Chapter 40 A Is Accepted
A UNION IS ACCEPTED
“Don’t tell me you trust him?” I asked as soon as we left Bastia behind, speeding away in our refuelled car, buildings flicking by our windows in a blur.
“I found him extremely tolerable compared to the deranged fanatic that I’d been expecting,” Einar replied tentatively, weighing his words. “But no, I certainly do not trust him.”
He stared at the road ahead with a frown, hands gripping the wheel at precisely nine and three o’clock.
“Why did you play into his hands then? Did you think our lives would really be in danger otherwise?”
Einar swerved to avoid the wreckage of a car on the road, unfolding peacefully in front of us in the dying light.
“Yes, for one thing. Though that will only provide us with temporary protection. But I really want his weapons. We’ve run low on ammo. We don’t have enough left to take on another swarm. Not to mention I’d love me some machine guns ...”
“Men and their toys,” I scoffed, and he rewarded me with a threatening look. “Do you think there’s a chance he’ll treat our people decently?”
I made a mental note to return to the trifling point of our safety.
“That’s a complicated question, sweetheart.” He looked into the rear-view mirror and scowled at Angelo’s dark SUV, which was still at our tail.
Santini had insisted that Angelo and four of their men come back with us, bringing with them explosives and ammunition to replenish our stocks.
The reasoning he gave us for this was that they were to observe and learn our techniques for exterminating fury swarms. But it was clear that they were to spy on us.
“It’s a double-edged sword. You see,” Einar continued, his brow creased, “all uninfected, able-bodied people are great assets these days. Santini needs them more than they need him. If we were on the mainland, there would be no doubt in my mind that he would have to treat them fairly or else they would simply find a way to migrate to another country or another quarantine zone. As we are on an island, though ...”
He fell silent, leaving me to ponder the unsaid implications.
“You think that he may prevent them from leaving?”
“Look to your left.”
I did. We were passing through the outermost fringes of Bastia, miles away from the safety of the quarantine zone. There was a marina at the coast below, yet nothing but a few masts protruded from the water, as well as sunken, capsized sterns, dull in the descending shadows.
“Nothing but wrecks ...”
“Exactly.” He nodded grimly. “I already noticed it on the way here, and in more places than one. Virtually all harbours this side of the coast are empty. And meanwhile, Bastia’s own port practically overflowed with vessels.”
He swerved to avoid a cow skeleton.
“Oh no ... You don’t think he’s trying to get all the ships on the island destroyed? Surely he’d never succeed!”
A lone, frail infected stumbled into our view, a soulless remnant of an aged man, with isolated strands of white hair on his spotted skull, his thin body clad in rags. He moved feebly in our direction, his mouth opening in a growl we could not hear over the engine’s roar.
“Damn it!” Einar came to a full stop and pulled on the handbrake before undoing his seatbelt.
“Why don’t you just run him over?”
“Can’t be arsed to clean the car after. Stay here.”
I watched Einar get out in a swift motion.
The black SUV came to a stop behind us. Einar opened the trunk of our car and pulled out a sledgehammer.
Swinging it wide with a deceptive ease, he cracked the fury’s skull in one unhesitating motion.
Blood and brain matter dirtied the road with an unappetising splat.
Einar laid the hammer on the ground and retrieved a plastic bottle of antiseptic solution from the car trunk.
He poured it generously over the hammer, wiping it with a rag and putting it away.
Then he took off his shirt and drenched himself in the transparent liquid, scrubbing his arms and face.
He put a fresh shirt on, closed the trunk, and got back in the car, the seat creaking underneath his weight.
“You stink,” I complained and cracked the window open as we took off again. “Never mind that now, though. What did you mean when you said that agreeing with his vision would only be a temporary protection for us?”
Like an Emmental cheese with its holes, the portion of the road we were on was covered with potholes like craters, filled with rainwater from the previous day.
It was impossible to gain speed driving between them, and Einar drummed his fingers impatiently on the wheel between the unceasing hollow-evading manoeuvres.
“What I meant is that right now we’re extremely useful to Santini.
We’ve proven that we can efficiently defeat the swarms, which is a job I’m fairly sure there won’t be many volunteers for.
He won’t want to do away with us just yet.
But when he finally holds that election he mentioned, to give himself credibility, he will not want me anywhere in the vicinity.
People all over the island will know me as the man who liberated the country from the infection.
I’m too formidable an adversary for him to let me carry on breathing. ”
“You assured him you would not run for election ...”
“That makes little difference. What matters is that people might want me to run. Might even rebel against my not being allowed to. Santini won’t have that, not when he’s so close to what is likely his lifelong aspiration. He won’t risk a civil war.”
It was getting darker outside, and the sea to our left was barely visible anymore. Einar turned on the headlights.
“If we’re lucky, he might just let us leave,” he pondered out loud, his eyes glazed as he got lost in his own thoughts.
“It would only help his own image if I were to just up and abandon my people, a favour I’m more than willing to grant.
Save him the trouble of having me killed inconspicuously.
The last thing he needs is for me to become a martyr . ..”
Then, snapping back to the present moment, Einar took his eyes off the road briefly to look at me. I shifted uncomfortably. Noting my accusing look, he tutted.
“Come on, love, would you rather have me pretend that I care? You know I don’t.
” He laid his hand on top of mine to give it a light squeeze.
“I wasn’t lying when I said that civil leadership didn’t appeal to me.
I already got what I wanted out of all this.
I was always going to step down once there were no infected left for me to play with.
We can move somewhere when the time comes, have a fresh start just the two of us.
Before I get on Santini’s nerves too much. ”
I felt as if I had been running down the stairs and missed a step, the sensation not alleviated in the least by the eerie absence of light. The path ahead only appeared briefly in segments as our lights flooded it, and those disappeared again as soon as we passed through them.
“Where do you want to go?” I asked, my voice sounding distant and foreign to my ears.
“Iceland.”
Gasping, I turned to look at him, my mouth forming a perfect round ‘O’. The road was becoming increasingly littered with abandoned and wrecked vehicles, so he couldn’t return my gaze. But sensing my astonishment, a faint smile curved his lips.
“I am free to return from my exile now that she isn’t there anymore,” he said, voice suffused with a plethora of contradicting emotions. “We could live at my father’s old farm. It’s in a beautiful, peaceful place. What do you think?”
“Hmmmm ...” I droned out, intentionally keeping him in suspense. “Could we have a puppy or two?”
“Yes.”
“And cats?”
“As many as you’d like. And, just to save you the bother of asking, we can have any other animals in any number. Except for snakes. I draw the line there.”
“Then there’s nothing to consider,” I replied unhesitatingly. “I’ll go wherever you go, you know that.”
Groping for my hand without taking his eyes off the road, he brought it to his lips, his eyes shining with an uncharacteristic sentiment.
“Who knows, we may even have a family,” he said after a momentary silence. “I’m sure there will be orphans in need of a home.”
“You’d do that for me?” I asked in a small voice.
“I’d do it for us. The only family I ever want is the one I can have with you. However, that family looks, whether it is just the two of us, us with a dozen animals, or us with a child, ours by love if not by blood. The only thing that matters is that it will be our family, yours and mine.”
I buried my face in my hands.
“No, Ren, please don’t cry. There’s been enough of that lately.”
His arm wrapped around my shoulders. Taking a few, shaky breaths, I tried to compose myself.
“What about the others?” I asked, changing the subject. “Dave and Monika and everyone? You may not care, but you know I do.”
“I know, don’t worry. I’ll let your friends and mine tag along if they’ll even want to. As for the rest ... well, their welfare won’t be my concern anymore, will it? Not to put too fine a point on it, they will have served their purpose by then.”
Unsurprised and not wanting to sour the atmosphere, I chose not to comment.
“Won’t you miss all this? You’ve always seemed to thrive on having this kind of power ... Are you sure you wish to give it up?”
“Heh,” he scoffed, teeth flashing whitely in a sardonic half-smile.
“It’s a funny thing, how sometimes when you get something you’ve always wanted, you don’t want it anymore.
I spent my whole life waiting for an opportunity like the Outbreak.
” He shook his head with self-contempt, the light waves of his hair undulating with the movement.
“But that’s not me anymore, Ren. You’ve changed me.
I no longer care about the admiration of multitudes.
Only yours. My one true equal in this world. ”