Swarm (Book 4) Read online

  Swarm IV

  By Alex South

  Book Cover by Wayne M

  Edited by Light Hurley

  Secondary Proofreading by Sarah Parkinson

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  Chapter 1

  The clouds slowly drifted towards the morning sun. Under them moved a black shape. Macy jumped and waved – each different to the last, each full of hope. Zack stood next to her – also waving.

  Laura’s gut ached. She had an urge to remain unseen. She couldn’t explain it. The reason just fluttered out of reach. Who was in there? Could they see her? No – she told herself. They were too far away.

  Stones ran at Macy’s feet, his eyes on her, changing direction with sudden shoulder-dips and jumping as if to copy her.

  Laura watched the helicopter grow smaller and smaller, before it disappeared over the horizon.

  “Shit!” shouted Zack, “Shit…” He put his hands on his hips and stared into the distance before looking at Laura. “Who do you think it is?”

  Laura glanced around, then turned and headed back to the house – an L-shaped building on a hill bent around an overgrown garden.

  “Laura?” Zack said, following her.

  “I don’t know,” Laura mumbled as she entered the house and its gloom. She passed through the corridor and slumped down on a sofa in the living room.

  “You think they saw us?” Zack asked.

  “No, of course not.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fuck…” said Zack. “What do we do?”

  Laura shrugged. She said nothing.

  “Maybe it’s over…” said Zack. “We gotta stay by the windows. Maybe make a sign.” He glanced at Laura. “Macy, come on.” He turned and left, but before Macy could follow he came back in. “Laura, help me make a sign… we need sheets, or something big.”

  She stared at him then looked at her feet.

  “Laura?”

  She shook her head, avoiding eye contact.

  Zack looked at Macy. “Come on,” he said, leaving again.

  …

  Zack dropped the bundle of sheets and blankets on the grass. He grabbed the first one and took a moment to plan, imagining the letters S.O.S. laid over the ground. He took a few steps forward and glanced to the sky where he had seen the helicopter. Holding onto one end of the sheet, he threw it forward so that it snapped out to make a line.

  He left it, a white streak, and moved back to get another. The air felt a little strange. Despite the sun, there was a tension that clung to him.

  Something left over by the storm, he thought, picking up the next sheet. Macy watched him from an open window – tasked with keeping an eye out for any undead.

  …

  Chapter 2

  Zack got in bed. Macy climbed in the other side and put her head on his chest. They lay quietly in the dim light thrown out by the bedside lamp.

  “Who do you think it was?” said Macy.

  “I don’t know…” said Zack. “Maybe someone from the army.”

  They were quiet for a while.

  “At least it wasn’t a zombie,” said Macy.

  Although he couldn’t guess from the tone, Zack figured she was making a joke.

  “Yeah…” he said simply.

  “They can’t drive helicopters,” she said.

  “No… of course. They can’t do much.”

  “They can’t drive. They can’t speak. They can’t… um… and they lie down when it’s sunny.”

  Zack thought for a while. “You’ve seen quite a lot now haven’t you?”

  “Well… I saw them outside my window… and I’ve seen others too.”

  “I’m really proud of you… Macy…”

  She kept quiet. Zack stroked her hair.

  …

  Laura stared at the ceiling, willing herself to get up. Night had fallen and she hadn’t turned on any lights, leaving the furniture to turn into shadows. Zack and Macy were asleep. There was a bed upstairs, yet Laura fell asleep here on the sofa every night.

  Get up – she told herself.

  It didn’t matter. She wouldn’t be able to sleep up there either. She might as well stay, let her thoughts carry her through the night. If sleep came it wouldn’t be because of anything she did.

  Get up.

  But she had to leave the house tomorrow. She had to snap out of it. She had to…

  Get up.

  Sometimes it felt as if she were paralysed. She could feel herself sending out the right thoughts. Telling her body to move. But it didn’t work – and she knew that, really, she had given up.

  Get up.

  Sometimes she drank water. Sometimes she ate. If she needed the toilet it could take up to an hour until she dragged herself up.

  Get up. Laura. Get up.

  Laura let out a long groan, rolled off the sofa and landed on her front. She stayed like that for a while, then bent her knee and put one foot on the floor. A few more seconds and she moved the other to join it. Slowly she raised herself up, until she was standing upright. She headed to the stairs.

  Chapter 3

  Laura woke to the sound of knocking. She groaned as the room grew around her. Magnolia paint did its best with the little light it had, while the curtains held onto the rest.

  “Laura,” Zack said opening the door.

  “What?”

  “It’s nearly day, we should get going.”

  “Okay…”

  She waited for him to close the door. Instead, he remained standing there.

  “Come on,” he said.

  Laura sighed and got out of bed, still with yesterday’s clothes on. She followed Zack downstairs, finding several rucksacks in the hallway.

  “Everything is here, everything is ready. I looked everywhere, like there’s no… there’s no map but we can just drive slow, avoid any dangerous bits. And there’s gonna be signs or something,” Zack said.

  “I’m hungry,” said Laura.

  “I packed loads of food, just in case.”

  “I want a coffee.”

  “No… There isn’t any.”

  “Yeah there is,” said Laura, turning and walking away.

  “We don’t have time. We need to go,” said Zack, following her.

  …

  Laura sat down at the table with a steaming mug in her hands. She had an emptiness, like she had been carved out from the inside. She could still feel the storm. It had left something in her. Sip afte
r sip of hot coffee passed through her until her mug was finished. She stood and walked with Zack to the front entrance. He opened the door and scanned the area, then picked up a piece of paper, already with tape attached, from on top of the rucksacks and stuck it on the door.

  Laura read it:

  We have left to look for helicopter we saw in sky. 1 Woman. 1 Man. 1 Child. 1 Dog. Please wait 24 hours – we will be back.

  Laura grabbed one of the bags and headed outside. The fields were still covered in morning dew and she could smell the grass in the cold air.

  It didn’t take long to get everything in the vehicle – a small, blue and fairly modern car. Laura sat down in the driver’s seat, Zack in the passenger seat and Macy in the back with Stones. Laura put her hands on the steering wheel and stared at them. She sighed.

  “It was over there,” said Zack, pointing.

  “I know where it was,” Laura said.

  Chapter 4

  Laura liked driving. She had always liked it. The trees sped past the windows. The sky had been pulled by two forces – one part dark and blue, still tainted by night, and the other orange, fiery and with a few drifting clouds soaking in the colours.

  Zack had done well dragging her out here. She hoped things worked out for him. Probably he could be happy one day. Him and Macy. If they could make it to somewhere safe.

  Would she ever go back? Back to how the storm had made her feel, back to that incredible power? Who knew? Maybe this helicopter could help. Maybe they knew something that could explain all this. She hoped it wasn’t just some stupid army. Some sort of rescue. They would grin – tell her they had saved her.

  A corner. Laura turned the wheel and watched it unfold in the windscreen – bending the vehicle around a clump of trees. Her foot shot to the brake. The car slowed, tilting forwards as it lost the last push of its momentum.

  She breathed in sharply and yanked the gear stick into reverse, foot hovering above the gas pedal. A crowd stood on the road ahead.

  “They’re not zombies,” she said.

  Zack glanced at her, and then looked back to them. “You sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  Laura scanned their faces. A silent, motionless group. All staring at her.

  “Should we speak to them?” said Zack.

  Laura kept her eyes fixed ahead. “Yeah get out. Shout over to them.”

  Zack opened the door and stood behind it. “Hello!”

  A man began taking long, purposeful strides towards them. Laura sized him up. An intense glare on his face. The whites of his eyes large, and consuming. Was he scared? Nervous? Traumatised? A leather coat came down to his knees. He held a stick two-thirds the size of his body.

  “What is your rank?” the man shouted, stopping a short distance away.

  “What?” Zack shouted back.

  “What is your rank?”

  “… My name is Zack.”

  “What is your rank?”

  “I’m just a civilian.”

  “You’re not a gold priest? What are you doing so close to the devil’s hand?”

  Zack became quiet, holding the man’s stare. He glanced back at his car seat, then climbed inside and closed the door.

  “Did you hear that?” he asked Laura.

  “What’s he talking about?” Laura said.

  “Do you think he’s in the army?”

  “He could be, er…” Laura trailed off, unable to finish her own sentence with anything that made sense.

  “He was asking me what my rank was,” said Zack.

  The man turned to the crowd behind him, beckoning to them.

  Follow me, quick.

  He turned with a frown across his face and started marching towards the vehicle.

  “What’s he doing… Lock the door,” said Laura. She moved the car back slightly to show him that he should stop.

  He lifted his stick above his head. Laura looked over her shoulder, one hand on the wheel, and began to reverse. The man, growing smaller in the windscreen, moved to the side of road, turned to the crowd and waved his arms. Laura took them around a bend.

  Countryside walls and bushes passed them in blurs. They reached a T-junction. She span the car around it and sped away.

  For a few seconds they were silent, with only engine noise between them.

  “What the fuck was that?” said Zack.

  “I have no idea,” said Laura.

  “What was he doing? What did he want?”

  “Fucking lunatic.” Laura shook her head.

  “He had all those people with him.”

  They fell into silence.

  Chapter 5

  The road had two wide lanes. Zack kept his gaze fixed ahead. An abandoned car; an overturned lorry; a crowd of zombies – his eyes searched for what his mind feared.

  “If the road gets blocked, you can use that path,” said Zack.

  Laura glanced at it, a clean line of concrete to her left, separated from the road by sun-soaked, overgrown grass.

  Zack didn’t speak further. He wanted Laura to concentrate. The car went through a few slight turns, then returned straight. This was their best chance, this brightly lit countryside road, Laura driving, Stones and Macy safe in the back seat.

  A noise grew in the back of his ears, cutting underneath the throb of the engine, a kind of beat.

  “You hear that?” he said.

  Laura stayed quiet for a moment. “What?”

  “A helicopter!” He looked out the window towards the sky. Nothing. He unclicked his seat belt and moved to the back seat with Macy and Stones.

  His eyes locked onto it, low enough that Zack instantly felt it was there for them.

  “I can see it. I can see it,” he shouted back to Laura.

  Laura slowed the vehicle. The helicopter passed over them. Laura braked hard – the jerk making them lunge forwards. Zack clambered back to the front seat. They all stared through the windscreen. The helicopter changed direction, making a long sweeping turn, until it came all the way round to face them. It hovered in one spot, before slowly descending. Lower. Lower. The bushes and grass shook. It came to the last few feet and decreased its speed. Its landing gear inched towards the asphalt, making tentative contact, before finally giving its full weight to the road. The blades began to slow – becoming less blurred.

  A man jumped out, landing with bent knees. He turned and walked forward, leaving the helicopter door open – a short, slightly overweight figure. As he drew closer, Zack could make out his bright red torso was actually a Hawaiian shirt.

  He drew closer still, his face round and slightly puffy, his hair grey. He smiled and waved, stopping a few steps from Laura’s door.

  “Hello,” he said, grinning. He gestured for Laura to wind down her window. They both stared at him.

  Laura lowered it slightly.

  “Now Laura. I’m afraid time is against us. I can’t explain right this moment. But you need to come with me. I’m going to take you somewhere safe. And I’ll explain everything there.”

  Laura held his gaze. A silence passed.

  “Where?” she said.

  The man chuckled, “Well I doubt this will make things more clear for you, but Sweden.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Ah, see that would take a very long time to explain.”

  “How do you know who I am?”

  “Same answer again, I’m afraid. I must insist that we leave now. We’re a little late as it is. Of course you’re welcome to decline. I just need a yes or no.”

  Laura was quiet for a while. Then, slowly, she moved her hand to the door, opened it, and stepped out.

  “Fantastic! This way please,” the man said, gesturing towards the helicopter.

  Laura kept her eyes on the man, and walked forwards.

  “Can they come?” she said over her shoulder.

  The man’s smile fell away, coldness in his eyes.

  Chapter 6

  Zack’s eyes opened to light. Bright, streaming daylight,
lighting up the grass like a neon sign. A sense of calm washed over him. For a moment he felt only the peace of the scenery around him. Then a voice kicked in – this had to be the aftermath of an epileptic fit.

  As he picked up the details, such as Laura’s empty car seat next to him, and the road outside, he began to think otherwise. Memories came back to him; a helicopter, a man in a bright shirt.

  He swivelled around. Macy was staring glass eyed at the car seat in front of her and Stones lay across the back seats. He glanced at Zack, then looked away, as if scared.

  “Macy,” said Zack.

  No response. He called her name, again, then again. She blinked and looked at him. A look of confusion passed over her face.

  “Macy,” said Zack again.

  “What?” she said, as if he had rudely awoken her.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” she said quietly.

  Zack turned back to the road and scanned the area.

  “You remember what happened?”

  “A helicopter came,” she said.

  “What happened to Laura?”

  “They took her.”

  He remembered blue. A flash of blue.

  “Then what?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Zack was quiet for a while. “You remember a blue flash?”

  It was Macy’s turn to be quiet. “Yeah. When Laura went out,” she said eventually.

  Anger stirred in his chest. Laura was the only one they rescued? He moved over to the driving seat. He would teach himself to drive. Fuck her. Zack turned the key. No response. He tried again, and again, and again. Nothing. He gave up, and stared out of the windscreen. Had they broken the car? Was the blue flash linked to that? Did they want to keep him here? Leave him here to die? Maybe they didn’t want him to keep going, to find out whatever was over the hill. Why Laura, and no one else?

  His hand moved to the keys. He tried again.

  Chapter 7

  The sun warmed Zack’s skin. Macy walked at his side, occasionally breaking into a jog to keep up. Stones trotted at their side, panting happily.

  Trees and bushes blocked Zack’s view of the wider area, occasionally a gap would reveal rolling fields. Each time the wind rustled through the leaves, Zack froze up and something tightened in his gut.