The kindness from what had been a cold man up until that point broke Vicky and she could do nothing to stop from crying. This time she didn’t try to fight it and let her tears run down her face and off her chin. She shook as she spoke. “I couldn’t do anything different even if I tried.”
Piotr gripped her in a hug so tight Vicky felt her skeleton shift. She made a gargling noise, more because she felt uncomfortable from the gesture than anything else.
“I know,” Piotr said. “And know just how wonderful that is.”
Another wave of grief threw Vicky off and she nodded. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.”
Before Piotr could reply, Vicky looked away from him. She glanced at the monitor that looked out over the field with the solar panels and her tears stopped instantly. “Oh, shit.”
“What?” Piotr said as he followed her line of sight to the monitor.
But she didn’t need to tell him.
A gang of about fifteen people, both men and women, had entered the solar panel field from the back. They were carrying weapons from bats to swords to axes. They smashed three panels as Vicky watched on and they looked like they were going for more.
Vicky shook her head. “Looks like I was wrong about them not attacking our electricity supply.”
“Fuck!” Piotr said. “What are we going to do?”
“We only have one choice, right?”
After a heavy sigh, Piotr straightened his considerable frame and lifted his chest. He nodded at Vicky. “Come on, then, let’s take this fight to them.”
Vicky nodded back, drew a deep breath and left the room. Piotr followed behind her.
Chapter 46
By the time Vicky arrived in the canteen, she’d already loaded up with weapons from the armoury.
Piotr walked by her side, and he too had equipped himself for the fight.
With a crossbow strapped to her back, a baseball bat in her tight grip, and a knife down the back of her trousers, Vicky looked at the people gathered there.
Most of the complex seemed to be in the room at that moment. Well over half of them turned to look at her and Piotr. The rest stood and watched the large monitors on the wall. Not only did they show the diseased waiting outside for them, but they also showed the group of humans smashing up their solar panels whenever they flicked to the view behind Home. Serj and Flynn stood among the crowd.
A dry pinch in her throat, Vicky swallowed and then coughed.
When Serj turned to look at her, Vicky shouted across at him, “We need to get out there and fight.”
At first Serj didn’t reply, the colour draining from his dark face.
“You’ve seen what they’re doing, right?” Vicky said as she pointed at the screens. “We stay here and do nothing and we’ll end up with no power. We have to fight them.”
Although Serj drew a breath to reply, a dissenting voice came at Vicky across the canteen. “That’s easy for you to say.” Brian—the tall New Age hippy—stood with Sharon, Dan, and a few others by his side. They should split them up. Too much time together and the paranoid fucks could start a revolution based on ill-informed conspiracy theories. The same hostility that Brian directed at her also came from the people around him. Disdain, revulsion, and open resentment, they looked like they still had a lot of things to say to her.
A furious pulse damn near rocked Vicky where she stood. Tension wound the muscles in her back so tight it hurt, and before she had control of herself, she shouted at them, “Why the fuck is it easy for me to say? You think I want to go out there in this mess? You think I enjoy this bullshit because I’m one of the only ones brave enough to actually do something about it?”
No less hostile, Brian pulled his shoulders back and Vicky picked up on all the people around the canteen watching them at that moment. “You created this mess.”
“What the fuck?” Some of Vicky’s anger left her. Did they know about the virus and the Alpha Tower?
Before Vicky could say anything, Dan stepped forward. “He has a point. We were fine until you came here.”
At least they didn’t know the truth. “Fine? You had a psycho running this place. He wanted to kick out everyone he deemed to be weak. It would have been easier than fixing the problems in the community like a lack of food from the farm. He simply wanted to reduce numbers. You miss that, do you?”
Dan opened his mouth to speak, but Vicky cut him off. “That was a rhetorical question. Not only did you have Hugh fucking shit up, but you also had Moira’s community not too far away. You’ve seen first-hand what she’s capable of in what she’s done to your children. Now, you may have felt you were fine, but you were ignorant to the dangers you lived with, nothing else. How many times do I have to say it?”
Not giving any of them a chance to reply, Vicky said, “Another rhetorical question. You have one fucking choice. Survive or don’t survive. That’s it. If you want power and fresh air down here, we need to fight for those solar panels.” She turned to look at the screens and saw the wreck of several more panels as Moira’s guards moved forward again.
A look at Brian’s narrowed eyes and Vicky said, “Those fuckers are attacking our lifeblood.” She looked at Sharon, Dan, and the other sheep that had joined their cause. “I, for one, will not stand around and wait to gas out like fish on a riverbank as our air supply runs out.”
Serj and Flynn had already moved toward the corridor with the armoury on it.
“You want revenge for what happened to your children?” Vicky said, this time addressing Sharon.
Sharon nodded.
Vicky pointed a strong finger at the screen again. “Well, there it fucking is.” Fuelled by her heavy pulse, she raised her voice. “We need to fuck them up. We need to show them they can’t do this to us. Otherwise, they’ll roll the fuck over us and take everything we have.
“You can stand here with your mouths open like dumb fish all day—” Vicky looked around the canteen and saw some of the people bristle as if they were energising for the fight “—but I’m going out there to make sure they don’t take this place.”
An itch burned Vicky’s throat as she continued to shout at the people from Home. “Serj and Flynn have just gone to get weapons. You have spears up here, but if there’s anything else you need to take, go and see them now.”
Stuart, the first of the spectators to move, walked in the same direction Serj and Flynn had just gone in. In that moment Vicky’s heart damn near stopped because he looked like the only one who’d go.
A few seconds later another person followed him—a young woman probably still in her twenties. From the look of it, nerves had turned her face pale and sweat beaded on her brow. But she did it, unlike the spineless fucks who seemed more hung up on complaining than anything else.
Within a few minutes, only the complainers remained. A facetious smile, and Vicky said, “It looks like you’re outnumbered. Now go and get your fucking weapons, you cowardly fucks.”
“And if we say no?” Brian asked.
“You get thrown outside without anything to defend yourself with. It’s your choice, but either way, you’re not snaking out of the fight we have in front of us. Especially when everyone else is stepping up.”
Silence met Vicky’s words, but it only lasted for a few seconds before some of the hangers-on to Brian, Sharon, and Dan’s group walked in the direction of the armoury.
A few more seconds and Brian shook his head as he walked past Vicky in the same direction. A low growl as he spoke from the side of his mouth. “You’d best win this fucking fight.”
Although Vicky balled her fists, she refrained from knocking the prick out. She could do that when they got back.
Chapter 47
Much later and they’d be fighting in the dark. The sun sat low in the sky, but it still lit up the landscape, highlighting just how many diseased loitered outside of Home’s main entrance.
After Vicky had watched the monsters through the window for a few more seconds, she looked at the
people around her. Most of Home’s residents seemed to have gathered there and none of them spoke. From a quick scan, she couldn’t tell who hadn’t turned up. To Brian, Sharon, and Dan’s credit, they all stood in the crowd. Their faces—like most of the others—were pale and locked tight.
Maybe the only people who hadn’t come were the old and the young. Vicky preferred to believe that, even if it weren’t true.
Vicky looked at the gathered crowd, then Serj, who stood by the front door, and then it came flooding back to her. The attention of the people was focused on her, but she had to ask him. “Serj, is the banner still up?”
Some confused faces looked on, but no one questioned it.
A shake of his head and Serj said, “Flynn and I sorted it out while you were resting.”
Vicky exhaled; if the group didn’t want to lynch her already, that fucking banner from Moira would have stirred things up.
Before Vicky could say anything else, Serj broke the silence by addressing the crowd. “You ready?”
Many people nodded, but they still didn’t speak.
Although he’d asked the group, Serj’s eyes settled on Vicky. She nodded too. “Let’s do this.”
The lock clicked as Serj undid it with his key. He then pulled the two large bolts at the top and bottom of the door free. The rub of metal over metal ended in a crack as each one came loose.
Vicky watched through the window to see the diseased respond to the sounds. As stupid as they were, they clearly knew they should pay attention to what was about to step outside.
Anxiety sent butterflies through Vicky’s stomach as she continued to watch them. About thirty in total, their rage boiled just beneath the surface, sending them swaying, twitching, and lashing out at thin air. A well-organised fighting unit would take them down without a problem. Sadly, the people of Home weren’t a well-organised fighting unit. And they still had the people smashing up the solar panels to contend with.
After a nod at Vicky, Serj yanked the door wide. The sound of the enraged diseased rushed into the place. The noise rode the back of their rotten stench and Vicky saw several of the people from Home step back a pace as if shoved by the wave of funk. None of them were as used to the smell as the four guards were.
Vicky elbowed past the couple of people in front of her and led the attack.
The crossbow remained clipped to Vicky’s back. There seemed little point in using it at that moment because the reload time would be too long. Instead, she swung her bat at the first creature to rush her. A wet crack as it connected with the diseased’s weak jaw and the thing fell to the ground. It disappeared beneath the stampede as its brethren surged forward.
Some of the other people from Home grunted as they too swung for the diseased. The sound mixed with the screams of the monsters receiving the blows.
As much as Vicky wanted to check on the other guards—Flynn especially—the diseased came at them too quickly for her to focus on anything else.
Swing after swing and the monsters fell away from Vicky, some of them screaming as they went down, while others fell without a sound, clearly knocked out from the blow. The soundless remained down while the noisier ones rolled around as if fighting to get back up again.
Sweat ran into Vicky’s eyes, the warmth of the June day still in the air despite the fading sun. The stench of the diseased around her seemed worse for the summer heat, but Vicky gulped against her desire to heave and pushed on.
“Someone make sure they’re dead,” Vicky called out, the vibration of another blow running up her baseball bat into her shoulders. “Clean up behind us. Stab the fuckers in the head. We don’t want to get caught out here.”
Whether someone heard her or not, she couldn’t tell, but she hoped they did.
A moment’s respite and Vicky looked back over her shoulder to see the people of Home were winning. Maybe they did have it in them. The sight sent a surge of adrenaline through her and she found the impetus to carry on.
Ten, twelve, fifteen … each blow scored a direct hit, and, with Vicky’s expertise, she silenced more than she didn’t. An ache gripped her jaw from clenching it tightly, but she kept going. Blow after blow after blow.
A glance to her right and Vicky expected to see Serj or Piotr or Flynn leading the attack with her. Instead, she saw Sally—the meek and mild woman that Hugh had wanted to evict for being useless. She looked to be possessed. Wild eyes and a fierce scowl, she matched Vicky strike for strike. Together they tore a hole into the diseased’s ranks.
When Sally looked across, Vicky nodded at her and she nodded back, her face covered in the blood of the fallen.
The crowd of diseased bodies thinned from the onslaught, many of them lying in the long grass and not getting back up again. Soon they’d have to face the people from Moira’s community—if they were still there. Vicky called out, “We’re doing this. Keep it up, guys.”
A cry sounded out to Vicky’s right and she looked across through the mess of bodies. She saw a gang of people she presumed to have been the ones attacking the solar panels. They’d grabbed Stuart and two others and had them outnumbered at least three to one.
“Fuck it,” Vicky said and turned to Sally. She then saw Serj, Flynn, and Piotr had appeared next to her. “Keep fighting,” she called to all of them. “I’ll be back in a second.”
Flynn stared at Vicky, the blood of the diseased dripping from his sweating face, and he looked like he wanted to say something. But she spoke before he could. “Stay there! I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
A shake of his head and Flynn continued to fight. He clearly didn’t want to stay there, but he listened to her nonetheless.
Vicky fought against her exhaustion as she shimmied and weaved through the throng of fighting bodies after Stuart and the other two. They wouldn’t get taken. Not on her watch.
Chapter 48
Once Vicky got free from the fighting, she had a clearer sight of the people who’d dragged Stuart and the other two away. About ten in total—less than she’d seen smashing up the solar panels—they had a head start on her, and by the time she reached the bottom of the hill with Home’s front door in it, they were disappearing over the top of it.
Vicky was sweating from her fight with the diseased and now the chase. Her strength threatened to abandon her as she began the short but steep incline. She clenched her jaw and pushed on. At any moment her legs could stop working, but until then she’d give everything she had.
Darkness spread through the sky as night clenched its grip on the world, but when Vicky saw Stuart and the other two completely disappear over the brow of the hill, she found a burst of speed. She couldn’t lose sight of them.
Vicky panted when she reached the top and looked over the field of solar panels—all the blacker for the darkening sky. Stuart and the others had vanished. Before she could catch her breath, the thick ropes of a heavy net crashed into her. They wrapped a tight embrace around her and she fell to the ground, rolling down the much smaller hill on the other side. A fly in a web, she came to rest at the bottom, completely entrapped in the cargo netting.
Only now did she see Stuart and the other two. They were gripped tightly by their captors. About twenty more guards stood with them and they all stared at Vicky on the ground.
It had been hard for Vicky to see at first, but now she’d gotten closer, she looked at what were two boys from Home. Both of them stood frozen, their eyes wide as they remained board stiff.
Stuart, on the other hand, twisted and turned as if he could get free from his captors.
When a woman no more than about five feet tall raised a bloody machete to Stuart’s face, the fight left him and he fell limp. She held the tip of the large blade close to his right eyeball and snarled at him.
Stuart looked at Vicky and said, “I’m so sorry.”
The more Vicky moved, the tighter she found herself trapped within the twisted net. She shook her head at him. “Don’t be. There’s nothing you can do to help.”
> Before Stuart could say anything else, one of the men from Moira’s community linked both of his hands together and drove them into his stomach.
With a loud oomph, Stuart bent over double and he fell to the ground in a heap.
Although he looked like he wanted to speak as he stared at Vicky through wide and watering eyes, he had to fight too hard for breath to get his words out. He looked like a fish as he lay there gasping.
Suddenly, Vicky’s feet lifted a few inches from the ground and the rush of the long grass whooshed over the ropes as someone dragged her away through the solar panels. She looked at Stuart while the gap between them increased. He stared back and said nothing.
Until that moment, Vicky had shut it out, but as she got taken farther away from her community, the screams and shouts of the battle in front of Home came to her.
When Vicky had got about twenty metres away, Stuart seemed to finally find enough oxygen to call after her. “I’ll come for you, Vicky. I’ll save you, tr—oomph.” He must have taken another blow.
The gesture seemed like a sweet one, but the guy didn’t have a clue. Now that Vicky had escaped from Moira’s community once, she’d punish her so quickly she wouldn’t be able to do it again. Hell, she wouldn’t be able to do anything again. She’d be in that pit the second they dragged her into the courtyard.
“You won’t get away with this, you know,” Vicky called to the figures who dragged her away. With so much netting around her, she couldn’t make out any more than their silhouettes. “My friends will come for me and burn your community to the ground. You’ll pay for this.”
The people stopped dragging Vicky, and one of them snarled, “Shut up, you cunt.”
Vicky saw the foot a second before it sent a white flash through her vision. The copper taste of her blood flooded her mouth and her world turned dark.
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