The Saffron Malformation (50 page)

             
Arnie jumped in behind the wheel and waited for the two knocks on the metal wall behind him before turning the engine over and throwing the truck in reverse.  Using only the mirrors Arnie backed the truck out of the hanger and clear of the doors before he spun the wheel hard to the left and arched it around the barren yard to the front door.  The back right tire rolled up the first two steps of the front porch before the truck came to a stop.

             
Ahead of him, Once Men were stopped in the middle of the road, staring at him sitting behind the wheel of the truck with heavy curiosity.  A moment passed before they barked loudly and as Arnie looked down the road, toward where the Brood was parked, he saw more of the savages take notice of the truck.

             
Behind him there was the clamor of footsteps on metal as Rain, Leone and Quey piled into the back with the bags of guns and the cooler of food.  From the road ahead Once Men dashed toward the truck, makeshift weapons of jagged metal in their hands.  When the signal everyone was inside came in the form of two hard knocks on the wall behind him, Arnie’s foot mashed the accelerator and the truck leapt forward with a jolt.  Three of the four savages managed to dodge the vehicle, but one got clipped by the right side of the bumper and he felt a jostle as the truck rolled over and crushed the Once Man’s body.  It was followed by a harsh scream that faded into the distance as he turned the truck onto the road that circled the lake and started toward the far side where more single round shots rang out.

             
The progress bar was nearly full as Dusty and Rachel took cover behind the main computer banks.  The savages had been unable to pull the outer door opened any further and that had been good.  They were forced to squeeze in one at a time and that made them easy to pick off.  Five were lying at the end of the hallway, piled on top of one another in the dull and ambient yellow glow of the emergency lights.

             
Outside one of the savages barked in their simple language and the door began to squeal again.  It opened a little more and the savage barked once again, this time with excitement.

             
Dusty looked over at Rachel.  “You ready for this?” he asked her.  She nodded.  They both leaned across the large computer console and Dusty told her, “Remember darling, they’re just cans of beans.”

             
The door swung open further.  “Just cans of beans,” she repeated quietly to herself and then again.  “Just cans of beans.”  When the first one ran in she didn’t give herself time to look at his face or notice that it had eyes.  She pulled the trigger and splattered its brains into the air behind it.  Thick, chunky liquid arched from the back of its head and slopped to the floor with a heavy splat.  Just like a can of beans.  She almost laughed but then another rushed in.

             
The sheet began to vibrate in Quey’s pocket as the truck raced along the road that circled the lake, jostling the passengers in the back and tossing them left and right.  Quey pulled it free and tapped the screen.  Dusty appeared clear as though Quey was holding his head in the palm of his hand and he said, “Got my dick in a lions mouth.”

             
“I noticed,” Quey replied as gunfire erupted and screeched through the computers speakers.  “Who’s shooting?”

             
“Rachel,” Dusty said.

             
“I’m out!” she shouted as she passed him her rifle and took up his.  A moment later there was another pair of bangs.

             
“You hold tight,” Quey told him.  “We’ll be there before the tick can tock.”

             
On the other end of the line Rachel emitted a sound that was somewhere between and scream and a shout for, “DUSTY!”  The screen blurred as Dusty dropped the sheet to the floor and then shots came with frequency.

             
“Fuck,” Quey muttered and hung up.  He moved to the back of the truck and held onto the handle along the side of the cargo door as he leaned out for a better look.  He could see the tower.  They were nearing it quickly.  Once Men crossed a bridge while others swam the lake and pulled themselves up onto the shore.

             
There was no more gunfire from the main road, near as he could tell, and that was bad.  That meant the Angels of the Brood were in the clear and moments away from wondering what the hell was going on on the other side of this lake.

             
Arnie took the turn toward the tower sharp and Quey nearly lost his grip on the handle and went tumbling onto the gravel road.  The truck swerved right then left before straightening out and closing the last hundred meters between it and the tower’s access bridge.

             
Reggie jumped out of the back before the truck had a chance to settle into its stop and as Quey started to follow the big man laid a hand on his shoulder.  “You should stay with them.”

             
Quey looked back into the truck, at Rain who was checking the chamber of her handgun and the boy, Leone, with the gun Quey had given him clutched in his trembling hand.  He nodded and Reggie started toward the bridge.

             
Arnie opened the door and Reggie shouted to him as he passed, “Stay right there Arn,” he said.  “We’re gunna need to get out quick.”

             
Quey hopped up into the back of the truck and knelt near the opening, watching the night-covered waste.

             
“You don’t try shooting,” Rain said.  When Quey turned he could see she had the boy’s head in her hands.  “You just hold onto that thing and give it to me if I ask for it.”

             
Leone nodded.  She kissed his forehead and movement brought Quey’s eyes back out toward the road.  Once Men were closing on them, their cracked lips peeled back against their rotting broken teeth in a guttural snarl.  Their eyes were so wild it sent a chill through him.

             
There were too many of them.  With the outer door of the tower pulled most of the way open the savages were able to charge in a handful at a time.  Rachel had dropped the first two but the bastards were fast and not phased by the sound of gunfire.  They ran into the control room and swarmed her.  That was when she screamed.

             
Dusty dropped the sheet computer to the ground and jumped to his feet.  One of the savages rushed him as he reached for the pistol in the belt of his paints and got a hold on him before he could draw.  There was a struggle and damn if the Once Men weren’t strong.  Dusty managed to get a bit of leverage on the bastard and drug him to the ground.

             
Rachel tried to raise the rifle but one of the savages grabbed it and tore it from her hand.  Luckily he didn’t keep it for himself.  Instead he threw it to the ground behind him.  As he came forward she tried to fend him off but he grabbed her arms and slammed her back against the wall.  He smelled like an old trash can and there was the stink of feces on him as well.  He looked at her with wild lustful eyes and leaned toward her, bringing his rough scarred face close to hers.  She felt his long brittle hair caress her cheek like a dirty bit of rope as he sniffed her, his hot breath swarming across her neck making her cringe.  She could sense his excitement as she struggled in the grips of his sandpaper hands and tried to bring a knee up and into his groin.  She had one chance and she missed, striking his hip, then she was pinned against the wall and he gripped her hair in the back and yanked, forcing her head back and her face up at his.  His skin was dry and caked with filth trapped in a layer of stale sweat.  When he smiled she could see his teeth were dark around the edges and yellow in the middle, his gums were black and spotted with broken scores that leaked.

             
“Ba nu va,” the Once Man said slowly as his eyes traced her face and he pressed firmly against her.  The savage behind him turned and she saw he meant to help the other one, still struggling with Dusty on the floor across the room.

             
She could feel his cock throbbing against her as he leaned in and licked, slathering her with thick spittle that stretched from her cheek to his tongue in a thin glistening thread as he drew his head back.  He sighed as she finally reached the pistol Reggie had forced her to keep.  She smiled at the Once Man and he chuckled briefly before he felt something hard jam against the place where his cock met his balls, then his eyes widened and there was a thunderous boom.

             
Across the room Dusty was overtaken by two savages.  He was trapped, curled up on the floor just trying to cover up as they kicked and punched him, when the shot made them spin.  They looked at the Once Man writhing on the floor, draining blood into a puddle slowly forming around him and they snarled and started for her.

             
Rachel leveled the gun and slid the trigger back until it erupted again and jumped in her hand.  The savage was close and the shell tore through his chest and stumbled him.  The third was on her.  She tried to aim for him but he grabbed her arms.  He was strong as hell and soon she was pressed against the wall again, only this one meant to kill instead of rape her.

             
Dusty was to his feet and across the room and what happened next was a blur he’d never remember clearly.  His hands on the savage.  The savage going to the floor.  Then his foot came down multiple times, not in kicks but in stomps, as he drove the whole of his weight down into the savage’s face and ribs and throat.  In those moments, he came as close to knowing what it was like to be a Once Man as he ever wanted to.

             
Rachel stepped to him, using her shoulder to wipe the saliva from her cheek, and touched him.  He looked at her and the sight of her grounded him and relief swarmed him as he took her in his arms and pulled her tight against him.  She felt his arms close around her and then it was hard to breath but she didn’t care.  She liked it.  It filled them both with warmth and a rush of euphoria.

             
The sensation was brief lived, however, as there were noises down the hallway leading toward the entrance.  Without a word they separated.  Dusty retrieved the handgun he’d dropped and Rachel picked up the rifle.

Dusty took a moment to put a round in the heads of the two savages clinging to life at their feet—one missing his balls, the other with a hole in his chest—just to be sure.

              Rain was the first to open fire, pumping three rounds into the chest of the Once Man in front, dropping him to the ground in a lifeless heap.  Quey fired next, putting only a single round into the savage that had been running along side Rain’s kill.  It went down as well and lay equally as lifeless.  She fired another set of rounds to Quey’s one and two more bodies hit the ground.

             
From the bridge Reggie’s rifle rang out and Once Men screamed their bizarre single syllable language into the night.  Most turned from the tower and settled their attention on the big man.

             
Movement caught Quey’s eye.  Some of it came from more Once Men rushing down the road and he almost said, “Fuckers are worse than cockroaches,” but then another bit of movement caught him.  Headlights rolling fast down the lakeside road.  The Brood had gotten wise and decided to come take a look.

             
Rain stepped up beside him and he looked down at her for a moment, then back out at the heap of ugly meaning to come pay them a visit.

             
“Sorry I got you into this mess,” He said solemn and genuine.

             
“I’m not sure who’s mess this is.  Maybe yours, maybe mine,” she admitted.

             
“Well if it is yours I promise to forgive you,” he told her with a smirk.

             
She smiled and said, “Ditto.”

             
Their eyes met and they shared a brief laugh as the Once Men running up the road finally started for them.

             
“Hey,” Reggie shouted in through the metallic tower door.  “You guys in there?”

             
“Reg?” it was Dusty’s hopeful voice.

             
“Yeah, come on man we don’t have time for this dilly dally shit.”

             
Rachel and Dusty peeked out from the control room, saw Reggie and sighed.  Grinning wildly Rachel snatched up the sheet as the download had finished, and they hurried toward the door where a pile of bodies lay skewed in and around the doorway.

             
“Thank fuck,” Dusty said, “I could kiss you big man.”

             
“Save it, we’re not out of that lions mouth yet,” he told them.  “Brood’s on the way,” he informed them, gesturing toward the headlights racing down the road.  Three cars and a rig.

             
The rig blew its air horn and then machinegun fire rattled across the lake and echoed off in the distance.  The noise startled the Once Men who looked wide eyed at the approaching vehicles and decided they’d had enough for one night.