by ES Richards
***
“That’s ridiculous. You know we’re not going to agree to that.”
“Well, those are the terms,” McManaman leant back in his chair with a smile, showing no remorse for the offer he had just laid on the table. “If you want us to relax the zones and allow free movement, we need to be assured there’s not going to be an uprising. The only way we can ensure the safety of the people in this city without the restricted movement is by ensuring no one has access to firearms or any potential means of assault. If you want freedom, then it’s going to come at a price.”
“You need to meet us in the middle somewhere,” Henry argued back. “You’re asking for complete control.”
“Complete control for complete safety,” McManaman nodded. “The decision is yours.”
Walter was seething with anger. No one else that he recognized from his time before joining up with the cave had appeared, but Philip McManaman was doing the job perfectly well all by himself. The meeting had been arranged to see if they could agree on a way to ensure the safety of everyone in the city, the innocent civilians who were being hurt and put at risk through the setup of the city’s zones and the ongoing conflict between the cave and the Gov. However, it hadn’t taken long to realize McManaman and his team had no intention of sacrificing anything. They wanted complete power over everyone and everything in the city and it seemed like they were willing to do whatever it took to get that.
“How can we be sure you’ll guarantee safety for everyone if we agree?” Henry asked, ever the diplomat and somehow managing not to be riled up by all McManaman’s efforts. Had it been anyone else from the cave leading the discussion, the voices would’ve been raised long ago.
“I’m sure you’ll forgive me for saying so,” Henry continued, “but the city isn’t exactly in the best shape now. Under your control, people are starving and dying, suffering from infection and lack of medicine. How can you be so sure that these things will go away if we hand over our resources to you?”
“Simply through that act,” McManaman replied. “You give us your resources and back down and we’ll have everything we need to serve the people of this city. And we’ll be able to do so without any resistance. Currently your band of rebels is the only thing standing in our way.”
“What about the Rikers?” Luc asked.
“We have methods for dealing with them,” McManaman answered with a smile, a sickly-sweet expression that made Luc regret even asking the question. Like Walter, he hadn’t said much, not trusting himself to make nice for long enough without losing his cool. Just the look McManaman gave as he finished off his sentence made Luc’s blood start to boil.
“You wouldn’t need to concern yourself with the Rikers.”
Henry listened carefully to what was being said, mulling over the proposal in his head. “Is there anything else? Anything more that you’ve missed?”
“I think that just about covers it all,” McManaman replied, standing up from his chair. “We’ll give you a minute or two to talk things over. Gentlemen,” he bowed his head ever so slightly, giving the cue for everyone else on his side to stand up and leave the room in unison. Walter watched them go carefully, his eyes piercing through the door even after it closed. No one said anything for several more seconds. Finally, Vince broke the silence.
“I guess we better get going then,” he said simply. “There’s no way we’re agreeing to that madness.”
“You’re right,” Henry breathed with a shake of his head. “We can’t meet those terms.”
“There’s no shame in that,” Luc said swiftly, noticing the disappointment in Henry’s tone. “I know you wanted to strike a deal here today, but we can’t just roll over and let them have what they want. We put an offer on the table and they haven’t met it. There’s nothing more we can do.”
“I know,” Henry replied. “I just wonder how many more lives it will cost.”
“We’ve done everything we could,” Luc spoke again. “We’ve tried. We tried with the Rikers and now we’ve tried with the Gov. We’ve explored both other options so now we know what we have to do. We’re preparing for this anyway, Henry. The people are ready. We can’t count the dead yet, not while we still have so many lives willing to fight alongside us.”
“Luc is right,” Walter added, refusing to see what they had done that day as a failure. “We’re not the ones whose hands will be stained with blood after this. We have done what was expected of us, and now we have to do what is right. The people of this city will thank us once it is over. They will thank you, Henry.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Vince nodded, knowing it was time to leave. He walked over to the window in the room and pushed it open, the room where the meeting had been held at the front of the building on the ground floor, in view of their resting bikes. “Shall we,” he put a foot on the window ledge. “I don’t much feel like being sociable.”
Chapter 20
Climbing out of the window, it was impossible not to feel like they were doing something wrong. Henry was reluctant about it at first, but he didn’t take much convincing. If they waited until McManaman returned to the room and then outwardly refused his offer, the following exchange would not be pleasant. The lack of an agreement had effectively placed the two sides at odds with one another, so they might as well start acting like it.
Walter patiently waited his turn as Henry followed Vince out of the window, Luc lined up next while he brought up the rear. Escaping like this avoided one element of conflict, sparing them the need to explain their refusal to McManaman, but it would surely have other consequences. Whatever they may be, there was time enough to contemplate them once they were out of Manhattan and back at the cave, Walter finally stepping up for his turn.
With one foot on the window ledge, the sound of footsteps in the hallway outside caught his attention. Walter turned from Luc to look back inside just as the door handle to the room turned and the oak door opened, revealing Philip McManaman standing behind it.
“What on earth are you doing?”
“I’m sorry Philip,” Walter replied instinctively. “You want something we just can’t give you.”
“So, you’re running away like cowards?” McManaman sneered in disgust. “Why am I not surprised?”
“It’s not cowardly to fight for what you believe in,” Walter said, still only halfway out of the window. “At least we have a cause, you’re just blindly searching for power.”
“Samantha was right about you,” McManaman spoke slowly, taking a step closer to the window. “You’ve always got to be the martyr, haven’t you? All these years and still trying to make up for the daughter you couldn’t save. Well, I’ve got news for you Walter, she’s never coming back and if you leave here today, thousands more will die just like her, except this time, they’ll be no doubt that it’s you who’s to blame.”
Walter’s grip tightened on the window as he held it open, his nails almost cutting into the glass while his knuckles blanched from the pressure. Rage boiled up inside of him and the thought of lurching back into the room and slamming Philip McManaman’s head into the shiny wooden table danced around in his head, tempting him back inside. The man was pure evil. Those things he had said – the things that Walter had told Samantha in confidence several weeks ago – were repeated with nothing more than the intention to harm and destroy. Had this moment been happening earlier in Walter’s life, he wouldn’t have even waited. The wooden table would’ve been stained with McManaman’s blood within seconds.
But Walter had changed. No matter how angry it still made him to hear his daughter being talked about in such a way, he knew that McManaman was only trying to bait him. Walter may not have been able to save his daughter, but there were countless others in the city that he could save now. He was not responsible for what happened all those years ago – while he had spent months blaming himself and thinking he was, he knew now that nothing could have prevented or changed what happened. It was not his fault, and neither was
what was happening in New York. But he could do something about it.
And so, without giving McManaman the pleasure of goading a reaction from him, Walter climbed the rest of the way out of the window and headed across the grassy verge to where Luc waited on the bike. The engine was already roaring as he climbed on behind his friend, not looking him in the eyes or able to glance back at the window.
As Luc pulled away, tears fell down Walter’s face silently. He remembered his daughter whom Walter had not been able to save. He pictured her face and vowed that for her, for Victoria, he would not let any more innocent children like her suffer. They would win back the city, and everyone would be able to have a future.
***
Luc caught Taggy’s eye and gave the faintest shake of his head. It was all that was needed to explain the outcome of their attempted peace treaty. There was no alliance to be made and so they had to move on. Luckily things hadn’t slowed down at all in the cave during their absence. Very few others knew that the meeting had even taken place and so everyone was hard at work preparing for the fight for the city.
It was happening on several fronts, the very least of them in the conventional fighting sense. While there were a few hundred men and women who were armed and willing to use firepower to win back the city, Henry knew that they wouldn’t win in an out and out fight and so they needed to be more tactical in their approach.
The bomb scare that Austin had been involved in had sprung up a new area of focus, several engineers and combat trained men and women creating the cave’s very own bomb disposal unit. They were already out in the streets, doing what they could to free parts of the city without alerting the Gov to what they were doing. Free movement was vital for their chance of victory, there was no way Henry was willing to let hundreds of people out in the streets if there was a chance they might be blown to pieces before they’d even rounded the first corner.
Alongside that, they needed to get the public on their side. There were close to a thousand people within the cave now, but that number was still tiny compared to those who were outside it. The vast majority of the people left in New York were still living in their original homes and apartments, trying to continue a normal life as best they could and following the rules the Gov had laid out for them.
That was where Samuel’s propaganda came in. Once they were back in the cave and Henry had debriefed the small team, that was where Walter headed off to, eager to find out how his friend was progressing.
“Walter!” The enthusiasm in Samuel’s voice was impossible to miss, the man jumping up from his seat as soon as he saw Walter. “There you are,” he continued. “We’ve had a breakthrough. The radios have been tapped and I’ve just about finished writing up the script.”
“Really?” Walter couldn’t hide his surprise, though he was incredibly pleased with what Samuel was telling him. The biggest issue they were facing with their work was the distribution of the propaganda. The Gov had a much larger social presence across the city and getting their messages out to the masses happened easily. Word of mouth still the best way of spreading news. Unfortunately for Walter and Samuel, their attempts had fallen on deaf ears and they needed a different way to let the city know what the Gov was really doing.
To achieve this, they had turned to the radio. It was the oldest form of communication and therefore it stood the best chance of being reinstated, even without the usual electricity that would power it. The receivers were basic, and required people listening out across the city, but where there was someone willing to put a message out, there was always someone willing to listen. While Walter had been away, the brains inside the cave had cracked it, he was almost giddy to be able to send a message out and see if anything came back.
“What have you got?” He asked Samuel, pouring over the carefully handwritten announcement on the table in front of them, reading over what Samuel had prepared. It gave details of what the Gov were really doing and how people could recognize the faults in their newly established leaders. It shed light on the truth and encouraged the people of New York to stand up for themselves and to fight their own battles. It informed them of a future that would only be possible if they worked together, unified towards a common purpose, rather than fighting against one another. It was brilliant and Walter had every faith that it would do the job.
“Well done,” he congratulated Samuel. “With this message, I think we’ll really stand a chance of winning this thing. The more people we can get on our side the better. It’s with numbers where we’ll finally succeed.”
“Never underestimate the power of speech, right?” Samuel said with a smile. “When do you want to read it?”
“Me? Are you not going to do it yourself? You wrote it after all.”
Samuel shook his head and let out a little chuckle. “I think after my last broadcast, I’d rather let someone else take the reins on this. If it’s alright with you?”
“Okay,” Walter nodded, understanding where his new friend was coming from. “Where’s the kit? We should get it recorded and broadcasting on repeat as soon as possible. Are we able to do that? Things are moving quickly now.”
“I think so,” Samuel replied, “they’re upstairs. Apparently, the signal needs the height.”
“Makes sense,” Walter shrugged. “Alright. Let’s get this done.”
***
As Samuel climbed the stairs of the office block where the cave headquarters were, Austin was making his way down to the lower levels. While it was true that the battle against the Gov needed to be fought on many levels, there were none quite as simple and effective as the one in the streets. Austin wasn’t afraid to be armed and on the front line – he had something to fight for and he wanted nothing more than to achieve that goal: a future with his family. In order to do that, risks needed to be taken but he was well equipped and mentally ready to take them. Plus, he finally had the last piece of the puzzle he needed to confidently take his fight to the streets: his husband’s blessing.
With Dante on his side, Austin was able to focus on the fight, his family always ever-present in the back of his mind, but no longer such a worrying distraction. Dante was going to be working with the medical unit over the next few days – or however long it took – and Bowie was well looked after with the other children. They’d both check in on him with every opportunity they had, but as Austin had said goodbye to his son most recently, there was a part of him that felt Bowie understood what was happening and not only that, but supported him too.
The buzz on the lower levels of the cave was different to the one that ran throughout the facility. Everyone down there was more measured, calmer in their approach and yet, it was still clear they were ramping up for something big. It was hard not to see it as preparing for war. Whenever Austin thought of it in that manner, it both blew things out of proportion for him and also belittled the many great wars that their country had fought beforehand.
They were in a state of conflict with the Gov and to settle that there was a need to draw arms – by definition, that perfectly encumbered what war was and added an air of seriousness to the whole affair. Pacing down the narrow hallway in the basement, Austin finally spotted Luc and Taggy getting geared up. He was late to join them, but pleased that they hadn’t set out without him.
“Hey,” he greeted them both. “Sorry I’m late – I was just saying goodbye to Bowie and Dante.”
“No worries,” Taggy flashed him a smile, “we’ve saved you some gear.”
“Bit of a mixed bag,” Luc relayed to him, holding up a Glock 19 pistol and a .22 caliber hunting rifle. “Which do you want?”
“Hunting was always more my dad’s sort of thing,” Austin replied, taking the pistol from Luc and checking the magazine. “How are we for ammo?”
“Could be worse,” Taggy nodded to a couple of boxes on the table. “It’s spread out between us all pretty thin, that’s why we’re going for the capture and subdue as a first option.”
“Right,” Austin nodded
, “close combat. This is going to be intense isn’t it?”
“No shame in staying back here or helping out with something else,” Luc said swiftly, giving Austin an out if he was having second thoughts. Luc knew it was asking a lot for people to arm themselves and potentially hurt their enemy. It was one thing talking about it, it was another actually doing it. One thing that Luc was very good for from his experience in the police force was ensuring his team was fully committed, he didn’t want to go anywhere with anyone that he couldn’t entirely trust.
“No thanks,” Austin said. “We’re all in this. I’m going to do my bit. You can count on me.”
“Alright,” Luc grinned, “grab a bag then,” he nodded to a couple of backpacks in the corner. “They’re all packed up. We might as well head out to our rendezvous point.”
“How many others are coming with us?”
“We’re joining up with Billy and his group,” Luc answered. “This isn’t a battle that’s going to be won alone.”
“Sure,” Austin nodded, agreeing with his new friend. This was it then. He hadn’t been in the cave long and now he was leaving and didn’t know when he’d be back. On some level, Austin had always thought things might end like this. His time in Poughkeepsie had been a firm example of how dangerous humanity could be and since returning to New York, that feeling had only been amplified.
Winning back the city through force was the only avenue left open to them and so – hopefully – it was what they were going to do.
Chapter 21
Nothing could’ve prepared them for the battle the Gov brought to the streets. Luc crouched low behind a wall, sheltering as bullets pinged off every surface around him while he tried to reload. His hands shook. Even with years of training under his belt, this was like nothing he’d ever seen before.
