Sinth Salvation - Pearl Tate Page 0,39
more than one person is hurt. Please … if you’re just tuning in, this footage may be too much for sensitive viewers …”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
- Nikon
Abandoning my tutorial for Lilibeth, I turn to her, asking the most important question. “Do you recognize where that is?”
The Taxin youth are steaming across the screen. A wave of murmurs rises and falls throughout the room from the teachers watching in horror, and I can hear their escalating panic. “That’s Mr. Parker’s field trip bus …”
“Oh, God. Let them be okay.”
“What the hell are those?” A man steps closer to the screen, squinting as he adjusts his glasses.
“Lilibeth!” I shake her lightly, relieved as I see our surroundings morph despite her blank stare up at me. Working on autopilot, we move as prisms of color dance around us from our vibrational change during our phase.
“It’s close to where we were this morning.” Lilibeth slips from my grasp as she turns, scanning our surroundings, and I follow her gaze. We materialize above the beach which we attempted to reach earlier that day. “They must have come out of the water. The road isn’t far, just over the bank … but there should be fencing.”
Once secure on the ground, fully in Earth’s dimension, we both focus in on the narrow swath of road which sits in clear sight of the beach. Fuck!
The bus and one other car heading the opposite direction are stopped on the road by a massive clump of Taxin. Phasing closer to the Taxin, I watch as they stumble unsteadily across the road. A mound of them is piled in the middle of the road, halfway between the two vehicles. A frantic figure waves from the car in front of me, pointing at the pile.
“Stay in the gateway,” I roar at Lilibeth as I phase to the car. The elderly woman has tears streaming down her face as she gestures at the pile.
“My husband!” When she attempts to open the door, I lean against it, shaking my head to tell her no before spinning around and bumping right into Lilibeth.
“Take this!” Lilibeth shoves the trakoline into my chest and steps to the side as I flip the device to laser. I disregard everything I’ve been directed to do dealing with the Wen-infected. Brandishing it, I spin, slicing the heads off three adolescent Taxin in my way. Their jaws continue to flap even as their heads fall to the ground. Messy, but effective.
Another female steps toward me, but trips over the heads and falls at my feet as I slice through her spine. I wonder how long it will be before I’ll see backup, and what it’ll look like. Glancing up, I see stricken faces watching through the front window of the school bus. I force myself to concentrate on continuing to the pile in the middle of the road even as more infected beings converge on me. Despite my bravado, there’s a strong chance I could be seriously hurt just from the sheer numbers of infected.
I spin, trying to work my way closer to the largest pile of Taxin where a dozen or so of them are feasting on a moaning man brandishing a golf club. It isn’t just him, either. A portly man is next to him, already unconscious and gutted. I’m not sure what exactly happened here, but it’s clear that one or both of them exited their vehicles in an attempt to clear the road, and the Wen-crazed Taxin saw them for what they were. Food.
The Wen virus changes the brain to such a degree that their only thought is to eat. Everything moving and breathing is viewed as food, and it seems like there are dozens more heading my way. I can only hope this is all of them.
Maybe if the motor vehicles hadn’t arrived when they did, then the Taxin would have migrated across the road, and there wouldn’t have been an altercation. But then where would they have ended up? More heads roll as I continue to work into the thick of the group, hoping I can help the Humans in some way, but by the time I’ve managed to get rid of most of the screeching Taxin females, I know I’m too late.
At least the infected Taxin, huddled around the car and beating it incessantly, have started to follow me. I continue to detach heads, sickened as their bodies thump to the ground and their heads roll. We were given direct orders to not kill any humans,