Dead Man Running (6 page)

‘Nai?' Six said. ‘What do you know about this?'

‘Goddamn,' she whispered. ‘He finally did it.'

‘Who finally did what?'

A soft jingling of chains sounded outside. It was barely audible, but all three of their heads snapped instantly towards the noise.

‘What was that?' Six breathed.

‘Someone at the fence,' Kyntak said. He glared at Six. ‘You must have been followed.'

Another sound, from the opposite side of the warehouse. A crunching footstep on the gravel. There were two people, approaching the building from opposite sides.

‘They're here!' Nai hissed. She wrestled with the glue, trying to pull her hands apart, but it was too tight.

‘Who are?' Kyntak demanded.

‘The Revived!'

Ace's voice echoed through Six's head:
There was even some speech software installed, not that it would have done the guy much good – the first gunshot tore out the roof of his mouth.
That body hadn't been physically capable of talking, so why had someone put speech software on the processor?

The answer came to him immediately. Because the processor wasn't designed only for that specific corpse. It had been mass-produced.

Six saw a silhouette appear behind one of the intact windows. A slurring, moaning voice reached his ears: ‘Find Kyntak.'

Another voice, from further away. ‘Find Kyntak.'

More droning voices joined the chant. ‘Find Kyntak. Find Kyntak.'

Kyntak looked at Six, alarmed. ‘What the hell is this?'

‘More dead bodies,' Six said.

A face peered in through one of the empty window frames. One cheek was missing, exposing yellowed teeth, and there was a ragged bullet hole in his throat. His cold, lifeless eyes fixed on Kyntak.

‘Found him,' he murmured.

NO WAY OUT

‘Stay back,' Kyntak roared. He'd drawn a pistol and was pointing it at the face in the window. ‘Don't make me shoot you.'

The man ignored him and started clambering through the window frame. Another corpse appeared behind him, skull partially caved in at the back. And another. The stench of cold meat and cleaning products filled the factory.

‘That won't work,' Six said, panic growing under his ribs. ‘They've been programmed.'

Kyntak opened fire. Four shots. Blood exploded out from the kneecaps of the two nearest bodies, but they didn't even seem to notice – they just kept limping towards Kyntak.

They don't feel pain, Six realised. Or fear.

He turned to Nai. ‘Later you're going to tell us what these things are and who is sending them, but right now, we need to know how to stop them.'

Nai was staring out another window, where five more bodies were shuffling forward. ‘Same way you stop anybody,' she said. ‘Kill them.'

That's
not
the only way of stopping somebody! Six thought. But now wasn't the time to have that argument. ‘They're already dead,' he said.

‘Doesn't matter,' Nai said. She sounded calm, but Six could see that her mind was racing. ‘Their blood doesn't clot. Shoot one, and it'll bleed to death in twenty minutes.'

‘Found him,' another dead body groaned as it saw Kyntak through the window.

‘We don't have twenty minutes!' Kyntak said.

‘You got a Taser? Electric shocks temporarily disable them.'

‘I have tranq darts.'

‘They won't do anything. The processor doesn't let the rest of the brain shut down. But there's another way. It uses the vertebrae to communicate with the rest of the body. Shoot the spine and they'll be immobilised.'

‘Do you have any idea how hard it is to hit the spine of a moving target?'

‘Then give me back my goddamn crossbow!' Nai shouted.

‘No way,' Kyntak said.

‘Found him. Found him. Found him.'

Six felt the adrenaline rising through his system like firelight. There were now five Revived inside the factory, lurching towards them, and at least twenty more outside. Three against twenty-five, Six thought. At best.

‘Kyntak,' he said. ‘How many bullets have you got?'

‘Twelve,' Kyntak said. ‘You?'

‘I'm unarmed.'

‘You were telling the truth about that?' Nai demanded. ‘You're an idiot.'

Six ignored her. ‘How many crossbow bolts left?'

Kyntak didn't need to check. ‘Four.'

Six stared at the approaching horde. Even if he and Kyntak used all the bullets and all the crossbow bolts and didn't miss even once, there would still be at least nine walking corpses to fight. And now there was no time left to think. The dead man with the missing cheek had nearly reached Kyntak. His sickly hands were outstretched, and for the first time, Six saw that he was wearing rings: a flesh-coloured plastic band on each and every finger. Six looked at the other dead bodies. They were
all
wearing rings.

He wouldn't have been able to use a gun
, Ace had said.
But he could walk, hear, see.

If they can't use guns, Six thought, looking at the rings, they'd need other weapons.

‘Kyntak!' he shouted. ‘Don't let it touch you!'

Kyntak spun around and planted a kick on the corpse's chest. The dead man fell backwards, but the seven Revived who were now behind him pushed him forwards again, and suddenly he was lurching back towards Kyntak.

Six saw Kyntak try to duck under the reaching hands, but one of them brushed against his ear – and then his brother was falling to the floor. He didn't cover his head, or brace for impact. He fell as lifelessly as a discarded doll.

‘No!' Six cried.

The dead man grabbed Kyntak's ankle and started dragging him back towards the window. Some of the other corpses held his wrists and shoulders.

Nai could see what Six was thinking. ‘Let them take him,' she said. ‘Or they'll get us too.'

Six ignored her. He grabbed the Revived who was holding Kyntak's arm and dragged him back by the collar. The corpse let go of Kyntak and whirled around, cement-grey eyes wide and staring. He swung an open palm towards Six's face, and now Six saw the needles that had poisoned Kyntak – tiny spikes with glistening tips, lining the underside of the rings.

Six grabbed the outstretched wrist, keeping the deadly fingers away from his face. Then, tightening his crossbow-punctured hand into a fist, he punched the underside of the corpse's elbow. There was a hideous crunch as the arm snapped. The dead man looked down, confused, at the bones protruding through his skin and the dark blood squirting out from around it. Six picked him up and hurled him away – he landed on the opposite side of the factory with a wet smack.

Six reached for the Revived who was dragging Kyntak's other arm. Like lightning, he slammed his uninjured hand down on top of the corpse's head and twisted. There was a clicking sound as the vertebrae broke, and then the body fell to the floor. His lungs would have stopped working instantly, so he could no longer talk. But Six could still see him mouthing the words,
found him, found him, found him
.

Six looked away, sickened. They're already dead, he told himself. All of them. I'm not killing people.

But it didn't feel that way.

The rest of the Revived were paying attention to Six now – not just the four holding Kyntak, but also the other eleven who'd made it into the factory. He'd been lucky, disabling those two so quickly without a weapon. But fifteen bodies meant thirty hands and one hundred and fifty rings to dodge. Close-quarters combat was no longer an option.

Six leaned down and prised the pistol from Kyntak's frozen grip. One of the bodies took a swipe at him. Six blocked the strike with the muzzle of the gun and then pulled the trigger.

The dead man's hand exploded like a water balloon, showering Six with artificial blood. He started prodding Six with the bony stump – his CPU must not have been programmed to deal with missing limbs.

Six swung his wounded hand towards the corpse's ear and the crossbow bolt plunged straight into it. The man's face jerked and twitched, and then his arms and legs went limp.

Another corpse reached out for Six, and Six dragged the skewered body sideways by the head, using it as a shield. The ring needles sank into the dead flesh instead of Six's own. With his other hand, Six aimed Kyntak's pistol and opened fire.

Blam! Blam-blam!
The three corpses who'd been holding Kyntak dropped him as their brains were scrambled by the nine-millimetre slugs.

Nine bullets left, Six thought. And nineteen Revived to fight.

He needed to be able to use the gun and carry Kyntak at the same time. He was going to need both hands. Six grabbed the crossbow bolt wedged through his palm, clenched his teeth, and pulled.

‘Argh!' The bolt slid out, and the impaled body fell to the floor. A torrent of blood flowed from Six's hand – until he jammed the pistol into the wound. The hot muzzle burned his flesh, sealing the hole with a
hiss
.

Six grabbed Kyntak's arm and started dragging him back to where Nai was standing. It was hard to tell, but he thought he could feel a pulse in his brother's wrist.

The corpses shuffled towards them.

‘Great,' Nai said. ‘Just great. What now, Einstein?'

‘Shut up,' Six said. ‘I'm thinking.'

Surrounded. Nineteen hostiles. One gun. Nine bullets. One crossbow, four bolts. Plus whatever Nai had brought.

The walking dead were getting closer. ‘Nai,' he said. ‘You got explosives?'

‘
That's
your plan?' Nai demanded. ‘Blow ourselves up?'

No time for more questions. Six patted her down and found the Semtex and detonators in her ammunition pouch. He also took the garrotting wire from her belt. He jammed the prongs of the detonator into the lump of plastic explosive and started the timer. Thirty seconds. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight.

‘Are you crazy?' Nai was asking. ‘What the hell are you doing?'

‘Saving our lives,' Six said. He threw the Semtex over the top of the Revived, into the hollow beneath one of the two chimneys. The garrotting wire was snipped into two-metre lengths. He started tying the ends together and winding them into a rope.

Nai was hopping towards the window, perhaps planning on biting or headbutting the corpses into oblivion. Six finished making the rope, then he ran over and grabbed Nai's ponytail, pulling her back. He gripped Kyntak by the ankle and started dragging them both towards the chimney. Twenty-one, he counted. Twenty.

‘Let go of me!' Nai screamed. Six didn't.

There were four Revived between them and the chimney. Six let go of Nai, drew the gun, shot them all in their staring faces, re-pocketed the gun, and grabbed Nai again before she had the chance to hop away. Five bullets left, he thought.

There was an industrial oven next to the chimney. Six dropped Kyntak and with one hand slammed the butt of the gun against the rusty hinges of the oven door until they broke. He took hold of the handle and wrenched the door off. It was thick iron, designed to withstand thousands of degrees of heat. Would it be enough? Six had to hope so. Muscles burning, he threw the door into the hollow under the chimney. It landed on top of the Semtex with a
boom
, probably flattening it, but hopefully not fracturing the detonator. Then he grabbed Kyntak again.

Nai had figured out what he was doing. ‘No,' she said. ‘No, no,
no.
We're not doing this.'

‘Shut up.'

Six dragged Kyntak and Nai onto the oven door. He looked up. The chimney was clear – he could see a tiny circle of grey sky above. Ten seconds to go, he thought.

Another seven Revived were shuffling towards the chimney, dead eyes fixed on Kyntak. Six shot the nearest of them and then the gun clicked empty. He tossed it away – the more weight they could shed, the better.

There was one last thing to prepare. Six removed Nai's crossbow from Kyntak's belt and pulled out the bolt his brother had used to jam it. Then he took the rope he'd made out of the garrotting wire and threaded it through the hole in the back of the bolt, and loaded it back into the crossbow. He tied the other end of the rope to his belt.

Nai hugged him – but Six knew it wasn't out of affection. She needed to hold on to him for stability.

‘I hate you,' she said.

‘You've made that very clear,' he replied.

And then the Semtex exploded beneath them.

The factory and the dead bodies vanished as the oven door shot up the chimney like a missile leaving the silo, with Six and Nai and Kyntak on top of it. Six fell to his knees as the G-force pressed him down against the door. His brain felt like it was being squeezed in a vice. He could see that Nai was screaming but he couldn't hear it. He couldn't hear the explosion, either – they were travelling faster than the speed of sound. The circle of light grew above them, faster and faster, until –

Floonk!
The oven door burst out into the daylight and kept rising. Six held Nai tight under one arm, and felt the weight of Kyntak slung over his other shoulder as the wind buffeted them. They were already a hundred metres above the ground. If any of them fell, they would be pulverised on impact.

The sound of the explosion reached Six now – a great and terrible roar from below. They must be losing speed. Six looked down in time to see the walls of the factory bursting outwards like an eggshell under a hammer and the twin chimneys topple over into the wreckage. Then the building was invisible in the fog.

No more undead army, he thought. But soon we'll fall, and there'll be no more us. His gaze searched the polluted mist. Come on, come on. Where is it?

The oven door was rising slower and slower, and then it stopped.

‘Six?' Nai shouted.

‘Wait for it,' Six said.

And then, just as they began to fall, a silhouette appeared in the gloomy distance. A ChaoCorde, right on time.

Six let go of Nai and took aim with the crossbow as the aircraft approached. ChaoCordes travelled at a little over Mach 2, six hundred metres per second. He'd need to time this exactly right.

The oven door was falling quicker now, but the ChaoCorde was still too far away. Six had only made sixteen metres of rope out of the garrotting wire. He had to wait until the aircraft was close enough. All their lives depended on it.

‘Six?' Kyntak slurred.

He was alive. Six didn't look at him. ‘Be with you in a minute,' he said.

The roaring of the engines was becoming deafening. Six took aim at the smooth, white underbelly of the ChaoCorde and pulled the trigger.

The bolt shot out towards the plane like a comet, leaving a hanging trail of wire. Six held his breath as he watched its trajectory.

Thunk!
The bolt punched through the hull of the aircraft. Six threw the crossbow away.

‘Hey!' Nai glared at him. ‘That was mine!'

‘What's happening?' Kyntak mumbled. ‘Where am I?'

The door was falling faster now as the ChaoCorde swept overhead, creating a vacuum behind it that seemed to have its own gravity. Six could feel his hair rising in the negative pressure.

He held Kyntak a little more tightly. The rope was still attached to his belt, but he wasn't sure that would hold. He wound the wire around his fist for extra protection, then around his ribs, then his fist again.

The rope grew straighter. The slack was running out. Nai braced herself against him. She knew what was coming.

Six's neck jerked backwards and his arm was nearly pulled from its socket as he and Nai and Kyntak were wrenched off the door and into space. The door fell out of view below them as they swept after the ChaoCorde like remora fish after a shark.

Six felt like the muscles in his arm were on fire. He was used to lifting his own weight, but Kyntak was just as heavy as he was, Nai about three quarters again, and he was trying to hold them both up with just one arm. Plus, the sudden acceleration had exposed them to five Gs of force, making a total weight of – he ran some quick calculations – almost a metric tonne. Even letting his belt take twenty per cent of the pressure, he couldn't hold them up for long.