Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Everybody calm down,” Dad said. “We have a plan. We’re going to the golden city.”
Shocked murmurs filled the back of the bus, and I caught the word deadlands thrown about a couple of times.
Yeah, there was only one way to the golden city and that was through the deadlands—miles of uncharted territory filled with the worst kinds of monsters.
The one and only expedition that had ventured into the area had been almost wiped out. The only survivor had died from his wounds two days after reaching sanctuary. All we’d gleaned from him was that there were horrors beyond imagining in that zone. Creatures we’d labeled Type X.
To get to salvation we’d have to cut through this zone.
“That’s insane,” Sissy said. “We won’t make it.”
It was Jamie who answered. “We have limited fuel. We can’t risk going toward another base and finding it destroyed. Heading to the golden city holds our best chance for survival.”
His tone didn’t invite comment, or debate. The decision was made, and he was simply letting the civies know. Silence fell as everyone absorbed this, the only sound the rumble of the engine as Javier drove us toward the deadlands.
“Get some rest,” Jamie said. “We have a long journey ahead of us.”
And just enough fuel to get us there.
We could do this.
Bastian jerked his chin in a come-here gesture.
I moved to the front of the bus, gathering with Javier, Jamie, and Bastian. Dad joined us, leaning in to block us from the civies.
“We’ll need to kill the lights,” Bastian said. “They’ll attract attention, and we’ll need to keep our speed steady. No stops and starts if we want to stretch our fuel and keep the bus intact.”
I glanced at the fuel gauge halfway to empty, then back at Bastian. “The rattling sound?”
“It’s stopped but there’s definitely something wrong.”
“So we keep a steady speed,” Dad said. “We can do this.”
Bastian’s jaw tensed and he nodded curtly. “Old maps show several towns between us and the city, but we’re going to try to get onto the motorway. Fewer places for shit to nest.”
“What about the skies?” I looked from Bastian to Jamie. “You saw what happened to the chopper. Something brought it down. Is it wise to be that exposed?”
Jamie chewed on his cheeks, mulling this over.
“The old motorway is the celestials’ flight path,” Dad said. “We’re safest there. More likely to be spotted by them.”
“Agreed,” Javier said.
Bastian and Jamie nodded and looked down at me.
Shit. Looked like they wanted my vote on this. “Yeah. Okay, let’s do this.”
Javier hit the switch to turn out the lights. It was going to be a long night.
The rattling remained absent, and the bus moved soundlessly through the night.
People slept curled up against each other for comfort, but there was no relaxing for the guard.
We took a window each, watching the landscape for threats as we wove through the streets of what had once been a village but was now an overgrown wasteland.
We were on the edge of the deadlands now. There was no going back.
The map sat on my lap, red lines marking our route. “Take a left up here, Javier.”
He took the turn smoothly onto a road that widened. A bridge with twin arches beneath loomed up ahead. The slip road that would take us onto the motorway lay past the silent stone structure.
“Take a right before the bridge.” I sat forward, scanning the night, trying to see into the darkness under the bridge.
“Speed up when we get close,” Bastian said. “Just in case.”
I held my breath and gripped the standing pole with white knuckles.
We drove past and something inky black shot out toward us. Javier yelped and jerked the wheel hard to the right. The limb missed us by a mere foot.
Gasps and cries rocked the back of the vehicle. I swallowed my fright, blinking away the image of the corded appendage that had made a grab for us.
“Shit, shit, shit.” Javier swiped at his forehead with one hand. “Fuck.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “You did good, babe. Real good.”
He let out a shaky laugh. “Let’s hope we’re not going out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
We shot off the slip road and onto what had once been the motorway.
Over a hundred miles, with four lanes, this road was a beast that had connected towns and cities for decades.
Now it was a cracked vista with a battered barrier, covered in moss and weeds.
Trees and brush bordered the road, leaning in to block out the moonlight.
“Fuck, it’s dark.” Javier slowed. “Headlights?”
“No,” Bastian said. “We can’t risk attracting unwanted attention. Celestials will see us without headlights, but monsters might not.”
We drove slowly, tension making the air thinner. We still had hours of this to go.
I was about to park my ass when Javier made a soft sound of alarm.
“What?” Jamie asked.
“There’s something up ahead,” Bastian said.
I peered into the night to see a shadow on the road. It spread across four lanes. A lumpy pile of—
“Bodies…” Jamie pressed his hand to Javier’s shoulder. “Slow it down.”
We got closer and a small shadow detached itself from the treeline and ran into the road.
Not a monster, a person.
Javier slammed on the brakes and Bastian moved to the doors as the human came running toward us.
Oh, God…Oh, shit. I knew that face. Lisbon Wielder from our base.
She slapped her palms against the glass doors. “Help. Help me!”
Javier opened the doors and Bastian hauled her inside where she broke into uncontrollable sobs.
Panic clawed at my belly. The celestials had taken her. She should be safe. If she wasn’t safe, if she was here, then…
I crouched and gripped her chin, forcing her to look at me. “Enough. Stop it. Stop crying. What happened? Where are the others? The celestials?”
She jerked her chin out of my grasp, sucking in huge lungfuls of air before breaking down again.
Her clothes were bloody and angry welts made stripes on her arms. She was a mess. Traumatized and broken, but I had to know…
I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “What the fuck happened? Where is Bee?”
Jamie pulled me away from her. “Rue, calm down.”
I shrugged him off with a glare. “We have to know what happened. Bee could be out there. Hurt.”
“I know.” Jamie frowned down at me. “Or she could be dead.”
I wanted to slap him for saying that, but I curled my hand into a fist and breathed to calm myself.
“More alive…” Lisbon hiccupped. “Help us.”
Jamie crossed to the door. “Open it.”
“No!” my dad said. “That’s an order.”
“What?” A man pushed to the front. “My Gina could be out there.”
Shit, this was the guy who’d been holding the baby at the ascension ceremony. There was no baby in his arms now, just a bloody blanket.
A vise squeezed my chest.
“We can’t risk it,” Dad said.
“Fuck you.” The man spat the words like bullets. “Get out of my way.” He shoved my dad and pushed past. Jamie tried to block him, but grief loaned the guy strength to deflect and slam into the doors.
“Open them. Open them now,” he yelled.
“Let him out!” Sissy cried. “He’s making too much noise. Get him off the bus!”
“Do it!” Dad ordered.
Javier pulled the door release and the man tumbled into the road, scampered up, and ran toward the pile of bodies.
Bastian and Jamie crowded forward, blocking the exit with their huge frames, eyes on the road ahead.
The man reached the pile and began to rummage. His reedy cries of horror drifted to us on the wind. I caught sight of limbs being thrown as he rummaged, crazed and desperate.
“Shit.” Bastian leaned out of the bus. “Barry, come on. Barry, please.”
“Shut the doors,” Dad said. “We drive past, and if he gets in, then fine. If not, we leave him.”
It sounded heartless but it was the only way. We had twenty other people to think about.
Javier started the engine and rolled forward until we were parallel to the pile of bodies. Close enough to get a hard hit of the stench of decay and blood. There were way too many bodies to be just from our base. No. This pile had been here for a while.
Dread tickled my spine. “Barry, get in. This is wrong.”
Barry stopped burrowing and straightened to look at me across the awful mound of dead.
“Gina…I need her back.”
“No…” Lisbon said. “What are you doing? Not there. Not there. They ran into the woods, they—”
A dark shape swooped out of the sky and grabbed hold of Barry’s shoulders with a snick and crunch. Barry’s spine snapped straight, his eyes popped wide, mouth opening in a scream, then he was gone, whipped up into the air, his shriek of shock and pain a distant thing on the wind.
No one moved for several seconds.
“Drive!” Jamie ordered.
I fell back as the doors closed. The engine revved, almost masking the sound of beating wings.
My pulse spiked with a fresh flood of adrenaline as something hit the bus, rocking it. The crunch and tear of metal followed.
“Oh my God, they have us!” Sissy cried.
I looked up at the ceiling to see talons poking through the metal. The chopper… is this what had happened?
“Floor it!” Bastian yelled.
Javier hit the gas.
My stomach dipped as the bus was lifted into the air, and for a moment there was only the beat of epic wings and the sound of wheels spinning with no traction.
“Shit!” Jamie slapped the dash as if that would be enough to free us.
Screams cut the air as panic overrode common sense and everyone surged to the front of the bus, desperate to get off this ride.
We tipped.
A body slammed into me, shoving me against Jamie and throwing us into Bastian, who fell back against the windscreen.
We were almost at a 180-degree angle now. The sounds of terror rattled my brain, and then a sharp crackling sound sent a fresh wave of panic through me.
Tiny fractures were blooming on the windscreen and radiating out. It wasn’t going to be able to take our collective weight for much longer.
I locked onto Bastian’s face over Jamie’s shoulder, seeing my assessment echoed in his eyes.
We were sardines in a tin that was about to explode.