She heaved a sigh of relief when Alex rose from beside the machine and held something aloft with a triumphant shout. ‘This is it. This is, I think, integral to the machine working properly.’
‘So?’
‘So we hide this. Or maybe Krystal and David take it somewhere. We go up there and tell them we have it and won’t leave until they sort Ed out.’
Bayleigh let out a low whistle and exchanged a look with Luke. The angel was nodding, a different sort of smile on his face. ‘Brilliant. We do it.’
‘That’s it? We don’t talk about it?’ she asked.
Luke turned to her and she saw a little of what she thought David and Jackson had once seen. His eyes were fire, the colour of ice beneath a dying sun, and froze her words in her throat.
‘We don’t have time. And I’m sick of being questioned.’
Where the hell had that come from? One minute he’s being awkward and innocent, the next he’s a megalomaniac. She shook her head and backed away, then stopped, surprising herself with her words. ‘You should get used to being questioned. Cos I don’t give a toss who you are. If I don’t like what you’re suggesting, I’m going to say so.’
She thought he was going to hit her. But he pressed his lips together and nodded and even managed to turn the corners of his mouth up. ‘Understood. Sorry. Ed’s life means a lot to me, that’s all.’
Alex snorted and flushed when she looked at him. What was going on with that? She shook her head again. ‘So we’re sure this will work?’
‘Absolutely. They’ve been very casual so far, but I think that might change if we take away their protection. They don’t have that many soldiers and the tent is no defence at all. They could move the hostages into the secret tunnels, but it would take too long.’
David returned from his glowering position and took the box from Alex. It was about the size of a Rubik's cube and had a number of ports as well a short lead coming out. ‘You’re sure this is important? Because you’re going to look really stupid if they come down to check and it doesn’t matter.’
Alex scrunched up his face and took the box. He studied it before handing it back to David. ‘I’m about 95% confident, something like. Is that alright?’
He was asking Luke and her and she shrugged. It didn’t make any difference because Luke was making the decisions anyway.
David tossed the cube up and down in the air. ‘Where are we taking it?’
‘I don’t want to go with him.’
They turned to Krystal who shook her head, eyes on David. He rocked his head side to side and laughed. ‘I don’t blame you. I don’t want to be with me either.’
Everyone else was still watching Krystal, but Bayleigh caught sight of the glare he directed at Luke and shivered. It wasn’t just a glare. If looks could kill, he’d just dismembered Luke and scattered his body parts. She pictured the carvings in the tunnel and shivered again. She’d been down here too long. ‘Look, Krystal, it would mean a lot to me knowing you were safe—’
‘Yeah, but I won’t be. There are bloody zombies outside and he’s mad.’ She blushed. ‘Sorry, no offence.’
‘None taken. I have good moments though. This is one of them. We find somewhere to hide and stay there. No running around anywhere near the zombies. Sound good?’
His face had softened and he looked at least partially sane. Bayleigh could hear Krystal thinking, wondering what happened when he wasn’t having a good moment. But she nodded anyway. ‘Yeah, alright.’
Bayleigh patted her shoulder. ‘Thanks.’
Luke pulled the device from his pocket and handed it to Krystal. ‘You won’t have to worry about zombies at least.’
Bayleigh watched it change hands, a sick lurching in her stomach fighting with the relief she felt for Krystal. It was for the better.
‘We’ll get another one.’ Luke read her thoughts. ‘I don’t intend to leave without at least another one of these, maybe two. There’s no point in stealing the machine if we don’t have enough devices to shelter all the hostages.’
He turned for the door and paused. ‘Where will the two of you hide?’
‘I think the hospital would be good, unless the soldiers are still there. In that case, not a clue.’
Krystal stood, lowering Ed’s head to the pew. ‘We can find somewhere. We don’t have to go far. The nearer the better actually.’
Luke nodded and crossed to Ed. He put his arms beneath him and lifted him as easily as Jackson had. He headed for the exit and Bayleigh and Alex joined him. She glanced back and saw David and Krystal watching them leave. She shuddered and wondered whether this would be the last time she saw either of them. It didn’t seem all that unlikely.
David
She thought he was mad. He giggled. She was right and had the balls to say it. He had to respect that. He wasn’t sure whether it was balls or just ignorance. She came across as ignorant. Homeless and with an accent straight out of the east end. He didn’t have time for kids. Amber had wanted them but he’d refused. Partially because he hated the thought of them and partially because he hated the thought of having them with her.
Krystal was just the sort of kid he’d hated the thought of having. Smarter than him and mouthy and full of herself. A brat, basically. He giggled again. He was worried about being left with a brat. They were being hunted by soldiers and zombies and led by an arrogant evil bastard and he was worried because they were leaving him with a child to look after.
He shoved the cube into his pocket. It didn’t fit and he stared at it for a moment.
‘Put it in my bag?’
He started as he realised she was staring at him. She held her bag out, unzipped at the top, and he tossed it in.
‘Look, I’m sorry I said you were mad, I didn’t me—’
‘You completely meant it. And it’s fine, really. He messed me up. Do you know what he did to me?’
She shook her head, eyes a little wide and lips in a flat line. David leant forward, clasping his hands together in a way that, had he been able to see himself, would have reminded him of his father. ‘He took everyone away. He found out I was scared of dying alone so he took everyone away and left me in London on my own. Then he gave me pneumonia, too advanced to be cured. Not that it made any difference, there was no one around to cure it anyway.’
Krystal shook her head. ‘What do you mean, he took everyone away?’
‘He does… magic? I don’t know what it is. He put me in a place I thought was London. I don’t think it was now, I think I was just supposed to think it was. But he left me there for two weeks, completely alone.’
‘That sounds nice.’
‘For you maybe. It was my worst nightmare.’
‘Why?’
He looked at his hands and pulled them apart. What did he have to lose? There were too many secrets here already. ‘I cheated on my wife.’
‘That’s it?’
‘You don’t think that’s bad?’
‘Hey, that’s a crappy thing to do. But in the big scheme of things. I mean, the guys upstairs killed millions of people. You cheating doesn’t seem that bad, really.’
He rocked his head side to side, pursing his lips. ‘I don’t know. I think maybe bad is how you see it. Cheating on my wife ruined her life. She didn’t know I was cheating but she knew I didn’t love her anymore. So she sat at home every day getting more and more miserable and I watched it and hated her a little more the sadder she got…’
He stared at Krystal. Her eyes were wet and she nodded. He hadn’t thought about it. He hadn’t ever thought about it, but it was true. Amber must have known. Why didn’t she say anything? Why did he keep doing it, if he knew what it was doing to her? He hadn’t, though, not at the time. At the time he’d just known she wasn’t the person he’d married and Steph wanted him and she didn’t.
‘But anyway.’ He cleared his throat. ‘That’s what he did to me. What did he do to you?’
‘Um, nothing, really. He gave me some roses and I stopp
ed Ed from killing someone.’
‘Ed? He was going to kill someone?’
‘Yeah, the guy… well, I’ll let Ed tell you, when he wakes up…’
Her eyes were wetter now and she stared past him. She rubbed her face and stood abruptly. ‘So. We should get hiding somewhere. As soon as they get upstairs, someone’s gonna come look at this thing.’
David nodded and led the way out of the church. The lanterns were still bright enough to light their way to the tunnel. It was dark within but the ground was smooth. They paced slowly into the darkness and he found himself listening to the rhythm of their footsteps. Sometimes together and sometimes apart. Back and forth, back and forth. He giggled.
The darkness was close to absolute and he held his hand before him, imagining it as a claw. There could be anything in here. Krystal stopped and he walked a little further before he realised and stopped himself.
‘Why did you—’
‘Shush.’
He shushed and listened.
Voices.
Voices muffled by gas masks, coming from in front of them. He backed away and bumped into Krystal who yelped. The voices stopped. His heart stopped. Then Krystal shouted.
‘Shit, shit, go, come on.’
He broke into a run and she came with him, grabbing his sleeve and clinging on as they raced back to the cavern. There were other sounds behind them, the thump of boots on stone and grunts of men running. His blood sounded loud in his ears and he gasped. He was the wind.
He was the wind.
He was the wind.
He was the wind.
He was the wind.
He was the wind.
He said it enough times that it became true again and his feet lifted off the floor. Krystal’s hand slipped free of his sleeve and he barely felt it go. He ran and ran, ignorant of the darkness around him or the fear that raced through him like wildfire through a forest.
‘David, wait, WAIT.’
He heard the brat, shouting in that horrible, whiny voice, but he blocked it out. She wasn’t the wind, she couldn’t be part of his escape. He would fly and they would never catch him. His laughter trailed out behind him like breadcrumbs the soldiers would never find.
She had the device.
She had the part of the machine. He knew this thing and tried to block it out but it came back up, surfacing like the corpse that refuses to sink. He attached concrete blocks to it and shoved it under again but still it bobbed above the water. He slowed, his feet no longer free. He glanced back, but saw only darkness.
The cavern was close, flickering light spilling into the tunnel ahead. His chest rose and fell, blood slamming into his ribs and stealing what little breath he could find. Sounds encroached upon him and Krystal slammed into him, knocking him off his feet.
‘Oh crap, sorry, what the hell were you doing?’
‘I’m the wind.’
‘You’re a bloody nutjob. I said you were, I said it.’
‘And saying it makes it so. This is the power of words, you see.’ He giggled and cringed, glad he couldn’t see her expression. His anger bubbled up. He was ruined. He knew it even as he said. ‘I am the wind. You are not the wind, you do not know the power of the wind. They will never catch me.’ He cringed again and covered his head with his hands.
‘I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but we have to get out of here.’
‘The tunnel is blocked. The tunnel is blocked and the barricades are down. We must throw ourselves into the river and be swept out with the flotsam.’
He heard her sigh in desperation, then her hand fumbled on his arm. She grabbed his hand and dragged him along. He let her take him. She could pull the wind, she could capture nature. She was some sort of goddess, a mythical being far beyond anything he could imagine. Tears stung the corners of his eyes. He was so small, so insignificant.
He was mad. Mad as a hatter, mad as a mad march hare. He was bonkers, one wave short of a shipwreck. His tears were swept away in a gale of laughter and Krystal’s hand tightened around his. He was scaring her. Somehow, with soldiers behind and zombies above, she was scared of him.
They ran into the cavern and his eyes flicked this way and that. It was still deserted. ‘Where do we go?’
He caught Krystal’s eye and moaned inwardly. She’d changed. She no longer looked at him like he might have the answers or like he somehow knew more than her. Now she looked at him with pity.
‘I’m not always mad. I have spells, episodes, you know.’
‘Uh, yeah, right. It doesn’t matter. We need somewhere to hide.’
The walls of the cavern were shrouded in shadows but they would be seen easily enough. The only place they could hide was the cathedral. He set off towards it at the same time as Krystal, mind racing. They would be found wherever they went, so it was just a matter of how long they could remain hidden.
‘We can hide in the bit at the top.’ She said.
‘You mean the gallery?’
‘Yeah, whatever, the dome bit.’
They raced through the front door and David glanced guiltily at the machine. Their part of the plan was close to failing and they’d only been alone half an hour. What if Alex and Bayleigh gave the ultimatum and the machine was already back with the soldiers? They’d be killed just like that and it would be his and Krystal’s fault.
‘They’re going to die.’
‘Shut up.’
‘We’ve failed them. They’re going to make all these threats and the soldiers will laugh at them and parade us around and we’re all going to die.’
‘Shut up, shut up. We’re not going to get caught and they won’t find the piece of the machine. So shut up.’ She snarled at him as they stomped down the aisle.
Against the wall a door opened to a narrow set of stairs. She raced up them two at a time, hand tracing along the stone. David hesitated at the bottom and watched her disappear. It was narrow and steep and made his stomach lurch. A shout came from outside and he raced up the stairs, pausing only to pull the door closed behind him.
The stairs went up a long way and his head was spinning by the time he reached the top where a narrow landing curved away. To his right, skinny windows looked down on the cathedral.
He flattened himself against the left hand wall and crept along, watching Krystal do the same further ahead. She didn’t move like a kid. She moved like someone who knew what their body could do. She wasn’t awkward in the least and he felt clumsy just watching her. The cathedral below was still empty, but in the next moment the door opened and soldiers stomped in.
David swallowed hard and gripped his trouser legs with sweaty fists. He looked ahead and blinked, staring. Krystal was gone. She’d vanished in the seconds he spent looking down into the cathedral. He tried to hurry while keeping flat against the wall. It was harder than it should have been, but he reached the last point he’d seen her without being spotted.
A narrow doorway with rough stone edges was recessed into the wall and a set of steps ran up within it. He slipped inside and started up. It was narrower and steeper than the previous and his shoulders brushed against the walls.
‘Krystal, are you t—’
‘Shut up. God.’
He flushed and kept going. The shouts and footfalls of the soldiers dwindled as he climbed up and up. He finally reached an archway, considerably smaller than him, and squeezed through it, suppressing the urge to wriggle and run. He stood on the rim of the dome, in a walkway made for midgets with windows looking out. Krystal was a little way around, crouched against the wall with her knees drawn into her chest.
‘They’ll find us here.’
She shook her head. ‘Any better ideas?’
He peered out through the tiny arched windows across the cavern. He didn’t have anything better. He tried to sit beside her but there wasn’t room in the passage to fit his legs so he settled for half-crouching. His knees told him he had maybe a minute or two before they gave out.
‘We
can’t stay here. They’ll search the entire place.’
‘Unless they think we went up the stairs.’
‘Why would they do that? They got in here long before we would have made it up.’
Krystal hissed and thumped her hands on her knees. She rose and peered back around the curve before setting off around the dome. He waited patiently until she arrived back from the other direction. She looked at him, up to the window, and back at him. She frowned. ‘You’re too big.’
‘For what?’
She neglected to answer and instead poked her head through the window. Then she turned her body and looked up. His mouth dropped open as her entire body followed her head. He pushed himself up and swore as his head hit the ceiling. He stuck it through the arch and looked up. She was perched atop the dome, crouched with her hands pressed against the stone.
‘Coming up?’
He looked down and groaned. The edge of the dome was almost vertical, dropping beneath him to the roof of the cathedral. The drop was far enough to break both his legs but not kill him. They could just leave him there to die. He swallowed and pulled his head back in. The soldiers’ shouts were drawing nearer.
He was the wind. He couldn’t be hurt by a simple fall. He giggled. He wasn’t the wind, he was an ill man. Thanks to Luke. That decided it. He had to survive this and save the others because he was going to kill Luke. No one else but him.
He put his arms through the window first, wincing as the stone took a layer of skin off them. He followed with his head and once his shoulders squeezed through, he knew he could do it. Krystal guided him. ‘Put your hands above the window. No, you need to turn your body over. Yeah, that’s it. Now, pull yourself out.’
He pulled. Nothing happened. He pulled harder, lifted his feet off the ground and slowly but surely eased through the window. His hips ground against the stone as well but finally only his legs remained. He put one hand higher, to find something to cling to, but there was nothing but smooth stone.
Thirteen Roses Book Three: Beyond: A Paranormal Zombie Saga Page 10
