The Phoenix Trilogy (Book 1): World On Fire (9 page)

    “
Managed to stick it to Marco, I'm
guessing?” Natalie let out a sound that came out as a mix of a sigh and a
laugh. Bobbing her head in admission, she spoke.

    “
What gave it away?” Rico laughed, turning
back to the counter to gather up Natalie's equipment.

    “
Well, he grabbed his gear without a word.
Marco not constantly running his mouth is kind of a red flag that something
rubbed him the wrong way.” Natalie blushed at his words, trying to think of a
response. Should she be apologizing? They might agree that Marco was a bit of a
hard pill to swallow, but he and Rico were still family.

     
Giving her pack another glance, Rico
nodded to himself. Satisfied with his work, he handed Natalie's share of
supplies over. He must have guessed what was on her mind, because he barked another
laugh as she took her gear.

    “
Look, between you and me, Marco could use
a few knocks to the ego. Far as I'm concerned, you're doing us a favor.”
Changing gears, he cocked his head at her bag.

    “
Give that a look over, familiarize
yourself with what you've got, and meet us upstairs at the ladder. We'll
head out as soon as you're ready.” Flashing one last reassuring
smile at her, Rico headed up to meet BJ and Marco.

    
Doing as she was told, Natalie found most
of her bag filled with what you'd expect: some medical supplies, a tightly
rolled cot for sleeping, a fair portion of food and water, as well as a handful
of hygienic additions like soap and deodorant. Those last items were the only
ones that gave her pause.

    Soap
she could understand, to keep her hands clean of infectious material, but the
rest seemed superfluous. She suspected Rico might be trying to keep her as
comfortable as possible, in spite of what might be happening to the world at
large. It was unnecessary, but his thoughtfulness was appreciated anyway.

    
The crew didn't have a spare harness for
her to attach her shotgun to, but it did have a basic strap she could sling
over her shoulder that was better than nothing. The prom-tip was installed and
ready to go, and a side pocket on her pack had revealed a generous amount of
assorted ammunition for her to use.

    Lastly,
her pistol was fitted to a holster that rested on her opposite hip. It was
awkward, and not where she would have installed it for herself, but Rico had
insisted. This way if her shotgun ran dry, she could let it swing back on its
strap and swap to her handgun without it impeding her draw speed. It was the
last card she could play in case of an emergency, and it was not one that felt
safe.

    
Natalie vaguely hoped it wouldn't come to
that, but she recognized the naivety of the sentiment. There was virtually no
chance she was going to make this trip without incident. She set her jaw and
shoved the fear in her chest back down, intent on keeping her cool.

    Natalie
didn’t have time to waste on worrying. All she could do was move forward. With
that, she followed after Rico and up the stairs, her gaze focused on anything
but the bloody stain left from the zombie she had dispatched at the window as
she passed.

    
BJ smiled at her as she entered the old
bedroom. Marco still looked dour, refusing to make eye contact while Rico
quickly checked Natalie's straps and holster
to make sure
they were secure. He offered a sheepish smile as he did so, not wanting to
offend her but imparting the necessity to be absolutely certain she wouldn't be
losing any of her gear.

    “
Comfortable enough?” The rumble came from
BJ, his attention settled on something outside the window but his words meant
for Natalie. The look on his face was unsettling, and she wasn't in a great
hurry to find out what had him concerned.

    “
Yeah, as much as I'm ever going to be, I
think. I imagine this takes some getting used to.” She rolled her shoulders,
adjusting the lay of the shotgun. It wasn't terribly heavy, but it was a weight
she wasn’t accustomed to carrying, and it showed.

    Natalie
caught a glimpse of disappointment on BJ's face before it faded away, and she
wondered if she'd done something wrong. Seemingly ignoring what she had said,
he lowered his goggles over his eyes and donned his mouth wrap in silence.

    Further
convinced that she must have made a mistake, Natalie's gut clenched as she
thought about where she may have slipped up. A moment later, BJ started his
climb out the window and Natalie realized she probably wasn't going to find
out.

    “
It's time to go. I'll take point. Rico,
you stick with Natalie. Marco, watch our flank. We're going into dangerous
territory and we've got a bit of a road ahead before we're safe. I trust I
don't need waste any more time explaining the importance of caution.” True to
his word, BJ said no more as he descended. The other men readied their goggles
and wraps. Rico went down the ladder next, gesturing for Natalie to follow.
Marco wouldn't look at her, his eyes resting on the doorway behind
them as if attackers might suddenly burst through at any moment.
With a sigh, she prepped her gear and stepped out the window.

    
Taking the ladder down, Natalie felt a
small pang of sadness in her chest. Her time here hadn't been pleasant, but it
still felt strange to leave all of the emotions that were tied to this place
behind. With a silent goodbye to the man and daughter who had once lived happy
lives here, Natalie turned to follow Rico. Only then did she notice the look of
apprehension on his face.

    
Any feelings of regret at leaving the
house were washed away as she realized what held Rico's attention. The two
corpses that Natalie had dispatched were supposed to be in a pile just up the
street, right where BJ had put them. Instead, there was a mess of blood and
bones in their place. It was too far away to make out exactly what they were
looking at, and Natalie was immensely thankful for that.

    
BJ pointed to the trails of gore leading
away from the scene and his message was clear. Whatever had stopped to eat also
appeared to have taken its food with it, leaving behind a clear marker of what
direction it had gone. It stood to reason that choosing literally any other
path was probably a safer decision.

    
The men had taken a trail behind the house
to get here from the outpost, and they opted to trace that route back. BJ in
the lead, the group fell into step behind him. Leaving the cul-de-sac behind,
they began traveling through a sizable green belt that divided the residential
areas.

    
It didn't take long before Natalie found
herself
struggling to keep her calm. The rest of
the group was quieter and more practiced than her in almost every way, which
resulted in a sense of hypercritical self-scrutiny on her part. Every breath
she took felt too loud, and her paranoia was starting to convince her that it
was only a matter of time before she got them all killed.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when
Rico leaned back to whisper to her.

    “
Don't fight that feeling. That pressure,
that concern. Just let it play out. Fear is like quicksand: the more you
struggle, the faster you sink.” His advice came as a surprise, considering that
he hadn't actually looked at Natalie for several minutes. Realizing how obvious
her discomfort must have been, Natalie clenched her teeth in determination. She
would not be anyone's burden.

    
Following Rico's words, she stopped
denying her emotions.
I'm afraid. Sure. I don't have any experience with this shit. Sure. But hey,
neither did they at one point, and look at them now. This didn't happen for
them overnight, and it won't happen for me any faster. Buck up and get over it.

    The
words had more fight in them than Natalie actually felt, but the base sentiment
was there. She was going to have to get used to this eventually. As if to
confirm her point, BJ signaled for them to stop. Natalie froze as he continued
to sign. Two fingers down, one finger up.
One walker. Okay.

    Peeking
out from behind Rico, she saw their target. At a distance, she wasn't able to
confirm that it was a zombie at all. Impressed with BJ's vision, she realized
her mistake as Rico raised his rifle to look at the
creature through his scope.
Not eagle vision, just smart thinking.
She also noted that their scopes looked
to have electrical tape on them, an oddity she reminded herself to ask about
later. For now, there was a more pressing matter that needed tending.

    
They had nearly finished moving through
the green belt and were just entering another neighborhood when BJ had flagged
their mark. It was standing with its back to the group by a house on the
opposite side of the road from where they stood. Curiously, it didn't appear to
be moving or active. BJ signaled for the group to follow behind him, slowly
inching closer.

    
As they reached the corner of the house,
Rico tapped Natalie's arm and motioned for her to stay put. Without anything
further, he dropped to his belly and crawled out toward a car in a nearby
driveway. Scanning the surroundings, he gave the all clear sign and beckoned
for Natalie to join him. Heart pounding in her chest, she ducked down and moved
to meet him, while BJ and Marco paired up and set off toward another vehicle at
the neighboring house to their left.

    
Natalie wasn't sure what the plan was, but
the confidence with which the group had moved suggested there was definitely a
ploy in action. She tried to focus on that, instead of what felt like a vast
pit of uncertainty yawning in her mind. Another tap at her shoulder revealed
Rico's intention to crawl under the car. Following suit, she caught Marco's
eye. He was already in position under the vehicle on his side, and he nodded at
her as he put a finger to his lips before pointing at BJ.

    
He appeared to be holding a rock, and
Natalie's heart dropped as she realized what he intended to do.
Without any hesitation, BJ hurled the stone as hard as he could at
one of the homes across the street from them, aiming for a window. As soon as
the projectile was loosed, he dove down beside Marco. Everything after that was
a haze of sound and motion.

    
The stone shattered the window, and a
heartbeat later the zombie who had been so passive a moment ago was suddenly
ripping into the broken glass and hurling itself into the home. Worse, glass
and wood seemed to be raining down around Natalie's cover as more undead
exploded out of the houses around them.

    
There were at least eight of them, some
running upright while others leapt forward on their hands and feet. Natalie
almost considered it a blessing that their frenzy was so intense. Otherwise,
they may have run the risk of being spotted by a crawler, and in their position
they would have found it nearly impossible to defend themselves.

    
Feeling anxious, Natalie glanced at Rico
for orders. His only reply was to put his hand on her arm and whisper the word,
“Patience.” After a few minutes of waiting and as soon as the last set of
rotten feet had seemingly joined in on the hunt within the decoy house, Rico
and BJ flashed another exchange of signals before rolling out from their hiding
places.

    Wasting
no time, Natalie mirrored their actions and was immediately forced to run as
Rico sprinted diagonally across the street. BJ was already rushing down the
side of another home ahead of them, rifle sweeping between yards as he did.
Marco held his position at the corner, scanning their flank until Rico and
Natalie were both ahead of
him.

    Regardless
of his attitude, there was no denying that Marco followed his orders without
complaint. The group's actions were second-nature, and for all of the character
they had when they were relaxed, it was clear that they were more than capable
of handling themselves in an orderly fashion when it was necessary.

    
Ahead of them, BJ signaled all-clear at
the backyards. Continuing his pace, he dove into another greenbelt, trying to
put as much distance and cover between the ghouls and themselves as possible.
Against her better nature, Natalie began to hope that they might have escaped
the situation completely unscathed.

    
The more distance they put behind them,
the more confident Natalie felt, but it wasn’t just their successful escape. It
was being able to see the group in action, and knowing that the people beside
her really were veterans of the new age. The thought brought a smile to her
lips, more because of her own dramatic flair than anything else, and she
realized she was on another adrenaline high.

    
The idea that she was enjoying herself, in
any fashion and on any level, was a strange concept to come to terms with. Stealing
a look at the men around her, they were all grim-faced and alert. Even so,
Natalie wasn't able to stop smiling. This feeling was intoxicating, and as much
as she tried to deny it, it made her feel alive.