The Alpha Plague (19 page)

Damp earth turned his hands slick when he pushed himself up again. A quick rub against his trouser legs barely removed any of it.

He grabbed the boat and tugged so hard his body snapped back with every jerk. “Pull, pull, pull, pull.” It started to move.

With the boat just a few metres from the water, Rhys looked up. The front-runners appeared at the top of the hill. Crusted blood streaked their cheeks, and their mouths hung open as dark holes. No more than fifty metres separated them. Pure hate drove them on.

“Pull, pull, pull, pull.”

The boat moved some more and resisted less when they got to the wetter mud by the river. The calls of rage rushed toward them in a tide, and Rhys heard Vicky’s panicked breath.
 

He looked across to see her slow down. “Keep pulling, Vick. Don’t give up now.”

More diseased came over the ridge and rushed at them. The front-runners were no more than twenty metres away.
 

The boat came free and slid into the water with a splash.

Rhys ran into the cold river and dragged it out with him. “Get in.”

As Vicky jumped in and set the oars up, Rhys continued to drag the boat out.

The water came up to Rhys’ thighs by the time Vicky had clicked the second oar into place. Rhys pulled himself up into the boat, retrieved his bat, and moved to the side closest to the oncoming horde.
 

The front-runners splashed into the water. It slowed them down a little, but not enough to make much of a difference.
 

Rhys pulled his bat back and swung at the lead diseased.
 

He connected with a
ching
and it went down instantly. The ones behind trampled it as it disappeared beneath the water.
 

One grabbed the boat and Rhys swung at it. Then another. Then another.
 

Each swing connected. “Are you sure they can’t swim?” Rhys called over his shoulder, and then swung for another one of the diseased.

“No.”

“
What?
” Rhys took another one down.
 

“I said no. I’m not sure. It’s just what I was told.”

“Fuck.” Another one fell beneath the water. “Why didn’t you say?”

The effort of rowing delayed Vicky’s reply. “Because it wouldn’t have made any difference; we had to get in the boat. We had no other choice.”

Yet another downed diseased, and Rhys wound back for another swing. However, as the gap between the boat and the shoreline increased, the diseased started to sink. They continued to rush forward, but they hit the point where the water level had risen to their neck and they went under.
 

They flailed their arms and gasped as their heads disappeared beneath the surface, but they never came back up again.

Diseased after diseased ran to their violent end and Rhys watched them, his bat still ready to swing.

In the space of about thirty seconds, what could have been tens—maybe even a hundred—of the stupid bastards had vanished.
 

The rest finally stopped. They stood in the waist-deep water and watched Rhys and Vicky pull farther away from them. Still they reached out, they grasped at the air, they snapped their jaws, they screamed, but none of them advanced.
 

It was the roof of the abandoned building and car park all over again. The gap between them may have been small, but for the diseased, it might as well have been a mile. They stood and stared. They growled and hissed. They directed their collective attention and hate at the pair on the boat, but they’d been immobilised by a few feet of water.

While he fought to get his breath back, Rhys laughed. “They can’t swim, Vicky.” He turned to see her red-faced and panting. He laughed again. “They can’t swim.”
 

Vicky peered over his shoulder at the diseased on the shore. With a weary sigh, she slumped forward and let the boat continue to drift away from the mob.

Chapter Forty

“Let me row,” Rhys said. “You’ve done enough already.”

The boat drifted as Vicky looked up from her slumped position. “You sure?”

A quick nod and Rhys shifted over to the side so they could swap places. As they moved around in the small boat, they brushed up against one another. When Rhys looked into Vicky’s eyes, the memory of their kiss flooded back and he could almost taste it again. Heat spread across his face, and he looked away.
 

Once they’d switched sides, Rhys stared to row. With his back to their direction of travel, he now watched the diseased on the riverbank. More came over the top all the time. They shoved those at the front forward as they had on the towers. It pushed more of the horrible creatures into the water. They gasped and flailed for a few seconds before they sank out of sight. “I would have thought the diseased could survive underwater.”

After a check over her shoulder, Vicky turned back to Rhys. “They’re not dead, just infected. They smell like they’re dead, but they need to breathe just like you or I. It seems that the virus takes away the control of their limbs, so they can’t swim. You’ve seen how the clumsy fuckers run. No wonder they can’t cope with the water.”

“Thank god!” Rhys said. At least two hundred faces stared at him. They snapped their jaws and bit at the air as if it would give them a taste of their prey. “Imagine if those fuckers could get across the water too.”

With clenched teeth, Rhys dug deep and pulled the oars against the resistance of the water. He then took his attention away from the diseased on the riverbank and looked at Vicky instead. “So that’s why this place is surrounded by a moat. I always wondered how it would stop people getting in, but it isn’t to prevent people getting in, is it? It’s about keeping the diseased contained. If it all went to shit, they could lock the place down, quarantine it, and keep the rest of the country safe. Blow the bridges, close the buildings off, and raise the drawbridge. Virus contained! Simple!”

After she’d turned to look over her shoulder again, Vicky said, “You’re right, I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. It’s so damn obvious now. I bet when the virus made it to the final stages of testing, they watched The Alpha Tower night and day. With something so contagious, the risk of it getting out had to be high. Maybe they didn’t see a terrorist attack coming, but you can be damn sure someone was watching, ready to throw the city into lockdown when the diseased emerged.”

“Well, that’s a good thing for Flynn, at least,” Rhys said. “The police barricade shows that the diseased failed to get across the water.”

The slightest smile twitched on Vicky’s lips. It vanished after she’d looked at the city behind them again. “I’m just glad I’m not locked in one of those buildings.”

Rhys looked at the now metal-encased towers that made up Summit City’s skyline. A deep sigh and he shook his head. “How the fuck will Dave get out?”

***

The screams of the diseased and the wild splashing as those at the front drowned got quieter the farther Rhys and Vicky got away from them. Rhys focused on the oars as they beat a steady retreat against the water, and the diseased calls became no more than a background noise.

When Vicky sat up straight, the wind tossed her hair. Rhys admired her for a second. When she looked back at him, his cheeks flushed and he cleared his throat. “I was… uh, I was worried about you, you know? Petrified, in fact, when I saw you run toward the florist’s. There was no way I could have left you. Ever.”

Vicky smiled as she looked at him. Her hair still danced on the wind. She then leaned forward and put a hand on his knee.
 

Rhys lifted the oars into the boat then held the back of her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, his hand still dirty from the fall into the mud. He then resumed rowing.

***

With only a quarter of their journey left, Vicky insisted they swap around again so she could row the last bit. Rhys protested at first but he gave in quickly. God knows the burning muscles in his back appreciated the rest.

As Vicky ploughed on, Rhys removed the photo of Flynn and the lump of painted and varnished wood from his pocket. The water had gotten to both, although the image on the photo remained in good condition. When Rhys spoke, his voice trembled. “Flynn’s okay, isn’t he?”

When Vicky didn’t respond, Rhys looked up. She stared at him with a soft gaze and tight lips. She didn’t know. How could she? Until they reached the other side, they couldn’t know anything.

After the silence had hung between them for a few seconds, she said, “If the police barricade is anything to go by, I think he’ll be fine. They hadn’t been bitten.”

With a weary sigh, Rhys put the photo back into his pocket. He stared past Vicky at the riverbank. Only time would tell.

***

Just before they reached the other side of the river, Rhys said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you. I saw something strange when I was in the towers next to the florist.”

“Stranger than an army of enraged lunatics wanting to bite your face off?”

Rhys laughed. “Fair point. It was how they behaved. Up until that moment, I knew they communicated with one another, but I didn’t realise they felt empathy for each other too.”

“How do you know that?”

“They caught up with me at the top of the stairs and I hit the lead one in the face with a sledgehammer. He fell back into the others, who caught him and then held him to check he was okay. I didn’t think it was possible, but when they realised he wasn’t, it incensed them further. They wanted my blood more than before.”

Vicky’s eyes widened. “That sounds petrifying.”

“It wasn’t pretty. It makes me wonder what they’re capable of. Can they communicate beyond that strange hunting call we’ve heard? Will they evolve into something far more deadly than we can fight? I mean, if those things were even half-intelligent, we wouldn’t have got out of the city. What if they’re capable of better organisation than they currently have? They’ll be unstoppable.”

Another glance at the collection of diseased on the riverbank made Rhys shiver. The width of the river had given him comfort but now they’d reached the other side, the expanse of water seemed like a pitiful defence. Surely, the diseased would find a way across.

Chapter Forty-One

Still soaked from where he’d dragged the boat out on the other side of the river, Rhys plunged into the frigid water again. A couple of kicks and his tiptoes found the soft riverbed. He pushed forward and dragged the boat with him until he had a solid footing. It made it much easier to pull it to the shore.
 

The bottom of the vessel bit into the soft mud. After another tug to be sure it was secure, Rhys held his hand out to Vicky. Not that she needed to, but she took it just the same. She held both baseball bats and the rope to tether the boat in her other hand.

After Vicky had tied the boat up, the pair climbed the steep incline to the road.
 

At the top, Rhys chewed on his bottom lip and looked both ways. “Where is everyone? This ain’t right.”

“You’re telling me,” Vicky said.

“I understand they may have quarantined the place, but no police?”

Vicky walked past him in the direction of the control booth for the bridge.

The sound of insatiable hunger rode across the river from the horde on the other side. The distance that separated them muted their enraged calls. With his nerves on edge, Rhys ignored the monsters and looked at the area that had been abandoned by the police. “Where have they gone?”

Vicky didn’t answer him.

The control booth could fit two people, but it would be a squeeze. Rhys decided to wait outside—better not invade Vicky’s personal space too much.
 

Between checks over his shoulder and across the river, Rhys watched Vicky remove her card, slide it into the card reader, and tap away at the keyboard.

The stillness closed in around Rhys, and his eyes stung from where he’d sweated into them all day. With his bat still raised, he looked and listened for signs of trouble.
 

Aside from the cries from the other side of the river, he saw and heard nothing—not even birdsongs.
 

When Vicky called out, Rhys jumped.

“Rhys, look at this.”

After one last check up and down the road, Rhys stepped into the booth. It felt like he’d entered a greenhouse. The large windows elevated the temperature to what felt like a thousand degrees. Rhys moved his elbows away from his body to let his armpits breathe, but it did little to stop the itch and then trickle of sweat that ran down his sides. The air held a stagnant funk of coffee and dirt. “How the fuck does anyone spend time in this place?”

Instead of a response to his question, Vicky tapped the screen and brought up a countdown clock. It read six hours and twenty-three minutes.
 

“What’s it for?” Rhys asked.

“It’s how long that’s left before they incinerate the island.”

“Incinerate?”

Vicky nodded.

“But what about all of the people not infected? What about all of those locked in the buildings? How will they get out?”

A frown wrinkled Vicky’s brow. “I think those in power would argue that the needs of the many outnumber the needs of the few. They certainly have in the past.” She pointed out of the window. “Whatever happens, the virus can’t cross that river.”

“What about Dave? What about Larissa? Sure, she’s a bitch, but she’s still the mother of my child. There must be a way to stop it?”

“There is.”

Her tone said it all. “I don’t want to hear what it is, do I?”

Vicky shrugged, “The place to override it is in a small office in The Alpha Tower. The office itself is a nightmare to get into. It’s high security shit. To be honest, if someone can get in there, then they deserve to be saved.”

Rhys scoffed. “They probably deserve to die more than anyone. They created the virus.”

“It was only a select few in The Alpha Tower who were responsible for this mess.” There was an injured tone to her voice.
 

“I’m sorry, Vicky, I didn’t mean—”