The Rule of Three

— 30 —

Jack could hear Ben yelling into a handheld radio, but he wasn’t paying too much attention. He focused on the spreading fire and the rolling black mass of monsters. The fire did its job in slowing down the vanguard, giving them the precious time, they needed. Dee had driven them out into the middle of the runway. He heard Ben tell her to head for the fence surrounding the bush-clad mountain. Jack dared to have a little hope again. Having volunteered on the mountain, he knew it well. The whole mountain was surrounded by a three-metre-high pest-proof fence. Several New Zealand flightless birds, such as takahe and the North Island brown kiwi, had been reintroduced inside with great success.

The 4x4 bounced over the rough farmland towards the fence. Jack spotted the service road running along it.

“Dee, head left. There’s an entry gate on that ridge.”

He watched, mesmerised, as another mass of the monsters closed in from below the gate.

This is going to be close.

Jack tapped Ben’s shoulder. “There’s a shed next to the gate. That’s where they keep some quad bikes.”

Ben nodded as he gripped the door handles. “Just take your guns. We have to hightail it up to the summit. The boys in the chopper are going to meet us there, okay?”

Everyone murmured understanding.

Jack lifted George onto the seat next to him. “Stay close to me, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Don’t look at them. Just run.”

The mass of monsters flowed ever closer. They had perhaps a few minutes to get the bikes and go.

A chance is better than no chance at all.

Dee drove the 4x4 as close as she could to the gate, sliding the vehicle sideways as she stopped. She could see a small enclosure built through the fence with doors at either end. She remembered coming here with Jack when they were first dating. It was designed so only one door could be opened at any given time, a pest prevention safeguard.

Dee jumped out and, grabbing George by the hand, headed for the enclosure. She could hear the howls and screeches getting louder.

“Hurry!” Dee said, her voice full of concern.

Ben raised his rifle and fired off a few rounds. “Go! Go! Inside.”

Dee didn’t hesitate and pulled George through the first door. Boss and Ben followed. She could see sweat dripping off Boss as he watched the thundering mass of Variants getting closer.

“Boss. Stop gawking and move it,” Dee shouted.

“All right. I’m moving,” Boss said, slamming the enclosure door shut with a clang. Dee searched around for Jack. He was still near the 4x4, struggling to get his pack over his shoulders.

“Jack! Leave it.”

He looked up at her shout and turned. The Variants were only a few metres away now and closing fast.

Dee swung her rifle up and shot the first target she could. Thankfully Jack dived inside the enclosure and Boss slammed the door. Jack reached down and wedged a piece of timber through the handle as Dee and Ben continued to fire the carbines.

Dee glanced over to her husband. “Get the bikes.”

Jack frowned and ran to the shed, Boss keeping close as he held onto George. Dee shook her head and refocused. She raised her borrowed rifle.

Looking through the scope at the Variants, Dee couldn’t help but admire them a little. The Hemorrhage Virus had changed humans. Modified them into something else. Something almost beautiful, in an evil way. Killing machines. Perfect killing machines. The great white shark of the new world order.

Man’s arrogance had finally led to his own downfall.

Dee heard engines revving in the background and fired off a few rounds as the lead monsters slammed into the fence. She lost herself in the heat of battle and held her finger down on the trigger, screaming at the beasts. It was almost impossible to distinguish between the Variants. Their mutated bodies squished against the barrier holding them out, but as more and more creatures joined the crowd, the fence began to buckle. Dee shot another monster in the head. And one through the neck. No sooner had she killed those two than four had taken their place. The Variants stomped on the dead and scrambled over the buckling fence.

Dee flicked her eyes to the retired SAS soldier fighting by her side.

He glanced at her. “There’s too many of them,” Ben said, worry etched on his face. “Go with the others. I’ll hold them off.”

Dee looked back at her husband sitting on the quad bike, George’s arms wrapped around him. Boss was standing next to a second bike.

Dee slammed a fresh magazine in her AR-15. “I’m staying to fight.” She breathed out and fired at another Variant, taking a chunk of jaw off with her round.

Ben chortled and joined her firing on the beasts. Side by side they fought, shell casings clinking as they hit the gravel path.

The Alpha loomed into view from the back. As it moved forwards, the other Variants moved out of the way like the Red Sea parting for Moses. The Alpha bellowed, and the constant shrieks of the creatures stopped. The silence was so sudden and complete that Dee stopped firing. She blinked and let her rifle drop.

“Keep your rifle up, soldier,” Ben ordered.

Without warning, the huge Variant charged through the parted Variants. Each step he took shook the ground under Dee’s feet. Out of instinct, she fired at the lumbering monster. Her 5.56 mm rounds had no effect. She might as well have been hitting it with a feather.

Ben grabbed her shoulder. “Move. Now.”

Dee let Ben pull her away from the fence. She climbed onto the quad bike with Jack, little George jammed in between them.

Dee gasped, shocked, as the Alpha crashed into the gate, tearing it off its concrete footings as if it wasn’t there. It stood in the now-open gateway and bellowed, a sneer spread across its deformed face.

The rest of the Variant horde reached the gap and funnelled through. Now that they weren’t been fired on, the masses poured over the fence and the shrieking intensified.

“Get us out of here,” Dee said. “Jack!”

Jack gunned the engine, then tore off up the track leading to the summit.

Jack worked his way through the gears, willing the Honda 420cc engine to go faster. His nerves were frayed beyond anything he could ever have imagined. Blissfully unaware of the virus for the first couple of days, it hadn’t been until he’d reached the hut and cell phone coverage that his nightmare had begun.

The mad dash across the road-clogged countryside, his first encounter with the monsters, the family getting torn apart… His escape down the river, his capture and escape from the dam. And finding Dee, who had come to rescue him. It all flashed through his mind. He choked up at the thought. It would all be for nothing if he didn’t get them up this mountain.

Shaking off the emotions, he concentrated on taking the bends of the road as fast as he could.

Jack had hiked up this mountain many times; he hoped no trees had fallen down in the high winds that buffeted the area.

We would be dead in minutes.

He urged the bike to go faster as tree branches and vines whipped over his head. Faster and faster they sped, gravel from the road flicking into the underbrush. Even over the noise of the engines running at full throttle, Jack could hear the horrific shrieks of the creatures. Thankfully the road remained clear.

George squeezed Jack’s arms tighter as he took a sharp corner too fast, lifting two wheels off the ground.

“Careful!” Dee shouted above the roar of the bike.

Jack risked a glance to the side. Ben and Boss sped along behind him. This was a dash to the top, a dash to live, to fight another day.

Flying around another bend, Jack saw the stairs he was looking for. They would take them the last few metres to the lookout platform. Screeches and howls greeted him as he brought the quad bike to a stop and leapt off the bike.

“Take the kids,” Dee said, lifting her rifle.

Jack nodded and grabbed George by the hand. He took the stairs two at a time, his injured leg screaming in pain. Boss bounded up ahead and, reaching the ladder, held out his hand to George. Jack looked back and gawked in horror. Variants of every size and shape spewed out of the bush.