Flux Page 6

  Conn didn’t want to imagine being eaten by the thing thundering towards him, but he couldn’t help it. His fear finally encouraging him to act, he grabbed hold of the .50 cal and made to fire. In his haste, Conn forgot about the massive recoil that the machine gun dispensed. He pressed the trigger, letting off a sustained burst-

  -that completely failed to find its mark. The machine gun seemed to take on a life of its own, bucking and arcing away harmlessly from its reptilian target, spraying shots into the open air, the nozzle flashing yellow-orange as it spat forth sizzling-hot bullets. The action jarred Conn’s arms and elbows as he fought, with all his might, to hold onto the errant gun.

  What a waste!

  Growling through gritted teeth, Conn planted his feet, steadying himself for another go. The lizard was perhaps a dozen feet away from the pick-up at this point. He looked down the barrel, lining the giant creature up in his sights, and fired-

  -out of the blue, the pick-up thrust forward, bouncing clumsily along the bitumen as it went. Its engine spluttering to life, the vehicle took off with a lunge at the exact same moment Conn pulled the trigger. Once again, his shot went wide, bullets spewed uselessly into the air. Although, this time, it wasn’t Conn’s fault. Still, it was a wasted opportunity.

  Not even close!

  “For fuck’s sake, Lex!” Conn raged, his olive skin turning to a deep red.

  Conn thought he might have heard his driver squeak an apology out of the window of the truck. If she did, it didn’t matter, the reptilian beast was on top of them now. The reptilian monstrosity lurched forward, the tip of it blunt snout smacking into the Ford’s tailgate. The force of the impact shunted the truck forward, the ass-end lifting up off the ground momentarily before splashing back down, hard. Conn cursed like a sailor as he was buffeted around like a ragdoll.

  The young man wasn’t sure if the lizard meant to do it, or if it had stumbled. Either way, they couldn’t afford another close call like that. The fact of the matter was he had to act. He had to protect Lex. Conn and the .50 cal were all that stood between them, and their impending deaths. Conn watched, near-dumbstruck, as the fiend’s fanged orifice zeroed-in on him, its head tilted slightly to the side, preparing to snap a mouthful of jagged teeth shut around him and the chassis of the fleeing vehicle. At this distance, Conn could make out the viscous fluid dribbling from its open mouth, spilling over its lower jawline. This horrific sight was accompanied simultaneously by the noise of an almost demonic hiiiiiss! filling the air.

  Conn’s ears registered a grinding noise. He quickly realised this signalled the pick-up shifting into the next gear. The large truck surged forward as Lex planted the gas pedal flush against the floor. A short second later, the monitor’s jaws clamped shut on thin air with an audible clack!, much to the animal’s obvious annoyance. The reptilian monstrosity screeched in fury as the pick-up evaded, what very well could have been, the ogre’s killing blow.

  Conn gasped in delight at their close call. It only took him a split second to compose himself however, before aiming the .50 cal at the marauding beast once more.

  Third time’s a charm.

  He pulled the trigger, just as the massive monitor side-stepped along the tarmac, moving with surprising agility, considering its massive size. The machine gun boomed, spurting out a short five-second burst before the belt-fed magazine went dry. Had it not been for the three bright gouts of blood that opened up along the giant reptile’s dark flank, Conn would have been much more upset than he was at the otherwise wasted ammo. Still, they were alive. They could still make it to Brookeborough; they could still get the supplies Anthony needed. In short, they had a chance, however slim it may have been.

  The injured, and enraged, lizard let loose with a high-pitched shriek that curdled Conn’s blood. Stopped in its tracks, by the high-velocity projectiles, the monster blundered to a halt in the middle of the highway, seething from a mixture of anger and pain. Conn watched as the enormous creature shrank into the distance, the beast never once taking its deep onyx eyes off them. Not before long, the animal was a mere speck on the horizon; a sight that brought young Conn much needed relief.

  The oversized lizard sniffed at the air. It didn’t take long for its olfactory senses to pick up the smell of spilt blood and rotting flesh. Whatever it was wasn’t much, but it was a meal, nonetheless. Shuffling back the way it had come, the monitor found a small offering lying broken on the warm tarmac. The little creature was the same as the ones it had chased off, clearing its territory of the annoying pests. That being the case, it was also the same type as those that had injured it. They weren’t so easily scarpered it seemed.

  Parting its lips slightly, the hungry beast gripped the paltry gift of mangled flesh and broken bone between its saw-like teeth. With a sharp flick of its broad neck, the monitor lizard tossed Ben’s lifeless corpse into the air. The young man’s corpse somersaulted in mid-flight, limbs flapping in the most unnatural of directions. Then with gravity kicking in, Ben’s broken frame fell back down to earth into the waiting jaws of the razor-toothed reptile.

  8.

  Brett was clearly shaken up by the day’s events. All three of them were, if they were to be honest with themselves. After losing three teammates it was impossible not to be. Still, Conn got the impression that Brett, in particular, might be losing it. Although, she didn’t say it, Lex’s expression as she watched Brett confirmed to Conn they were on the same wavelength, when it came to Brett’s mental state.

  He was agitated, to say the least, their so-called leader pacing backwards and forwards, underneath a low-hanging tree, its drooping branches offering the riled man some shade. Brett’s erratic movements were wearing away at the ground under his feet. Conn and Lex stood side-by-side at one end of their camp, watching him as his depressive mood spiralled out of control, over on the other side.

  Neither of them intervened. They weren’t sure what to do. Of course, that was presuming they could do something for Brett. Conn nor Lex, had any idea how he would react in the event that they tried to help or calm him. It might be a ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’-type situation.

  “We should turn back.” Brett rubbed the back of his neck, his voice close to cracking, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

  He didn’t look up as he spoke. Conn wasn’t sure if this was because he was ashamed at wanting to give up or maybe for some other reason. Conn noted that Brett’s statement wasn’t an order either. It was as if he was trying to convince them, or himself, that it was time to ‘bug out’; like it was the right thing to do. Conn refused to think like that. He couldn’t afford to, if only for Anthony’s sake.

  “You can go back, if you like,” Conn replied, in a monotone. “But you’ll be walking, the whole way back, I’d like to add. Don’t want you racing off on us… again.”

  “What did you just say to me?” Brett fumed, moving from his end of the encampment to the other.

  Conn waited to see if the comment regarding Brett’s hurried escape from the giant monitor lizard would tip him over the edge. It didn’t. But, he was getting closer to his tipping-point, bit by bit.

  “You heard me,” Conn didn’t bat an eyelid, as he watched his superior approach. “We have a mission to accomplish here. You know that, as well as I do.”

  “Our mission has been compromised,” Brett rubbed again at his neck, before dropping his arm as he came to stand in front of Conn and Lex. Conn assumed his constant rubbing was some kind of nervous gesture, almost like a tic.

  “If we give up now, then what was it all for?” Lex’s voice was shrill and demanding. “Audrey? Reilly? Ben? All of them dead, and for nothing. Hundreds at Havenfort are depending on us. We can be in Brookeborough by tomorrow afternoon, for Christ’s sake! We’re so close!”

  “Are you seriously suggesting that we continue with this fucking suicide mission?” Brett hissed at her, the astonishment evident in his tone. “We have lost half our team!”

  “We have no other choice
,” Lex crossed her arms at her chest, resting them across the dark blue Kevlar vest she wore.

  “Lex is right. All of Havenfort is depending on us,” Conn added.

  “You mean your brother is depending on us,” Brett shot back, indignantly.

  “Of course I mean my brother,” Conn replied, unashamedly. “And everyone else’s brother, who has been afflicted by this thing… or any other family member, for that matter.”

  “Would you really be so willing to risk your life, if it was someone other than Anthony?” Brett sneered.

  “I’ve risked my life for others before on these kinds of missions,” Conn raised an eyebrow. “Why not again?”

  Brett struggled to conjure up a decent retort. He knew- for a fact- Conn had done what he said he’d done. So instead, Brett simply scoffed at his adversary.

  “You’re a fool,” he said.

  “Be that as it may,” Conn stared hard at him, “I’d rather be a fool, than a coward.”

  There it was: the straw that broke the camel’s back. Snap!

  Brett rounded on Conn, letting loose with a ridiculously wide haymaker. The punch was the very definition of telegraphed. Conn ducked and weaved, boxer-style. Pivoting on his feet, he moved out of the way to let Brett fall flat on his face. Conn heard a jingle as his wannabe attacker went down. Then he noticed the keys to the blue pick-up, alongside the keys for the remaining dirt-bike lying on the ground. Quick as a cat, Conn snatched up the metallic objects.

  He threw the keys up in the air, catching them. “Just in case, you try to run away with our rides.”

  Lex fought to hold back a smile as she watched.

  As night fell, the trio bedded down, the stars emerging like fireflies, to watch over them. Brett was relieved of watch-duty, entirely. Neither Conn nor Lex trusted him enough. Given the chance, he would probably try to escape with the keys to one of the vehicles… or maybe even kill them while they slept, just to ensure he’d get away clean.

  This time around, the clearing they decided upon was tiny. It was the smallest camp they had made by far of any trip, not just this one. It felt claustrophobic; the branches of trees hanging over them like wraith’s fingers breaking through from some other reality. That being the case, none of them wanted to fumble about, daylight diminishing with every second that passed, looking for another. So, they made do with what was available to them.

  Conn was shocked when Lex came to sit by him. A short time before her arrival, he propped himself up against a smoothed boulder, using the padding of his sleeping bag as a kind of cushion for extra comfort. Conn wasn’t surprised, so much by the fact that Lex had come to join him, but rather the way she did it. Without a word, the young woman slid up beside him, resting her head against his broad chest, placing an arm around his waist as she did. It was all so casual.

  So comfortable.

  Neither said anything for a while. The pair just sat there, listening to the world around them. They eavesdropped as myriad creatures scurried about the forest floor, while others darted from branch to branch above, some calling for mates, others sparring with contenders. Even so, it seemed peaceful. Then again, that could just have been a side-effect of the company they were keeping.

  After a while, it could have been an hour, or maybe it was two, Lex asked him about the giant reptile they had encountered on the highway. “What do you think that thing was? The lizard, I mean.”

  “It wasn’t a dinosaur,” Conn answered. “I know that much.”

  “What then?” Lex queried further. “I’ve never come across anything like it before.”

  “I’ve heard of terrestrial-based crocodiles,” Conn remembered his dad telling him about them. “Maybe it was one of them.”

  “It wasn’t a croc,” Brett told them both flatly from the opposite section of the camp, rolled up as he was in a semi-foetal position atop his lime-green sleeping bag.

  “So, what was it?” Conn wasn’t annoyed by the interruption, as indignant as the words came across. He was genuinely interested to know the identity of the reptilian behemoth.

  “Megalania Prisca.” Brett said, matter-of-factly. “A much larger relative of the Komodo dragon, native to Australia… back when there was an Australia. Heck who knows, maybe there still is.”

  “I thought it looked familiar,” Lex said, in a hushed voice to her human pillow, an image of a Komodo hovering in front of her mind’s eye.

  “Komodos are big as it is,” Conn simply spoke what was on his mind, “but that fucker was something else.”

  “I’m trying to sleep,” Brett abruptly cut the conversation short. “So would both of you kindly shut the fuck up?”

  Lex picked up a small rock, and threw it at her ex-lover. “Eat shit!”

  The direwolf pack kept to the edges of the highway, just close enough to the border of the extensive savannah on their left in case they needed to flee. Despite being an open expanse much like the adjoining highway, the steppe’s tall grasses offered at least some protection; the kind of protection that the roadway definitely wasn’t capable of supplying in the event they needed it.

  The dark grey beasts preferred to hunt as well as travel at night. It was usually cooler then, not by much, though. Still, it suited the canines much more than the daylight hours. Even with their virtually hairless bodies, the heat on a bad day could sap them of much-needed energy. Energy that was essential for carrying out a successful hunt.

  The direwolves still had the scent of the bipedal creatures they had been stalking for the past few days. Their prey’s odour hung tantalizingly in the wolves’ nostrils. It was faint, but they had it all the same. With any luck they would close in on them in the next few days, if not sooner.

  9.

  Conn and Lex took turns rotating watch-duty that night; two hours on followed by two hours off. It was a long night for them both. Brett, on the other hand, slept all night. Right the way through, in fact. And he didn’t try to kill them and steal back the keys which was a bonus.

  After eating their morning rations, Conn instructed Brett to take the lead as they travelled into Brookeborough. Lex and Conn would cover him, Conn on the MG while Lex drove. So, they swapped vehicles much to Brett’s exasperation. There was no way Conn was giving him access to their only loaded .50 calibre heavy machine-gun. They were going into uncharted territory, after all. And, knowing he and Lex were in control of the heavy weaponry made Conn feel just that little bit more secure about confronting whatever lay ahead.

  With all the bad luck they had experienced so far, Conn couldn’t believe they hadn’t encountered any reivers, yet.

  Don’t jinx it!

  The team, or rather, what was left of them, would have to be on their guard after reaching Brookeborough. If it still existed, that is. They honestly had no idea what awaited them; reivers, dinosaurs; it could be anything... or nothing, he was forced to remind himself. Conn wasn’t sure what he would do if they found Brookeborough had been replaced with a mountain range or a fiery caldera. He couldn’t allow himself to think like that, he decided. If Brookeborough was gone it could very well mean his little brother was done for. Conn wasn’t going to let that happen.

  Once more, the pair of big, beaten-up pick-ups, made off, down the winding highway. The passengers- two of them at least- were in search of not only their own personal El Dorado, but that of their settlement. If they could get this leg of the journey out of the way, then they would be on the homestretch. With that in mind, they set off.

  As the much-reduced convoy rolled into Brookeborough, Lex was grinning from ear to ear, like a Cheshire cat. The young woman’s face was barely visible behind the dirty, bug-covered windscreen of her vehicle. Still, she was happy and relieved at the sight that greeted her. It was late evening, when they passed a tall, weathered, chocolate-brown road-sign, welcoming them to the city.

  It’s still here! Lex fought to control her excitement.

  Like Havenfort before the Flux, Brookeborough wasn’t a large city. It was no metro
polis, by any means. It had only been home to sixty-thousand or thereabouts. That being the case, it had its own hospital. Presumably, the number of inhabitants had dropped somewhat in the last three years. By all accounts, it certainly looked that way. The place was everything that one could expect from a ghost-town.

  Brett’s grey F-350, followed by its blue counterpart, headed west up Main Street. For the most part, the city’s chief thoroughfare was littered on both sides with shops and other locally-owned businesses. Most of these had had their windows smashed, no doubt looted, during the early days of the Flux as people fought to harvest as many supplies as possible. Some however remained intact. The sidewalks were lined with cars, or more accurately, the remnants thereof. Going by the condition of the vehicles, all of them had been gutted for parts.

  Reivers… Lex thought silently. It’s gotta be.

  Here and there, a skeleton graced the pavement, outstretched and broken, stripped clean of skin and flesh. As Conn came across his first skeleton, he thought of poor Benny. He instantly felt guilty: the team had left his corpse behind. Conn wondered silently what had become of it.

  Of him…

  As the pick-ups came closer to the city centre, passing larger buildings like the local library and such, Conn banged on the roof of the blue Ford. For her part, Lex flashed her hi-beams at Brett’s truck giving him the prearranged signal to stop. He caught sight of her lights flashing in his rear-view mirror and pulled the F-350 over to the curb, taking out a parking meter in the process. Lex followed suit, although she was careful not to smash up any objects as she did so.