“Who was that?” Luca asked.
“We have another town meeting,” Robert said dully.
“Oh,” Luca said.
“Yep.”
Being summoned to the square twice in just a few days had never happened before. The only possible reason for it would be to show off the new prisoner that Brian captured last night.
“She needs to stay here,” Robert said, nodding at the ceiling.
“I know,” Luca nodded having come to the same conclusion. They would need the facts before they could plan what to do next, “I’ll tell her.”
Returning to his room, Luca told Sammie about the town meeting. He didn't need to warn her that it was likely to be about Annie. Judging by the expression on her face, she had worked it out already.
“I have something to do straight after the meeting, then I’ve got to go to work. But I’ll skip off training this afternoon and come back here.”
“Okay,” she nodded.
“Stay here, stay quiet and stay hidden,” Luca warned.
“Yes boss,” she said. The attempt at the joke and the smile on her face were contradicted by the fear evident in her eyes.
“There'll be some porridge on the stove when you are ready. Help yourself and er..." he waved his arms around the room, "Make yourself at home. I'll See you later,”
"Bye," she said with such sadness it made Luca hesitate before leaving the room. He wanted nothing more than to forget about everything and just hold her until it was all alright again. But, instead, he walked out of the bedroom and pulled the door shut behind him.
After they had eaten, Luca and Robert made the trip to the town square together. It was crammed full by the time they got there. Brian and Luca squeezed through the crowd to get as close as possible to the makeshift stage where Annie was on her knees with her hands secured behind her back. Brian stood next to her, casually rubbing his rib cage and wincing. Gary and Matty stood behind her. Luca supposed this was a show of power to stop her from running. As if there was anywhere she could run to.
He watched as her eyes scanned the crowd, desperate for her to see him, but afraid to draw attention to himself. He stood on tiptoes and lifted his arms above his head, to give those around him the impression that he was merely stretching.
Annie noticed him amongst the crowd and she looked at him, with a slight raise of her eyebrows, “Is she safe?”
He gave her an almost imperceptible nod, “Yes, I have her.”
She tilted her head and briefly closed both eyes, “Thank you.”
With the message passed, Annie went back to scanning the crowd. Luca tutted, as though impatient for the announcement to be made.
It did not appear that anyone, except maybe his father, had noticed their silent conversation.
When the square had reached capacity, Brian stepped forward and addressed the crowd.
“I’m sorry to gather you all here again, but I have grave news,” he wearily shook his head, “Zone E have stepped up their campaign. Once again they have sent two of their residents to infiltrate us. Only this time, their intent was not sabotage," he paused for effect. “It was murder.” He let the words hang in the air. The crowd reacted accordingly, turning to each other in shock and disgust.
Annie flicked her head up in surprise, “Bullshit,” she shouted.
Gary quickly stepped forward and landed a punch to the back of her head. He hit her with such force that she could not retain balance on her knees, and she fell forward. Without the use of her arms to break her fall, she landed on her face. Gary unceremoniously yanked her back up.
“This woman,” Brian, pointed to Annie with disdain, “and her accomplice arrived yesterday. I agreed to meet with them to hear out their offer of a truce. I even gave them accommodation, while I considered their offer. This morning I was going to accept. To bring peace back to our zone.
But last night, they snuck into my room and tried to stab me in my sleep.” Brian lifted his shirt to show a blood-soaked bandage strapped across his rib cage. The volume of chatter within the crowd grew exponentially as those present made their outrage known.
“Fortunately, they missed my vital organs. Otherwise, it might have been someone else addressing you now,” he shook his head and paused, coming to terms with his near demise. “I bring this woman to you today, to ask you, the people, what we should do with her?”
The crowd erupted, with calls for the punishment to fit the crime. Luca looked at his father, the older man kept his face passive, but the vein that throbbed on his forehead gave away his anger. It seemed to mirror Luca's own.
Sammie had lied to them. She had promised that there were no wicked intentions from her zone against his. Yet, now he thought back to the conversation last night, she hadn't actually given a reason for him to believe her. She had just looked him in the eyes and held his hands. He was an idiot.
He knew that she wasn't directly involved in the assassination attempt. After all, he had spent most of the afternoon and evening with her. But he was confident she knew about it.
No doubt their plan had been to find some poor gullible sap to manipulate so they could create a backup plan if Annie failed. He felt sick. He had been used. Again.
Brian stood on the stage, and waved his arms to silence the crowd, “I agree,” he nodded gravely, “We don’t need three hostages. Zone E need to learn that we will fight back.”
Brian turned to Gary, and nodded, Gary stepped forward and drew a knife from its sheath around his waist. In one swift movement, he drew it across Annie’s throat. Blood spurted out, spraying those unfortunate enough to be at the front of the crowd. Annie’s body dropped to the ground, her eyes open and unseeing as her life juices drained from her body.
Cheers roared across the square. Some stayed silent, stunned at the brutality they had just witnessed. But most delighted in the bloodshed. Score one against their enemy.
Once again, Brian lifted his arms to calm the noise, “We have yet to find her accomplice. When we do, she will face the same punishment.” He scanned his eyes over the crowd, “As will anyone helping her,” he added.
Robert and Luca kept their eyes straight ahead, not daring to look at one another.
“Thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen,” Brian said and left the stage, leaving Matty and Gary to collect the body.
Robert squeezed his son’s shoulders as they left the square together, “You need to tell her what happened.”
Luca scowled at him, “She lied to us, Dad,”
“Are you sure? Give her the benefit of the doubt, let her tell her side of the story,” Robert advised.
Luca nodded glumly, “Cover for me at work?”
“Of course.”
Luca hurried off to the prison, where he quickly threw the bread and water into the cell and left without a word, too keen to get home and confront Sammie. The mile-long walk seemed to take forever, his father’s advice forgotten as the anger built in the pit of his stomach.
He pushed the front door open and found Sammie at the table, reading a book.
“Luca,” she said and hurried over to him, “I wasn’t expecting you home for hours,” she lifted her head for a kiss.
He pushed her roughly away, “I thought I had better come and talk to you about the meeting.”
Sammie looked at him, hurt at his sudden change in manner, “What happened?” she asked.
“Brian told us the real reason you and Annie are here,”
“Oh,” Sammie said, “Okay, it’s Brian’s decision, we decided to keep it quiet as we didn’t want to excite the zone, but if Brian feels differently that’s his call, I guess. But why did they take Annie?”
Luca stared at her incredulously, “It’s his call?” he almost spat the words at her, “Why did they take Annie? What did you expect him to do after someone tried to kill him?”
Sammie’s mouth fell open in surprise, “What? Who tried to kill him?”
Luca scowled at her, his nails digging into his
palms, such was the tightness of his fists.
“Stop lying to me,” he took a step towards her.
“I’m not,” she said. she looked frightened and took a step back from him, “Luca, I promise, I’m not lying to you. I don’t understand what this has to do with me and Annie.”
“Annie. Tried. To. Kill. Brian. Last. Night.” He said the words slowly. Pronouncing each one clearly and laced with venom.
“No, that’s impossible. She... she wouldn’t do that,” Sammie flopped against the larder door, “That makes no sense.”
Luca, punched the door next to Sammie’s head, leaving a hole in the flimsy plywood. “I’m sick of you people lying to me.”
“Luca, I’m not, I promise …” she started, her voice trembling in fear. Then her eyes narrowed, “Hang on, what do you mean by you people?”
“You and your little spy friends,” he spat.
“Luca, you have to believe me,” Sammie pleaded. “We don't have spies. Zone E is not trying to start a war against G. I don’t even know anyone else that has come here since our last trade visit and well … I don’t even know if they arrived. But Annie and I we came here to …” her voice trailed off.
“Came here to what?” he demanded.
Sammie stared at him. Mixed emotions flashed across her face. Eventually, she swallowed, “Luca, I am going to show you something. Something that will explain the reason we are here. But you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone else.”
He glared at her, but she looked back at him with pleading eyes. She sounded so genuine, so desperate for him to accept her story. He waivered.
For a second he was tempted to pull her towards him, take her body in his arms and tell her that he believed her. But he could not. He would not be manipulated by her lies. Instead, he just gave a curt nod. Permission to move on with the charade.
Sammie crossed the room to collect her bag. She pulled it open and routed around, then extracted out an old woolly sock. She reached inside it and removed something and passed it to him.
Luca stared at it, and every emotion he had just been feeling fell away, as he considered the consequences of what he held in his hands, “Is this …?”
“We don’t know,” Sammie replied, “It could be a vaccination, it could be the virus. We just don’t know, but we found hundreds of these. This is why we came here, Luca, to ask if we could bring your virologist back to Zone E. To find out what this is.”
It made sense. It all made sense. That little vial could be so important. Important enough to kill for. Luca sank to his knees, “Oh God, Sammie, I’m so sorry.”
Sammie took the vial from him before he dropped it. She carefully wrapped it back up in the sock and pushed it to the bottom of the bag.
She returned to Luca and looked down at him, “You scared me, Luca,” she said simply.
“I know, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he pushed himself to his feet, “Sammie, I …”
“Luca,” Sammie whispered. “It’s okay. I understand. That man lied to you. You don't know me. I would have probably reacted the same way. But,” her face hardened, “If you ever treat me like that again, I will kill you.”
He nodded, accepting the threat, ashamed of his behaviour. “Sammie,” he said, “I’m sorry.”
She held out her arms, and he stepped into her embrace, for a moment relishing her acceptance of his flaws. Then, as though struck by a bolt of lightning realisation hit. Annie.
“Sammie, I’m sorry, I ha …” he started.
“I know and I forgi …” she interrupted.
“No Sammie,” he said forcefully, taking her hands and lifted them up to his mouth. He planted a soft kiss on the back of each one, and tears threatened as he looked down into her gorgeous eyes, “It’s Annie, she … they … he killed her, Sammie.”
“No … he can't have,” she wailed.
“I’m so sorry,” Luca pulled her to him, and she collapsed into his embrace. As she sobbed, her body trembled with grief. He held her, stroked her hair and soothed her back.
But he said nothing. There were no words.
Eventually, the crying subsided, and she pulled back and looked up at him with hope in her eyes, “Maybe he’s lying? I mean he seems to be lying about everything else.”
Luca shook his head sadly. “They’re not lying, Sammie.”
“How do you know?” she demanded.
“They did it at the meeting, in front of everyone,” he said and opened his arms ready to embrace her once again. Instead, Sammie’s face twisted into a look of rage.
“I’m going to kill him,” pushing Luca out of the way, she went to the kitchen and took one of the kitchen knives.
“Sammie, you can’t,” She turned to him holding the knife up, he raised his arms in a gesture of surrender, “I mean you can, but not yet, don’t you see. He is plotting something. Why lie about Annie? What if he lied about Joan and Stan?”
“Who?” Sammie asked, still pointing the knife in Luca's direction, “Who the fuck are Joan and Stan?”
“They’re from Zone E. Brian told us that they came here to sabotage us. They’ve been imprisoned for months.”
“That's impossible,” Sammie said, “We don’t have anyone called Jo …” her eyes widen, “Oh my god, what if it's Johanna and Sidney?”
It was Luca’s turn to look confused, “Erm … who?”
“What do Joan and Stan look like?”
“Well, er, Joan is maybe my age or a little younger, her hair is brown and comes down to her shoulders. She's probably your height," he stepped back and shook his head, "No, maybe a bit shorter. Stan is...”
“Much older?” Sammie asked.
“Yeah, probably in his early fifties.”
“Johanna and Sidney left on a routine trade mission about three months ago. One of the zones they were supposed to visit was Zone G, but they never came back. Everyone thought they were having an affair and ran off together. It has to be them, are they still here?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Luca shifted uncomfortably, “Um… see the thing is… I am responsible for feeding them.”
“Really? That’s good,” Sammie said, Luca raised his eyebrows in surprise, expecting her to be angry at him for being complicit in their imprisonment. Instead, she added, “That’ll make it easier.”
“Um… easier to do what?” he asked, fearing he already knew the answer.
“Break them out. Of course.”
Chapter Seventeen
He stares at me as though I have lost my mind. I have not. I have never had more clarity. Johanna and Stan have been held captive here for months. They came to this zone as part of an agreed pact between all the zones, to trade, to share, to ensure humankind's ongoing survival. Instead, they were locked away like animals, and left to rot, for God only knows what reason.
I will not leave them here. I could not protect Annie, but I will help them.
“But they’re looking for you,” Luca pleads.
I shrug, “So?”
“Sammie, if they catch you, they will kill you. Then you can be of no help to anyone. Please. We’ll find a way to get you out of here. You can go back to E and tell them what’s happened here. Come back with more people and resolve this,” his tone is desperate, but my resolve does not waver.
“Can you promise me that nothing will happen to Johanna and Sidney if I leave them here?”
He opens his mouth, then closes it, and his body seems to fold in on itself as he realises that I have won.
I wait patiently for him to form the words that will seal my fate, “No,” he whispers and shakes his head, “No, I can’t.”
“I can’t let them die, Luca,” despite my determination my voice trembles, “Not like Annie.”
“I know,” he nods glumly, “And I’ve met them. I got to know them, for a time we were friendly …” his voice trails off. I see him visibly cringe and a dark shadow settles in his eyes, “They told me they were nozos. When I found out they were from Zone E, I was angry
that they had lied to me. I thought they were manipulating me."
"So you got angry and didn't wait to hear their explanation?" I ask coldly.
He looks at me sheepishly, "Yes," then he clamps a hand over his mouth and lets out a muffled moan.
"Oh God, Joan, I mean Johanna, told me that Brian raped her. I didn’t believe her.”
Luca looks broken, but I can’t offer comfort. I am too horrified by what he just said, “Raped her?” he nodded. My chest tightens, and it feels like I cannot breathe. I’m angry. Actually, I am fucking furious. Brian Crowe will pay for everything he has done, even it is the last thing I do. My thoughts once again turn to revenge.
To taking that kitchen knife and plunging it into his heart. But I won’t. Not yet. He has too much support here. If I am captured and killed, I will rip away Johanna and Stan's last hope. In an attempt to calm myself, I suck in a lungful of air and exhale slowly.
“Will you help me rescue them?” I ask Luca.
The inner conflict plays out on his face, I am asking him to betray his zone, his people. To put his own life at risk for three strangers from another zone. Eventually, he nods slowly, “I will.”
“Thank you, Luca,” I lean forward and kiss him softly. I know what I have asked. I recognise the enormity of it, and as a consequence, I will be forever grateful and eternally in his debt.
~
After sketching out a hurried schematic of the zone and the prison, Luca rushes off to work. We agree that he needs to carry on as normal. Go to work, train. Don’t act suspiciously.
Sitting on Luca’s bed, so that I won’t be seen should someone walk past the house. I spend hours studying the rough drawings, adding bits from memory that I’ll confirm with Luca later.
With his access to their cell, freeing Johanna and Sidney should be easy enough. Getting them and me out of the zone is another matter entirely.
Frustrated, I lie back on the bed, hiding the plans under the pillow. My thoughts turn to Annie and the horror of her last hours. Annie should have died in an epic battle with a horde of zebs, giving her life to save others. That is the woman she was. Strong, brave and a protector. She should not have died defenceless on her knees in front of an angry mob. She should not have died for a crime she did not commit. She should not have died, period.
Safe Zone (Book 2): The Descent Page 15