes and then tip over.  Not only was it blocking every car from moving forward, it was also on fire, creating an even bigger threat.  A few cars had tried to go around but just got stuck in the ditch.  Riley looked all around, hoping to spot somewhere they could get the ambulance over to the other side of the highway.  As luck would have it, there were no breaks at all in the cement dividers.  Not only that, but the off-ramp ahead of them was on the other side of the turned-over truck, and the on ramp behind them was a long way back.

“Fuck,” was the only word that came to Riley’s mind and subsequently out of her mouth.

Cole’s response was to point at something in the distance behind them.  It took a moment for Riley to figure out what he was pointing at, but then she saw it.  Already, the herd of people was on the move.  She knew they would come eventually, but not this soon.  Far in the distance, but close enough just to make out, was a mass of people threading their way through the stopped traffic.  Even the cars that weren’t stopped on the other side of the highway had a bunch of people walking amongst them.  This was eventually going to cause them to stop as well so even if Riley found a way over there, they might be overtaken by the mob.

One car was still making its way along, though.  A Jeep had driven off the road and had managed not to get trapped in the over-sized drainage ditch.  It now bounced along the uneven ground next to the tree line, causing people around it to scatter like roaches.

“Get back in the ambulance,” Riley told Cole and started to climb down to her window again.

“Why?”  Cole offered a hand to help her down.

She didn’t take it this time and got down on her own.  “Because we need to make a new plan.”

Riley sat behind the wheel for a moment, thinking.  This was a situation she hadn’t spent enough time thinking about.  She always assumed she would know the signs and be able to leave before the masses caught on.  Who was she kidding though?  She never even thought she would see any signs, especially not ones for this.  She should have seen them though.  She was right there in the hospital not only seeing, but sometimes even treating all the bites that came in.  She thought about how many there were, how many people over the last few weeks had come in bitten.  All of them were now biological zombie time bombs just waiting to go off.  Some already had.

Cole slid in through his window and sat sideways, looking at both Riley and LeBlanc.

“What’s going on?”  LeBlanc hadn’t been filled in on the overturned and road-blocking truck.  “Doc Bishop’s got a wickedly intense look going on.  Should I be worried?”

“The highway up ahead is blocked and there seems to be a flood of people coming from the city,” Cole gave him the quick version.

“It’ll only get bigger too,” Riley sighed.  “Everyone in these cars is going to join them.  Some will be infected, and during the walk, they’ll infect others, and then they’ll change and infect a lot more.  Panic will ensue, people will be trampled, and as everyone flees the city, the zombies are sure to follow them.”

“That looked like more people than I’d expect right now though,” Cole voiced Riley’s own thought.

“Word must have gotten out through some sort of media channel about getting out of the city.  Maybe even Keystone told people to go, seeing as they’re the only ones with proper communications right now,” Riley’s voice had gone completely neutral as she got lost in her own head.  She needed to plan.  Stay calm and plan, figure out what to do.

“Could be.  But that’s still a fuck ton.  Shouldn’t more be going south?  To warmer climates?”

“It’s one of the hottest days of summer.  No one is thinking about what the weather will be like a few months from now,” Riley pointed out.  “I’m betting it was Keystone that released the news based on the crowd size.  First of all, because no other broadcast would be able to convince that many people that leaving their homes would be the best thing right now.  Secondly, if word got out that other cities were infected, no one would go south.  The only thing south is Toronto and they’re probably not doing much better than us right now.”

“But why would Keystone warn people now and not earlier?  They’ve known for days, weeks even, that this thing was spreading,” the anger in Cole’s voice pulled Riley out of her reverie.  She hadn’t even been paying attention to what she was saying.

“Try the radio,” LeBlanc pitched in
, “if they are broadcasting, the radio would be picking it up, right?”

Riley pushed the button to turn the radio back on.  They hadn’t tried it since leaving her house.  Almost instantly, a female voice came over the airwaves.

“… Take only what you can carry, and only what you need to survive.  Do not share your food or drink with anyone, as it is impossible to tell if they are infected until the fever kicks in.  If someone you know has a fever, especially if it is a sudden onset, do not approach them.  Keep them separated and even isolated from everyone else.  If you refuse to leave them, keep them contained in a locked room with enough food and water to last three days.  If they haven’t changed by then, then they aren’t infected and it’s safe to have contact with them again.  I repeat, the Marble Keystone Corporation has caused the release of a deadly virus.  Those infected become highly dangerous and infectious to those around them.  Leave the city at once.”

“Who is that?”  Riley looked to Cole and LeBlanc.  She didn’t really think they’d know but asked anyway.

“Chant,” both of them answered at the same time.

It took Riley a moment to realize that Chant was a name.  In fact, it was the name Cole had mentioned to her, the one who had given him the vest.  They sat in silence and continued to listen.  She wasn’t saying anything new that the boys hadn’t already told her, but in the background, you could hear banging and someone shouting. 
Clearly, she wasn’t supposed to be on the radio.  Chant’s message picked up speed as she spoke faster, trying to get all her words, all her information out before whoever was shouting got in.  There was one thing she said that rocked everyone to their core.

“Keystone is responsible.  I know, because I’ve worked for them for years.  They released the virus deliberately, infecting the population at large.  Some sort of clean sweep,” her voice suddenly lost its haste and became sullen, more like she was speaking to herself.  It even broke a few times.  Riley thought she might be crying.  “I’ve known all along and I did nothing to stop it.  I sat by and let it happen.  I helped it happen.  What I’m telling you now could never make up for what I’ve done, but hopefully, at least a few lives can be saved.”

In the background, a large crash and the splintering of wood could be heard.  Someone yelled out Chant’s name.  She said one last thing as if they weren’t even there.

“I’m so sorry.  Good luck.”

There was a roar, a screech of metal, and possibly a scream.  Then there was dead air.

Riley had been watching the boys’ faces.  They had gone pale the moment they heard the roar.

“They burned her,” Cole muttered.

Riley frowned, “What?”

“She told the truth, and they burned her to death for it.  They used the goddamn flame-thrower,” Cole shook his head and looked down at his hands.  If it weren’t for his gloves, his nails would probably have drawn blood, he was clenching them so hard.  A vein stood out in the side of his neck, and he shook with a silent fury.