We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, he seemed to say.
“We’re not with Bastia,” he assured the man. “Tell us, what did you mean byit’s swarmed alrightaround here?”
A nasty grin spread on the man’s face, revealing teeth that were both startingly white considering his age and strangely diminutive like a child’s.
“Spend the night.” He invited us, spreading his arms around to indicate the vacant tents and caravans. “There’s room enough for all of you. In the morning, I’ll show you what I meant.”
As a redhead, Russell was naturally pale, but he turned even more so at the sight, his pasty and currently greenish visage in stark contrast with his bright red, wiry beard. Wedged betweenhim and Einar, I could feel their tension as well as my own. Our breathing seemed to get faster and shallower in unison as panic gripped us and turned our blood to acid.
“Fookin’ ’ell ...”
“Yes, that about sums it up.” I nodded, my tone sardonic, feeling inappropriately giddy as if ready to burst out laughing. “This is very, very bad ...”
We were perched upon a gently sloping, bush-clad hill overlooking the old harbour town of Porto-Vecchio. The maze of narrow streets of the granite old town, the modernised marina, and the newer, spacious part were teeming with infected. Overflowing with them. They made the town look dark like an anthill and their collective moans carried on the wind all the way to where we stood, frozen to the spot.
“There are fucking hundreds of them ...” Albert’s voice was an octave higher than usual. “Thousands ...”
There were, covering every empty space between the houses, moving imperceptibly but just enough to give the impression that the town’s streets were flooded with dark, putrid liquid.
“How did this happen?” Einar asked grimly.
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Our guide shrugged. “The infected just started gathering together, forming larger and larger groups. What I do know for sure is that when drawn either by sound, smell, or god knows what else, these swarms migrate between towns and cities, recruiting more infected and killing or turning any remaining uninfected people in the process.”
“Oh jolly, furies are pack animals now.” Dave rubbed his hands together in mock joy.
“Makes sense,” Josh interjected. “As the uninfected population diminishes and the healthy population hunkers down, the virus’s chance of spreading decreases. Forming swarms like these helps because it makes cannibals virtually unstoppable.”
“Yes, truly marvellous. What are they doing now? Why are they like this?”
“They always rest for a few days after swarming a town,” the man replied. “They’re sated, or some of them are, and so they sleep or just stand around until they’re ready to take off again. They’ve been moving steadily south so far, through the towns along the coast. I wonder if they’ll change direction at some point ...”
“So do I,” I agreed with him. “I’m especially curious as to whether they’ll ever head towards the mountains ...”
“Oh, they almost certainly will.” Josh reacted readily, seemingly without realising the implications of his words. “Once they’ve exhausted their food sources along the coast.”
“Fuck,” Albert said plainly, and for once, I agreed with him wholeheartedly.
“Oh, it could be much worse.” The German tried to console him. “Imagine, on the mainland, these swarms are likely much bigger, accumulating gradually while passing through the whole continent.”
“Great. And now that we’re scarred with that nightmare image ...” Dave’s sarcastic tone did not succeed in fully concealing the distinct trace of terror in his voice. “Does anybody have any idea what to do about this?”
We returned to Vizzavona the same day in a subdued silence and a markedly dampened mood. We drove for miles through fields and meadows as well as through abandoned towns and villages before finally joining a road that snaked up the forested hills towards our home. And all the way, at the back of my mind, I kept seeing a dark, unstoppable anthill of human-shaped bodies, enveloping everything that came into its path until it swallowed the whole world.
As we neared Vizzavona, though, my mind became occupied by a more domestic variant of concerns. Einar needed a haircut, and I had to pick up a new shampoo from our communal store of supplies. I also had to wash our clothes, I hadn’t made myself do that in two weeks, and Einar and I barely had anything left to wear.
I thought to myself that I could ask Monika to take Ella and come along with me. Last time we were in Vizzavona, I barely saw her as I hadn’t had the chance to visit her, and for most of the three days she was absent from communal meals, which I attributed to her catering to the baby’s needs. I felt a stab of guilt. I knew she struggled with the demands of motherhood, and as her friend, I really should have made sure to help her out more when I was in town.
There was no time like the present, I decided as soon as we parked in front of the fading pink train station. Informing Einar of my intentions, I set off in the direction of Monika and Albert’s house, located a short distance from our cottage.
Ella’s vigorous screams could be heard outside as I approached the small house. She was lively and chubby with a fluff of light hair on her round head. She had rosy cheeks, powder blue eyes, and an infectious smile. She was loud, but didn’t cry often, and was usually easy to pacify. She slept well at night and permitted others to hold her while her mother rested. An easy-going child overall, but Monika was barely more than a child herself, her man gone with us archers most of the time, and her own mother not there to help her out.
I knocked on the door, sharply, to be heard over Ella’s protests of whatever it was Monika was trying to do with her.
“It’s me, Renata,” I announced.
“Now’s not a good time, sorry.” A harassed voice replied from within.
Ella calmed down, and the ensuing silence was eerie somehow. My mind raced. Never ever, not once, was it not a good time to visit Monika when Albert was not there. No matter what she was doing, she always let me in. Even when Ella was sick, or when Monika was bathing her or changing her.
