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"God," Vanessa said "They’re everywhere Tania, you have to get up"
She tried to stand Her head still sith the lingering pain of the disease’s grip, but sheVanessa’s free hand, ran with her
They sprinted toward the Helios, visible on a low rise just beyond a swath of forest to the northeast
Tania stared at the plane as she ran Please let her fly Please
The aircraft seemed so far away, and even in that direction Tania could see the shady for out froed about the creatures No respite, not like Tania was experiencing, but so else They were deathly silent Their faces, even from this far off, were the very picture of stoic concentration, like a sprinter eyeing the red tape at the finish line, or a lion closing the last few e, just the focus and certainty that went part and parcel with the clarity of a goal So it was the say that had all but banished the pain from her own mind
The distance closed between them and the creatures Vanessa raised the pistol she still carried and fired A single clap fro ears One of the creatures fell The next sound from the weapon was a quiet click, and Vanessa uttered a curse in Portuguese as she tossed the weapon aside
"Slon a bit," Vanessa said through heavy breaths
Tania glanced at her "Are you kidding?"
"We can’t stop to fight them, so we need to … just, trustVanessa The tactic seemed ridiculous, yet what else could be done? She had no weapon now The knife, the bloody knife, she’d dropped so
What she had was herself Her training, over the last year, in an Israeli street-fighting technique A year of welts and bruises and a hardening of body Tolerance for pain, instinct for inflicting it And she had Vanessa, who’d spent decades studying jujitsu
The iled them toward the space vacated by the one subhuht still rushed onward, and that gap Tania suddenly realized had becoed ahead and Tania did her best to follow She wished she’d ditched the entire suit and not just the helht to it, a stiffness that ic Compounded with the intense exhaustion she already felt … no, no No excuses Run, dammit Keep up Survive She simply had to For Pablo and Jake For Skyler For Zane For Karl and everyone else that had fled Darwin to follow her toward a goal even she did not quite grasp
And for Tioofy Tim, who’d been there every ti the beings in front of her Only now they were beside her Then, behind Tania felt a rush of adrenaline as she realized Vanessa’s simple tactic had worked They’d increased their pace at exactly the right h Sorass and fell Others tripped on those and went down, too Most stayed on their feet, though, but ended up behind, adjusting and losing ground in the process
The forest looreen She followed Vanessa as the wo to look back She and Vanessa auntlet, but she could still hear the beings behind the from that direction The subhumans were close, a dozen meters, maybe less
Tania ducked under a branch and around the trunk of a pine, leapt over an exposed root, and raised her arh the branches of two adjacent saplings As coe
There were subhuaps between trees Hunched, silent, and driven On an instinctual level Tania knew they were all, every last one of them, after her Or rather, the object Vanessa carried so aardly on her back
I could die here, she thought This thought she’d had many times already, but this time it came more as an inappropriate bit of self-introspection I could die for this slab of graphene circuitry or whatever the hell it is I should be dead already, or at least one of these creatures, chasing Vanessa instead of running next to her
A shadow in front of her
As she tried to dodge her foot snagged on a root She fell as a snarled face, teeth bared, eed before her Tania tucked in her shoulder and rolled on instinct She crashed into the being’s knees and heard it huff in surprise as it hit the ground behind her Tania caht in her throat There were sotoward her
The one she’d knocked over stood, bared its teeth, and struck a stance so savage, so anier see the human it had once been She just saw a creature
It stepped forward and reached for her
Vanessa leapt in fro the creature’s natural instincts of how prey would fight back The sub tried to raise its hands but Vanessa was too quick She barred both hands with her left arht forear its effort to bite at her as she drove in On the last step in Vanessa planted one foot behind the backpedaling creature They were falling together, and in landing Tania i down on the thing’s sto crunched The creature did not cry out Its li
The i back to Tania and pulling her back to her feet Once again her lighthouse in this ocean of terrors, pulling her toward the goal Tania hardly noticed She couldn’t break her gaze fro pulse of blood in her teled to weave through the forest as she had Many fell, many tripped on the fallen, but despite this their nuain, and four steps later Tania could see the bulky shape of the Helios resting in the clearing where they’d landed The sight of it brought a renewed urgency to her burning legs, and then, as suddenly as it had started, she was through the door, closing it Vanessa had veered away and went to the cockpit without a spoken word of planning They both knehat had to be done
Tania pulled the door shut at the sa it closed with such ferocity that she stuh the tiny porthole o blue eyes, bloodshot and ragged and … sad Profoundly sad
The engines were already whirring, soon pushing to a roar that vibrated the walls
She’ll fly, Tania thought The pulse that had ruined her suit had not, it seeht above the door showed red No seal Panic surged through her Had so’s foot, or hand?
She saw it then, and cursed herself She’d siotten to yank the handle into the sealed position It took a force of will to step toward the door, toward those blue eyes and clawing fingertips that left little dirty sripped the long metal bar with both hands and turned it clockwise It snapped into place, the light turned green, and instantly the aircraft lurched
Those eyes disappeared, fell down and away, as the Helios took flight
Tania lay on the floor of the aircraft for a long tiently on the triangular object She stared at it, tried to thrust her very soul into the weave of es