Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2) (26 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

“Reload! Reload!” Annette screamed as the top of the creek bed exploded with impacts, each bullet spitting up a column of sand and grit. Nguyen fumbled for another grenade as everyone hugged the ground.

Nguyen snapped the grenade in place and looked to Annette.

“Wait! Let’s move to the left a few yards. They’re watching this spot,” she said.

They crawled along the creek for a minute and arranged themselves again. Annette looked around.

“Everyone ready? One, two, THREE!”

Annette squeezed off a round with her rifle as Jeb let off a series of bursts next to her. Nguyen fired and everyone hit the dirt as the grenade sailed through the air.

This time its trajectory ended with a satisfying boom that shook the ground.

Annette peeked over the lip of the creek bed. The top of the boulders was hazy with smoke. She saw two bodies and part of a third.

“Forward!” she shouted, barely able to hear herself over the ringing in her ears.

They hurried through the bushes, spreading out and keeping low, looking for survivors. As the smoke cleared, one man staggered down through the boulders, face bloody, eyes wild and stunned. Jeb gave him a three-round burst that tore open his chest and slammed him against the rock face.

Another survivor cut to the right, firing wildly with his M16. Annette took him out with a single shot.

They were almost to the rocks now. Annette peered through the haze and the greenery, looking for movement.

Just then an explosion knocked her off her feet. She landed hard on her back, the pain in her neck from the car crash coming back tenfold. A rock hit her chest and took the wind out of her.

Coughing and wiping dust from their faces, the posse picked themselves up. Nguyen looked around apologetically.

“Looks like the first one wasn’t so faulty after all,” he said, giving them a white grin from behind a grimy face.

“Those things are damn powerful,” Jeb said, coughing. “No one survived that. Let’s get moving. How many you got left?”

“One,” Nguyen said as they hurried past the rocks and towards the pass.

Once they’d run for a while they stopped on a high point and looked around. The line of men was still following them, but they had lost some distance.

“Tired?” Annette wondered aloud.

“Probably got spooked by those explosions and The Pure One had to rally them,” Jeb said. “They’ll keep coming.”

The chase across the plains continued as the sun rose overhead and slowly sank to the west. Their pursuers never gained, never flagged, just kept on behind them in a broad line. For most of the day both sides were clearly visible to one another, and even if they weren’t it didn’t matter. There was only one place to go, only one place that offered safety—through the South Pass and back into New City territory.

But New City was days away. In that time anything could happen. What if another detachment of bodyguards was able to get in front of them? What if there was more bad weather or a new avalanche that slowed them down? What if there was another patrol lurking around like the one that killed Tanya?

Annette was all out of ideas. Run, was the only thing she could think to do. Run and keep running.

And that’s what they did, all through that long day and into the dusk. At times they slackened to a fast walk, and once they stopped for a luxurious five minutes by a stream as they refilled their canteens and ate a hasty lunch.

That was the only break they got. The Righteous Horde didn’t seem to take one at all.

“They must be getting strung out,” Annette said late in the afternoon. “The line looks thinner.”

“The Elect ate well but not as well as the bodyguards,” Jeb said, “and with them getting rid of most of the porters I bet only the bodyguards had someone to carry their gear. So yeah, the Elect will get tired quicker. Some might even desert.”

“There are hundreds of them,” Christina said. “Even if half drop out we still can’t hold against them.”

There was nothing to say to that. They kept going.

Dusk found them at the base of the pass. It was cloudy and cold, and a deep darkness began to enfold the land. The posse was now stumbling more than walking.

“We got to rest,” Charley panted.

“Once it gets completely dark we’ll take a breather,” Annette said, as exhausted as the rest of them, perhaps more. She still carried her shotgun, pistol, the looted rifle, and her now useless Dakota. Her back and neck ached from all the weight but she couldn’t bear to ditch the best sniper’s rifle she’d ever seen, even if it didn’t have any ammunition.

It was almost pitch black now and they had to walk carefully as the road wound up the side of the mountain. To one side the road opened up into a steep-sided valley and at times a sheer cliff with nothing but darkness beyond.

In the gloom Annette spotted a turn in the road that was partially blocked by a rockfall. It made a natural defensive point. Everyone sat down behind the heap of stones and took off their packs. Annette practically sank into the cracked pavement. She wanted nothing more than to sleep for the next twelve hours. But that was impossible.

She forced herself to open her pack and pull out some corncakes for her dinner. Even that movement was torture. After a few minutes she said, “We need to have a couple of people on watch a little down the slope. Charley, you and I are on first watch. We’ll do it for an hour, then Christina and Jackson for another hour. After that we have a night march ahead of us.”

Charley sighed and picked himself up. He and Annette positioned themselves on top of landslide. They had a good field of fire down the road, which was only barely visible as a lighter gray in the all-encompassing black.

“Where are they, do you think?” Charley asked.

“Down there somewhere. They’ll be coming.”

For a time they lay in silence. The rocks made a hard surface and jabbed at her, but simply relaxing her muscles for the first time all day lulled her mind and threatened to pull her into sleep. She forced her eyes to stay open. That’s why she had volunteered for the first watch. She didn’t trust herself to stay awake otherwise. To keep herself sharp, she started talking to Charley again, keeping her voice a whisper and one ear cocked for any noises from down the road.

“So why did you run against me for sheriff? It’s not like a scavenger to want a job in town.”

Charley shrugged. “I’m tired of wandering. The Burbs are a lot safer than the wildlands, and with a sheriff it can be even safer. I figured it would be a good way to settle down and make a difference.”

“You sure got a lot of votes,” Annette probed.

“You’ve been doing a good job. I think the best candidate won.”

Annette appreciated the compliment but knew he was avoiding the issue.

“So how did you get so many people to vote for you?”

“The scavengers wanted one of their own, and some people in the Burbs see you as too close to New City.”

“‘The Doctor’s puppet.’” Annette repeated one of his campaign slogans.

“Oh now, nothing personal,” Charley chuckled. “Besides, you won by a heap.”

Yeah, she had, but still Annette had to wonder. The scavengers couldn’t agree on which way the sun rose, let alone on a political candidate. It seemed odd that he could have gotten so many votes after announcing his candidacy so close to the election.

The soft snick of Jeb’s whittling knife came out of the darkness behind him. Charley chuckled.

“That man is determined,” he said.

“I don’t know where he gets the energy.”

“He’s taken quite a shine to your boy.”

“Yeah he has,” Annette whispered, wondering.

“Taken quite a shine to you too, I think.”

Annette snorted.

“Says he was a farmer before. Wandering around like he and I have, you get to missing what you used to have. You want to settle down, get back what you lost. Any scavenger knows about that.”

Annette nodded. Yeah, she knew about that. Charley went on.

“Of course he realizes he can’t stay in the Burbs, but he probably feels that giving Pablo something makes him part of the kid’s life, and yours.”

Annette looked out into the darkness. Suddenly she felt terribly alone, more alone than she had since she was young and half feral, wandering the wildlands after her group had been wiped out, avoiding all contact.

She’d eventually fallen in with another group of scavengers and ended up with Pablo’s father, Estefan. Then he died and she moved to the Burbs. She had friends, an adorable son, three meals a day, and a roof over her head. That was more than most people had, but she wasn’t complete, hadn’t been since Estefan died.

Of course guys tried, some nicely and some rudely. She rejected them all. Although she’d noticed how Jeb looked at her, she hadn’t really thought much about it. Lots of guys looked at her like that. None of them had quietly gone about making a gift for her when he knew he’d never get the thank you he was looking for.

A soft sound down the road snapped her back to the here and now. Charley heard it too and signaled frantically to the others.

Another sound, closer this time. Annette peered into the darkness. She couldn’t see a thing.

Wait, what was that? Movement about two hundred yards down. She glanced at Charley, who nodded.

In unison they both raised their rifles and fired. A moment later Jeb popped up between them and let loose with his AK on full automatic. In the glare they saw men scampering for shelter and finding none. Two or three gyrated and fell to the ground. Another ran straight over the cliffside.

The three of them squeezed together behind the landslide and reloaded. No return fire came at them.

“That’s not going to delay them long,” Annette said. “Let’s move out. Come on, everyone, we need some speed.”

With Jackson giving suppressing fire with his AK, the rest of the posse struggled as fast as they could up the road.

Not fast enough
,
Annette said, her legs feeling wobbly
.
We’ll never get away at this rate
.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Dawn found them still running. Jeb was nearly fainting, yet he didn’t dare lag behind. The Righteous Horde was a mile behind at most. At times the road would straighten out or bow in on itself and they’d spot the vanguard, who would snipe at them from long range. Nguyen got nicked on the shoulder. Luckily there were no worse injuries.

They had made impressive time. Jeb could see the spot where Rachel had dropped them off. Not that it mattered how fast they were going. Their pursuers followed them with relentless tenacity.

Everyone looked jaded. Their water had run out the night before and now everyone stumbled along, mouths dry, faces red, as the sun rose on a brutally clear morning.

I’m not going to make it
,
Jeb thought
.
Another hour or two and I’m going to collapse.

Jackson didn’t look like he was going to make it either. He’d fallen twice, and would have lagged behind if Annette hadn’t urged him on.

The only consolation was that the men behind them must be twice as tired. Jeb imagined a long line of stragglers stretched out along the length of the highway, many falling by the wayside only to be kicked into movement by the fanatics or shot when they wouldn’t or couldn’t budge. Jeb wondered if perhaps killing The Pure One wasn’t what they needed to break up the Righteous Horde. Perhaps this hell chase would do that just as well.

Left right left right. Jeb barely saw the road, legs working automatically, vision fuzzy with fatigue and half-closed eyelids. To his left was open air, to his right the steep slope of the mountainside. A few stones and dirt came crackling down from there. He kept going.

The pavement here was especially buckled, and he stumbled over a crack in the surface, almost falling before he righted himself. But there was something else bothering him. What was it?

Wait, stones coming from up the slope.

He stopped and looked up.

“Keep going,” someone gasped, their voice so harsh he couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman let alone who it was.

Jeb scanned the slope above, blinking as the bright blue sky dazzled his eyes. He couldn’t see anything except bushes and jagged rocks. It was almost sheer at this point.

His mind was numb. He couldn’t think straight. Jeb turned and followed the others.

Then a scrabbling sound behind them made them all look.

Not a hundred yards back, several men scrambled down a gravelly slope and onto the road.

Shit, they found a way to hump over the ridges and almost cut us off.

Jeb fired. A hail of bullets screamed out of his AK. He’d forgotten to take it off full auto. The man in front exploded in a spray of gore.

At the last instant Jeb swiveled his gun and took out two more before his magazine was empty.

Then the cultists returned fire.

Jeb slammed against the rock face, pressing himself close to hide from the lead death cutting the air. Jackson went down. Everyone else dove for what little cover there was or fired back.

Jeb tore out his magazine, tossed it aside, and slapped another into his weapon. Bullets cracked off the meager shelter that a fold in the rock provided him. He was pinned down.

Fuck it. If I’m going to die I’m going to die on the right side.

“For the Burbs!” he shouted, leaping into full view and blazing away. The enemy, surprised, hesitated for a split second.

That was their undoing. Three went down in rapid succession, causing the rest to beat it. That brief lull gave his friends a chance to pop out of hiding and shoot the others in the back.

Jeb screamed and emptied his magazine at the last of the cultists, then yanked it out and slapped in his last spare. He patted his pocket. Good, he still had a few extra bullets in there.

Across the open space of an intervening valley, he could see the vanguard of the column approaching. Up above he heard more scrambling. Someone from the posse fired and a man stumbled down the slope to land with a thud not far from where Jeb stood. More figures darted between rocks and shrubs, too far up and too hidden to provide a decent target. Jeb kept an eye on them as he hurried back to the others.

They were just picking up Jackson, who slumped in their arms, face pale. The bullet had entered his lower chest to one side. While Charley staunched the wound, a sobbing Annette applied a bandage. Christina and Nguyen fired up the slope, trying to hit the half-seen enemy. The cultists returned fire. Bullets cracked into the pavement.

The group carried Jackson to the base of the slope and out of sight.

“There’s a trail down to the road not far back,” Jeb said. “They’ll come down there.”

“What if they find a place to come down in front of us too?” Christina asked.

“We gotta get going before they can,” Jeb said.

They struggled on as fast as they could. After a minute the slope to their right became flatter, the road more exposed. Bullets started raining down from up the hill and they had to hurry back almost to their last position. Just as they did they saw two cultists dart back behind a curve in the road.

Shit
.
Jeb looked around
.
Can’t move forward, can’t go back, can’t stay here. You ain’t going to make it to a hundred, buddy.

Fuck that, yes I am.

Option 1: Fight. Not going to work.

Option 2:  That cliff on the other side isn’t totally sheer. If he ditched them now, he might make it down while they held up the Righteous Horde. These guys weren’t going to surrender and the fight would last at least a few minutes. He might get away.

Option 3: Stick.

Ha!

Option 2, buddy, option 2.

“Jackson! Jackson, can you hear me?” Annette was bending over her friend, whose eyes were glazed and unfocused. Tears streaked her face. Christina crouched next to them, reloading her gun.

“I’ll take some out for you, Jackson. They’re going to pay,” Christina said.

Charley leapt up and fired a few rounds around the corner, then ducked back as a hail of return fire greeted him. A bullet ploughed a furrow in his cheek. He grimaced and fired back again.

The fire around the bend was getting closer and gaining in strength. There was a whole crowd of cultists around the corner and they were putting down covering fire so some of them could make a rush for it.

Once that happened, it would all be over.

Nguyen fired up the slope, keeping the cultists above them from getting closer.

Jeb looked around. Everyone was occupied. Now was the time to get away. Now was the time to run.

But he couldn’t run. He froze, not out of fear, because he never froze out of fear, he froze because he simply couldn’t bring himself to do what he knew was in his best interest.

Aw hell, looks like I’ll stick.

You’re not getting to a hundred, but at least you’ll go out like a man.

Charley ran back to their position, joining Nguyen and getting ready for whatever came around the corner. Everyone would be exposed. They couldn’t lose that corner.

Jeb rushed forward and ran around the bend, almost bumping into half a dozen cultists running the other direction. Both sides stopped, momentarily stunned at how close each other was.

Jeb woke up first.

His bullets tore through the lead group and the cultists flew back, arms gyrating, feet flying into the air as the impact of the shots knocked them flat. Blood sprayed across the cracked pavement.

As the last one fell Jeb saw another ten or so who had been giving covering fire. They stood about a hundred yards away. The first of the stragglers huffed up the hill not far behind.

That’s the last he saw before a storm of fire sent him scurrying back around the bend.

He passed Nguyen heading the other direction. The man fired the last of his rifle grenades. The little black shell sailed down the highway and exploded into the mass of cultists, tearing them apart. Nguyen and Jeb cheered and whooped.

That victory was short-lived. More cultists came around the turn. Those who had gotten above them grew bolder. They popped out to take unaimed snapshots before ducking back. Bullets cracked and ricocheted everywhere. One nicked Jeb’s leg. Another punctured Nguyen’s backpack.

Jeb and Nguyen looked to the others. Annette was still bent over Jackson. Christina and Charley were firing up the cliff but having to scoot back out of sight in the face of superior fire.

Jeb went up the hill a few yards and looked at the exposed area of the road. A few cultists were just making it onto the pavement.

The posse was trapped.

Trapped, but we can still take some of them out
,
Jeb thought. He raised his AK-47 and fired.

All he heard was a click.

He was out of ammunition.

A shout behind him made him spin around.

“They’re charging!”

From up the hill, a crowd of cultists came around the bend, firing from the hip as they ran. Jeb fumbled his AK as a bullet hit the stock. He barely managed to hold onto it as the rest of the posse backpedaled, firing as they went, but there was nowhere to run.

The cultists stopped, raised their guns to aim.

The roar of an engine and the blare of a horn. A four-by-four careened around the bend. The cultists got smacked in the back by the fender, arms raising up, before getting pulled under and ground into the pavement by the wheels. Those on the edge of the road threw themselves over the cliff and disappeared.

The vehicle came screeched to a stop. Rachel stuck her head out the window.

“Get in! Now!”

Jeb didn’t need any more invitation. As Nguyen sprayed down the road on full auto, they put Jackson on the back seat and clambered inside with him. Rachel spun the vehicle around and Nguyen sprinted back up to meet it, leaping inside at the last moment.

Jeb and Annette were crammed in the front seat together, with Christina, Nguyen, and Charley hanging on any which way as Jackson was laid out across the back seat.

“I thought you guys might need a bit of help!” Rachel cackled. “Sorry for being so late but—”

“Apology accepted,” Jeb shouted. “Get us the fuck out of here!”

Rachel gunned it and they sped up the hill, swerving and bouncing with each crack in the pavement. Jeb gritted his teeth as they slid close to the edge before Rachel cut hard on the wheel at the last moment.

They went round a bend and up a rough bit that forced her to slow down.

A cultist leapt into the road in front of them. The muzzle of his M16 seemed like a dark tunnel that was about to swallow the entire vehicle.