While Girard threw the burning stick over the wooden fence, she put the cap back on the container and, on impulse, picked it up and kept hold of the lighter.
And then, believing they had a moment or two of comparative safety, curiosity got the better of her. She moved, pressing her face to the gate. There were small gaps between the wooden planks. Not enough to get a hand through, but just big enough to let her see what was coming towards them.
“It’s a swarm,” Girard said, voice flat. He was standing beside her, face pressed up to the gate as well as if he, too, hadn’t been able to resist a look back.
Hallie’s mouth went dry. The wave of dirt across the ground reached the other side of the ditch and she realised it wasn’t the ground moving at all, but dozens upon dozens, no, hundreds upon hundreds, of small brown creatures hurtling across the ground. Each one of them was shorter than her forearm, but their sheer number made her heart stop for a moment.
As she watched, the first wave of them crested over the edge of the ditch, spilling down into the ash and charred bones, and the fresh flames that were trying to get purchase. A few of the creatures got caught on the sharp spikes that the settlers had left in the bottom of the ditch. Still more landed in the flames. High pitched shrieks and wails of pain and fury rose up into the air, along with the foul smell of burning, lifting the hair on Hallie’s body. The creatures didn’t stop and, as she watched, despite the spikes and the flames, she saw them beginning to fill up the ditch. Even the fence wouldn’t be enough to stop them if the dead piled high enough. Then she caught sight of the frayed rope hinges on the gate and cold trickled over her body. The creaturesmight not need to scale the fence at all if they could get through the rope and force the gate.
Girard seemed to have reached the same conclusion. “Come on. We need to find a safe spot.”
“Safe?” Hallie repeated, then shook her head, trying to clear it and calm herself. “How long do you think we have?” Her voice was too high, words too fast. She didn’t bother asking if the creatures could get inside. The sheer number of creatures pouring towards the settlement seemed an unstoppable forced. The container of fuel and lighter she was carrying felt inadequate.
“Not long enough,” Girard answered, voice flat. For once, Hallie wished that he would lie and she could believe the lie. But they were both faced with the truth. “I think the radio room is our best bet.”
He was running again, and Hallie struggled to keep up, brain and body at war with each other. Her mind hadn’t fully caught up with the threat. Not yet. But the rest of her was primed to fight, palms damp, heart racing, breath shallow and fast. She couldn’t feel the weight of the pack any longer, but the metal container seemed to gain mass with every stride, thumping awkwardly against her leg as she ran.
She and Girard sped through the doors of the radio building and stopped at once, turning to close the doors behind them. There was a heavy wooden beam there, too, and Girard lifted it into place, then grabbed hold of the end of one of the tables, careless of the mouldy food.
“Give me a hand to get this against the door,” he said.
Hallie put the container of fuel down and took the other end of the table. They flipped the table, sending dishes and stale food tumbling to the concrete floor, and then shoved the table top up against the closed doors. Without speaking, they turnedand each grabbed one of the benches, wedging the heavy wooden benches behind the table.
“We need something heavier, I think,” Girard said, frowning as he looked around. His shoulders were tense.
“There are sacks of flour in the next room,” Hallie remembered. “They should weigh a ton.”
“Right. Good. Let’s put our packs in there, high up on the shelves, and get some bags,” Girard said, heading into the radio room.
Hallie didn’t bother asking if he was sure that all the extra precautions were needed. After all, if a ditch and high fence weren’t going to hold back the creatures, the hasty barricade they’d made wasn’t going to work, either. Not for long, at any rate. She grabbed up the metal container, moving it into the radio room, then shrugged off her pack and handed it to him to put up on one of the higher shelves. While he was dealing with the packs, she hefted one of the sacks of flour over her shoulder, grunting with surprise at the weight of it. Far heavier than she’d expected. By the time she reached the front door, Girard was beside her, carrying a sack of his own.
When the front door was as secure as they could make it with the table, benches and sacks of flour, Hallie went back into the radio room and found Girard pacing around the walls.
“I don’t remember seeing any other doors in this building,” he said. “You?”
“No. Nor any windows, either,” she answered. She hadn’t thought that was odd until that moment. A shiver ran across her skin, mixing unhappily with the static charge she could still feel. There was another booming roll of thunder outside.
“Alright. We’ll stay in here, then,” Girard said. He was outwardly calm and focused, but Hallie thought if she touched him, she would find him just as tense as she was, his heart beating hard and fast.
Working in silence, they cleared the surface of both of the tables, putting the books and papers out of the way on a spare bit of shelf, then moved one of the tables, tipping it sideways and wedging it behind the door, closing off the dining room. That done, Girard checked his gun. Making sure it was loaded and ready, Hallie thought, recognising the pattern he’d shown her earlier.
“Guns aren’t going to help us much, though,” Girard said, sounding as if he was talking to himself.
“There are carpentry tools. Long hammers. Lengths of metal pipe. We can use those.” Girard’s look of surprise made her smile, despite the apprehension sliding through her. “Skip tracers can’t carry weapons, so I’ve learned to adapt to what I can find.”
“Impressive as always,” Girard said, expression lightening for a moment into a smile that warmed Hallie all the way through. “And good thinking on bringing the fuel can with you. If you see any more, or something like lighter fluid, grab that, too.”
He went to one end of the shelves, Hallie to the other.
By the time they met in the middle, they were both laden with makeshift weapons. They set them down on the other table surface along with the fuel container and the lighter Hallie pulled out of her pocket.
The table surface was covered. They had a decent haul, Hallie thought, but even so she had a terrible feeling it wasn’t going to be enough to hold back the enormous swarm of creatures she’d seen outside.
“We can’t use fire indiscriminately inside,” Girard said, frowning at the collection on the table. “But if we can push them back outside, we can use fire to keep them at bay.”
Hallie wondered, for a fraction of a second, why they didn’t try fire as their first line of defence, but then she remembered the vast swarm of creatures and how they had simply kept movingforward even while some of them were being impaled on stakes or burned in the ditch. Even with the almost full can of fuel, she and Girard didn’t have enough to deal with the whole swarm. They needed to thin the numbers out before fire would be effective.
As she picked up a sturdy length of pipe that fit nicely into her hand, she heard the faintest scratching sounds accompanied by small, high-pitched cries. Then came scrabbling, as if of tiny, clawed feet. Up the walls and onto the roof. She glanced up reflexively but of course couldn’t see anything. The roof looked solid enough. Tiles on the outside, and inside she could see wooden panelling. But then again, the creatures had made it this far. Across a deep ditch with spikes in it, up and over a heavy wooden fence and gate - unless the gate had fallen, the ropes chewed through - and then across the open spaces in the settlement. The scratching sounds on the walls and roof overhead made Hallie want to huddle down where she stood and cover her eyes and ears and hope it would just all go away. Except that she knew it wasn’t going to go away.
