The road was swarming with infected.
All of them surrounding this van.
All of them banging and scratching at the windows, at the sides.
All of them staring at him, at Iqrah.
All of them closing in.
“Looks like you woke up just at the right time after all,” Noah said.
Chapter Seventeen
Noah and Kirsty stared at the mass of infected surrounding the van, and Noah knew right away they were in deep shit.
The road was rammed with the infected. They were all banging against the van, clambering onto it. Even though they were inside, he could hear their shrieks cutting through, sending shivers up his spine.
“So what’s the plan?” Kirsty said.
Noah frowned. “The plan? You wake up and you expect me to have a goddamned plan right now, right away?”
“Well, if you don’t, I’d say we’re pretty much screwed.”
“Yeah. Pretty much screwed just about does it—”
A bang.
A crack against the glass window of the van.
One of the infected clambering its way up it. Slamming on the windscreen. Attempting to break its way inside. Smacking its head against the glass, again and again and again.
“Is that glass gonna hold?” Kirsty asked.
“I think it’ll h—”
A crack split across the glass.
“You what?” Kirsty said.
“I thought it might hold. Now I’m not so fucking sure. Shit.”
He looked around. Looked for some way he could get out of this. Maybe driving the van. But fuck. No keys in sight. He had to think of something else. They both did.
“What about the guns?” Kirsty said.
“Guns?”
“Back in the van. They shot us with those sedatives, right? But don’t they have, like, another mode? Standard ammo or whatever?”
“The guns,” Noah said, his eyes lighting up. “Shit, the guns.”
He rushed into the back of the van. Iqrah still lay there, mumbling, semi-conscious.
“It’s okay,” he said, lifting one of the rifles. “We’ve got you. Bruno’s watching you.”
He picked up the rifle and turned around. Saw that infected smacking its head against the glass, joined by a companion now. Both of them beating at it. Doing everything they could to break inside.
Kirsty picked up the next rifle from the fallen infected. “Seems to be a switch on the top. So we just blast our way out of this?”
“We could…” Noah said, opening the rifle to check for ammo. “If the guns were fucking loaded.”
Kirsty checked her rifle. Also empty. “Shit.”
“Shit indeed.”
They stood there. Listening to the bangs against the glass. Hearing the shrieks get louder, louder.
“Any more grand ideas?” Kirsty asked. “Your party trick, maybe? I’m not an idiot, man. I saw what you did here. Stuff you ain’t telling me, right?”
Noah sighed. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me and Iqrah. And there’ll be time to talk about it. But for now… well. Let’s just say I feel too weak to do another thing about it.”
Kirsty nodded. Didn’t look totally convinced.
Noah looked at the rifle. Switched it over the sedative dart.
“These darts,” he said. “They suppress something in me. In Iqrah.”
“And? That really matters right now?”
“If they work with me and her… maybe they’ll work with the infected too.”
“Seems a long shot,” Kirsty said.
“Think it’s all we’ve got right now.”
Noah rushed over to the door between the two sections of the van. Went to slam it shut when he heard the windscreen smash open.
He pushed it to.
Stepped back.
Stood there and held his ground. Rifle raised. Heart racing. Kirsty by his side. Bruno growling. Iqrah behind him.
He looked at Iqrah as he heard that glass smash even more.
Then at Kirsty.
“We got this?” he asked.
Kirsty nodded. Her rifle shaking. “Got it.”
He turned around to the door and waited.
Waited.
And then just for a moment, the shrieking stopped.
Everything stopped.
He stood still. Heart pounding. Everything so silent.
And for a moment, he wondered if maybe something had happened. Maybe the infected had fled. Maybe they’d disappeared for whatever reason.
That’s when the door slammed open, and three infected hurtled inside.
Chapter Eighteen
Noah watched the three infected hurtle into the back of the van and pulled the trigger on the sedative darts.
Almost instantly, the infected tumbled forward.
Fell to the floor of the van.
Blood splattering everywhere.
And for a moment, Noah wondered how it’d happened. Certainly seemed like a very violent response to being shot with sedative darts.
And they’d fallen forward too. Almost as if...
Wait a second.
Gunfire.
Gunfire echoing from behind the infected.
This wasn’t the sedative darts causing this.
There was somebody out there.
Noah grabbed Iqrah and stepped forward. The infected had turned their attention from him and Kirsty to something outside.
When he reached the door between the front and back of the van, he saw exactly what was happening.
There was a group of people. Five of them. Armed to the hilt. Dressed in black. Masked up.
Society.
They stood in various spots around the van and open fired on the infected. There must’ve been an alarm triggered, somehow. Of course, there had. Noah should’ve known. He and Iqrah were the most damned wanted people in the area right now, maybe in the whole of No Man’s Land. The Society wasn’t gonna just take any chances with them.
He looked at the mass of infected redirecting their attention towards the Society guards. And as terrifying a prospect as going outside was right now, he felt like he had an opportunity. A chance.
Now or never.
“Come on,” Noah said.
Kirsty frowned. “But—”
“They’re Society. They won’t let the infected lay a finger on us.”
“Is there something you’re not telling me?”
Noah went to speak, then stopped himself.
“I guess it’s about whether you want to take your chances in here or risk it out there right now. What’s it gonna be?”
Kirsty shook her head again. Clearly defeated. Clearly didn’t know what to say.
“Fuck it,” she said. “You’re right. What choice do I have? But seriously. We really need to talk at some point. Just not right fucking now.”
“That’s the spirit,” Noah said.
They stood at the front of the van. Watched the infected race in the opposite direction, towards the Society guards.
“The darts?” Kirsty asked.
Noah shook his head. “Barely any left. Pointless against people.
