"Where are you headed?" he said as she finished the last of the water.
She didn't know what to tell him. Was it wise to tell this man, this stranger, that she was alone and vulnerable, wandering around the city looking for her husband. But he had a kind face and he'd already given her the one thing she needed the most. Trusting Tina had turned out to be for the best, besides, he was called Victor, that had to be a sign of something. She told him everything.
He listened without interrupting and she appreciated that. When she had finished he smiled warmly. "We're two of a kind Abigail."
"Abi, please."
He smiled. "Abi then. I'm looking for my family too. My wife and son."
It felt good to have met someone who could understand what she was going through. "Do you have any idea where they might be?"
He shook his head and sighed. "They were supposed to be meeting me for lunch. I work at the Park Harrington."
"I recognised the uniform," she said and wondered if she was flirting with him. "How old is your son?"
"He's four and a half, he wouldn't forgive me if I forgot the half."
She liked Victor, he seemed warm and trustworthy. She wished there was something she could do to help him.
"Maybe I should come with you," he said. "Seeing as I don't know where to start looking and you seem to have a fairly good idea where your husband..."
She cut him off, "we aren't married," she said.
"Then he's a fool," said Victor. "You seem to know where he'll be anyway. I could come with you, make sure you're safe. I'm sure he wouldn't want you wandering around by yourself. Have you seen all the broken windows? There's some pretty shady characters about."
"I'm not sure," she said. She didn't know this man, there was no way she should be going with him. Yet there was something about him.
"It's alright," said Victor. "I understand. I'm a stranger, you probably think you'll be safer by yourself."
Somehow hearing him say what she was thinking made her feel a little better. She shook her head and was about to tell him that she would appreciate the company but before she could get the words out the sky burst into flames and she felt the air get sucked from her lungs.
They both looked in the same direction as orange flames exploded and then the screeching sound of metal crunching and falling. The fire must have spread and caught in the business district. A moment later a similar explosion tore through the air in the other direction.
Suddenly Victor was holding her arm and pulling her away. She looked at him. "We have to get out of here," he shouted and she could barely hear it over the appalling sounds of destruction all around them.
He dragged her along the road and she didn't have it in her to argue. He was right, they did need to get away because there was really no way to tell which building was going to catch next. So she didn't resist and let him lead her away as the explosions continued above their head.
The heat continued to rise. She was sweating badly and panting for breath. Victor ducked down low and Abi got as low as she could which wasn't very low at all.
"We need somewhere to take cover," he shouted back to her.
She nodded, "any idea where?" As far as she could see nowhere was safe, everything around them was exploding.
"Just follow me," he said and dragged her on.
She had no idea where he was taking her but it didn't seem to matter now. The whole world was collapsing around her, wherever he took her had to be better than that.
16
She watched the green dots flash up across the map. Outside she could hear the control centre arriving and the other vehicles that made up the entourage. Dawson was riding with the control team.
They had relocated to a secure spot south of the city. They wouldn't stay for long: within the next two hours they expected to have confirmation that the hostile threat had made itself known and then they could call in the air lift. All of the equipment would be destroyed but the agents would be safely removed from site.
Gwen studied the screen uneasily. The field agents who had been sent in to carry out the mock evacuations and lay secondary charges wore head mounted cameras providing a live view of what was happening in the city. It would not be long before they lost that too. When the field agents were evacuated from the five exit points that had been created it would be time for the final stage of the operation to begin.
For now though she was able to watch the frightened expressions on the screaming faces of people trapped in the dense grey smoke.
A tapping sound at her window made her jump and look around. Dawson looked in, his face serious and, as ever, unreadable. She wondered if he would open up to her if she took him out somewhere for a nice meal, maybe a couple of bottles of wine and desert at her place. Probably not though, he kept his cards close to his chest; she didn't even know if he liked girls.
She wound down the window and he didn't even wait for her to ask him what was going on before he started to speak. "The hostile is active M'am," he said.
Her heart seemed to skip a beat. This was it, the real game had begun. This was the time where they made the sacrifice of the hundreds of people trapped in the city worth something. She nodded calmly, keeping her face as blank as his. She opened the door and followed him over to the command centre.
The geeks were already at their computers, tapping away. Gwen had no idea what they were really doing but it looked impressive. As long as they could give her what she wanted she didn't really mind.
"Show me," she said.
The geek nearest the wall display switched on the screen and did something on his keyboard. A moment later the screen was displaying video footage taken by one of the field agents. It was mostly the grey smoke she had watched on her way from their previous location. There was no sound.
"See this area here?" said the geek, standing by the screen and pointing to the top right hand corner.
Gwen nodded.
"Keep an eye on it," he said.
The video continued, every now and then the camera swung around to show the frightened faces of the people the field agent was leading towards the underground where they would be trapped and gassed like rats. This time Gwen felt no guilt, there were more important things to concern herself with.
As she watched the corner of the screen the video started to crack up, this was something she was assured should not have been possible but, as Dawson whispered in her ear, "it's probably something to do with the hostile." She nodded and kept watching. Suddenly the grey smoke in that corner flashed coal black and then faded to blood red. A face started to appear in the smoke but it wasn't a human face. It seemed to be made of the deep red smoke, it's mouth opened to reveal smokey fangs.
The mouth opened and opened until there didn't appear to be any face, only mouth. The footage continued to crack and break up and Gwen imagined that the creature was screaming in pain. It should be, they were killing it, burning it alive. This continued for a few moments until the footage cut out completely.
"What happened?" she said.
"That's all we've got," said the geek.
"Do we still have contact with the agent?" she said.
The geek shook his head. Well he was on his own then, they had known there were risks involved in the operation - there always were - at least he'd had a choice which was more than could be said for the people trapped in there with him. At least he knew and could prepare for what he would encounter.
"Do we have a spot on the hostile?" she said.
"Yes M'am," said the geek and he tapped a few more keys. The black screen flashed up to show a recent satellite image of the city, the smoke curled across the screen. "See this dark spot," he said.
Gwen nodded. It looked like a storm cloud.
"That's our guy," said the geek. "Looks like he's searching for a way out."
"Will it find one?" she said, turning to Dawson.
"No M'am, we're locked down tight."
"Good," she said and turned back to w
atch the black cloud drift across the screen. "What about the media?"
The geek pressed a few more buttons and the screen flashed onto the EBC news. They caught it just in time to see an asian woman in a business suit sitting in a well lit recording studio change to a young man in a suit standing in front of the wall of fire that now surrounded the city. Across the bottom of the screen a yellow block alerted those just tuning in that this was 'BREAKING NEWS' and beneath that the days more mundane stories scrolled.
"...don't know what has caused the fire to break out but city officials have been warning for months that there are a number of severe fire hazards around the outskirts and in the middle of the city. So far emergency services have been unable to get close enough to the blaze to begin fighting it."
"What about the people inside?" said the asian woman.
There was a pause while the question was passed around the world via satellite and into the presenters ear. He nodded. "Estimates range from five thousand to twenty-thousand people currently inside the city."
Gwen knew that it was actually slightly less than five-thousand. She was pleased that the media appeared to be picking up on the false stories they had been leaking. So far everything was running smoothly.
"M'am," said Dawson, she turned to look at him. "Are we ready for stage three?"
She nodded without really thinking about it. It was time to send in the professionals. "Have them suit up," she told him.
Dawson turned away and started talking into his ear piece to the three professional hunters. Three men whose job it was to get into the city and do whatever was required to destroy the hostile they had trapped there. Once they had done their job it was just the survivors to deal with and then they could all go home for some well earned rest.
17
She alternated between holding her breath for as long as she could and gasping great lungfuls of dirty smoky air. She did her best not to think about what all of this was doing to little Victoria. It was a relief that she didn't have to think about what to do for herself, Victor pulled her along reassuringly, weaving through the streets as if he could see exactly where he was going.
She could no longer hear explosions but the smoke was thicker and the air filled with dirt and shattered buildings. It hurt to breath. Wherever Victor was taking her she hoped that they would get there soon.
It seemed like hours had passed since he first grabbed her arm. She could barely see him in front of her through the thick cloud of grey smog. Eventually he began to slow down.
"Just through here," he said.
Something scraped along the ground and he pushed her in front of him. For one terrible moment she thought that he was throwing her down a hole and that the next thing she felt would be the air rushing past her face before a bone shattering crash. But she didn't fall. She was pushed inside somewhere and a moment later the door closed behind her.
Abi gasped and choked and put a hand on her stomach. "It's okay," she said. "It's okay."
"This way," said Victor and she felt him walk past her. When she looked up she realised that there were lights here, dim and fluttering but lights all the same. She saw him walk away and, as she followed his progress past the racks of pots and pans and the ovens, she realised she was in a kitchen. He had taken her to his kitchen.
"Why are we here?" she said, her voice cracked like a ninety year old smoker.
He didn't turn around as he led her through the maze like series of corridors. "It's the middle of the city," he said. "We should be safe here, at least for a while."
She continued after him and he stopped at a door. There was something written on it but she couldn't see what. She looked down at the floor, it was wet and slippery.
"We didn't manage to finish cleaning," he said. She looked up and saw him watching her.
"More important things to think about?" she said.
He nodded and pulled open the door. "In here," he said.
She didn't question it. What reason did she have to mistrust Victor? He had found her when she was lost and brought her to safety when the whole world seemed to be falling apart. She actually smiled at him as she walked into the dark. The emergency lights from the kitchen revealed racks of tins and packets of dry foods but when he closed the door behind him she could see nothing at all.
"Here," he said, his voice directly behind her. She felt his hand on her shoulder and something cold and heavy placed in her hand. "It's a torch," he said, in case you need to move.
"Thank you," she said.
He switched on a torch of his own and swung the light around the room. There wasn't much to see. "Hold on," he said and she stood still while he walked away. A few moments later he returned with a metal barrel. "It's not much," he said as he placed it down behind her. "But it's better than sitting on the floor."
"Thanks," she said and let him help her back onto the barrel. She could feel the coldness of it through the thin material of her dress. It was like putting ice on a sunburn and felt wonderful.
He sat down next to her. She could feel the warmth of his body radiating against her own scorched skin. She waited for him to say something but she could only hear him breathing. She didn't like the dark enclosed space, had never liked them since she was a child and her brother had locked her in the cupboard under the stairs and then forgotten about her for an hour until she started crying loudly enough for the neighbours to hear, but she supposed it was better than being out there in the smoke and the heat.
"So what now?" she said.
He didn't reply at once. His breathing had become quicker and shallower and she began to worry that he had taken in too much of the noxious smoke. She began to think about Craig and how badly her plan to find him had failed. She might as well have gone to the underground with Tina if all she was going to do was sit in the dark room and wait for all this to be over.
She wasn't going to do that though, no, she would give it a little while for the smoke to clear from the new fires, then she would thank Victor very much for looking after her and continue on to CoffeeKing. Maybe she would find him there, she hoped so, maybe she wouldn't. But she had to try.
"How long do you think..." she began to say but stopped abruptly when she felt his hand on her bare leg. Her heart seemed to stop and her whole chest fluttered violently. Instinctively she tried to pull her leg away, maybe it was just an accident, but he squeezed hard and she couldn't move. All she could think was that he would leave bruises there and she would have to think of something to tell Craig.
He didn't move his hand. Just kept it there, tightly holding her thigh so that she couldn't move.
"Victor please," she said, breathlessly. "Don't."
He didn't reply and he didn't remove his hand.
She stopped struggling. She couldn't get away from him and it seemed like a bad idea to waste what little strength she had trying. Gradually she felt his hand move up her leg.
"I'm pregnant," she whispered.
"I don't mind," he said.
She swallowed and closed her eyes, it made little difference in the dark. She could feel his hand getting closer and closer to her crotch and she had the stupid thought that she was wearing big knickers, granny panties as Craig called them. As if this would somehow be better if she was wearing silly lace underwear.
Abi gasped as a hot hand grabbed her left breast roughly. She let out a pained squeak. Before getting pregnant she hadn't had much in the way of a chest and now that she did it was always sore. Her breasts felt bruised. Much to Craig's disappointment she never let him touch them while they made love. Now this man, this stranger, had just helped himself.
She bolted out of her seat and the surprise of the movement must have caught him off guard because she slipped away from his probing hands. She was suddenly furious that this man would take from her something she hadn't even given Craig.
She heard the barrel scrape across the floor as he stood up.
"Stay away from me," she said.
"Abi, please," h
e said. "Don't over react."
"Over react?" she said. The nerve of the man. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I thought you liked it," he said.
"You thought I... what the hell do you think you're doing? You've got a wife and a son." Suddenly it occurred to her that he might not have either.
"I just wanted to make you feel comfortable. Didn't your boyfriend ever touch you like that? Guess he must have done at least once."
She realised that she didn't know where his voice was coming from. Sound echoed around the room in a manner she wasn't familiar with.
"Why don't you sit back down and we can talk about this."
"Stay away from me," she said.
"You don't really mean that. You like it, I can tell."
She gripped the torch in her hand. It was heavy enough that she might be able to do some damage with it but she had no idea where he was and this was his comfort zone not hers. If he got close enough for her to do anything it would already be too late. She didn't think he would be quite so gentle if he got hold of her again.
"You did, didn't you?" he said. "Got you all hot and bothered feeling me on you?"
She didn't reply. She had an idea that he was just keeping her talking so he could creep up on her. She held her breath and took a step back, half-expecting to feel him behind her.
Come on Abi, she thought. You're a smart woman, you can get yourself out of this. But her mind was racing, what would Craig think of her if he found out she'd been with another man, even against he will.
"My baby," she said.
"You owe me," said Victor. "I saved your life."
She shook her head, even if he couldn't see her. He sounded deadly serious and, most worrying of all, completely sane. He really seemed to believe that raping her was a fare trade. "I won't," she said.
"I'm not asking you," he said.
"Please," she whimpered. "Just let me go, I won't tell anyone, I promise."
Three Stories Tall Page 6
