“We didn’t even know they were in there,” Winter said. “We had a shower, and then we heard them.”
“And you let them out?” Jason asked her.
“They got out.”
“They were locked up pretty well.”
“Not well enough.”
Jason laughed. “Where did you find these people?” He rhetorically asked Judy. She shared a laugh, but glared at Winter once more. Winter caught her eye and she looked at Jason, then back at Winter. Winter didn’t understand.
“Winter noticed that the door out of the changing rooms was locked…” Violet said.
“Lucky that.” Jason interrupted.
“So we thought we would come back to try and find whoever was inside.” Violet spoke, as if Jason hadn’t said a word.
“Why?”
“We thought you might need help.”
Jason laughed a big booming laugh that seemed unnatural and forced. He swiped at his nose with the back of his hand, running a hand over a bearded face. Judy caught Winter’s eye and nodded slightly towards her gun, then at Jason. Winter looked at Zach and saw that Michael was looking at her, too, not smiling or laughing at Jason’s joke.
“You’re the ones who brought the government here,” Jason said, his voice low and stern.
“Yes,” Zach said.
“Cut your hair.” Jason fired. “You lot bought the government here because you let out that there were zombies inside.”
“Well, isn’t that a good thing?” Violet asked, holding out both hands. Jason’s eyes flickered to the gun she was holding. Judy nodded at Winter.
“No, it’s not a good thing.” Jason shook his head. “We locked them up for a reason. So we could observe them.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Zach asked.
“Because we want to know how they got here.”
“They’re everywhere, not just here.” Violet told Jason, as if he was stupid and unable to understand a sentence.
“I know that. But I’m aware people are running from these things, fearing them. I want to know why they’re here, who got them here, and what makes them do what they do.”
“Well, haven’t you got a death wish?” Violet smirked.
“Say what you want, but we’re overlooking something here,” Jason said, holding out his own hands and shaking his head. “These people here agree with me. We need to observe these beings, don’t we?”
The room was full of half-hearted mutterings of agreement.
“So you’re locking them up and watching them?” Zach asked.
“I just said that!” Jason bellowed. Winter flinched. Jason laughed.
“But why?”
Jason sighed. “I want to know how smart they are. I want to know if they die of their own accord. I want to know how they interact with each other. I want to know how long infection takes place. I want to know if they get bored, if they can live without flesh, if their habitat has an effect on how they live. I want to know if they get stronger, or weaker, or if their humanity comes back to them. They’re my new experiments.”
Suddenly Winter realised why there was less of them now. She realised why there were only four of them hiding out in here, all scared of this man, all locked in a prison whether they knew it or not.
“You’re feeding these people to them,” Winter said.
Violet and Zach looked at her. Neither of them had thought that this was what Jason had been saying, and it was clear they both thought she had read it wrong. Yet from the look Judy gave her, and the way Deana had given her full attention to Winter made her realise that she was right.
Jason said nothing. He just looked at her, a slight smirk on his lips.
Winter glanced at Michael and saw he was wrapped up. His skin was covered with clothing, a hat on his head obscuring his hair. Deana was also the same, although she looked broken and weakened for completely different reasons. Judy was the only one with flesh on show, but the way she was spoken to and looked at by Jason told Winter she was regarded as important.
“How many of you were there before?” Winter enquired, staring straight into Jason’s eyes.
“Never you mind how many there were before.”
“There were sixteen,” Michael muttered.
Jason turned glaring eyes that could have killed on Michael. Michael sunk back and Jason rose from his seat slowly.
Judy placed a hand on his shoulder, and Jason breathed in deeply a few times, glaring at Michael, waiting for his anger to subside.
Jason lowered back into the office seat, his eyes on the desk. Judy stared at Winter, willing her to shoot a bullet.
“There were sixteen,” Jason repeated.
“And what happened to those sixteen?”
Jason looked at Winter and gave her the same treatment he had given Violet. He observed every part of her, almost finding her weakness. Winter felt a little uncomfortable, unable to hold her ground like Violet.
“All you need to know is there were sixteen.”
“You’re frightened, aren’t you?” Winter asked. “The government are outside, feet away, and you’re afraid they’re going to come in and find you are holding people hostage here, counting the days until another is fed to the dead so you can watch and observe how it’s done.”
Jason rolled his thumb over the nearest file and watched the pages flicker past as if he was bored.
“Why should I be afraid?”
“Surely what you’re doing is illegal,” Violet said. “The government would consider you to be as bad as the dead. You’re willing humans to become infected, going against what the government are fighting for.”
“The government are nothing but people now.” Jason shrugged. “Nobody is more important than anybody else. We’re all in the same boat. Rules and laws are out of the window. They’re gone.”
There was a bang and Jason slumped forwards in his seat. His blood began to stain the stacks of paper around him and the lamp that was teetering on the edge fell to the floor, where it smashed and plunged them into darkness. Someone lit up a match and Winter saw Violet had shot him straight through the heart.
Chapter Fifteen
Deana turned from the bookcase she had been staring at slowly. She was holding her breath, her eyes staring at the wall straight ahead. She lowered her eyes daringly; almost afraid of what she might see.
Her eyes, so broken and sad, found Jason slumped over on the table with blood dripping onto the floor. She showed no emotion. Her face remained blank and her mouth twitched at the corners, almost as if she was going to smile.
She looked at Judy for confirmation that what she was seeing was true. Michael was still sat where he had been before, unmoving, staring at Jason’s feet.
“He’s dead,” Deana said, her voice so quiet Winter struggled to hear her.
“He’s dead.” Judy nodded.
“Now what?” Michael said.
“You’re free,” Violet answered, staring at the man she had just killed. Winter could almost hear her mind suppressing any guilt she felt for taking this man’s life so easily.
“We can’t go.” Judy shook her head.
“What do you mean, you can’t go?” Winter asked. She couldn’t understand why the three of them looked so spooked.
“We wouldn’t survive,” Michael said. “This is our refuge.”
“You’re not going to survive in here much longer,” Zach said. “The place is full of zombies, and you can’t share this place with them.”
“What are you going to do for food, too?” Winter asked.
“There’s a canteen downstairs,” Judy said. “We’ve been using that.”
“And how much have you got left?”
“We’re struggling,” Michael admitted. “They’re right, Judy. This is our chance to go now. If he was still alive…well we would have died anyway.”
Judy shook her head. She had a pained expression on her face. Violet looked at Winter with raised eyebrows, as if to say they had walked in on some mad family with no sense of reality.
“And now he’s gone, and because he is gone, we can have this place to ourselves and stay here until this all blows over,” Judy responded quickly, her eyes clamped tightly shut.
“This isn’t going to just blow over,” Winter warned. “London will not be functioning for at least a few years.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No,
you
don’t know that.” Violet snapped. “We’ve been out in it. You’ve been in here, building happy families.”
Judy’s eyes shot open and she glared at Violet with intense dislike.
“It has been anything but happy families in this building.” Her voice shook with anger. It stung Winter and made Violet bristle. “Do you know what he did to us all? Do you
know
what he did to Deana?”
Deana seemed to shrink back into the shadows of the room, her gaze dropping to the floor. She crossed her arms and let her greasy hair fall over her face.
“No, we don’t know.” Zach began, but Violet interrupted him.
“And we don’t need to know.”
Zach threw her a look, shaking his head slightly. He turned back to Judy who looked like she wanted to turn one of the guns they held on them.
“We don’t know what he did, but we know just by being here that he was not a very nice man.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“No, you’re right. But he was cruel and inhumane if he was feeding you to those zombies for his own…experiments. What we do know, however, is that you can’t stay here. It’s infected. It’s crawling with zombies. You’re running out of food. The virus will most certainly get to you before the dead, and once that happens it’s too late.”
Michael stood up. Judy and Deana looked at him.
“I’m going with them. I need to get out of London.”
“You can’t!” Judy screeched. “You’ll die out there.”
“They haven’t,” Michael countered, indicating Winter, Violet and Zach.
“But look at them. Just look at them. They’re dirty, and they’re criminals.”
“There’s no such thing anymore,” Winter said. “Rules are being broken every minute of the day. There’s no such thing as laws anymore.”
“They’re convicts, Michael,” Judy said. “If you go with them you’re going to get into all sorts of trouble!”
“Maybe he will, but if he stays here he is going to get infected,” Violet argued.
Deana lowered her hands, shivering slightly. Her eyes were on Michael. Winter glanced at her. Judy lunged forwards and grabbed Jason’s mane of tangled hair, yanking it up.
Jason looked at them with vacant eyes. His mouth hung slightly open. It was a sorry sight Winter would never forget.
“This man, here, this man was a brutal cruel man that cared only for himself,” Judy spat. “He lived to keep us prisoner here, and he lived to feed us to the dead that he was keeping locked up. He would have gladly taken you three into that room and watched you die.”
“What’s the big deal?” Michael shouted, to the shock of the others. “He’s dead. We can leave.”
“Have you forgotten what he did to your brothers? Have you forgotten what he did to you?” Judy screamed. Winter felt small, paralysed. If she moved an inch Judy would turn her raging temper on her. Her voice wasn’t even drowned out by the wailing of the stormy wind outside. It was scary to think that such a small woman could intimidate the whole room. “We can’t leave, Michael. We’ve been kept in a zoo. If we were to go out there now, we would have no idea how to survive.”
“That’s pathetic, Judy.” Michael sighed. “I’m going. I’m not staying here.”
He made to move across the room. Violet and Zach quickly moved out of his way. Everyone seemed to have forgotten they were there. With a thud, Judy dropped Jason’s head back onto the table. She was around the table in seconds, as if she had walked straight through it. She grabbed Michael’s shoulder, trying to stop him. He swung around, his fist raised. Violet screamed out for Judy to move but it was too late. Michael’s fist collided with Judy’s cheek and knocked her to the floor.