Afflicted

All of the traffic was heading to the same place and I doubted much of it would be leaving again. We could easily sit in the queue for hours. I made a snap decision and pulled the truck over by the side of the road. The owner of the house I'd parked in front of had made his own ‘no parking’ sign which I nudged with my bumper as I stopped.

“You up for a walk?” I asked Katy as she looked to me questioningly. “I don't think there's much point wasting time getting the truck closer.”

“Yeah.” She jumped out and I followed more slowly, pausing to check the satphone for any messages.

I was beginning to wonder if it was even working anymore. It wasn't like my team to be so quiet especially with so much going on. I just hoped that they were alright. Though I wanted to check in with them, I forced myself to shove the phone away again. Time was precious and I needed to hurry.

Our group gathered by the back of my truck and I hopped out to join them.

“It's only another couple of blocks from here. If we run its five minutes tops,” I said confidently.

“Let's get going then,” Reese agreed.

“Okay, stick together. It might get crowded up ahead so don't let yourselves get left behind.” I gave them a chance to say something else but they all seemed just as keen as I was to get going.

I set a steady pace as I started jogging along the sidewalk. The roads got more and more crowded with cars and pedestrians alike and I started to feel more uneasy as we went. Contaminated people could be anywhere; the closer the crowd pressed, the less I'd be able to spot them coming.

I wished I could believe that Tommy was a fluke case who had just taken longer to react to the water but I knew in my heart it wasn't true. And if the storm had spread the contamination everywhere then we couldn't trust anyone. Even ourselves.

The houses ended and we arrived at the edge of a huge crowd waiting to get into the city. Bodies were packed together tightly and I turned to beckon the others to follow me as I started to skirt it, heading into the huge open air station.

Walls were erected to either side of the queuing area to pen everyone in and stop them from skirting the security measures. I hugged the wall on the right, moving along beside the people hemmed into the queues. They frowned at us like we were cutting in but I ignored them, heading on to get a look at what was happening and hopefully find someone to get Reese and Katy inside to their family.

Wardens stood in a thick line behind barriers in front of the landing platforms. They were sporting machine guns and grim expressions as they looked out at the crowd.

“Please queue in an orderly fashion,” a smooth, feminine voice announced loudly over a tannoy system again and again.

I checked that the others were still with me as the crush of bodies pressed us back against the wall. They looked to me for direction and I smiled reassuringly as I craned my neck to look at the cablecars.

The large, glass pods weren't moving.

Overhead, black drones flew back and forth above the crowd. I squinted at them, spotting cameras but also something that looked suspiciously like guns. I'd worked with military grade drones before and I recognised the weapons easily.

I turned my attention back to the Wardens. On closer inspection, they seemed uneasy. Their knuckles were white where they gripped their guns and more than a few of them had sweat lining their brows.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

I turned to Katy and grabbed her hand. “We need to go.”

“What?” she frowned at me, pulling away a little as she tried to spot the cablecars too.

“Now.” I pulled on her arm, increasing my grip as she resisted.

“Linc, we just got here-“

“Something's wrong, trust me.” I caught Reese by the shoulder and started pushing him along too.

“What's going on?” Reese asked, allowing me to steer him back the way we'd just come.

“We need to leave, just trust me,” I said firmly, upping the pace as I shoved other people aside.

Katy grabbed Lacey’s arm making her follow us and the others soon fell in too.

“Move!” I shouted as the crowd blocked our progress. People grumbled as I shoved them aside but I didn't care. We had to get out of there before it was too late.

“Linc, just tell me what's wrong,” Katy said urgently and I could feel her fear.

“Trust me Katy. I promise if I'm wrong we'll come straight back but-“