The Passenger by James N. Cook

Author:James N. Cook
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2013-08-04T04:00:00+00:00

*****

Long hours later we came upon a town.

It wasn't the white picket fence, mom and pop sort of place that comes to your head when you think of a small town. The first thing I noticed from my position at the front of the pack was how relatively bright the place was. The world was a darker place without streetlights, headlights, security lights, and every other source of illumination long since gone the way of the dinosaur.

Not this place. It was far from a metropolis, but like any piece of civilization, it glowed even in the small hours of the night. Torches guttered along the wall at regular intervals, and there were even some bulbs burning. Although I was hundreds of yards out, I could see the difference in the sources of light. Some steady, some flickering. Now and then a person would pass along the wall, but not often enough.

My heart sank. As the swarm closed in, we breasted a hill, giving me a view of the place from just high enough to see most of the town.

I caught a glimpse of heavy gates at one end of a mostly ruined bridge. We were already circling past that, which made sense given how heavily fortified the gate beyond the bridge was. We moved around widely, the horde eerily quiet. The only sound was the gentle hiss of our feet against the grass.

The stranger changed direction suddenly, jetting toward what looked like the edge of a large ravine. There, he was less than a hundred yards from a second gate, which was smaller but no less heavy than the one at the bridge. I tried to work out why our pied piper thought this was the best place to strike since the swarm would have to cross the bridge to fully infiltrate the town, but I couldn't quite get there.

The stranger ran along the bank, gaining distance from the swarm even as he drew us on. When he was as close to the gate as he could get without falling into the ravine, he dropped to one knee and reached around for the rocket launcher. After fiddling with it for a few seconds in the dark, he raised it to his shoulder and fired.

The blast was enormous and painfully loud. A tremendous crack-BANG and a brilliant plume of fire from the back of the weapon. The warhead—I think that’s what it’s called anyway—hit the gate like the hammer of God, smashing it from its concrete supports and leaving it burnt and twisted on the ground. An alarm began to sound, a ringing bell, followed by others along the wall. Soon, bells echoed all throughout the town. Shouts went up in their wake, spreading like wildfire.

Blinding anger took over my mind for a few seconds, and I felt a sort of resonance from my body. Bestial as it might be, it wasn't a total fool. My body locked eyes with the stranger as we approached him. We came within twenty feet, close enough for me to see his nightmare grin of blackened and broken teeth.

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