Cacophony [ONC 2023]

14

The only benefit of the noise Screamers made was that you could hear them before you saw them. Not as well with the ear protections, but well enough to anticipate them. That made it easier for the soldiers to lead the way back to the highway and, after an exhausting, fast walk, they caught up with the tac-van and Cas, waiting outside it.

As soon as she saw Henna, Cas raced toward her, gripping her so tight, Henna thought her ribs would snap. After a second or so, Cas pulled back, examining Henna's bloodied nose and then Henna's chest, checking for the package. When she couldn't find it, Cas pulled back, looking at Henna and then the sergeant, who shrugged his shoulders. Henna had never felt more embarrassed, and in the worst possible situation, too.

"Give me a second." She turned away from them all, facing the van, and rummaged in her pants, wincing as she pulled out the package and handing it to Cas. She felt like a child caught doing something she shouldn't. "It seemed safer. More secure. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it."

A muffled snicker came from one of the soldiers and Henna didn't dare look up to see which one had laughed. She didn't doubt that all of them found it funny, maybe even the sergeant too and it felt odd hearing laughter. Apart from a couple of strained laughs from Cas, Henna hadn't heard laughter in months. Humour didn't seem to have a place in this world anymore.

"Load up. Refill your mags. We need to be down this road five minutes ago." The sergeant passed by Henna, but he held his face as straight as she would expect from such a man. He jumped into the back of the van.

The other soldiers joined him, leaving Cas and Henna to clamber into the front seats. They had all heard it, the sound of Screamers approaching, the amount of time it took for them to sense the package looked as though it were reducing every minute. At first, it had taken hours for the Screamers to start chasing the package. Now only minutes had to pass for Screamers to start moving.

As soon as everyone sat in the van, Cas set off at a pace, zig-zagging through the abandoned cars on the highway. Cas concentrated on the road ahead, but Henna could sense a tension between them. After a few seconds, she switched the channel on the radio, indicating to Cas the number with her fingers and waited for Cas to switch, too.

"What's wrong? Are we okay with these guys? Is the package safe?" She leaned forward, trying to catch Cas' eye. "There's something wrong. Just say it."

"I should never have given you the package. It's my responsibility, not yours." Cas jinked the wheel to avoid a rushing Screamer. It bounced against the side of the van, flying back the way it came. "If something had happened to you. If you'd ... if ..."

"No. Don't do that. We did what we had to. We need this van and you were the only one that could fix it. I had to take the package." She looked out of the windshield, looking at the shadow of the mountains against the night sky. "You weren't to know so many Screamers would come. How could you? We haven't seen that many moving in total, let alone in one group."

The storm had passed, moving away toward those mountains that they looked as though they were headed to. Henna looked behind at the other soldiers as they inspected the weapons in the racks and refilled their magazines from the boxes she and Cas had borrowed from the police precinct. That seemed so long ago, now. She found it hard to believe it was only just over a day gone.

The sergeant gave her a nod as he worked and Henna had to smile. Apart from Cas, he was the first person even adjacent to authority she had seen since the beginning. She didn't even know if anyone were still in charge, or whether these soldiers simply continued in their duties through sheer bloody mindedness. Had the President survived? The Joint Chiefs? Congress? She couldn't see all of them being spared from the seeming random spread of the screaming disease, but who was left? Who gave the orders now?