‘Take my hand. You need to get your feet on the window ledge.’
He grabbed the hand she offered and pulled. She shouted as he hauled her straight off the roof. She tumbled past him and his arm twisted as she clung on. His body spun around and he found himself staring down at her as she hung beneath him, legs kicking in space.
Alex
He couldn’t believe he was doing this. He didn’t much want to be the hero. He didn’t at all want to be the hero. His guilt at creating the plague went only so far and certainly didn’t stretch to being led into what was, in all likelihood, a painful and meaningless death. Not that any death had a great deal of meaning. Those sorts of things were reserved for books and the parents of soldiers.
He sighed and shook his head. The whole of last week had been like this, being led by Luke into stupid situations. Meeting God had been the highpoint, but since then there’d been little to recommend it as a lifestyle choice.
He hated being passive. And he had been. He’d made the occasional contribution, like the stupid plan they were enacting right now, but it meant little in the big scheme of things. The truth was, Luke was leading them all around. The question was, what was he aiming to achieve? He was keeping them alive so he could get home, but there had to be more than that.
He wanted to speak to Az. He knew that. And now that Seph guy was involved, he’d want to speak to him too. But what would the outcome be? And how would it affect him and Bayleigh and the others? He watched Luke stride ahead through the cavern, carrying Ed like he weighed nothing. He was changing. He had changed, just in the last few days. But he was still apart from them, still different in ways Alex couldn’t even begin to describe. His strength was just one facet of it.
They reached the stairs and he took a deep breath. He could do this. He didn’t want to, but he could. Luke had Ed over his shoulder, slung in a way that looked incredibly uncomfortable but was the probably the best he could do. Bayleigh’s face creased up and he watched her for a minute before he started climbing.
She was pretty. Not stunning or anything, but pretty in a very English sort of a way. Her smile was what he really liked, though. There was a slim chance that at some point in the future he’d see more of it. Her whole face lit up and her eyes gleamed like she believed in things the rest of the world couldn’t see. Her face climbed out of view and he watched her arse through her jeans. That was a pretty good view, too.
Deep down he knew he should be mourning Lisa. He wondered why he couldn’t. It was possible he still didn’t believe she was dead. There had been no funeral, no body. Did you see the body when someone died? He didn’t know anyone that had died. Even his grandparents were still healthy and happy.
Were. They had been healthy and happy. Now they were probably eating the Robertsons next door over some dispute about the roses.
He knew they were dead. He knew she was dead, but he still couldn’t mourn. Perhaps he needed space. They talked about that in books, about people needing space. They said some people mourn for years and didn’t even know they were mourning. But if he was mourning surely he wouldn’t find the sight of Bayleigh’s arse arousing.
He pulled himself up the first step and focused on the climb. It was difficult enough that he couldn’t think of anything else. It went quickly this time and his hand found the flat of the shelf long before he expected it. They stood high above the cavern for a moment before Luke set off into the tunnel.
Alex came last and, without the distraction of the climb, found his eyes wandering back to Bayleigh. She swayed unconsciously, her hips waking all sorts of things within him he really wasn’t ready for. She had a habit of flicking the hair out of her face as well, every minute or so her hand coming up to brush it away. It was both infuriating and fascinating and the journey to the door was quicker as well.
Luke disappeared through the wall and they followed, stopping just outside the tunnel. Luke exchanged looks with both of them. ‘No sneaking around this time. Does it feel strange to not be worrying about being seen?’
Alex nodded enthusiastically and looked around for somewhere to hide. Bayleigh shrugged. ‘I still can’t believe we’re having to hide from the only other humans alive in England. What a bloody ludicrous state of affairs.’
‘Ah, but then, you aren’t alive as we are.’ All three of them jumped at the voice and spun to see Etienne strolling through the cathedral towards them. ‘You see, our lives are blessed by the Lord. We are here because he has chosen us. You are here because he has shunned you. You are so far from his light he didn’t even notice you when the plague came.’
Luke stepped forward and cleared his throat. Alex recognised the tone in his voice as soon as he said the first word. ‘Tell me, Etienne, what’s your worst nightmare?’
Alex ducked his head, screwing his eyes up. The robed man shrugged and cocked his head to one side. ‘That’s an interesting question, though I don’t see what it has to do with your isolation from God. I suppose it would be being separated from my Lord.’
Luke’s face was pale and he shook his head. ‘What, what?’ He turned to Alex and Bayleigh, eyes questioning, but Alex could only shrug in response. Luke cleared his throat and coughed, then took Ed down from his shoulders. He cleared his throat a second time and started to speak. He broke off before he got a word out and stared at Etienne, forehead marred by a deep frown.
‘Who are you?’
‘I am Etienne. I am one of the Five. I’m so glad we’re finally having this conversation properly. Who are you?’
‘My name is Luke, first son to the Father. Why aren’t you living your nightmare?’
‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand.’
Luke stepped forward and grabbed Etienne’s throat with one hand, balancing Ed over his other arm. Bayleigh rushed over and took Ed, glaring at Luke. But he ignored it entirely, his eyes burning as he stared at Etienne.
‘My soldiers are all around us. I haven’t called them because I know you are too smart to kill me. But they will have no such compunction should they consider me to be in danger.’
He returned Luke’s glare and Alex watched his friend shrink and diminish. In the end, it was his eyes that dropped first to stare at the floor between them. It wasn’t the most auspicious start to blackmailing them. Not that Luke looked interested in the plan any more.
Alex stepped forward. ‘We have a problem.’
Etienne turned his perfectly curved eyebrows towards him and smiled. ‘And who are you?’
‘My name is Alex. I’m a scientist.’
Etienne’s face changed entirely, eyebrows racing up and a huge smile spreading across his face. ‘You’re the vessel, aren’t you? All of this is thanks to you.’ He crossed the space between them and grabbed Alex by the arms, shaking him like an enthusiastic older uncle. ‘I cannot ever thank you, not properly, but thank you nonetheless.’
‘Alex, what does he mean?’
Bayleigh’s voice was horribly steady and calm. Alex glanced at her. Her eyes were turned down to Ed but she looked up at him and he flinched. When he turned back, Etienne’s smile had changed. ‘She doesn’t know. None of them know. How splendid. Well, young lady, the plague that we released into the atmosphere only a few short days ago was designed and created by none other than young Alex here. He is what you might call something of a prodigy.’
‘Only I’m not, because someone tampered with my design. Someone gave me the formula that worked. I didn’t know it.’
‘Are you saying you were trying to make something else and someone screwed with it?’
He looked at Bayleigh again, hating the hope in her voice. He shook his head. ‘I was trying weaponise a plague that made people into zombies. It would have been the weapon you never had to fire.’
‘Like nuclear bombs, right? Cos the people of Hiroshima were relieved that was the weapon you never had to fire.’
Alex flushed and turned back to Etienne. The man had an infuriating look on his face that made him very punchab
le. Alex had never punched anyone in his entire life, but he could start now. He’d never killed anyone and he had at least one zombie to his name. He shuddered. It was so easy to forget about them in the safety of the cathedral.
‘That isn’t important. What’s important is Ed.’ He gestured to the body in Bayleigh’s arms. ‘His leg is badly broken. You have medical staff. We want one of them to help him. Your best person.’
Etienne stared at him for a moment, eyes wide, then burst out laughing. ‘What a splendid joke. Pray tell me, why would we do that?’
Alex tried to smile confidently. It probably made him look like he had constipation, but it would have to do. ‘You should do that because we have a rather vital piece of your machine downstairs. Any moment now it’s going to stop working, and all of your fancy boxes will be worthless.’
Etienne’s eyes narrowed. It was the only sign he was freaked out by what Alex said. He wouldn’t want to play poker against him.
‘How do you know that’s what the machine is for?’
‘Because we have one of the devices as well. We don’t have that with us either, so don’t even bother asking.’
Luke stepped beside him and he risked a sideways glance. The angel’s eyes were still cold but he looked more in control. Still, his jaws were clenched and his words were squeezed out through his teeth. ‘You will care for the boy or we will sentence every person in this cathedral to death.’
Etienne looked from one of them to the other. Then he peered around them at Bayleigh. ‘Would you?’ He stepped past Alex and approached her. ‘Would you really let them stop the machine working and let the zombies in?’
Alex almost took a step back when she looked up from Ed. Her eyes were closer in appearance to Luke’s that he’d thought they could be and carried even more contempt. ‘If you don’t help Ed, I’ll laugh as the zombies come and fuck you over.’
That stopped Etienne in his tracks and for the first time, Alex saw something other than smug confidence on his face. He turned away from Bayleigh and opened his mouth. He closed it without speaking and marched away across the cathedral, signalling for them to follow. They exchanged looks, unwilling to believe it would be that simple.
‘Do we follow?’
‘Do we have any choice?’
They hurried after him and caught up just as he stormed through the wall and into the white corridor. He led them into one of the rooms that looked like a doctor’s surgery, the walls covered in anatomical charts and lined with shelves of medical books. There were machines scattered around the bed and it was there that Bayleigh gently placed Ed.
Etienne pulled a radio from within his robes and, in a voice Alex would describe as stroppy, demanded to be attended by the doctor.
‘He will come and look at what is wrong. In the meantime, my soldiers will check your claim. I’m sure I don’t need to explain what will happen if you’ve lied to me.’
He stalked from the chamber without looking back. Bayleigh watched him go before she turned to Alex and Luke. ‘I can’t figure him out. We’re in the heart of the enemy stronghold and he’s just left us alone. What’s to stop us finding out all their secrets?’
Luke chuckled. ‘You don’t get them? I thought I was the one struggling with human nature. He said he was one of the five. So there are four others and him who have just killed the vast majority of the population of the Earth. He’s arrogant, Bayleigh. So arrogant he can’t even imagine us getting the better of him. As far as he’s concerned, we aren’t leaving.’
Jackson
Jackson chuckled and shook his head. ‘Join you? I nearly made that mistake once already with the tossers who’re running this thing. Why would I make it again?’
‘Because I’m not the tossers you’re talking about. And because I have a direct link to God.’
Jackson stopped laughing. The woman in his arms was growing heavier and he looked around for a place to put her. The alarm stopped, his ears ringing in the sudden silence.
‘I did that. I created the alarm in your head and I switched it off as well. No one else heard it, Jackson. I am a demon, I have powers you couldn’t begin to imagine. And I’m this close to God. Believe me, if he had a party, I’d be top of the list.’
‘You’re a demon. God hates demons.’
Az chuckled, a sound like gravel being shaken in a metal pan. ‘God doesn’t hate anyone. He takes the piss out of everyone equally. I work for God, just like Luke used to. Only Luke’s been cast down now. So why would you stay with a guy who God has sent from heaven in disgrace when you can work for someone with a direct line.’
‘Why are you here? If God loves you, why are you down here?’
‘Why do you think?’ The demon spread his arms wide and looked around the tent. ‘It’s all gone to shit down here and God is not pleased. Why do you think he gave you such an important task? He just thought you might need a little help.’
Jackson’s chest swelled and he looked at the woman in his arms. Every one of the ladies was his responsibility. Could he do it on his own? He sniffed and pushed back through the sheets to the empty bed. He laid her on it, his fingers tracing her breast as he turned away.
The demon hadn’t moved and his horns peeked above the sheet. Jackson stared at the barrier that hung, so fragile and meaningless, between them. It was a demon. Why was he even considering trusting it? There was something about the way it spoke that made him want to trust it. He knew it was telling him the truth. And it knew that Jackson was the Chosen One.
The demon was the first person to recognise that he had been chosen by God and perhaps that meant more than it should. But if a demon agreed, then the humans with their attempts to kill him, or ignore him, or treat him like he was mad, meant nothing at all. He pushed through the sheet and stared the thing in the face.
‘If I join you, if we work together, what’s the plan?’
The demon nodded and folded its huge arms. Jackson watched the muscles rippling and rolling. This thing was huge and powerful, he didn’t like the idea of fighting it.
‘The plan is to ensure the ladies in waiting survive whatever is coming so they can do their job.’
‘Their job?’
‘You know that as well as I. We need a new human race, one made by people who are worthy. These women will bear the next generation. And they must be allowed to do that. If your friends destroy the device below, we’re all screwed.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The machine that keeps the zombies at bay - and can I just point out how clever a piece of engineering that was by me - is being used by your ‘friends’ as a bargaining chip to get the boy cared for by the soldiers’ doctor.’
Jackson growled and balled his fist. He couldn’t argue with an attempt to get Ed help, but using the machine was reckless and stupid. ‘Why would they do that?’
‘Because they’re desperate. And you can’t blame them. I’d be desperate too, if I were in Luke’s shoes. He’s been given a tough job by the— by God.’
Jackson frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
Az raised his eyebrows, huge chunky things the size of Ed’s arms. ‘You mean you don’t know?’ He laughed and shook his head. ‘Well, that tells you all you need to know. Luke wants to go home, to heaven. But if one of you dies, he’s stuck here forever. He’s supposed to be helping you save the human race, but all he’s really concerned about is keeping you alive long enough for God to let him back home.’
Jackson heard the last bit but he was already stomping past the demon towards the edge of the tent. He slipped beneath the canvas and stood in the gloom, breathing hard. He was going to murder the bastard. The lying, cheating bastard. He’d been lying all this time. He never intended to save the hostages.
It was difficult to be angry at the man for wanting to keep them alive, but it was easy to find fury at him for lying. That wasn’t God’s way. Why hadn’t he just told them? Jackson turned and watched the demon appear outside the tent, wisps of black smoke coming o
ff him as he solidified.
‘How do you do that?’
‘I’m a demon. There are plenty of things I can do. It’s why you want to join me.’
‘I don’t want to join you. I want to do God’s work. You help me with that, we work together. The moment you lie to me or piss me off, we’re finished? Understood?’
The demon smiled that piss-taking smile again and Jackson growled. Just like everyone else, Az thought he was better than him. But just like everyone else, he was making the mistake of underestimating him. Jackson returned the smile with one of his own. ‘First, we find Luke and make sure the machine’s safe. Then we get the hostages away from the creepy bastards up here. We take them down to the cavern, right beside the machine. It’s much safer than up here anyway.
Az nodded, his smile never changing. ‘That sounds like a plan. You’ll find Luke in the secret passages. I won’t make an entrance quite yet, let’s keep our team a secret, shall we?’
‘God doesn’t like secrets.’
‘Actually, God’s rather fond of secrets. It’s lies he doesn’t like, so if someone asks you whether you’re working with me, you tell them yes. Otherwise, don’t say a word.’
There was enough emphasis to make it an order and Jackson bristled. He was tempted to argue, to make it plain who was in charge. But he had better things to do. So he nodded and watched Az fade away, the smoke thickening until that was all he was before that, too, disappeared.
Jackson waited for a moment. He hadn’t actually said they were working together. He’d made his plans clear, which were just the same as if Az hadn’t arrived. Knowing that didn’t make him feel any better about his latest union, but it was enough for him to put one foot in front of the other and believe it was by his own choice.
Thirteen Roses Book Three: Beyond: A Paranormal Zombie Saga Page 11
