The gunshot spurred the hall into action. Those armed opened fire at the Minotaur. The creature ducked and darted. Bullets sparked against stone. As one young man attempted to reload, the Minotaur tore out his throat. Another man crashed a chair across its head, only to have his own skull crushed by a casual flick of the beast’s wrist. In the corridor outside, men pulled more guns from a cupboard.
Everything was panic, but Jake was calmly on his feet.
‘Get behind me,’ he told Sadie, tightening the strap of his satchel across his chest.
‘No chance.’ Sadie hurried over to Tom, getting her fingers under the rope around his neck. ‘Tom? Can you hear me?’
There was no response.
‘Don’t let him go anywhere!’ Steve shouted, pointing madly at Jake. ‘Our salvation depends on it!’
A thick-set man with red hair nodded and charged at Jake, who casually knocked him unconscious. A second man lunged and, without even looking at him, Jake broke his nose. Reaching Sadie’s side, Jake knelt down and lifted Tom by his armpits. The bloodied corpse of a young woman was thrown against his shoulder, but he only brushed it aside.
‘Is he okay?’ Sadie asked.
Jake didn’t look at her. ‘He’s not breathing.’
‘We need to get him to the car,’ Sadie said.
Jake nodded, heading for the door. Sadie didn’t watch him go. She was looking at the relic, forgotten on the slate. She slid across the tiles and grabbed it to her chest. Her fingertips tingled.
Ignoring the screams and the blood and the bullets streaking in every direction, she jumped to her feet and hurried after Jake. If the Minotaur had come for him, or for Tom, it seemed to have forgotten. Instead, its dark eyes sparked with bloodlust at finding itself thrust into an arena of artless gladiators. It slashed and stabbed with its horns, and ripped and gutted with its talons.
It was only as Sadie reached the doors to the main corridor and opened them for Jake, that its nose twitched and shifted in their direction. Its latest, whimpering victim was discarded, and the creature charged towards them.
Kimberley had crawled to the door on her knees. Safe in the hall, she climbed up the wall. ‘I really want this to be a dream,’ she mewed.
Sadie put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Run,’ she said. ‘We’ll catch you up.’
Kimberley ran for the front door, but Sadie didn’t move. Maybe she felt safer beside Jake. Maybe she couldn’t bring herself to leave Tom. The Minotaur was almost upon them. Jake lifted the shotgun and fired once. At such short range, the blast was enough to throw the beast backwards. Its bare chest was stippled with blood and pellets. Jake pulled the heavy doors shut and jammed the gun across the handles.
‘Here,’ Sadie thrust the relic towards him. Jake shoved it into his satchel and she turned her attention to Tom.
Tom was flat out on the corridor boards. Sadie tilted his head and lowered his jaw. She murmured the mnemonic the school nurse had taught her. A for airway, B for breathing. And C, what was that for? Chest? Was there a D?
Jake lifted Tom’s right wrist, and pressed two fingers to the base of his palm. ‘There’s no pulse.’
‘Just watch the door!’ Sadie snapped.
She pinched Tom’s nose with her finger and thumb and breathed in until her lungs hurt. Then she pressed her mouth over his and cleared them out, watching Tom’s chest rise.
The barred doors shook. The Minotaur was trying to break through. Jake dug his heels into the floorboards and pressed his shoulders against the barricade.
In. Out. In. Out. Each time Sadie watched Tom’s ribs, praying they would take up her rhythm.
There was another crash and the doors bulged. The wood held, but the hinges flinched at the wall.
In. Out. In. Out.
Another thump at the doors knocked Jake to his knees. The shotgun barrels bent. From inside, more shots rang out. The Minotaur roared and men began screaming. Someone had bought them more time.
Tom spluttered. His body convulsed. For a wonderful moment, Sadie thought he might sit up and ask what was going on. That was what happened in films, wasn’t it? At the last minute, the kiss of life had the hero back on his feet? But then Sadie saw the vivid welts around his neck and the rope burns and grazes. This was real.
Tom didn’t sit up. The front of his T-shirt lifted, but only just. Jake darted forward and checked his pulse again.
‘Barely there,’ he frowned. ‘He needs to get to hospital, now.’
‘We’re in a gunfight, in the middle of nowhere. Right, yeah, I’ll just pop outside and flag down a taxi.’
Jake looked up at her, his bottom lip tucked behind his teeth. Sadie knew what that look meant.
‘We can’t.’ There were tears on her cheeks. ‘We have to do something. We can’t let him die.’
‘Everyone dies, Sadie.’
‘You didn’t. Look,’ she sat up, leaning over her fallen friend. ‘That rose you gave me. You said it would never wither, never die. That was your gift. You can do that here, can’t you? You can save Tom.’
Jake flinched. ‘You can’t ask me to do that.’
‘I’m asking. Save him.’
‘If the damage is more than superficial, he’ll always be like this, always a moment from death.’
‘Agatha healed him before. She can do it again.’
‘It’s not that simple, Sadie.’
‘Do it.’
Jake gritted his teeth and grunted through them. His shoulders tensed and he pressed both palms to Tom’s chest. Tom convulsed again, as if electrified, then fell limp. His breathing remained shallow and sporadic.
There was another crash as the Minotaur threw itself against the doors. Jake snatched Tom from the floor and followed Sadie down the corridor.
They found Kimberley standing motionless on the threshold of the front door. Steve emerged from a room on the left. There was a shotgun in his hands and blood on his shirt. He looked at Jake, his eyes red but steady.
‘I can’t let you go,’ he said. ‘We need to show the Gods they haven’t been forgotten.’
‘Nothing you do here will make any difference,’ Jake said.
Steve lifted the barrel to Kimberley’s forehead. ‘I’ve already made the offering. All I have to do now is complete the sacrifice. It doesn’t have to be the boy.’
‘My dad’s a lawyer,’ Kimberley squealed. ‘You kill me and he’ll totally sue your balls off.’
‘Kill her and I’ll kill you,’ Jake said. ‘Be sure of that.’
Standing behind Jake, Sadie checked her watch and stepped forward. ‘Kim, walk over here.’
‘Um, the gun, genius? He could totally shoot me.’
‘Take the risk.’
Kimberley’s mouth formed an appalled vowel. ‘You are so mean!’
‘Kim, please.’
Swallowing hard, Kimberley edged along the skirting board, until she was beside Jake. Steve traced her path with the gun barrel, coming around to stand on the doormat, blocking their exit.
‘What about this one?’ he said, jabbing the weapon towards Sadie.
Sadie lifted her chin, defiant. ‘You’ve got ten seconds to put the gun down,’ she said.
Steve laughed. ‘Or what? You’re just a child. You’ve got no weapon, nothing.’
‘No. But I’ve got friends.’
Steve’s finger slid up the trigger. He paused, hearing something behind him. An over-revved engine roared. Red tail-lights burned through frosted glass as Tom’s 4WD reversed up—and partially demolished—the veranda. Steve attempted to throw himself clear, but his head collided with the door as the car’s rear shoved it from its hinges.
The 4WD was showing no sign of slowing. Its sides scraped paint and sparks from the stone walls.
‘Brake!’ Sadie
shrieked. ‘Heather, brake!’
With barely a metre to spare, the car came to a shuddering halt. Heather’s meek voice could be heard from the driver’s seat. ‘Whoops!’
Kimberley tutted. ‘It’s the phone booth all over again. The girl’s a menace.’
Sadie quickly opened the back and helped Jake load Tom into the boot. Kimberley jumped in beside him.
‘Oh my god. Is he dead? He looks dead.’
It was just Jake and Sadie then, standing by the rear bumper. Rain soaked the floorboards at their feet. Jake swung the satchel free of his shoulders. Sadie thought he was about to give it to her, but instead he rested the bag against his forehead. His eyes closed and his lips twitched with some silent prayer.
‘What are you doing?’ Sadie said. ‘We need to get out of here.’
Opening his eyes, Jake looped the satchel’s strap around Sadie’s neck. ‘Get to the ocean,’ he said. ‘Use the relic. Save your home.’
‘You’re coming, aren’t you?’
A snarl of triumph echoed along the corridor. The Minotaur was through.
‘Go!’ Jake shouted, shoving Sadie into the boot. Immediately the 4WD lurched forwards.
‘Wait for Jake!’ Sadie shouted.
‘I said, drive!’ Jake yelled over her.
Steve had fallen against the nearest wall. He had a deep gash on his forehead. He was reaching for his shotgun as the Minotaur came around the corner and casually snapped his neck.
Kimberley shrieked. Heather panicked: her foot flattened the accelerator, and the 4WD tore itself free of the veranda. Swerving dangerously in the mud, the vehicle hurtled towards the road.
‘Wait!’ Sadie screamed, clinging onto Tom and the back seat to stop herself falling out the open rear door. Heather wasn’t listening. She was too busy making sure that she stayed on the gravel track and missed the rainwater tank.
Jake vaulted the smashed veranda and sprinted after them.
‘He’s coming,’ Sadie called to Heather. ‘Slow down, slow down.’
But then, there was the Minotaur. Its head was down and its horns were thrust forward. Snot and fury were streaming from its snout.
‘It’s chasing us!’ Kimberley shrieked.
Sadie could see what was going to happen next so clearly that it seemed to have already happened. All the haste and panic boiled away, leaving nothing but a slow, terrible moment.
Jake stopped running and turned to face the beast.
He put up his fists.
Sadie screamed at Heather to stop, but Kimberley was screaming at her to go. The monster had Jake’s leg in its teeth. It pulled him backwards and away, down into the mud. The car turned behind scorched trees and then there was nothing to see.
Soon they were winding a dangerous path back to the main road, heading back to their sinking city, but Sadie already knew it didn’t matter.
Jake was dead.
part three
the drowned city
21
BRUISES
They stopped halfway down the hill and parked on the gravel beside the road. It was nobody’s idea, but nobody argued. Heather simply pulled off onto the soft shoulder and switched off the engine.
Jake was dead. Jake was dead and it was Sadie’s fault. It wasn’t the Minotaur that had killed him, it was her. She had made him tear off that talisman, made him promise to betray the Gods. Was he out there somewhere now, being judged disloyal? Being denied a return ticket?
She pushed the door open and threw herself out of the car. The water streaming off the bitumen was ankle deep and the earth gave beneath her boots. She tripped twice, grazing her already-grazed knee. But she kept going, towards the glow over the next hill. Towards nothing, towards anything. The cold rain pulled her skin tight across every scratch and every bruise.
Kimberley’s voice followed her. ‘Where are you going?’
Sadie didn’t answer. It didn’t matter where she was going. Tom was in no state to drive and neither was the car. Both brake-lights were smashed, the windscreen was gone and there were worrying gouges in the bodywork. A torn tyre flapped around a buckled wheel. They were lucky to have made it this far.
She had always kept going. Moving on distracted her from the meaninglessness of her parents’ death. She had walked away from that crash, and things were okay. Death hadn’t won. But now, she didn’t feel there was anywhere to go.
‘You can’t just leave us here,’ Kimberley shouted. ‘This is your bloody road trip. You can’t just walk off!’
Tom slid down from the passenger seat. He was still unsteady on his feet and the welt around his neck was an ugly violet. But he snatched up Jake’s satchel and stumbled after Sadie.
She heard him coming, sloshing through the water at the road’s edge. Her own pace quickened, uselessly. She was too tired and too bruised to get any distance on him.
‘Where are you going?’ she sneered.
A hand flapped at his injured throat. He couldn’t speak. He held the satchel out to her.
‘Don’t be stupid.’
Sadie kept going. Tom grabbed at her arm but she tore it back.
‘Let go of me, okay?’
He ignored her. Again he thrust the satchel towards her.
‘Oh right, yeah. We’ll just jump on our white horse and ride back into town. It’s too late. Don’t you get that?’
Tom kept holding the satchel out to her, jabbing his finger west. When she didn’t understand, he repeated the gesture.
‘They’ve won, okay?’ Sadie cried. ‘Jake was the only one who knew how to open it, and he’s dead. I got him killed and now we’re all screwed.’
That was it. Tom snatched the bag back to his armpit, shook his head and started walking away from her, towards the glow, towards home.
‘Oh right, yeah. Great idea. Walk back to the city. Yeah, that’ll get you there in time.’
Tom kept walking.
‘I’m the one who was storming off. You’re supposed to run after me.’
He was still walking, with as much determination as his battered body could manage. Frustration percolated in Sadie’s shoulders and her fingers curled.
‘Seriously, Tom, stop. Come back.’
She took off, jogging across the gravel to catch him up.
‘Come back. Tom, don’t be stupid.’
She skipped alongside him, snatching at his elbow. She grabbed him near his right armpit, harder than she’d ever grabbed anyone, and spun him around.
‘Stop being such an idiot,’ she howled, trying to tear the satchel from him.
He wouldn’t let go. Sadie pulled, and he pulled back. When she realised she couldn’t win, she began slapping his arms. Before she knew it, she was thumping his chest with her fists and crying. She didn’t know why. She was just crying at the whole, rotten world. She sobbed for a whole minute before she had enough breath to say it wasn’t fair. None of it was fair. Nothing.
Somehow, Tom’s arms were around her. He held her. He said nothing. Her tears steamed in his T-shirt. Whatever it was—anger, frustration, sorrow—soon boiled out of her.
Sadie stepped back and he let her go. She wiped her cheeks with her wrists and took the satchel. She could feel the relic through the canvas. Electricity sparked in her fingertips. It was the same tingling she’d felt back at Ocean Street, when she’d lifted it from the mantelpiece. The demon inside was reaching out for her.
Take me to the water, it said, or did she imagine it? Release me.
Sadie remembered Jake holding the satchel to his forehead. Get to the ocean, he had said. Use the relic.
Release me, the voice said again.
Maybe Jake had unlocked the box. Maybe he had trusted her that much.
Sadie held out her hand. ‘Give me your phone.’
‘We’ll need a boat.’
Tom nodded. They both knew where they could get one.
Sadie didn’t know what she had done to deserve such friendship. But she hardly had time to wonder before she was blinded by a pair of high-beams coming over the next rise. Seconds later, a large vehicle—an old jeep, Sadie thought—rattled past. The brake-lights flared and it spun around to hurry back.
‘Is that the police?’ Sadie asked. By now, they might have found the dead bodies. It would look like a massacre, she realised, one of those horrific cult tragedies you heard about from the States. All those people.
She hadn’t thought about them. Not once. She had only thought about her friends, and about getting away with the relic. Had she even flinched on the riverbank, when they found what was left of Vincent?
Even now, she was really only thinking of Jake. Jake, being pulled down into mud and blood by the Minotaur.
The jeep drove past Tom’s abandoned 4WD and pulled up a few metres from where he and Sadie were standing. Its headlights snatched at the rain. The driver’s door opened.
‘Sadie, is that you?’
Agatha emerged from the jeep. She had a silk scarf tied around her head.
‘I hoped we’d find you,’ she said. ‘Are you all okay?’
Sadie wanted to run and hug this woman she barely knew. She felt that Agatha would understand.
‘We got what we came for,’ she said, holding up the satchel.
Agatha was marvellously blasé. ‘Oh, that’s it, is it? What all this hoo-ha is about? Do you know, I’ve never seen it. Oh dear,’ she frowned, noticing the wound on Tom’s throat. ‘Oh Tom, my poor love. That looks absolutely horrid. You must let me do something about it.’
Tom lowered his eyes and Sadie suspected he was blushing.
‘Now, I think the lot of you should join us in the jeep,’ Agatha said, linking elbows with both of them. ‘It’ll be a bit of a squeeze, but we should all fit.’
Fire in the Sea Page 16
