Broken Lands (Benny Imura 6)

Lilah tapped the glass with a finger. Despite her facade of toughness, Benny saw that she was back to biting her nails all the way down.

“We fight our way through,” she said. “Four quads go off in different directions, heading to the road. Revving high to draw them. Riot takes Benny to his quad and waits while he gets it going. When the zoms clear off, Benny gets dropped and Riot gives cover until he’s mounted and has the engine on. That’s the plan.”

It was not said as a suggestion, and everyone nodded. It was a scary plan, but a practical one.

And that was what they did.

As soon as the gear was loaded, five quad engines roared to life. Benny opened the door, then jumped back as the machines burst from the shadowy garage into the bright sunlight. Riot slowed to let him jump on. The line of quads tore across the weed-choked field. There were zoms out here, too, but only a dozen or so, and these were spread out. The five quads zoomed into the field, spreading out as they accelerated, drawing as many zoms away as they could while Benny tried to start his quad. The engine coughed and choked but did not catch.

The quad was out of gas.

51

THE QUAD HAD BEEN LEFT running and had burned through its fuel before sputtering and dying out in the field.

Riot skidded to a stop, hurried over, and pushed Benny out of the way. “Watch my back and don’t let me get bit.”

Benny drew his sword and stood ready, but he kept glancing over his shoulder as Riot worked. Unlike the others, she was very familiar with the mechanics of the chunky machines, having used them while still part of the reaper army.

She opened the lid of one of the hard-shell saddlebags on the back of the quad and removed the fuel tube beneath the tank to release air. She immediately began fueling from the spare tanker attached to the back of the quad. As soon as there was enough in the tank, she gave the throttle a couple of pumps, opening it all the way and closing the choke. Then she turned the key. The motor screeched in protest as if wanting to stay asleep. She tried again, and for a moment Benny thought it was going to start, but then it faded. Riot kept trying, and on the fifth try the sturdy little machine growled to life. The whole process seemed to take an hour, but he knew it was less than a minute. Time was as broken as the world. Riot kept working to adjust the choke to settle the engine into a normal rhythm.

“You waiting for an engraved invitation?” she barked. “Or did you rub steak sauce all over yourself this morning?”

“What . . . ?” Benny looked around and saw a whole bunch of zoms coming around the corner of the prison and shamble toward him. He ran to meet the ones in front and the sword wove a pattern of destruction that left five of them dead and two more crippled. Benny backpedaled until he was near the two quads again.

They remounted and took off across the field, heading back to the road to where the others waited. Now that they were on the road again, Benny could feel the time burning off around him. If Captain Ledger was in danger when they’d set out from Reclamation, then he was probably long dead now.

Regret was an ache that cracked his chest open.

He gunned the engine and roared down the road.

Interlude Five

KICKAPOO CAVERN STATE PARK

ONE WEEK AGO

THEY SAT THERE. TWO GROWN men, scarred from lifetimes of battle. Both of them killers. Sitting in the mud, staring, tears running down their faces.

“Joe . . . ?” said the hunter, his voice hushed to a whisper. “Are you . . . real?”

The soldier grinned. “If you are, then I am.”

“How? They said you were dead.”

“Heard that about you, too, brother.”

They sat there. Birds and monkeys chattered in the trees around them.

“How are you here?” asked Sam.

“Here, as in right here, right now? Or here at all?”

“I don’t know. Either. Both.”

Ledger sighed. “Yeah, well, that’s a long story. Short version? The world ended when I was off the clock. I was coming back from a job in Southeast Asia, and by the time I reached the States the devil was off the leash and everything was falling apart.”

Sam nodded. “I know. I was in the middle of it. My team was sent into a quarantine zone in Stebbins County, Pennsylvania. A Cold War bioweapon had been released and—”