Fear Mercy by Fergal F Nally

Author:Fergal F Nally [Nally, Fergal F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | Dystopian | Infected
Published: 2019-09-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Red Light

Breathless. Running.

Are the others keeping up? Where’s Cronin? Did he make it—?

Questions and doubt flooded Mercy’s mind, then she saw a red light through the trees. She stopped and held up her hand. The others came to a halt beside her, their breathing laboured. Mercy blinked, had she imagined it?

The red light flashed again.

Red filter, it’s got to be ours. Shit… do it—

Mercy dropped to the ground and yelled, “Cronin, it’s Mercy, over here—”

Mercy tensed, half expecting a hail of bullets. Instead, a shout and the sound of running feet came from ahead. Rose’s familiar face appeared through the trees. Cronin, Pace and Hicks were followed by Tawny, Flynn and Sasha.

Mercy took a double take, “Where’s Charlie?”

Sasha looked down and stepped over to Fay.

Fay put her arm around Sasha, “Charlie… he couldn’t swim—”

No—

Tawny’s eyes scanned Mercy’s group, “What about Thomas and Suzie?”

Mercy shot Tawny a look and shook her head.

“We lost Blake too, back in the boat,” Flynn ventured.

Four souls in the last hour—

The atmosphere was heavy. Fay turned away.

Mercy snapped her head up, “Come on everyone, follow me. We’ve got a ride out of here.”

They made it back to the camp ground. The fire had died down, the stench of death hung heavy in the air. Mercy led them to the speedboat and they climbed aboard. Pace took the helm and checked the controls.

Flynn looked up, “Where’s Hicks?”

Cronin answered from the front, “He’ll be a minute, he’s gone to take care of Renton.”

Mercy pulled a face. Shit, I forgot to do it—

Fay saw Mercy’s distress, “Don’t worry… I took care of Thomas, Suzie and Renton when you were freeing Bird and Sparrow.”

Mercy slumped in her seat and stared at the fog swirling around the boat. It felt like a living thing; watching them, waiting. Hicks ran up, he threw the double headed axe and the glaive into the boat and climbed aboard. Cronin untied the mooring rope and Pace gunned the engine. The twin Mercury Racing 1100 engines roared into life shattering the silence.

“This must’ve been a drug smuggling boat back in the day,” Rose said, running her hand along the smooth hull. “Bet she’s seen some action in her time.” Then, as an afterthought, “These fuckers ain’t militia, they just had the numbers on us. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time—”

“Right now, I just want to outrun the bad guys,” Hicks said. “We’re going upriver, we still need to blow that boom to get through. Cronin reckons Renton managed to fix a charge on it before we were ambushed. We need to get to the boom, find Renton’s charge and attach a detonator. Then… we’re through—”

Christ, we’re going back—

“Don’t worry, lightning never strikes the same place twice,” Pace said, as he opened the throttle.

The boat surged into the channel, the fog swallowing the roar of the engines.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.