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

by Michael Robertson

  Where he’d been concerned for Hugh, the next turn sank cold dread through William. His house in front of them, the door hung open, the front room as populated with shambling diseased as the street outside.

  Hugh and Olga had no idea where they were, but as they got close to his childhood home, Matilda reached forwards and held the back of William’s left hand. The world in front of him blurred, and a lump swelled in his throat. He led Goliath straight past.

  Although the carriage shook from Matilda shifting beside him, William didn’t look at her. It took for her to hold the hummingbird hair clip in front of him to realise what she’d been doing. But he shook his head and cleared his throat. “Mum intended for you to have it. I’d like to honour that.”

  After she put it back in her hair, Matilda held William’s hand again, the clop of Goliath’s hooves taking them away from his childhood home and on towards the political district.

  Chapter 34

  Even Goliath seemed affected by recent events, moving slower than before as they made their way from agriculture. A blurred view of the world ahead, his eyes burning, William kept his focus fixed in front of them while Matilda continued to hold the back of his left hand, stroking it with her thumb. Like with her and the hummingbird clip, he still wore his dad’s skull ring, the silver standing in stark contrast against his dark skin. The material gift—a vessel to carry good luck—against the genetic gift of pigmentation. Every time he looked at his own reflection, he saw his dad. What he’d give for one last trip with him to the back wall. For one last home-cooked meal with both of them.

  “I’m still hungry and thirsty,” Hugh said. “There must be somewhere to find food.”

  Olga nudged him with her elbow. “Hugh! Show some respect.”

  If Hugh knew what she meant, his dull eyes hid it well.

  Before Olga could explain further, William shook his head. “It’s fine. I’m hungry too. We need something to focus on. But where will we get food?”

  “Did you have storage families in your district?” Olga said.

  Matilda lifted her head. “What are storage families?”

  “The families that held some of the rations above ground in their houses. Once the food comes up through the tunnels, it gets put in different houses to be stored and then distributed from there. Families would give over one of their rooms to the cause.”

  “I’ve spent eighteen years in Edin,” William said. “How have I never heard of this before?”

  Olga shrugged. “Edin’s good at keeping secrets. I never knew about woodwork and the gangs until today.”

  From the way she lost focus, William nearly asked her what she meant. Instead, he said, “So how do you know about the storage families?”

  “Our neighbours were one. When I got to know them, I started to work out who else was. The signs were always there, I just didn’t know what I was looking for.”

  When no one replied, Olga elaborated. “They’re always families who have lost someone in national service.”

  “So half of Edin?” Matilda said. “That doesn’t narrow it down.”

  “No”—Olga raised her right index finger—“but here’s the kicker. They’ve all lost someone, so they all have a spare room in their house. They’re one of the families who didn’t get relocated despite having an extra room. Every district has them, and every person complains about them. I mean, why should they have extra space when everyone else has to relocate. Luck of the draw, right?”

  “Right,” William said.

  “Wrong!”

  William nodded. “So all of them are storage families?”

  “No, that would make it too easy. I think they let some people keep their larger houses as decoys. Like my family, for example. In fact, I’d say most of them aren’t storage houses. But there’s one more thing that marks the ration holders out from everyone else. Because they hold the rations, they get double the food for as long as they keep it secret. So they’re always healthier, larger, and some of them are even fat. Every district has the families with fat little kids while all the other children are so hungry they’d eat grass if it helped.”

  The tears gone, William saw the world with more clarity than before. He let go of Matilda’s hand and pointed over at a house on the left. “There! The Ratts. They had a little boy who was so fat you could barely see his features in his round little head. The older Ratt died on national service, and the mum and dad always looked healthy and strong. They fit the bill.”

  “But the door’s open,” Matilda said, a diseased standing in the doorway of the house. “So even if they do have supplies in there, there’s nothing we can do to get to them.”

  The diseased in the street grew louder when Hugh raised his head, the boy instantly dropping it again. “How about we see if they have any food in there still? If they do, we can work out a way to get it.”

  When no one objected, William tugged on Goliath’s left rein, the large beast nudging the diseased aside on his route to the Ratts’ old home. As they pulled up next to it, he handed the reins to Matilda. “Do you mind waiting here with Goliath? I’m worried if we all go, he might walk off.”

  “Why don’t you leave someone else behind?”

  They couldn’t trust Hugh, so William looked at Olga, who shrugged. “Sure. I need a rest.”

  Matilda led the way onto the Ratts’ roof. The diseased offered their predictable response: angry, loud, and smelly. The carriage shook with their movement, and it took William a second to adjust to his surer footing when he stepped onto the roof of the house.

  The diseased had already seen them, so there seemed little need for stealth. William called across to Olga, “Go for the spare room, yeah?”

  She nodded.

  Whether two or three bedrooms, most houses in Edin had a similar layout. The master bedroom first and then the extra rooms at the back. William led the way to what he guessed to be the first kids’ bedroom.

  Like they’d done on Hugh’s house, William, Hugh, and now Matilda went to work on the tiles, tearing them free and launching them at the diseased in the street.

  After a couple of minutes, they’d torn a hole wide enough in the roof, exposing the wooden ceiling boards beneath. William sat down on the edge of the gap and stamped one through.

  Four diseased faces stared up at them. Both Hugh and Matilda launched tiles, knocking all of them down. Four more replaced them.

  William stamped on the next ceiling board, the creatures unflinching as wood rained down on them. A better view of the room, he shook his head. “The supplies aren’t in here.”

  As William got to his feet to walk away, the creatures in the room grew more agitated, biting at the air and reaching up as if their will could force the three of them to fall.

  After several minutes of tearing a new hole, William’s clothes stuck to the layer of sweat on his skin. He sat down again and kicked the boards through, two hard stamps driving one, and then the next, into the room beneath. “There!”

  Only one open crate among many, it had bread and vegetables in it. Carrots, potatoes, swede … “Some of it needs to be cooked,” William said. “But even if we leave that behind, it looks like there’s enough for us to eat.”

  As several diseased shambled into the room—one of them going down from a spinning tile launched by Hugh—Matilda sighed. “Now we need to find a way to get it out of there.”

  Chapter 35

  Although Matilda remained beside William, Hugh walked off across the roof. “Hugh, what are you doing?”

  When the boy didn’t answer, William did his best to ignore Matilda’s raised eyebrow and jogged to catch up with his stocky friend.

  Close to the edge of the house, Hugh crouched down and tore several tiles free, launching them at the diseased in the street.

  “Hugh, what’s going on?”

  But Hugh continued tearing the tiles away until he’d opened a large enough hole to kick the boards through. Like with the other rooms in the house, the gap reveal
ed snarling diseased staring up at them. Splinters and dust on their faces, they fixed on Hugh.

  A tight clench to his jaw, Hugh kicked at the ceiling boards until he’d bashed through a hole about two feet square.

  “What? You’re going to drop down there and fight them?” Matilda said.

  While wiping his sweating brow, Hugh grinned. “That would be insane.”

  For the second time, William ignored Matilda’s attention. They both knew Hugh had lost the plot. Why belabour the point? Although, it would help if he tried to understand his friend. “Then what are you planning on doing?”

  “We need to get the diseased out of this house, right?”

  William shrugged.

  “So you and Matilda ride on the carriage over to the other side of the road and make a lot of noise. When the diseased run over to you, hopefully emptying this house in the process, I can jump into the front room, lock and barricade the door, and secure it so we can loot this place to our heart’s content.”

  The plan seemed solid. But Hugh executing it? As much as Matilda had silently questioned many of Hugh’s actions, she offered nothing.

  “Sound good?” Hugh said.

  “Sure?” William asked Matilda.

  She shrugged.

  While William and Matilda returned to Goliath’s carriage, Hugh made his way to the hole at the back of the house: the room with the supplies in.

  As much as Hugh’s idea made sense, it was still Hugh’s idea. His sense and William’s didn’t often align. Before stepping onto the carriage, William said, “How will you jump down into the front room if you’re standing all the way back there?”

  “I need to make sure they’ve cleared out of the back rooms before I jump down into the front.”

  Matilda spoke without moving her lips. “It all seems far too logical. I’m worried something will go wrong.”

  “You and me both.”

  If Hugh had any sense of their conversation, he didn’t let on, smiling at William while he stepped across onto the roof of Goliath’s carriage, holding his hand out to help Matilda deal with the transition to the moving surface. She looked at his hand, ignored it, and stepped across on her own. He should have learned by now.

  Olga had clearly listened to the plan, guiding Goliath across to the other side of the road without being asked. Goliath didn’t belong to him, but watching Olga guide the horse wound William tight.

  A road packed with furious diseased gave them a chance to speak with more freedom. No way could Hugh hear them. “It seems like a solid plan,” Matilda said.

  Olga snorted. “From a fragile mind. I’m not sure I trust it.”

  Before she could say anything else, William said, “We’re not asking you to trust it.”

  “Then what are you asking me to do?”

  “Hold onto Goliath while we do what’s required. You can do that, can’t you?”

  When they reached the houses on the other side of the road, Matilda stepped across first. Just before joining her, William turned to Olga. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have just snapped then.”

  “It’s okay. It’s a stressful time.” Her eyes had tightened into narrow slits, her face the antithesis of her words.

  After joining Matilda on the roof, William ripped a tile free and sent it spinning into the face of one of the diseased. He scored a direct hit, and the creature went down beneath the surging crowd.

  Matilda threw her tile with such force it embedded in the face of one of the creatures. She winked at William.

  The street separating them and Hugh, William led Matilda and the diseased away from Goliath. “Come on then, you freaks.” He threw another tile as Hugh, on the roof opposite them, moved away from the hole over the back room. It must have already cleared.

  Matilda threw three tiles in quick succession. Every one scored a headshot. William laughed. “You should swap your sword for a stack of tiles.”

  “I might just do that!”

  By the time they were about ten feet from Goliath and still dragging the diseased with them, Hugh had moved over to the hole above the front room. He gave William a thumbs up. But before he jumped down, there was a loud snap as the roof gave way and he vanished from sight with a yell.

  The creatures close to the storage house charged towards it. Three diseased vanished inside before the door slammed shut.

  “He must be okay,” William said just as several more diseased crashed against the door. It opened by a foot and then closed again.

  “He’s keeping it shut,” Matilda said. “How many are in there already?”

  William shrugged. “Three? Four?”

  The pack outside swelled in number, the door opening and slamming shut again from where Hugh clearly fought against it.

  “What shall we do?” Matilda said.

  Before William could reply, Olga yelled and jumped from the top of the carriage. His heart beat treble-time as the short firecracker screamed like a banshee and sprinted to the other side of the main road. She took a diagonal path away from the storage house, dragging many of the diseased with her, including the ones trying to get through the door to Hugh.

  Two diseased between Olga and the other side of the road, she punched one before ducking the clumsy swing of the other. Without missing a beat, she leaped, kicked off from the windowsill of the house she’d run at, and caught its roof before pulling herself to safety; the diseased caught up to her a second too late.

  The front door to the storage house slammed shut, and a heavy thud of something fell across it. When the diseased tried to get at Hugh again, they met the resistance of a barricaded door.

  “Shit!” William said. “Goliath!” The piebald stallion’s eyes were wide, his nostrils flared. Although he high-stepped on the spot, his powerful body twitched with what looked like a need to bolt. The leather reins lay discarded on the roof of the carriage.

  William closed the distance between him and the carriage and launched himself. Goliath moved forward by about two feet.

  The slam of William’s boots hit the carriage’s roof, closer towards the back than he’d intended. Goliath jolted forwards, unsettling William’s balance.

  His stomach in his throat, William rocked back on his heels. The diseased in the road waited for him to fall. But then Goliath stepped back, moving the carriage the other way.

  William slammed down on his knees before lying on his front, hugging the roof while he let his pulse settle.

  A few seconds later, William reached out to touch his horse. “Thank you, boy. I owe you.” A series of twitches ran across Goliath’s hide.

  Still out of breath, his pulse a kick drum in his skull, William led Goliath first to Matilda and then to Olga.

  As their small friend stepped onto the roof of the carriage, taking William’s offer of a hand, she said, “Just so we’re clear, I questioned the plan, not the boy.”

  William accepted Olga’s words with a nod, leading them back to the storage house. After a deep inhale, he handed the reins to Olga again. “Let’s just hope he’s survived this, eh?”

  Matilda behind him, William got to the first hole, the one Hugh had fallen through. Three dead diseased lay on the floor on their backs. A large bookcase covered the door and formed a barricade against the creatures in the street.

  The next hole showed the room beneath to be empty. William pushed through his reluctance and walked to the final one. Whatever lay in wait for him, he had to see it.

  Sat on the pile of food, a loaf of rough bread in one hand, a jug of water in the other, Hugh winked at William and Matilda and toasted them with his drink. “You lot took your time.”

  Everything rushed out of William, his laugh going from zero to hysterical in seconds. He bent over double and rested his hands on his knees, Matilda also laughing beside him. It took at least a minute before he found the breath to talk. He shook his head at his grinning friend. “You know what, Hugh? You’re a mad bastard.”

  Chapter 36

  Every now and t
hen William caught the stench of the diseased. Not that it hadn’t been there all along, he’d just gotten used to the low-lying festering reek. It now took for a particularly foetid creature to stumble past for the foul aroma to register. Although, nothing would put him off his food. Still in the agricultural district, all four of them sat on top of Goliath’s carriage and ate their picnic in full view.

  William checked Goliath for what must have been the tenth time since they’d stopped. The large horse remained stoic and resolute. Maybe the reassurances helped; maybe Goliath had simply grown used to the presence of the diseased. “So you fought three of them off with kicks?” William said.

  Several quick chews, Hugh swigged from his water jug before swallowing. “Yeah. What else could I have done? I had to keep them at bay and hope you’d get the others away from the front door.” A nod at Olga. “Thanks again.”

  Olga looked at William when she said, “You’re welcome, Hugh. We’re in this together, right?”

  “They’re pretty dumb anyway,” Hugh said, clearly oblivious to Olga’s undertones. Such a sensitive boy when they’d started national service, he now lived in his own world. “It didn’t take much to drive them back. Thankfully there were only three of them.”

  William chewed the rest of his carrot, the loud crunch amplified through his skull. When he’d finished, he bit into the small sweetbread he’d been saving, the sugary taste swelling through him. While staring at the treat, he smiled. “This reminds me of my eighth birthday. We’d had an awful harvest that year, so rations were tighter than usual. I didn’t expect much that day, but it turned out my mum and dad had been saving some of their food in the weeks leading up to it. They’d given me the normal rations so I wouldn’t find out.”

  “They must have been starving,” Olga said.