In silence, the two men worked and the day trundled on. Eventually, Robert put down the cloth, “Hadn’t you best be off, son?” he asked.
“What? Where?” Luca replied.
“Combat training,” Robert replied, “Remember what Mr Crowe said this morning.”
Luca shifted uncomfortably, “Um… no, I only caught a little bit.”
Robert picked up the cloth, casually folding it, “They didn’t kill them, you know.”
Luca flushed red, “Don’t care if they did,” he replied.
“Okay,” Robert replied, glancing sideways at his son, “Anyway, combat training, midday today. Everyone who is fit and able must attend.”
“Oh, okay, I’d best be off then. You coming?”
Robert let out a belly laugh, “Fit and able, I am hardly that, I’ll hold the fort down here.”
“Okay, well see ya, then,” Luca replied and trudged slowly out of the door.
He had no idea where he was meant to be, so, hedging his bets he headed for the field used for archery practice. As he made his way there, he thought of his Dad’s laugh just moments before. It hadn’t even brought a smile to his face. The first time Robert had laughed in a conversation between them in years, and he hadn’t even acknowledged it.
He kicked angrily at a stone and cursed as he missed and kicked the ground and stubbing his toe instead, “Fucking wanker,” he shouted, making two women walking in front of him speed up their pace to get away from him.
He rounded the corner to see thousands of people in the exercise field. Whoever came up with this idea had not thought it through. There were too many people crammed together, with not even enough space to stand comfortably, let alone do combat training. Luca waited impatiently, sighing and huffing every so often.
This was stupid, he would be better off at work. Just as he decided to sneak away, he heard shouted instructions from one of the instructors.
They were to be split into ten groups.
Luca’s group along with one other were to remain in the field; the others were led to other suitable locations in the zone.
The two groups were instructed to jog slowly round the field to warm up. Luca willingly obliged, because while running wasn’t his favourite activity, it beat standing still. He soon found himself lost in the steady rhythm and for the first time in hours he began to relax.
Sufficiently warm, with many of the group panting from the exertion, they were told to jog on the spot as the instructors demonstrated some boxing techniques. After the display, they were asked to split off into pairs. Luca joined up with a red-faced short boy, who introduced himself as Danny.
Initially avoiding contact, Danny and Luca repeated the moves they had just watched. A constant series of repetitive jabs and elbows. Luca found the motion of punching calming. He imagined Stan in front of him, receiving the blows, apologising for lying to him.
“Good aggression,” The instructor said as he passed Luca, “Try to keep your elbow higher though.”
“Yes, sir,” Luca replied and corrected his stance.
Danny was panting heavily, not used to such a level of physical fitness, “I … work … with the horses …” he puffed, by way of explanation.
Luca nodded at him, “I’m at the armoury, use my arms a lot,” he explained, “don’t worry you’ll get this.”
When they were ordered to spar with one another, Luca held his punches back, only jabbing Danny lightly. Danny did not repeat the courtesy and used all his strength to try and hurt his opponent. Faster and more agile, Luca was able to duck and dodge Danny’s attempts to hit him. Then Danny got lucky and caught Luca with an uppercut on the chin. The effort he had been making had sapped his energy, and the blow did not hurt. He started to laugh at the weak display from his opponent, until he saw the look of delight on Danny’s face.
“Ow,” Luca moaned, rubbing his chin for effect, “You got me a good one there.”
Danny beamed, “Maybe I’m not so bad at this after all,” he said.
“Nah, you’re really good,” Luca lied.
The afternoon wore on and by the time they were allowed to stop, Luca's face was as red as Danny's.
“That was fun,” Danny said.
“Yeah,” Luca agreed, realising that he had enjoyed himself this afternoon. The anger he had felt earlier had abated, and he was now buoyant from the endorphins flowing through his body.
“See you tomorrow,” he said and started the long walk back home.
As he ate dinner with his father that night, he only felt a small twinge of guilt at the size of the portions they consumed. If Robert noticed that they were eating more, he didn’t mention it. Nor did he comment when Luca went straight to bed after dinner, rather than going out as he had done every evening for the last couple of week.
~
As Luca lay in bed the following morning, summoning the motivation to rise, he thought about Stan and Joan. He would bring them their food this morning as usual, demand answers, and then he would tell Matty that he could no longer help. If questioned, he would say that he needed the extra time in the armoury now that the afternoons were to be spent in combat training.
Decision made, he got ready for work, his mind fixed on his plan.
He unlocked the door to Joan and Stan's cell. They said nothing as he entered. The silence continued as he put the plate of stale bread and glass of water on the floor.
He lifted the toilet bucket and carried it out of the room to empty it. Still, the pair remained quiet.
Anger was knotting his stomach, and when he returned with the empty bucket, he tossed it in the corner.
“You lied to me,” he hissed.
“We’re sorry Luca, we couldn’t tell you the truth,” Stan replied.
“Why not?” Luca demanded.
“When we arrived, we were beaten and tortured until we agreed to confess to destroying the water supply, but he warned us not to tell anyone where we were from,” Stan pleaded, “We didn’t destroy the water, but we are from Zone E.”
“Bullshit,” Luca spat, “If you didn’t destroy the water why are you in here?”
“I don’t know,” Stan shrugged, “We arrived for our routine trade visit, we were only here to drop off supplies. We knew Zone G were struggling, so we had been told not to negotiate for anything in return. As soon as we arrived, we were thrown in here. For weeks they beat us and starved us until they eventually tortured us to confess. We had no choice but to agree.”
“That makes no sense,” Luca said, refusing to believe a word out of the lying bastard’s mouth.
“It’s true, Luca, then the night before last they dragged us from the room and took us somewhere else. They beat us into unconsciousness, then threw water on us, only to beat us up again. He threatened to kill us if we didn’t publicly admit we were from Zone E.”
A red mist descended over Luca, “You’re lying,” he screamed. Kicking out at the plate of bread, scattering the contents. “Brian might not be as good a leader as Curtis was, but he wouldn’t torture anyone.”
“He raped me, Luca,” Joan spoke for the first time. Her voice flat and emotionless, “He raped me over his desk and forced Stan to watch.”
Luca paused, and for the first time looked at Joan. Her eyes were swollen so much that they were almost shut. Angry purple bruises covered her face. A twinge of sympathy threatened, but Luca swallowed it back.
“This can’t be true,” Luca was thinking. “They’re manipulating me. They want me to help them escape so they can go back to their zone and bring an army here to attack us. Either they beat each other up to gain my sympathy, or they were caught trying to escape and suffered their injuries in the scuffle.”
“Liar,” he stated and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
He stalked angrily to the armoury and unlocked the door. Only when he got there did he realise he had forgotten to go to Matty. He would go tonight.
There was a pile of knives already waiting t
o be sharpened.
“If I’m going to do the combat training, I’ll need to teach Dad how to sharpen the knives, otherwise we’re going to fall really far behind,” He told himself.
He picked up the topmost knife, ready to lose himself in his work. But today, every time he ran the blade down the whetstone it sounded to his angry mind as if the knife were mocking him, screeching, “Liar, liar, liar,” with each swipe. Furiously he worked faster, the rage building to a crescendo.
“You’ll have no knife left if you keep going at that speed,” a voice interrupted his motion. He looked up angrily, then his jaw dropped. Ahead of him stood an attractive young woman. He quickly took in the way her short hair complimented the shape of her face and wide eyes. Her smile was genuine and warm, but the tilt of her chin gave her an air of defiance. She was a contradiction, but she was beautiful. The knife fell from his hand and clattered on the floor.
With a slow blush rising up his cheeks, he bent to the ground to retrieve it, banging his head on the table as he stood back up.
“Ouch,” he said, instinctively reaching a hand up to rub the sore spot.
“Are you okay?” the woman asked, her eyes crinkled with concern.
Cheeks now fully red, Luca replied, “Yeah, I have a tough head,” groaning inwardly at his words, he plastered a smile on his face.
“Right …” she replied, “Anyway, I’ve been told to come here and check these in.” She handed him four knives, two bows and two quivers stuffed full of arrows. One of the knives immediately caught his eye, and he whistled appreciatively. He studied the ivory handle and the embedded cap badge.
“I don’t recognise this one, is it new?” he asked, so enamoured with the knife in his hand that he forgot his embarrassment.
“It was my Dad’s,” she explained, “I guess it’s new here, I’m from … well, I’m not from here. You won’t let anyone else take it will you?”
Hearing the concern in her voice, Luca looked up at her, “No, don’t worry. I’ll look after it, do you want me to sharpen it for you?”
“Um… I’ve seen how you sharpen knives,” she laughed, “so thanks, but no thanks.”
“Oh, okay,” Luca said, the burning in his cheeks now back and brighter than before, “I’ll look after it, I promise.”
“Thank you,” she turned to leave.
Desperate to keep the conversation going, Luca called out to her, “What’s your name?” She turned and studied him, eyebrows raised in amusement, “For the inventory … you know … for the knife.”
He thought he detected a slight fall in her face, as though disappointed, “It’s Sammie, Sammie Winter.”
“Okay, thanks, Sammie, mine is Luca. Maybe I’ll see you around later?” he half-asked.
“Definitely,” she replied, and his heart leapt, “You have my knife,” she added with a wink before turning her back on him entirely and walking out of the door.
Luca groaned, she must have thought he was a moron, and yet, was that disappointment in her face when he told her he only needed her name for the inventory? The anger from earlier in the day was all but forgotten and was replaced by a bubble of excitement. She was beautiful and he would see her again when she collected her weapons.
He put her weapons in a box and pushed it under his desk. When Robert walked in, he was back to sharpening another knife.
“Pretty girl,” Robert commented.
“Mmm, suppose,” Luca replied, keeping his head low and eyes fixed on the task at hand.
“Where’s she from?” Robert asked, “Not seen her around before.”
“She’s from … actually, I don’t know, she didn’t say, just that she wasn’t from here.” A chill froze his blood and he stopped working on the knife. She said she wasn’t from this zone, so where was she from?
“Oh no,” he pleaded silently, “I don’t care where you’re from or why you’re here, just please don’t be from Zone E.”
Chapter Twelve
Less than twenty-four hours after we arrived home, Annie and I are back out on the road. This time, we’re alone. Just us on horseback. With only the bare minimum of supplies in our bags and a very important vial of fluid tucked into the bottom of my bag.
After our discovery, we left the R&D area laden with boxes. Stacking them in the reception, we raced to the factory floor. Our bounty was plentiful, but the space needed for the boxes of vials would fill up almost an entire cart, so we were picky with what we collected.
Boxes of bandages, medical pads, plasters, syringes, zinc oxide tape and hygiene rolls all made the cut. We found boxes of individually sealed antiseptic wipes, testing one of the sachets to find that, fortunately, the wipe inside was still wet. We reasoned it might not be as effective as it once was after all this time, but that it would be better than nothing. Aunt Lex would be delighted with the haul.
We left much more behind than we could take, so when we pushed all the boxes through the hole in the fence that Joe had cut earlier, we made sure to conceal the entrance.
With no zebs to act as a deterrent, it would probably be looted before we could return, but we agreed not to make it too easy.
We asked Andy, Simon and Tom to stay as they were, keeping guard as we loaded the boxes that contained the vials into the back of the cart that Annie and I were driving. With the little room left, we topped them with boxes of bandages. The rest of the contents fit into the other cart. Poor Simon and Andy, now almost concealed by boxes, would not have a comfortable journey home.
We spent the night at the farmhouse we had stayed in the previous evening. The corpses rotting in the small bedroom were already beginning to smell, but we soon got used to the putrid stench. Once again, Annie and Joe took the first watch, with Tom and I relieving them in the early hours of the morning. As I made my way down the stairs, I heard a door creak. Creeping back up to the landing, I smiled when I saw Annie, sneaking into the room that Joe had entered. Good for her.
We ate quickly in the morning, I suspected everyone was as keen to get back to Zone E as me. Joe and Annie were the only ones talking, and they spoke in a whisper, but now and then Annie giggled.
It was like eating breakfast with two loved-up teenagers.
We were back on the road at first light, so it was still early when we passed through the more populated areas, and we didn’t encounter any nozos. We passed plenty of zebs, but just like the previous two days, we ignored them and soon left them behind.
It was a welcome sight when we saw the fences enclosing the zone in the distance. Due to the sheer size of the zone, combined with the empty and barren landscape, the fences were possible to see from miles away and it took us another half an hour to get there.
We got checked back in by the sentries at the gate and given a once over to ensure we weren’t sporting any bites. While we waited, Annie jumped out of the cart and had a brief conversation with Joe. When she re-joined me, she told me that we would take both carts up to the council building, and she and I would go and see Sally. Joe would wait with the carts and send Andy, Tom and Simon home.
Sally hugged me as soon as I entered her office, “How did she do?” she asked Annie.
“She was excellent,” Annie smiled, “We encountered more zebs at the factory than we anticipated and it was Sammie’s plan that got us in and out unscathed.”
With the discovery from yesterday being at the front of my mind I’d completely forgotten about the assessment. “Does that mean I passed?” I asked nervously.
“With flying colours,” Annie beamed.
“Yes,” I punched the air with delight and launched myself at Annie. Not a hugger, she held me briefly before gently backing away.
Sally, watched us, smiling, “I assume that you didn’t rush straight here just to tell me how well she did?” she asked Annie.
“You assume correctly,” Annie nodded, “We discovered something in that factory …” she paused as though for dramatic effect.
Intrigued, Sally raised her eyebrows, �
�Go on.”
“The factory had an R and D department, in fact, an entire floor dedicated to research. One of the rooms seemed to be for the study of ZN-134,” Annie paused as Sally’s mouth fell open. Usually, nothing shocked Sally, but for the first time ever I saw that she was speechless.
“There’s more, go on tell her,” I said excitedly.
Annie shot me a look of slight annoyance, “We found this,” she said and handed Sally a single vial.
Sally took it and studied the label, “Oh.”
“Oh?” I asked incredulously.
“What do you think it is?” Sally asked, ignoring me and addressing Annie.
Annie shrugged, “Don’t know, the V could stand for Vaccine, it could stand for Virus or it could mean something else entirely. We found some paperwork, but it would need a scientist, or at least someone with medical knowledge, to understand the content.”
“How many of these did you find?” Sally asked, lifting the vial in the air and studying it.
“Nineteen full boxes, each with five hundred vials,” Annie replied.
“Jesus,” Sally dropped back onto her chair, “If it is a vaccine, we would have enough to vaccinate most of the zone,” she went silent for a second, considering the implications, then looked up sharply, “Who knows about this?”
“Just Joe, Sammie and I know, we didn’t mention it to Joe’s team.”
“Good, can you imagine what would happen if the zone found out about this?” Sally groaned.
We could imagine all too well. On our return trip, Annie and I had talked at length about the implications of our find. With not enough to go around, those vaccinated would need to be carefully chosen. The zebs didn’t look like they’re going anywhere so we would need to save some for future generations. However, if it was the virus, we would have the world’s most powerful weapon.
“We need a scientist,” Sally stated, “Our only remaining scientist has dementia, so won’t be able to help.” She pressed her fingers into her temples. “Think,” she muttered to herself. Then she looked up with a grin and slapped the table, “Zone G have a virologist. I want you both to leave first thing in the morning. Take a single vial to G and tell only Brian what you’ve found, beg him to let his virologist come back with you. Offer anything he wants. Food, weapons, anything. Okay?”
Safe Zone (Book 2): The Descent Page 10