Ruby stood up. Winter raised her gun. Ruby didn’t step forwards, but she held her ground as she stared at David. “I am not driven by fear.”
“Why else would you agree to work with V?” David clutched his wound. His face was pale.
“Because she’s the right…”
“You don’t really believe that.”
“I do.”
“You don’t.”
Ruby shook her head, placing her hands to her temple. “Please.”
“Ruby, it’s not too late.” David swooned. “You can still work with us. Nobody needs to know but us what you’ve done.”
“David…” Violet warned.
“I can’t…”
“You’ve been a decoy, you’ve betrayed our plans and our secrets, you’ve sold us out, and no doubt you’ve flawed many plans we may have had. But you can still be on our side, if you agree to leave this all behind. If you agree to trust us and know you’re safe.”
“David, what are you saying?” Violet asked.
“We all make mistakes,” David began.
“This is not a mistake!” Winter couldn’t believe what was happening.
“She’s right.” Ruby nodded, fresh tears streaming down her face. “You are doomed. You’re all doomed. Working with V is the right thing to do.”
“Admit it is because you’re scared,” David said.
“No,” Ruby spoke.
“Admit it, Ruby. At least give us the decency of truth.”
“Fine!” Ruby grabbed her hair. “Fine! I’m scared! Fuck, I’m petrified! This is survival. Have you not realised that? We’re all trying to survive, and I’m surviving by joining the true team. The ones we need to be with if we want a better way of life. Life as we knew it is gone. This is a new world order. And I have to be part of it! I have to be!”
“It’s a shame, Ruby, it really is.” David sighed, adjusting his blood stained hand. “You could have survived with us, and had the knowledge that you were doing the right thing the whole time. Now, you’ve just made things worse for yourself. Cedric left V for a reason.”
“He left because he hoped to overthrow her before she got control.”
“Wrong.”
“Right.” Ruby laughed. Her emotions kept changing, surprising Winter. “You need to get rid of that man. You made a mistake working with him.”
“Who else is betraying us, Ruby?” Winter asked. “Caroline? Maria?”
Ruby shook her head again. “I won’t say a word.”
“Please,” Winter said. “Then I will let you go.”
“It’s Maria.” Ruby shouted. She gasped, surprised at her words. “It’s Maria. Maria is V.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
Locked inside a crate, Connor, Nathan and Caroline sat next to one another, their hands cuffed together and their feet tied. They were naked, except for dirty white cloth that covered their waists.
“I’m glad to see you’re both alive,” Connor said, his eye black from a fresh punch.
“Not for much longer.” Nathan croaked. He hadn’t drunk for days.
“Don’t say that,” Caroline pleaded. Her lip was cut from her abduction. “You can’t think like that.”
Their crate rocked as the jeep they were being transported on hit potholes. Connor hit his head and cried out.
“Shut up!” Someone from the outside said, hitting the base of a gun against the wood.
They waited, falling silent, listening to the air rush by as their transportation kept on route.
“Where do you think they’re taking us?” Caroline whispered.
“I don’t know,” Connor replied. “Why us?”
“You’re immune.”
“Are you?” Connor asked them both.
Nathan shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“I’m not,” Caroline said.
“Then why us?”
“W-Winter,” Nathan croaked. “We all know Winter.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m her father.” Nathan swallowed. “You two are linked to her. Connor, you’re immune.”
“We’re being brought here as a trap?” Connor asked.
Caroline gasped. “Oh, god. Oh, no. This can’t be happening.”
“Shut up in there!” Another whack on the box.
Their jeep began to slow down. Connor tried to fight his way out of the cable ties that cut into his ankles, but he couldn’t.
“We’re going to die.” Nathan sighed.
“Don’t,” Caroline snapped. “Stop saying that!”
“Where did you go, Caroline?” Connor asked. “We lost you.”
“They caught everyone in the house, when they went to save you.” Caroline held up both her hands and awkwardly brushed away a strand of hair. “They separated us. I woke up in a cell. I was told I was important to the final plan. That was it. Next thing I knew, I was being forced into this crate. I was relieved to see you were alive. Are the others safe? Is Winter?”
Connor nodded. “They’re safe. At least, safe enough for now. I got caught in The Louvre. They’re still there.”
“Shit,” Caroline gasped. “They’re trapped.”
“They’ll get out,” Connor said, though he wasn’t sure.
The jeep stopped. The handbrake clicked on. The doors squeaked and the Jeep swayed as people got out. Other cars pulled up, their engines rumbling next to them.
They heard footsteps, people being ordered into line, talking, but they couldn’t make out any words.
“I hope Olivia is safe,” Nathan said.
“Maybe she’ll be here, too.”
Nathan shook his head. His hair was long and tangled, his face covered in growing facial hair. “I hope not. We’re not getting out of this.”
They heard footsteps approaching them, boots weighing down the jeep just enough for them to dip. The top of the box was lifted, revealing night air and the glistening Eiffel Tower standing tall above them.
Blitzer hands reached in and pulled them all to their feet. Other hands grabbed them and ordered them forwards.
They shuffled off the jeep and jumped to the ground. Blitzers held them at gunpoint so they couldn’t run. Not that their tied legs would have let them, anyway.
In front of the Eiffel Tower were three pentagrams. A platform sat in the middle, a pole jutting upwards. Connor watched as the platforms began to descend. He was oddly reminded of a fairground ride he had seen back in London. But this was not a ride for cheap thrills. This was life or death.
Blitzers surrounded the Eiffel Tower, guns in their hands, looking up at the yellow twinkling lights as if they had never seen them before. Connor’s heart dropped when he spotted cages.
Inside those cages were the dead. They hissed at the Blitzers, reaching out tempted by food. They sensed anticipation in the air.
It was fifteen minutes until New Year.
The platforms stopped at the bottom of the pentagrams, and Connor, Nathan and Caroline were separated. They were led to the platforms, and the barrels of the gun pressed into their backs, urging them on.
Connor reluctantly stepped on the platform, turning around to view the crowds of orange and red Blitzers.
His hands were tied behind him on the pole, barbed wire strapping his bare chest to the wood. There was enough room to move, but only a few inches. He couldn’t get out. If he moved at all, the wire stabbed him.
Caroline cried out at the pain. Nathan gritted his teeth.
The platforms began to rise. Seeing Paris from the sky was extraordinary. It revealed the damage the Blitzers had caused. Camps had been set up on rooftops. People moved in the shadows, watching the attraction set up.
The pentagrams began to turn, away from the crowds below, and towards the tower itself. Connor gritted his teeth as his chest was cut, as the wires dug into his thighs. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of protest.
His eyes widened as he came face to face with people stood on the top platform of the tower. His eyes fell
on the unfamiliar faces of Nickel Solo, his arms crossed, and Maxwell Weiglass, his arm in a sling, and he saw his own reflection in the helmets of red Blitzers.
But his heart flipped when his brown eyes came to rest upon the face of his mother.
“Hello, Connor.” Maria said. “Welcome to the final show.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
Before they could ask any more questions, and before Ruby could say anything else, she scattered. She turned and ran down the hallway, away from Winter, who didn’t fire the gun.
“Why aren’t you shooting her?” Violet asked.
“She’s not worth it,” Winter said. David let out a groan. Winter turned to him. “David…”
“Find Cedric. Find the others. Let them know I’m here, but I’m hurt. I can’t go down with you. I’ll lose too much blood.”
“We can’t leave you here.” Zach shook his head.
“Of course you can. We’ve just found out Ruby has betrayed us, and so has Maria. You need to find Cedric and the others and get out of here. I’ll get out my own way.”
“You’ll die.”
“Maybe I have to.”
“Are you sure?” Winter said. “Are you sure you want us to go?”
“You have to.” David nodded at a clock in a cubicle. “It’s almost midnight.”
Winter eyed the clock. Ten minutes. Ten minutes to find out what V, or now, as they knew it, Maria, had planned for her invited guests.
“David, we’ll be back,” Zach said.
“Just go.” David coughed. “Please.”
Winter led the way. They headed down the aisle and through the door, back into the stairway. They walked down the stairs and back into the corridors full of storage offices. Winter tucked papers into her pocket, vowing that they would get out of here with the information they had come to get.
As they stood at the door leading back into reception, Winter turned to face her friends.
“We might not make it out of here tonight.”
“We have to,” Violet said. “What we got tonight is enough information to go on. Let’s get out of here and get to Amsterdam. Let’s bring this bitch down.”
Winter nodded. She smiled at her friends. “I live for you.”
“We live for you, too.”
Winter opened the door, and walked out into reception, which was empty. They peered over the stairs and saw everyone gathered at the doorway to the ballroom.
“We need to get in there,” Zach said.
“I’m not sure.”
Winter wasn’t keen to join the unknown. After learning of the trap they were in, of the people who were not guests, but invited enemies, all Winter wanted to do now was plot an escape route. They had information.
“We need to stay until midnight.”
They headed down the stairs, Winter concealing her gun, and they pushed their way into the ballroom. People were chatting, music played; there was a warm atmosphere in the air. Nobody knew what was being planned. Nobody knew what was going to happen.
They were halfway across the room when Missy appeared before them.
“There you are!” Missy eyed Winter’s gun. “You got a weapon.”
“From Ruby. Ruby is betraying us.”
Missy gasped. “Follow me.”
Missy turned, and they followed her to the middle of the marble stairs. Cedric gasped when he saw them, placing his hands on Winter’s shoulder.
“Don’t you ever scare me like that again.”
“You told us to split up,” Violet commented.
“I shouldn’t have.” Cedric shook his head.
“Where’s Connor?” Winter asked.
Cedric bit his lip. “They got him. The Blitzers. They caught him.”
“No.” Winter gasped. She turned to leave, but Cedric grabbed her.
“We can get him back. They won’t win.”
“Why are we here? We need to get to him. We need to find him.”
“Yes,” Cedric said. “We do.”
“You need to know something,” Zach said. “It’s Ruby. She’s betraying us. Maria is V.”
Cedric’s eyes widened. “I suspected Ruby, but I didn’t think it would be true. Maria?”
“She’s been V this whole time.”
“But she’s been working with us.”
“She’s been out there getting information,” Winter explained. “Ruby was the decoy. That’s why V wore robes. It was all planned.”
“Shit.” Cedric gasped. “Fooled me.”
“It fooled us all.”
Cedric looked over Violet’s shoulder. “Is David not with you?”
“Maxwell Weiglass stabbed him.” Winter spoke. “He’s injured, but alive. He’s upstairs in the offices. He said to leave him and get you. He said he wants us to leave him.”
“I can’t.” Cedric shook his head. He went to step forwards, but the music cut and the lights dimmed. Everyone cheered.
Lights flickered on the stage and the audience applauded as V walked out on the stage. She wore a yellow robe, from head to toe, and walked directly to the microphone.
“That must be Ruby!” Missy gasped.
“Or Maria,” Violet said.
“I don’t like this,” Heidi said, as Blitzers followed V out on the stage, guns in their gloved hands.
The audience stopped applauding. They stepped back. Whispers broke out. It seemed many people were thinking the same thing: what was happening?
“Two minutes to midnight,” Ruby spoke. “How wonderful! I want to personally thank every single one of you for coming here tonight. My annual celebrations are always a talking point, but with the success of this year, tonight’s event will forever be known as history. It is time for the new world order to head into phase two, and for us to truly celebrate my creation.”
The glass doors behind her began to open out into the dark night. The lights on the balcony flickered. Anticipation in the room crackled.
“As you may well have known, or at least heard, I am responsible for the apocalypse that brought the world to its knees. Many of you will be angry to learn this. Many of you will be stunned that a woman could do such a thing. Others will be celebratory with me. A new world order is what was needed! The world got too compliant. We were chained to the daily grind. We were held down by rules that were out-dated. It was time for a fresh start.”
To Winter’s horror, applause broke out as people in the room agreed with what was being side.
Ruby held up her gloved hand to signal for the applause to stop. “I’m glad you agree, but it is almost midnight. I don’t have much time here.” Winter’s eyes were caught by movement outside on the balcony. Shadows moved in the darkness, disjointed, coming closer. People near the door began to notice. Some stepped back, others stepped forwards.
“What are those?” Missy whined.
“I think we know what they are.” Cedric gasped. “We need to leave.”
“I’ve invited you all here tonight to learn the truth of my creation,” Ruby said. “You are all here because you do not belong in the new world order. You are all here to witness just how powerful I can be. I am not to be crossed. Those who are here let me tell you this: if you run, you are weak. If you sacrifice yourself, you will be recognised and celebrated in years to come. If you escape, you are strong, but what you do once outside determines if you belong in the new world order.”
The groans of the dead filled the room. They were on the balcony, running towards the open windows, to the room full of people that were destined to become their feast.
“I wish you all a happy new year. The celebration continues at the Eiffel Tower. Maybe I will see you there.”
The clock hit midnight. Bells rang out in the night.
People ran forwards, their arms outstretched, and allowed the dead to bite into them. Others screamed, pushing people to the floor in their haste to escape. Blood began to pour in the ballroom, like an artist’s paintbrush on a blank canvas.
Stood on the stairs, W
inter watched as people fell. The dead were inside. V had organised a massacre.
“Come on,” Cedric shouted. “Come on!”
They ran up the stairs, past people running towards the dead, and with people who wanted to survive, who wanted to escape. The Blitzers on the stage began to shoot at the crowds, but they weren’t killing the dead. Instead, they killed the living, wounding them so they would be set upon.
Then Winter saw people wiping make up from their faces around her, revealing burst blood vessels underneath their skin, purple veins jutting out and skin flaking away from exposed bones.
Those revealing their true selves grinned at them. They began to laugh. Winter had to pinch herself to confirm she was not in a twisted nightmare.
The Martyrs watched the carnage; they pushed the living to the ground, and watched as their family tree set upon them.
Winter and her group burst out of the room through another set of doors. They were in a gallery, where people who had been injured sat and others ran for their lives. They left the sounds of the bullets, the groans of the dead, but they knew it would not take long for The Louvre to become full of the dead and the infected.
“This is sick,” Violet screamed. “This is fucking horrible!”
“Did you see them?” Missy gasped. “The Martyrs. The people around us were Martyrs the whole time! Dressed up! This was one sick trap.”
“We won’t let her trap us!” Cedric pointed down the hallway, to a window at the end. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Did you hear what she said?” Violet asked. “The Eiffel Tower. She said the celebrations continue.”
Their hearts beat heavily as the fear pumped around them. More Martyrs wiped away makeup, revealing their dead skin. Their transformation was extraordinary.
They headed away from the ballroom and down the hall. Martyrs burst out of the room behind them, laughing, dragging the living by their hair and throwing them against the walls.
“That’s where the real V will be.” Cedric said, as they ran down the hall. “Maria.”
“We’ve got to go,” Winter said. “Connor might be there.”
Winter Smith (Book 2): The Secrets of France Page 32
