Chapter Text
There was a roar of sound as the long walk ended.
The bridge broke with a shriek and then for a moment it did not fall. The half truck kept crawling; the front walkers hesitated but kept marching.
Then the bridge fell, with a wave of sound, into the wild waters far below.
The Musketeers had been at the rear of the walk, their attention focussed on Harkness who was staggering on his last warning. They had been calling encouragement, though they knew it was nearly the end. A soldier was walking next to him. He had his gun already cocked because Harkness was on his last warning.
And then suddenly there was no road before them, only a maw.
Olson was marching in a fugue, the dead state that walkers entered before the end. He kept walking, one foot in front of another.
He stepped over the edge as Baker grabbed his arm. For a moment they teetered on the precipice and then they were gone.
‘Jesus, no!’ Ray shouted. He grabbed McVries’ arm. ‘We have to help them!’
As Ray pulled McVries to the edge of the road, Collie surged in the opposite direction. Before the walk he used to be fast, but now his legs were killing him. Still, he reached the rear truck just as an incredulous driver attempted to open it. He shoved his weight against the door, pinning it shut.
‘Get them!’ he shouted. ‘We have to…’
He did not have time to make the words.
Collie looked around wildly. He could see so clearly what they needed to do. The second half truck had to go over the edge too, if they were going to escape cleanly.
Ray was leaning over the road’s end, near one of a dangling edge of the bridge. Harkness had collapsed on the road and was shouting something about being OK.
Stebbins had been walking nearby and he had grabbed Harkness’ guard from behind. The soldier was firing the weapon wildly and bullets were kicking up dust; Stebbins’ hand was on his and the soldier could not turn the weapon around at him. Collie could not hear any sound – there was nothing but the ongoing crash of the bridge and the hungry roar of the river.
Then suddenly Barkovitch ran up on the other side of the truck. He slammed his shoulder into the door on the driver’s side and pinned a protruding hand. That had to hurt.
The truck was still rolling forward and Collie shouted for help.
Harkness scrabbled in the dirt and failed to rise. He was directly ahead but they couldn’t stop. He suddenly rolled sideways instead and the truck moved past. Collie really hoped he had got clear.
Barkovitch was shouting something and suddenly Ray and Pete ran behind to push the truck.
The soldiers inside the truck realised the danger they were in and one started shooting. One of the bullets must have ricocheted inside the truck and there was an explosion of blood on the inside of the windscreen. Then one window blew out and there were bullets flying out.
The truck jerked – perhaps someone had thrown on the handbrake – but it was very close to the edge now. Stebbins threw himself against the rear and the truck upended, two wheels went down.
It rested on there for a moment, swaying, with two wheels over the edge. With a groan it went over.
Collie looked around for the soldier that Stebbins had been grappling. He was lying on the ground and Barkovitch had his gun. Collie spun about, looking for any other soldiers still standing.
He could not see anyone else alive.
Ray darted back to the road’s ragged end and Collie followed him, looking for danger. He felt like he was floating through the air, so full of adrenaline that he could see everything happening in slow motion.
The truck had fallen into the centre of the river, maybe a hundred feet down and was slowly sinking as it moved downstream. Collie hoped there would be no survivors. Surely no one could live through that.
It was finally silent except for the sound of the river that ran on and on.
And then, from almost beneath their feet, came a quiet voice. ‘Help!’ It sounded like someone thought that if they made a big noise they would trigger an explosion.
Ray lay on the ground and stretched his arms out. ‘Reach your arm straight up.’
Pete threw his weight on Ray’s legs and Ray wriggled even further forward.
Collie still couldn’t see clearly who was clinging to the underside of the tarmac, balanced on a ridge of pipe. He hoped it was not a soldier, because they would then have to shoot them. Or push them over. Kill them.
He paused. He had already killed the four soldiers in the rear truck. He was a killer.
He lay down next to Ray, reaching blindly downwards. Someone sat on the back of his legs, Barkovitch judging by the boniness of his knees.
From below someone grabbed his hand, with a desperation that Collie fully understood. Whoever was down there was within inches of death. It was a miracle the truck hadn’t him on the way down.
He hauled upwards and then another hand grabbed his shoulder, and Art scrambled up, basically using his body as a ladder.
Next to them Ray gave a heave and Hank popped into sight, absolutely shaking with terror. He wasn’t in his fugue state anymore; he looked like fear had woken him up.
Collie rolled over and looked around. Could it actually be that they were the sole survivors?
He took a breath and then saw Stebbins moving steadily towards them. He was hauling the soldier he had killed. Collie could not see what had happened to him, but his head flopped sideways at an angle that he recognised from the last two days of the walk. Only the dead lay like that.
Stebbins pushed the corpse over the edge.
‘We have to get out of here.’ Ray said urgently. ‘They’ll send solders. Soldiers will already be on their way, because the video must have cut out.’
Collie nodded. Even more adrenaline surged through him. The whole walk was filmed and transmitted and almost everyone watched it. Soldiers would be streaming here now. He suddenly realised. ‘The Major.’
‘He was in the lead truck,’ Stebbins said blankly. ‘He is gone.’
‘Thank the Lord for small mercies,’ Pete said, ‘And now we have to get out of here.’
‘Through the woods, back to that crossroads.’
‘More walking,’ Barkovitch sighed.
Stebbins coughed and then started back to where Harkness lay. Harkness who had been on his last warning with his completely fucked ankle. Collie looked at his ankle and then looked away.
‘We’ll have to take turns carrying him,’ he said.
Stebbins was picking him up piggyback style but Stebbins’ breathing was already hoarse and Collie could see that he wasn’t going to be taking double weight long.
Collie looked around again. There was no one left on the road but them.
Pete looked over the edge again. ‘No survivors down there.’
Art was already leading Hank after Ray, heading off the road into the Maine woods.
Collie called to Pete and the two of them zigzagged across the road. There was no tell tale sign he could see, no evidence that the entire long walk had not been wiped out. He picked up a canteen and then spotted a discarded weapon. He grabbed that too.
‘The last thing that was transmitted by the video on the front truck was it dropping, with all those boys walking behind it. If we get out of here, and they find the remains of the second truck at the base as well, they are going to assume we all went down.’
Collie did not think he had ever heard so many words from Stebbins.
‘There’s bullet marks on those rocks,’ Barkovitch pointed one of his skinny hands. ‘Cover them a little with those branches that the truck broke.’
He pulled them down – it was barely noticeable. Hopefully the soldiers would be thrown by the Major’s unexpected death.
He took another look around and the clearing was empty. The others had already slipped into the woods.
The entire thing had taken less than five minutes.
Collie followed them away from the road.