Seraphina's Revenge: A Rebirth In The Apocalypse Novel

Chapter 341: Welcome To The Madhouse

Sera slid lower between the seat and the dashboard and opened the glove box.

Wipes. Flares. A small roll of duct tape. Nothing that mattered for this. She shut it.

"What do you want to do?" Zubair asked her. He always asked her when the time came for a decision to be made. It wasn’t a vote. It was confirmation that they were moving how she wanted them to be.

Normally, giving anyone else control like that would have sent him into a blind rage, but right now, it felt as easy a breathing to him.

"I want to see them work," Sera said. "But not on us right now."

"Copy," Zubair nodded, more than happy to grant her wish.

The lead rider lifted his left boot and pushed down on his peg twice.

A signal.

The fourth bike closing from the rear accelerated hard. A fifth engine answered from somewhere not on the road. The sound came from the trees.

"Right side," Alexei grunted, rolling down his window four inches and leaned one eye to the gap. "Side trail. Two more bikes. Parallel."

"Of course there’s a side trail," Lachlan sighed, but the light in his eyes never faded for a second..

"Seatbelts tight," Zubair snapped. "Hands ready."

The Hummer reached a long straight stretch.

The bridge was visible now. Rusted guardrails. Sheet ice on the shaded boards. A jackknifed pickup lay on the near shoulder with bones of brush pushed through its grille.

The lead rider pointed again at the Summerfield turn. Then at the bridge. The gesture said choose. Either way, you choose us.

Sera’s mouth curved but not into a smile. She felt it...a door... a rabbit hole. A she wanted to know exactly where it led to.

Letting out a sigh, she dropped her shoulders. This was not the time for rabbit holes, but it would come soon. And then she could have fun.

"Now," Zubair announced as he snapped the wheel right.

Not to the Summerfield Road but past it.

The Hummer jumped the shoulder. The front tires hit the bone dry ground and the suspension swallowed the drop with a hard thud.

Dirt sprayed up against the doors, but Zubair kept the angle shallow so they wouldn’t roll. He pinned the throttle.

Lachlan laughed out loud. "Yes."

The riders swore. Not in words so much as throat sounds.

Engines wound higher. The two in the trees surged forward to match.

The lead rider hauled his bike across the lane and tried to cut them off from the front, but he was too slow.

Zubair drove into the scrub and then into the thin pines. The bumper shoved saplings aside. Branches raked the sides like nails. The smell of pine and old fuel filled the cabin.

"Watch the stump," Elias warned.

"Watching," Zubair replied. He missed it by inches, but he still missed it.

The ground was uneven but hard, the lack of water causing cuts in the road.

But the Hummer took it.

This was why they were in it. Weight...clearance...torque.

It was a straight machine for a crooked land.

Two bikes took the same line and paid for it.

The first hit a hidden rut and bucked. The rider kept it up with one boot skidding. The second clipped a buried rock and flipped into the brush. The bike landed dull. The rider rolled. He didn’t get up.

"One down," Alexei said. "Three still near. Two flanking."

Sera pressed her fingertips to the dash and watched the trees open into a shallow logging cut.

Sun beat onto pale grass. A dry creek bed just beyond with frost crusting the edges. The bridge upstream had been the control point.

It was a good plan. She more than liked it.

Too bad it wouldn’t work on them.

"Creek’s shallow," Elias said pointing the way. "Packed sand bottom. We can cross."

"Copy," Zubair replied. He aimed for the hard bank and kept speed.

The two flanking bikes burst from the trees on their right and cut in sharp, aiming to T-bone the Hummer’s front corner before the creek. They were good. Timing near perfect.

"Brake," Alexei said, already bracing.

But Zubair didn’t brake.

He feathered.

Just a slip in speed that made the lead biker misjudge. The rider committed to the plan even as Zubair turned the wheel a quarter left and then threw it back right.

The Hummer’s nose slid just enough.

The biker’s front wheel clipped the bumper instead of the tire. The bike spun away. Metal screamed. The second flanker tried to adjust and caught the first, handlebar to tail. Both went down in a grinding snarl that sent sparks into the dry ground.

"Two down," Elias nodded.

Lachlan slapped the side of the door again like it was a drum. "Synchronized swimming."

"Don’t," snapped Zubair, his eyes narrowing. "Would it kill you not to make a comment every few minutes?"

"Probably," shrugged Lachlan. "It’s best not to chance it."

They hit the creek bed hard.

The Hummer dropped and bounced. What little water that was in there splashed up in a flat slap.

The tires churned in the sand and found grip. Zubair kept them moving. The far bank climbed fast and then leveled into a muddy track that ran behind a row of dead poplars.

A horn sounded from the bridge road behind them. Not a bike. Deeper tone. A truck. Heavy.

"Eyes left," Alexei warned. He stretched his neck to see out the window better. "Flatbed. Cages. Two occupied."

Sera turned enough to see over the seat.

The flatbed rolled onto the bridge and stopped. A biker stood in the bed with what looked to be some sort of weird spear made out of metal and filed to a point and banged it once on the steel slats.

The cages shook. The things inside slammed back. If you were looking close enough, it was easy to see that they were a distorted shade of grey that didn’t look quite human. And they were loud.

"Release truck," Elias said. "They want to drive us into it."

"We’re not there," Zubair replied through gritted teeth.

"Not yet," Sera pointed out.

Lachlan looked at her and raised his brows. "You’re enjoying this... aren’t you?"

"Yes," she immediately replied with a nod of her head. "Am I not supposed to?"

He grinned. "Welcome to the madhouse, Alice. We’ll keep you fully entertained."