by Casey, Ryan
And when they got above ground, he felt a wave of tiredness.
They were in the middle of some kind of old industrial estate. There were old postal vans all around. Over in the distance, he could see movement. A camp of sorts.
“What is this place?” Noah asked.
Kelly patted him on the back. “This is the place we call home. For now, anyway. We move around a lot. Now come on. Let’s get you seen to.”
They stumbled along, across the tarmac, towards this place.
Noah looked back.
Over his shoulder.
Over towards the depths of the sewer.
He thought of Iqrah.
Thought of the guards taking her away.
Thought of that woman, not a glimpse of compassion in her cold, distant eyes.
“Noah?” Kelly said.
He took a deep breath.
Swallowed a lump in his throat.
And then he turned around, and he walked.
It was too late to save Iqrah.
Iqrah was already gone.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Iqrah opened her eyes and felt like she was flying.
She didn’t know where she was, only it was light. She could see trees all around her. Bright green colours, drifting in the breeze. A long road ahead, empty, but inviting. And she felt fine. She felt no pain. She felt no fear. She just felt the warm arms of the person carrying her, and she felt like she was in her father’s arms again.
Or in Noah’s arms.
She thought of Noah, and she closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure what it was about this man she’d only known for a couple of days. She wasn’t sure what it was about him that made him feel so comfortable, so safe. She wasn’t sure what it was that made her feel so... okay with him. Because he was cold with her. He didn’t open up to her. He’d tried to hand her over to the bad people more than once. He hadn’t given her plenty of reason to trust him.
But there was something about him that she trusted. She sensed a pain within him. Loss within him.
And it made her think he understood what she was going through.
She opened her eyes again, and a sudden rush of fear surged through her body.
She looked around. She couldn’t move her neck. It was rock solid, like none of the muscles in her body were working. She saw black clothes. She saw guns. She saw masks.
And looking directly above, she saw the woman.
The blonde woman. The one with the piercing green eyes that made her shiver.
She looked up at her and felt her heart begin to race.
They were going to take her back to the labs.
They were going to stick needles into her and test on her until they realised there was nothing they could do for her.
And when they were done with her, when they realised there was nothing they could do, they were going to kill her, just like they’d killed the rest.
She had to get away.
She had to fight.
She tried to move her arms. Tried to move her hands. Tried to move her legs and the rest of her body.
But there was no moving them.
There was nothing she could do.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Tried to tap into that force within her. The one that would turn them. The one that would change them.
But that felt hazy, too. It felt distant. It felt... broken.
She opened her eyes and saw a face staring down at her.
That woman. The masked woman.
A smile to her eyes.
But no warmth there.
“Hello, darling,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about a thing anymore. We’ve got you. And we’re gonna take you back to where you belong.”
Iqrah tried to cry out. Tried to scream.
All she could do was twitch her lip.
The woman laughed. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m sure they’re going to take real good care of you at the labs. Especially after your nice little getaway attempt.”
She tried to shake free. Tried to break free of this woman’s grip, of her clutches.
She tried to tap into the infection. Tried to do everything.
But she just couldn’t.
The woman reached into her pocket. Pulled out this little pistol like thing, only it had a needle in the end, clear fluid in the middle.
“Come on,” she said. “Get some rest. I’m pretty sure you’re going to need it.”
She pushed the needle against Iqrah’s neck.
And just as she pressed it there, Iqrah felt herself tapping into the infection.
Felt herself fighting through her suffocation.
She looked up. Saw a trickle of blood rolling from the woman’s nose.
The woman sniffed. Chuckled. Wiped the blood away.
And then she pressed the syringe back to Iqrah’s neck.
“Sleep, child.”
She pushed it down.
Iqrah felt cold fluid creeping into her body.
Felt a coldness rushing down the back of her spine.
Tingling arms.
Her whole body surging with pain, just for one minute.
And then silence.
Quietness.
Stillness.
Nothing.
Except when Iqrah drifted into the blackness, this time, she took one thing with her.
Fear.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Noah sat and stared at the sun as it rose over Eastbrook Industrial Estate.
He always got up early, ever since he’d got here a week ago. Always liked to watch the sun rise. He didn’t want to sound too philosophical or whatever, but he felt a kind of renewed admiration for life lately. Ever since his near-death experience in the sewers last week. Ever since those two bullets pierced his chest and grazed his shoulder, and that infected fucker gnawed at his ankle. Wounds that fortunately, miraculously, hadn’t been as bad as they looked.
He was on his ninth life, that was for goddamned sure.
But there was one thing that held him back.
Iqrah.
He pushed that thought aside the second it arose. He didn’t want to think of Iqrah. He’d tried his best for her, and he’d failed. His best wasn’t enough.
And besides. Maybe she was exactly where she needed to be. Maybe, in years to come, the news would break that they’d found a cure for the infection, and it was all because of the research they’d done on that kid.
Her life in exchange for the lives of so many others.
It wasn’t something he wanted to subscribe to. It wasn’t a pill he wanted to swallow.
But it was beginning to seem like a necessary reality he was just going to have to face up to.
He looked across the car park. Looked at all the abandoned delivery vans surrounded by tall metal fences. Beyond there, he saw trees. Cars. Empty roads. No Man’s Land didn’t really feel all that different to being stuck away in one of the Society districts, in all truth. They told stories about how dangerous and unpredictable it was out here, but Noah was beginning to get the impression that was all just to keep people in line and in order.
The real threat, as far as he could tell, was the Society guards themselves.
He heard footsteps approaching behind. Looked around, saw Kelly.
He looked up at Kelly, and for a moment, he saw that coldness to her stare. They hadn’t talked about the past, even though it was a week since he’d got here. It was a discussion Noah was keen to avoid, and Kelly didn’t seem all that eager to push it herself.
She looked down at him with this eye, though. This eye that said she had questions. So many questions, and many of which Noah wasn’t sure he wanted to answer.
“Up early again?” Kelly asked as Bruno ran over to her, wagging his tail.
Noah nodded. “You know me.”
“Mind if I sit?”
“If I said I did, would it stop you?”
Kelly smirked. “You already know my answer to that.”
She sat beside N
oah. Stared out at the rising sun in the distance. Soon, this place would fill with life. There were twenty of them in this group. They’d been surviving out here, away from the clutches of the Society, for a good three years now. Noah hadn’t really mixed much with the people here. Didn’t want to get too attached to people he knew he’d be leaving soon. But they seemed good. A decent bunch. People he felt happy Kelly was with.
He’d heard a few stories from Kelly’s past few years. Kelly spent a lot of time on her own on the road at first. She hadn’t gone into detail. Particularly about some of the more intriguing facets, like the state of her right eye.
But she was here. They were both here. They’d both made it.
And yet there was this gulf between them.
“How’s the chest today?” Kelly asked.
“Better,” Noah said. “Still feel like I’ve been shot, don’t get me wrong. But better.”
“Then why do you still seem so…”
Noah looked around at her. “Hmm?”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing. I just get the sense… you’ve found us. You’ve found our people. But there’s still something there. Still something holding you back from us.”
Noah looked away. He wanted to tell Kelly she was wrong. He was ready to join their people, ready to step into this new world.
But then he felt something else inside.
An attachment.
An attachment to something he’d let go of.
An attachment to Iqrah.
“It’s the girl,” Noah said.
Kelly sighed. “The one you lost?”
“She… she was important. She has abilities. Abilities that go way beyond mine. But it’s not only that. It’s not only that, and I’m starting to realise that now. The girl. I want to… I want to protect her. I want to help her find her family. Because she’s a good kid. And she doesn’t deserve to be put through what she’s going to be put through. Nobody does.”
Kelly half-smiled at Noah. He couldn’t read her expression.
“What?” he asked.
“Then why don’t you go after her?”
He frowned. “Go after her? How do you expect I do that?”
“If there’s one thing I know about you, Noah, as much as I hate to admit it… it’s that you never give up. And when you care about someone, you’ll go to crazy lengths to protect people. As much as you try to fight it. As much as you try to resist it. You’re a good person, Noah. And the world needs good people like you.”
He heard Kelly’s words, and it awoke something inside him. Something sudden. Something instantaneous.
Iqrah.
He couldn’t leave her in those labs to suffer—to die.
He couldn’t leave her at the mercy of the Society’s whims.
He had to do something.
“I just don’t know what I can possibly do,” he said. “They’re more powerful than me. They’re stronger than me.”
Kelly reached over. Tapped Noah’s forehead. “But they’re not as clever as you.”
She stood up. Went to walk away, back towards the inside of the old postal depot.
And then she stopped.
“Edward,” she said. “What happened to him?”
Noah’s stomach turned. His mouth went dry. The moment he’d waited for. The question he’d waited to be asked. “Kelly, I—”
“In fact, don’t tell me. I don’t… I don’t want to know. Knowing does nothing to heal me.”
“If I hadn’t led you that way that day, he’d still be here.”
Kelly didn’t say anything to that. But just speaking those words, Noah felt like he was being exorcised. Like all the pain was drifting out of his body, rising above.
He waited for her to realise. To launch herself at him. To direct all her blame at him. Because it was his fault. His stubborn fault that got them in this mess; that lost Edward his life.
But then he felt something.
A soft hand on his shoulder.
A slight squeeze.
He looked around. Saw a tear rolling from Kelly’s one good eye.
“It’s okay,” she said. “You tried your best. And you never stopped trying. That wasn’t for yourself. That was for others. That was for me. That was for Edward. Because that’s who you are. You’re a good person, Noah.”
He looked away, then. A knot in his chest. A lump in his throat.
But as the tears built up, as his heart began to race, he felt an urgency in his body.
A realisation, as he looked over at the rising sun.
He didn’t feel right here because he wasn’t supposed to be here.
He was supposed to be out there.
He was supposed to be searching for Iqrah.
He was supposed to be saving that girl’s life.
He looked at Kelly. Saw that smile to her face. A smile like she knew. Like she understood.
And then he smiled back at her.
Because as dark a road as it was, as dangerous as the path ahead was, Noah knew exactly where he needed to go.
Not what he needed to do. But where he needed to go.
He took a deep breath.
Clenched his fists, tight.
Looked off into the distance.
“I’m going to find Iqrah,” he said. “I’m going to get her to her parents. And I’m going to protect her with my life.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Vision filled Iqrah’s eyes.
All around, she saw darkness. She felt something tight around her ankles, around her wrists. For a moment, she didn’t care. She felt calm. Nothing seemed too unusual other than the faint taste of blood in her mouth...
And then it hit her.
Square in the pit of her stomach.
The fear.
The urgency.
The Society.
They’d caught her.
They’d brought her back to the labs.
They’d captured her, and they weren’t going to let her go, and there was nothing she could do now.
She swore she felt a tear roll down her cheek. But she couldn’t check because she couldn’t move a muscle. Her heart was the only muscle that seemed to be pounding, racing away, making her ears whoosh.
And she kept on telling herself she just had to keep her calm... she just had to keep her cool...
But then she thought of her parents, and her stomach sank.
She’d been so close. Closer than she’d been in a long time. Closer than she’d been ever since she’d been captured.
And it was the hope that hurt her most. The feeling that she’d escaped, against all odds. That she’d got so close.
And then she’d had it taken away, all over again.
She peered into the darkness above. She didn’t know whether her eyes were closed, or whether it was just dark in here. She couldn’t tell.
But in that darkness, she kept thinking of someone.
Someone in particular.
Noah.
She’d sensed a kindness in him from the moment she’d met him. Even when he’d tried to turn her in. Even when he’d been torn about what he wanted to do with her.
There was something different about him.
Something... nurturing about him. Fatherly about him.
She trusted him. That’s what it was. Even though she didn’t know him, even though she didn’t totally understand him... she sensed he’d been through a lot of pain. He’d suffered. He’d lost.
And she sensed underneath the steely exterior that he wanted nothing more than to connect with someone. To form a bond with someone.
And despite her situation, despite how much shit she was in, she felt bad for Noah. Because she felt like he was bonding with her too. Like he was making a connection he didn’t really think was possible to make.
And now that had been taken away from him, too.
She thought she felt another tear rolling down her cheek when she saw a light.
She went to crane her neck to look at where the light
came from immediately. Somewhere up ahead, she heard footsteps. And those footsteps filled her with fear. The sense of the unknown. The sense of not knowing who was coming or what they were going to do with her this time. Whether they were even going to let her live at all.
She tried to strain to make her eyes move and focus when she saw a blurry figure overhead.
It was a man. Tall. Slim. Green mask over his face. Bubble suit all over his body.
She recognised him.
Remembered him well.
Doctor Fitzpatrick.
“Hello, dear,” he said. “How was your trip out into the world?”
Iqrah could only stare up at him with utter hate. She used to believe he had her best interests at heart. That was the most painful thing. She used to believe he actually wanted some goodness for her. Some happiness.
But she saw now that wasn’t true. That was a lie. A lie she told herself when she was at her lowest, her weakest. When she wanted to believe there was goodness out there.
But being away from this place made her all the more certain.
Doctor Fitzpatrick wanted nothing from her but what ran through her bloodstream.
He walked over to her. Brushed a gloved hand through her hair. “Surely now you see? Surely you realise just how special you are? Just how important you are?”
Her heart raced. She wanted to shout. To scream. She wanted to scratch this fucker’s eyes out.
But all she could do was lie there and stare.
“Well,” he said, moving a hand away. “You’ll be pleased to know we’ve almost made it. We’ve cracked it. We’ve found a way, my dear.”
He disappeared out of view. She could still hear him rustling about somewhere out of sight. She wanted to know what he was doing. She needed to see.
She waited for thirty long, tense seconds when he finally appeared.
And when he did, she saw it clearly.
He had this large metal object that looked like a horseshoe. Attached to it, some kind of plastic tube. Loads of wires rigged up to it.
He walked over to her. Held it in front of her. “This, my dear, is your crown. This is how we extract what you have, for the goodness of so many others. I’m just sorry to say you won’t be around to enjoy the fireworks.”
