Karina checked out the entire house while Reece fetched one of the solar sails from the garage and laid it out over the long grass of the backyard. As soon as he had the sail fully deployed, Reece plugged it into the jet-black Helios’s energy port. The cycle’s fifth-generation organic display screen showed a twenty-seven percent charge with fifty-six minutes remaining until it attained a full charge at the current recharge rate. It would take even less time than Reece had first guessed.
While he waited, he familiarized himself with the cycle’s control system. It had GPS navigation installed which should still work if the 256-satellite Allied Territories’ GPS system still had enough satellites in orbit. Reece knew that it shouldn’t be a problem since the new satellite designs allowed for hands-off operability and they had a design life of at least twenty-five years. He found that the bike had a self-driving feature as well, but it wasn’t activated. That was just fine with Reece. He always preferred to stay in control.
Reece finished setting up the solar cycle for travel and grabbed a set of gear from the garage. Removing his flight jacket, he stuffed it into one of the side bags of the cycle. A veteran rider, Reece knew he needed to wear the proper gear for the journey. Instead of his flight jacket, he donned a black synthetic leather jacket. The robust material would offer better protection in case of a crash. He also swapped out his flight pants for faux leather ones and slid on matching gloves. To complete the outfit, he grabbed one of a pair of available helmets with an outer shell covered with black solar panels.
Noting the helmet was an NX-72 model with an advanced interface and display, Reece checked its power level but found it totally drained. Hoping it wasn’t dead and noting the solar curved solar panels across its top, he left the helmet in the light to charge up. He was both anxious and excited to check out the full capabilities of both it and the cycle.
With not much left to do but let everything charge up, he decided to check on Karina’s progress. Entering the house, he found she had stacked up a couple of dozen cans of fruit, beans, veggies, and soup. She had done well, especially considering she had no need to eat. Reece found that incredibly thoughtful. Most of the cans had self-heating elements built into them. The sight of the food caused his stomach to constrict in pain.
The hungry astronaut looked through the food choices and found a can of steak and potato soup that looked delicious. He twisted the key at the bottom, breaking the seal and starting the chemical reaction that would heat up the can of soup from within. He found a fork and bowl in the kitchen while the can quickly heated up. It was finished by the time he got back, so he popped the top and inhaled the steamy aroma wafting up from the can. The delicious smell of steak filled his nose, so he hastily poured the hot soup into the bowl.
He was still careful not to spill any of the precious food. The first bite was delicious. It was by far the best thing he had eaten since crash landing back on the planet. In fact, it was the first nice meal that he had had in quite a while. The food on the space station had been limited and had become practically unenjoyable near the end of his stay there. Karina came down the stairs as he savored the bits of steak and potato.
“Thanks for collecting all of this,” he told her between mouthfuls of the delicious soup. “Any luck with anything else?”
“Just a couple jugs of water and a ZPO-Corp spark light, in case we need a quickfire. Honestly, I don’t think there’s much more we could really use. You caught us a nice break here with that solar cycle. We need to make use of it.”
Reece nodded as he finished up his meal. It felt like seconds, but then the can was empty. Reece poured was little remained of the broth into his mouth before setting the can down. He held onto the fork and tossed it into one of their bags. Feeling sated if not a little disappointed that the meal was over so quickly, Reece rounded up the pile of cans that Karina had found and filled their bags with as much of them as would fit.
He loaded the bike’s saddlebags with their baggage, organizing them to stuff them as full as possible. By the time he was done, the solar cycle was fully charged. Reece unplugged the solar sail and took his time rolling it up. It wouldn’t do to tear it after one use. In its compact form, it fit perfectly just under one of the saddlebags. It had obviously been designed to latch into place.
Reece picked up the helmet and mounted the bike before nodding to Karina. She nodded back that she was ready, so he put the helmet on. A small pop-up in the bottom right of his vision stated “Waiting for sync...” in red letters. When he started the bike with the push button, the pop-up almost immediately changed to green letters that read “Sync complete”. A full diagnostics display popped up across the visor. The readout indicated that it had a successful sync with the bike as numerous indications scrolled across his view.
Amongst the displayed information, he noted the charge remaining as both a percentage and kilometers remaining. Information containing current kilometers per hour, weather conditions, GPS coordinates, and directions made Reece smile. The bike would help them navigate much easier than a paper map, though it would still serve as an emergency backup. Other bits of information scrolled past such as old-school radio stations, closest recharging ports, regional fun facts, and several other indicators that were now useless considering the state of the world. He dismissed and disabled most of them to save power and clear his view of clutter.
Reece was enjoying his new toy and spent a good deal of time familiarizing himself with it. Once he had the display to his liking, Reece set the GPS directions for the Cape. A sultry female voice spoke to him through the helmet, giving him directions on how to get there. Apparently, there were still enough GPS satellites to get the job done. Some of the tension left his body as things were starting to look hopeful.
Pausing the program and shutting down the bike to conserve energy, Reece removed the helmet to speak with Karina.
“Great news. Looks like we caught a break,” he told her with a genuine smile. “Everything is ready to go. So...it’s getting late. How about we get some sleep? We have a long drive tomorrow.”
“Finally, we can move at a decent pace. I haven’t felt so tied down since the eighteen hundreds. You’re lucky you’re so cute and taste so good. Now, you’re right. Let’s get to bed. It’s been a long lonely day and I want to snuggle. Besides, tomorrow may turn out to be a long day too.”
Reece didn’t argue. Despite himself, it sounded kind of nice and he was too tired to argue. They headed back to the farmhouse together as the sun began to drop below the tree-line and shadows grew long across the yard.
Once inside, Reece opened another can of self-heating soup. This time it was minestrone. The few hours of preparing the bike had him famished. He sat on a couch in the living room and began picking chunks of meat and vegetables out of it with a fork. Popping each morsel into his mouth, he relished the salty and savory taste. Karina sat on the couch and scooted herself up next to him. He didn’t want to fight, and she felt nice and warm, so he let her be. As he ate, she put her head on his shoulder. By the time he had finished his meal, she had fallen asleep.
He carefully put the can on the end table, trying not to disturb the tired girl. Feeling a deepening bond with her, he couldn’t leave her on the couch alone. Sliding his arms under her, he hefted her petite frame as she moaned in her sleep. Reece was amazed that one so strong and powerful could be so light. Shaking his head at the absurdity of it, the bewildered astronaut carried her upstairs to the bedroom and set her body down gently onto the bed. Moving the covers aside, he moved her again so that he could cover her up with the bed’s heavy comforter. Incredibly, she didn’t wake through the whole process.
Having situated her successfully, Reece pulled off his boots and travel gear and settled himself on the bed opposite her. As his body pressed into the soft mattress and his head onto the softer pillow, he quickly realized how exhausted he really was. In moments, he was asleep as well.
The dream came again but this time it was filled with zombies closing in on him from every direction. Karina was there but offered little help this time. The closest zombie opened its mouth and instead of a growl or moan, he heard a crashing sound. It sounded more like wood splintering than anything he expected to come from a zombie’s rotting carcass.
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Stranger still, he awoke to the sound. It must have been very early morning because the night sky was just beginning to lighten. Then he heard it again. A crash from downstairs. Shaking Karina, he quickly got out of bed and put his gear and boots back on. Looking out the bedroom window, he couldn’t see anything. That didn’t mean much as the window was on the back of the house and didn’t have a great view. Karina saw his face and zipped quietly to the bathroom window that faced the front of the house. She was back in an instant, eyes wide and mouth frowning with worry.
“We need to go right now. Get to the bike, I’ll clear a path. Now, follow me!”
“Clear a path through what!?!” wondered Reece, but he didn’t ask. He knew better than to bother her with a question right then. Clearly, time was of the essence and he had already grown to trust her and her instincts.
Karina managed to open the bedroom window swiftly yet quietly. As soon as she could fit, she slipped through and jumped five meters down to the ground below. Reece forced the window open a bit more and followed her out. Not wanting to twist an ankle, he hung from the window lip before letting go. To further soften his landing, he rolled when he hit the ground. It was a trick he had learned in the marines and he’d used it a few times in motocross. The idea was to spread the impact out over more of the body.
The landing still hurt a bit, but he hopped up uninjured. Karina waited with an eyebrow raised. He raised his shoulders and arms to pantomime “What?” She merely shrugged nonchalantly. Reece sighed. Together, they dashed for the shed. Reece didn’t see anything on the way, but he could hear moaning and scratching coming from the yard in front of the house.
As soon as they reached the shed, he jumped on the bike and pulled his helmet down over his head. Reece was glad they had packed their bags into the cycle the previous day. Once he was ready, he gave the lilitu the thumbs up. Karina blew him a kiss while extending her spear for combat. He nodded to her and she nodded back before she sprinted out to create an opening for him. An opening through what...he didn’t yet know. He twisted the right handle, giving the bike some juice. It responded instantly and he road it out of the shed and followed the small girl towards the wall of death in front of him.
The entire yard in front of the house was full of zombies. Karina hit them full tilt as she wielded her spear with deadly precision and speed. Briefly, Reece thought she resembled a miniature windmill of death. She was making surprisingly good time in making a path through the small horde. Within seconds, she was a good five meters into the pack of dead people. As Reece followed behind her, he tried to avoid running over as many dismembered body parts as he could. Despite the need to focus on the ground, he kept his awareness open to everything around him. It wouldn’t do to get pulled from his bike by a zombie or two.
His awareness drew his attention up and to the right where he spotted another rat-man. The thing was apparently leading the living dead into the house. Two more of the wickedly cunning creatures came out of the house to see what all the commotion was about. They watched in utter shock as the small girl scythed her spear through the necks of three zombies simultaneously. Reece could hear them chittering excitedly in their guttural voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying.
Karina caught a glimpse of them as she battled the dead all around her. Reece watched her make a slight detour in her path of zombie destruction. She continued cutting and cleaving her way through the throng of walking corpses, but now she was headed towards the front of the house. The rat-men couldn’t tell what was going on as they couldn’t get a good look at Karina due to her small stature. It was only a few more moments before she reached them.
They only had a second to register what was happening before the deadly girl was on them. In one long clean arc, she sliced one in half and beheaded the other two. Following the move, she jumped back into the mass of zombies and cut through three more living corpses. Her backswing took out five more. A few more died with each swing of her spear. She was a model of efficiency, using it more like a farmer with a scythe than a warrior with a long spear. Reece followed her in awe, as he observed hundreds of years of combat experience on display. The undead fell nearly as easily as the proverbial wheat.
Faster than he thought possible, they were clear of the mass of flailing and moaning corpses. Reece figured this zombie horde, which was much smaller now, was probably led there by the wererats. The rest of the front yard was now clear all the way to the tree line. Reece could just make out a small opening at the edge of the trees on the other side. It turned out that a small dirt walking path led through the pine trees and onto the highway beyond. Karina guarded it, beheading a couple of zombies that got too close. Using the opening she had created for him, Reece aimed the bike down the trail that headed for the highway. She winked at him as he drove past and all he could do was smile and keep going. He had to go slow on the narrow path, but it wasn’t far, and soon he was clear of the pines.
Turning the solar cycle onto the highway, he poured on the speed. Reece wanted to see the machine’s full capability and get some distance between himself and the remaining zombies. As he continued to accelerate, the bike’s velocity soon hit over two-hundred and fifty kilometers per hour on the straightaway. Exhilaration flowed through his body as the wind whipped around him.
A moment later, Reece saw Karina pull up alongside him, running to keep pace. Once again he was amazed by Karina, who had no trouble keeping up with him. Even at his top speed, he looked over and she was still running alongside him. Whenever he looked, she’d look back and smile and wave. She seemed to be in a better mood now that they were moving at a decent pace and away from the horde of hungry dead.
He was able to maintain the pace through much of the day but was forced to go slow through several areas where there were groups of abandoned cars on the road. Reece figured they could make it to the Cape by the following day if they kept moving straight through. He hoped they would find something there because if they didn’t, he feared he’d be lost. They’d have to start over and come up with a new plan. Still, he needed time to think and come up with a strategy. The Order may anticipate this move and set traps along the way or at the destination. He decided to do the heavy thinking later when he wasn’t operating a vehicle going over two-hundred kilometers per hour. Instead, Reece concentrated on the pavement ahead.
The two of them were making good time. They had been going steady for several hours and had even switched highways before they ran into their first problem. They’d been traveling for some time along Highway Eighty-Two out of Cuthbert, Georgia. A huge wreck loomed up ahead. It was plain to see that there was simply no getting around it. Reece slowed before pulling up to the mass of smashed-up vehicles. He stopped the bike when he saw what was on the other side of the cars and trucks. It was another large mass of zombies. They looked to be just milling about. Reece held still. If they saw him, there’d be no stopping them from scrambling over the crashed vehicles to get at him. He could turn around and outrun them, but then they’d have to find an alternate route to their destination.
“Don’t worry,” said Karina. “I got this.”
The lilitu girl approached the mass of cars and trucks, checking for the easiest path through. At the narrowest point, a T-boned silver muscle car was the only thing blocking that part of the highway. Karina carefully set her spear down and pressed her body between the car and a delivery truck. The muscle car had been partially crushed by it. The truck’s grill was pressed into the driver’s side door and quarter panel. She put her back against the bumper of the truck and her booted feet on the side of the muscle car and pushed. Reece could see her strain a bit, but then the muscle car slowly slid to the side. Once she had made some room, she repositioned herself to push again. She managed to push it a good meter, clearing an opening for Reece and his bike to drive through.
Some of the zombies must have noticed the pair when the car started to move. The clumsy creatures were lurching towards them as fast as they could. Karina picked up her spear from the pavement and easily started clearing a path through them, swinging her spear in a wide arc. The sharpened edge of the business end of the spear cleaved through one zombie after another. Even though he had seen it before, the way she spun her spear about was awe-inspiring to him. She was beheading two to three at a time. Her efficiency was scary. Every move of her spear brought more zombies to their demise. She looked back at him and smiled. This was apparently fun for her.
“Give me a minute to clear them out,” she said to him as she continued cutting her way through the swarming mass of undead bodies.
As Reece watched her work he remembered the mall where the zombie labradors had almost gotten him. Cursing himself for letting his guard down, Reece looked around to make sure he wasn’t in any imminent danger. He didn’t see anything in his immediate vicinity. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he looked back down the highway from where they had just come. He had to squint to see a small dark mass of movement where the road met the horizon.
“What is that?” Reece mumbled to himself, wondering at the strange movement.
Reece looked again. The mass started taking shape as it rapidly approached them. He still couldn’t make out what he was looking at, so he decided he better not stay silent.
“Karina,” he yelled, just loud enough to get her attention, and then pointed down the road behind him. “Something’s coming.”
Karina looked past him, and her eyes grew wide. Her vision must have been much better than his because whatever she saw, scared her.
“Ride fast! Now! Follow me," yelled Karina, fear evident in her voice. "Stop for nothing!”