Endangered by Isla Jones

Author:Isla Jones [Jones, Isla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-04T16:00:00+00:00

13

Beyond the thin idea of the chemist, I’m not sure what else our plan was meant to be, but this is not what I had in mind.

Strings of red and black sludge ribbon between every blade of grass, and the metallic stench strikes the air with a hint of rotten eggs. Bodies are scattered over the gardens, blocking the path ahead, but it’s not those that has us all drowning in a dreadful silence.

Numbness settles over us all as we stare at the real horror.

Two army trucks loom ahead on the grass. One, rolled onto its side. Both, bathed in black and crimson. Tarp covers are ripped apart into confetti, revealing the massacre of soldiers within.

And I mean massacre.

More than just seizures got those soldiers. More than ‘infection’.

All over them, blood is smeared in handprints and pools, like something out of a horror movie. There’s such an exaggerated violence to it that I fleetingly think of when arteries are hit in films, and the blood sprays everywhere, going Tarantino on everyone’s ass.

Only, this isn’t a movie and it’s not Tarantino’s overdone effects. This is real.

The severed limbs on the ground are real.

My grip tightens on the bike handles, hands sweating, fingers turning white.

Darce’s hands on my hip squeeze and he speaks into my hair again. It’s almost soothing, the heat of his breath on my skin, the feel of his steady hands on me, then he speaks and I want to hit him. “Are you all right?”

Too stupid a question for too smart a man.

I bite back with a harsh whisper. “Are you? Look at that—in case it’s slipped your your mind, the seizures don’t tear off people’s arms. Something else did that.”

On my left, Paisley overhears and says, “The one’s with the bleeding eyes... the demented. They could have done this.”

“I don’t think they did,” I whisper to myself. “Every time I’ve seen them—” Darce’s grip tightens in me a smidge. A warning. “—it’s like they’ve tried to make us like them. Change us. Or kill us. Not like this. Not by tearing us apart, arms and legs. As far as I’ve seen anyway.”

Linda turns her troubles gaze to us. “They preserve our bodies. It’s their behaviour so far. Why would it change?”

Exactly.

But Linda agreeing with me does little to thaw the tension in my muscles, and I’m left frowning at the massacre ahead. A shiver takes me.

Preserving our bodies. Patterns in behaviour. A sudden change in behaviour.

It’s all too studious for me. Like we’re living in a documentary featuring manic folk and how they live. And there’s no escape. I’m more interested in how I will survive.

After a long moment, Darce says, “Keep moving. Ride slowly, and watch out for each other.”

Paisley takes the lead. Soon, the only sounds in the park are the clunks and clangs of the bike chains. Then Paisley breaks rank and steers her bike over to the army trucks.

We all skid to a stop.

“What are you doing, girl?” hisses Linda.

She doesn’t look back at us as she races across the gooey grass to the trucks.

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