Doomsday

by Chris Morphew

  She sprinted across the bunker towards me. I lost my grip on Shackleton, sure one of the guards were going to pull the trigger on her, but they held their fire. She almost knocked me over as she threw her arms around my neck. ‘Oh, Luke …’ she breathed. ‘I’m –’ ‘Mum, stop,’ I said, pulling back enough to look at her, knowing that if I started properly crying now, I’d be in no shape to take Shackleton anywhere. ‘I know. I love you too. But –’

  She dragged me to her again, kissing me on the forehead.

  ‘When you’re ready,’ said Shackleton in an undertone.

  Mum spun away from me, arms out at Shackleton like she was going to strangle him, but then she caught sight of van Pelt storming over to break them up and she shrank away, back to her place on the bed.

  I looked at them all, one last time, then took Shackleton’s shirt in my fists and pulled him across to the giant door he’d rolled over the lift. ‘Open it.’

  He bent slightly, holding down the lift button and speaking into a tiny hole above it that I’d never noticed before. ‘Igne natura renovatur integra.’

  CLUNK.

  The giant deadbolt inside the wall hauled itself apart and the barricade rumbled open, groaning under its own massive bulk. More thundering clunks rang out around the room as the lockdown was reset.

  I glanced back and saw Reeve leaning in close to Jordan’s dad, still whispering.

  I cringed. Please, please, don’t do anything stupid.

  Shackleton released the button and the lift doors sprang open. I pushed him roughly inside, hitting the button to take us upstairs, and the doors closed again.

  As soon as the bunker was blocked from view, I heard a shout from the other side of the doors. The shouting turned into screaming, which was overtaken almost immediately by a deafening barrage of rifle fire.

  I cried out, abandoning Shackleton and throwing myself at the doors, but it was already too late. The lift jerked upwards, pulling us away from the noise.

  I rested my head and hands against the doors, forcing myself to breathe. Surely the guards hadn’t just killed them all. Not after Shackleton specifically ordered them not to.

  I straightened up again, turning to catch Shackle-ton’s reaction, but it was like he hadn’t even heard the shots. He just stared straight ahead, straight through me, his attention locked on the doors. The mask of unconcern was completely gone now, replaced by a look of absolute focus.

  We’d lost. He knew that much.

  But we could still keep him from winning.

  ‘You have no idea how much it will please me to watch you writhe in agony,’ he said tonelessly.

  I jerked him backwards. ‘I think I can imagine.’

  But as the lift kept rising, a new voice sounded in the back of my mind, hardly audible over the whirlwind of terror and anger, but still making itself heard. A still, small voice, waking me to the reality of what I was doing, quietly questioning whether this was really how I wanted to go out.

  Because whatever the stakes, whatever the extenuating circumstances, I was still dragging an old man into a hostage situation to barter for the life of his daughter – and that felt a little too much like his tactics for me to actually be okay with it.

  Shackleton was as close as I could imagine to pure, unblemished evil. He was a monster. He deserved to pay for what he’d done.

  But what about me?

  If it really was all over, if humanity was doomed and I was going to be unceremoniously torn apart in only a few minutes …

  Was I going to spend that time letting myself get dragged down into Shackleton’s twisted new reality, or fighting it?

  The doors opened, and I led Shackleton out onto the scene of destruction left behind by our earlier firefight. It was eerily quiet, the whole place cast in an orange glow by the setting sun outside. Cold wind blew in through the broken windows, rustling papers and raising the hair on the back of my neck.

  I jolted, a sudden vibration shooting up my arm as Shackleton’s phone began to ring again. I fumbled, almost dropping it, then jerked it to my ear. ‘Jordan?’

  She didn’t speak, but I could hear her breathing, even unsteadier than before.

  ‘Where are you?’ I asked, dragging Shackleton across the room. ‘We’re here.’

  Galton growled something I couldn’t make out.

  ‘The window,’ Jordan choked. ‘We’re outside, but –’

  ‘Coming,’ I said, a chill snaking through me. ‘Almost there.’

  ‘Luke, wait,’ said Jordan. ‘Galton –’

  She broke off as I reached the broken window, and I felt my heart splinter into a thousand tiny shards.

  They were down on the roof of the medical centre. Jordan was kneeling on the concrete, muddy and trembling, a wet blanket slung over her shoulder. Galton stood over her, pressing a pistol to her head.

  Shackleton peered down, face still fixed with that cold, emotionless focus.

  ‘Well,’ he said, in barely more than a whisper, ‘doesn’t that change things?’

  THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 4.47 P.M. 13 MINUTES

  I couldn’t do it.

  For all my screaming fury, when the time came, I just stood there, frozen, unable to channel any of it into action. I’d got Galton all the way up to the roof, pinned her down, made the call to Shackleton, and then –

  I don’t even know what happened next.

  But suddenly she was darting out from under me, spinning to attack, and the gun was right there in my hand, ready to shoot her in the leg or something, but I couldn’t do it, and that moment’s hesitation was all Galton needed. She might not have had her powers anymore, but twenty years of hiding them from her father had turned her into a creature of absolute poise and precision. In a single, fluid motion, she’d kicked my knees out from under me and sent me crashing in a heap to the concrete, still trying in vain to protect my brother’s dead body.

  And just like that, the whole world went spinning back out of my control.

  Galton released the fistful of my hair she was holding and tore the phone away from my ear. She glared up across the street at Luke. ‘Release him.’

  Luke stepped away from Shackleton, arms spread wide. But instead of disappearing back into the building, Shackleton stayed right where he was.

  He wants to see it, I thought, barely keeping my head up enough to look at him. He wants to watch us die.

  Shackleton reached out to Luke, who handed over the phone.

  ‘Yes,’ said Galton above me, clearly shaken. ‘Yes, I’m fine. What do you want me to do with her?’

  I stared at the figure in the window. What would give Shackleton more satisfaction? Seeing Luke’s reaction as Galton put a bullet through my head, or forcing me to watch as Luke got torn up by Tabitha?

  The moment stretched out, and I wanted to be stoical, to go to my death full of rage and defiance, but my gaze drifted to Luke and all of that disintegrated and I slumped down, shuddering for breath, nose and eyes running streams down my face. We were finished.

  Tobias’s body hung in the sling, cold as frost against my chest. I stared down at our shadows, stretched out across the roof in the setting sun, the dark bulge of the sling protruding from my stomach in a sick parody of a pregnant woman. I turned away, hugging him against my chest, and a roar rose up from the depths of me.

  WHY? WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME? WHAT WAS THE POINT? WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ANY OF IT?

  ‘Here,’ snapped Galton. She shoved the phone against the side of my head and I heard Luke gasp into my ear.

  ‘Jordan!’

  ‘Luke!’ I croaked, dragging myself up to look at him, lifting my hand to take the phone. ‘I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t –’

  ‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘Don’t be stupid. You have nothing to –’

  ‘I killed him, Luke!’

  ‘I know that’s not true.’

  ‘Luke, you weren’t –’

  ‘It doesn’t matter!’ he said, voice cracking. ‘I don’t care what happened ou
t there. You didn’t kill him. They did.’

  And though I knew he was wrong, hearing him even defend me was like a shot of life back into my veins.

  ‘Listen to me,’ said Luke. ‘I know this didn’t work out the way we wanted it to, but I want you to –’

  His voice fell away. Back up at the window, I saw Shackleton snatch the phone out of Luke’s hands.

  ‘Thank you, Jordan,’ he hissed in my ear. ‘I believe that will be sufficient. Just enough to ensure that your voice is fresh in his mind as he watches you die.’

  He spoke in a cold, grey monotone, completely different to his normal voice. This wasn’t wide-eyed, gleeful, surface-level Shackleton. This was the real deal.

  ‘Now,’ he said, the words turning darker still, ‘hand back the phone.’

  I couldn’t move. I just knelt there, frozen in place.

  Shackleton’s silhouette leant towards the window. ‘VICTORIA!’ he shouted, loud enough to be heard at a distance, and Galton clawed the phone from my hands. She paused, listening to Shackleton, the cold muzzle of her weapon digging into the back of my head again.

  ‘Really?’ she said, with the hint of a sneer. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like to stand here and listen to them chat a bit longer?’

  She glanced up at the window, listening again. Then a ragged shout rang out from across the street and she started, smacking me in the head with her gun.

  It was Luke. He’d just launched himself at Shackleton, knocking him over, the two of them rolling to the ground, perilously close to the shattered window.

  And from nowhere, some secret store of adrenaline charged through me and I whirled around, diving into Galton’s legs. She thumped to the ground, losing hold of the phone but not her pistol, right arm already outstretched to –

  BANG.

  I tumbled to the ground, sure I was dead, rolling over in time to catch a glimpse of the hulking figure exploding through the doorway. He barrelled out onto the roof, and I felt relief burn through me like wildfire.

  ‘Dad!’

  Galton scrambled to her feet, aiming her weapon again. Fast, but not fast enough. Dad grabbed her arm, tearing the gun away, throwing it to the concrete.

  He lifted up a massive hand and pounded her into the ground.

  LUKE

  THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 4.51 P.M. 9 MINUTES

  ‘Oof!’ Shackleton grunted, coughing old man smell into my face as I slammed him down by the shoulders again.

  We were right at the edge now, jagged glass rising up from the ground on my right and scattered across the floor beneath us. Icy wind lashed at my face, spraying me with rain that had apparently decided now was a good time to start coming down again.

  I glanced through the haze of wet glass, my heart rocketing as I saw Jordan’s dad send Galton sprawling. He pinned her down with one knee, dragging her hands around behind her back.

  Shackleton bucked under me with strength too big for his ageing body. He lunged with his head, trying to smash it up into mine. I ducked and he used the momentum to roll us over.

  I slammed into the low wall of cracked glass rising up from the edge of the carpet and heard a sickening creak as it shifted under our weight. I pushed off with my feet, and a huge shard of it snapped away, tumbling out of sight through the rain. But it was enough. I was back on top again, kneeling now, a hand to Shackleton’s throat to keep him from struggling.

  Across the street, I saw Jordan fumbling to pick something up from the roof. She raced over to her dad, one hand still clutched to the bulge at her chest.

  Shackleton snarled up at me. ‘You’re dead, Luke.’

  I cocked my head at the medical centre. ‘She’s not.’

  Down on the roof, Jordan raised a hand to her ear, and another blast of music rang out from Shackleton’s phone. It vibrated across the carpet, just out of reach.

  I took a hand off Shackleton and lunged. He pushed up from under me, trying to free himself, but my knees kept him down just long enough to grab the phone and pull it open.

  ‘Hey,’ I grunted, putting the phone on speaker and dropping it on Shackleton’s chest, freeing my hands to pin down his throat again. ‘You okay?’

  ‘Can you see him, Jordan?’ Shackleton gasped, before she had a chance to answer. ‘How long do we have left now, do you think? Five minutes? Six? Your view might not be quite as good as mine when this pestilential blight finally meets his end, but I hate the thought of you missing –’

  ‘Jordan, listen,’ I said, squeezing down on his throat to silence him, ‘you need to get out of here, okay? Take your dad. Get your family out.’

  ‘No,’ she choked. ‘No – I’m not just going to leave –’

  ‘I’m dead, Jordan! A few minutes and I’m gone. But I can at least hold Shackleton long enough for you to –’

  ‘Luke,’ Mr Burke cut in, ‘Reeve told us to wait here. He’s gone down to the labs under –’

  Shackleton’s eyes widened.

  With a burst of energy, he wrenched his body, throwing me off balance. I flew to the ground, one hand still clawing at his throat, and the phone somehow wound up underneath me, digging into my back.

  Shackleton drove a bony fist into my face, and my vision blacked out for a second. By the time the blur cleared, he was back on his feet. A muffled voice screamed up from the phone. ‘Luke!’

  Pain shot through my ribcage as Shackleton delivered a vicious kick to my side, and I rolled towards the glass again. Rain hammered into my face.

  ‘Jordan, listen to me,’ said Shackleton in a rush, snatching up the phone. ‘I am prepared to negotiate a prisoner exchange – Luke’s life for my daughter’s – but only if –’

  ‘No!’ I groaned, spitting blood out of my mouth and scrambling back from the edge. ‘I’m dead anyway! What’s the point of –?’

  ‘I can save him,’ said Shackleton, still speaking to Jordan instead of me. ‘There is a way. But you must follow my instructions precisely.’

  ‘He’s lying!’ I shouted, pulling myself upright on the nearest desk, fingers slipping in the wet. But even as I said it, I felt a little spark of doubt.

  Could there be another way for me to survive this?

  ‘His parents too,’ said Jordan, voice still thick with tears. ‘You have to –’

  ‘His mother,’ said Shackleton. ‘I can’t save his father.’

  And even though it wasn’t new information, hearing him write off my dad like that was like a sledgehammer to the gut.

  I staggered towards Shackleton, hazy doubt forcing its way to the front of my mind. This was wrong. Why were we even having this conversation? What had happened to Shackleton’s ecstasy at watching me die?

  ‘You have thirty seconds to return my daughter’s weapon and release her down the stairs behind you,’ Shackleton pushed on when Jordan didn’t respond. ‘And the phone,’ he added as an afterthought. ‘You will surrender Ketterley’s phone to her as well.’

  ‘Something’s wrong,’ I said leaning in. There was a frenetic energy in Shackleton’s expression that I’d never seen before. ‘He’s worried all of a sudden. I don’t know why, but –’

  Shackleton drove his elbow sharply back into my chest and I heaved back, grunting.

  ‘Twenty seconds,’ he said. ‘Release her and I will show you how to save Luke.’

  Jordan’s voice gasped out of the speaker. ‘How do I know you’re even –?’

  ‘Fail to do so,’ said Shackleton, venom in every word, ‘and I will call down to the bunker and have your family executed.’

  I grabbed hold of him again. ‘You think I’m just going to let you –?’

  ‘He can’t,’ said Mr Burke, sounding less than certain. ‘The bunker is ours now.’

  ‘Is it still?’ asked Shackleton. ‘Fifteen seconds.’

  I moved back to the window, dragging Shackleton with me. A gust of wind swept through and I almost overbalanced.

  Mr Burke was still perched on top of Galton, her pistol aimed down at her with one h
and. He and Jordan stared at each other, neither of them speaking.

  ‘Ten seconds,’ said Shackleton. His voice was icy as ever, but I could feel him shaking. ‘Nine. Eight.’

  Jordan jerked around, looking up at us. Even from here, I could see the agony on her face.

  ‘Seven. Six –’

  ‘Do it!’ said Jordan, snapping. ‘Let her go! Dad, come on, we can’t just –!’

  ‘Five –’

  ‘He’s bluffing!’ I said. ‘Don’t –!’

  ‘Four –’

  ‘Dad!’ Jordan screamed, pulling at him with both hands.

  ‘Three –’

  ‘Okay!’ said Mr Burke, getting up. He spun to face us, hands in the air, and Galton struggled to her feet.

  ‘The pistol,’ Shackleton ordered.

  ‘No!’ I said. ‘Guys, this isn’t –’

  Mr Burke threw out his hand, sending the pistol skittering across the ground towards the stairwell. Galton snatched the phone from Jordan and hurried over to pick the weapon up.

  Jordan raced after her, yelling at the phone. ‘Shackleton!’

  Galton whirled around, pointing the pistol at her, and Jordan fell silent.

  Shackleton nodded in approval and my stomach lurched again.

  Right into his hand.

  But how else had they thought it would go? There was no saving me. Of course there wasn’t.

  Galton raised the phone to her mouth and started moving backwards towards the stairs, careful to keep Jordan between herself and Mr Burke. ‘Noah?’

  ‘Victoria,’ said Shackleton urgently. ‘Get downstairs. I need you to find Matthew Reeve and –’

  With a feral grunt, I smashed my fist into the back of Shackleton’s head, and the phone sailed out of his grip. He fell perilously close to the edge of the window, but his hands clenched on air and the phone went tumbling away through the rain.

  Shackleton spun, barely missing a beat, and aimed another fist at my face. I ducked, glancing past him to see Galton disappearing down the stairs. Whatever Shackleton had been trying to tell her, it seemed like she’d got the message.

  Mr Burke bolted past Jordan to give chase. Jordan hovered on the spot, torn between going after them and staying here where she could see Shackleton and me.