Dark Paths: Apocalypse Riders (18 page)

“Can you see anything?” Sunny asked

Lia stood and looked out over the heads of the bikers. “Smoke’s coming from something on the road. Looks like we’re heading for a hospital but I can’t really tell.”

“Maybe we caught up?”

“Hope so. I’ll bet the dead slowed them down,” Lia said as she sat, casting her eyes around. She wondered if these corpses were part of the herd. They seemed too sparse for that - but maybe they were stragglers. Or scouts. Maybe they were going to converge and form their own.

The bikers grouped up on the road ahead, driving three and four abreast instead of one long straight row. She finally spotted the source of the smoke - a crashed motorcycle on the side of the road.
Call’s? Or the other man’s - Dray’s?
They
were
heading for the hospital - they wheeled together as one into the parking lot. There was no sign of anyone else parked there, but then Lia hadn’t known the Devil’s Ashes to ever park their bikes out in plain sight. She didn’t imagine Satan’s Remains would, either. So how did they know if Call was inside or not?

There.
Footprints and tire tracks in the dirt and debris through the parking lot. It had been very recently disturbed - Lia didn’t have much of an observant eye for such things and even she could tell.
And there.
Another wrecked bike, poorly hidden right inside the broken double-glass doors of the emergency room entrance.
They must have run in here in a big hurry.

The dozen Devil’s Ashes men spread out around the parking lot. Sunny pulled to a stop behind them, far from the set of doors and the windows. They wouldn’t be out of range if these guys had any serious high-powered weapons, but otherwise they were fairly out of danger.
And they won’t consider us a priority target anyway. At least not before we’re killing them.
She slid out of the jeep and stood next to it, waiting for a sign or signal or anything at all from Sheedy. He stood and conferred with three of the men as their bikes idled into silence.

Sheedy finally stepped aside from the group and fired a gun into the air. It echoed through the parking lot and was answered by only silence.

“I hear you dumb motherfuckers are out of gas!” Sheedy called, “Anybody want to come out and negotiate?”

“This isn’t very subtle,” Lia whispered to Sunny, “Why aren’t some of us hiding or something?”

Sunny snorted. “Bikers don’t do subtle.”

Lia tried to make out any movement in the building’s windows as Sheedy kept shouting at the air. She spotted something shiny up on the second floor - just before the window broke. “Get down!” she yelled before grabbing Sunny’s hand and ducking behind the jeep. The parking lot exploded in gunfire. Men from the second floor windows, men from the roof, and then engines roared to life. Peering beneath the jeep, she watched three motorcycles shoot out from around the building and head for the road as their friends within the hospital covered them.

“Get them!” she and Sunny both shouted to each other as they stood.

Focus.
The shotgun was still in the jeep. She pulled one of her revolvers -
breath.
They were driving fast but if she started firing wildly she was more likely to miss than if she gave herself a moment.
Aim. Squeeze.
The middle bike’s back tire blew out and sent the bike careening wildly, knocking down his partner on the right. She fired again and the bullet richoched off the bike on the left. A last squeeze and she hit the man in the back.

No!
He was definitely not Call - too short - and was wearing the Satan’s Remains colors.
But he was alive!
The bike tipped as he slumped to the side, skidding to a halt before he even managed to get out of the parking lot and reach the road.

“None of them are Call,” Sunny said, passing Lia her shotgun.

“Decoy?” she asked.
Focus!
Shooting that man had shaken her but she pushed her nerves and her churning stomach away, banished the sensations to the back of her mind as she turned back towards the hospital.

A hail of gunfire rained from the windows, concentrated on the Devil’s Ashes men ducking behind their bikes. A few had made it to the double doors - Sheedy amongst them - and were charging into the building.
They’re firing at random. They’re just keeping us distracted.
Some of the men seemed to have the same thought - another group of three made a run for it, circling around the side of the building. One of them jerked as though he’d been hit but he didn’t stop moving.

“This is a nightmare,” Lia whispered. “How many can you see up there?”

“There’s only two on the second floor,” Sunny said, “One on the roof.”

“We know there’s more, where the hell are they?”

More engines roared - these behind the building where she couldn’t see them. She spotted Preacher amongst the three around the side of the building - he signaled to the men still ducking behind their bikes, four fingers, then pointed behind the hospital.

They moved like a well-oiled machine. No discussion, no choosing - just four of the bikers hopped back on their motorcycles and drove off, bullets bouncing from the chrome and metal. One went down - three made it around, their tires squealing as they went.
Is it him back there? Or just more distractions?

Her heart pounding in her ears, she realized they’d have to be crazy to transport him on a bike. Perhaps she didn’t have the strength to throw herself from the back when she thought she was Call’s prisoner that awful night of the corpses’ attack, but he would. And he’d take as many out with him as he could.

Gunfire continued to blast through the parking lot. The sky was getting darker as the sun set. Engines roared in the distance. And her heart began to sink.

Inside the building or not?

How many more need to die?

Where’s the bus?

Lia said, “They would have moved him on the bus.”

“I didn’t see one,” Sunny replied, squinting back towards the road. The sun was peering over it, making it difficult to see as it sank beneath the horizon. “We can ask them.”

Lia raised her shotgun. The men who’d fallen from their bikes when she shot out the tire were staggering to their feet as they spoke. She strode towards them, gun against her shoulder with Sunny just a step behind. “Whichever one of you tells me what I want to know is the one who gets to walk away!” she announced, cocking the gun.
That didn’t sound like me.
But it was her - the words hadn’t come from Sunny’s mouth.

Both men froze. Sunny backed her up, cocking her shotgun as well. “Where’s the president?” she asked. “Silence gets you shot. Snitch gets a kiss.”

Sunny.
“Someone better start talking,” Lia said, aiming between the two.

“You girls. You won’t shoot us,” one of them said.

“Oh, yeah? Who do you think shot your buddy over there?” she asked, gesturing towards the fallen third man. He hadn’t moved.
Oh God, I’ve killed him.
She swallowed.

“Fuck this, man, I didn’t sign up for this shit,” the second one said.

Sunny smirked. “New recruit?”

The man made a face. “The bus kept on up the road here. They’re just in the next complex.” The older man glared daggers at him, and he shrugged. “I’m walking the fuck out of here. Fuck it.”

“That’s what happens when you set your standards too low,” Sunny said in a sing-song voice as she approached the young recruit. She delivered as she’d promised, kissing him right on the mouth with an exaggerated smack.

I shouldn’t have made the threat if I wasn’t going to follow through,
Lia thought, lowering her shotgun as she transitioned to her pistol.
Wait. Actually…
She aimed and fired. The man dropped, clutching his calf and spitting curses.
I only promised to shoot, not to kill.

“Disarm him,” she instructed Sunny. The young man was carrying only one small pistol and a knife. Sunny took the man’s boots as well and hurled them away into the woods. Lia frisked the older man and came away with the same - one gun and a knife. Not for the first time, she wondered how Father Speer had managed to arm all of his girls so well.
Maybe he was a hoarder and a gun nut to begin with.

“Let’s go.”

She honked wildly as they hopped into the jeep and backed up onto the road, barely missing flattening the Satan’s Remains men in their rush. Preacher noticed and signaled to the Devil’s Ashes, but as to how quickly the rest reacted, they couldn’t tell - they sped up the road spitting dirt behind them.

Sure enough the next parking lot was a separate wing of the hospital, and as they circled around looking for the main entrance, they spotted the bus parked around the back where it couldn’t be seen from the road.
Almost. They almost got away with this.

“I’m going,” she told Sunny, leaping from the jeep before the girl had pulled to a complete stop. “You should wait here.”

Sunny scoffed. “I’m not letting you run in alone, crazy. We can do this if we watch each other’s backs.” She was right - an extra pair of eyes would be invaluable. Part of their training had been working in teams as it was - they’d be in and out, fast and clean like a surgery.
If all goes well.
The bus’s escorts’ bikes were nowhere to be seen - they didn’t know how many men to expect.

The lobby was dim - they were on limited time as the sun went down. Corpses that had been recently killed littered the floor inside, the rotten black blood dripping from their head wounds. Sunny walked at Lia’s back as she progressed, watching for anyone coming up behind them. Just as they stepped over the corpses, Sunny fired.

“Got one,” she whispered. Lia didn’t ask if it was the living or the dead - she didn’t even turn to look. She followed the signs for the stairway - no one with any sense would camp on the first floor.

She kicked the door to the stairs open. A living man raised his gun and hesitated. He looked surprised - and then she shot him. A mist of blood lingered in the air after he fell. “Got him in the head?” Sunny asked.

“Of course.”
Focus.
They climbed.

She saw them but she didn’t
see them.
Two more men in the hallway as they emerged, turning, raising their guns. She stepped forward, shot one, stepped again, shot again. Both dropped bursts and pool of bright red blood, so very different from killing men who were already dead. Sometimes the dead had no blood left at all. Sometimes the living screamed.

Sunny fired behind her, dropping another that she couldn’t see. “Which way?” the girl asked. All the light tone and gleeful inflection was gone. Sunny was just as focused, just as detached from what she had to do.

“Forward.” They aimed into each room they passed. Some were disturbed by footprints; others hadn’t even been breathed in. The sun continued its descent.

Shadows were cast against the furthest wall at the end of the hall. Someone was coming. She breathed, aimed, stepped forward -

And Call rounded the corner.

He looked as surprised as she felt but he was silent. His hands were cuffed behind his back.
He’s not alone.
A man appeared behind him, holding a gun to his head. Two more followed, walking towards them as if they had all the time in the world. The man holding Call chuckled. “A girl? Is this for real?” His voice was high and weaselly. She thought of all the people she’d killed today, she’d regret his death the least.

Sunny shift behind her. “Put down you guns, sweethearts. No one else has to get hurt today.”

“I’m on your left,” Sunny said in her ear. Lia nodded.

“You put your gun down first,” she said to him. Somehow she still felt steady, and she had to force her voice to sound like a plea.

“You’re outnumbered, ladies,” he said. “Go on. Just slowly put them on the ground and you can walk out of here.”

And onto your bus?
“Call,” she said, “Are you okay?”

He smiled, then. Because he knew. “I’m fine, honey.”

“Tell your girls to lower their weapons,” the man snarled in his ear.

Instead, Call quirked and eyebrow at her, then ducked, landing heavily on his knees. The man was holding the handcuffs that bound his wrists and was yanked just a touch off-balance. It was all Lia needed. He fired and missed.