Daniel sat in the backseat of a Chevrolet, his pistol trained on Jenna. She was driving the car on a winding mud road which weaved through the forest. The moonlight that filtered through the leaves wasn’t enough to see the road clearly. The headlights lit the path ahead, coating the trees with a dull yellow.
“I pictured more of an army jeep than an SUV,” Daniel commented. “You thwarters don’t have those?”
“We salvaged what we could find,” said Jenna.
The car went along slowly in silence, until Jenna decided to make conversation.
“You must be crazy, wanting to enter base,” she said.
“Everything will be fine, as long as you do what I say,” Daniel retorted.
“You never told me what your name is.”
“I don’t think I ever will.”
“What do you want there?” asked Jenna. “Whatever it is, it only looks like a suicide mission, especially with that foot of yours.”
“Your concern is appreciated, but it’s none of your business.”
She fell silent again. She was driving slowly, being careful not to rev the engine lest a bunch of leeches were alerted. Daniel saw the cloth torn from her shirt tied around her forehead.
He asked, “Where’s your headband? Lost it?”
“Oh don’t worry, I’ll get it back,” Jenna said. “When I bring you to Reid, I’ll get it back alright.”
She had been driving for about an hour and Daniel was getting impatient.
“How much longer till we get there,” asked Daniel.
“What are you, a little kid?” she replied. “Well, we get there when we get there.”
“I’m not joking around Jenna.” He pushed the pistol to her head. “How far is it?”
“Look, you’re the one who’s forcing me to drive in the thick of night, through a damn forest. And we can’t go any faster, if there are leeches nearby, they will surely hear us. Or I might crash into something.”
Jenna started slowing the car down. Daniel pressed the gun harder. “Don’t mess with me. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Look ahead genius,” came the reply. “And keep your trap shut.”
Daniel peered through the windshield and decided to obey her. Quite a few feet in front of the car, lit by the headlights, were a group of leeches huddled in the middle of the road. They were crouched over something. When one of the leeches repositioned itself, they could see what the leeches were over: a dead buck.
“That’s weird…” Jenna whispered.
“The parasites can’t infect other animals, yeah.” Daniel agreed. So what were they doing there? And why was there a group of them?
Jenna suddenly hit the horn, and it blared into the silent night. She then opened the door and flung herself out. Daniel had no time to react. Dumbfounded, he tried to aim for Jenna, but she banged the door shut and dove into the darkness, out of view. He looked forward again. The leeches had turned around, about five or six of them, all towards the car. They were still for a moment, their long parasites wriggling in anticipation. They rushed to the car, at the same time, creating a dance of chaotic shadows behind them. Daniel couldn’t open the door in time. Even if he had, his toe wouldn’t have allowed him to get away quickly enough.
He cowered in his seat as the leeches crashed onto the windshield, making cracks like spiderwebs. Daniel pushed himself away from the windows to the middle of the backseat as they surrounded the car, banging it all over with their fists. He stayed quiet as they rocked the car, his adrenaline rushing, hoping they’d leave if they heard nothing from inside. But one of the leeches managed to break a window, and a parasite tail whipped itself in, sweeping the interior of the car. It ran over Daniel’s arms and left a trail of slime on his skin. The leech screeched louder after finding its prey. The tail wrapped itself around his free arm and tugged hard. Daniel knew he wouldn’t win that tug-of-war, so he aimed the gun at the tail and shot it. The leech screeched as it pulled its parasite away, leaving Daniel in the car. But then two other tails found their way in through the same breach.
“Oh shit!” Daniel screamed, his heart pumping. “Jenna! Help me!”
No response came. It seemed like he was all alone; she must’ve run off somewhere. As accurately as he could, Daniel tried shooting at either the parasites or the leeches’ necks. He managed to get the two parasites in the car out. He shattered all the windows, attempting to shoot the leeches in their necks. Trying to shoot more, he only heard the pistol click in his hand. He was out of bullets. There were about three leeches left, and their parasites entered the car. He sat helplessly as they wrapped around him, their grip tightening. They were too strong for him to resist. Daniel gave up, it was over for him…
All of a sudden, one of the parasites clinging to him let go. It writhed and flailed all over the inside before falling limp. A leech outside screeched loudly before falling to the ground, pulling the dead parasite out of the car with it. Standing in the leech’s place was Jenna, knife in hand. Daniel saw her creep up behind the next leech whose attention was only focussed on Daniel. She plunged the knife into its throat, and it fell dead, relieving Daniel of another parasite. The last parasite on the opposite side of the car began to pull Daniel towards its leech. Before it could get his hands on him, Jenna had swiftly run around the back and cut the parasite in two. The last leech fell to the ground, dead. The part of the parasite inside the car collapsed onto Daniel, covering him in icky slime.
Before Daniel could recover, Jenna had opened the door to the backseat and had placed the blade of her knife on his neck.
“Oh, how the tables have turned,” she said. “Climb into the driver’s seat.”
The night was still dark when they came across a checkpost. One of the two thwarters that manned the barricade left the lamp they were standing under and walked up to the car. Since he couldn’t see Daniel through the cracked windshield, he headed to the driver’s window. Before he could ask him to lower the window, he realised there wasn’t a window at all. Instead, he raised his rifle at him, noting that he wasn’t wearing a black shirt and didn’t have a ninja band on his forehead. What was even more questionable was all the slime he was covered in.
“Relax, relax…” Jenna said from the backseat. She leaned forward and revealed herself to the thug outside. “I’m going to see Reid.”
He studied her for a bit. “ID?”
“Don’t bother,” came a voice from behind him. He’d come over, seeing his partner draw his gun up. “She’s the one who told Reid there was a colony of survivors in that danger-zone.”
The man aiming the rifle seemed to realise it and lowered his gun, seeing that she had a knife pressed to Daniel’s neck.
“Who’s this?” he asked.
“He’s proof,” she replied. “I have to see Reid, and it’s urgent. Let us through.”
The two thwarters backed off from the car and raised the barricade.
“Let’s go, my friend,” she urged Daniel. “You’re the one who wanted to come here, and here we are. Drive.”
Daniel was having trouble driving. He couldn’t push his right foot on the accelerator, his toe was killing him. But he wasn’t in a position to complain. Trying his best to pressure only his sole, he drove the car into the thwarters’ base.
The base camp was south of the whole city, which is why he and the other survivors had formed a colony all the way up north. The camp surrounded Waywoods Hospital, situated in a vast, but dense residential area. The thwarters had occupied all the abandoned homes, and Jenna directed him to one such house. Two thwarters standing guard outside the door walked over and trained their rifles at Daniel.
“Great, now get out of the car, hands behind your head,” directed Jenna, finally lowering the knife in her hand.
Daniel did as directed. He was ushered to the door when it swung open, and a huge, hulking figure stepped out.
“Oho!” a familiar hoarse voice called out. “So she did find you! Ha!” He burst out laughing, uncontrollably.
Jenna walked up to Reid. “I found him. He’s proof that there are more hiding somewhere in that forest. Give me back my headband.”
Reid stared at her, ludicrously. “This man here is Mr. Danny! He had jumped off a bridge to escape us, ditching his… friend? Lover? Whatever. Got washed away by the river! Well, this isn’t proof of anything. Try again, Miss Jenna.”
She stared at him, flabbergasted, as he walked over to Daniel.
“Well well, long time no see, sir. You’ve arrived at just the right moment!”
Click here for Locked Down | Chapter 9
