Collapse: Book four of Beyond These Walls - A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller Page 16

  “Please,” one of them said, a short girl with blonde hair, “I have a baby brother who needs me. His name’s James.”

  William’s heart sank and he turned away as Hugh kicked her in the back. The excited diseased below smothered and then silenced her screams.

  The girl now one of them, the diseased quieted while Matilda muttered, “If she’d have said any other name …”

  Hard to tell from where he stood, but William expected to see the dark glaze in Hugh’s eyes. They might have been a gang, and they might have done horrible things, but they were still people. The Hugh he’d met in the dining hall would have made that distinction.

  The eight remaining captives knelt with their heads bowed, and many of their shoulders bobbed with their tears.

  “Okay,” Hugh said. When he turned to Olga, his eyes were so dark, William stepped back a pace. “What now?”

  Her hand raised to implore patience from the short and stocky boy, Olga said, “Not yet, but in a minute we’re going to throw them off.”

  The girl’s scream still echoing through his mind, William said, “What?”

  “You think they deserve better? They’re bullies and rapists. I’m not one for capital punishment, but they came with the intention of killing us. They killed Goliath.”

  “So we play God and kill them?”

  “Look around, William. You think God lives in this place? If she does, she’d best show up soon. Until then, I think we need to make the decisions. We can’t leave them alive because they’ll come after us again, so we might as well use their deaths to serve a purpose.”

  “What purpose?”

  “You haven’t worked it out yet?”

  Matilda cut through their conversation and pointed at the arena on the other side of the road. “While the diseased are focused on them, we can make a break for it.”

  “You agree with her?”

  “I think it’s the best plan we have.”

  One eye on his prisoners, Hugh stepped closer to William and the others. His face blank, his eyes dark, he spoke in monotone. “I’ll do it.”

  Although he didn’t look directly at her, William couldn’t avoid the smugness emanating from Olga. “We’re fighting for our lives and you’re happy about scoring points?”

  “I just think it’s the best plan. I’m happy the majority agrees.”

  The fire died in William. He could hardly claim democracy only when it suited him. “Fine, but there’s no way Hugh’s doing all the dirty work. Not again.” The mess on the roof above the loft flashed through his mind. “We’ll all do it.”

  Throwing the girl over the side had left them with two prisoners each. William stood on the far left between two, Matilda next to him, Hugh farther along, and then Olga on the other end. The girl who claimed to have a brother now bled from her eyes. She’d become just another rancid freak in the crowd.

  “Now, this can play out two ways,” Olga said. “You either jump down of your own free will and try to outrun the diseased, or we shove you down. Whatever happens, you’re all going over the edge so we can get to the arena. Wha—”

  Before Olga finished, one of the kids from the gang jumped from the roof. Landing in the mosh pit of snarling diseased, he threw punches and shoved several creatures as he bolted in the direction of the arena, dragging the ravenous and uncoordinated crowd with him. Although quick, the diseased were quicker. He lasted just three paces before he vanished beneath a scrum of writhing bodies.

  “Well,” Olga said, “I think your friend there just showed us you can’t be trusted—”

  “We can.” The girl in front of Olga looked up, her nose running, her eyes puffy. She had dirty brown hair and acne. “Just give us a—”

  The girl screamed as she fell, driven from the edge of the roof by Olga’s hard kick. The diseased jumped on her when she hit the ground.

  Matilda cried as she kicked her two off, William and Hugh following suit.

  “Remember,” Olga shouted while sprinting off across the roof, “they came to us with the intention of doing much worse. Think of the suffering those gangs have caused. They wanted to hurt us.”

  Olga led them away from the carnage below. She maintained her pace, the first of them to jump down to the cobblestone street. Hugh, Matilda, and then William followed her over.

  The gang had bought them seconds, no more. The instant Olga hit the ground, the creatures around them yelled. The kids from woodwork already dealt with, the mob now turned their focus on William and his friends. As much as they’d worked together to get to this point, they were now on their own until they reached the arena.

  Olga in the lead, her machete proved more useful than a sword when on the run. She dealt with several diseased without missing a beat.

  One of the vile creatures charged William from the left. He avoided its snapping jaws, shoving it in the chest. The impact drove a foul stench from the beast’s lungs, but sent it stumbling backwards.

  Half a mind on Matilda, William fought to keep his attention ahead. The road no wider than forty feet, it felt like they had miles to cross.

  Because they had to dodge and weave on their way to the other side, the pack they’d whipped into a feeding frenzy closed the distance on them.

  Still ten feet or so from the arena, William saw the doors and fought to get his words out. “It’s locked!”

  Olga, as the leader, altered their course slightly. They’d have to head to agriculture instead. If they got on the roofs, they could reassess.

  “Wait!” Hugh pointed at the arena.

  Although the main gates were closed, a gap had been smashed through the top of them. Large enough for them to fit and at least ten feet from the ground, so the diseased couldn’t follow.

  Olga reached the doors first, kicking off the wooden barrier before diving through the hole. Who knew what waited on the other side, but with the creatures behind them, they had to take their chances.

  Hugh reached it next, but he turned, yelled, and dropped three diseased in quick succession as Matilda followed Olga into the arena.

  Were Hugh not smiling, William would have waited, but he knew he’d meet resistance from his friend if he tried to help. The gate boomed as he kicked off it, and he too pulled up and then dived through the gap.

  Where William expected the landing to drive the wind from his lungs, he fell on something soft, several strange faces looking down on him before a large man dragged him out of the way. Hugh landed where he’d been only seconds before.

  The man who’d dragged William clear had long curly black hair, bulging arms, and a grin filled with stark white teeth. They were all the whiter in contrast to his deep brown skin. Yet, despite his sunny demeanour, it stood in stark contrast to the sword he’d levelled at William’s face.

  Chapter 43

  “Stay there, boy.” If anything, the large man’s winning smile broadened. The tip of his sword hovered just an inch from William’s nose. “Now, while you’re lying there, I’d like to welcome you to one of the last diseased-free spots in Edin. As long as you don’t turn, we can offer you sanctuary.”

  “T-turn?” William said. Matilda, Hugh, and Olga were also held at sword point, Hugh still on the mattress, the others dragged free like William had been. The shiny tip so close to Matilda’s face quickened his pulse, driving his response. “What the hell are you talking about, and what do you want with us?”

  But the grinning man didn’t answer. A more level head in that moment than William’s, they both needed him to settle the situation.

  About five minutes passed before a bell rang and the grinning man pulled his sword away. He offered William his hand.

  The ease with which the man brought him upright tamed what remained of William’s fury. Not only did the brute have a sword, but he had the kind of strength that would break William’s neck should he have the inclination. William walked over to Matilda. “Are you okay?”

  The woman who’d held a sword to Matilda’s face backed off several
steps, and before anyone else spoke, the smiling man clapped his hands once. “Right, now we can get off on a better footing. My name’s Samson. I’d like to welcome you to the arena. Like I said earlier, this is one of the last places in Edin that isn’t infected with the disease.”

  Samson walked towards the ring, and they followed, William and Matilda holding hands.

  Upon entering the circular fighting area, William’s mouth fell open and he spun on the spot. The stone seating stretched up and away from them in all directions. The amount of times he’d imagined himself here …

  Matilda’s grip tightened, pulling William back into the moment. He found Samson still grinning at him and said, “I never thought I’d get to be in this spot. I mean, as a kid, I dreamed about it every night, but with everything that’s happened …” The words caught in his throat and his eyes burned with his tears. After rubbing them, he let go of a hard sigh. “This certainly wasn’t how I expected it to play out.”

  The touch of Matilda’s hand against his back lifted William, and he filled his lungs, wiping his eyes again. “Sorry, it’s been a long few days.”

  Samson raised an eyebrow. “Hasn’t it just.”

  Several people approached the group with cups of water and chunks of bread. William’s hand shook as he took a sip, and the bread caught in his tight throat when he tried to swallow.

  Seeing them drink and eat appeared to lift Samson’s already buoyant mood. “Your arrival makes ninety-six of us now. Four more until one hundred.”

  “And what then?” Olga said.

  Samson laughed. “Dunno.”

  The dark glaze remained in Hugh’s eyes. “How can you be so happy?”

  “I’m alive.” Samson slapped Hugh on the back, the short and stocky boy remaining rooted to the spot where many would have stumbled. “That’s got to count for something, right? Again, sorry about how we just welcomed you. We set the gates up so only the uninfected could get in, but we had a few who brought the disease in with them and then changed. We nearly lost everything because of it, so we put all new arrivals through a five-minute quarantine to be sure they’re okay. How have you still survived? I was starting to lose hope in anyone else getting here.”

  As William opened his mouth, Samson cut him off. “You know what? I’m sure it’s a long and stressful story that you don’t need to be recounting right now. All in good time, eh?”

  The touch of Matilda’s hand left his back, and William watched her step closer to Samson. “Look, we’re here on our way to the political district.”

  “Then you’re about as shit out of luck as the rest of us, young lady.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come with me.”

  Samson led Matilda towards a set of ladders leading up to the seating area.

  Samson’s booming voice called out around the arena for everyone to hear. “So why do you want to get into the political district?”

  “My brother’s in there.”

  “Still?”

  “Yep.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “He was in prison when the city fell.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah. He killed my dad.”

  “Wow. Look, you don’t have to tell me …”

  William knew everything about what had happened with Matilda’s family. As she explained it to Samson, it was probably the first time she’d been able to run through it from start to finish and process what had happened to her. From the way Olga watched her, she was taking it all in too, probably piecing the story together from the fragments they’d given her during the chaos of trying to stay alive.

  At the top of the arena, Matilda out of breath from talking all the way up, William finally stood next to her and held her hand again. She squeezed back with a trembling grip.

  Several rocks had been placed at the foot of the back wall. They stepped up on them and peered over. Olga said it best. “Shit.”

  They’d seen the wooden wall from laundry, but their new vantage point showed them the second one behind it. There was a gap of fifteen to twenty feet between the two. The gap was filled with at least two hundred diseased. And hanging over the first wall—

  “They’ve had this defence plan for years.” A woman’s voice, William turned to see the receptionist from the justice department building. “They were worried the city would fall, so they built the first wooden wall to stop the diseased getting through. They were also worried about woodwork rioting, so they built the second one. The first blocks the diseased, the gap between the two keeps the people back. The only way to open and close them is from inside the political district.”

  At any other time, it would have thrown William off to see the receptionist, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the first wall, and more specifically … “Why have they—?”

  “Hung people over the side?”

  About every six feet, a diseased hung down from the first wall. Women, men, and children. They had nooses around their necks, twisting and turning, grabbing at the ropes as if they could work them free. “Hung diseased over the side,” William corrected.

  “They weren’t diseased when they were thrown over.” The receptionist had a scarf around her neck. When she pulled it down, both Matilda and Olga gasped. Angry rope burns, each one at least an inch thick. “That was the part of the plan the political district kept from us. They wanted to drag the diseased close to the first wall as quickly as possible, and what better way than to use bait?”

  “But why them? Why you?” Olga said.

  “Because we weren’t one of them. Politicians look after their own. They’ll throw anyone else to the dogs in a heartbeat if it elevates themselves. Cleaners, cooks, receptionists, we were nothing but cannon fodder to them.”

  Matilda’s jaw hung loose. “How did you get away?”

  “They didn’t tie my rope properly.” The receptionist laughed. “Guess I was one of the lucky ones, eh? There were easier pickings, so I managed to get away and into the arena while the diseased were preoccupied.”

  “How did we not know about this?” Hugh said.

  “The walls are retractable so they were easy to hide.”

  Matilda this time. “And where are the controls for the walls?”

  “The justice department building.”

  The large building backed up against the wall closest to the political district. William had been there several times already. “You remember me, right?”

  The receptionist nodded.

  “The boy I came to visit a few times, he never got evicted, did he?”

  She shook her head.

  “Is he still in there now?” Matilda said. “He’s my brother.”

  The woman’s face softened. “I’d imagine so. As far as I know, they didn’t let any of them out. They saw them as dangerous criminals. It was easier to keep them locked up.”

  “Well, that’s something at least,” William said. “Are you going to try to get back into the political district?”

  The receptionist shook her head. “Hell no, my family are from woodwork.”

  “My god,” William said. “We’ve heard a lot about that place in the past few days.”

  The woman lifted her shirt to reveal a star-shaped scar, the damaged tissue white against her brown skin. “Working for the politicians was the only way out. It was only a slight improvement, to be honest, but I was safe.”

  “Damn. I’m sorry.”

  “You didn’t do it.”

  A slight lull in the conversation, William said it without thinking. “I’m not a homophobe, you know?”

  The receptionist dipped a nod at him before walking away from the group. Although William felt the attention of the others, he didn’t elaborate. What the receptionist thought of him hardly mattered.

  “So what are we going to do?” Olga said. “There’s no way we’re getting through that lot. Climbing the walls won’t be a problem, but none of us will make it through that mob to the second wall.”

&n
bsp; The same glaze in Hugh’s eyes, William saw he was about to drop them in it and spoke first. “We could go through the tunnels?”

  Olga shook her head. “The tunnels are compromised. I saw hundreds of diseased chasing people into them in agriculture.”

  “Besides,” Samson added, “part of the political district’s plans were to collapse the tunnels so nobody could get through. You need someone who can walk amongst the diseased.”

  William’s heart sank, and before he could say anything, Olga shrugged. “Max is the only person I know who can do that.”

  Both Hugh and Matilda fixed on William. A few seconds later, Olga looked at him too.

  His stomach dropping to his knees, William pulled down a dry gulp and said, “Olga, there’s a chance Max is still alive.”

  Chapter 44

  The second he said it, William stepped back from Olga. Her face puce, her fists balled, her words trembled when she said, “What the hell?” The large arena amplified her fury.

  Heat flushed William’s cheeks and he did his best to ignore the onlookers. Because he’d been the one to say it, he faced the full force of her wrath. “Look, we don’t know for sure, but there’s a chance Max is still alive. But we don’t know.”

  “What? Why?” Spittle sprayed from Olga’s mouth and she threw her hands up in the air. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

  The wind blew stronger because they were at the top of the arena, so William had to speak loudly enough for everyone to hear. “It’s possible Max is still in a cell in the labs.”

  “Why am I only finding out about this now?”

  Matilda stepped forward. “We thought we were protecting you.”

  “By lying to me?”

  When Hugh put his hand on Olga’s shoulder, she shook him off and glared at him. Even he stepped away. “I know the labs well. The cell they have Max in is lined with metal. The only way in is through a locked door.”

  “So we unlock it.”

  William this time. “The locked door is at the end of a tight corridor filled with diseased. None of us could make it through there without getting turned.”