Several more royal guards slipped from their horses and surrounded Dave. He got to his feet, shifted backwards, and looked up at the Queen. “Just let us go, you crazy bitch.”
“Tie their hands,” the Queen said.
One of the royal guards produced two short lengths of rope from her belt. She threw a length at another guard and they both walked over to Dave and the woman.
The pregnant woman continued to sob as they bound her wrists in front of her. They bound Dave’s wrists behind his back.
Once they’d done that, the Queen smiled down at Dave as she said to her guards, “You know what to do with him.”
Another length of rope appeared and they tied Dave’s feet at the ankles. They didn’t do the same to the woman.
The guard with the ropes then went to her horse and pulled two longer pieces of rope free from her saddle. Each piece stretched at least five metres long.
The guard tied one end of each rope to the Queen’s saddle. She then tied the other ends to the pregnant woman’s wrists and Dave’s bound ankles.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Dave said as he looked from his feet to the Queen’s horse and back again.
“Quite the talker, aren’t we?” the Queen said.
Dave pursed his lips and glared at her.
After the guard had tested the knots on both ropes with a sharp tug—Dave having to jump forward when she tested his—the Queen shouted at the riders. “Let’s go to the town.”
The ropes tied to Dave and the woman pulled taut as the Queen rode off. The woman stepped forward with them while Dave hopped, his ankles bound too tight for him to shuffle.
Two more hops and Dave lost his balance, his feet dragged from beneath him. He hit the rough ground with an oomph, landing on the base of his spine.
Flynn winced to watch him get dragged over the hard ground, his shirt riding up as he shouted again, “You can’t do this to me. I won’t last two fucking minutes like this.”
The Queen stopped and Flynn drew a sharp intake of breath when she turned around. The temperature had dropped as if she controlled the weather. Malice lit up her face. She then grinned her familiar wicked grin. “That’s the idea, petal.”
Chapter 24
They waited in the long grass until the Queen and her army were out of sight. In a matter of minutes, the weather had changed, the temperature continuing to drop as clouds blocked the sun. Flynn looked at Rose and let out a heavy sigh. His tiredness sat in him like he had rocks for bones. “I should have let you go to them.”
Rose got to her feet and held her hand down to him to help him up. “You weren’t to know. If I hadn’t caught them in time, we would have run into the Queen too.”
“You would have caught them in time.”
After jabbing her hand towards him, imploring him to take it, Rose said, “At least we can follow them now. If we get a move on, that is.”
Flynn took her hand.
They walked through the long grass and up the next small hill before another expanse of meadow opened up in front of them. Flynn gasped. Another expanse of meadow and the town. It looked twice the size of the one with the rats in it. Where the town close to Home had one large tower block, this one had what looked to be hundreds. Each one stood craggy and in disrepair like most buildings in the world. Each one looked like a bony and broken finger pointing accusation at the sky, cursing it for the ruin it had brought upon them.
Despite looking across the meadow, Flynn couldn’t see much more than the swaying grass. “Where have they gone?”
Rose shook her head, frowning into the strong wind. “They must have ridden off quickly.”
To think of the pregnant woman and her partner being dragged behind the horses sent a kick through both Flynn’s heart and stomach. “My god,” he said, “they wouldn’t have lasted five minutes at that pace.”
Flynn looked up at the wreck of the town again. A more modern town than the one near Home, the layout seemed to be better planned. Almost as if it had been built for the world it had existed in, rather than patched together in an attempt to keep up with the changing times. The roads ran through it in a grid like the American cities he’d seen in books. They’d had a huge library in Home, including a large section of travel books, at his disposal. In his mind, he’d travelled the world several times over.
“It’s going to be hard finding them in there,” Rose said as she squinted against the wind.
The thought of going into the place chipped away at Flynn’s courage, so he looked up at the sky to change where he focused. The clouds blocking the sun had turned gunmetal grey and the wind had grown teeth. Rain was on its way. Gooseflesh ran along both of his exposed arms. Not that he could do anything to warm up. Clothes weren’t something he’d be likely to find lying around any time soon. He looked at Rose; her tiny, ripped T-shirt did little to protect her against the elements. “Did you ever come to this town when you were in your old community?”
Rose shook her head and swept her hair away from her face, holding it in place with her hand. “No. We only really left when we wanted to hunt. We tended to stay away from civilisation. Or, rather, what had once been civilisation. I heard people had gone to the town before I joined the community, but no one went afterwards.”
“What did they say of it? Anything useful?”
Rose paused for a moment before she said, “They never came back.”
No time to process it, Flynn suddenly saw the Queen and her guards appear in the meadow in front of them. A dip in the landscape had hidden them from view. He grabbed Rose’s shoulder and said, “Get down,” as he pulled her into the long grass.
“Well,” Flynn said when they were both crouched out of sight, “it’s good for their prisoners that they didn’t canter off.”
“But bad for us,” Rose replied.
“Right. I guess we’ve got a bit of a wait before we can follow them.”
Rose shrugged and sat down next to him. “Hopefully they didn’t see us.”
Chapter 25
They waited for about twenty more minutes. The Queen and her guards had quite a distance to travel to get into the town.
While they sat on the bumpy ground, Flynn and Rose did what they seemed to do naturally whenever they waited somewhere together; they pressed close to one another, finding comfort where words didn’t cut it.
So little clothes on because the Queen had only given them joggers and T-shirts, Flynn’s heart beat faster to feel Rose’s exposed skin against his.
The grey clouds had burst above them about ten minutes previously. Cold and wet, Flynn looked up and opened his mouth wide like he’d done several times already. It took the edge off his thirst, lubricating the cloying dryness in his throat.
“I think we can move on now,” Rose said, her blonde hair darkened with the rain.
Although Flynn had been feeling that way too, he hadn’t said it. If he had a choice, he’d stay there much longer with Rose. But they needed to keep going. They could rest when they were done.
To see the wreck of the town again when he stood up—the tall dilapidated buildings against the now almost black sky—snapped a shiver through Flynn. A snort of a laugh and he shook his head. “Jeez, I thought it looked hostile before we sat down.”
Rose didn’t reply, but from the tight pull of her lips, she looked to be feeling the same anxiety as him. He watched her scan the meadow, the long grass yielding to the now stronger wind.
“Do you think we’re safe to follow them now?” Flynn said.
“I dunno. I’m not sure safe is a good word at any time in this world.”
A fair point, they’d just have to give it a try. “Okay.” Flynn reached across and held his hand out to Rose. “You ready for this?” A fearful pang ran through him in case she rejected him. But she reached across and grabbed his hand, holding it in a reassuring grip.
Rose then said, “No, I’m not ready.”
“I don’t suppose you are. But we’re as ready as we can be, r
ight?”
A sharp nod and they stepped forward together, starting off down the hill through the long sodden grass.
Chapter 26
Since Flynn had seen the cuts on his wrists, they hadn’t hurt anywhere near as much. The bandages were as soaked as the rest of him and pressed cold relief against the superficial cuts.
Like Flynn’s T-shirt did, Rose’s crop top clung to her. But he kept his eyes ahead, fighting the urge to look at how it hugged her lithe form. Every time he glanced across at her, he stared into her eyes even though she didn’t always look back into his. Instead, she put most of her attention on the town in front of them and the wide road they currently walked down.
The rain fell heavier than ever, hitting the hard asphalt and bouncing back up again. It seemed that nature had a trickier time taking over the cities, and although cracked with tufts of grass sprouting through, the road still provided a smooth surface to walk down. It felt almost unnatural to not have to accommodate the peaks and divots of a lumpy meadow.
Unlike the town with the rats, this town had a wide highway leading into it. No narrow railway bridge to walk beneath. They could have walked down the centre, but Flynn and Rose kept to the edge of it—the grass long on either side—just in case they needed to hide in a hurry.
A metal footbridge crossed over the road. At first it had been hard to see, but the closer they got, the easier it became for Flynn to work out exactly what hung from it. As much as he wanted to look away, he forced himself not to. It was important he acknowledged it.
It took for Rose to vocalise what they saw. “Do you think it’s the man she dragged here?”
Flynn didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. The bloody corpse had been strung up by his neck. Bound hands behind his back and bound ankles, his face showed the stress of his entire body weight on his throat. Completely naked, he was covered in sores. Grass and dirt stuck to his exposed and fresh wounds.
“What do you think’s happened to the pregnant woman?” Flynn said.
“We couldn’t have done anything, you know,” Rose replied.
“I could have let you run after them.”
“But the Queen was just over the hill. If they’d made any kind of fuss, which I would have expected them to—especially because I would have run at them—we would have been captured with them.”
Flynn opened his mouth to reply, but Rose cut him off. “And then once the Queen had them, if we’d exposed ourselves at that point, they would have killed us instantly. We couldn’t risk our lives for two people. Not when we have so many others depending on us. We had to make a decision for the greater good at that point.”
“I just can’t help thinking I made a bad call when I told you to wait.”
Rose grabbed both of Flynn’s hands in hers. “You saved us both with that call. I was thinking with my heart. You used your head.”
“And killed them.”
“You didn’t kill them, Flynn.”
Both Flynn and Rose stopped when they were nearly beneath the bridge and looked up at the man again. His rope creaked as he swayed in the strong wind. The rain smashed against his exposed skin. “It’s just so hard to look at this.”
“I know. But we did what we had to do. Knowing what I know now, I would have made the call you did. By the time we had a chance to help them, it was already too late. We’d be hanging with him if it had gone any other way.”
It all made sense, but it didn’t take away any of the guilt. Flynn walked to the side of the bridge and stepped onto the bottom step leading up it.
“What are you doing?” Rose said.
“I’m going to cut him down. It’s the least we can do.”
“And let the Queen know someone’s in the town? Someone hostile to her and her actions.”
“We can’t leave him up there, Rose.”
“Of course we can. What use is a dead body to us? What are we going to do with him?”
A look from the hanging man and back to Rose again, Flynn said, “He deserves better than this.”
“Yes, he did. But he’s dead now. He isn’t that lump of meat up there. He’s gone.”
She had a point.
“Look,” Rose said, “we have a choice. We can cut him down, but if we do, we have to then get out of here. I’m not going to show the Queen we’ve been here and then go looking around. It’s risky enough as it is.”
“The Queen might think someone else has cut him down. I dunno, nomads or something.”
“Nomads would eat him.”
Flynn shrugged.
“Okay, let’s say she doesn’t work out it’s us. Either way, it’ll put her on high alert. I’d rather catch her with her pants down. I don’t know this city at all, I don’t want anything making it harder for us. If we leave him there, we might still be able to save his pregnant partner.”
And what could Flynn say to that?
“Come on,” Rose said and pointed at the town. “Let’s get off this road and hide somewhere in there.” She looked around. “I feel vulnerable out here. We can do so much more if the Queen doesn’t know we’re coming.”
When Rose set off again, walking beneath the footbridge in the direction of the town, Flynn paused for a second and watched the dead man swing. The horror of his violent end sat in his wide eyes and protruding tongue. “I’m sorry,” he said to him. “I’m sorry I failed you.” He stepped off the bridge and ran after Rose.
Chapter 27
Flynn and Rose arrived at the first building in the town without incident. Like most buildings in most towns, it used to be an office block. Vicky had told Flynn the old world didn’t give people many career choices beyond a cubicle existence.
Flynn scanned all the glassless windows of the large buildings on either side of the main street. Darkness sat inside. And maybe people, but he couldn’t see them if they did. If he’d had anything to do with securing this town for use, he’d have guards watching the main road at all times. Hopefully the Queen hadn’t thought of that. Or, at the very least, hopefully she felt confident enough that she didn’t worry.
“Any ideas where the shit slope is?” Flynn said. “We find that and we’ve found the dungeon.”
Before Rose could respond, the clop of several horses echoed through the town. They got rapidly louder as they drew closer, their hooves hammering against the asphalt.
Rose jumped through the ground-floor window of the office block next to them and Flynn followed her a second later.
Both Flynn and Rose dropped down and pressed their backs against the wall beneath the window. They listened to the thunder of hooves race past them outside. They were heading in the direction of the wide exit road.
When it had quieted down, Flynn said, “Do you think that was all of them leaving?”
Rose shook her head. “No. It would have been much louder if it was all of them.”
“What shall we do?”
“Stay in these buildings,” Rose said. “If we move through them, we should remain hidden. There’s enough of them for us to stay in the shadows for as long as we need to.”
Flynn followed Rose through the ground floor of the office block. Every time they passed another glassless window, he checked outside. It seemed clear. Other than the wind, nothing moved through the streets.
Rose stopped and chewed the inside of her mouth as she looked around.
Flynn came to a halt next to her, trying to work out what she’d seen. “Do you think there’s another group of people in here? Other than the Queen and her lot.”
After she’d moved off and snaked through several smashed desks and toppled chairs, Rose stopped again and whispered back, “I don’t know. Why would there be?”
“The Queen said she left the bodies of the people who died during the games for the people who ran this town.”
“Hmm, maybe, then. I think we need to assume there’s someone around every corner, Queen’s gang or not. It’s the only way to remain vigilant enough to get through this.”
The rain had stopped, but a strong breeze still raced through the holes in the building. It kicked up a snowstorm of styrofoam from where several ceiling tiles had fallen out and shattered on the ground. Still soaked from the rain, Flynn shivered. So much for summertime.
At the other side of the first building, Rose vaulted through the downstairs window into an alleyway beyond. She landed with the slightest of sounds.
When Flynn followed her out, the slap of his feet against the hard ground clapped away from him in both directions. He looked at Rose while wincing a silent apology.
For the next few seconds, Flynn held his breath as they both waited. The wind stung his sore eyes, but he refused to blink while he searched for people around them.
“Come on,” Rose finally whispered, and she climbed through the next window into the next office.
The sound of the wind remained a constant. As did the lack of any other noise. Hopefully no one had heard him. He climbed through the empty window after Rose.
Rose set off again and Flynn walked beside her. He continued to look around, remaining as alert as he could to any sounds outside. The office building looked like every other office building he’d been in. Cheap furniture broken and overturned. Cracked computer monitors. Styrofoam ceiling tiles, half of them missing and smashed into little pieces, gathered in the corners of the rooms as tiny white balls. His dad had told him how boring his life used to be and had joked about how he enjoyed his existence more with scores of diseased in the world. It meant he got to spend every day with his son. A flash of his dad getting dragged into the water made Flynn flinch. When he snapped out of it, he saw Rose had pulled ahead of him. He jogged to catch up with her.
Outside the next office block, Flynn and Rose paused again to listen. Still nothing other than the wind. They were standing next to what used to be a pub. Vicky had told Flynn all about them. Apparently when people weren’t in offices, they were in pubs, getting drunk. Very little alcohol existed in the world now. The occasional spirit and bottle of wine still left over, but not much else.
The Alpha Plague - Books 1 - 8: A Post-Apocalyptic Action Thriller Page 128
