Shaun Harbinger: Wildfire: Destruction of the Dead

Site Alpha Two had fallen, so why not Alpha One as well?

If that was the case, if there was nothing left on this island except a building full of zombies, all hope of distributing the antivirus was lost.

“This could be zombie island, man,” Sam said, obviously following the same train of thought.

“We were here only three days ago,” Tanya said. “There’s no way the facility has fallen that quickly. Besides, they would have vaccinated themselves with the antivirus. They’re like us; they can’t be turned.”

“But they can still be killed,” I said. “Just like us.”

She looked at me and nodded solemnly.

We stood in the cold, hissing rain for another five minutes before Lucy said, “I don’t think anyone is coming to meet us.”

“Agreed,” Tanya said.

I sighed. They were right; Hart and his team should have been here by now. We were wasting our time standing on the dock in the pouring rain. We either had to go up to the facility on foot, or leave.

“What are we going to do?” I asked.

Lucy said, “If they haven’t come down here, there must be a good reason. Either they can’t come right now and will arrive later, or something has gone wrong and there’s nobody left at the facility. If we go walking up there and something bad happens, we’ll be trapped. I say we stay here.”

I nodded. “I agree. We should stay with the boats. Maybe we should also leave the dock and sail out to deeper water.”

“No arguments from me, man,” Sam said.

“Me either.” Tanya was already unhitching the rope that tethered the Escape to the dock.

I moved quickly and did the same for the Easy . Now that we had decided to leave the island, I wanted to do so as soon as possible. Something wasn’t right here, and we weren’t going to go blundering into whatever trouble had befallen Site Alpha One.

Climbing the ladder to the bridge, I shouted to Tanya, “Let’s take the boats out half a mile.”

She nodded and started up the Escape’s engines.

I did the same and guided the boat away from the dock and into the choppy, deeper water. When we were half a mile out, I dropped the anchor and climbed down to the aft deck before going inside and taking off the waterproof jacket. I hung it on a brass hook near the door and ran my fingers through my rain-soaked hair.

Lucy was sitting by the window, watching the island through the rain-streaked glass. “What do you think has happened?”

I shrugged and sat down next to her. “Maybe nothing. It could be that they’re just busy right now.”

“Too busy to see us, the people who are going to deliver their antivirus for them?”

She had a point. The scientists at Site Alpha One were dedicated to the task of making the antivirus. That task was pointless unless there was a way to deliver the antivirus to the survivors on the mainland. Because Marilyn MacDonald, the director of Apocalypse Island, wouldn’t let any of her own people do that job, it had fallen to us. We were an important part of their plan.

They wouldn’t ignore our arrival unless there was a good reason to do so.

I grabbed a pair of binoculars and watched the dock where we had stood moments ago. The rainclouds passed over the island, scudding toward the mainland on the breeze. The sun made a reappearance and shone on the dock, brightening everything with its warm light.

“Did you hear that?” Lucy asked. “It sounded like gunfire.”

I shook my head. Then I heard it too, a distant cracking sound.

We went out onto the aft deck and listened. Out here, the sounds were clearer. They were definitely gunshots. I could hear single shots and the rat-a-tat-tat of automatic weapons.

And below that, the rumble of vehicle engines.

Sam and Tanya had emerged from the Escape and were standing on the deck, looking toward the island.

“What’s happening, man?” Sam asked.

I shrugged, peering through the binoculars but unable to see anything because of the high cliffs.

The radio on the bridge crackled to life. “Alex, are you there?” It was Hart’s voice.

I handed Lucy the binoculars and climbed the ladder to the bridge, picking up the mic and saying, “Hart? Is that you? Over.”

“We’re on our way to the dock,” he said. “ETA two minutes. Over.”

“We’ll be there,” I said. “Over.”

“And, Alex,” he added, “you’ll need to get into the vehicles fast. We’ve got problems. Over and out.”

We moored the boats and grabbed our weapons before heading along the dock to the asphalt track. The sounds of vehicles and gunfire were louder now, closer to our position.

A Jeep came tearing down the track and skidded to a stop in front of us. Hart, sitting in the driver’s seat, shouted, “Get in!”

We scrambled inside. I was riding shotgun, and the others were in the back seat.

Hart revved the engine and spun the vehicle around, accelerating up the track and crunching through the gears.

“What’s happening?” I asked as we sped toward the trees. Up ahead, I could see three other Jeeps idling by the side of the track. Members of Hart’s security team were standing by the vehicles, firing into the woods.

“Things are getting worse on the island,” he said. “The zombies have been attacking the perimeter fence. Some of them got into the building. We cleared them out, but we’ve been fighting them ever since.”

We raced past the other Jeeps and Hart picked up the radio mic. “Blue Team, return to base when ready.” I heard shouts from behind us, then the other vehicles began following us back to the facility.

“This,” Hart said, gesturing at the woods around us, “is the same problem we’re going to have on the mainland. Even if we administer the antivirus to every single survivor so they can’t be turned, we still have to deal with the zombies and hybrids that are already around. Sure, they won’t add any more to their number by biting people and infecting them, but it’s going to take a long time to eradicate them.”

“The army should be able to wipe them out,” I said. “Eventually.”

Hart grimaced. “Sure, eventually. And in the meantime, those monsters will be killing every living person they come across. They won’t be able to turn us, so they’ll try to destroy us.”

“The virus is adapting its tactics,” Tanya said from the back seat.

“Yeah.” Hart nodded grimly. “Everyone on the island has been vaccinated now. It’s like the virus knows there’s no point trying to spread itself to the population here so it’s trying to kill us off instead. The same thing is going to happen on the mainland once we get the antivirus to the population there. It’s going to be bloody war.”

“As far as the virus is concerned, an unvaccinated person is a potential host,” I said. “It wants to infect them so they can then infect others. But people who can’t be infected are simply an enemy. So the virus will direct its hosts to kill them. It makes sense.”

“Yeah,” Hart said, “And then we have the hybrids that already want to kill everything. It’s a shit storm.”

The trees ended and the facility came into view. I could see places where the fence had been damaged. Bodies of zombies and humans littered the ground both inside and outside the fence.

“We don’t even have time to clean up the dead bodies,” Hart said as we passed through the gate and into the compound. His face was grim and I wondered how many of the dead he had known personally.

We parked by the main doors and got out of the Jeep. Hart swiped his access card through the digital lock and the glass doors slid open, allowing us into the foyer.