by Ryan Casey
And she could harbour a guess as to why. It didn’t take a genius to figure out where they’d taken her, or where this was.
She knew what was going to happen here.
She played those words around her mind. She knew it was bold to even think that way. She knew it was a bitter pill to swallow, knowing what was coming, but also knowing what people here were willing to sink to.
But she’d seen the people in the skip. The ones who hadn’t complied.
She’d seen them, and she didn’t see that as any kind of option.
She had a chance.
She just had to bide her time.
She moved the sharp piece of metal around her hands. She was shaking. She knew she could just get up and out of here. She could try and sneak away. But she was waiting. Waiting for a moment when she could take one of these bastards down.
Waiting for a moment when it looked certain that she wasn’t going to be able to escape.
And then she was going to strike right at the heart of this sick place.
She heard footsteps getting closer. Her mouth went dry. The tension in her body intensified. She was going to make Calvin pay. She was going to make him pay for the society he told himself—and told everyone else—he was building. She was going to make him pay for everything he was doing here.
The door opened.
Holly held her breath.
But when she saw who was standing there… she realised it wasn’t exactly as she expected.
It was Marie. Marie who she’d spoken to down in the skip. Her eyes looked darker than before, big bags underneath.
She was looking at Holly differently, now. With a look of resignation on her face.
There was someone else with her, too. Not Calvin. The other guy, Jared, who had dragged her out of the skip just earlier.
“So, do I need to worry about with this one?” the man asked.
Marie sighed. “Not if she remembers what I told her. Not if she behaves.” She walked around Holly. Holly kept her wrists close together. She wanted to be sure it looked like she was still bound, here. She couldn’t let anyone on to the fact that she was really free.
Especially not now there were two of them.
And especially not now Marie was in here, too.
Marie. Frigging Marie.
“She’s a good girl,” Marie said. “She… Just go easy on her, okay? This can’t be easy on her. None of it.”
“Sounds alright by me,” Jared said, hanging up his coat. “I like them good.”
“Marie?” Holly said.
Marie put her hands on her hips and sighed. “What? You’re let down? Disappointed? I’m sorry, darling. Truly. But I did warn you. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to do whatever we can to survive here. I told you you’d understand eventually. Maybe one day you still will.”
She put her hands on Holly’s thighs.
“I’m just here to make sure you’re comfortable. To make sure nothing… untoward happens here. To make sure everything goes as smoothly as it possibly can.”
Holly gritted her teeth. She saw the man stepping towards her now. She saw him approaching, and she felt sick. She could taste vomit building up. She had to time this right. She had to play it right. She couldn’t waste the best opportunity she had. Not now. Not after she’d waited all this time.
The man was right in front of her. Marie stepped aside. She stood there, watching, a slight smile on her face that made Holly feel even sicker. Because she’d been betrayed. Marie was a traitor.
And traitors… well, they just made Holly want to fall back into her older self.
They made her want to kill.
They made her want to numb her emotions and murder them, no matter what the consequences were.
“You are pretty,” Jared said, his strong breath pungent on her face. “We’re going to make beautiful new citizens of the new world. How’s that sound to you?”
Holly looked up into his eyes.
She looked over at Marie.
Then back at Jared.
“I’m not sure I’m up for that,” Holly said.
Then she brought the piece of metal out from behind her and slashed Jared’s neck.
She saw the shock on his face. She saw him struggle.
But before her could do anything, before he could fall on her, Holly forced herself up onto one foot, then eased some pressure onto the solid cast, pain be damned, and she walked over to Marie.
Marie looked at her. Wide-eyed. Tension across her face.
She looked at her, Jared choking at the other side of the room, sharp metal still in hand.
And then Marie made a lunge for the door.
Holly grabbed her.
She grabbed her, and as much as it hurt, she pulled her down to the ground.
Marie opened her mouth. Went to scream. Went to cry out.
Holly put a hand over it.
“Now you listen to me,” Holly said. “If you scream, I’ll gut you. If you do anything, I’ll gut you. I’m getting out of this place. And when I get out, I’m going to get strong again. I’m going to find my… find my people. And I’m going to come back here, and I’m going to save the people who have been trapped here. Now I don’t know what your deal is. I don’t know what you want. I don’t know whether you get some sort of weird kick from this. But I… I’m not going to kill you right now. I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to give you a chance.”
Marie looked up at her, tears in her eyes. She was mumbling under her hand, muttering things.
“Do you understand?” Holly asked.
Marie mumbled some more.
Holly put the sharp piece of metal to her temple. “I asked you a question. Do you understand?”
Marie didn’t do anything. Not for a moment.
Then eventually, she nodded.
Holly nodded back. “Good,” she said.
She moved her hand away.
Braced herself for a scream.
Prepared herself for that event, just in case.
But it didn’t happen.
Holly struggled back to her feet. She looked over at the man, who had bled out.
“What’s the best way out of this place?” she asked, looking back at Marie.
Marie stared into space.
“Hey,” Holly said, pointing the metal back at Marie. “I asked you a—”
“Outside—outside the back window. Over the fences. But—but your leg.”
Holly looked down at her leg.
It was in pain. Agony, in fact.
But this was no time to wallow in it.
This was no time for messing around.
She hobbled to the back of the caravan.
Opened the window.
Pulled herself out of it, then dropped down into the darkness.
When she got to the fences, she looked back and saw Marie standing there, staring at her, tears in her eyes.
“They’ll kill me for this,” Marie said.
“Then come with me.”
She opened her mouth. Then she shook her head and half-smiled. “I’m already gone. Good… good luck, Holly.”
Holly wanted to go back there. She wanted to help Marie. As much as she hated her for double-crossing her and for being complicit in the horrors occurring here… she wanted to give her a chance to start again.
But not now.
Not now.
She turned. Looked at the fencing. Looked at the quiet streets beyond it.
“I’ll come back here,” she said. “I’ll come back for you.”
When she looked back around, Marie was already gone.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Sofia opened her eyes and suddenly realised the nightmare wasn’t just a nightmare after all.
She was in a room she didn’t recognise. She was tied to a chair. She had strange memories of someone else being in here; someone tying her up.
But then there were other memories, too. Memories that she wasn’t sure were true. Memories
of Ian. Memories of the others. They were here. They’d come in here. They’d come to find her.
But something had happened.
Something had gone down.
And now they were gone.
They were gone, and Sofia was on her own again.
She tried to move, but she was still stuck to this chair. She wobbled from side to side, but it was no use.
Then she looked around, and she saw what she was surrounded by.
The Novichok. The powder. She’d heard of Novichok, mostly from a case some time ago in the UK where a former Russian spy had been attacked on British soil. It was all suspicious, all a little dubious. But the memory of that attack stuck in the minds of the British public and stirred much controversy and debate.
She knew how deadly it was. How lethal it was. A woman had died through picking up a bottle of what she thought was perfume and spraying it on herself. Her husband had fallen into a temporary coma, too.
But now she was surrounded by the stuff. She was surrounded by it, and she knew how deadly that was. How serious that was.
She had a flashback. A flashback to when Ian had found her in here. How he’d leaned towards her, told her he was going to join her; going to help her.
But then, as she’d drifted in and out of consciousness, she’d heard someone dragging him away. She’d heard them saying she was already gone.
And as much as Sofia didn’t want to believe it… she had to admit they had a point.
She was already gone.
That’s what it looked like. That’s how it seemed.
But she wasn’t.
She was still alive.
And if she was still alive, it meant she had a chance to get out of this. A chance to get home. A chance to escape.
She pulled at the tape around her arms. Pulled at the tape around her legs. But it was useless. Pointless. It was tight, and she was weak. She’d tried. She’d tried to get out of here already—but to no avail.
She looked around. Looked at the Novichok containers all around her, and she saw the cruel irony of all of this. If she managed to snap out of the tape, the bags would fall and cover her with the stuff.
It wouldn’t be a pleasant death. But it would be a better death than staying stuck here. Starving.
So she couldn’t give up.
She had to keep going.
She had to keep trying.
She pulled again. Pulled with all the strength she had against that tape. Because as much as she felt defeated, as much as she felt knocked down, she couldn’t just accept her fate. She couldn’t just give up.
She had to keep trying.
She had to keep going.
She pulled against the tape, and then something happened.
Something unexpected.
She heard a tear.
She stopped. Held her breath. Her heart pounded. Her chest tightened.
The tape on her right wrist had torn.
Which meant more of it was going to tear.
She was going to do this.
She was going to make it.
She pulled just a little more. She had to be careful. She knew she couldn’t make any rash movements, as much as she wanted to get out of this mess as quickly as possible.
But she pulled. She pulled gently. She pulled gradually. She pulled until more of the tape came away; until more of it loosened.
And then she made one final pull.
She felt her wrists come free.
Only there was a problem.
The Novichok boxes. They were beginning to fall.
She held her breath as they clattered against her body.
But then something else weird struck her.
The boxes. They were light.
She frowned. Looked at the boxes.
That’s when it struck her.
After all this time of being tied up here, fearing the worst, it struck her.
The boxes felt empty because they were empty.
She gasped. Yanked the tape from her mouth. So it was psychological warfare, all this time. It was a mental battle all this time.
But now she was free.
She’d broken free of the ties.
She had a chance to get out of here.
She had a chance to escape.
She pulled the tape from her ankles. She was getting eager now, and the urgency was growing. She yanked the tape away, and then she stood up.
The first thing she did was fall. Stumble forward.
Then she pulled herself to her feet, and she didn’t even think. She didn’t even hesitate.
She just threw herself towards the door, and she ran.
She stumbled down the stairs. She staggered through the door. And when she got outside, she fell knee first onto the ground, and she cried.
When she was done, she got up again. She pulled herself back together. Because nothing was defeating her. Nothing was knocking her down.
She was going back home.
She was going to find Ian.
She was going to make sure everything was okay again.
She took a deep breath of the cool spring air, and she started to walk.
“That’s how it happened,” Sofia said, as she sat there, Ian by her side, the rest of the group around her. “I went back home. I found it in… in ruin. So I followed the group here and, well. They led me here. They led me to this.”
She looked at Mike then. There was something to her eyes. A look to her eyes.
“I saw something else,” she said. “On my way. I saw something else.”
Mike gulped. He didn’t like the way Sofia was looking at her. “Go on.”
“I saw where they were taking her,” Sofia said. “I saw where they were taking all of them.”
“All of who?” Mike asked.
“Holly,” Sofia said. “I saw where they were taking Holly.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Mike listened to what Sofia was telling him, and he tried to wrap his head around all of it.
It was dark. The group had decided to stay in this house for the night. It wasn’t ideal, of course. Not with the bodies of the rival group all around them.
Not with the bodies of Scott and his friends around him.
But they were safe.
They were safe.
For now.
And they were together.
Or at least… they were almost all together. They were getting close to a reunion. Closer than they’d been before.
“I saw the place they’re taking them,” Sofia said. “The place they’re taking our people. The skips. The—the people in there.”
“Was Holly okay?”
“I didn’t…”
“Sofia, was she okay?”
Sofia sighed. “I didn’t see her. But seeing the way they were keeping those women in the skips… well, I can only imagine. But I don’t know what the future holds for her. Not exactly. She’s alive. That’s the main thing. She’s still alive down there. She has to be.”
Mike stood up. Walked to the window. They were resting. But the thought that his daughter was in a hellish place like the one she was in… and the thought that he was still just here, biding his time, waiting around… it didn’t sit right with him.
The thought that his Holly could have gone through—or be going through hell… the thought of it just made him want to break down.
But he saw he had a choice. He could sit around here, or he could go out there. He could track Holly down. He could find her.
And then he could be reunited with her, once and for all.
Hopefully for damned all this time.
He walked over to the door.
“Mike?” Alison said.
“I’m leaving,” he said. “I can’t wait around. Not while Holly’s at that place.”
“But we need Sofia to—”
“Sofia’s not going anywhere,” Ian said. “Not after what she’s been through. She needs rest. We all need rest.”
Mike looked at Ian. Then h
e looked at Sofia. He looked right into her eyes.
“Help me find my daughter, Sofia. Lead me to her. Show me where she is. And when… and when we get there, you can head back. You can turn around. Okay?”
Ian shook his head before Sofia could intervene. “It’s not happening.”
“Ian,” Sofia said.
He kept on shaking his head. “It’s not—”
“I’m going with Mike.”
She stood up. Walked over to Mike. Stood by his side.
“Your daughter,” she said. “Me and her, we… we don’t have the best history. But I know what it feels like to care about someone. I know what it feels like to fear for a loved one. I know all too much.”
Mike nodded. He could feel his throat welling up. The urgency was taking hold of him.
“I’ll help you find Holly,” Sofia said.
Ian stood up. Walked over to Sofia. “Sofia—”
“I’ll come back, Ian,” she said. “I’ll come back.”
“But—”
And then she wrapped her arms around him and held him, tight.
Mike looked back at Alison. He looked at Kelsie. He looked at Gina, and at Arya.
He looked at them all, and he half-smiled.
“You stay here. You rest. And I’ll see you again. I’ll see you again in no time.”
Then something unexpected happened.
Alison stood up, walked over to him, and she kissed him.
She pulled away. Looked down at the floor. Cleared her throat.
“Still arresting you when this is over,” she muttered.
Mike chuckled. His skin was buzzing. He felt on fire. Recharged. He felt all of this, all because of Alison. “Catch me if you can,” he said.
He took a deep breath, then. Ian stepped up to him. Held out a hand. “You look out for my wife,” he said. “You protect her as if she’s your own.”
“As if she’s my own?” Mike said. “I’ve lost Holly countless bloody times since the start of this mess. You sure you want me to look after her like she’s my own?”
And then Ian did something. He laughed. They all laughed.
And in that moment, it felt like they were together.
In that moment, it felt like a bond had formed. A bond like never before.
It was time to go out there.
It was time to go find Holly.