Winter Smith (Book 2): The Secrets of France

by Strange, J. S.

  She stared into the eyes of a skull. “How did it get like this?”

  The skull stared back at her, its mouth agape. She eyed the rest of the wall, where skulls were fashioned to look like a heart, like a child’s papier-mâché project. They had been here a long time ago, but they had met the fate she was no doubt about to meet.

  The noise stopped. Violet listened, expecting something to happen. The silence stretched. And then, a shadow flickered on the wall: a human shadow, or the shadow of a Martyr.

  Violet crouched down, aware she wasn’t hidden, and aware she was going to be seen as soon as that thing rounded the corner. But she stayed rooted to the spot, determined to stand her ground, regardless of what faced her.

  Her eyes widened when she saw Missy. Except for hair that was tied back, she looked the same as she had when they had been captured.

  “Violet.” Missy gasped. “What the hell happened?”

  From behind Violet came Heidi. “Oh my gosh.”

  Violet threw her arms around the two girls, and was relieved when they hugged her back. To feel them in front of her reassured her, if only for a brief moment.

  “Where’s Caroline? And Ruby?”

  Heidi and Missy looked at one another. “We were hoping you knew.”

  Violet sighed. To be split from their group was not a good situation to be in. “Do you think V has captured Cedric to kill him?”

  Missy nodded slowly. “I did think that. He was wanted by her, wasn’t he? It made me wonder if he is getting special…treatment.”

  “Do the others know?” Heidi asked. “Did they get back to our place and get captured, too?”

  “How am I supposed to know?” Violet said, a little harshly. “I was given the same treatment as you lot.”

  “Thrown in the back of a van and taken through tunnels, until you came face to face with a living and talking dead man.” Heidi stated.

  “Seriously, what is up with that?” Missy asked.

  “I’m frightened, and I don’t want to know how many there are.” Violet sighed. “But we need to find a way out of here. We need to make contact with the others.”

  Missy began pushing on the bumpy walls, as if something might give way. “These tunnels go for miles. The exit could be anywhere.”

  “Every entrance to a new tunnel is guarded,” Heidi said. “The Martyr here wanders back and forth. I’ve been timing him, and it’s roughly every fifteen minutes he comes back. So he’s patrolling. I know these tunnels go for miles, because there are parts still unexplored and parts that were never opened to the public. Somewhere, there will be a chance to get out. Where that exit goes, however, I have no idea.”

  “How much time have we got, until that Martyr walks back around here?”

  Heidi paused for a moment, staring up at the low ceiling. “About five minutes, if I remember correctly.”

  Violet nodded, looking left and right. “Which way is best to go?”

  “Towards where we came in,” Heidi said, as Missy watched the exchanging of plans. “I think we need to pass that entrance, and keep going down that way. If I’m right, we will be heading towards The Louvre, and that is definitely going to be an entrance.”

  “Is heading towards The Louvre a good bet?” Violet questioned.

  Heidi shook her ginger locks. “I don’t think so. But it might be a safe bet to walk a little further, and get out after The Louvre.”

  “If you think that is best. Let’s go.”

  “Wait, we can’t just wander off. They’re going to know we’ve wandered.”

  “Missy, we’re pretty much in a huge prison as it is. They’re not going to care if we wander. They just don’t have to know what we’re up to.”

  Missy sighed. “If you think so.”

  “I do. If you want to get out of here, we wander.”

  They turned and began to walk, past where they had come in, and further down tunnels that were lit only by candles. Odd sounds carried to them in the density of close surroundings; voices that weren’t there, and footsteps that seemed to come up behind them and then rush on by. They soon realised that it was easy to get lost. They turned one corner, made a right, turned a left and found themselves a few feet away from where they had started.

  They came face to face with the Martyr who had let Violet in. He grinned at them, letting off a stench from his putrid breath. “Having a look around, are you, girls?”

  “We’re trying to see what’s accessible to us,” Violet answered.

  “There’s no way out.” A bit of flesh fluttered on his cracked lips. “These tunnels go for miles, and you’ll go insane before you find a way out. Why do you think the guards down here are dead?”

  “Because V is fucking sick.”

  The Martyr chuckled; a throaty laugh that looked like it might have been painful. “Right you are. Keep walking. But don’t wear yourselves out yet.”

  “And why not?”

  “Surely you want to at least try to survive this? V will have you on trial, and you can hopefully be proven not guilty. Then, you will be free to go.”

  “V won’t let us be anything but guilty.”

  “You think so little of our new world leader,” The Martyr hissed. “V is willing to hold out a hand of solitude, if only you will accept. Something tells me that you three are not key players in The Union. Your names are only vaguely recognisable. If anything, you will stay down here for a year, maybe three. But V will want to recruit you and give you a better future. One you will be foolish not to take.”

  Missy laughed. “We’re not going to accept anything V has to offer us. She has done damage that is unforgivable.”

  “A world needs something to flush out the weak, flush out the problems, and flush out what needs restarting.” The Martyr smiled. “Either you are weak, in which case, you die. Or you are strong, and smart, and join V. There is no place for fugitives and rebels.”

  “And there will be no place for the Martyrs,” Heidi hissed.

  The Martyr chuckled, as if he knew something that was not common knowledge, and turned to leave. He stopped at the entrance to another tunnel, and looked back. The muscles on his exposed neck twisted with it, making Violet feel nauseas.

  “Keep walking, and you may find what you are looking for. We are not your captives. We are just your watchers.”

  He left, disappearing into the darkness.

  “What did that mean?” Missy asked.

  “It means this prison is a test,” Violet replied.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  There were three weeks to go until New Year’s. That was three weeks to go until Winter could attempt to save her parents. Nathan and Olivia Smith had disappeared from her too long ago, and had remained out of her grasp and out of her sight.

  Cedric and David had been working together, contacting people on the black market, and insiders in V’s departments, to try and gain some insightful information on where they could have gone. So far, there had been nothing.

  “I feel hopeless each day,” Winter said, wearing a bathrobe. “I think daily about my parents, but I don’t hold out much hope for their survival.”

  “Winter, you can’t think like that.” Cedric shook his head. His hair was long, and untamed facial hair had grown on his handsome face. “We can’t give up on them. I’m certain V has kept them alive, because she knows they have a hold on you. She knows, eventually, you will come and try and save them.”

  “But why does she want me?”

  “By now, she must know you are immune.” Cedric sighed. “I’m afraid too many people in The Union were aware of this information, and if we are being betrayed, which I strongly believe we are, then there is no doubt she knows. If she does know this, then you are going to be killed.”

  Winter blinked. “What?”

  “I’m not going to let her kill you, of course. But that is what she will have in her mind. You cannot survive.”

  “Why not?”

  “The immune are going to be the answer
to the cure,” David spoke, staring at his computer screen as he built the anti-newspaper to counteract V. “She knows that. The world prays for that. The labs in Amsterdam are hoping we come back with the details to take this further.”

  “But so far, we only know that myself and Connor are immune.” Winter ran a hand through her overly long, untameable hair.

  “Maybe that’s enough,” Cedric replied.

  “Is it?”

  David shook his head. “There needs to be more.”

  “Eight, or maybe ten people, need to gather together to form the cure,” Cedric said. “If my research, and the research from Amsterdam is to be believed.”

  “But how do you know that for certain?” Winter asked.

  “Your bloods were not enough. When we took them when you had been bitten, and we were certain you were going to be immune, we sent them to Amsterdam. We held our breaths, hoping they had found a cure. They hadn’t. Now, we will try your blood again with Connor’s, but in the past exchange with Amsterdam we were told there would need to be a high volume of immune blood to make mass cures.”

  “What if V knows something that we don’t?” It had been a thought plaguing her for too long. “What if my mum is immune, or my dad? My mum has been gone longer. Maybe there is a reason for that.”

  “Maybe, but Connor hasn’t seen her,” Cedric said. “If he had, then we may have thought she was immune. But right now, it seems as though your mum has disappeared off the face of the earth.”

  Winter hated the insensitivity of it. “It makes me think she might be dead.”

  “I’ll be honest.” Cedric pulled a face. “It doesn’t look good.”

  Winter stared at the floor as Cedric mocked up plans for New Year’s, and David carried on with the newspaper. The plan was to publish and distribute it as soon as possible, and before New Year’s. That way, V knew she had more problems on her hands, and would hopefully be distracted when they got in to The Louvre.

  Winter didn’t like the plans at all. Her parents could not be there. It was possible they weren’t even in France, or were now out in the open, wandering the streets with the army of the dead. She hated to think that her mother had been tortured to death, or her father had met his early demise, purely because their daughter had remained immune to the man-made virus.

  Winter got up, and went to look outside. The reflective windows gave her peace of mind, but whenever Blitzers drove by, her body screamed at her to move. This time, the Blitzers had parked up on the looping hills, and were pointed directly at the house. They seemed to be watching it, determining if something was going on inside.

  “I think you need to see this.”

  She heard Cedric and David stand up. David let out an exasperated sigh, begrudging that he had been disturbed from his work.

  “Shit,” Cedric whispered. “Shit. Why are they parked there?”

  “Could be anything,” David said, though he didn’t sound convinced. “Maybe they’ve broken down. Or they’re changing shifts.”

  “Or maybe they know something is going on in here. My god, how did they find us?”

  “Cedric, we don’t know that they have. Let’s just keep an eye on them. Soon, they will go away.”

  Winter stared at the car, and looked at the two Blitzers inside. They seemed to stare back at her, though they gave no indication that they knew she was there. Of course, she couldn’t see their features. They could be talking right now, plotting their way in to the building.

  Just then, the door downstairs opened and Lara walked out onto the courtyard. She looked around, breathing in the air. The Blitzers, who were parked on an angle so they could just about see the corner of the door, moved forwards. They pointed, and quickly hopped out of the car.

  Winter gasped. Cedric and David had left her at the window, but came running back.

  “Shit!” Cedric exclaimed again. “GET LARA INSIDE, RIGHT NOW!”

  “What was that?” Winter heard Connor say.

  Lara was heading towards the gate, Blitzers on the other side. Winter banged the window, trying to alert Lara, but it was no use.

  “The windows are sound proof,” David said.

  Cedric tore out of the room and they heard him running down the stairs.

  The gate started opening, but Winter saw that Lara hadn’t done anything. In fact, Lara stepped back, aware that something wasn’t right.

  The two Blitzers ran into the courtyard and showered Lara in bullets. She jerked backwards a few times, before falling flat on her back. Winter crumbled, watching the blood pour out on the ground.

  The Blitzers ran past Lara’s dead body, to the open door.

  Winter headed out of the room and ran down the stairs, in time to see Connor slamming the door on the Blitzers. Their bullets rained on the door, like acorns ricocheting off the roof of a car, but they weren’t getting through.

  “Here, weapons,” Cedric said, opening a cupboard and throwing a gun into Zach’s open hands. “Get up on the roof, and fire those Blitzers down.”

  Connor caught another gun, and together, him and Zach moved past Winter and headed to the roof.

  “What can I do?” Winter asked.

  “You’re not doing anything,” Cedric said, loading his own gun. “You and David stay down here.”

  “But I want to help.”

  “Winter, now is not the time!”

  Winter said nothing. She let Cedric go and joined David, who was sitting on the floor, pale and staring into nothing.

  “Are you okay?”

  David shook his head, wiping sweat away from his forehead. “Lara…”

  “I know.” Winter managed, but she had nothing else to say. The shock wouldn’t let her think about it.

  They heard the bullets firing from above, and they heard clunks as the bullets made contact with the Blitzers. Winter peered out of a downstairs window, and saw both Blitzers fall. For good measure, the boys on the roof continued to fire, until they were sure they were dead.

  Winter waited for them to come downstairs. Cedric and Connor led the way to the door, but Zach trailed behind, pale.

  “Sit down,” Winter instructed him. She was sure he would faint.

  He sat on the stairs, the gun in his hands now empty. Winter headed out into the air, which was chilly, and walked slowly to Lara’s body.

  Her eyes were still open, and she stared up at the overcast sky in disbelief. Her whole body was marked with bullet wounds. The killer blow had most certainly been the one that had gone through the side of her head. Winter felt angry, as she looked down at the body of the girl who had been the secret carrier of The Union. Without Lara, they wouldn’t have had Connor. Without Lara, they would not have been here.

  David walked slowly out of the house, and stopped at the doorway. He stared at Lara’s body, stunned into silence.

  “What are we going to do?” Winter whispered.

  Cedric shook his head. “We can’t stay here. They would have told base that we’re here. No doubt, V has sent out Blitzers to chase us down.”

  They had brought V to Cannes, where the beauty was still relatively untouched. She looked out at the sea, at the boats that bobbed in the ocean.

  “We need to get off the land.”

  Cedric followed her gaze. “It’s an option.” He turned to David. “David, get the plans. Get the prints. Get the weapons. We’re getting out of here.”

  David turned and headed back into the house, defeated. Connor came into view, shaking.

  “I can’t believe it. How did they know?”

  “Maybe we gave something away, without realising it,” Cedric said. He looked around, trying to determine what it could be. “Maybe they took a guess.”

  “Evil, evil world.” Winter remarked.

  Connor placed his hand on Winter’s back. She hadn’t heard him approach. She didn’t jump, but she moved back into him, relishing his presence.

  “She didn’t deserve that.”

  “Nobody deserves this.”

/>   “It was the train driver,” Zach said. All eyes turned to him. “The one Lara had at gun point. She didn’t kill him. He was working for V. He probably told her he was hijacked and taken to Cannes.”

  Cedric cursed under his breath. “Fuck. Fuck.” David re-emerged, carrying too many things.

  Cedric helped David load the van the Blitzers had been parked in. They found a radio in the front, which had been tuned in to headquarters in Paris. Cedric shot it, destroying it, ensuring they could not be tracked or followed to the harbour. Time was pressing on them.

  “I’m so angry,” Connor said, as they headed to the van. “I just can’t believe this has happened. I’m so angry.”

  They left Lara’s body behind, lying on the asphalt, her eyes staring up at the sky.

  They drove up the lane instead of down. Cedric, who was behind the wheel, had a different route to the harbour. However, as they drove past each private home, they realised theirs had not been singled out. Every house they passed had been broken into, either forcefully or let in by victims. They saw one or two bodies lying on the grounds of the wealthy homes, but other than that, there was no other sign that the houses had been hiding fugitives. It seemed the Blitzers had struck lucky when they found The Union.

  “Maybe because we killed the Blitzers, it means they didn’t have a chance to tell V we were here,” Winter said, as the car rattled along the lanes.

  David, clutching the plans in his hand, shook his head. “It’s a possibility.”

  They began their descent from the lanes of wealth, and headed towards the harbours. They sat in silence, watching the sky outside turn darker shades of blue. They stepped out of the van and onto the harbour at the beginning of nightfall, when the sun had set but it wasn’t pitch black.

  Winter cast her eyes at the lampposts, all turned off. The boats on the harbour no longer lit up and glistened, but bobbed rather sadly, waiting to be used. Some boats, further out at sea, were cast in shadows. Winter didn’t want to know who or what was on board.

  They made their way onto three boats, before they finally found one that they could use. As if by miracle, the keys had been left in the ignition. Maybe the people who had owned this boat had disappeared, or maybe they had met their fates.