The Fallen

by Charlie Higson

  None of the kids were even scratched. They high-fived and whooped and jeered at the dead bodies.

  Einstein approached Blue as he was kneeling down and wiping the blade of his short spear on a fallen mother’s dress.

  ‘You could have let us help.’ Einstein’s voice was shaking slightly. ‘It wasn’t dangerous.’

  ‘It wasn’t dangerous because we knew what we were doing,’ said Blue. ‘It only gets dangerous when we mix it up with kids who don’t know how to handle theirself.’ He looked up and stared into Einstein’s face. ‘Like yesterday – you remember, Iron Man? You ended up with one girl killed and one boy badly cut up.’

  ‘I haven’t forgotten,’ said Einstein.

  ‘Well, don’t. Ever.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Big Mick. ‘This here was easy – but it’s gonna get worse.’

  ‘The smell of blood might attract more of them,’ said Ollie. ‘So the quicker we get inside, the better. We’ll have to work out a way to get the gates open.’

  He, Mick and Blue climbed over the fence, being careful not to get skewered on the sharp spikes along the top. They investigated the mechanism that opened and closed the gates, and after a short discussion Big Mick set to work with his club, hammering away at the machinery until he’d separated it from the gates, which could now be hauled apart by hand. Once all the kids got hold of them they were able to slide them open, and, with a cheer, they were through.

  The Promithios complex had an office building at the front with walls made of green reflective glass. Behind it was a big, windowless warehouse covered in what appeared to be grey plastic panelling. It looked like a giant box, with no way in or out.

  The only obvious entrance was at the front of the office building. The kids clustered round the thick glass doors and started arguing about the best way to get them open. Ollie left them to it. Took a step back to check the place out.

  The building was about five storeys high, a couple of metres taller than the warehouse behind it. There was white lettering across the glass wall spelling out PROMITHIOS MEDICAL SOLUTIONS. Underneath was a list in smaller lettering: PROMITHIOS BIOTECHNOLOGY, PROMITHIOS BIOMEDICAL, PROMITHIOS MEDICAL SUPPLIES and, even smaller, PBC – PROMITHIOS BIOMEDICAL CONSULTING.

  He was pretty sure that Promithios was a reference to Prometheus, the Titan from Greek mythology who created man and gave him the secret of fire. He wasn’t exactly sure what all the other terms meant, though. He had an idea that biotech was something to do with using living things to make new products – cloning, genetic engineering, growing tissues, altering cells, that sort of thing. Science-fiction stuff, a lot of it. He was just wondering about all this when he saw a sudden movement, a streak of white and a scream.

  It all happened very fast.

  A half-naked father had darted out of some bushes and charged at the kids clustered round the doors. He initially made for Emily, but Jackson yanked her out of the way and the father came on, deeper into the group. He was small and wiry, more like an animal than a man. His nose was missing and in its place was a cluster of growths and boils. He headed for Mick, who knocked him in the teeth with his forearm. The father skittered sideways out of control and collided with Paddy, who fell over, tangled in his golf-bag. Ollie dived in to protect Paddy and felt a sudden hot flash of pain across his cheek as the father slashed him with his dirty fingernails and then tried to bite him. Ollie was aware of his teeth scraping the fresh wound in his face. He grunted and tried to throw him off.

  The next thing the father hissed and dropped to the ground, twisting and writhing. Achilleus and Jackson had both stabbed him at the same time. Ollie was furious at being wounded and lashed out at the father, kicking him in the head.

  ‘Go on, ginge!’ Mick shouted. ‘Give the bastard one from me.’

  The father had stopped moving. Ollie stood there panting, blood dripping down his face. Emily came over and put a hand to his cheek.

  ‘It doesn’t look too bad,’ she said. ‘I’ll get some antiseptic and stick a plaster on it.’

  ‘I’m cut too,’ said Mick. ‘Should never have whacked him in the gob.’

  ‘OK,’ said Emily, who was already rummaging in her bag. ‘I’ll see to you in a minute.’

  ‘Yeah … OK …’ Big Mick was very pale; all the blood had drained from his face. Ollie had never seen him like this.

  ‘Where did he come from?’ Einstein asked, staring at the dead father. ‘Did he get through the gate?’

  ‘Don’t know,’ said Blue and he flipped the father on to his back with his foot. ‘But the sooner we get inside, the better.’

  Blue looked tense and worried; his hard expression had slipped a little. They were all a little rattled.

  ‘I’ll smash the doors in,’ said Mick, who was trying to shake off the shivers.

  ‘No chance,’ said Blue. ‘They’re reinforced. We’d need a bulldozer.’

  ‘What then?’ Mick looked frustrated. Like he wanted to hit something.

  Einstein jabbed a finger at Blue. ‘You must have some kind of plan,’ he said, almost shouting.

  ‘How about we use your head as a battering ram,’ said Achilleus with a smirk.

  ‘How about we just walk in?’ Jackson was by the doors and now she casually swung one of them open. ‘They weren’t even locked,’ she explained.

  A ripple of relieved laughter passed through the kids and Blue led them inside. Achilleus stopped by Einstein.

  ‘Lucky,’ he said, rapping his knuckles on the top of Einstein’s skull.

  Ollie gave the dead father one last kick. His head felt kind of mushy. Soft. Ollie pressed down on it with his trainer and something oozed out of one ear. Something grey and jelly-like. Was it the father’s brain? What was left of it. The body started to bubble and twitch. If he was going to burst Ollie didn’t want to hang around and watch the show. Always made him feel sick. He spat and hurried after the others before the doors shut on him.

  36

  There was a large reception area inside, going up to the full height of the building. It was lit by the cool green light that washed in through the wall of windows.

  It was all very clean and orderly. No dust, no rubbish, no sign at all of the chaos that had ripped through London when everything started to fall apart.

  Untouched chrome and leather furniture was artfully arranged; a clock on the wall had stopped at half past one; there were clusters of video screens with benches around them, even some carousels that still had magazines in them. At the back was a long reception desk with more screens on it, and the words PROMITHIOS MEDICAL SOLUTIONS spelled out on the wall behind.

  It was easy to imagine that all the people who had once worked here had just stepped out for a cigarette and at any moment would return to work and the world would be as it had always been.

  Ollie sat in a chair while Emily sorted him out. She was a quiet girl with a permanent half-smile on her face.

  ‘So you work with Einstein then, do you?’ Ollie asked her.

  Emily just said, ‘Mmm,’ and carried on cleaning his wound.

  ‘And you know what you’re doing?’ Ollie flinched as she wiped the cut.

  ‘Let’s face it,’ said Emily softly. ‘None of us really know what we’re doing, do we?’

  ‘Guess not.’

  ‘Whoever stitched up Achilleus’ ear certainly didn’t. Made a right pig’s arse out of it.’

  ‘It’s an improvement,’ said Ollie.

  ‘I helped him clean it last night,’ Emily went on, ‘and gave him some fresh bandages. It’s a mess. He’s going to look well rough when it heals.’

  Ollie winced as Emily rubbed something stingy into his cut.

  ‘I told you I didn’t know what I was doing,’ she said.

  Ollie looked around. The kids were unwinding. There was something peaceful and relaxing about this place. Surely if there had been any sickos in here there would have been some signs of them.

  He didn’t allow himself to completely loosen up li
ke the others. He could sense the relief all round at being inside and at least temporarily safe from attack. Achilleus was sitting chatting to Jackson and Paddy. Blue was talking to Einstein. Mick’s fighters were casually searching the place, going through the drawers behind reception and studying bits of paper. Ollie’s guys were slumped like him, lost in their own thoughts.

  The only one of them who appeared uptight was Big Mick, who was pacing up and down muttering to himself. Eventually Emily finished what she was doing and went over to him. Made him sit down and roll up his sleeve. Ollie watched as Mick turned away, not wanting to look at his bleeding arm. The big man obviously wasn’t as macho as he made out.

  There was a shout from the kids behind reception and they started to lay some plans out on the desk. Blue and Einstein joined them and they all started nodding and pointing. After a while Blue jumped up on to the counter.

  ‘OK, listen up,’ he shouted. ‘We got a plan. Looks like there’s some big loading doors at the back of the warehouse where the supplies are kept, but we don’t reckon we’d be able to get them open from the outside.’

  ‘We could try,’ said Achilleus.

  ‘No,’ said Blue. ‘The less time we spend outside, the better. Ain’t safe out there.’

  ‘So what we gonna do then?’ Achilleus asked. ‘Sit around on our arses in here?’

  ‘Why don’t you just listen?’ Blue was trying not to lose his temper. ‘We think we found a way through from the inside. We got to go through the offices and down to the next level, then there’s this sort of underground tunnel that will take us into the warehouse.’

  Ollie’s mouth went dry. He didn’t like the sound of that. Tunnels, in his experience, were bad news. He gave the reception area another once-over, trying to reassure himself. Surely, surely if there was anything dangerous in here there’d be some evidence; it wouldn’t look so clean and neat and tidy.

  And there was no smell.

  Usually you could smell grown-ups if they were nearby. He met Emily’s gaze. She’d finished with Big Mick and was standing next to him.

  ‘What do you think?’ he asked, moving closer. ‘Are we going to be all right in here?’

  ‘Don’t ask me,’ said Emily. ‘You’re supposed to be the ones who know about that sort of thing.’

  ‘Yeah, but as you said, Emily, none of us really know what we’re doing, do we? I mean, I know sickos, as you call them, but what if there’s something else? Something worse?’

  37

  Closer, closer, they’re coming closer. I’ll wait for them. They’ll come to me. They have to. There’s no other way. So I’ll just wait. I’m good at waiting. All my life. Stay hidden, stay still, stay quiet. Alone. Stay quiet. Lie still. Wait. Listen to the buzzing in the air. The hum and twitter of the creeps out there.

  The fallen.

  Some had gone away just now. Something had shut them up and they’d disappeared. Including one who’d been bugging him for some time. Like he’d been switched off.

  Bang-bang. Sing no more.

  There were more of them, though, plenty more. They kept him in touch with what was going on outside. Once he’d learnt to understand their babble. Like tuning a radio. Some days he heard them clearer than others. Some days he understood more. And lately it had been getting clearer and clearer. Was he getting cleverer or were they?

  He wriggled deeper into the space between the walls. Settled down to wait. Feeling the comforting toughness of the concrete against his skin.

  Maybe the new kids would give him some answers?

  They’d be here soon.

  They were coming closer and closer …

  38

  ‘Shall we get the next one in then?’

  Ooh, yes please, let’s …

  Maxie was having a well boring morning interviewing the museum kids, one after the other. An endless succession of worried faces.

  She was sitting in a stuffy little office at the front of the museum above the main doors, next to where Justin lived. She and Maeve were representing the Holloway kids, and Brooke, Justin and Robbie were representing the museum kids. Robbie was meant to be in charge of security, but with his wounded leg he was next-to-useless. It had been him Samira had been trying to help last night when she’d gone missing. That’s why he was here, rather than lying down, resting his leg. Maxie guessed he felt responsible. He also obviously felt bad that he hadn’t been able to help on the night of the attack on the museum. He kept saying he should have been there, and that he shouldn’t have let Samira go to the Darwin Centre alone. He was a little bit feverish still, repeating himself.

  All Maxie thought was that he shouldn’t be up and about like this, even if they had found him a wheelchair to get about in. He looked grey and his skin was greasy with sweat.

  The five of them had been sitting here for what felt like hours while the museum kids trooped in and took it in turns to sit on the other side of the table and answer their questions. The idea was that they were going to find out who the traitor was. That’s what they were calling him or her – the traitor.

  Only they hadn’t got anywhere, had they? Big surprise. It was the same every time. Nobody knew anything, they’d all been together the evening of the big attack, nobody liked to go anywhere alone, they were too scared … ‘I was with so-and-so, we went there together, I helped such and such a person when the sickos came …’

  Maxie supposed it was quite a good way to get to know people, but after a while, as she got tireder and hungrier, the kids all began to merge into each other and become the same person.

  One single frightened child.

  Unless they were the greatest actors in the world, not one of them seemed capable of opening those doors, letting the sickos in, watching their friends get attacked and killed. Not one of them had a motive.

  She wished Blue was there. He had a good bullshit detector. Maxie had grown up trusting people, believing them when they told her things, thinking the best of people. Blue was the opposite. He didn’t believe anyone, didn’t trust anyone, thought the worst of people. You had to prove it to Blue when you said something. He’d have surely worked out by now who the traitor was.

  If there even was a traitor.

  All Maxie had to look forward to was a long afternoon interrogating the rest of the kids.

  ‘Can we have a break?’ Maeve asked. ‘Robbie looks knackered.’

  She was looking at the boy. Wasn’t too happy about him being here either.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Robbie said and took a sip of water, his hand trembling slightly.

  ‘I wouldn’t mind getting out of here and grabbing some fresh air as well, actually,’ said Maxie.

  ‘All right,’ said Justin. ‘Don’t be too long.’

  Maeve and Maxie walked downstairs and out into the sunshine.

  ‘It’s like doing exams or something,’ said Maxie.

  ‘Oh, don’t,’ said Maeve as they settled down on the steps. ‘There are some things about the old life I don’t miss one bit.’

  The main road on the other side of the fence was empty. In fact, since clearing out the lower level, Maxie hadn’t seen a single grown-up. If it wasn’t for the weirdness of Samira disappearing it would have felt pretty safe and secure in the museum.

  A group of kids was working on the vegetable patches, checking for weeds and pests. Maxie recognized some of them from the interviews.

  ‘But this new life,’ said Maeve, ‘it’s killing me, Maxie.’

  ‘We just have to make the museum safe.’ Maxie leant back and turned her face up to the sun.

  ‘It’ll never be safe,’ said Maeve. ‘It’ll never be safe as long as we stay in the city. We’ll never be anything more than scavengers, fighting among ourselves because there’s not enough to go round, scared and hiding from the grown-ups. We need to get out of town and into the countryside.’

  ‘It’s not that bad,’ said Maxie, who’d heard Maeve’s arguments about leaving town before. ‘There’s everything the dead left
behind. We’ve done all right scavenging.’

  ‘We can’t just live like parasites,’ said Maeve. ‘In the countryside we could properly grow our own food. And there’ll be a lot less grown-ups around. We should have gone months ago.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Maxie. ‘It’ll be paradise.’

  ‘Nowhere’s going to be paradise,’ said Maeve. ‘I’m not saying that. But we’ll never properly start to rebuild things if we stay here. It’s like when the Romans left Britain. The British people didn’t know what to do with the towns and cities. They were like us, like kids. They returned to the countryside, left the buildings to rot and went back to their farms.’

  ‘What do we know about being farmers?’ said Maxie. ‘It’s not like Farmville, you can’t just click on a few keys and have a load of cute cows filling up your fields.’

  ‘There’ll be other kids out there. They’ve had a year to set up farms.’

  ‘Oh yeah, and they’ll be well pleased when we tip up and want half their food.’

  ‘Anything’s better than this,’ said Maeve.

  ‘It’s gonna be all right,’ said Maxie.

  Just then something rattled next to her and she saw some bits of stone falling to the ground. She twisted round and looked up, squinting against the bright sky. Thought she maybe saw a movement high up on the roof, a dark silhouette. It was quickly gone.

  Just a pigeon probably.

  Everything was going to be all right.

  39

  Loser. Noob. Useless twat.

  Big Mick wanted to kick himself in the arse. He’d always been like this. Scared of the sight of blood. Not other people’s blood. He didn’t mind that.

  His own blood.

  Just the thought of it made his head shrink in on itself and he’d go all dizzy and nauseous and pathetic. One time he’d had to give a blood sample. He’d made the mistake of watching the nurse stick the needle in his arm, saw the little plastic tube fill up with dark blood. It was like all the air had been sucked out of him. The next thing he knew he was waking up in the chair with his mum and the nurse staring at him. His mum looking worried. The nurse was smiling, virtually laughing at him.