Free Web NovelChapter 31: Hop In
The Ascender mashed the bodies beneath as it hit the road, the diesel engine fully loose now and roaring into the quiet street.
Kara had both her hands locked on the wheel as she leaned over it, shoulders rigid, teeth clenched while her foot pressed the accelerator harder than the narrow streets required, and she did not ease it.
Fear still clawed at her from everything that had happened since climbing out of that chest.
Disgust too, and the edge of panic that had not fully faded.
But a fury unlike ever before had risen up through all of it during those final minutes with Tikki’s paw in her hands, overwhelming everything, pushing the Ascender through the slum streets.
The first corner came up fast, and the vehicle clipped a mound of debris on the turn, sending plastic and broken concrete exploding across the alley.
Kara yanked the wheel and kept going.
The second turn went wide, and the right side of the Ascender dragged across corrugated tin with a long, ugly shriek before she corrected.
But her foot never left the accelerator.
An infected stepped from the dark directly into the headlights and sprinted straight toward the vehicle.
And Kara’s stomach lurched hard.
-BAM-!
The 11-ton Ascender didn’t even register it, but even so, Kara flinched so hard her elbows locked, both hands hauling the wheel back to center while her heart nearly leapt at her throat.
"Nikki, I swear to God," she said through her teeth while her foot stayed on the gas the entire time.
The comms gave her nothing.
Beside her, Tikki raised his front left paw, licked it twice in quick succession, and set it carefully back down.
Kara watched for exactly one second before putting her eyes back on the road while her hands tightened further on the wheel.
She understood better than anyone what Tikki occupied in Nikki’s world, and thinking about the conversation to come made her stomach churn.
"Nikki’s going to kill me..." she muttered.
Then, a beat later: "But the bastard won’t even answer his comms!"
She called his name once more, but the results never changed.
The slums thinned around the Ascender over the next several minutes, the packed structures giving way to wider roads and buildings with actual space between them.
The open road that appeared ahead should have felt like room to breathe.
Kara felt exposed instead.
Then the rendezvous point came into view.
She eased off the accelerator and rolled the Ascender to a stop in the middle of the road, and immediately looked toward the street Nikki was supposed to come from.
And found the road was empty.
That was fine. It was Nikki, and Nikki would appear any moment, looking like he had survived genuine hell and say something unbothered about it, and she would want to throw something at him and not follow through because she would be too relieved to manage it.
But a full minute passed and nothing about that road changed.
Slowly reaching out her hand, Kara killed the engine.
The silence that moved into the cabin was different from the silence outside.
Closer and more claustrophobic. The engine began ticking as it cooled. Tikki shifted his weight in the seat beside her. Kara could hear her own breaths moving in and out louder than a storm.
Kara adjusted the shotgun across her lap without looking at it. She had no idea how many shells remained inside it, didn’t know how to check either, and had no strategy beyond holding it and hoping the count was enough.
She stroked Tikki gently behind the ears, pressed the comms to call Nikki’s name to no avail, and then forced her eyes back to the empty road
The routine repeated several more times with the same result, and in the space between one loop and the next her thoughts began moving toward the places she had been refusing to send them all this time.
What if something had happened on his way back? What if an infected sneaked up on him like it did with her? What if...
[Don’t think...] Kara pressed her forehead down against the steering wheel. [Just don’t think about it.]
And that’s when the comms crackled.
"Hey there..."
Kara’s head snapped straight up.
The relief that arrived lasted less than two seconds before -
"Why the hell weren’t you answering?! I kept calling you and you just... nothing, I thought-!"
"Whoa, easy there," Nikki chuckled, even though his voice was rough and out of breath, "I was hiding under a car while a brand new horde ran through less than a foot away from me. "
Kara froze, understanding immediately that one word from him in that moment, one cough, or one breath that came out too sharp, and the horde would have turned toward him.
"I-I-"
"On the bright side," Nikki continued, determined to treat his own near-death as a scheduling inconvenience, "... most of the infected running through had some really expensive-looking shoes on. And going by the direction, I’m guessing they came from Silver Oaks."
Silver Oaks. The upscale residential suburb sitting directly north of the slums, private roads and large villas, exactly the kind of neighborhood that had the population and the shoes to match.
"Which means Silver Oaks should be sitting mostly empty right now," Nikki continued. "My original plan was to circle the city and come back in from the northern highway. But if that suburb is clear, the road through it runs straight to the penthouse. That’s the road I took when I came to get you... So, we can cut directly through and-" frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
"Tikki’s hurt."
The comms went quiet.
She could hear Nikki breathing faster and faster...
Several seconds went by before anything else came through.
"Is he bit?"
"No." Kara held the word flat and steady. "He broke his leg."
Another stretch of silence, and then-
"Motherfucker!"
That startled Kara hard enough to make the shotgun jump off her lap.
"Couldn’t you have opened with that?" His voice had frayed edges. "You nearly gave me an actual heart attack. Don’t tell me you planned this... Open with the worst possible framing... before going, no, we’re a little less fucked to soften the blow? Is that where we are now?"
"Nikki..."
"You’re a vet, aren’t you? Do some vet shit."
The sound that came out of Kara shared properties with both a laugh and a sob.
"That is not how it works."
"Make a list. Tell me what you need to fix him. I’ll see if I have enough credits... If not, I’m taking a detour, and you’re finding yourself another chest."
The clinical part of her brain separated itself from everything else and answered before she had finished processing what she was being asked.
"Portable imaging first... I need to see the fracture before I touch anything. Pain medication appropriate for his weight. Sedative for when I set it. Splinting materials, cast padding, medical tape, bandaging supplies. External fixation equipment in case the fracture is displaced enough to need it."
"Yep... Got enough. Be there in five."
Then the comms cut out, and Kara let out the longest breath of her life as she pressed the heel of her palm against her eyes
"Okay..." she said quietly. "It’s okay."
Tikki pressed himself against her arm from the other side, and she scratched behind his ears as she looked at the empty road with an unblinking stare.
But this time the waiting felt entirely different because now she knew Nikki was coming down that road.
And in less than five minutes, movement appeared at the far end, a figure turning the corner and moving under the distant streetlight.
"He’s here..." Kara breathed as she pushed the driver’s door open and stepped out.
Tikki’s head appeared immediately above the dashboard, ears forward, eyes very wide.
Nikki looked like the night had extracted a significant price for letting him walk away from it.
His right hand was pressed against his waist wound and stayed there. The rifle hung from his left hand by the barrel rather than the grip.
Shoulders slumped, each step had visible effort behind it, the walk of someone keeping upright through sheer will rather than anything physically left in reserve.
Kara stood by the open door and watched him close the distance.
But he did not even look at her.
"Hey there, little man."
"Meaaa!"
Tikki launched himself from the dashboard, and Nikki barely got his arm up before the cat climbed up his shoulder and seated himself into his designated pocket, front paws on the shoulder like the whole night had been a detour he was now correcting.
Chuckling, Nikki reached up and scratched beneath his chin, and then he looked at Kara.
She had held herself together across everything the horrors had thrown at her, and at the sight of him standing there, wrecked and present and scratching Tikki’s chin like the shit-show was a backdrop for it, Kara came apart around the edges all at once.
"I’m sorry..."
Nikki looked at her for a moment.
"For what?"
"Kara..." Nikki snorted. "Wounds happen. They’re gonna happen. You’ll take one, and before it even starts to heal, you’ll take another. And that’s gonna be our life from now on."
"So, did you learn anything from this one?" Nikki grunted, settling into the gore-stained driver’s seat before looking back at her standing in the street. "Now, before you start crying... hop in."
Kara climbed back into the Ascender without another word.
Nikki settled behind the wheel with Tikki occupying his rightful place on his shoulder, one paw hanging over the front of his jacket pocket.
For the first time in what felt like a long time, Kara felt something inside her finally unclench.
