While We Fall (The Eva Series #2)

Chapter Ten

Once all the cars were off the bridge and out of our way, we climbed back into the RV. I sat in the passenger’s seat next to Wyatt so that Ben could stay with Jo in the cabin. Understandably, she was still very shaken up and Ben was the only one who seemed to calm her down.
The RV edged gently onto the bridge, every creak of the old wooden floor making me more and more tense. I peered down over the river as we slowly made our way across, seeing three crocodiles rise above the water. Their leathery scales and watchful eyes made me feel sick to my stomach.

After an anxiety riddled few minutes, the tyres of the RV finally rolled over the last plank of wood and back onto the safety of the road. We all let out long sighs, as though none of us had dared even breathe the entire way over.
Driving through the small country town, we saw a scene we had become all too familiar with over the last few days. Corpses, rotting limbs and signs of anarchy filled the streets. I couldn’t believe the virus had spread so far in such a short amount of time.
Up ahead, I saw a woman rummaging through the pockets of a dead man. Her head snapped up at the sound of the RV and before I could say anything, she was running straight towards us on the road.

“Stop! Please!” She yelled as she waved her arms at us.
“Now what?” called Ben from the cabin, frustration in his voice.
Wyatt slowed down the pace of the RV, and the woman ran up to his window.
“Please!” She said. “It’s my son! He’s… He’s been hurt! Not bitten, just hurt. Please, I need your help.” Her eyes filled with tears as she held her hands in prayer position, begging for us to stop.
“We’re not on a rescue mission.” Ben said, appearing behind me. “We can’t keep stopping and helping people. It’s almost got us killed too many times already.”
“We have a spare first aid kit. We can give it to you.” Wyatt offered, still running the engine.
“No!” She gasped, grabbing on to the glass of his rolled down window. “Please, you need to come. I don’t know what to do! He’s going to die!”
We all looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
“We need to help her.” Jo said from the dining table. “Ben, you’re a medic, you can help her son.”
Ben turned to face Jo. “We can’t save everyone, Jo. It’s too much of a risk, and we’re so close to Elliot’s.”
Jo stood up and looked Ben in the eyes. “It was too much of a risk to save me back there, but you all did it anyway. What if you decided you couldn’t save me? Would you have just left me there to die?”
“Jo, that’s different.” Ben sighed.
“Not to her it isn’t. We have to help.” Jo grabbed a first aid kit, swung open the cabin door and stepped out. Ben followed right behind her, but not before picking up two knives and shoving them in his pockets.

“Oh thank you! Thank you!” cried the woman as she raced around the RV to hug Jo and Ben.
Wyatt and I exchanged worried glances.
“It’s so hard to know what the right thing to do is anymore.” I said as I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped into the cabin to grab my axe and a knife for Wyatt.
Wyatt pulled the RV to the side of the road and we joined Ben, Jo and the woman on the path. I decided to leave Dixon in the RV, I didn’t want him disappearing like he did last time we pulled over to help some poor soul on the side of the road.
“Thank you, really. You have no idea what you’re doing for us.” She said as she began walking down a nearby street. “I’m Sharon, by the way.”
Sharon was tall and very thin, with light brown hair down to her shoulders and dark circles under her eyes that made her look like she hadn’t slept in months. She was older than me, probably in her early forties. I wondered why she was going through that dead man’s pockets before, but I didn’t want to ask.

“How far away is your son?” Ben asked, as we tried to keep up with her quick pace.
“Not far, maybe a block or two?”
“How long ago did the virus hit here?” I asked.
“About three days ago now. Some people made it out of town, but it spread so fast…” she trailed off. “Bloody terrorists.”
“Terrorists?” I said, wondering what she was talking about.
“Yeah. Sick bastards. It was all over the news before the power got cut.”
“Wait, what?” said Wyatt. “Terrorists did this?”
Sharon stopped in her tracks and turned to face us, surprised at our confusion. “You don’t know?”
We shook our heads, dumbfounded at what she was saying.
“It’s a freakin’ attack. The virus was released in major hospitals in every capital city first. Then they released it in the airports and on trains. Luckily they’d already shut down the airports after news of the hospital breakout. I even heard something about it being released at a footy match in Sydney. But we lost power before we found out who did it. Then it hit here.”

I had no words. I just stood there with my jaw hanging open in shock and tears spilling onto my cheeks. My head started to spin as I tried to make sense of everything Sharon had just said. It wasn’t some freak accidental breakout, it was a highly detailed, systematically planned attack.
“But… why?” Jo said, her voice as quiet as a mouse.
“Who bloody knows, girl. Some people are just crazy.”
We stood in silence for a moment, frozen in shock.
“Look, fellas,” Sharon said. “I know you’re probably freakin’ out right now, but we can’t just stand out in the open like this. And… my son…” She started walking again, and we followed behind without saying a word.
My entire body was numb, and I felt like I was walking through a haze. Everything started to fall into place; why the virus spread so easily and covered such a vast terrain at amazing speed. Then I thought back to the hospital in Melbourne, when we saw those soldiers shoot two injured men who needed help… Were they army, or terrorists finishing the job? I shuddered as I remembered how close we came to going in there.
So many of the questions I’d been asking myself for days were answered, but now I had new questions that I wanted answers to.

“We’re here.” Sharon said, pulling me out of my thoughts. She picked up speed as she neared the front porch of an old weatherboard house. The cream coloured paint was peeling off of the exterior and the front lawn had overgrown so much that the grass was as high as my knees.
Sharon pulled on the old screen door that was hanging on one hinge and burst into the house. Ben followed her, carrying the first aid kit in one hand and his knife in the other. I was the last to enter the house and the first thing I noticed was the smell; a mixture of mothballs and beer.
I jumped at the sound of the door slamming shut behind me, and I felt a rough hand grab my arm and something cold and sharp being held against my throat. The strange hand moved down my arm and took the axe out of my hand, dropping it to the floor before pulling my arm and holding it painfully against my back.

Wyatt, Ben and Jo spun around at the sound of the shutting door and I watched as their eyes widened in terror when they saw me.
“Eva!” Wyatt said as he took a step towards me, but the blade dug deeper into my skin and I heard a loud, husky voice in my ear.
“Don’t move, mate!” Said the man holding a knife to my throat.
Another man appeared from one of the rooms, holding a shotgun.
“Just put the knife down. We’re here to help.” Said Wyatt. He was acting calm, but I could see the panic in his eyes. He turned to Sharon, “Please, tell him we’re here to help your son.”
Sharon laughed as she pushed passed him to stand next to the man with the shotgun.
“Son?” The voice said loudly in my ear, making me squirm.
“How else was I s’posed to get ‘em here, Dan?” She laughed again. Dan laughed, his hot breath blasting on my neck.
“Nice one, Shaz.” He said. “What’ve they got?”
“RV.” She grinned proudly.
“Sweet! Now, grab their knives, would ya?”
She stepped towards Ben and reached out to grab his knife, but he pulled it away from her. Dan tightened his grip on my arm.
“Ey, you kids do as I say and we won’t hurt ya’s. We’ll just slip outta here in the RV and you’ll never see us again. Or…” he paused, tilting the knife to catch the light, making it glint. “I’ll slit her throat and throw her outside as bait. All the zombies in town will come for ya. And we’ll still take the RV. Either way, the RV is ours. Now hand over your knives.”
Reluctantly, they gave their weapons to Sharon, who threw them in a handbag and slung it over her shoulder.
“Good kids.” Said Dan. “Now, gimme the keys.”
“The tall one was driving, he’s got ‘em.” Sharon said as she stood in front of Wyatt, holding her hand out expectantly.

Wyatt’s eyes locked onto mine, and I could see he was afraid of the same thing I was; would they be true to their word and let me go, or would I be dead as soon as he dropped the keys in her hand?
“Do it, mate.” Dan grunted as he pressed the knife deeper, piercing my skin. I flinched in pain before I felt blood trickling down my neck. At the sight of my blood, Wyatt pulled the keys out of his pocket and threw them at Sharon.
“Now let her go.” He urged.
“Nah, I think I’ll keep her.” Said Dan. “Just until we get to the RV, in case you try something stupid. Max here we’ll take good care of you while we’re gone.”
The man with the shotgun stepped in front of Wyatt as Dan pulled me out the front door and out into the street, with Sharon picking up my axe before leading the way back to the RV.

Panic started to take over.

I knew they would kill me as soon as they reached the RV. And even if they didn’t, they would leave us here with no food and no weapons, in a town full of zombies.

Either way, we did’t stand a chance.

It’s over.