Break Free The Night (Book 2): Loss of Light (22 page)

              "Since they walk and talk and don't foam at the mouth!" Paul shouted. "Marsden, what the hell? You lock this girl up, tell her family she ran, experiment on her-"

              "Why was my Cynthia with you, what did you have her doing?" Rose interjected. Kaylee could see where this was going, where Quinton was gently leading the rest of them. Marsden was edging closer towards the back of the room, back to the door he had snuck through. His group was slowly turning on him, despite his best efforts at inciting them.

              "I know you'd like to think I made her, but I didn't," he sneered. "She kept going on about a cure, or a way to protect us from turning. It's not my fault, I didn't make her-"

              "She was a nurse's aid in a retirement home," Rose interjected wearily. "Terrible at chemistry. How could she have..." her voice trailed off as she shook her head in grief.

              Maggie was supporting her, her face contorted in a strange mix of grief and fury. "You never told us what you were doing in the buildings across the dam, never told us there were infected chained up inside the fence. What if they got out?"

              "They can't," Danny protested.

              Maggie, Rose, Tyler and Mario were all edging closer as Marsden backed away. Disbelief was being overtaken by anger. They knew they had been deceived, probably had known that Marsden was keeping things from them for a long time, but until they were forced to acknowledge it, it hadn't bothered them. Now, Cynthia was dead. Kaylee and her group was larger than the whole of theirs combined. Guns were pointing across the shrinking space of the common room and Andrew was edging closer to the door that led to freedom. Danny's eyes wielded back and forth from Marsden to Kaylee to the advancing group. Marsden looked trapped.

              "I knew you were up to something, that you were a lousy excuse for a human being," Paul started, his voice threatening now. "But I never thought it was something like this, I never thought you'd endanger all of us, our whole setup, pick a fight with a group this big. I never thought you were that stupid."

              Kaylee thought this would be the ideal time for Quinton to speak up, convince the others that their group wasn't looking for a fight, that it wouldn't need to come to that, but he was quiet. His stance was casual, though his gun was steady and still pointed forward. He was waiting them out.

              Mario was muttering in Spanish, low and under his breath. Kaylee wasn't sure that even Anna could pick out what he was saying. Paul's features were twisted in anger, his accusations still heavy in the air. Marsden wasn't quick enough to defend himself.

              "We could have made it work, Marsden," Maggie said, her voice quiet but harsh. "If you had just left all that alone. The fence, the electricity, my chickens and the gardens, we could have made it work. There's so much room. Now..."

              "Where does this leave us now?" Paul continued, his jaw muscles flexing. "I see only two choices. Either they leave, or you do."

              The finality of his tone left a ringing silence in the air of the common room. The whine of electricity and the static of the televisions and computers left on couldn't cover it.

              Danny looked incredulously at the fellows in his group. Marsden blinked. The whole of the rest of the people standing around him were glowering in his direction. He had pushed them there, every one of them, with his secrets and his lies, with his attempts at manipulation and his refusal to teach them the basics of the plant. It was his fault they stared at him like this, with anger, revulsion, distrust. And yet, Kaylee felt a spasm of pity for him. He had had so much, a group to stand with, a safe place amidst the chaos of the world, and he destroyed it for himself. He put Kaylee in a position that forced her to destroy what he had built. All the respect, or tentative tolerance, he had garnered from the group now glaring at him had vanished. He didn't look nearly so smug any longer, he looked small, shrunken by this defeat, by the dismissal of the group he had once offered shelter.

              Marsden's gaze swept the group, lingered on Kaylee, then he turned and ran, his gun clattering on the cement floor behind him.

              Only Danny cried out in his absence.

              "Oh shut up, you fool," Rose muttered, not even sparing Danny a glance. The rest of the group relaxed as one when she sank into the nearest couch. Her body slumped forward, her head in her hands. Kaylee's stomach lurched.

              "You're all gonna let that-" Danny started, belligerent and angry. Marsden gave him position and power, with him gone, Danny seemed to shrink as well.

              "If you want to join him, feel free," Paul said coldly, pointing towards the exit. Danny swallowed hard and then sunk back towards the wall, his gun held loosely in his hand. He might not have liked the shift in power, but he wasn't about to leave his safety net either.

              Kaylee wanted to feel relief, she wanted her muscles to unclench the way she saw Anna's and her father’s doing. But she was held in stiff discomfort, her eyes darting from the door to Danny. She wanted to leave, to never have to face Rose again. She had been counting on it. But it looked as though they were staying, she couldn't escape the constant reminders of what she had done. As though he knew what thoughts were flying through her head, Jack's arms encircled her. She tensed initially, but pushed whatever gave her pause away. She needed his comfort right now.

              Her muscles never got to unlock.

              It was soft at first, low, and she thought, initially, that the trembling was coming from her, that she was finally breaking apart. But it wasn't. The very ground below her shook and then a noise, an explosion, rent the still air, blasting her from her feet and lurching her and Jack to the floor.

              From under the arm that was flung protectively over her face, she saw the concrete crack and then split.

              Chaos.

              Screams could be heard mixed in with and drowned out by the second explosion. A great wrenching of metal tearing from metal sounded and Jack was hauling her to her feet and through the door, her eyes still to the center of the room where the giant crane that hung suspended from the ceiling was crashing, as in slow motion, to the center of the common room floor. Bits of electronics scattered like blown out glass in a storm and screams mingled and died out from inside that great room.

              The outside light was blinding when she turned to face it, trying to see who had made it outside, count who in the group was alive. Emma was close to her, Andrew pulling her forward. She saw her father and then Anna. But something else was rambling closer, it's gait unsteady and yet familiar.

              The gray skin and hanging flesh of an infected man ran towards them, sinking it's teeth into the nearest of the escaping group.

              Paul's garbled shout as the infected man tore at the skin of his throat was nearly drowned out by a third explosion. It rocked the ground under her feet and left a ringing in her ears. The building behind them was collapsing and she instinctively ran forward, past the edge of the decimated building and into the wide open lawn that butted up to the higher part of the reservoir. The fence that separated the yard from the stretch of concrete damn was torn down. The electricity gone, it had collapsed under the weight of a large horde. A continuous stream of infected poured over the chain link, stumbling over the links that lay twisted on the ground. They surged through the small outbuildings, crashing into the sides of the buildings and heading towards the survivors that stood panting in the early sun. They were staggering, but fast, limping and dragging their rotting bodies to the promise of warm flesh. Kaylee ran forward, towards the stretch of dam, the only way out. The gate that once separated the dam from the yard hung loose on it’s hinge. She pushed through it, heard the rattle of chain link as it slammed back, just as another yell, a woman's, sharp and fresh rang through the air. Panic jolted through her, but Jack's grip on her arm was steel and she moved forward on wooden legs regardless. She couldn't help whoever was behind them anyway.

              It wasn't until her sneakers slapped onto the flat expanse of concrete, the rest following her over the dam and towards the empty lawn across it, that she heard his laugh. High pitched and shrill, more of a screech than a laugh, Marsden was perched on the roof of one of his outbuildings, a demi god watching the world he had built as he systematically destroyed it. It was he who was setting off the explosions. Maybe he had it rigged long ago, waiting until he would have to use it. He was never going to lose control of his Mill; he'd rather it destroyed and everyone in it before his ceded control to another.

              A horde of infected was pawing at the walls of his building. They would reach him before too long. He wasn't high enough and his building was not stable enough to escape them. Marsden eyed the group crossing the dam towards safety, but instead of looking angry, he looked triumphant. He grinned down at them, a twisted, angry grin full of gloating exultation.

              It was then that Kaylee knew something was seriously wrong. She looked back, towards the yard now teeming with infected and then to the group that was hurrying across the dam, she at the middle of the crossing now. There was fifty yards of smooth concrete between her and the safety of the lawn.

              At the first tremble, the first rock of concrete under her feet, she had her answer.

              "Jump!" she shouted, not pausing to make sure any one of them understood her. She knew they had to get off the dam, knew that going back meant death by infection and that they'd never make it to the opposite lawn on time. She dove forward; the air whizzing past her and whipping her hair back as she dove, head first, into the icy water twenty feet below. She knew Jack would follow, Emma too, her father, Andrew, Anna, Bill. She could only hope anyone else that had made it that far would follow her leap, make it into the uncertainty of the water before Marsden blew the dam to bits.

             
The water parted easily and soaked through every inch of her clothing and skin. She kicked hard, stayed under the frigid reservoir until her lungs screamed for oxygen. Even through the murky veil of the water over her ears, she heard the next explosion. She had only just emerged for that first gasp of air when the dam behind her collapsed in chunks and pieces. She ducked under the water again, kicking as the huge wave of the torrent released by the dam caught her up and swept her forward, her breath exhaling in a bubbling gush. Debris, chunks of concrete and pipes flew past her, catching her in the ribs and legs. She felt the gash as a broken pipe connected with her already injured shoulder and she cried out, her voice muffled by water. The icy grip of the water fought it's way through her lips and down her throat and she kicked hard, her chest on fire despite the cold water filling it, trying to reach the surface.

              She was spinning so hard in the murky water, she couldn't tell which way was up, couldn't see the sun through the rush of debris. Spots burst, white and distracting, in the corners of her darkened eyes. Her hands reached up, flailing, and caught something course and rough. She pulled and her arms felt like putty but her head broke into the air and she gasped wildly, sucking in air as she clung to the log to stay afloat. The water swirled like madness around her, she made her body as small as possible but still the debris and concrete would find her and slam into her. It didn't hurt as much as it should, she knew that, the water was cold and numbing. But it would hurt later, of that she was sure. Her arms were already aching.

              She couldn't see anything but the swirling water and the ice blue sky, the sun just slanting rays of blinding white. It made the panic and fear intensify, not knowing who else had made it. She focused her eyes forward, knowing the rush of the oncoming water would slow eventually.

              It didn't take as long as she had thought it would. As fast as they had all been swept away, the water settled. It flooded the banks and into the surrounding trees. She felt herself getting swept backwards again and she kicked instinctively, never wanting to go back. The current wasn't as hard to fight this time. The shore to her left was closest, so she made for it. Relief and fear spiked together when she saw two figures already staggering ashore.

              Quinton and Emma. Her sister was bent over, retching unto the beach. She sighed and pushed harder, needing to know who else had been lost.

              "Kaylee!"

              The voice was so familiar and the relief so sharp that it felt like pain lancing her chest. Jack, dragging Anna behind him, was swimming towards the shore. He stood, tripped and then straightened. His eyes were on her. She tested her foothold and found purchase, pulling herself to a stand in chest deep water and waving her reassurance over to him. Anna looked dazed, her eyes unfocussed, and a steady stream of blood mingled with water as it flowed from her hair and down the side of her face. Jack, though holding her up with one arm, looked worse. As his chest and then abdomen cleared the water, Kaylee saw it. A pole, three feet long, was sticking through his side. She saw him stagger, his shoulder twitching. Quinton rushed to help him.

              Bill surfaced just beyond her, spitting water and already cutting towards the shore. Andrew was next. He emerged from the water, his hair plastered to his face, his eyes searching. They first found her, then flashed to the shore; relief broke so strongly across his features that he looked like he had reversed an aging process, losing years in seconds. He waded towards Kaylee.

              Her eyes met him, sweeping his frame and finding no damage. She felt pulled, her body pinned in the water but her eyes staring past Andrew and to Jack. Then her gaze strayed, back to the water that was still sweeping coldly and quickly by them. Andrew followed her gaze as it landed on an object, a shape, too familiar to ignore.

              A body, face down, unmoving. Her insides froze. Both Kaylee and Andrew waded towards it. He reached the person first and Kaylee was glad that she didn't have to be the one to flip them over and check. She could see from his eyes, from the way he shook his head and let the body continue downstream, that Danny wasn't as lucky as the rest of them.

              Fear was gripping her, lacing around her throat and squeezing slowly. Her father was still missing. Kaylee's eyes swept the surface of the water. It was rushing, faster than it normally would, the surface riddled with leaves and wood, and still the occasional chunk of concrete bobbing along.

She was looking for a head, someone sputtering as they broke the surface into the air, and so she didn't see it at first, wasn't ready when Andrew clamped his hand on her arm. She followed his line of sight all too easily.

              Face up, eyes open and unseeing, her father was floating towards them, a bramble of wood surrounding him. She felt her chest heave, the air being sucked past her lips all too quickly. She felt the steady, almost crushing pressure, of Andrew's hand on her cold skin. But that was all. 

              The rest of her felt empty, hollowed out.

              The sticks that clung to Nick's lifeless body floated near enough for Andrew to reach. He pulled gently and her father drifted towards them. She looked down mechanically. His skin was already pale, his mouth slack. Something had struck him in the rush of water after the dam broke, the damage to his head was severe, more gruesome than Kaylee could have imagined. His face was distorted with the damage, his skin shifted from the broken bones underneath.

              Kaylee shut her eyes and turned into Andrew. His one free arm came around her. She stood stiff, her eyes clenched, willing the image of her father's fractured skull out of her mind.

              It wasn't until she heard her sister's scream that she opened her eyes again.

              "No!" Emma shouted. She ran towards the water but was swept up by Quinton. She fought to get out of his hold, wrenching her arm away from him. Her screams turned to sobs, realizing, obviously, what Andrew and Kaylee were looking at. Quinton's arms came around her, squeezing her in a vice-like grip. His eyes sought Kaylee; she woodenly shook her head.

              "She doesn't need to see him, not like this," Kaylee spoke, her voice a low whisper to Andrew. She felt him nod as she moved out of his grip. He reached out, fingers gentle on Nick's face as he closed his eyes.

              "What should we..." he trailed off, his eyes still transfixed on her father's face. She didn't want to drag him to the shore, not like this. And how would they bury him anyway? She took the moment, that one short second in time that stretched, the echoes of Emma's sobbing and the rush of the water, even the gentle cadence of the birds cawing and the wind in the trees, and said a prayer. Her numb fingers found and traced the grooves of her mother's medal that had stuck fast in her jeans pocket as she said goodbye.

              "Let him go," she said to Andrew, her voice soft. Andrew's throat muscles worked visibly as he swallowed, letting Nick's body out of his grasp. The current caught him up, carrying him gently downstream. Over the sound of the water and the wind in the trees, Kaylee could hear her sister's sobbing shift to crying.

              It wasn't a burial. They couldn't give him that. But at least he had never been bitten, never been infected and forced to wander like a living corpse in the rubble of the world. Instead he had gone quickly, more quickly than perhaps he would have liked. And he left his girls, something she knew he would have hated. His funeral wouldn't be traditional. He wouldn't be lowered into the ground, no flowers tossed on a gravesite. Instead he would drift downstream, carried aloft with branches and sticks, a Viking funeral pyre, never to be lit.

              Andrew and Kaylee turned together, silent, to join the rest.

              The water was at her knees when Emma finally broke free from Quinton. Her sister ran forward, crushing Kaylee in an embrace. Kaylee's arm encircled her automatically.

              "Was he bit?" she asked in a small voice, her words muffled against her sister's shoulder. Kaylee shook her head.

              Emma nodded as she pulled back, dragging a sopping wet sleeve over her eyes. "I want to see-"

              "No, Em," Kaylee interrupted, her tone gentle. "You don't."

              The expression on Emma's face flickered from argument, to devastation, and finally settled on resignation. Her shoulders dropped, her features sagging with the weight of her grief. "Did he suffer?"

              "No," Kaylee answered. "It was quick, I think."

              "Don't know if he would have preferred that, actually. But I'm glad it happened fast."

              Kaylee wasn't sure her father would have wanted a quick death either. He would have wanted time, a chance to say goodbye to his girls, say a quick prayer maybe. But he would have been lost with worry too. Worry about his daughters, about the wife he thought he was leaving behind. All that he wanted, all this time, was to protect his family, to unite them again the way they once were. If a quick death spared him the anxiety of what would happen, save him from the heart stopping worry over who would take care of his girls, maybe it was better for him to have gone like that and without a way to spend his last moments in mental agony.

              Emma's eyes were tearing up, her gaze down river. Her chin shook slightly before she grit her teeth. Kaylee's eyes swept the bank. Anna sat with her head between her knees, her back rising and falling in steady even breaths. Quinton had moved back to help Bill keep Jack propped against a tree, the thin metal pole protruding from him jolted with each shifting movement. His eyes met hers and through the grimace of pain, she saw sorrow and just a tinge of pity.

              "I've got her, go."

              Kaylee looked up to Andrew, but he was already reaching for Emma. She fell into him easily, her eyes on the river, her small frame still shaking. He gripped her tightly and Kaylee moved past them towards Jack.

              Anna shook her head, resting her forehead on her knee. She extended her hand as Kaylee drew near. Kaylee pulled her to her feet, steadying her. Her good arm shook with the effort, but it wasn't throbbing like her shoulder was. The bleeding from Anna's head had staunched some, but a trickle still cut it's way past her fringe.

              "It's not too bad, I don't think," Anna said, catching Kaylee's eyes staring at her wound. "Head wounds just bleed a lot."

              Anna gripped her hand, squeezing her fingers tightly. Kaylee couldn't catch her eye, didn't want to. Her father was dead. But that wasn't resonating just yet. And Emma had stopped crying so all she could really hear was the water and the wind and the birdsong. And so, her father couldn't really be dead, just resting, or not there yet, or...

              But he was dead. She knew it. She just couldn't feel it yet.

              Kaylee gripped her hand back, as tight as she could, and tugged, pulling Anna towards Jack. His breathing was shallow, his jaw clenched tightly in pain.

              "Kay, I'm so sorry," he said through grit teeth. She shook her head, her insides hollow, the whole morning unreal. The piece of metal sticking out from him quivered with his movements, she could see the sweat that broke out on his forehead and the back of his neck, even in the cold morning air. It was the thickness of her thumb, a steel reinforcing bar that had kept the structure of the dam. It had ridges but it was straight, one end looking as though it had been snapped in half. Both ends looked rusty and dirty. It transverse his side completely and Kaylee found herself thinking that had he only been over an inch or two, it might have missed him completely. But there had been so much junk and debris rushing past them, it seemed miraculous that this was the worst...

              And then she remembered. No, this wasn't the worst. The worst had happened to her father, and he was floating down the river because of it.

              She swallowed hard, sucking in a deep breath and then asked Anna. "What do we do?"

              Anna shook her head, grimacing. "I have to take it out, obviously. But-"

              "Spill Anna, what?" Jack said through grit teeth.