The Hunting (29 page)

There was a piercing scream as Miho suddenly collapsed in a heap, taking a huge gulp of air. She was suddenly fully conscious and scared.

Renée was at Miho’s side in a flash. ‘Miho? What?’

Miho stared at Renée as if she didn’t know her and then coughed as the smoke got into her lungs.

‘There’s a fire down below,’ Renée explained to her. ‘We’re on our way to the surface. You’re OK. You’re out of the Fortress.’

Miho looked at Renée and then seemed to remember her.

‘Renée?’

‘Yes, Renée. Cary and Genie got you out.’

Miho suddenly remembered something. ‘My mother. My mother died. I was … You were … We escaped … I …’

She was confused but she had a distinct memory of dying, of not existing. Yet here she was – again with Renée.

‘Got to get you moving,’ Renée told her. ‘We have to get moving.’

Cary came to join them. He tested Miho’s memory. ‘Where is Dave’s Muffin House?’

Miho frowned, confused by the question, then answered, ‘Spurlake.’

Cary smiled. ‘Brain still intact. Good. Come on, you’ve got to use your legs.’

Renée looked at Cary as if he was mad. Dave’s Muffin House was the only thing he could think of?

‘Oh my God, I’m solid again,’ Miho said, realizing with astonishment that she could feel her legs. ‘Cary Harrison, right?’

‘Right.’

‘Oh-oh, I’m going to be sick.’ She turned to one side and spewed over the wall.

Renée looked at Cary and he shrugged. ‘I feel nauseous too, if it helps.’

‘Keep moving,’ Rian called from the back. He had Julia with him now. She was showing no signs of coming round at all and he was worried. Almost as worried as he was about Genie.

‘Move on up,’ Marshall told them. ‘I’m sticking with Genie for a moment.’

Rian had Julia over his shoulder and felt his legs buckling. Only ten floors to go, but the smoke was getting to him now.

Genie twitched. Moucher barked suddenly and was skittering back down the stairs.

‘She’s coming back to us,’ Marshall announced.

Moucher was there at the exact moment Genie jerked back to life, banging her head on the hard wall. Moucher was right there, paw on her arm, staring at her to make sure she was OK.

Genie saw the dog, got a mouthful of smoke fumes and pulled a face. ‘Mouch? Denis?’

‘He didn’t come through,’ Marshall told her, standing.

‘Welcome back, Genie. We have to move quickly, there’s a fire below.’

Genie saw him, put out a hand to him and he pulled her up and gave her a hug.

‘I was so scared I wouldn’t get back,’ Genie whispered quietly.

‘Me too. Me too,’ he replied.

Genie broke away. ‘There’s a fire at the Fortress. The cables in Radspan overheated.’

‘Same here.’

‘Ri?’ Genie queried, looking around.

‘Up ahead carrying Julia.’

Genie suddenly remembered that Julia had a problem. ‘She’s only ninety-nine per cent, Marshall. I think …’

Marshall understood. ‘We will face that if and when she wakes. Come on, up. We have to go. These fumes will kill us.’

‘Go on up,’ she told Moucher. ‘The air’s bad.’ The dog was only too happy to go back towards the fresh air and ran back up to join Rian.

‘Who made it?’ Genie asked as she took Marshall’s arm – or he took hers; it was hard to tell.

‘Miho, Cary, Julia. That’s all.’

Genie looked at him. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry we couldn’t save more.’

Marshall urged her up the stairs. ‘Saving one is amazing; you helped get three out.’

‘Julia just opened her eyes,’ Rian called down.

‘Genie’s back with us, Rian. Keep moving,’ Marshall shouted back up. He looked back down the stairs and it seemed to him the smoke was intensifying. ‘Don’t open the outer door until we’re all there,’ he added.

To Genie he voiced his real concern. ‘We have to get out real fast up there. The moment the door opens it’s going to draw the fire up the stairwell – the oxygen and updraught will make it go critical.’

Genie was thinking about the other side of the door.

‘Does anyone know we’re down here?’

‘They’ll know Radspan is on fire. Anytime soon someone is going to open that door to find out just how bad it is.’

‘I hope it isn’t Reverend Schneider,’ Genie remarked.

Marshall smiled briefly. ‘I rather hope it is, give him a glimpse of the hell he helped create, eh?’

They gathered in the small lobby at the top of the stairs. Rian was covered in sweat, having done almost all the heavy lifting. Cary was out of breath, clutching his chest. Renée and Mouch stood with a blanket over them to cut out the acrid smoke. Julia lay on the floor, awake, but lifeless. Rian caught Genie’s hand and squeezed it hard.

Marshall gasped, clearly in desperate pain from the climbing and appreciative that Genie got him there.

He closed the door to the stairs. The smoke was still swirling around them, but at least it cut off the supply.

‘We don’t know what’s on the other side. Might be nothing, might be Fortransco people. If my truck’s there, run for it and get in. If it ain’t, run, scatter and leave me with Julia. I’ll deal with them. There’s an all-night café two blocks over. Meet me there. If I don’t make it, get the hell out of town. My guess is that it’s going to be dark. The power will be out. There will be chaos.’ He looked around for Rian. ‘Rian?’

‘Marshall?’

‘If I am detained, find some transportation. I don’t care whose. Get these kids gone. I don’t know where will be safe. But get over to the islands. There’re places to hide and people always need help on a farm.’

‘We won’t go without you,’ Genie reassured him, ‘or Julia.’

‘I think we need to get going,’ Cary urged them.

Renée flung off the blanket. ‘I can hear something.’ She moved towards the elevator door and put her hands on it, yelping with pain as she jumped back. ‘Jesus, it’s hot.’

Marshall could smell it now. ‘Damn. Rian, open the door. Everyone, get out of here as fast as you can, y’hear me. Fast as you can.’

Rian found the manual lever, swung it over and the door opened. Instantly they could hear the roar of the fire coming up the elevator shaft.

‘OUT. OUT. OUT!’ Rian was yelling as they all piled through.

Genie grabbed Julia – she was so incredibly light – and stepped through, Marshall right behind her.

But not fast enough. The flames exploded out from under the elevator door – seemed to come right out of the walls – and Marshall stumbled out of the doorway with his jeans on fire.

Renée acted quickly and smothered them with her blanket. They heard barking. Mouch was still in there.

‘Mouch!’ Genie screamed.

He jumped, yelping loudly, his tail on fire, practically landed on top of her and she rolled him in the canvas on the floor, extinguishing the flames.

‘God!’ she exclaimed. Mouch whimpered with shock and pain.

‘Shut the door!’ Marshall shouted, but it was already too hot to touch and they backed away towards the wire cage.

They realized that all was dark behind them, the flames were all the light there was. The underground car park was empty. Completely empty. The truck was gone, so were all the old cars.

Marshall staggered over to the wire fencing and pulled it away so they could get out.

‘Run, scatter, meet you-know-where,’ he told them. ‘I’ve got Julia.’

Rian grabbed Genie’s hand, Renée snatched the other. They had no intention of losing each other now.

‘Cary,’ Renée shouted. ‘With me.’

‘We can’t leave him,’ Genie protested.

‘Stick to the plan,’ Marshall insisted.

They were in the car park now. They all heard the tyre squeals of a vehicle coming on down at speed.

‘Go!’

They ran, hoping they could find cover before the vehicle arrived. Mouch, torn between masters, followed Genie, very concerned about his sore tail.

Marshall put Julia over his shoulder and began to walk.

Julia tried to speak, her eyes focused on the flames spewing out of the underground door. She couldn’t seem to say anything, but she knew something bad was going to happen. She tried again. Nothing. She couldn’t even scream.

The explosion was so intense behind them Marshall was picked up and thrown ten metres or more. He landed and rolled, realizing with dismay that Julia was no longer in his arms. His leg was gone and he was smouldering, he was so hot.

He looked back down the slope and saw the whole floor was burning as a hot liquid was spreading on the concrete floor.

An arm shot out and someone pulled him to one side as a truck came around the corner and plunged down towards the sixth floor. He looked around for Julia, saw her out of the corner of his eye, very awake now and clearly terrified.

The driver was going too fast. He braked but the floor was covered in burning oil and the truck drove right into the heart of the flames, its horn blaring on impact with a wall.

Marshall and Julia saw two Fortransco uniformed men jump out on fire, screaming, trying to find a way out of the flames.

Marshall found himself being hauled up.

‘Come on. I found your truck,’ Rian told him. ‘Julia, can you walk? Follow me.’

Julia nodded. She seemed to have lost the power of speech, but she knew who Rian was and what was happening and crawled to her feet, bemused and dizzy but able to keep up.

Rian dumped Marshall in the back of his truck with Cary and Moucher. Julia followed and flopped down at Marshall’s feet. Genie looked back at them with a worried expression through the window.

‘Get back in, Ri, we gotta go. Now!’

Renée swung the door open as Rian jumped in and Genie accelerated out of there, the fire behind them filling her mirrors.

Marshall regretted abandoning his prosthetic leg. Julia tried to make him more comfortable and Moucher hung on for dear life, ears flat, scared to death. Genie was swinging the truck round the sharp turns as if the devil was after her.

Sparks flew from the base of the truck as she hit the street and, although there was confusion and the whole town was plunged into darkness, she threaded her way through it with skill.

‘We should stop and check for tracking devices,’ Rian said, remembering what he’d found before.

‘There’s no power; they can’t track anyone right now,’ Renée pointed out. ‘Watch out, there’s people walking.’

‘I’m watching, I’m watching.’

‘Where are we headed?’

‘Vancouver.’

They stared out across Whistler. The whole town was blacked out, punctured by fires that seemed to have broken out in many places.

The traffic was all snarled on one area, but Genie just bumped over the curbs and down on to the opposite lanes and kept on driving.

‘Hey,’ Rian protested.

‘You can’t lose a licence you haven’t got,’ Genie explained.

She made a left. Went right around some people disputing an accident and duking it out in front of their headlights.

‘Keep going,’ Renée told her, looking back at where they had come from.

Marshall was knocking on the rear window. Rian slid it back.

‘Slow down and take a look behind you, kids.’

Genie slowed, but she could see it in her mirrors. The All Seasons Hotel was on fire. Radspan was finally claiming its own. It was huge and would only get bigger. She had done this. They would hate her even more now.

Cary spewed. ‘I’m OK, it’s just Genie’s driving.’

Genie smiled. She moved forward again, but kept to the limit. Instinctively she knew that Fortransco would have enough to worry about without chasing them at this moment.

‘Where do you think Reverend Schneider is right now?’ Genie asked no one in particular.

‘Far away. Far, far away,’ Rian told her.

Renée looked out of the tiny rear window at Julia. She was so changed. She looked so tiny and scared, the shaved head looked brutal.

‘Julia? You feel better yet?’

Cary spoke for her.

‘She isn’t speaking. I’m sure she knows who we are, but she can’t seem to speak.’

Genie knew why too. She was ninety-nine per cent certain why anyway.

‘Maybe it’s a side effect,’ Rian suggested.

Genie looked at him. ‘Maybe. But Cary couldn’t find one hundred per cent of her.’

Rian and Renée winced. That was not going to be easy to explain to her.

‘She’s alive, at least,’ Genie pointed out. ‘A whole lot of kids aren’t.’

She drove on. The chaos and darkness disappearing behind them, a virtually empty road ahead.

‘Do we have a plan?’ Rian asked.

Genie smiled. ‘We ever had a plan actually work out yet? I think we’re a whole lot better without plans, Rian Tulane.’

Cary leaned in for a moment. ‘Marshall says there may be a place to go in Squamish. About twenty minutes up ahead from here.’

‘I wanted to get us to Vancouver,’ Genie replied.

‘He says if the power’s out there the chaos will be worse than here. We can overnight in Squamish.’

Genie saw the logic of it. No one would know them. It was probably safe and they could plan the next move. Besides, everyone was exhausted.

‘OK.’

In the back of the truck Marshall gripped his stump. It was giving him grief. But they’d got out alive and he never thought they would. When they did the investigation about the fire, Fortransco would have a hell of a lot of explaining to do. It would cost them plenty.

Cary stroked Moucher, who was madly licking his damaged tail. The fur had gone, his skin was blistered in places, but it would recover.

‘You think I’ll have side effects too?’ Cary asked Marshall.

Marshall looked at him carefully, aware that Julia was asleep now.

‘You come through one hundred per cent?’

‘I guess.’

‘Julia was ninety-nine point one, right?’

‘Yeah. I’m sorry. I just couldn’t find all of her.’

‘And that’s always going to be the problem, I think. Storage. If you think you’re one hundred per cent, you probably are. You’re pretty unique, kid, transmitted successfully twice. That’s quite something.’

‘I’m scared I’ll … well, we … will all have problems later.’

Marshall nodded. ‘When we designed this programme, and I was only there at the beginning, remember, we took the view that everyone who ever teleported should be screened. If there were problems, you either didn’t send them or you fixed the problem. That’s what was decided. You wouldn’t want to send someone with a dodgy liver or dicky heart. So chances are, kid, you and the others will all live a lot longer than anyone else, if you get my drift.’