“And what’s this got to do with her attacking us?”
The monitors and large computers raised the temperature of the room. Sweat lifted on Vicky’s brow from her rush over there, which she wiped away with the back of her sleeve. “After she’d dropped the family in, she said they need to attack us soon. That she’s going to take Home for her own.” A tightness ran through Vicky’s chest. So stressed she felt her panic spilling over.
“So why are you only telling me this now?”
“I fell asleep.”
“You what?”
“Look, don’t judge me. I haven’t slept for days. It was the only time I haven’t wanted to fall asleep and I sparked the second I lay down. I couldn’t help it.”
“Shit!”
“Right? We need to set the diseased loose on them.”
A look at the monitors and Serj turned back to Vicky. “But it’s getting late and I have another fifteen minutes in here.”
“Yeah, but no one’s taking over after you because it’s too dark to see anything, so what does it matter if we leave a little early? No one will know.” Before Serj could respond, Vicky said, “Look, I know it’s getting rapidly darker outside, but we have to try. The longer we leave this, the more likely Moira is to attack us.”
“Why don’t we just tell the others?”
Vicky put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to one side at him.
“Meisha,” Serj said. “Fuck.”
“Exactly.” Vicky shook her head. “If Scoop sees her daughter and the others find out we’ve been hiding this from her … They weren’t happy about the pen in the first place, this will only prove how bad an idea it was. We need to go out, plan the route to Moira’s community, and lead the diseased over there before dark.”
Another look at the monitors, but Serj didn’t respond until he said, “How will we get past Scoop on the door?”
“She has to use the toilet once in a while.”
“Right,” Serj said. “Let’s go, then.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
The canteen didn’t have many people left in it. Some of the adults remained up playing bridge and other card games, but all the children had left, and most importantly, Vicky couldn’t see Piotr or Flynn.
Every second in the place took a second of daylight away from them, and they’d been sat there waiting for the past twenty minutes already.
“What if she’s only just been to the toilet?” Serj asked as he frowned at the screens: 9:12 p.m.
Vicky scratched her head and checked the contents of her bag. She’d stopped at the weapons room and put three hammers in there for the prisoners. Small enough to get through the gaps in the fence, and hopefully they’d break up the concrete for them. “Hopefully she hasn’t, but if we have to wait too long, then I suppose we don’t go out tonight. All we can do is wait and see if Scoop moves. We can’t force it.”
Vicky looked at the short stairs leading to Home’s foyer and she saw Scoop emerge as if on cue. The woman looked delirious as she walked, so exhausted from very little sleep she didn’t even notice Vicky and Serj watching her.
Once she’d left the canteen in the direction of the toilets, Vicky looked at Serj and nodded. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be. Oh, wait,” he said, pulled a key on a shoelace from his pocket and held it out to her. “This is for the new lock. Just in case only one of us makes it back.”
Although Vicky took it, she shook her head. “Don’t be soft. Come on, let’s go.”
They both got to their feet and headed for Home’s entrance.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Vicky walked quickly alongside the pen, with Serj next to her, their backs to the river as they headed in the direction of Moira’s community. The jog over there and now their fast march made her sweat. The hammers in her backpack sometimes shifted to awkward angles and jabbed into her spine. Despite it getting darker, the heat of summer remained in the air.
They walked along the side of the pen farthest from Home. Vicky had never been on this side before. The grass came up to just below her breasts and dragged on her progress. Not great considering the rapidly dwindling light, but they needed to tread the route they’d lead the diseased on before they tried to run it with over two hundred of the fuckers on their backs.
The groans and moans followed them as they walked, the rotten stench snaking up Vicky’s nostrils. Whenever she glanced across, she saw Meisha. Even a cursory look into the pack and the girl’s tormented face stared back at her. One of the most well-balanced teenagers she’d ever met, Meisha had had her shit together. Scoop had been a good mother and loved her dearly. Meisha had worn it well.
It made it harder for Vicky to see the diseased as monsters when familiarity stared back at her. Innocence and purity ravaged by the hideous plague she’d helped loose on the world.
Not only did she look at the girl—her dark skin turning blacker from where she’d already started to rot—but she looked at the fat dude next to her. A lumberjack shirt and beard, he looked to be in his mid-forties. Probably a dad before all this happened. Someone who loved his family, his beer, and his day of sports on television on a Sunday. Just an average Joe. Another person unfairly turned because Vicky had helped set the virus free.
An old woman stood next to the man. She looked to be at least seventy years old. If anything, the disease seemed to have injected a new lease of life into her. She might have had the rambling and twitchy gait of the inflicted, but the way she bobbed and weaved as if trying to dance her way free of the disease spoke of someone decades younger than her. “Hardly a fucking cure for arthritis though, is it?”
“Huh?” Serj said as he looked across.
Vicky shook her head. “Nothing.” Before Serj could say anything else, she picked the pace up a little. If they ran now, they’d have no running left when they needed it most, so she kept at a fast walk. “So if we lead them around this way when we let them out, it’ll keep them as far away from Home as possible.”
“Makes sense,” Serj replied, looking around at their overgrown surroundings. “I just hope we don’t have to run too fast. I’m still not confident we can get this done before dark.”
“It’ll be fine,” Vicky said and sped up some more. “They’ll be slowed down by the grass as much as we’ll be.”
Worry lines creased Serj’s face. “But can they see in the dark better than us?”
“Have you seen their eyes?”
Serj didn’t respond and rightly so because Vicky didn’t have a clue if they could see in the dark or not. They should be tripping over their own feet, but they weren’t.
In all the time they’d contained the diseased, the thick fences had held. Because of that, Vicky didn’t think about the creatures as much as she maybe should have. When she looked at them all reaching out to her, she shook her head. Never good to get complacent around the fuckers. She looked across again. They snarled and hissed, biting the air and moaning as if it caused them physical pain to be restrained.
The tree with the ropes hanging down from it marked the edge of the pen. As they passed it, Vicky looked out over the dark sky and sighed. “I hope we never have to lure any more of them here again. I’ll be glad when we finally put our plan into action.”
Serj nodded. “Me too.”
***
Vicky led Serj to the top of the hill looking down on Moira’s community and inhaled a lungful of the fresh night. The light had got to the point where it became almost tangible. The dark blue fuzz of those moments between day and night had thickened the air around them.
They’d come to a different point on the hill than usual, one further from Home. “We should be able to lead them off this bit.”
The wind picked up, and when Vicky looked at Serj, she saw him pull his hair from his brow and hold it there as he nodded in response to her. His eyes were narrowed to slits, probably from a combination of both the sharp wind and the lack of light.
To look down at Moira
’s community—a chicken coop for people—lifted nausea up through Vicky’s stomach and dragged a bitter taste into her mouth. “How can someone be as cruel as her? What the fuck do they achieve? Just to think of the prisoners she keeps down there … I hope Aaron’s okay.”
It took for Vicky to look at Serj again before he replied. A shake of his head and he said, “It’s fucking tragic. When you take away the rules, some people feel the need to let out their darker side. I wonder what happened to her before this and why she feels the need to be such a cunt to everyone?”
Before Vicky could reply, he added, “I don’t know if we’ll have the light for this tonight, Vick. Especially if we need to get the hammers to the prisoners before we set the diseased free.”
Vicky opened her mouth to respond, but the words caught in her throat when she heard the sound of voices nearby.
Serj tugged on Vicky’s arm and dragged her behind a large bush close to them.
Vicky peered through the gaps to see the silhouettes of people appear. The gang numbered eight in total. They had to be Moira’s people.
Careful to avoid them, both Vicky and Serj moved around the outside of the bush to remain out of the gang’s way as they walked past it. Although she didn’t want to use it, Vicky kept her sweating palm wrapped around the handle of the knife in the back of her belt just in case. She held her breath as she watched them.
One of the men said, “So if we go over there tomorrow and kick the front door in, we should be able to take the place over no problem. They ain’t expecting an attack from us, and none of those useless fucks in Home can fight. We’ll take them down quickly and the place will be ours.”
The others laughed, but none of them spoke. They seemed to all agree on the plan. Nothing left to discuss.
As they walked off, blending into the night when they got far enough away, Vicky looked at Serj. “We need to tell the others,” she said. “They need to know what’s coming for them before we set the diseased loose. If anything goes wrong, they need to be ready. Besides, I hate to admit it, but you’re right about the light. It would be suicide to let the diseased out now.”
“But if we tell the others, they’ll want to come with us in the morning. What about Scoop and Meisha?”
Vicky chewed the inside of her mouth for a second before she said, “I have a plan.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
The light in Home’s foyer had shown Scoop asleep against the window where she waited for her daughter’s return. Vicky hadn’t seen peace on the woman’s face for a long time, and maybe they should have let her rest, but they needed all the guards behind this.
At a guess, Vicky assumed it to be past ten in the evening, and although it had been warm earlier, the breeze now chewed on the parts of her body not covered with clothes.
Vicky slipped the key into Home’s front door and freed it with a click. A look at the window and she saw Scoop’s eyes flash open.
When she slipped into the bleach-scented foyer with Serj behind her, Vicky closed the door and looked at her friend.
A screwed-up face and confused frown and Scoop said, “I thought you were Meisha.”
The words stabbed into Vicky’s chest and she said, “Sorry.”
Scoop didn’t reply.
“We went out to check on everything and got more than we bargained for.”
Still groggy from sleep, her voice croaking as she spoke, Scoop said, “What do you mean?”
“We need to get the guards together in the monitor room to discuss it.”
“I ain’t going anywhere.”
“You can look at the monitors for Meisha.”
“The monitors are dark.”
Vicky made a point to look out of the large window in front of her and then back at Scoop. “Your view will be as good there as it is here. If you see anything, you can leave straight away.”
Not that Scoop looked pleased with the plan, but she accepted it with a nod.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The same size as all of the rooms in Home. The same white walls, the same blue linoleum flooring, the same plain ceiling. Be it a bedroom, a gym, a prison cell, or a surveillance room, each one had to fit into the same cramped space of every room in Home. Other than the communal areas, the rooms were all an identical size. A single bedroom at best, a double at an absolute squeeze.
A wall of monitors, a seat in front of them, and all five of Home’s guards meant every time Vicky moved, she bumped into something or someone. Serj, Flynn, and Piotr watched Vicky, waiting for her to speak. Scoop watched the monitors. Although what she could see in the dark …
With her back to the monitors, Vicky faced the others, the screen glow lighting up their features and casting strong shadows in the poorly lit room.
“Serj and I went out about half an hour ago and we saw some people from Moira’s community.”
“You went out without us again?” Flynn said. “Why do you keep on doing that?”
“We wanted to check on everything outside and to walk the route we’ll lead the diseased on when we set them loose.”
“In the dark?”
“It wasn’t dark when we went out,” Vicky said. “Besides, we don’t have much time left before they attack us.”
Although Flynn drew a breath to reply, and the tension in the room wound tighter from the silent anticipation of it, he kept it to himself.
Serj spoke next, reciting the lie he and Vicky had agreed upon. “They said they’re planning to attack us in two days’ time.” If they told the group they had two days, it would get them ready for an attack should they need to be, but allow Vicky and Serj to take care of things in their own way, without Scoop finding Meisha. If they thought they’d get attacked tomorrow, the guards would be up at the crack of dawn with them.
“They want Home for their own,” Serj continued. “I’m guessing that’s the only reason the solar panels and our water filtration system have remained intact. Why would they destroy something they plan on using themselves?”
“We need to release the diseased on them before they can do that,” Vicky said. The other guards nodded.
Scoop had watched the monitors for the entire time, so when she spoke, Vicky jumped. “When shall we attack them?”
Heat spread through Vicky’s cheeks as she lied to them. “Tomorrow. At nine in the morning.” If they thought they had a whole day to attack Moira’s community, the guards would accept a nine a.m. start.
“How will we all get up at nine?” Flynn asked.
“I’ve slept all day, so I’ll be awake,” Vicky said. “I’ll get Serj at four for his shift in here, Scoop is taking over from him at six, and Piotr after her at eight. If we need to wake people up, then we can, but we’ll be awake in time.” Before anyone could speak, Vicky added, “I don’t think we should tell the community about it yet. If we can take down Moira and her lot with the penned-in diseased, then we won’t need to involve them. Besides, I don’t want to tell them about the pen.”
Silence met Vicky’s comment.
Scoop finally said, “But what if we can’t?”
“They’ll be ready,” Serj said. “Most of the people in Home are preparing for what’s coming, so I have no doubt they’ll mobilise should they need to. What’s important is that we make sure we’re ready to mobilise them. We’re keeping it between the guards for now to save an early panic.”
“And will you actually let me do something tomorrow, Vicky?” Flynn said, his shoulders pulled back, his stare fixed on her.
Vicky ignored the comment.
“I hope you’re right about this,” Scoop then said, her eyes deep and dark pits in her tired face. The thick white bands of her eyeballs stood out beneath her mahogany irises. “Whatever happens, I won’t let that community take anything else from me. This world has already taken enough.”
Silence followed her comment until she spoke again. “We lost Meisha’s dad right at the beginning of all of this. He died so we could survive. He faced the disease
d to give us a chance to get away. Now Meisha’s gone.”
Although Vicky could feel Serj next to her, she didn’t look at him. Instead, she looked at the floor. If Scoop stared into her eyes, she’d surely see deceit.
At the sound of Scoop’s sobs, Vicky looked up again.
Scoop’s shoulders bobbed with her crying and she shook her head. “I pray she’s okay. Every waking moment I pray for Meisha.”
No one else moved, so Vicky stepped forward and hugged her friend. If it didn’t jeopardise everything, she would have told her about her daughter, but they needed to make the decision for the greater good.
While Vicky held Scoop, she looked up at Serj, and Serj stared straight back at her. They didn’t communicate with one another, but they didn’t need to. They’d agreed they couldn’t tell her; they didn’t need to discuss it beyond that.
Piotr’s thick Russian accent cut through the room, taking some of the focus away from Scoop’s distress.
“I had a wife and child too. We hid out in a school for the longest time and we thought we were safe. But one of the community got chased and he broke our number one rule: don’t bring any diseased to our door. He broke it and then some. We managed to get him in, but we couldn’t keep out the horde he brought with him. There must have been a hundred of them at least. I’d been put on guard duty that night. I was at the opposite end of the school to my wife and son. The diseased rushed in and swarmed the place. I fought.” The large man shook as he continued, “I fought long and hard, but I couldn’t do anything to overcome the monsters. There were so many of them, and they got between me and my family.”
Tears glistened in Piotr’s eyes. “I ran around the outside of the school to get to my wife and son. I knew they would have locked themselves in our room and thought that maybe I could get in through the window. By the time I’d reached the room, I watched the diseased smash the door down and swarm the place. I saw them attack my family.” Several tears ran down Piotr’s cheeks when he looked at Flynn. “Alexander, or Sasha as we called him, would be your age now.”
The Alpha Plague (Book 6) Page 12
