For a few seconds, Alex couldn’t breathe.
For a few seconds, he wasn’t sure either of them had survived.
The body on top of him wasn’t moving.
“Sam?” he gasped, barely able to get the word out. His ribs hurt.
Sam stirred. “Alex?” he whispered. “Are we alive?”
Alex wanted to laugh, but the weight on top of him was making it difficult to get enough air. “Looks like it. Are you okay?”
There were a few moments of silence. “I think so.”
“Good. Could you get off me? I can’t breathe.”
Sam rolled off to one side and Alex gasped in a few breaths, his eyes squeezed shut. Footsteps ran up to him.
“Are you alright?”
Alex opened his eyes and looked up at Micah crouching beside him. He flexed the most important muscles. There was pain, but none of it severe enough to indicate any major injuries.
“More or less.”
Sam sat up next to him, looking stunned. Turning to Alex, he threw himself back down on top of him, hugging him with painful enthusiasm.
“You saved my life again,” he said, his voice muffled against Alex’s shoulder. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Alex patted his back, trying surreptitiously to encourage Sam to move by pushing upwards a little, but he was clinging on like Velcro. Alex’s ribs were protesting. “Uh, Sam...”
A thud sounded nearby. Alex looked up past Sam’s head to see the roof above them lined with eaters peering down. As he watched, one of them toppled forwards over the edge, landing with a thud a few feet away.
Micah was already standing. “Come on, Sam,” he said, tapping the young man’s shoulder. “You don’t want to survive jumping off a building and then get crushed by a falling eater.”
Sam lifted his head and looked up, his eyes widening at the sight of another eater pivoting over the low wall at the edge of the roof and plummeting to the ground. He scrambled to his feet.
Alex sat up, grimacing at the new pains erupting across his body. An eater landed by his feet and didn’t die. Instead, the man lifted its bloody face and tried to use its shattered limbs to crawl pathetically towards him, letting out a rasping moan. Micah stepped forward and dispatched it with a quick thrust of a skull-spiker.
“You need help?” he said to Alex.
Alex shook his head and got painfully to his feet, walking back from the building to join the others.
The soldiers were watching them with expressions of astonished disbelief.
“That was insane,” Ridgewell said, grinning.
Porter had his hands planted on his hips, looking up at the eater filled roof. “If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed you did that.”
A hint of a smile played across Dent’s face. “How are you still alive?”
Alex and Micah glanced at each other.
“We’re going with amazing luck,” Micah said.
“They’re superheroes,” Sam said, smiling.
Alex noticed Hudson staring at Sam and he braced himself for the derisive remark he knew was coming.
“You’ve got brass ones, kid,” Hudson said, before climbing into the Panther.
Sam’s jaw dropped, then he grinned.
A sound drew everyone’s attention. They all looked up to see a speck approaching in the distance.
“Did you get the tracker off?” Micah said.
“Yeah. We left it round the corner,” Collins replied.
Hudson leaned out the APV and tossed a sharpshooter rifle to Ridgewell. “Don’t miss.”
Ridgewell took a pair of wraparound sunglasses from his top pocket and slipped them over his eyes with a smile. “I never miss.”
Hudson climbed back out, clutching his rifle, while the rest of them tossed their packs inside and prepared themselves. Alex and Micah pulled out their pistols, although Alex wasn’t sure how much use they’d be at a distance. But the weight of it in his hand made him feel slightly better.
“Keep close to the humvee and stay down,” he said to Sam and Chloe.
“Now I know you’re doing it on purpose,” Collins said.
“Did I get it wrong?” Alex replied, feigning innocence.
Collins rolled his eyes and lifted his rifle to aim at the approaching helicopter.
The armoured vehicle was the only cover they had in the event someone in the Omnav helicopter opened fire and everyone instinctively moved closer to it.
They could see the helicopter clearly now as it flew towards them, the hum of its rotor blades competing for aural dominance with the moans of the eaters on the school roof.
“Ridge, what can you see?” Dent said.
“It definitely doesn’t look like one of ours,” Ridgewell said, staring at the chopper through the telescopic sights on his rifle. “I can’t see that logo yet... hold on, it’s turning... just a bit more and I can... yes, got it.”
“What does it say?” Micah said.
“Omnav Industries.” There were a few seconds of silence as the helicopter closed in. “I can take the shot now, Lieutenant. Should I fire?”
Alex watched Dent swallow as she looked at the chopper. She glanced at him. He nodded.
“Ma’am?” Ridgewell said, not moving his eye from the rifle scope.
“Take the shot,” she said. “But try to disable it, not bring it down. Just enough so it has to go back to wherever it came from.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Two seconds later, the report from a single shot echoed from the surface of the school building. The black helicopter was immediately in trouble, listing to one side as its flight destabilised. It briefly continued towards them then made a shaky u-turn and limped back in the direction it had come. The release of tension among those gathered around the APV was palpable.
“Nice shot, Ridge,” Porter said, grinning and slapping him on the back.
Ridgewell pushed his reflective sunglasses up into his dark hair. “They don’t call me Eagle-Eye for nothing.”
“Do they call you Eagle-Eye?” Collins said, raising his eyebrows.
“One day they will,” he replied, smiling.
A burst of gunfire cracked through the air. The second helicopter seemed to come out of nowhere, swooping in and thundering towards them. Bullets strafed the ground sending tiny puffs of dirt and showers of concrete erupting in a beeline towards them.
“There’s another one!” Hudson yelled, whipping his rifle up and firing at the black chopper hurtling towards them.
Weapons raised and the air was filled with the sound of rapid gunfire. Showered with high calibre bullets, the helicopter peeled off and disappeared over the school.
They waited, listening for its return.
“Speak to me, people,” Dent shouted.
One by one, the soldiers affirmed that they were unhurt.
“I’m good,” Micah said, lowering his pistol.
Alex glanced at Sam and Chloe. Sam, pressed against the APV with his arms still wrapped protectively around Chloe, gave him a shaky smile and a thumbs up. Chloe lowered her hands from her ears, opened her eyes and looked around.
“I think we should leave,” Alex said.
Dent reached into the APV, emerging a few seconds later with a satellite phone which she handed to Alex. “If you need to contact us,” she said. “I wish we could help you somehow.”
“It’s better like this,” Alex said. “The five of you, badass as you are, can’t fight the whole of Omnav. The fewer of us there are the more chance we have of getting in and out undetected.” He could have added that Hudson would make that just about impossible, but he didn’t. “I hope you make it home. All of you.”
She smiled. “Good luck, Detective.”
Alex smiled back. He’d almost forgotten what it was like to be addressed by his rank. “You too, Lieutenant.”
She climbed into the driver’s seat and Alex, Micah, Sam and Chloe watched the Panther class armoured patrol vehicle drive out of the scho
ol grounds.
Alex took the black helmet from his bike and held it out to Sam who took it with a smile and pulled it on, starting towards Micah who was just climbing onto his bike.
“Sam,” Alex said.
Sam turned to look at him.
Alex flicked his head in a ‘come here’ gesture. “Get on.”
Sam’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“Really.”
Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Sam climbed on behind him. Micah gave his helmet to Chloe, strapping it as tight as he could to her small head before she climbed onto the bike behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
They started their bikes and drove away, leaving the eaters to throw themselves off the roof in peace.
13
The sign they passed had flowers planted around the base and extolled visitors to, ‘Please drive carefully through our village’.
At least two drivers had ignored the advice. They hadn’t gone more than a few hundred yards before they were forced to drive up onto the pavement to get past two cars that appeared to have collided head on. There was blood, but no bodies. The eaters had been through here.
Beyond the crash, they pulled over.
“Which way to your grandparents’ house?” Alex asked Chloe.
She let go of Micah and pushed her visor up awkwardly, having to use two hands. “I think you go to the end of this road and turn right at the roundabout. No wait,” she closed her eyes, “it’s left. No. Um. Yes, no, I was right. Right.”
He frowned, trying to work that out. “So we go right at the roundabout?”
“Yes, right.” She began to nod then stopped as the helmet slid over her eyes. She pushed it back up. “Then their road is the second on the right.”
The sounds of moans heralded the approach of eaters, emerging from a road to their right. There were six in the group, all young men in their late teens or early twenties. All of them were having trouble walking, their oversized jeans having slipped all the way down and now bunched around their ankles. Except for one. It had managed to get one leg completely free and its jeans trailed along the ground behind the foot still inside them.
At the sight of Alex, Micah, Sam and Chloe, they speeded up, or at least tried to. Only one-foot managed it, although it came to an sudden enforced halt when its jeans snagged on a garden gate. The rest were repeatedly tripped up, falling to the ground and then struggling up again. Their faces were already bruised and bloody.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Micah said.
Chloe shook her head, sighing. “Fashion victims. Boys are so weird.”
“I think I’d have to agree with you there,” Alex said.
He watched for signs of life as they made their way through the large village. Doors to some of the houses hung open with evidence of a hurried exodus scattered across lawns and driveways. It was obvious some hadn’t made it, days old blood staining tarmac and grass brownish red. Mounds of torn clothing and stripped bones were everywhere. Chloe had left her visor up and Alex could see the fear on her face as she looked around.
The occasional face could be seen peering from a window. At least some were still alive. He hoped Chloe’s grandparents were among them.
As they turned at the mini roundabout onto a tree lined street, Alex heard a scream. He stopped and flipped up his visor, trying to gauge which direction the cry had come from.
“That way,” Sam said from behind him, pointing to a side street on the left a little further along.
Alex followed Micah as he sped towards the street. It was a short cul-de-sac and they aimed straight for a bungalow at the far end where a woman struggled with two eaters. One of them had a grip on her arm and as Alex drove towards them it sank its teeth into her wrist. She screamed again.
The second eater shuffled around behind her, reaching for her shoulders. Alex skidded to a halt, pulled his gun from its holster and fired. The eater with the woman’s arm in its mouth dropped. Another gunshot rang out and the second eater fell. Micah looked around, his gun still in his hand, but no other eaters appeared.
Alex moved his bike onto the driveway of the bungalow and ran to where the woman was standing, frozen in shock. She was staring at the bite wound on her wrist. Alex wasn’t sure she even knew he was there.
“I just wanted to see if Mrs Poulter was alright,” she said. “I didn’t see them.” Her eyes rose to meet Alex’s. “Will I become like them?”
He wished he could lie to her. “I’m sorry.”
She folded in on herself, a single sob escaping. Without any words to comfort her, Alex laid a hand on her shoulder.
“How long do I have?” she said.
“Ten minutes, more or less.”
She straightened, wiping at her tears. “My husband is visiting his mother in Ludlow. When he comes home...” she drew a shuddering breath before going on, “...I need to write him a letter, so he knows...” Her eyes rose to Alex again. “Will you stay until it happens, then kill me? I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
Alex was barely holding it together. He nodded quickly.
“Thank you.” She led the way inside. “Please have a seat. Would you like anything to drink? Or eat?”
“No, thank you,” Micah said. “You just write your letter. We’ll wait here.”
She nodded and wandered through a set of double doors into a dining room, sitting at the table. Sam sank into an armchair and sniffed, wiping his nose on his sleeve. Alex took a box of tissues from a coffee table and handed it to him.
Micah sat on the sofa and leaned back, closing his eyes. Chloe sat beside him, leaning her head against his shoulder when he put his arm around her. Alex sat next to Chloe, resting his elbows on his knees. Across the room there was a framed photo on the mantelpiece showing the woman arm in arm with a man with greying hair. They were smiling. Alex dropped his eyes to the sage green carpet.
For a while the only sound was the woman’s pen scratching on paper. Alex didn’t know how long had passed before she walked back into the living room. Her skin was pale and flushed, her eyes glassy.
“I don’t feel well,” she said as she dropped into a chair. “But I suppose that’s to be expected. I’ve left the letter in the kitchen. Paul will see it there.” She closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again. “Mrs Poulter lives just across the road, number fifteen. She’s on her own and she can’t get out without help. Could you check she’s alright?”
Alex tried to smile. “We will, I promise.”
She nodded, then frowned. “I don’t even know your names.”
“I’m Alex and this is Micah and Sam and Chloe.”
“I’m Lynn. I’m grateful you’re here.” Her eyes drifted closed again. “I wouldn’t want to be alone when...” Her head lolled forward to rest on her chest and she was silent.
“W-what do we do now?” Sam said, his voice trembling. Tears streaked his face.
“You and Chloe stay here,” Alex said gently. “We’ll take her out the back and take care of everything.”
Sam nodded, looking relieved. “I know I’m not much use. I’m trying to be strong, but...”
“It’s okay, Sam, I understand. We’ve got this.”
He gave a wan smile. “Thank you.”
Alex carried Lynn out into the back garden, finding a spot beneath a tree and laying her on the ground where any blood would soak into the earth.
“What are we going to do with the body?” Micah said.
“I’d prefer to bury her, but that will take too long.”
Micah nodded towards a small wooden shed at the end of the garden. “We could leave her in there, leave a note to let the husband know if he comes back. It looks secure.”
They sat down to wait. The garden was well tended and the scent of late blooming flowers drifted around them in the still air. A bird trilled and sang somewhere nearby.
A few minutes later, Lynn began to stir, her eyelids opening to reveal the white orbs beneath. Not allowing him
self to think, Alex pushed a skull-piercer into her temple. Her eyes slumped closed again.
After leaving Lynn’s bungalow, Sam and Chloe stayed with the bikes while Alex and Micah checked at number fifteen. The front door was locked and there was no answer. When they went around to the back they found a door into the kitchen open. Soon after, they found Mrs Poulter in her bed. Or what was left of her.
They closed the back door, returned to the motorcycles, and left.
Chloe’s grandparents lived in a detached house on a leafy residential street. There was less indication here of eaters having come through, but the eerie silence made the area feel disquieting, nevertheless.
They pulled onto the empty driveway and Chloe jumped off the back of Micah’s motorbike, running towards the door without even removing her helmet. Micah ran after her, catching hold of her before she got to the house.
He bent down to bring himself to her eye level and flipped up her visor. “I’ll go in first, in case it’s not safe. Okay?”
She nodded, frowning when the helmet dropped over her eyes. “There’s a key under the plant pot with the hydrangea next to the back door. Can I take this off now?”
He unstrapped the helmet and tossed it to Alex who put it onto his bike and walked over to wait with Chloe while Micah disappeared down the side of the house.
“What if they’re not there?” Chloe said, her eyes fixed on the house. “Or what if they’re dead?”
Sam walked up beside her. “Don’t worry. Whatever happens, we’ll be with you. You’re not alone.”
As she continued to stare at the house, she slipped her hand into his.
A couple of minutes later, the front door opened.
“They’re not here,” Micah said. “It’s empty.”
Chloe’s eyes filled with tears. “Are you sure?”
He stepped aside. “Would you like to come in? It’s alright, it’s safe.”
She walked into the house with Micah, Alex staying outside with Sam.
“Can we take her with us?” Sam said.
Alex checked up and down the road. Nothing was moving. “We won’t leave her alone, but it’s going to be dangerous.”
First Sam, now Chloe. The responsibility to keep everyone safe was beginning to scare him.
Twenty-Five Percent (Book 2): Downfall Page 13
