As Vicky watched the people eat, apparently oblivious to the blood-curdling sound of the diseased in the pit, she turned to the man from the farm. “I never got your name.”
“Aaron.”
“Just Aaron?”
“What does a surname matter now? My dad was an arsehole; he can keep it.”
Vicky nodded. “Well, Aaron, I’m Vicky. I promise I’ll be back for you. You’ve survived this long, I’m confident you’ll do okay.”
“I’m glad you are.”
Neither spoke as the wind seemed to pick up. Vicky looked over her shoulder into the darkness. If a horde attacked now, she could do nothing to stop them. By the time she saw them, it would be too late. She also looked toward the section where the guards hung out. Anxiety shimmered through her.
Aaron cut through Vicky’s thoughts. “Now let me ask you something.”
“Go on.”
“Why should I wait for you to come back?” He stroked his stubbled chin, his cheeks so withdrawn his thin skin did nothing to conceal his skull beneath. “I reckon Moira would give a lot to someone who handed you back to her.” His green eyes lit up. “Like, I dunno, freedom maybe?”
The people around Aaron stirred, but Vicky focused on the man from Home. Any noise and he could alert both the guards and the diseased. Any noise and she might not see the morning.
“I mean, you’re the one who got away. You and I both know that will never sit well with her and she would do a lot to right that wrong.”
Vicky wanted to speak, but the silence of the evening seemed to reach into her lungs and steal her words. Quickened breaths and a dry throat and she stared at Aaron. As much as she wanted to reach for the knife on her hip, she didn’t. She’d come to rescue them, not kill them.
Aaron’s green eyes narrowed and a wonky grin spread across his withdrawn face. “I’m guessing you don’t have a good reason, then?” He drew a deep breath as if to call out.
Chapter 14
Despite her hammering heart, Vicky fought to keep her voice level and just got her words out before Aaron could shout anything. “When have you seen Moira reward anyone? Especially a prisoner?”
Silence met her question and some of the people around Aaron shifted as if the ground had grown uncomfortable to stand on.
“Exactly. At least with me there are no conditions. When I come to rescue you, you won’t belong to me or anyone else.” Vicky looked at the others. “And I’ll free all of you. So if you want to call me out—if you want to jeopardise the only opportunity these people around you may have of escaping—then go for it. I’ll be dead and so will any chance of their freedom.” She stared at Aaron, and the gathered crowd seemed to hold their breath. From the looks on their faces, they clearly understood their fate rested in the palms of his long and bony hands. They also looked ready to lynch him if need be.
Another check over both shoulders and Vicky couldn’t see any movement around her. Not that it meant her surroundings were clear, but she had to take it at face value and pray for good luck. She felt for her knife on her hip.
“Right, I’m glad we’re on the same page, then,” Vicky finally said when Aaron offered no response. The determined set to his face had vanished. “I’m prepared to forget your threat and move on, but don’t try me again. I swear I will let you all rot in here. Now, give me those water bottles back. We can’t have Moira twigging that you’ve all had a drink. She’ll be sure to punish anyone who’s gone against her rule.”
One by one the people in the cage passed the empty bottles to Vicky. They crunched even louder on the way back through. Each one went into her open backpack, the weight of it considerably lighter than it had been on the way over.
Vicky shouldered her pack again and stared at Aaron. “Please trust me. I need to suss this place out so we have the best chance of toppling it. If I bust you out now, we won’t stand a chance. Half of you are so weak you can barely stand. Let me do this my way and we’ll come back with an army. I have the people who will fight for you if you let them.”
“And in the meantime?” Aaron asked. The prisoners around him moved forward as if silently asking the same question.
“You wait. I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s all I have. I promise you”—Vicky looked at the others—“I promise you all, I don’t take your incarceration lightly. I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.”
Many of the group nodded, and when Vicky focused on Aaron again, she saw his animosity melt away with lethargic resignation.
Chapter 15
Vicky stepped back a few paces into the veil of night. Still able to see the prisoners, she could tell by the way they peered into the darkness—their hollow stares vague—that she’d disappeared from their view.
The lighter load in Vicky’s backpack made it easier for her to move. She walked over the hard and tufty ground, the bitter chill in the air cutting to her bones. A clamped stomach and jaw did nothing to fight the frigid snap.
Once Vicky passed the part of Moira’s camp where they kept the prisoners, she came upon the guards’ area. A particularly long brick building divided the two sections. Although she couldn’t see it from her current position, she knew there to be a walkway connecting the two areas on the opposite side of the complex.
Three other buildings took up most of the space. They ran around the outside and had a courtyard in the centre of them. The corners of the complex had been finished off with fences where the buildings didn’t budge up against one another, except for one corner, which had a large square building in it. Different from the others, it looked to be a communal area rather than sleeping quarters.
Light shone from the large square building. Not only light, but the sound of voices came from it too. Vicky hadn’t noticed them when talking to Aaron, but now she’d got closer, they became much easier to hear. Maybe they kept the noise down for fear of attracting the diseased. Even a crowd as seemingly in control and fortified as this lot lived in fear of the monsters in the wild.
Because only a small amount of light spilled out of the communal hut, it made it hard for Vicky to see the structure in the middle of the courtyard, but she could see something stood there. In silhouette, it looked to be a large box. Rectangular in shape, it stood about eight feet tall and twice as wide—maybe another cage. When she squinted against the darkness, she saw something inside it move and gasped.
Light rushed out of the communal building through the courtyard when someone opened the door. Clearly a fire inside, the orange glow of it seeped out into the night, animating any shadow it cast. Vicky jumped back and dropped down into a crouch behind a bush to her right.
Hidden about as well as she could be at that moment, Vicky looked at the jail in the courtyard and her heart sank. A sudden gust of wind ripped across the open landscape and crashed into her. It rocked her where she crouched as she stared at the people in the cage.
The door closed again and shut off the light, but she’d already seen them. A family of four huddled in one corner. A mum, dad, and two daughters. At least Vicky assumed they were a family. And if they weren’t before, this world had clearly turned them into one. Of the two children, one looked to be about ten years old and the other about fourteen. They all wore army camouflage.
Vicky thought about when she’d watched the group in the town walk up the road towards McDonald’s. The group she’d hoped would become saviours for the family of four.
When the door to the communal area swung open for a second time, Vicky saw another person in the cage with them. A scruffy man, he looked to be in his late fifties, but she couldn’t really tell from her current position and in the poor light. At opposite ends of the cage from one another, the two parties were clearly divided by hostility.
As with Aaron and the prisoners next door, Vicky couldn’t do anything to help. Not at that moment anyway. She had to hurry the fuck up and come back with the diseased. The sooner she did it, the better.
It would serve no other purpose to wait
around, other than to maybe understand how many guards they were up against, but that could take hours. Instead, Vicky slowly stood up and stepped backwards into the darkness.
As she crept away, Vicky looked between where she headed and Moira’s complex. The tufty ground threatened to trip her. When she’d got far enough back, she filled her lungs with a deep inhale and ran back towards Home.
Chapter 16
Vicky crossed the canteen with leaden legs. She’d only come back from Moira’s community a few hours previously, and she couldn’t sleep a wink when she had. She thought of the family in one cage and the prisoners in the other. Their lives depended on her. She couldn’t tell the guards about them because she’d have to admit to going to Moira’s community. If she did that, they’d either try to come with her next time or try to stop her; she had to be able to go again because her intel on the place could prove invaluable.
The blue crash mats sank beneath Vicky’s steps as she crossed them to the seating on the other side of the space. The air smelled of boiled cabbage, not that they’d served boiled cabbage every day since she’d been there. The scent whisked her back to her school canteen every time she smelled it.
Vicky looked at her feet to avoid making eye contact with anyone. The chatter of tens of voices swelled through the place and turned into a white noise in the high ceiling above her.
A quick look up at the screens and she saw they gave their usual glimpse of the outside world. The occasional diseased ran past, but Vicky paid them little mind. They had enemies much more dangerous than the diseased, and she’d seen what they did to people.
Flynn, Serj, Piotr, Scoop, and Scoop’s teenage daughter, Meisha, all sat together. When Vicky drew close, Meisha got to her feet, hugged her mum, and headed to a different table. Before she could get away, Scoop reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her back in for another firm hug.
Vicky sat down and Serj pushed a plate with a bun on it and a cup of water across the white Formica surface to her. Piotr offered her a tight-lipped smile, but Flynn completely ignored her.
“It’s scary, isn’t it?” Vicky said to Scoop as she watched Meisha join some people at another table. “She’s growing up so quickly.”
Scoop beamed a smile at her.
“You must be so proud.”
“She’s a strong young woman,” Scoop said. “Although, she’s not always been that way. It’s how I got my nickname, you know?”
A bite on the rough bread and Vicky chewed it. Bland, but it filled a hole. What she’d give for some jam. She pushed the half-chewed bread to the side of her mouth and smiled as she said, “You mean you weren’t christened Scoop?”
Scoop laughed. “When Meisha was a kid, all she’d say to me was scoop, scoop, scoop.” As she looked off into the distance, Scoop smiled and her eyes lost focus. “She wanted me to pick her up, as in scoop her up.”
“And you always did,” Serj said.
A heavy sigh and Scoop nodded. “Yep, I always did.”
“That’s probably why she’s so confident now,” Vicky said, taking another bite of the plain bread. “You gave her what she needed as a kid. That’s gotta set her up for being a well-balanced adult, right? They know how loved they are and that makes them secure.”
A glance over at the table with her daughter and Scoop’s stare glazed with tears. “I’ve tried my best.” She laughed and dabbed the corners of her eyes. “My God, look at me! Becoming a mum has made me so soft.”
Vicky smiled again. After the night she’d had, Scoop had just shown her exactly what she needed to see. “You’re clearly a great mum.”
“Anyway,” Scoop said, “how are you? You look tired. You’re normally the first one in here.”
“I had a rough night.” The image of the family in the cage snapped through her mind and it took all she had not to flinch.
Silence hung for a second as if the group wanted more information from her, but Vicky didn’t give it.
Serj finally spoke. “Right, I need to see all of your keys. We need to do regular checks to make sure none of them have gone missing.”
One by one, they all pulled their keys from beneath their shirts. Although Vicky had intended for the shoelaces to be used by Flynn, she smiled to see everyone else had adopted the idea too.
Serj checked them all and nodded. “Good. I’ll change the locks when I have to, but I’d like to do it as little as possible.”
Stifling a yawn as best as she could, Vicky clamped her jaw shut and watched her world blur in front of her as her eyes welled up. Heavy limbs, heavy eyelids, slow thoughts …
Before Vicky could drift off into a daydream, a scream cut through the place, silencing everyone in the busy area and forcing each head to turn to the entranceway.
A short woman of about five feet four inches screamed again. Her cry rang so shrill it sent stabbing pains into Vicky’s ears, and her shoulders tensed in response. She recognised the woman as Sharon Blythe. She’d never seen her cause a fuss before.
Dan—Sharon’s husband—stood next to her. Although he didn’t shout, he looked equally as distressed.
Serj stood up and called over at them, “What’s wrong?”
“They’ve taken them!” Sharon shouted.
“Who’s been taken?” Serj said. “What are you talking about?”
“Our children! They’re gone!”
Ice ran through Vicky’s veins and she searched the room as if the children would appear. Most people watched the parents with their jaws hanging loose.
“Gone where?” Serj said.
It seemed like a stupid question to Vicky, but she probably wouldn’t have asked anything better.
Dan stroked his wife’s back as he spoke. “We took them out with us this morning to clean the solar panels.” He turned to Vicky and his voice broke when he raised it. “You said we should get them used to the outside. Well, we tried to do that and now they’ve been taken from us.”
Fire spread through Vicky’s cheeks and her pulse sped up, but she didn’t reply to him.
“They’ve taken all three of them?” Serj said.
One of the reasons why Serj made a better leader than Vicky ever could … he knew the people. He remembered who they all were and how many children they had. He remembered names and minor details. She knew they had kids, but she couldn’t remember how many or their genders, let alone their ages. They were young, that much she knew. The youngest was maybe a boy.
“Who took them?” Serj said.
Dan drew a deep breath. “Three men and two women. They knew they had us outnumbered. They got between us and the kids. They had weapons and said they were taking them. We couldn’t do anything about it. Three of them held us in one place.” He rubbed the swelling on his face. “They whacked me and told us to stay put while the other two took the kids away. They said the kids would have a chance at surviving if we didn’t resist.”
“Do you know where they’ve taken them?” Vicky said.
“How the fuck would I know?” Dan shook as he shouted. His eyes brimmed with tears and a large vein raised on his forehead. “Do you think I’d be here if I knew that?”
“I’m just asking so we can help.”
“You’ve helped enough. None of this would have happened if we hadn’t taken them outside.”
Vicky wanted to respond—especially as she felt most of the people turn to look at her—but she kept her mouth shut. They had every right to be upset, and she couldn’t say anything to change that. Instead, she stood up and headed for one of the corridors out of the canteen. Her footsteps registered as the only sound in the silence.
“Where are you going?” Serj asked. His voice echoed through the cavernous room.
“I’m going to get some weapons and then I’m going to rescue the kids. No way are they taking people from this place. No fucking way.”
Although Vicky didn’t look back around, she didn’t need to; the sound of action behind her clearly came from the guards mobilising. They were in
this together.
Chapter 17
Vicky left Home and didn’t close the door because the four other guards followed her out. The second she stepped into the warm June sun, she turned around and walked up the hill the door had been built into. She only had one place in her mind: Moira’s community. Although what she’d do when she got there …
At the top of the short hill, Vicky looked over the field of solar panels. A sea of black, it always awed her no matter how many times she saw it. How it had remained untouched for so many years … Surely someone had designs to destroy them.
Vicky kept a few steps ahead of the rest of the guards, weaving quickly through the panels as sweat lifted on her face from the combination of effort and heat. The grass had been well trodden from where the residents of Home went outside more often. Although, if she hadn’t insisted on it in the first place, the kids would still be okay.
Once through the solar panels, Vicky walked for a few minutes before she saw the next short incline. Butterflies fluttered through her chest. The other side of it plunged down to Moira’s fenced-in complex.
A deep breath and Vicky smelled pollen in the air. Never being one for hay fever, she remembered seeing people at this time of year dripping in snot. Although not so much now; maybe it had more to do with pesticides than it did pollen.
The ground on the small hill sat as lumpy and calloused as it did outside Moira’s community. Vicky didn’t slow down as she scaled it, checking the knife on her hip as she went.
When Vicky crested the top, the sight in front of her drove a mule’s kick to her stomach and she stumbled back. A second later, her legs gave way and she crashed down hard against the lumpy ground.
The Alpha Plague - Books 1 - 8: A Post-Apocalyptic Action Thriller Page 90
