“Normal people kill too,” he said. He pointed at her rifle. “You could kill me with that right now, if you wanted to. Although I’d rather you didn’t.”
“Yeah, but without Sylvester I couldn’t kill you.” She frowned. “Okay, I probably could, but that’s not the point.”
“So what is the point?” Sam said, trying not to dwell on the unsettling thought of her killing him with her bare hands.
“The point is that Survivors aren’t natural. Who knows what the disease does to their brains, even after they’re cured?”
“But you like Scott.”
“Scott’s different.”
“How?”
She huffed out a breath. “You ask a lot of questions, kid.”
Sam smiled. “I’ve been told that.”
The door to Janie’s building opened and she walked out, Leon following behind her. Penny slid from the bonnet and walked towards them.
She narrowed her eyes at Janie. “Bailey.”
Janie stared back. “Creedon.”
It was like watching two rival lionesses size each other up. From what Sam had seen over the last few days, Penny and Janie didn’t seem to get along, which mystified him.
“Why don’t they like each other?” he whispered to Leon as he walked past. “They seem a lot alike to me.”
Leon glanced back at the bristling women. “They are,” he said, “but if you ever want to father children, don’t ever mention that to them.”
Ben nudged Dave to get his attention from the tablet and they all headed for the barrier constructed of cars at the western end of the street. Past that, the six of them piled into a red Royal Mail delivery van commandeered from one of the city’s two sorting offices. The equipment they would need was already inside. It was all very organised. Leon even had a map to guide them to the spots Bates had picked for his defences, and Janie drove while he gave her directions. After having to double back twice, she asked him if he was a tourist and grabbed the map away from him. They arrived at their destination five minutes later.
Sam paid careful attention to the roads they took on the journey, trying to memorise the route. He’d explored some of the city, but there had been a lot to do since he arrived and he hadn’t seen as much as he wanted to. The people he’d met had all been so welcoming, he felt like he should at least learn his way around.
He didn’t see anything dangerous. There were no free roaming eaters in Sarcester, that anyone knew of. Spotters with radios were stationed on the roofs of buildings on all the roads into the city, reporting any eaters that wandered in which would then be dealt with by combined groups of Survivors and Bates’ people. Sam had taken a couple of shifts, but there were plenty of volunteers for the job. The relatively few people left in the city wanted to stay safe. Sam had spent the whole five hours of each shift huddled in a blanket on a lawn chair, slightly bored.
What would happen when Mr Boot arrived, he didn’t know. Would he bring eater hordes with him like people were saying? The thought scared Sam. Even though he wanted to go back to his house in Peterborough when this was all over, even if it was just to fetch some of his stuff, he’d come to think of Sarcester as his second home. Maybe he’d choose to stay with his new friends. He didn’t want to see the city or those in it hurt in any way.
They stopped in an area close to the centre of the city where a cluster of new, eight storey blocks of flats by the river were busy raising the house prices in the adjacent areas. Or had been, before the outbreak. Everyone got out of the van and Leon and Ben began unloading supplies. Sam went to help them.
“So what are we doing here?” Janie said, planting her hands on her hips as she looked around.
“Bates thinks we can use these blocks as safe places to retreat if hordes get into the city,” Leon said, dropping the first of what turned out to be thirteen coils of thick steel cable onto the ground. “And he wants to string these between the surrounding buildings in case Boot’s helicopters attack. He seems to think we can lure them into the cables and bring them down. He’s got other groups all over the city doing the same. Sounds a bit unlikely to me, but...” He shrugged one shoulder and handed another coil to Sam, who almost fell over under the weight.
“Don’t put Dave on a ladder,” Ben said. “If he gets hurt on my watch, Larry will never let me hear the end of it.”
“Larry knows he’d be lost without me,” Dave said, winking. “I’m the brains of the operation.”
“What are you doing here then?” Penny asked. “Shouldn’t you be back at the lab making a cure or fixing the outbreak or something?”
“I volunteered.” He looked up at the clouds. “I haven’t seen the sun in two days.”
“Nor have we,” Sam said.
Dave chuckled. “Yeah, but you haven’t seen it from outside. I love my work, but being in that lab twenty-four seven is starting to send me loopy. I’ve got Ben here to guard me, which is keeping Larry happy.” He rolled his eyes. “You’d think I was a celebrity or something.”
“You’re one of potentially only three people in the whole country who can save us,” Ben said, dropping a black plastic bag with a metallic clatter onto the ground. “Right now you’re worth your weight in gold.”
Dave patted his stomach. “I knew these extra pounds would come in handy one day.”
They split into three pairs and headed out in different directions to the places Bates had chosen. Evidently, Penny’s father had put a lot of thought into the city’s defence. She said she’d never seen him so happily in his element.
Despite being there to guard Dave, Ben partnered with Sam and Dave went with Leon. That left Janie and Penny together. When the two women were far enough away to not hear him, Leon muttered, “I give it a fifty-fifty chance one of them doesn’t come back alive.”
Sam and Ben climbed to the third floor of one of the blocks and began the process of fixing one end of a length of cable to the wall next to a balcony via some sort of clamp. It probably had a technical name, but Sam had no idea what it was.
“Sam?” Ben said as they worked.
“Yeah?”
“You’re friends with Alex, right?”
Sam couldn’t help smiling. “I think so. I hope so. I mean, yeah.”
“Okay, well, um...” Ben winced then blurted, as if it was one long word, “He’snotreallygayishe?”
Sam stopped screwing in the bolt on the mechanism that would hold the steel cable taut. “No. I mean I tried, but he didn’t... no. He likes Hannah.” He frowned. “Liked Hannah. Why?”
Ben let out a long breath. “No reason. There was this incident back at... but that’s a relief to hear. Pauline told me it was a trick and he wasn’t serious, but she has a wicked sense of humour and sometimes I’m not sure if she’s joking or not. But thanks. That’s good to know.”
He turned his back and started rummaging amongst the tools they were using with a fervour that indicated the subject was closed.
Sam went back to tightening the bolt without any idea what they’d just been talking about.
. . .
Two hours and, between the six of them, thirteen steel cable potential helicopter traps later, they headed back towards East Town.
Sam watched out the window as they drove. He wanted to get Claire something. He wasn’t sure what, but he had a feeling he’d know it when he saw it. He was uncomfortable with taking anything from the stores they passed, even though he knew the owners were more than likely either dead or infected. He was determined to find something to bring Claire, however.
He’d heard her crying in her bedroom again last night. She missed her mum. He knew exactly how she felt. Sometimes, when he was dreaming, he heard his parents’ screams as they died. It felt like a flaming arrow was piercing the middle of his chest every time he thought about them. So he wanted to find Claire something that would make her smile, let her know she wasn’t alone and how much he cared about her. Even though they were just friends, he could do that.
He tried not to think about how desperately he wanted to be more than just Claire’s friend.
When they’d almost reached home, he saw what he was looking for.
“Could you stop up there?” he said to Janie, pointing.
She pulled over and he jumped out.
“I’ll be back in a minute, don’t leave without me.”
He jogged over to a bed of roses in the centre of a roundabout that had somehow escaped an eater trampling. Choosing the red, he studied the blooms for a few seconds before settling on one that was half open and didn’t have any holes in the petals or leaves. He separated the stem from the bush, shook off a couple of tiny black beetles, and returned to the van.
“It’s for Claire,” he said when he was back inside. “She misses her mum so much, I just wanted to bring her something that would make her smile.” He looked to Janie and Penny for their female expertise on what women wanted. “Do you think she’ll like it?”
There were a few moments of silence.
Janie blinked a few times and cleared her throat. “I think she’ll love it. It’s a very thoughtful thing to do, Sam.”
Penny nodded. “She’ll definitely like it. You may be the best boyfriend ever.”
“Oh, I’m not... we’re not...”
Penny smiled and winked. “Not yet.”
Sam felt the blood rush to his face and he looked down to hide his embarrassed smile.
“Uh, I’ll be right back.” Leon opened the passenger side door and climbed out.
“You know,” Dave said, “Pauline could use a reason to smile. She misses Hannah and, well...” He got out and followed Leon to the roses.
Janie and Penny looked at Ben.
“And who exactly do I have to take a rose to?” he said.
Penny patted his arm. “I’m sure you’ll find someone.” Her eyes widened and she focused on his sleeve, running her hand up and down his bicep through the material. “And I’m thinking it won’t take you too long. Wow, you must work out a lot.”
Ben smiled and sat up straighter. He looked like he was flexing. “I’ve fine tuned my routine to maximise the efficiency of my workout time with the right amount of reps and the correct weights. That’s often where people go wrong. You have to know what you’re doing.”
Sam wondered how long it took to get muscles that big and if it wasn’t completely out of the question that he might be able to do it. Maybe Ben could show him what to do. Or Brian, he was almost as big, and almost as tall.
Sam then wondered if Claire liked big muscles.
A minute later Dave came back with an orange rose, Leon returned with one red and two pink, and they started off again.
Sam looked at the flower in his hand. He hoped Claire was home by now. He couldn’t wait to see her smile when he gave her the rose.
3
Alex finished the last bite of his second onion chutney and spam sandwich and considered what to eat next.
Bacon would have been better, but it was probable there wasn’t one single rasher of the good stuff left anywhere in Sarcester. Besides which, being the first thing he’d eaten in five days, even spam tasted amazing.
Not eating since they got back from Omnav hadn’t been intentional. He had simply lost the drive to do anything ‘normal’, anything that would feel like he was living life as it had been before. So he’d spent five days lying in bed, not eating, not communicating, not showering. The first thing he’d done after hearing Harvey Boot was on his way was get himself clean. Micah had insisted on it.
Micah had tried to get him to eat a few times the first couple of days, even bringing a bowl of chilli con carne from Pat, but even his neighbour’s unequalled cooking skills hadn’t been able to tempt him. After that, Micah had given up.
Whether it was the despair, or a kind of self punishment, or some other psychological problem, Alex supposed it didn’t really matter. The chance to get to Boot had snapped him out of it.
And now he’d started eating, he didn’t want to stop.
Micah went to the fridge and brought out two desserts. He placed a still sealed individual chocolate cheesecake only two days past its use by date in front of Alex and sat down to open a low fat strawberry yoghurt.
“Don’t you have a cheesecake?” Alex said as he peeled off the foil lid and inhaled the heady aroma of chocolate mousse.
“That’s the last one,” Micah said. “I saved it for you.”
Alex looked down at the small pudding, his mouth watering. “Oh. Well, we could split it.” He didn’t want to split it, but he felt obliged to make the offer.
“No, it’s yours. You eat it. I know you want to.”
Alex dug his teaspoon in. He didn’t need to be told twice. “Thank you. You’re a good friend.” He sucked the chocolatey cheesy mouthful from the spoon, closing his eyes to savour the taste as it melted on his tongue. “That is so good. But I feel bad that you don’t have one.”
Micah smiled. “Don’t. Janie brought us four. I ate the other three.”
Unwilling to risk losing any of the cheesecake, Alex clamped his mouth shut and laughed through his nose. “And I thought you were being so generous,” he said when he was finally able to swallow. It felt good to laugh.
“Dude, chocolate cheesecake. You’re lucky you got that one.”
Alex took a second bite. “What time’s the meeting?”
“Midday at Janie’s. Leon said they were using the morning to do something Bates came up with. I didn’t ask what. I should probably have offered to help, but...” He shrugged.
“Have you been home at all?”
Micah shook his head, looking down into his yoghurt pot. “I didn’t feel like going back out.”
“I’m sorry. I haven’t been much use.”
In many ways, Micah had lost more than him, and yet Alex was the one who’d gone to pieces. He was ashamed of himself. Not for the first time, he wished he had Micah’s strength of character.
Micah leaned back and stared out the window. “To be honest, I didn’t really want to talk about it either. It was just...” He shrugged and swallowed another spoonful of yoghurt. “I didn’t want to be on my own.”
Lying in bed, Alex had thought he wanted to be left alone. Now he knew he didn’t. Just knowing Micah was there had helped. “I know what you mean.”
“Plus,” Micah said, “me and the sofa, we’ve bonded.”
Alex carefully peeled away a sliver of his dwindling cheesecake, trying to make it last as long as possible. “I worry about you sometimes.”
“You ready to go out into the big, wide world again?”
“Are you?”
Micah scraped out the last of his yoghurt and tossed the empty pot into the sink without getting up. “It’s not like we have a choice.”
“Then it doesn’t really matter how ready we are. After we’ve dealt with Boot, then we’ll get a proper rest.”
“In a country full of flesh eating monsters?”
“Rest is a relative term.”
They were silent as Alex chased the last few crumbs of cheesecake base with his spoon.
“Are you really going to do it?” Micah said. “Kill Boot I mean?”
Alex leaned back in his chair. “I’ve been killing monsters for three weeks. What’s one more?”
“It’s just, I remember you saying, back when we first came across Gaz and friends, that you didn’t think you could kill an uninfected person.”
Alex studied his sadly empty cheesecake container. “A lot has happened since then. Now, I’m not sure you could hold me back.”
Micah glanced at the fridge freezer where he’d used two of Alex’s novelty magnets to fix the photo of his family he’d been carrying around with him to the door. “I’m not sure I would even try.”
. . .
The meeting to discuss the defence of the city was held in Janie’s flat as she had the largest living room of the East Town group. Even so, it was a tight fit and many of those assembled were standing or sitting on
cushions on the floor.
By the time Alex and Micah walked in at 12:10pm people were drinking coffee and tea, eating biscuits, and chatting in small groups. There was the briefest of pauses in the murmurs of conversation as they entered the room, glances darting their way, before the low susurration resumed. Many of those assembled greeted them. Rodney Cutter nodded at Alex. Alex hadn’t seen him since the second day of the outbreak and he was glad to see his partner was all right. Neither Beth nor Carrie were with him. Micah was clearly disappointed.
Sam waved to Alex from across the room, beckoning him over to where he was seated on the sofa next to Claire. “I saved you a seat,” Sam said, patting the cushion next to him.
“Thanks, Sam,” Alex said, glad of the comfortable seat.
Micah stood staring down at him, eyebrows raised. Alex sighed and shifted closer to Sam and Micah wedged himself into the gap. The four of them on the three-seater sofa was a squeeze and Alex had to press close to Sam. When they’d first met he would have felt awkward, but now he understood Sam better he didn’t mind. Besides which, by the way he gazed at her Sam seemed to appreciate being close to Claire a lot more than being close to Alex.
“I missed you,” Sam said. “Are you feeling better?”
“I think I am thanks. How about you?”
He felt Sam’s shrug against his shoulder. “I’ve been doing a lot of stuff, like shifts as a spotter, and I’ve been out with the food distribution teams twice. And this morning I went with Ben, Dave, Leon, Penny and Janie to fix cables to buildings.”
“Fix cables to buildings?” Micah said, leaning forward so he could look at Sam across Alex.
“Mr Bates thinks we can use them to stop Mr Boot’s helicopters. There are two outside here.” He pointed to towards the front of the building. “Didn’t you see them?”
Micah shook his head and looked at Alex.
“I didn’t see anything,” Alex replied. “Maybe we should look up more.”
“Well, they aren’t hard to miss if you don’t know they’re there,” Sam said. “That’s the point, so they just fly into them.” He chewed his lower lip. “I don’t really want anyone to get hurt though.”
Twenty-Five Percent (Book 3): Vengeance Page 2