Cacophony [ONC 2023]

12

She couldn't drive too fast, yet she couldn't drive too slow, either. Henna's eyes shifted between the road ahead and the road behind as Screamers continued to emerge from everywhere. They appeared from houses, from shops, from parks. All racing toward her and, if she wasn't sure before, she could say for a certainty now that it was the package that they sought.

That, if nothing else, screamed that there was a kind of intelligence behind the Screamers. That it wasn't merely some random occurrence. A long-dormant virus, or a new breed of one. Something that humans had no way of fighting off naturally. No, it seemed clear, now, that someone, or something, was behind all this and it made it all the more important that they managed to get the package to the people who needed it.

As Henna had considered before, whether it was worth all the lives lost along the way, she still wasn't certain, but she'd be damned if she simply gave in. Carla needed her to stay strong. She needed her to return home in one piece. With the numbers of Screamers now following the ancient, rattling pick-up, she knew she couldn't guarantee that. There were thousands of them, it seemed, and she began to wonder if the horde they had encountered before had continued to chase them, or whether these were only the Screamers in the local vicinity.

The last estimates, before the news broadcasts broke down, before the country, maybe the entire Earth, ground to a halt, stated that over two thirds of the population of the planet had succumbed to the screaming virus, with no end in sight. That was months ago and, with how many people she had seen since, or, rather, how few she had seen, she could only assume the population had reduced even further.

"Don't go silent on me, girl!" Cas' voice over the radio, interference and distance breaking up the words. "Keep talking."

"I have so many on my ass, it's like being at a coke party in L.A.!" She tried to make fun of the situation, but she couldn't see the humour, no matter how much she tried. "I'm down to ... just over half what I had in the tank. I'll speed up and head back your way soon. How is it going?"

"Nearly there. I'll be done by the time you get back here." The radio crackled and hissed and Cas paused, waiting for it to clear. "Listen, don't forget you'll use more gas if you drive fast. Give yourself some leeway, okay? You're almost out of range. I just want to say, I still ..."

The radio signal broke up, Cas' next words lost, but Henna had a good idea what those words would be and she didn't want to hear them. Even if it weren't the end of the world. Even of Henna wasn't in love with Carla. She and Cas had had an incredible, beautiful, mesmerising, immensely toxic relationship. It had given Henna some of the most memorable experiences of her life, both good and bad, but they weren't the best experiences. Those were entirely the property of Carla.

Cas excited Henna. Carla made her happy. There was simply no contest. Primal urges had nothing compared to that feeling of waking up in the morning, looking at the person laid next to her and feeling love send warm, tingling sensations throughout her body. Just a look. That was all it took for Henna to want to hold Carla so tight that she could never leave her life. A contentment unmatched by any sexual excitement. Still, she hadn't told Cas that. Not that she should have to, for the benefit of either of them.

"Okay. I'm just going to assume that I'm just too far away for you to hear me but that's okay. You'd only interrupt anyway." She continued to make glances behind and to all sides. "I loved you, and, yeah, that's past tense. I loved you so much but we shit all over each other and that was just all kinds of wrong. You cheated on me, I cheated on you. We broke up, we had hate sex, we had something, but it wasn't the right thing."

A Screamer came out of nowhere and shoulder barged the side of the pick-up so hard that the truck's wheel actually jerked out of Henna's hand. As she fought to regain control, she looked through the rear view to see the Screamer tumbling along behind her. Half its skull had become crushed, its shoulder and arm, where it hit the truck, flopped and bent in painful ways as the Screamer rolled to a stop and, incredibly, tried to stand.