The Fourth Phase

TWELVE

Jack ran down the wide, muddy track. Once, this track had been a mining road, back in the days when men shifted tonnes of earth and rock to get a few precious ounces of gold. He looked out at the vista. The sun was beginning its climb up from the horizon, spreading its life-giving glow to the world. Jack snorted. A very nearly dead world.

The valley cut through the landscape, intersected by the river gorge. He scanned the tree line ahead, searching for the dull metal of the zip-line tower. The steady thump of boots behind him comforted him, knowing the other Renegades shared his fears. He still thought it was crazy they had been ordered to collect this scientist. Out of all of them, Ben was the only real soldier. The Joneses were privates barely out of boot camp. Dee and himself were still learning. Hoping to help. Now here he was, running from these eternally hungry beasts.

Thinking of Dee, Jack glanced back and looked into her eyes, smiling. She was covered in sweat from their flight through the underground lab. She smiled back before scanning around, searching the trees for the beasts. The howls of the Variants were getting closer as Jack leapt over a creek, its muddy water gushing over the track and down into the valley. A flicker of light alerted him to the metal tower he was searching for. Jack ran the last few metres and looked up, spying the woven steel cables stretching across the bush-choked ravine. A ladder clung to the tower, and five metres above the ground sat a small platform. Hooked up, attached to the tower, were two metal cradles, similar to those rescue choppers use to ferry injured people off cliff faces.

Jack spun around. Raising his rifle, he covered the other Renegades as they jogged up to his position. He caught the pungent smell of sweat mixed with the peaty smells of the forest. It didn’t matter who you were, the fear was the same.

Ben called out to them as he made up the last few metres. “Dee, take the Doc across to the first platform and keep going. Eric, you pull the cradles back and then go with Tony. Jack and I will follow last.”

Jack nodded, and turned to help Dee and Katherine up the first few steps. He gave Dee a squeeze on the arm as she climbed past him. Screeches rang out, and Dee bounded up the ladder, pushing Katherine out ahead. Jack pivoted around, scanning the track and bush, his eyes glancing left and right, waiting to catch sight of those eyes. Eyes that haunted him. Eyes that meant death and loss. He kept his finger on the trigger guard, waiting. He heard the whirring of the zip-line, and risked a look to see Dee racing across with Katherine.

“Multiple targets!” yelled Tony.

Jack looked down the track, searching for a target. A dozen Variants were sprinting up the muddy old road, water, leaves, and soil flicking out behind them in an arc like a motorboat speeding through the water. Jack flicked off his safety and aimed for the centre mass of the nearest charging hound of hell. He hit it in the shoulder, sending it sprawling face-first in the mud. A few Variants behind tripped over it. Jack would’ve laughed at the sight if it wasn’t for the charging pack behind. He went into battle mode, aiming, firing. Just trying to take them down. His ears were ringing at the close proximity of the other Renegades’ gunshots. A couple of the Variants broke away from the pack, sprinting around the sides to flank them.

Jack yelled out a warning. “Flanking! Take them down!”

Eric spun to his side and tried to get a fix, but the Variant was too quick. With a terrifying howl, it leapt the last couple of metres, smashing into Eric. He managed to get his rifle up to protect his neck. Tony screamed and shot it in the chest. The Variant swatted at the bullet as if a wasp was stinging it. Tony ran forward. Pulling out his knife, he stabbed it in the head. The knife stuck fast. The Variant reached up and swatted Tony aside.

Eric used the distraction and kicked the beast off him.

Jack watched horrified as the Variant thudded down next to Tony, who was scrambling up. The Variant grabbed his arm, latched his sucker onto Tony’s bicep, and tore off part of the muscle. Tony screamed in agony and desperately tried to pull away, but the Variant held fast and pulled him closer.

Jack put the last charging Variant down.

“Ben!” he yelled in desperation before turning, trying to get a clear shot.

Ben took a few steps and pivoted on his left foot, raised up his leg and, with a roundhouse kick, smashed the knife deeper into the Variant’s brain, killing it.

A multitude of howls and screeches echoed around the trees.

Ben reached down and yanked Tony to his feet. “On your feet, soldier. We have to go.” He glanced at Eric. “Help your mate. C’mon. Go!”

Eric pulled off his buff from around his neck and wrapped it around Tony’s torn arm. Together, they climbed up the tower and pulled the cradles back across.

The sounds of branches snapping and rocks dislodging reached Jack and Ben. Dozens of Variants were tearing up the track from both directions. Jack glanced up. Eric and Tony were halfway across. Jack looked up at Ben. “I don’t think we have time.”

Ben met his eyes. He gave him a curt nod and clicked in a fresh magazine. “Probably not, Jack. Let’s kill as many of them as possible, though.” His eyes were full of sorrow.

Jack looked back at the advancing horde of death as his radio squawked. “Jack, what are you doing! Run!”

Tears welled up in his eyes. Jack could barely get out what he had to say next. “I’m sorry Dee, I love you. You saved me. I’ll never forget that.”

“Jack! No! There is always a way out. You told me that. Think!”

He sniffed and looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of the woman who had saved his life, showed him how to live. He saw her standing on the tower on the opposite side of the valley. The sun was hovering over the horizon, bathing the valley in light. Her hair shone. Jack smiled. He turned, looking at the bush around him. Photographing the memory of Dee and the native forest. If he was going to die, he wanted to remember his two favourite things in life. The sun coming up over the steep hills reminded Jack of Gandalf’s return in the Two Towers. He looked over at Ben, his rifle raised up as he fired at the fast-approaching beasts. Jack saw the nikau palms surrounding him, their frond casings scattered around the trunk. Wait a minute! The frond casings!

Jack whacked Ben on the shoulder and sprinted over to the fronds. “Ben! C’mon!”

He grabbed a frond and flung it out in front of him, over the bank. With a thud, he landed on top of it and skidded down the muddy bank, riding it like some sort of sled. A crash and a grunt to his left, followed by a curse, alerted him to Ben crashing through the undergrowth. The pair bounced and slid faster down the banks of the valley. Jack grabbed the sides of his makeshift sled, trying his best to steer it around trees, his shoulders glancing off a few. Jack flew out off a small bank and splashed down into the creek at the bottom.

Ben sailed through the air. Missing the creek, he thudded into the clay bank, spraying up mud and coating a nearby tree. The frustrated howls and shrieks of the Variants chasing them frayed Jack’s already-shot nerves. Bloody things never give up. Jack clicked his talk button on the radio.

“Dee, guys, cover us. We’re nearly at the tower.”

Hiss and static belched out over his radio. Jack gave it a whack. “Oh thank goodness, Jack. You’re going to have to run for the river. There’s too many of them. They’re climbing over the zip-lines.”

Jack had reached Ben, and was helping the old SAS soldier to his feet. Ben clicked his own radio. “Dee, take the Doc and go. Get to the LZ. Eric, set some charges and blow those fucking things to kingdom come. We’ll catch up. Dee, it’s vital you get the Doctor to safety.”

There was a slight pause before Jack heard the response. “Copy that. Affirmative. Hurry, guys.”

Ben looked up at Jack. “All right, Legolas. Lead us out of here.”

Jack grinned as he took off at a run down the creek, jumping over moss-covered rocks and splashing through the brackish water. His movie obsession had saved him again. He loved that.

He led Ben down the valley and out into a small clearing. He recognised the river gorge up ahead; Jack had taken Dee through here on many trips, enjoying the history and the way the sun bounced off the iron-rich quartz that lined the cliff faces. He was aiming for the campsite up ahead. Thoughts of his cabin flashed through his mind. It was only three kilometres away. He knew he had several weeks’ supplies there. Jack desperately wanted to see if his family had escaped the Variant purge. He glanced to his right, and his heart soared as he watched two cradles zipping across the valley. Two figures crawled out at the final tower. There was no mistaking the petite frame of his rock helping Katherine out.

The river he was searching for emerged out of the morning light, mists swirling over its surface. Jack glanced back, looking for Ben. It amazed him how the 65-year-old kept going.

He leapt off the small bank and plunged below the water, enjoying the chill. The sweat, mud, and frustrations washed off him as he kicked to the surface.

Jack realised the water wasn’t much deeper than his height, so he bounced off the bottom into the shallow water and pushed himself out onto the rock-strewn sand bank in the middle. He looked at the shrieking and howling Variants as they poured down the valley towards them. Several had climbed up the zip-lines and were hauling themselves over to the other towers. Jack shook his head. He had never seen them climb before.

He glanced over and watched Dee help Tony off the last tower, Katherine hovering nearby. Eric bounded down the ladder and pushed them away. A few Variants were scrambling their way across the last zip-line, eager to taste the fleeing man-flesh. Jack and Ben’s radio crackled.

“Fire in the hole,” yelled Eric, and three huge explosions tore through the once-peaceful landscape. Ben grabbed his shoulder, shoving him down onto the sandbank as the shockwave thumped into them. It felt like someone had reached into his brain and split it apart. He pressed his hands over his ears, desperate to lessen the pain. Heat washed over them. It was like the first time he had hopped off the plane onto the tarmac of Sydney Airport and into the heat of Australia. Coming from the milder temperate climate of New Zealand, Sydney’s heat had been a shock.

Ben hauled him to his feet and yelled something at him. Jack signaled he couldn’t hear anything above the ringing in his ears. The light from the sun seemed to strobe around him. Ben grasped him by both shoulders, getting his attention. He pointed towards Dickey Flat and signaled a chopper. Understanding, Jack took a couple of unsteady steps after him. Nothing like a movie explosion at all.

Jack splashed through the water. Acrid smoke blew over the gorge, invading his olfactory nerves. The stench of burning flesh caused him to gag. He had no sympathy for the wretched beings as they lay scattered about, screaming and burning.

Water cascaded off Jack as he jumped up the bank and ran out onto the grassy clearing. The ringing in his ears was beginning to fade, and a cacophony of noises filtered through. Howls, shrieks, the thumping of the chopper. He reached Dee and the others. Jack threw open his arms and pulled her into a hug. Squeezing her tight, he didn’t want to let go for fear of never being able to hold her again. He nuzzled her neck, kissing it. Enjoying her comforting embrace.

She leant back and whacked him on the arm. “Don’t do that to me again, you bastard!”

Jack grinned at her. She was smiling, tears falling down her flushed cheeks.

“Sorry, baby. I thought we were finished.” Dee sniffed and wiped her nose.

Jack pulled her back into the hug. “I love you so much.”

“And I you, you silly thing.”

She kissed him. Jack reveled in the sensation.

The howls of the gathering Variants gaining on them reminded him of the danger they still faced. He heard Ben yell into his radio as the chopper hovered above the clearing.

His radio crackled. “It’s too hot, I can’t land. I’m running on fumes. I’m sorry. I’ll come back for you.”

Jack looked up into the morning sky, horrified to see the chopper banking away.

Ben screamed into his radio, “Don’t you fucking leave us! I’m going to kill you, you piece of shit!”

Jack spun towards the Variants gathering on the opposite river bank. There were dozens, if not hundreds now, lined up and ready to attack. They jumped up and down howling, but waiting. Waiting, but for what?

A deep baritone bellow echoed up the gorge, bouncing off the steep cliffs. Jack flicked his eyes to Dee. She reached down and checked that her safety was off.

Katherine Yokoyama cowered behind Dee, her eyes flickering around. Fear was evident on her face. Even from where Jack stood, he could see her trembling.

Another bellow sounded out, and the Variant horde parted. An Alpha Variant lumbered into view. It stood at least seven feet tall, with huge, bulky muscles. Its skull had distorted into an oblong egg shape, giving the Variant an alien-like appearance. But that wasn’t what chilled Jack. The Alpha had a swollen, deformed left forearm ending in a huge pincer-like claw. It reminded him of a cross between Hellboy and a crab. It glared at Jack and the Renegades. It raised up its deformed arm and slammed it into the ground, bellowing.

This was the signal the Variants had been waiting for. They split and ran down the banks towards the two foot bridges spanning the river.

Still afraid of the water, then?

Jack spun around, scanning the grass clearing behind them. Variants streamed out of the thick bush, snarling and hissing as they leapt over each other, eager to taste flesh.

“Renegades! Into the river! Head south into deep water,” Ben yelled.

Jack reacted, pushing Katherine ahead of him. He fired off a burst into the charging beasts. Katherine had stopped in the knee-high water, terror etched on her face. Jack urged her farther into the river. “Keep going!”

He caught up to Ben. “Sir, our cabin is three kilometres upstream.”

Ben nodded, his eyebrows rising. “All right, Jack. Let’s hope we make it.”

The Renegades waded out into deeper water, rifles raised up, watching as the Variant hordes streamed across the bridges. The deformed Alpha led a squad of beasts up the far side, tracking their movements.

Jack kept glancing upstream, looking for the deep swimming hole he knew was coming up. The swarm of Variants had reached their side of the river, joining with the other beasts. They were now surrounded, with only the river remaining clear.

Some Variants had stayed on the bridges, howling and shrieking at the group of humans. Several jumped up onto the wire rope side, clinging to it with their claws.

Ben let out a curse. “Clever fucking bastards.”

Jack turned and caught a glimpse of Tony. He stood in the river, barely managing to hold his rifle out of the water. Jack could see sweat pouring off him as he leant into Eric.

He turned around in a slow circle, keeping his rifle at the ready. He patted his vest, checking to see how much ammo he had left; a couple hundred rounds, he estimated. Dee reached out and squeezed his hand, her eyes finding his. No words were said. They didn’t need to say anything. The Variants had them surrounded like the Russians had surrounded the Sixth German Army during the battle of Stalingrad.

What movie is going to save you now, Jack?

Ben turned around, looking first at Jack and Dee. His lips were drawn tight over his teeth. Addressing them, he said, “Renegades, I want you to concentrate all your fire on the south bridge. We need to move upstream. Take them out. We need to break through their ranks.”

Jack squeezed Dee’s hand, finding encouragement in her touch. Jack checked his rifle and peered through the scope.

“Fire!” Ben yelled.

The Renegades let loose with a barrage of leaded death. Jack aimed, fired, aimed and repeated, looking for head shots. They eased their way upstream, careful to keep in the middle as they fired. Dozens of the Variants started jumping into the river at the Alpha’s bellow. Jack adjusted his aim, taking out as many as he could, but more poured in from the sides. So many noises assaulted Jack that he was having trouble picking individual sounds out. Screeches, howls, gunfire. Screams. Suddenly a deeper, foreign sound broke through. A sound he had heard only at Pacifica festivals. A conch shell being blown. He paused to reload, pulling out a magazine and slamming it home. Booooorrnt. Jack saw Dee’s head turn towards the sound, her brow furrowed. She had gone with him to the same festivals.

A commotion was breaking out on the campsite side of the river. The Variants gathered there were turning, howling and shrieking. War cries were screaming out and Jack stared, mouth agape. Dozens of men charged out of the bush and into the Variants. Jack shot another Variant on the bridge and pivoted towards the charging men. His heart soared. He could see them more clearly now. He shook his head at the crazy sight. The men looked to be of Maori descent. Most had traditional tattoos called ‘Ta Moko’ adorning their bare chests. Some had the full-face tattoo. They raised their Taiaha high, bringing them down hard on the skulls of the stunned creatures. Some of the Maori had Mere, and quickly brought them up, smashing them in the heads of the Variants, caving in their skulls.

Ben pivoted. “Renegades! Retreat to the campsite! Jack and Dee, take the north, Eric take the west!”

Jack had thought that was it. He shook his head at their luck. He wasn’t a religious man, but after the events of the past few weeks, and now today, someone somewhere was definitely looking out for him. For Dee, too. He gritted his teeth and, with a new determination, raised up his rifle.