Once they’d stepped out of the other side, Serj looked up at the vast abandoned office building in front of them. “I’m not interested,” he said.
Flynn looked away from his friend and up at the structure too. What had once been a modern building made from steel and glass now stood as a skeleton of its former self. Much of the metal had been stripped from it—and anything else useful by the look of things.
The old office furniture remained on the sparse floors. Many of the cheap desks had buckled and folded down on themselves where years of damp had eaten away at their weak chipboard. The chairs lay scattered around, their covers ripped, exposing the foam inside them.
“After Jessica,” Serj continued, “I kind of lost interest in women, you know?”
A nod of his head and Flynn said, “That’s understandable.” Serj clearly didn’t want to talk about it, so he looked at the spray-painted words on the walls of the place. If they could even be called that. He couldn’t make out most of the writing, but he did see one phrase repeated over and over. KEEP OUT!
“People have been picking this town clean for twenty years now,” Flynn said. “You think there’ll be anything left for us? Especially with how useful lead is?”
“I hope so. We only need a small bit, so I’m sure we can find it. Just enough to line the barn’s chimney. We’re losing about ten percent of our supplies to that bloody leak, or about ten percent of storage space. We need to sort it out, especially before winter.”
Although Flynn listened to Serj, he couldn’t help but look at the red paint. The aggressive warning that told them to get the fuck away. “And you think the rats will let us in and out again without any problem?”
A shrug of his shoulders and Serj said, “Who knows? They may write all that on the walls, but they’ve always seemed to avoid conflict before. This is the closest place to find any buildings, so we’ve got to try, right?”
Another look at the red writing and Flynn didn’t reply.
While craning his neck as if he could see around the large building in front of them, Serj said, “There’s got to be a small amount of lead left on one of the roofs. Come on, we can be in and out in no time.”
Serj took off at a jog around the left side of the large building and Flynn followed him, still clinging onto his baton. Not that it would do him any good. If the rats turned on them, they’d be fucked, outnumbered potentially in the hundreds.
The pair moved at a steady jog. They could find more speed if they needed it.
As they ran, Flynn looked into the old, abandoned shops. Impossible to tell what many of them had been, the signs had all fallen down and the insides picked clean of anything useful. It seemed wherever he looked he saw the rats’ indecipherable scrawl. He could only make out the two repeated words: KEEP OUT!
The wind played its symphony through the abandoned buildings, dragging Flynn’s attention to his left and right. He knew the noise to be the wind, but he still had to check, just in case.
Most of the buildings had collapsed in on themselves. Maybe from the effects of neglect, but more than likely human intervention. If you took enough from a building, it would inevitably fall. No wonder the rats were so pissed off about it.
As they jogged into what used to be a pedestrian area in the high street, Flynn caught movement in the shadows to his right. It shifted through the darkness and vanished before he’d seen it clearly. Another scuffle on his left and Flynn saw something, but not enough to get a clear picture of what. He and Serj shared a look with one another.
“Rats,” Serj said in a low voice. “They’ll leave us be if we leave them be.”
“I’m glad you’re confident,” Flynn said as he watched the shops for more of them.
Every shop Flynn looked into had the mark of the rats in it. The words KEEP OUT and red spray-painted lines of other words they’d tried to recreate. Maybe the rats understood what had been written. Maybe their language had evolved rather than devolved. Although hard to believe when he looked at the infantile scrawl.
Out of breath from the run, Flynn said, “Pretty fucking clear they don’t want us here.”
Although Serj frowned and looked into the shops—his heavy steps slapping down on the concrete ground—he didn’t reply. When he looked forward again, he pointed in the direction they were heading and said, “There.”
Flynn looked, but he couldn’t see what Serj had seen.
“The fire exit stairs,” Serj said. “That’ll give us access to the roof up there. It looks relatively untouched.”
Flynn looked at the large wall with the metal stairs zigzagging up the side of it. The roof on the top hadn’t folded in like most of the others had. “Those stairs don’t look very solid.”
Serj didn’t reply. Instead, he picked up his pace and headed for the wall.
Chapter 5
The tock of Serj’s feet called out through the near silent town as he climbed the metal stairs.
Flynn climbed up after him, checking behind frequently for signs of the rats. He and Serj were exposing themselves and leaving just one way down. Time to find out if the little fuckers were hostile or not.
The stairs rocked as they climbed them, but when Flynn looked at the points where they’d been anchored to the walls, they seemed stable. Although seemed could quite easily be proven wrong.
The scuff of more feet moved over the shop’s dusty floors below. Flynn looked back again. Shadows spilled out into the high street and betrayed the movement of the hidden rats, but he couldn’t see any of them yet. It served as a potent warning; they were in their space now and they operated only with their permission.
When they reached the top of the stairs, they were five storeys up. Flynn turned around and looked out over the town. The unobstructed wind crashed into him and cooled his sweat-dampened skin.
“There’s some,” Serj said as he pointed over the roof, his hair being tousled by the strong breeze. He didn’t seem concerned with keeping his voice down.
Flynn looked down to see agitation twitch through the shadows below before he looked to where Serj pointed. Lead stretched up the side of the large chimney.
“That chimney’s bigger than ours, right?” Serj said.
Flynn nodded before he looked back down at the ground. The shadows had grown larger from where the rats had moved to the very edges of the buildings. Just out of sight, they seemed ready to reveal themselves.
“If we can get that lead free, that should be enough.” Serj stepped onto the roof.
A loud snap popped through the town and, before Flynn knew what had happened, Serj vanished from his sight.
Chapter 6
The shadows in the doorways pulled back as Flynn ran down the fire escape. Maybe they didn’t mean him any harm, but if they tried anything now, he’d kill the fucking lot of them.
The sound of Flynn’s feet hammered down the stairs, the entire staircase rocking with his movement. “Hang on, Serj,” he called out. Fuck knew if he heard him or not.
When he got to the last flight of stairs, Flynn vaulted over the handrail and hit the ground running. He ran alongside the wall and around to the front of the shop Serj had fallen into.
Like with every shop, a huge empty space sat where the window used to be. It left a large gap for him to run through.
The second he saw Serj, Flynn pulled up and clapped a hand to his mouth. “Oh God.”
Where Flynn would have expected anyone to scream in Serj’s situation, he found his old friend didn’t. Instead, he simply lay on the ground, a pool of blood spreading around him as he held the long metal bar that had pierced up through his stomach.
A scaffolding pipe or something similar, Serj had landed on it back first. The old pole shone with blood as it pointed at the sky, an accusation to the gods for letting this happen.
When Flynn grabbed Serj, his Indian friend winced and he shook his head. “Don’t,” he said, the word a wheeze more than anything.
“What then?” Flynn asked as he tu
rned his face away from the stench of Serj’s torn bowels.
The deep mahogany gaze that had always been there for Flynn seemed to fade as Serj looked at him. Instead of speaking, the man simply shook his head.
“No,” Flynn cried, his voice calling out through the quiet town. “There must be something we can do.”
Again, Serj simply shook his head as he fought for breath.
For a few seconds, Serj flapped his right arm in the direction of his hip. Clumsy with his rapidly draining essence, it took him a few attempts to clamp a hand on his knife. He shook as he worked it free and handed it to Flynn.
“What’s this for?” Flynn asked, the knife’s handle sticky with Serj’s blood.
“I need you to end it for me.”
“What?!” Flynn’s voice startled a bird nearby, which took off and flew out through the open shopfront.
“It’s no good,” Serj said. “I can’t get off this pole and I don’t want to try. This is the end for me.”
“No,” Flynn said and dropped the knife. He held Serj’s right hand with both of his.
The same serene stare Flynn knew so well fixed on him. “Please do this for me. I won’t make it back to Home. Look at me …” He stopped and winced, catching his breath before he added, “I’m bleeding out as it is. You pull me off this pole and I’ll split.”
“Then I’ll go and get someone from Home to come and help.”
“You think I’ll last that long? Besides, what do you think will happen when you leave me here?”
When Serj looked up, Flynn did the same. There must have been at least fifteen to twenty kids hanging around. They were on the first floor of the shop, looking down through the huge hole Serj had made when he fell.
Dirty faces, long hair, tatty clothes, and wild eyes. The rats ranged in ages from about six to twelve. If the rumours were accurate, Flynn could only see a handful of them. Apparently hundreds of them lived in the town—although rumours had a way of stretching the truth.
It had been said that the kids moved in when their community fell to a vicious group of nomads. Every adult and teenager had been slaughtered, but the young children had been set free. Since then, a lot of local groups had fed them, but it would seem no one wanted the responsibility of taking them in. Serj had even sent people from Home to deliver them food. They left care packages in the centre of town, which the kids picked up after they’d gone.
Some people believed they had adults with them and the kids were just a front to get charity. Flynn saw the logic in it; people did what they could to survive. The red paint on the walls was probably an attempt to fake childish illiteracy.
Regardless of what he believed, Flynn shuddered to look at them. They were feral and gaunt. Desperate for sustenance in whichever way they could take it. They didn’t look ready to attack, but if Flynn left a wounded Serj, they’d gladly take the care package.
Even as Flynn said the words, he understood just how empty they were. He had no hope against the army of kids. “They won’t fucking touch you. I’ll take them all down if I have to.”
Fifteen to twenty pairs of eyes stared down at him. Who was he kidding?
A look back at Serj and Flynn couldn’t see any other options than the one presented to him. Yet he still said, “I’m not killing you”—his voice shaking and his eyes stinging with the start of his tears—“I can’t.”
Serj closed his eyes as he nodded. “You need to. You can’t leave me like this.”
At that moment, Flynn got to his feet and shouted, “Fuck!” He kicked an empty plastic bottle, which skittered across the floor and clattered into one of the walls. Even louder than his previous shout, Flynn’s call echoed through the empty space when he screamed, “Fuck!”
After he’d paced for a minute or so, Flynn hunched down next to Serj and picked his hand up again, but left his knife on the ground. Tears soaked his cheeks and he watched Serj close his eyes, his breaths coming more heavily than before. Every few seconds, a wince of pain twisted his friend’s face.
When Serj opened his eyes again, it took him a few seconds to focus on Flynn. “Vicky would have done this for me.”
“Fuck Vicky!” Flynn snapped back, his entire body pulling tight at the mention of her. “If she would have done it, I’m inclined to do the exact opposite. She lost my respect the second she walked out.”
Several heavy breaths and Serj forced his words out. “She loved you more than anything, you know?”
“If she loved me more than anything, then why did she leave me?”
For the first time since Flynn had known him, Serj cried. His entire face twisted with fear and he shook where he lay. “Please, Flynn. Please do this for me.”
The one person who hadn’t let him down in his life. The one person who’d always been there for him and never asked for anything in return. The one person who’d been there when Flynn needed him most. He drew a deep breath and lifted the knife. A glance up at the rats and he saw more had gathered around the hole.
He turned away from the kids. They’d seen he had no choice; he had to do what his friend asked of him. A weak grip on Serj’s knife and Flynn raised it up. He looked down at his crying friend and he shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Serj. I love you, man.”
Just as Flynn clenched his jaw and squeezed a tighter grip on the knife, Serj said, “Stop!”
Flynn paused.
After several heavy breaths, Serj forced his words out. “I need to tell you something about Vicky.”
Chapter 7
As much as Flynn wanted to be patient, Serj didn’t have long left. His frame locked tight as he watched Serj gasp and splutter on the dusty ground. “What is it?” he said. “What do you need to tell me about Vicky?”
It took a few more breaths before Serj found enough force to drive his words out. He shook his head as he said it, the shine in his eyes dimming. “She didn’t leave you.”
The dirty, abandoned shop around Flynn seemed to shift as if his perspective of it went off-kilter. Hell, the entire fucking world jolted on its axis. “What do you mean?”
Another shake of his head and Serj pulled several more breaths into his body. The smell of blood hung in the air. A rush of wind flew into the shop and Flynn caught movement in his peripheral vision—just a loose piece of paper flapping in the breeze.
More rats gathered around the hole and peered down. Their already wide eyes had widened further. Their hunger seemed to be pulling them forwards as they all leaned over the hole and stared at the dying Serj. Apparently they preferred their meat alive. Although, like many stories about the rats, the rumours probably weren’t true. The adults, wherever they were, would probably cook the flesh once the kids brought it back to them.
“She was forced out,” Serj finally said.
“Forced out?!” Flynn noticed the rats flinch in response to his outburst. “Forced out by who?”
A lethargic turn of his head and Serj stared straight at Flynn. He didn’t need to say it.
“Brian, Sharon, and Dan? Because of their kids?”
The pause only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like a lifetime. “No,” Serj said. “They found out.”
A chill ran from Flynn’s head to his toes. “You mean about the virus? About her part in it?”
Before Serj could respond, something fell from the hole and Flynn ripped his knife up and pointed it in the direction of the small girl. No more than eight years old, she had scruffy brown hair and a ripped nightie covering her skinny form. The way she stood there, hunched over, suggested she’d jumped rather than fallen.
She stared at Flynn and then the knife before she pulled her lips back in a snarl, baring her yellow teeth.
Her hiss ran needles into the base of Flynn’s neck and his shoulders lifted. When she snapped her hand out, he barely saw it move. However, he did see the bug in her pinch. A cockroach, it twisted and writhed before she put it into her mouth.
They shared a look while she chewed on the insect and then she sp
rinted from the room through a door at the back. Fuck knew where it led, but as long as she left them alone, he didn’t care.
After he’d glanced up at the others to make sure no more would come down, Flynn looked back at Serj. “They found out she helped set the virus free?”
Serj nodded.
“Because I said it in Home?”
Serj nodded again, although even that seemed to be taking its toll on him now. His movements were weak, his sweating face pale.
Although Flynn drew a breath to speak, Serj cut him off. “She wanted you to think she’d left so you’d stay safe in Home. She loved you and wanted to make sure you’d be okay. Home was the best place for you and she didn’t want anything to jeopardise that. She had to die regardless and saw no point in you having to leave also.”
Already limp, Serj fell even more flaccid, every word taking its pound of flesh from him.
Flynn looked up at the rats again before he glanced down at his boots. It seemed impossible that a body could lose so much blood and not be dead. “But why are you telling me now?”
“You needed to know …”
“The truth?” Flynn finished for him and looked up again at the rats.
Serj nodded.
Now he’d got the words from his friend, Flynn shook more violently than before. A mixture of hurt and rage swirled within him. “I’ll kill ’em,” he said. He shook his head as he stared down at the glossy pool of blood on the ground, the shifting silhouettes of the rats reflected in it. “I’ll kill all three of the fuckers. Suffocate them in their sleep. I’ll make sure they pay.”
“Remember what I said about the hot coal?” Serj said, sweat running from his brow down either temple.
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