Flynn passed his rifle to Mercy then reached up to grab the rubber seal. He stood above the worst of the jostling and was able to steady himself by pressing his hand against the ceiling.
“Ready?” Mercy yelled. “Come on—”
Flynn pulled himself up and thrust a hand through the skylight. Tawny appeared, straddling the gap. She reached down and grabbed Flynn under the arms, hauling him up. Flynn emerged through the opening, his eyes bulging with the effort. Five seconds later he lay stretched out on the roof, gasping beside Barnes.
Mercy and Tawny collapsed and looked at each other. Mercy shook her head then pumped the air with her fist. Tawny gave an exhausted smile and responded in kind. Flynn rolled over and started checking his arms and legs.
“Am I bit? Am I bit? I don’t think I’m bit. Can you check me?” His speech was pressured.
Mercy tapped him on the arm, “Hey, calm down babe. You made it. We’ll check you out. Take off your shirt, let’s have a look—”
Mercy inspected Flynn, “You’re clean, there’s no bites. They were after Barnes not you. Looks like you’ve got the same biotech as me and Tawny.”
Flynn put his shirt back on.
Tawny picked up Flynn’s rifle and inspected it, “Funny, your body rejected the biotech when they tried it on you back in Cheyenne Mountain. They must’ve made some improvements in the process.”
Flynn shrugged, “Well, they didn’t have those incubation tanks back in Cheyenne Mountain. Maybe that helped—”
Mercy looked down at the tracks, “This is hopeless, look, there’s even more of them now. They’re coming from further away. We’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest—”
“Yeah, their blood’s up, they can smell Barnes, he was sweating like a pig in there… serious cold turkey. We have to get out of here, find a place to lie low—” Tawny said.
Lie low?
Mercy looked back along the train roof towards the footbridge, “Right, let’s get our shit together. I’ve got an idea—”
It took thirty minutes to make their way along the carriages to the footbridge. Tawny dropped down between carriages and smeared her hands with thick grease from the train buffers. She smeared the grease on Barnes’s skin. She collected more grease as they went and applied it to his clothes. By the time they had reached the footbridge Barnes was unrecognisable.
“That should help cover his scent for a while,” Mercy said, wrinkling her nose. She looked back along the tracks. “They’re not following us, they’re still gathered around the front of the train. We’ll drop down here and get up that embankment—”
Mercy and Tawny clambered down to the carriage coupling and reached up to help Barnes as he lowered himself from the roof.
Flynn glanced back along the tracks before he climbed down. “The grease seems to be working, they’re still head banging around the first carriage.”
“So what’s the plan?” Tawny asked Mercy.
“I saw a sign on the road when we were back at that school. There’s a lumber yard not far from here, I’m hoping we can hide out there. There’ll be shelter and hopefully no trope activity, seeing as they’re all down here—” Mercy answered.
Tawny nodded. “Sounds good. Our very own GI here,” she patted Barnes on the shoulder, “needs some serious rehab time.”
They climbed up the embankment, leaving the train behind. Tawny and Mercy crossed the footbridge and retrieved their scavenged food from the other side of the railroad. Mercy pointed out the lumber yard to Tawny from the footbridge. They returned to Flynn and Barnes and set off into open country. Long grass, trees and undergrowth made progress difficult. Finally, after almost an hour they came to a chain link fence which they followed to an entrance.
“Barboursville Lumber… well that’s original,” Flynn said, reading the sign above the wide gates.
“The entrance is locked, that could be a good sign,” Mercy said.
Tawny pressed her face up against the chain link, “I can’t smell any of them in there. I think it’s clear. Good call Mercy.”
“Let’s hope your biotech’s correct Tawny. I’d like to keep this gate locked. Let’s find a way in without breaking the defences,” Mercy answered.
Mercy and Tawny went looking for a way in, leaving Barnes and Flynn at the gate.
Tawny returned first, carrying a piece of old carpet. “Found this in a ditch, there’s a lot of crap back there, it must’ve been an illegal dump back in the day. If you give me a boost I can throw it over the top of the fence,” Tawny said.
Flynn stood up, “Sure, let’s do it.”
Seconds later Tawny was up and over the fence, leaving the carpet straddling the razor wire on top. She disappeared into the yard office a short distance away and emerged a few minutes later clutching a set of keys.
Mercy appeared from the opposite direction, empty handed. She spotted Tawny and ran up to the gate, “Nice work Tawny, go for it.”
Tawny opened the gate’s padlock on the fifth attempt. The others piled in and she locked the gate behind them.
“Let’s get out of view and lie low,” Mercy said.
They searched the yard office, then secured the building. Barnes lay in a corner and curled up against the wall. Mercy and Tawny unpacked the food and water and collapsed to the floor.
Flynn examined a large wall map of the area behind the desk. “This map could come in pretty useful. I’ll take it down later. We should check outside before it gets dark. Make sure it’s secure out there.”
The exhaustion in the room was palpable.
Mercy looked up, “You’re right Flynn, but you know what? I’m going to trust Tawny’s biotech when she says this place is deserted. We’re all shattered. We need to eat and rehydrate… and sleep.”
Rose, you’ll have to wait, there’s no way we can come to you just now. Not the way Barnes is—
Tawny gave Flynn a look.
Flynn nodded, “Yeah, well, it’s been another day of days, ain’t it? A real day of days—”
Mercy tapped the GPS
