“I think so.”
“Do you know what you’re doing?”
“Not entirely, no. But I think it’ll work.”
Before any of the others questioned him, William slammed the side of his fist against the large wooden door. The loud booms elicited groans and cries—not too dissimilar to those made by the diseased—coming from many of the locked cells.
When he got no response, William raised his hand to knock again, but a voice on the other side halted him. “What?”
“Look,” William said, “we’re sorry about what happened.”
“About your little mate blind-siding me with a sucker punch, you mean?”
He scratched his face, Olga’s jaw tightening at the comment. “Yeah, that.”
“It’ll take a bit more than sorry.”
“Maybe you want to consider the situation we’re currently in,” William said.
“Huh?”
“I have the key to your cell in my hand. I also have four friends with me, and we’re all armed.” They’d found more swords in the justice department building, Olga abandoning her machete, and Artan taking one for himself too. Or rather, Matilda strapping the sword to her brother. Whether he’d use it or not, William couldn’t tell. Before he’d given them the swords, William checked they were put together well. He saw the tear in Matilda’s eye as she’d watched him do it. He’d never be as adept as Hugh with maintaining their weapons. “We mean you no harm.”
“Which is why you punched me and have now come back with swords?”
“I can see how it looks. And we had swords last night, but we chose not to use them.”
A loud slam against the door forced them all back a step. The woman panted on the other side.
“Look, we really don’t want to walk away and leave you in there, but there’s very little motivation for us to do anything but that at the moment. We don’t want a fight.”
The same ragged breaths, it took William back to his dad dealing with some of the bulls in agriculture. He’d seen him take several of the younger ones by the horns and overpower them. That wouldn’t work here.
Bang! The sound exploded along the hallway. “So what do you plan to do with me?” Several more slamming blows as if she could smash the door down despite it already standing the test of time.
Max, Olga, Matilda, and even Artan watched on. Max gently shook his head at William, who turned back to the door, raising his hands as if the woman inside could see him. “You need to calm down.”
“That’s easy for you to say. Do you even know what it’s been like to be in this cell for the past several weeks?”
Artan’s long and greasy hair covered one side of his face, his skin pale, his lips cracked.
“No, I don’t, but I can imagine it wasn’t fun. You don’t know what it’s taken for us to get here either. We’ve had to travel from one side of Edin to the other.”
“So?”
“Edin’s lost.”
“What?”
“The diseased got in. The entire city’s fallen.”
The woman’s heavy breaths ceased.
“We battled from one side of the city to the other to free a prisoner. Most of our families are dead; we’ve lost people on the way and seen many more die. The person we came to rescue didn’t deserve to be here, so we’re making that assumption of you. We want to let you out, but you’re not giving us any reason to at the moment. Despite what happened last night, you need to trust us. It was dark, we’ve been fighting diseased for days, and we’re all at our wits’ end. If anyone runs at us like you did, we’ll fight to defend ourselves. We didn’t get here by cowering away from violence.”
The woman continued to listen.
“When we let you out, you need to be careful. The political district is in a much better way than most of Edin, but the streets are still filled with the diseased. As long as you’re not a threat to us, we’ll open the door.”
Silence.
“Are you a threat to us?”
“No.”
“Now I’m guessing you’re still pretty pissed off?”
“Of course.”
William hadn’t told the others of his plans because he didn’t want their opinions on it. If he didn’t run it by them, they couldn’t say no. “What would you do if we told you Robert Mack is also in one of these cells?”
Several of the others gasped and Olga said, “You can’t do that.”
As William opened his mouth to argue with her, Matilda turned to Olga. “The man who killed people for being gay? Who believed in punishment, punishment, and more punishment. Who is responsible for the deaths of many of Edin’s citizens when he himself is more abhorrent than most of the people he’s punished. You think he deserves better?”
The prisoner sounded calmer, filling the silence left by Olga’s lack of response. “I’d ask you which number he’s in?”
“That’s for you to find out. Open all the doors and you’ll find him eventually.”
“Why are you toying with me?”
The looks from the others seemed to be asking William the same question. “Believe me, I’m getting zero pleasure from this. Who do you think the prisoners will react better to when their doors are opened? You or us?”
“So you want me to free all the other prisoners?”
“Wouldn’t you have done that anyway?”
“Okay, fair point.”
“Think of Robert Mack as the prize. Are you ready to be let out?” The others tensed around William, raising their swords. Artan leaned against the door, letting the light in.
Clunk! The loud snap of the lock, William turned the handle and pulled the door open.
At least six feet tall, the woman had broad shoulders, thick red hair, and freckles on her pale skin. Like when they’d opened Artan’s cell, the reek of waste flooded out with her. William did his best to stifle his reaction.
After blinking repeatedly, her eyes red and swollen, the woman took in William and his group, her gaze settling on William at the front. Her broad shoulders rose and fell with her deep breathing, and her brow furrowed.
William tightened his grip on his sword. Where he’d negotiated her release with confidence, his voice now shook as he said, “The keys are there.” A shaking finger at the end of his outstretched arm. “Good luck when you get out of this building, and be careful going out the front door. There are diseased everywhere.”
A slight softening of her features. “You’re for real, aren’t you?”
“Absolutely. We really don’t mean you any harm.”
The woman’s broad shoulders relaxed. “Thank you.”
“Of course.” He stepped aside. “This is Artan. We came here to rescue him. I can only imagine how hard it must have been in there.”
“You’ve no idea. So, are you going to tell me where Robert Mack is?”
“And spoil the hunt? The more of you there are, the more punishment the vile creature will get. After all, he’s Mr. Punishment himself, right?”
The woman’s face completely changed with her smile. “Fair enough, but you know what, we might just leave him in there to be forgotten about. I’m sure he planned to do the same to us, and I wouldn’t mind betting most of these prisoners don’t have violence in them despite what the city’s propaganda machine tells its residents.”
“Maybe they didn’t before they were locked away,” William said.
They left the woman in the corridor and walked across the foyer to the main doors. “I expected that to be harder,” Olga said.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Matilda replied, “we’ve still got to get out of Edin.”
Chapter 60
Only a few minutes had passed since they’d released the prisoner from cell one. The thunk of doors being unlocked called from the back of the room. William, Matilda, Artan, and Olga hovered around the front door.
“We’ve not really thought this through,” Olga said.
William saw he wasn’t the only one watching the door behind
the receptionist’s desk.
Olga continued, “We might have just made peace with that one prisoner—and I’m not even convinced we did that—but what about all the others? There must be twenty of them down there. And maybe I’m out of line for making this assumption, but some of them must be locked up for a reason.”
Matilda opened the front door a crack before pushing it shut again. “I can’t see Max.”
While tying her hair in a ponytail, Olga chewed the inside of her mouth. “I think we all have to agree that if Max isn’t back by the time they come out of there, then we run anyway, right?”
“Right,” Matilda said.
William shrugged. Neither option seemed ideal, but he had nothing to add.
The door then opened in front of them, and Max slipped inside, pushing it closed behind him again. His clothes were slick with blood, the splash-back on his face too. “Right, it’s clear for now. I reckon if we sprint and keep the noise down, we can get through most of the district. You all read—”
A scream from the back of the room, they all turned to look. William said, “I’m guessing they’ve just opened cell thirteen. Come on, let’s get out of here while we still can.”
Max led the way, all of them following him out into the street as Robert Mack begged for his life. The prick deserved everything he got.
Tall buildings lined the main road running through the political district. It might have been the most direct route from the city, but they had nowhere to run to if any diseased appeared. William caught up to Max. “Are you sure this is the best route?”
“No, but with the time I had to make a decision, it’s the one I’ve come to. We want to get out of Edin, right?”
“Sure.”
“I think this is the quickest way of doing that.”
Even now, the smoke William had inhaled in woodwork still restricted his breaths. Maybe Max felt the same because they moved fast, but they could have moved faster. At least, William, Matilda, Olga, and Max could have moved faster. Their progress looked to be causing Artan physical pain, his face twisting and squinting, his skin almost yellow in the bright glare of a new day.
Other than the sounds of their steps against the cobblestones, they kept the noise down. The houses on either side of the street stood taller than most and would be hard to climb. The doors were closed on many, and once or twice William saw a silhouette in a window. They were closed for a reason.
Two diseased then appeared ahead of them. But two diseased they could cope with. Until Artan screamed like his skin had been set alight—like the girl they watched die in woodwork. William’s heart sank. A reaction like that could turn two diseased into twenty. They should have thought about his fear sooner. They should have seen it coming.
Max stepped forward and dealt with the two, Artan still screaming and shouting.
Even after Max dropped the creatures, Artan’s hysteria continued.
“Matilda!” Olga said. “If you don’t shut your brother up, I will.”
William stepped between the two girls. They didn’t need to be fighting each other. His back to Olga, he forced Matilda to look him in the eyes. “Can you calm him down?”
But they were too late. It started in the distance: the shrill call of a mob answering Artan’s cries.
Matilda pointed at a house on their right. “That’s our best option.”
One of the only buildings in the penned-in street that had something to climb on. A lip of brickwork about ten feet from the ground protruded from the building by two to three inches. Another lip about five feet higher would help them hold on. They could use the window ledge below it to get up there.
It took a shove in the back from Matilda for Artan to move off, the glaze gone from his eyes as they fixed on the mob now at the end of the street.
Max ran towards the diseased as William and Matilda boosted Artan onto the brickwork ledge. Olga had already gone up before him and helped him higher. Once they were happy Artan wouldn’t fall, they climbed up after him.
Chapter 61
By the time Max had taken down what turned out to be seventeen diseased—William counted because he had nothing better to do as he clung onto the side of the building; also, it took his mind away from the fact he could fall at any moment—William shook, cramps running through his hands from his tight grip, his legs shaking from where his toes had to support his weight.
More diseased blood dripping from him, his shoulders rounded, Max’s mouth hung wide. “You can come down now.”
William nodded in the direction of the scaffolding at the end of the street. “I think we need to get there and rest. But we need to make sure the diseased can’t follow us. Can you smash the ramp leading up to the first level? We can still climb up, but they won’t be able to.”
“I’ll come with you,” Olga said, but before she could jump, another diseased’s scream called down the street at them.
A similar amount of the vile things, Max sighed before readying himself to fight.
When the pack reached the house, they fixed on William and the others out of their reach. Max made his way slowly through them. His movements were clumsy as he used his sword. If William didn’t know better, from watching the boy he would have assumed the weapon weighed three times what it did. Sure, he had nothing to fear from the diseased, but slaying so many of the creatures looked like hard graft, like digging holes all day.
A window then flew open close to where the four of them clung on. A man in his late forties to early fifties stuck his head from the building. A puce face and puffy blond hair that yielded to the wind, he sneered. “Get off my building, you plebs.”
A second later, he produced a stick with a metal hook as if it had been designed for removing the poor from their spectacular abodes. Did they all have one in the political district? He went for William first, hooking his waistband and then tugging.
It ripped William’s bottom half away from the wall, his toes slipping from the ledge, his legs hanging down. Burning streaks ran along his fingers, challenging his ability to hold on.
Max stopped killing the diseased. His slack features tightened when they fixed on the man. He charged the house with renewed energy, hitting the door with a shoulder barge. The tear of splintering wood, the slam of the door flinging wide and hitting an internal wall, and then he stood aside as the remaining diseased charged into the house.
Bright blue eyes alive with malicious intent suddenly lost all their spark. The man dropped his prodding pole and pulled back into his home. His screams were silenced a few seconds later. William found his footing and slammed the window shut so the diseased couldn’t try to get to them that way.
Max emerged from the house with a large key. He pulled the door shut and locked it before scratching something into the door that William couldn’t read from his current position.
“That was easier than killing them all,” Max said.
William smiled at his friend. “Thanks for the save there, buddy.”
“Are you all okay if I go and prepare the scaffolding? From the look of this street, I’m not sure there are better places to hide between here and there.”
“We’re fine,” Matilda said, sweat running down her red face. “Just please be quick.”
Max nodded and took off.
Chapter 62
Max smashed the ramp leading from the ground to the first floor of the scaffolding at the back wall just in time, because William had to let go. He’d spent the last ten minutes using every drop of strength he had left, a pack of diseased banging against the window he’d just kicked closed.
William landed by the front door. Max had carved a large X into it and the words diseased inside.
Olga landed on the ground next, Matilda and Artan following suit.
“Part of me thinks we should open all these doors,” Olga said. “Let the diseased take these scumbags before they can cause us any more harm.”
“We can’t make that choice,” William said. “We let them in
here to save ourselves; that’s enough. We can’t decide who lives or dies beyond that.”
“Unless it’s Robert Mack.” Olga cocked an eyebrow. “Or Max.”
“And there’s the prisoners,” Matilda said before William could rise to Olga’s provocation. “We know nothing about them, but they might decide to live in this district, so let them choose how to manage the residents.”
William smiled. “Somehow I think the time of fat men in smart suits is over. I’m sure they’ll get exactly what’s coming to them.”
The street quiet again, William tugged on Matilda’s sleeve. “Let’s get on the scaffolding before another mob arrive.”
Their route to the scaffolding remained clear, the climb to the first level as easy as William had anticipated. As of yet, they hadn’t attracted the attention of any more diseased.
Before they could climb any higher, William saw Max staring back down the street. “What are you looking at?”
“Wait here.” Max jumped from the scaffolding and disappeared into a nearby house where the front door had already been smashed off its hinges.
A few minutes later, Max emerged with what looked like a tablecloth, the corners clung together to turn it into a bag bulging with goods. In his other hand, he carried a large jug of water. William dragged in a dry gulp as he drew closer.
With Max back on the scaffolding and all of them having sated their thirst, William finally led the way up the large wooden structure. “This is the first time I’ve walked up here without it being packed with people. If only Dad could see it this quiet.”
As they climbed to the next level, Matilda and Artan directly behind him, William paused. “Sorry to show you this, Artan, but as you can see: Edin’s gone.”
Black smoke rose from the ashes of woodwork, many parts of the district still on fire and tailoring now ablaze next to it. The diseased looked tiny from this far away, but they were no less numerous. Edin now belonged to the virus.
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