Chapter 430: The Boardwalk’s Screamer [2]

I ran with Maribel through the streets of the Boardwalk, trying not to think about how wrong everything looked.

It was past midnight.

The streets should have been quiet.

Instead, the whole settlement had erupted into noise.

Gunfire cracked in the distance. People shouted from behind barricades and windows. The Screamer’s mechanical buzz rolled over the rooftops, so loud that it seemed to crawl straight through my skull. Infected snarls answered it from every direction, some close enough that I could hear their feet slapping against the wet pavement as they rushed through the dark.

The only thing missing was fire.

If flames started rising from the buildings, it would look exactly like Jackson Township.

No.

I refused to let that happen again.

"Where are we going, Ryan?" Maribel asked as she hurried beside me.

She held the flashlight out in front of us, its narrow beam jumping across the road with every step. The darkness was too thick to run through blindly, especially with Infected scattered throughout the Boardwalk. One wrong turn could send us directly into a group of them.

"I don’t know," I said. "We need to find the others first."

"The hotel," Maribel said immediately. "Most of them are staying at the Whitesun."

I stopped for half a second.

Right.

The Whitesun.

Sydney, Rachel, Cindy, and the others would be there. It was the most obvious place to regroup, and if Callighan had chosen the Boardwalk as the target, the hotel could be next.

"This way!" Maribel shouted.

She ran ahead, turning down a street that led toward the hotel. I followed close behind her, keeping the hand axe ready at my side.

We avoided the Infected whenever we could.

Fighting them would slow us down, and under the Screamer’s influence, they were too dangerous to treat like normal Infected. Every time one noticed us, it reacted with a violent burst of speed, snapping its head toward the sound of our footsteps before throwing itself forward.

There was no room for unnecessary fights.

"This thing is so damn loud!" Maribel snapped, raising her voice over the noise.

"We have to stop it," I replied. "Otherwise, the Infected will keep coming."

The Screamer’s sound seemed to be coming from somewhere near the center of the Boardwalk. It was too close.

Callighan’s people must have planted speakers around the settlement beforehand.

The thought made anger twist in my chest.

They had known exactly what they were doing. They had waited until night, when people were asleep and the streets were dark, then activated the weapon to drag every Infected nearby straight toward us.

At least the Whitesun did not seem to be at the center of the sound.

That gave me a little hope.

Maybe the Infected would be pulled away from the hotel.

Still, Carmen and Shannon were on the far edge of the Boardwalk. Their house was farther from the Whitesun, more exposed, and I had left them there without saying anything useful.

The thought kept pressing at the back of my mind.

A burst of gunfire suddenly erupted ahead of us.

"Damn it! Move back!"

I recognized the voice immediately.

"Rico!" Maribel shouted.

She rushed forward before I could stop her.

I followed, and we came around the corner to find Rico and three other men firing at a pack of Infected rushing down the street. Their shots flashed through the darkness, briefly lighting up ruined storefronts and boarded windows. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

One Infected went down.

Two more climbed over it without slowing.

Rico emptied the rest of his magazine into another one as it charged.

"Maribel! Ryan!" he yelled when he noticed us. "You two okay?"

"Yeah, for now!" Maribel called back. "Just run! You can’t hold them here, and save your bullets!"

"Damn it all!" Rico cursed as he backed away, forcing another Infected to hesitate with the barrel of his gun. "Did you see Marlon or Molly?"

"No!" Maribel replied. "I haven’t seen either of them!"

"What the fuck is happening?"

Rico did not wait for an answer. He gestured sharply to the men with him.

"Move! Move!"

They broke into a run, and Maribel and I followed them into a narrow path between two buildings. The alley was barely wide enough for us to pass through side by side. Damp walls boxed us in, and garbage crunched beneath our shoes as we ran deeper into the darkness.

We did not stop until the gunfire faded behind us.

Rico turned toward us, breathing hard.

"We need to destroy every device making that noise," he said. "Immediately."

"Do you know something about it?" one of the men asked me.

"Yeah," I replied. "It’s Starakian technology. This is probably the weapon Callighan had Zakthar make for him."

Rico’s expression twisted with fury.

"The weapon that was supposed to take us down." He glanced toward the street, where the Screamer kept buzzing. "Damn it. It’s working."

"Follow the sound and destroy the devices," I said. "If we leave them active, this won’t stop. The noise draws the Infected in, and it makes them more violent once they hear it."

Rico stared at me for a moment, absorbing that.

Then he looked toward the three men beside him.

"We take out the closest one," he said. "Anybody we find on the way, we bring them with us. Nobody goes alone."

The men nodded.

Rico turned back to Maribel and me.

"What about you two?"

"We’re fine," I said. "We’re going to look for survivors."

Rico nodded once. "Right. You can do that."

He started to turn away, but Maribel called after him.

"Rico."

He looked back.

"Be careful," she said.

Some of the tension left his face, though only for a second.

"You too, Maribel." His gaze shifted to me. "And Ryan, don’t die in this shit after everything we went through."

"Yeah," I said. "You too."

Rico raised his hand in acknowledgment, then he and the others disappeared down the opposite end of the alley.

The moment they were gone, Maribel looked at me.

"The hotel?" she asked.

I hesitated.

The Whitesun had more people. It was the place we should go.

But Carmen’s house stood near the outer edge of the Boardwalk.

So did Shannon.

"I’m worried about Carmen and Shannon," I said. "Their house is on the far end, right?"

Maribel’s face lost what little color it had left.

"Y...Yeah," she said.

"Then we go there first."

I took hold of her arm.

"Let’s go."