Break Free The Night (Book 1) (34 page)

              Kaylee took a deep breath and blew out. She forced her eyes to find her landmark, her old floor, the floor Anna and Bill and Andrew and her family had all shared. Her eyes followed its line to the ground, past the gaping entrance doors that had been hanging off their hinges for years to the cold, cracked street below where two motorcycles were left recently abandoned on their sides, the front wheel of one still spinning.

              Two boys were crouched over some dark, lumpy shape. And they did
n’
t se
e–
could
n’
t se
e–
the sets of shining eyes that were roving closer.

              A scream caught in her throa
t–
because who would hear it? Not Jack and not Andrew. And no one was near her and no one else saw. What was it Quinton had said: Watch out for the boys?

              She could
n’
t stand and just watch.

              She ran, her sneakers slapping against the pavement and over it. She threw herself into the tall grass that lined the road. It caught and pulled, not just grass but brambles and thorns and bushes all grabbing at her legs with wet, snagging branches. But her goggle-clad eyes did
n’
t lower to see, to avoid. She crashed through, eyes only for those strangely glowing discs that were closing slowly in on her boys.

              There was something wrong with those eyes. She knew instinctively; even as she struggled to maintain her balance, even as her toe caught a curb and nearly sent her sprawling; these were
n’
t the infected creeping closer. They were too low to the ground, not even her height, maybe half that. And their eyes glowed, not just with fierceness or intensity, but reflective, catching in the firelight and sending it flashing.

              And still, the boys crouched.

              Kaylee pulled a breath, her lungs seizing at the unexpected activity. But she was better prepared this time. The running and exercising with Anna had helped; her limbs were
n’
t burning, her lungs did
n’
t ache. She thought of yelling, Andrew and Jack were closer now, she had breeched the perimeter of the city, she could see what they crouched over, short, thin metal tubes that she knew contained explosives, she could almost see their faces. But the nois
e
…

              Everywhere, everything was so loud. Fire roared as she had never heard it roar before, not the soothing ministrations of a hearth fire but the hissing and snorting of a giant beast. It boomed and crackled, random explosions releasing into the sky as she ran past from some source of fuel they had either looked past or forgotten. Kaylee had one ridiculous moment where she pictured herself in the Fire Swamp, and Wesley would be there to save her from the spurts of flame proceeded by popping noises. But there was no uniform warning here. An old lamppost shuddered and fell, swaying into collapse at Kayle
e’
s feet. It caught her foot as she leapt over it, the heavy brass bouncing upon impact with the asphalt. Kayle
e’
s palms hit the pavement first, scraping against the damp asphalt before she could drag herself back into a run. The sound of the lamps fall did
n’
t even register. Kaylee could
n’
t hear her own footfalls, could barely hear the useless shout she released when she finally realized what was stalking Andrew and Jack.

              They moved like a pack, shoulders slinking, heads held low to the ground, eyes focused on their prey. Like a pack of wolves the dogs stalked, moving ever closer.

              And still Andrew and Jack did
n’
t see. But Kaylee saw, saw clearly with the aid of the goggles that large Dobermans and Labs and even a terrifying Great Dane were grouping ever closer. Their teeth were bared, muzzles foamed with spit; unrecognizable as pets, fearsome as predators.

              In a moment of clarity, Kaylee scooped up a brick that had tumbled ages ago from a step she was passing. It felt crumbly in her hands, red bits rubbing into her skin, but there was weight to it. She hurled her arm back and threw, sailing the brick over Jack and Andre
w’
s heads.

              She missed, but only barely. The Great Dane she had been aiming for yelped, breaking line and skirting to the side. And it was enough. Jack looked up. Kaylee saw him shout and push Andrew toward the building and she knew she could have turned, run back to Emma and Anna and her Dad, run from the chaos and the madness of buildings that were still falling and the fire that was slowly ringing them in. But Jack was there, and Andrew, and she could
n’
t. So she kept forward, stooping to pull another brick with her and pushing her goggles off her face and around her neck. She ran past Andrew, who shouted at her in surprise, his eyebrows drawn in anger. She ran past him to Jack who was squeezing the trigger of his handgun. She was surprised she could hear it but she could, the loud, shocking crack of a bullet piercing the air as the gun discharged. The Great Dane fell motionless. But i
t’
s fellows closed rank, snarling and advancing they came and Kaylee was loath to realize that her only weapon was one, lone brick.

              It happened so fast that Kaylee did
n’
t remember falling. But she did fall. They heavy weight of fur and paws and snapping teeth flung her down. Jaws snapped so near her ear that she instinctively pulled away, her head whipping back and cracking into the pavement. The Doberman had attacked her from the side, jumping her and crushing her to the concrete like a jackrabbit. Her vision swam and she saw stars, not real ones, but the blurry, indistinct kind she had seen when Jac
k’
s strong arms had cradled her that first night they met.

              A shot sounded.

              And again, warmth, liquid and terrifying coat her stomach. But this time, it also sprayed her neck, caught in her teeth. The heavy weight of the dog fell on her, pinned her to the cold ground, and she knew the blood was
n’
t hers.

             
“
Get up! Get up
!”
Andrew roared and Kaylee could just make out what he was saying. Her head still swam but she shook it as clear as it would go and heaved the heavy weight of fur and bones and matted blood off her body, half rolling from underneath the carnage. Andrew stood over her, wielding a shotgun, discharging shot after shot and sliding cartridges into the barrels with practiced ease. Jack stood by him, shoulder to shoulder, and they together advanced past Kaylee, putting themselves between her and the dogs.

              But there were worse things than dogs coming now. The commotion had brought them. Awakened by fire and famished by disease they hovered on the edge of Kayle
e’
s blurred vision. Not close yet, but getting closer, they ran. Her stomach threatened to empty and Kaylee forced herself to swallow. Her pathetic weapon lost, she stood motionless behind Andrew and Jack.

             
“
The fuse
!”
Jack turned to yell, not lowering his gun
.“
My pocket. The fuse
!
”

              Kayle
e’
s eyes darted lower, to the back pocket of Jac
k’
s jeans from which a coil fuse and metal casing peeked.

              It was a blasting cap, not yet assembled because they should
n’
t have needed it. Her father had two ready to go. But those two were gone and Kaylee would have to assemble this one now.

              In the orange glow Kaylee focused, tuning out the shocking booms of Jack and Andre
w’
s weapons and training her eyes on her task. Her mask hung heavy around her neck and Kaylee had to discard the idea of using it when she noticed the crack traversing one lens. She crouched on the pavement, fell to her knees, the coiled fuse unfurling in front of her.

              The metal blasting cap gleamed golden in the light, warm to the touch. Kaylee held it carefully between her forefinger and thumb, just as she was taught, and lowered it onto the squared end of the fuse. It slid on as easily as though this were something she had done a hundred times. But, as she held it triumphantly in the firelight and her eyes scanned the ground for a set of crimpers, she could
n’
t find any. And even though she knew it was stupid, and dangerous, and reckless, she put the cap in her mouth and bit down, praying to whomever would hear her that her bite would land far enough down on the smooth metal to dent it and hold the fuse in place and not so far as to set off an explosion that would free her of all her teeth.

              The metal bent and dented under her pressure and she held still. But no explosion sounded and she did
n’
t have time to thank the heavens for sparing her her teeth. Jack was shouting.

             
“
In the bags
!
”

              And she only barely understood what he meant but she half crawle
d–
half flung herself to the base of her old apartment building where a pile of fifty pound bags, they could have been dry dog food, garden fertilizer, birdseed, were stacked into a rough pyramid. A shorter fuse unraveled down past these bags and so Kaylee followed the walls, her fingertips lightly grazing the cold, rough concrete as she ran, until she saw the second stack of ANFO. She stuck the blasting cap through the rough fabric of the first bag she reached and uncoiled the fuse, brought it trailing back with her to where Jack and Andrew still stood shoulder to shoulder.

              In the short moments she was gone the scene had changed. The dogs left alive were being consumed by a swarming mass. Hundreds of infected were coming, scrambling over one another, jerky movements, but fast just the same. Their skin was mottled and grey and in some cases falling off, a tidal wave of walking death crashing towards them.

              Andrew turned to run to the longer fuse, his lighter open and his thumb flicking it to life. Kaylee just saw the spark of its start from the corner of her eye. She was rushing towards Jack as he fired his first useless shot. Individual infected rushed forward. Kaylee crammed her hands into his pockets, searching. He shot again. She tried again. Jacket, front pockets, back. And then her fingers wrapped around cool metal and his lighter found her hand and she turned.

              The shots comforted her as she bent to light the remaining fuse. They let her know Jack was still behind her. Andrew was racing past. He lift his motorcycle and kicked it to life just as Kayle
e’
s flame caught on the fuse.

              And why she heard it, why it registered, sh
e’
d never know; but something in the air, the wind, the very ground, trembled and shuddered and she stood, eyes wielding and flashing at the lone infected that was stumbling towards her from around the darker corner of the apartment building.

              The world shifted and then stopped.

              The roar of the flames, the burning fuse, the dull throb of Andre
w’
s bike, even Jack, they all dissolved. Here, in this moment of silence, in this fracture of her world, her mother stood, her arms outstretched as though to embrace her daughter and her eyes, once clear and beautiful, locked on Kayle
e’
s.

              Later, she may have blamed her head injury and the way the stars still blurred, but in that moment, Kayle
e’
s arms extended, as though ready to accept her mothe
r’
s embrace. In that instant in time, she remembered her mothe
r’
s breath on her neck and in her hair as she gripped her tightly, already smelled her perfume, felt the warmth of her unconditional embrace.

              The loudest shot of all sounded, and not just because the gun fired from right next to Kayle
e’
s ear. A small dot, dark red, appeared in the center of Susa
n’
s forehead. It may have been a smudge of makeup or an errant pen mark, but her eyes took on that blank, deadened look as a tiny trickle of blood flowed between them. She crumpled at Kayle
e’
s feet.