Twenty-Five Percent (Book 3): Vengeance

by Nerys Wheatley

  The wardrobe slammed into the approaching wall of eaters with a deafening crash, throwing them back down the stairs into those behind. It splintered and fractured as it bounced off the stairs and wall, breeze blocks tumbling out, battering heads and bodies with bloody force.

  Brian looked away, his face pale.

  “Don’t think of them as human,” Micah said. “It’s the only way to not lose your mind.”

  Brian nodded, but still didn’t look back.

  The landing below them was a mess, but the eaters still mobile were already struggling to get back up the stairs in their single-minded pursuit of food.

  “We need to get out of here,” Micah said.

  They jogged up to the next floor. A sofa leaned into a corner, propped up on its end.

  “Could we wedge this across the stairs so they can’t get past?” Brian said.

  Micah looked from the sofa to the stairs. “We could try.”

  They manoeuvred the navy and terracotta striped three-seater onto the edge of the top step. Leaning over the edge, it threatened to slide away from them.

  “I’ve got it,” Brian said, squeezing past to support it from below.

  They twisted it at an angle, lodging it between the wall and the banister so it would stay in place and if it did dislodge, it would slide onto those below.

  Brian studied their work and nodded in satisfaction.

  “Let’s go,” Micah said. “They sound like they’re getting closer.”

  Taking hold of the handrail to climb around the sofa, Brian suddenly yelped. “Something’s got me!”

  A bloody hand was gripping his ankle through the banister. Brian jerked his leg, trying to kick it off, but it was clamped tight. He cried out as the eater yanked his leg against the metal uprights, pressing its face into the gap, teeth snapping.

  Micah scrambled over the sofa and dropped to his knees on the stairs. Reaching a skull-spiker through the banister, he pushed it into the top of the eater’s head.

  “There’s blood,” Brian said in a terror-filled voice.

  Micah inspected his ankle. The dark denim of his jeans was stained darker where the eater had grabbed him.

  “Keep still.” He took hold of the hem and carefully folded it up, putting a layer of clean material between Brian’s shin and the blood.

  Behind him, eaters were shuffling across the landing just feet away.

  “Go,” Micah said. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  He turned to meet the first eaters as Brian climbed past the sofa, stabbing three then kicking a fourth into those behind it to give him time to scramble after him.

  The eaters in the lead clambered over their dead comrades and tried to walk through the sofa. It wedged in tighter as Micah and Brian were hoping it would, but it couldn’t hold forever.

  “Let me see your leg,” Micah said.

  Brian sat on the lower steps of the next flight and stretched his leg out in front of him.

  “Give me your knife.”

  Brian’s eyes went wide. “You’re not going to cut off my leg, are you?”

  Despite the situation, Micah snorted a laugh. “Well, I thought I’d start with your jeans then see how it goes from there.”

  “Oh. Right.” Brian drew the ten inch bladed serrated knife from the sheath he wore beneath his jacket and handed it over.

  With the eaters straining at the sofa only feet away, Micah set to work cutting through the fabric halfway up Brian’s calf. He studied Brian’s leg and then the inside of the material he’d removed, then held up the pale, unblemished inner surface so Brian could see. “I don’t think it got through. And I can’t see any on your leg.”

  Brian breathed out. “Thanks.”

  A loud thud was followed by a clank. Micah stood to check below them in time to see the sofa sliding down the stairs, mowing down eaters as it went.

  He handed Brian’s knife back and waved at him to move. “Time to leave.”

  Micah took the stairs two at a time. Ahead of him, Brian was doing three. The sofa was their last line of defence. Micah hadn’t waited to check, but from the sound he was fairly sure the horde had made their way past it.

  They caught up with everyone else somewhere between floors three and four. Tom was struggling with the stairs, his face twisted in pain with each step on his injured ankle. One arm was over Ian’s shoulders, the other clinging to the handrail. Ahead of them, Janie and Scott were still carrying the unconscious guard. The rest of the group were somewhere ahead. Bates and Penny brought up the rear.

  “We need to hurry,” Brian panted as he reached them. He pushed past Bates and grabbed Tom’s free arm. Together, he and Ian practically lifted Tom off the stairs.

  Bates waved one arm, bellowing, “We need to move, people.”

  Everyone picked up the pace, whether because of Bates’ order or the approaching sound of moans, Micah wasn’t sure.

  “I’ll hang back and try to slow them down until you get to the roof,” Micah said. “Anyone got any nine mil’ ammo left?”

  Tom let go of Ian and pulled a pistol from beneath his jacket, tossing it back to him. “Take mine. The mag should be almost full.”

  Micah caught the gun and checked the magazine. Two rounds were missing.

  He followed them to the fourth floor landing and stopped to wait.

  They only had another two floors to go; he wouldn’t have to hold the horde off for more than half a minute. That wasn’t so long. It might not even reach him by then.

  On the half landing below, the first eaters staggered into view.

  Then again, it might.

  Planting his feet and raising the pistol, Micah opened fire.

  47

  “Where are they?”

  Jessup was staring out the front window. Alex followed his gaze over the tops of the buildings surrounding East Town, hoping he was talking about the eaters. But there were still plenty of those wandering the streets below.

  “They wouldn’t have left,” Jessup said. “Would they?”

  It was then that Alex realised he was talking about the helicopter they’d left to watch his friends. It wasn’t hovering where it had been. He couldn’t see it anywhere.

  “No,” Frobisher said, “there’s no way they’d disobey Boot...” He stopped as they crested the final building between them and Alex’s road.

  Dread stuttered through Alex’s chest. Eaters filled the street, clustering around the wreckage of the helicopter. There was no sign of Micah and the others, but if the horde had caught them, Alex knew there would be nothing left.

  But they could have got away, they could have got inside. He raised his eyes to his building and saw movement. The door onto the roof flew open. People ran out.

  “Over there,” he said, leaning forward between the front seats and pointing to the roof. “Get us over there.”

  He kept his eyes on the roof door, watching Bates come out followed by a few of his people. A second later Janie and Scott emerged carrying a man in a black suit who was either unconscious or dead. Brian and a man Alex didn’t know followed, supporting another of Boot’s guards between them. Penny was last out.

  They all turned to look back at the door. No-one came through. Janie was shouting something.

  Alex scanned the figures on the roof again, in case he’d missed him.

  Where was Micah?

  The longest ten seconds Alex had ever lived through crawled by. Finally, Micah burst through the door and slammed it shut behind him.

  Alex closed his eyes and breathed out.

  Janie and Scott lay the unconscious man onto the roof and pushed a filing cabinet across the exit. Alex, Leon and Scott had dragged it up two days before and filled it with breeze blocks. Even Janie and Scott together had to strain to move it.

  The group shifted their attention from the door to the helicopter as Pinner brought it in close to the roof. Weapons were raised, although Alex knew most of them had run out of ammunition.

  “After you,” F
robisher said when they were low enough to jump, his eyes fixed on the guns pointed at them.

  Alex smiled and opened the door. He climbed out onto the landing skid, jumped to the ground and jogged away from the downdraft. After a few seconds of astonishment Janie rushed over and gave him a hug that hurt his still bruised ribs. He didn’t mind.

  Micah walked up to him. For a moment it looked like he would hug him too, but instead he jabbed a finger at him and said, “Don’t you ever do that again.”

  Alex grinned. “I’ll add it to the list of things I shouldn’t ever do again.” He held up the thermos mug. “I brought you something.”

  Micah looked confused. “Coffee?”

  Alex unscrewed the lid, removed two cotton wool balls and showed him the contents. “It’s the cure. For Lucy.”

  Micah gasped, staring at the vial as if it was the most incredible thing he’d ever seen. Alex repacked it and handed the mug to him. When Micah looked up from it, he had tears in his eyes. He opened his mouth and closed it again, pressing his lips together.

  Finally, he simply nodded. Alex smiled and nodded back.

  He heard a thud on the roof behind him. Micah and Janie were immediately on alert, raising their guns. Alex turned to see Frobisher straightening, holding his hands very carefully away from his sides as he walked away from the helicopter.

  He looked at Alex. “MacCallum?”

  “It’s all right,” Alex said, “he saved my life.” He frowned as he said it, still trying to get his head around the strange events of the past half hour.

  “So does that mean you’re with us?” Micah said, not lowering his pistol.

  Frobisher moved his gaze around the people surrounding him, his eyes settling on the two of his fellow guards who were conscious. Alex assumed they were from the crashed helicopter. One of them he recognised as the man he’d met in the hotel lobby when he went to rescue Pat, Emma and Katie. They stared back at him, suspicion etched onto their faces.

  “It means I’m not with Boot,” Frobisher said, his expression daring the two guards to object.

  “Where is Mr Boot?” one of them said. He had a gash across his forehead and one arm was hanging by his side. The other held a pistol.

  “Back at the hospital,” Frobisher said. “He’s no longer himself.”

  “So he’s not coming back?”

  “No.”

  The guard relaxed and replaced his pistol into the holster beneath his jacket. “Okay.”

  The downdraft from the helicopter’s blades shifted as it began to rise. Alex heard shouting from inside.

  Frobisher whirled round, starting back towards it and shouting. “Hey! Pinner, we’re not finished...”

  The helicopter lifted twenty feet into the air, the door still open. It stopped and then lurched to one side. A figure fell out. The chopper rose further and flew off, the force of the air around it slamming the door shut.

  Frobisher ran to the man left groaning on the ground. “Jessup, what happened? Why did you let him leave?”

  Jessup sat up, rubbing his left arm. “Does it look like I let him leave? The bastard pushed me out.”

  Alex watched the helicopter fly away. “I don’t expect there’s any possibility he’s gone to get help.”

  The expletive Frobisher roared could probably have been heard on the other side of the city.

  Alex started for the door leading from the roof. “If we go downstairs, maybe we can...”

  “Can’t,” Micah said.

  Alex stopped. “Why not?”

  Micah shrugged with one shoulder. “The building’s full of eaters.”

  Alex looked at the door blocked by the filing cabinet. It appeared to be shuddering. Now the helicopter had gone, he could hear faint moans.

  He shook his head. “I leave you alone for half an hour.”

  Frobisher walked over to the front edge of the roof and looked down at the horde. “How did they get in?”

  “Through the parking garage on the ground floor,” Brian said.

  “Your man Simmons accosted my daughter and then let the eaters in trying to get away,” Bates said, glaring at Frobisher as if it was his fault.

  Frobisher backed away from the edge. “I should have killed Simmons long ago.”

  “You keep saying that,” Alex said.

  “Yes, well, lately I’m finding I have a lot of regrets.”

  Micah wandered over to the edge of the roof next to Frobisher. The two men stared at each other in silent confrontation. Surprisingly, it was Frobisher who broke eye contact first, turning away and walking to where Jessup and the two guards from the helicopter were gathered around their still unconscious colleague.

  Micah lowered his hackles. “Why is he so bloody tall?” he muttered. “I feel like David facing up to Goliath. He really saved your life?”

  Alex looked down at the eaters surrounding the wrecked helicopter. “Infected Boot, killed Baxter, left Boot turned and cuffed to a bed at the hospital. No wonder Boot was so paranoid. Even the people he trusted betrayed the little psycho.” He nodded at the scene below. “What happened here?”

  A smug look bloomed on Micah’s face. “We brought down the helicopter. In hindsight, it was very impressive.”

  “And you rescued the crew? Softy.”

  Micah shrugged. “You would have done the same.”

  “I don’t suppose you rescued any of their pheromone guns along with them?”

  The smug expression disappeared. “I didn’t think of it. In my defence, I was kind of preoccupied with not getting eaten at the time.”

  Brian, Janie and Bates walked over to Alex and Micah. Penny, Scott and the rest of the group were gathered a little way from Boot’s ex-guards. The two factions eyed each other warily.

  “We need to get off this roof,” Bates stated, looking down. “We also need to get rid of this horde and eliminate the rest of Boot’s people.” He looked back at Boot’s former security. “How many of you are left?” he called to them.

  Jessup jogged over. Like the rest of them, he glanced down at the sea of eaters before speaking. “That depends on what happened at the laboratory facility.”

  At the mention of the lab, Alex’s stomach clenched. “What do you mean, what happened?”

  Jessup glanced back at the other guards. “Bish, Frobisher, was in the chopper your APV crashed. He was the only one who survived. Boot sent a car with four more to take over securing the facility.”

  Alex’s mouth had gone dry. “And what happened?”

  “I don’t know. The last I heard, they were leading the horde towards the lab. I didn’t notice Boot getting anything else from them. I’m guessing either they’re dead or something went very wrong and they don’t want Boot to know they failed.”

  “So discounting them,” Bates said, “who else?”

  “Five were left at the hotel.”

  “Are they loyal to Boot?”

  Jessup smiled without humour. “On the surface, all of us were. I don’t have any idea how many of us were just waiting to get away. Up until ten minutes ago I’d have bet my life that Darren Frobisher was Boot’s pet.”

  Bates nodded slowly. “So they’re not an immediate concern. We can deal with them later. Our priority is the horde.”

  “We can’t have them wandering around the city,” Alex said. He was having trouble getting his mind off his friends at the lab. Were they safe? Was Hannah okay?

  “Agreed,” Bates said.

  “If we had one of the bug guns, we could just lead them away,” Jessup said.

  “Bug guns?” Bates said.

  “The pheromone guns. Hey, Tom!” he called. “Is your bug gun back in the chopper?”

  One of the black suited men across the roof with Frobisher looked up. Alex noticed he was favouring his left leg. “Far as I know. None of us took it.”

  “But how do we get to the chopper?” Micah said. “And what do we do after that?”

  They all looked down at the horde.

  �
��We need to trap them somewhere,” Bates said.

  “There have to be at least a couple of thousand down there,” Janie said. “And even more around the back. Where are we going to put them?”

  There was half a minute of silent thought.

  “There’s a football stadium here, right?” Brian said. “Does Sarcester have a team?”

  “Does Sarcester have a team?” Janie sputtered. “Sarcester City almost made the Premier League last season.”

  “Hey, I’m not into football. I don’t know these things.”

  “You’re not... into... football,” Alex said. “Is there something wrong with you?”

  Brian sighed. “You sound like my dad.”

  “I’m not that into it either,” Micah said. “I watch the odd match, usually in the pub with a couple of beers in me, but on my own I’m not that bothered.”

  Alex whirled to face him. “You should have mentioned this before we became friends,” he gasped. “It’s like I don’t even know you!”

  “I feel this is a discussion for another time,” Micah replied, smiling.

  “The stadium is a good idea,” Bates said, either oblivious to or ignoring the brief moment of levity. “They’ll all fit and there’s an entrance for maintenance vehicles that’s big enough to get them inside quickly.”

  “But first we have to get the pheromone gun,” Alex said, staring down at the street.

  They all followed his gaze to where the crashed helicopter was surrounded by eaters.

  “How?” Brian said.

  Micah stepped back from the edge and looked around. “I have an idea.”

  48

  Sam uncovered his ears when the chaos finally died down.

  “I think it’s over,” he said, turning to Sean.

  The soldier had his eyes closed as he leaned against the lift wall. Sam touched his arm and he started, his eyes springing open.

  “It’s over,” Sam repeated.

  Sean swallowed and pushed himself upright. He took a step towards the open doors and immediately grabbed the handrail, swaying unsteadily.