show; I just wanted everyone to be able to confirm what I had seen. There had been hope that the infected would eventually start dying off and the survivors would be able to reclaim the world. But if they were procreating, well, hell, it wasn’t good.
I could tell Rachel wanted to talk about this new development, but I waved her off. We had the information. Discussing it could wait until I had Katie safely in my arms. Zemeck had gotten a look and also had a count and mental picture of the location of the infected. Using hand signs I told him his area of responsibility was the left and I would take the right. He nodded and I raised three fingers, counting down.
When my last finger folded into my fist we stepped around the corner together, rifles up, and began engaging the infected. Two females dropped simultaneously then two more before the others realized something was wrong. One of them turned and emitted the beginning of a scream before Zemeck shot her between the eyes.
We kept targeting and firing, quickly putting down all of the females. I paused a heartbeat when I realized the female in the act of mating was still so occupied that she hadn’t noticed us. Walking forward I started shooting the males and she finally stopped grinding her pelvis on the male and looked around. I shot the last male standing and stood with a steady aim at her head.
She turned back to the male and lunged down, tearing his throat out with her teeth, dark blood jetting into the air from his severed carotid artery. Slowly she got to her feet and turned to face me, pants around her ankles. My aim wavered as she bent down, grasped the waistband of her jeans and pulled them up to cover herself.
“What the hell is going on?” Rachel said quietly from behind me.
I didn’t know how to answer that question. This was a whole new level of behavior from the females and quite frankly it creeped me the hell out. Remembering why I was here in the first place I said the hell with it and pulled the trigger. The female’s head snapped back and her body fell across the male she’d just killed after mating.
My heart was pounding and I took several deep breaths to calm down and refocus on the task at hand. A quick scan for any more infected came up empty and I turned to face the group. All of them looked as shocked as I felt.
“We’ll talk about it later,” I said, reaching out and taking my NVGs back from Rachel.
I scanned the wall and was disappointed to not see any way to access the roof. Turning to Zemeck I nodded and he walked a few yards away from the building before turning and looking up at the roofline. He must not have liked what he saw as he backed up another couple of yards, lowered his rifle and raised the grappling hook launcher.
Aiming high, he pulled the trigger and there was a low thump followed by the hiss of high-pressure air being released. A high strength polymer hook shot into the sky trailing a length of lightweight rope. The hook sailed out of sight over the edge of the roof, then the rope softly slapped against the wall.
Grabbing the line I began pulling to drag the grappling hook across the roof. There were knots tied into the line every eighteen inches that gave me a good grip. They were there to help climbers grip the rope and I’d forgotten just how long it had been since I’d gone up the outside of a building. Putting it out of my mind I tugged hard when the hook grabbed something solid on the roof.
The rope felt secure but before I started up the wall I held onto a knot and pulled myself a few inches off the ground. Everything seemed secure even with my full body weight hanging from the line. Swinging my legs up I clamped my feet together on the rope, boot soles resting on a knot and reached for the next one above my head. Hand over hand I climbed, keeping my feet securely on the line each time I reached for a new grip.
There was a time when I would have let my legs swing and trusted in just my upper body strength. There was a time when I could scamper up a rope like a monkey. Have