Alex was woken by the sound of tapping. As his brain reluctantly hobbled towards consciousness, a voice joined the annoying sound.
“Alex? Alex, wake up!”
The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Hannah, blinking drowsily. Sleep crusted her eyes and the crumpled pillow had left indentations in the skin of her cheek. She was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen.
“Alex!” a voice hissed.
He lifted his head to glare at whoever had woken him. The glare changed to surprise. “Sam?”
In the cell next to him, Micah was sitting up. Alex saw Claire standing at the slightly ajar door, peering through the gap at the corridor outside.
“How do I get these doors open?” Sam said.
Alex sat up, his brain finally getting itself into gear. “The panel on the wall. Just try every button, although not if it’s red or labelled ‘alarm’.”
Sam nodded and ran to the panel. Alex pulled on his shoes and stood. In the cells along from him, the others were sitting up.
“Get ready,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear him. “We’re getting out of here.”
There were general sounds of surprise, but everyone pulled on shoes and, in Dave’s case, trousers, and stood. Random doors slid open and closed around the room as Sam played with the controls. Finally, Micah’s cell door opened.
Sam looked back at it and grinned. “Got it!”
A few seconds later, all the doors were open and the group was gathering by the door.
“How did you get in here?” Alex said.
“Well, we found this remote control toy car in the pub, so we stuffed my t-shirt into it, then we sent it...”
“No, never mind,” Alex said quickly. “Tell me later. We have to go before they get here.”
“It’s clear,” Claire said, her voice sounding nasal. She glanced back at them to reveal her nostrils stuffed with bits of tissue. “It was the only way to stop the sneezing,” she said with a small smile.
“Sneezing?” Hannah whispered beside Alex.
“The synthetic pheromones they’re using to control the eaters make us sneeze,” he said. “I had some antihistamines yesterday, but I think they’re wearing off.” He rubbed at his nose which was beginning to itch.
Micah opened the door and led the way into the corridor, turning to his left.
“No, this way,” Larry hissed, pointing right. “It’s the quickest way to the labs. We can’t leave without our research. It may be the only way to stop the eaters.”
They made their way through the corridors, Alex expecting any second to hear the pitter-patter of size fifteen feet on the tiled floors. It didn’t take long to reach the laboratories and they ran into the glass room.
Dave headed straight for a PC on a desk in one corner, switching it on. “I need a tablet to download everything we have so far,” he said.
Sam grabbed an iPad from a worktop and handed it to him.
Pauline and Larry went straight to a glass fronted fridge and started loading vials and tubes into a square, padded bag.
Alex looked up at a camera in the corner of the room. It was too much to hope everyone was asleep and no-one was watching the feeds. He wished they’d been able to visit the armoury first.
Hannah tossed him and Claire a box each from a cabinet. They were marked with a name Alex didn’t know. “Antihistamines,” she said with a smile.
“Thanks,” Claire said, swallowing two of the small tablets and pulling the tissue from her nose. She grimaced. “Yuck, those are vile.”
Sam immediately ran to a sink at the side of the room and returned with a beaker of water. Claire took the drink and smiled.
Alex made do with swallowing the pills dry and ignoring the nasty taste they left on his tongue.
Micah left his place at the door and walked over to Hannah, taking a deep breath before speaking. “Is there a cure here for people who are already turned?”
She looked up at him, a question on her face.
He glanced at Alex. “We went to my parents’ house on the way here. We found...” He stopped, releasing a shaking breath.
Alex walked over to them. “We found Micah’s sister.”
Hannah put a hand on Micah’s arm. “Oh, Micah, I’m so sorry. It was one of the things we were working on at home, but we hadn’t had any success. Boot gave us access to all the research they were doing here, but there wasn’t anything more than we had. I’m so, so sorry.”
Alex watched Micah’s face fall. He swallowed and nodded, returning to the door. Alex followed him.
“Are you alright?”
Micah took a shuddering breath. “Not really. I feel like I’ve been mourning since we found her. Deep down, I knew there wouldn’t be a cure, but still I hoped that maybe...”
Alex didn’t know what to say. What could he possibly say to make the loss of Micah’s sister any less painful? So he said the only thing he could, and meant it from the bottom of his heart. “I’m sorry.”
Micah nodded, wiping at his eyes with one hand.
“Got it,” Dave said from behind them, disconnecting the iPad from the PC as he stood. “Everything’s on.”
“We’re ready,” Larry said, shouldering the bag of vials.
“We need to go,” Micah said. “I hear people coming.”
Everyone filed out into the corridor. Running footsteps could be heard from the direction of the cells so they headed in the opposite direction.
“Stop!” a voice yelled from behind them.
“Go,” Alex said, pushing Hannah ahead of him with the others and bringing up the rear. Hopefully, they would be less likely to shoot if there was a danger of hitting him.
The corridor echoed with the sharp crack of a gunshot.
Or maybe not.
“Don’t shoot them, you idiot!”
Alex glanced back as they skidded round a corner, seeing four men wearing pyjamas and carrying rifles at the far end of the corridor. Their unmistakable size identified them as members of Boot’s security. One of them was Walker; Alex recognised the beard. He wasn’t sure who the others were and he wasn’t staying to find out.
Ahead of him, the group was already almost at the next corner and he sprinted to catch up. Four more guards appeared at the junction ahead of them. The group stumbled to a halt.
“Stay where you are,” one of the guards barked. Alex recognised him as Chester, the man they’d first seen after scaling the fence into the compound. One of those with him was Brian.
At the front, Micah backed away, pushing the group behind him. Behind Alex, Walker and the other guards burst around the corner, weapons raised. The guards had the group trapped between them.
“Don’t be stupid,” Chester said, advancing on them. “You have nowhere to go.”
He was right, but Alex wasn’t ready to give up. He’d fight all eight of them if he had to. “You won’t shoot us.” He nodded towards Hannah, Pauline, Dave and Larry. “Boot needs them. And he wants us alive.”
“He may want you,” Chester said, “but he has no idea who those two even are.” He aimed his pistol at Sam and Claire. “Mr. Boot would want us to do anything to stop you all escaping. And we do whatever Mr. Boot wants.”
The little group all looked at Alex, waiting for his lead. Why, he had no idea. Micah looked angry, as if he was aching to fight his way through. At that moment, so was Alex, but he couldn’t risk Sam and Claire’s lives. He couldn’t risk any of their lives. If they fought, a stray bullet could hit any one of them.
Locking glances with Micah, he shook his head slightly. Micah’s eyes darted to Sam and Claire and even if he wasn’t happy about it, Alex knew he understood.
One of the Boot gorillas stepped forward and grabbed Claire’s arm. She shrieked and lashed out, slapping an inexpertly aimed fist into his torso. He doubled over with a grunt, clutching his torso.
When he straightened, a grimace of pain and anger twisted his face. He raised his pistol towards her. “You little bitch.”
“No!” Sam lunged in front of Claire, blocking the man’s aim. “Leave her alone.”
“Knock it off, Simmons,” Chester said.
“I think she broke a rib,” Simmons growled.
“Maybe that will teach you to mess with a Survivor,” Alex snapped, advancing on him. He was itching to punch someone and the injured guard would do nicely.
“Everyone just calm down,” Chester bellowed, his craggy face going red. Guards and captives alike froze at the command. “Good,” he said, his voice lowering. “Leonard and Fitz, take the doctors back to their cells. Hartley, take Simmons to medical and get him bandaged up. Everyone else, bring these four and follow me.”
Hannah grasped Alex’s hand, her face filled with fear as she looked up at him.
“It’s alright,” he said. “We’ll be okay. Don’t worry.” He smiled. “It’s all part of my heroic plan.”
She gave him a small smile and leaned into him before Walker stepped towards them, his rifle raised. The wrench of letting go of her hand as she moved away left Alex aching with guilt. He’d failed her. He’d failed them all.
He didn’t take his eyes from her until she disappeared around the corner along with the other doctors. They’d been so close. Would they get the chance again?
Chester led Alex, Micah, Sam and Claire along the corridor in the opposite direction, with Brian bringing up the rear and Walker and a guard he’d never seen before flanking them.
“I’m sorry,” Sam said to Alex as they walked. He was holding Claire’s hand. “When you didn’t come back yesterday I got worried. But I’ve just made things worse. Again.”
Alex shook his head. “You tried to help. That was a brave thing to do. And it almost worked. We’ll be okay.” It was the second time he’d said that in as many minutes. It was a pity he was having such trouble believing it himself.
Blundering in here half-cocked, with no real plan as to what to do. What had Alex been thinking? Was he even thinking at all? Or did he just want to be the hero for Hannah?
He felt like such an idiot.
The room Chester took them to looked like a conference hall, with plush red chairs arranged in rows facing a raised stage at the far end of the room and floor to ceiling windows along one wall. Alex was almost surprised to see the sun was only just rising.
On the stage, like an actor about to play to his adoring audience, stood Boot. Or perhaps it was a king about to address his subjects.
Unlike the guards who, other than Chester who must have been on duty, all looked like they’d just fallen out of bed, Boot was immaculately dressed in a gunmetal silver suit, shaved and not a hair out of place. Did he sleep like that? Or maybe he didn’t sleep. Maybe he was a vampire.
Despite the circumstances, Alex had to stifle a smile. A vampire leading an army of flesh-eating monsters. Yeah, right.
The guards herded them to an open area in front of the stage, lining them up as Boot looked down on them one by one. For a moment, as his gaze fell on Alex, the mask of calm indifference wavered and a flash of rage appeared. It vanished as quickly as it appeared as his attention shifted.
“And who are these two?” Boot said, his eyes moving to Sam and Claire. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.”
So Boot wasn’t the omniscient superior being he thought he was. Good to know.
Sam drew himself up to his full height and glared up at him. “I’m Sam and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll let us all go.”
An amused look crossed Boot’s face. “And why should I do that?”
Sam pointed to Alex. “Because he’s a Survivor and a real life hero and if you don’t, he’ll kick your arse.”
The smirk left Boot’s face and he nodded at Chester. The big man drew his fist back and drove it into the side of Sam’s face. His head whipped round and he tumbled to the floor. Claire screamed and threw herself down next to him.
“You
bastard
!” Micah shouted, cutting off Alex who had about to yell the same thing. “Why don’t you come down here and pick on someone your own size? Oh, I forgot, there aren’t any children here.”
For a moment, as fury turned Boot’s face red, Alex thought he was going to order the guards to shoot Micah.
Instead he ordered through gritted teeth, “Bring Mr. Clarke and Mr. MacCallum up here.”
Chester and Walker moved forward, herding Alex and Micah up the steps at the right hand side of the stage. Alex looked back to see Sam sitting up, his hand holding the side of his face and his cheeks wet with tears. He turned his attention back to Boot, silently listing all the ways he was going to make him suffer.
Some kind of thick, six foot high steel frame was fixed to one side of the stage, possibly for use during presentations. Boot jerked his head at it. “Bind Mr. MacCallum there.”
Chester moved to obey, using two sets of handcuffs to secure Alex’s wrists to the sturdy frame, his arms stretched to either side. As soon as he was done, Alex pulled forward, testing the strength of the frame. It didn’t move.
Boot strolled up to him. He affected an air of composure, but an almost manic rage lit his eyes. “You are a great disappointment to me, Alexander. I had thought we could work together, that you could fight by my side as I built my empire, two Survivors taking on the world. I was even entertaining thoughts of perhaps one day making you my heir, having no children of my own. But this is how you repay me. Your betrayal is more painful than you can imagine. It’s clear I can’t trust you. And so I have no more use for you.”