Twenty-Five Percent (Book 2): Downfall

by Nerys Wheatley

  They retreated to the centre of the room, firing at the advancing horde. One darted from the back of the crowd and was on Alex before he could shoot. He dropped his pistol and pulled out a spiker as the eater grabbed him, stabbing the blade into the side of its skull.

  The final eater came at them as Micah’s rifle clicked empty. He swung it behind his back and whipped a spiker into the eater’s eyeball in one swift movement. With all the eaters dead, they ran for the door.

  The rumble was getting louder. Taking the stairs two at a time, Alex slammed into the door at the top without slowing, erupting into the early morning daylight with Micah on his heels.

  A black helicopter sat on the rooftop, the air vibrating with the clamour of its spinning blades. Valerie was climbing into the back seat. Inside, Alex saw Chester and another guard, Boot sitting between them. The padded medical bag was on his lap.

  Boot saw them. “Go!” he yelled, banging his hand against the back of the pilot’s seat.

  The helicopter began to rise. Valerie fell in the rest of the way and Chester reached over her to pull the door shut.

  Alex launched himself across the roof, leaping at the helicopter as it rose. His fingertips brushed one of the landing skids before it pulled away and he fell the twenty feet back to the roof, dropping into a painful roll.

  Micah opened fire with his pistol. Bullets ricocheted off the metal exterior.

  “Boot!” Alex screamed at the retreating chopper.

  His face appeared at the window, staring down at Alex before they peeled away and the helicopter flew into the distance, carrying Alex’s hope with it.

  25

  They returned to Boot’s expansive office and pulled it apart, just in case, but the search produced nothing.

  Five minutes after Boot’s escape, they arrived at the foyer. Sam, Claire and the doctors were waiting in a corridor just out of sight of the entrance. Brian was with them, holding Hannah’s still form in his arms.

  At the sight of her, Alex felt like he couldn’t breathe.

  “Did you get it?” Larry said.

  Alex couldn’t answer. All he could do was stare at Hannah.

  “No,” Micah said. “Boot had a helicopter on the roof. He got away with all of it.”

  “No,” Sam said softly.

  Pauline gasped and Dave put his arm around her shoulders.

  Alex took Hannah from Brian, holding her close against him, her head resting against his shoulder. Closing his eyes, he touched his forehead to hers and stood still, quiet, breathing in the scent of her hair. For just a moment.

  Then he turned and led everyone out into the foyer.

  And straight into a cluster of automatic weapons.

  Walker, Hartley, and Frobisher stood in front of the huge glass entrance doors, rifles braced against their shoulders, ready to fire.

  Brian stepped to the front of the group.

  “What are you doing with them, Cochran?” Frobisher snapped. “Get over here.”

  “You don’t have to do this anymore,” Brian said. “Boot’s gone. He left us here.”

  “You have a duty,” Frobisher said.

  “Then you can consider this my resignation,” Brian replied, raising his weapon.

  Alex watched Walker’s eyes dart between Frobisher and Brian.

  “We can’t let you through,” Frobisher said.

  “You can do whatever you choose to. And it doesn’t have to be what Boot says.”

  Walker’s rifle lowered slightly, then he pivoted so it was pointing at Frobisher. Frobisher’s eyes darted to him.

  “What are you doing, Walker?”

  “I think I’m resigning too,” he said.

  Alex stepped forward. “You can shoot us or you can save your bullets for the eaters Boot released without any thought for your safety.”

  Hartley shifted his aim to Frobisher. “Sorry, Bish. I have no fight with you, but they’re right. Boot has lost it.”

  Frobisher lowered his rifle. “Looks like you have a consensus. I’d say good luck, but I wouldn’t mean it.” Walking past them, he headed back into the building.

  Walker and Hartley lowered their weapons. Walker darted a nervous glance at Alex.

  Outside, eaters were still roaming around the compound. Many of them were pressed against the doors, their hands slapping and scraping at the glass.

  Brian went to the security office, emerging ten seconds later with one of the pheromone guns Alex and Micah had seen him use the day before.

  In Alex’s arms, Hannah stirred. Her head flopped to one side.

  Micah stepped in close to him, lowering his voice. “She’s going to come round any second. She’ll be a danger to all of us.”

  Alex shook his head, tears burning his eyes. He knew Micah was right, but he would rather have torn his own arms off than let her go.

  Micah looked around. “Let’s take her in there,” he said, indicating the security office.

  Alex swallowed and nodded.

  “Stay here,” Micah said to the others. “We’ll be right back.”

  He followed Alex into the room and closed the door. Alex laid Hannah gently down onto the floor and brushed a strand of hair from her face, leaning over her. A tear splashed onto her cheek.

  He wiped at his damp face. “I don’t want to leave her.”

  Micah crouched beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I know. Believe me, I know. But there’s nothing you can do.”

  Alex continued to stare at Hannah’s face. It wasn’t a perfect face. She didn’t look like an airbrushed supermodel; there were a few blemishes on her pale skin, her nose was slightly uneven and her bottom lip was fuller than the top. But she was beautiful.

  “Alex,” Micah said quietly, “we have to go.”

  He became vaguely aware of the sound of distant moans and shuffling feet, but he couldn’t pull himself away from her. If he looked away, even for a moment, he would lose Hannah forever.

  He started as her head twitched. Her lips parted, eyelids slowly opening. Pale eyes stared up at him. Exhaling a long, low moan, she reached out for him.

  Micah grabbed Alex’s arm, pulling him up and dragging him towards the door as Hannah sat up. She uttered her hunger filled moan again, the sound ripping through Alex’s chest. He had no strength to resist when Micah opened the door and pushed him out, closing the door behind them.

  Alex’s heart thudded against his ribcage, his panic growing as he walked away. After a few paces, he stopped and turned back towards the room.

  “I can’t leave her,” he said. “I have to go back. She needs me.”

  “Alex, you can’t. We have to go.”

  The sound of eaters approaching was growing louder. Alex didn’t care. He had to stay with her. “No, I’m not leaving. You go without me.”

  He started for the door. Micah darted in front of him, placing his hands flat against his shoulders to stop him.

  Anger flashed through the pain. “Get out of my way,” Alex growled.

  Micah didn’t move. “No. You have to let her go.”

  “I said get out of my way!” Alex tried to barge past him.

  Micah grabbed his arm and spun him around, shouting into his face. “She’s gone!” For the first time, Alex saw the tears streaming down Micah’s face. “Hannah’s gone, my sister is gone, they’re all gone! We can’t save them. You said it, it’s not them anymore. I know how much you cared about Hannah, but I won’t let you throw away your life for a woman who is already dead.” He clutched the front of Alex’s shirt, pushing his fists against his throbbing chest. “I will not let you die!”

  “NO!” Fury flashed through Alex. He raised his fist, intending to drive it into Micah’s face, to remove him by force.

  Micah stood still, staring him in the eye. Alex could kill him with one punch, but he made no effort to move. Alex’s head and chest throbbed. His fist trembled.

  A moan came from the security office. There was a scrabbling sound at the door. Inside Alex, someth
ing snapped. Tears stung his eyes. His legs weakened.

  “Micah,” he gasped, lowering his fist.

  He would have fallen if Micah hadn’t rushed to his side, wrapping his arms around him, holding him up. With a final look at the door, Alex allowed himself to be pulled away.

  26

  Brian stood by the entrance, one of the pheromone dispersing guns in his hand.

  “We’ll head for that,” he said, pointing to a shiny black minivan with the Omnav Industries logo on the side parked beyond the lawn, about a hundred feet from the open front gate. “The keys should be in it.”

  “Should be?” Larry said from where he was standing behind the security desk.

  “Will be,” Brian said. “Definitely will be.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

  Walker, Hartley and Claire stood beside Brian, their hands braced against the glass door.

  “When I say go,” Brian said, “you press the button I showed you to unlock this door, but none of the others. Okay?”

  “I’ve performed brain surgery,” Larry replied. “I think I can handle it.”

  Brian looked at him. “I’m about to open a door to a ton of eaters. Humour me.”

  “Sorry. I’m a bit wound up here.”

  “Alright,” Brian said, “three, two...”

  “Wait,” Alex said. He wiped his eyes and jogged over to the door. “You’ll need my help against all those eaters.”

  Brian watched as he took a spot beside Claire. “Are you okay?”

  Alex didn’t look at him. “Just do it.”

  “Alright,” Brian said again, “three, two...”

  A chorus of moans reverberated through the cavernous space of the foyer as a wave of eaters emerged from one of the corridors.

  “Rifle,” Micah yelled to Brian. “Walker, Hartley, help me. Single head shots. Save your ammo.”

  Brian shrugged off his rifle and tossed it to Micah who caught it out of the air and began firing into the horde. Walker and Hartley left the door and ran to flank him, his form dwarfed between them. Sam and Dave took their places at the door.

  “Larry, now!” Brian shouted.

  The locks on the central door to the outside clicked off. Alex braced against the glass as the weight of eaters forced it inwards. Even with four people on it, two of them Survivors, the door inched inwards.

  Brian pushed the barrel of the bug gun through the gap above the eaters’ heads and fired, the muffled thump of the gun drowned out by the rifle fire behind them. The cartridge burst in the air forty feet away as he pulled the gun back in to load another cartridge.

  “Hurry,” Alex gasped, straining against the door, “we can’t hold them much longer.”

  Thrusting the gun back through the door, Brian fired again. An eater squeezed one arm through the gap and grabbed his jacket, pulling him forward. Using the butt of the gun, he pummelled at the arm. When it didn’t let go, he twisted round, pulling himself free of the jacket which the eater tugged through the door.

  “Push,” Alex grunted.

  The four of them shoved their weight against the door, feet scrabbling for purchase on the polished tiles. Brian joined them. Slowly, it inched shut.

  “Punch it, Larry!” Brian shouted.

  Multiple bolts in the door clicked home and the pressure released. Alex breathed out.

  “Got any more pheromones?” Micah said, his voice deceptively calm as he fired shot after shot into the horde crowding the foyer.

  The bodies were piling up across the floor, but each dead eater was replaced by two more, the sound of gunfire drawing a steady influx.

  “Yes, I...” Brian’s eyes widened and he looked outside. The eater who’d taken his jacket was chewing experimentally on a black sleeve. “I left them in my jacket.”

  “Then we’re going to have to go very soon,” Micah said.

  Hartley’s rifle stopped firing. “Damn it, I’m out.”

  “How long until it works out there?” Alex said.

  “It should be soon,” Brian replied. “Look, some of them are moving already.”

  Alex looked through the windows to see a small cluster of eaters gathering on the lawn by the giant Omnav letters. More were joining them, but they weren’t moving quickly enough.

  Micah handed his rifle to Hartley and took two skull-spikers from his pockets. “You up for this?” he said, glancing back at Alex.

  Alex glanced at the closed security office door. A pinpoint of pain and anger throbbed along with the wound in the centre of his chest.

  He removed his own spikers from his pocket. “Yes.”

  The eaters in the foyer were filtering around, and falling over, a cluster of large sofas in the centre of the big space, splitting the flow into two, which was further split by more groupings of sofas.

  “Keep firing on the right,” Micah said to Walker and Hartley as Alex joined him. “We’ll take the left.”

  “What do you mean, you’ll take the left?” Brian said. “Where are your guns?”

  “They don’t need them,” Sam said, a note of pride in his voice.

  Micah looked out over the approaching eaters. “Do you wish you’d brought the sword?”

  Alex shrugged. “It would look cool to go out with a sword in my hands.”

  Micah gave him a worried look. “If you’re not up to this, I can...”

  “I’m not going to commit suicide by eater, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He gave Micah a small smile. “Come on. Let’s kill some eaters. It’s what we’re good at.”

  Without waiting for a reply, he strode forward to meet the horde. The first two eaters to reach him went down in seconds, holes driven into their foreheads.

  A strange calm settled over Alex as he kicked, punched and stabbed at every eater coming his way. This he knew how to do. Maybe this was what he was now, just a weapon against those who had the misfortune to be infected. Killing had become normal to him, second nature. As he spun away from the reaching hands of a tall man in a black suit, obviously one of Boot’s guards, and stabbed the spiker up through the underside of its jaw, Alex wondered if he would find it as easy to kill an uninfected human. If he came face to face with Boot, would he have the guts to destroy the man who had destroyed so many lives? Would he be able to take revenge for Hannah’s life?

  Or maybe the real question was would he be able to stop himself?

  The background rhythm of gunfire grabbed Alex’s attention as it suddenly reduced by a half.

  “I’m out,” Walker yelled.

  “I can’t hold them off by myself,” Hartley said, still firing.

  “The door’s clear,” Brian said. “We should be able to go now.”

  Alex kicked an eater backwards and threw a quick look back at the doors. There were still a lot of eaters outside, but they were all moving away.

  “If we go out there,” he called, “we can’t come back in. You’d better be sure about this.”

  The rifle fire stopped abruptly.

  “I don’t think it matters now,” Hartley said as he lowered his empty rifle and he and Walker retreated to join the others at the door.

  Alex put his spiker through one last eyeball and jogged back with Micah, taking a position behind the group waiting to leave.

  “Do it,” he said to Larry.

  Larry pressed the button at the security desk and ran out to join them, throwing an anxious glance at the eaters approaching across the foyer, now just twenty feet away. Brian pulled the door open and stepped outside. The others followed silently.

  Finally, only Alex remained in the foyer. He looked at the security office and a stab of anguish sucked all his breath away. Swallowing the pain, he whispered, “Goodbye, Hannah.”

  Then he stepped though the door.

  The group huddled against the glass outside, watching the eaters gathering together on the perfectly manicured lawn with unadulterated terror. No-one made a sound, but their faces said it all. Even the edges of Alex’s numb despair wer
e being prodded by a primal fear.

  Within seconds of Alex stepping through the door, the glass at their backs reverberated with the thuds of dozens of eaters walking heedlessly into the invisible obstacle as they tried to reach their prey. He looked back, immediately returning his attention to the front as the sight of hundreds of bloodied, ravenous faces only separated from them by a couple of sheets of security glass ramped up the terror quotient even further.

  He sidled over to Brian. “Are you sure this is going to work?”

  “Oh yeah, no problem.” His pale skin and trembling hands said otherwise.

  “You really need to work on your poker face,” Micah said from beyond him.

  The eaters outside, prompted by the synthetic pheromones Brian had shot into the air, had gathered into two large groups directly beneath where the cartridges had exploded. They were huddled together, almost touching. As Alex watched, a few at the centre began to sway slowly, the ripple of movement passing from eater to eater in an expanding circle until each eater was affected, the whole horde oscillating together. Then they began to moan.

  “That sound makes me want to wet myself,” Walker whispered, summing up the general feeling of the group.

  “So we what, just walk through?” Micah said.

  Brian shrugged. “Pretty much.”

  “Alright, I’ll lead, Alex will go last. Everyone, keep together, stay quiet, no sudden movements.” Micah stared at the hundreds of eaters they had to get past and muttered, “And you might want to start praying.”

  They moved away from the building, forming into a line with Micah in the lead. The groups of eaters were so large they spanned the forty foot wide entrance, almost meeting in the centre. The only way through without risking physical contact with the eaters was down the six foot wide gap between the two groups. It wasn’t much.

  The eaters continued to sway and moan as they approached, seemingly unaware of their presence. Then, as Micah got within ten feet, a couple of them looked up.

  He stopped, the rest of the group bunching up behind him.