Fallout

by Chris Morphew

  ‘Well, how about you and Cathryn go and draw a picture for the new baby?’ he said. ‘You can show it to Jordan and me when we get back.’

  Georgia thought about it for a minute, then nodded and relaxed her grip on me. I gave her one last hug and passed her over to Cathryn.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, turning back to Luke.

  He shrugged and went to say goodbye to his mum as she raced back in with a stack of almost-clean towels.

  ‘Where’s Amy?’ asked Reeve.

  Cathryn glanced over her shoulder. ‘Bathroom.’

  ‘Is she peeing or throwing up?’ asked Tank.

  ‘You’re disgusting,’ said Cathryn, pulling a face. But then she put her free arm around him and stretched up to kiss his cheek. ‘Be safe, okay?’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, patting her on the back.

  Cathryn took Georgia out of the room, and I went across to Mum’s bed. She had her head on the pillow now, catching her breath between contractions. I bent down and kissed her cheek. ‘See you soon.’

  Mum wrapped her arms around me. ‘Love you, Jordan. Please look after each other out there.’

  ‘We will,’ I said. ‘I love you too.’

  I grabbed Ms Hunter as she bustled past again. ‘Remember, first sign of movement outside –’

  ‘Panic room,’ she finished, glancing uneasily at Mum. ‘But, Jordan, how exactly –?’

  ‘Just make it happen,’ I said. ‘Please.’ I crossed to the bed again, just as Amy appeared in the doorway.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said, wiping her mouth. ‘Ready.’

  Reeve did a quick head count. We just had to pick Soren up on the way through and we’d be ready to go. Reeve’s fingers snaked around the grips of his rifle.

  ‘Right,’ he said. ‘Let’s go save the world.’

  Chapter 26

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12

  1 DAY

  ‘I am not going back,’ Soren muttered as we climbed in over the back fence of the school. ‘After tonight, you are all going to owe me your lives. You are not making me a prisoner again.’

  ‘Shut up,’ said Tank, shoving him. Soren went sprawling to the grass on the other side of the fence. His hands shot to his lower back, like he’d landed on something hard, but I couldn’t see what it was in the darkness.

  It was almost 10.30 p.m. Only a few minutes until Miller and Ford pulled the pin on their diversion in town.

  This was it. The end. By this time tomorrow, it would all be over – either for the Co-operative or for everyone else. And here we were, fighting each other in the school playground.

  ‘Get up,’ I said, nudging Soren roughly with my foot. He stood up and rounded on Tank and me, looking like he’d really love to start something with him, but then Reeve stepped in between them and Soren backed off.

  We crept out towards the front office, sticking close to the shadows of the buildings. The security lighting was still on all over the school, shooting spotlights through the cold drizzle drifting down from the sky.

  It was so bizarre. Like visiting an old house you used to live in as a kid.

  The last time we’d been here, the whole place was packed with students. Normal teenagers grinding through normal school days, blindly going about their lives like the biggest hassle in this town was a curfew or a blood test. We’d spent weeks wishing everyone would wake up and realise what was really going on.

  This wasn’t exactly what we’d had in mind.

  Reeve slipped out from the end of the English block and swept his rifle around through shadows. He waved at us to follow and we darted across the quad to the admin building. Amy flitted in circles around us, burning off nervous energy.

  ‘Well, this is familiar,’ I whispered, peering through the glass door into the front office. It felt like almost an exact replay of our last trip up to the Shackleton Building, right down to the weather.

  There was a second set of glass doors on the far side of the room. I could see all the way out to the main street. The mall was directly opposite us, completely intact – at least for the moment.

  Luke came up next to me and squeezed my hand. It was cold and slick with the rain. I breathed out, fogging the glass in front of me.

  Any second now…

  My thoughts went back to Mum. Her contractions had started just after lunch today and for a while, I’d been holding out hope it would all be over before we had to leave, but apparently these things take longer in real life than they do in the movies.

  At least Peter wasn’t going to be a problem. I’d gone back this morning while he was still unconscious and tied him facedown to his bed. Then I’d got Luke to help me lug a big chunk of concrete in front of his door. Even if Cathryn was stupid enough to come looking for him again, there was no way she’d be able to –

  BOOM!

  The sliding doors of the mall blasted apart, sending bits of glass and metal raining down over the street. Distant shouts rang out from the Shackleton Building.

  Time to go.

  ‘Out of the way, kids,’ said Reeve, bringing his rifle up over his shoulder. He drove the butt of the weapon into the door, smashing through the panel at the bottom and stepping through. I ducked in after him and dashed to the front doors, eyes landing on the big glass dome of the food court.

  That first detonation was just a warning. A chance for anyone in the exercise area to run for cover before –

  ‘Jordan, get back!’ Reeve shouted.

  BOOM!

  The noise was incredible, even bigger than the security centre. An enormous ball of flame erupted inside the dome, lighting up the whole street. The glass shattered, exploding outward in all directions, and then it was swallowed up in roiling black smoke.

  Everything shook. I staggered back, momentarily blinded. Loud thunks split the air as debris hammered down on the office roof.

  Amy raced up, screaming. ‘Jordan!’

  Reeve dragged us to the ground as a big hunk of something smashed in through the front door. Half a food court table. It bounced off the back wall, flames licking up the sides, curling the plastic veneer. Any second now, that fire was going to spread to the carpet.

  ‘Go!’ shrieked Soren. ‘Run!’

  ‘No, wait, they haven’t –’

  BOOM!

  Light flashed in my peripheral vision as a third and final explosion shook the hallway off to our left, much smaller but deafeningly close. Smoke billowed in the hall and a heavy thud signalled that the door to the principal’s office had just been successfully removed from its hinges.

  Outside, the rumble of skid engines rose up over the shouting and snapping of flames.

  ‘C’mon!’ I said, staggering up the hallway, feet crunching on broken glass. Through the smoke and plaster dust I saw more wreckage burning at the far end of the hall, flames splaying out across the ceiling.

  I stopped outside Pryor’s office, glancing back to make sure we were all still here, and almost tripped over the heavy steel door at my feet.

  ‘Hurry!’ said Reeve, clambering after me. ‘In a few minutes, this whole place is going to be burning too.’

  We piled into the room. Reeve heaved the door aside. As soon as it was out of the way, Luke crouched and started rolling Pryor’s ornate antique rug back from the floor, while I darted behind her desk to the giant tapestry that hung on the back wall. I pushed the tapestry aside and flicked the two switches on the power outlet underneath. A hiss of compressed air cut through the room as a metre-squared section of Pryor’s floor slipped away into the ground.

  ‘This was here the whole time?’ said Amy, staring at the shining silver stairs leading down into the ground.

  ‘Thieves,’ said Soren under his breath.

  ‘Okay,’ I said, pushing past him and leading the way into the tunnels, ‘this is where it really gets interesting.’

  Chapter 27

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12

  1 DAY

  The trapdoor hissed shut above our heads, sealing us off from the chaos out
side.

  The six of us were squished into a tiny, silver-walled room, maybe half as big as Pryor’s office. Reeve moved up to the far end and opened the door on a narrow, brightly-lit tunnel. He turned to Tank. ‘You mind watching our backs?’

  Tank hung at the rear while Reeve went ahead. I shivered, remembering the way our last trip down here had ended: Reeve ‘dead’ and the rest of us stabbed with tracking devices.

  The tunnel was a direct line to a big underground bunker at the base of the Shackleton Building. It was the only way to access the lift to the top level, short of strolling in through the front doors.

  ‘Those things are all off, right?’ said Amy after a minute, glancing at the security cameras that peered down from the ceiling every few metres.

  ‘Should be,’ I said. ‘I assume they were hooked up to the same network as the ones outside.’

  ‘You assume?’ said Amy.

  ‘Shh!’ said Luke. ‘Almost there.’

  Reeve slowed as we approached the foot-thick metal door at the end of the tunnel. The last time we’d come down here, it had opened automatically. But I guess the Co-operative were feeling a bit more cautious these days. The door stayed closed. No handle. No anything.

  ‘Crap,’ said Luke.

  Fire behind us. A locked door in front of us.

  We were not off to a good start.

  ‘Everyone quiet,’ said Reeve. He stepped up and pounded the door with his fist.

  There was a moment’s silence, then: ‘Yes? Who’s there?’

  I recognised the voice. It was Aaron Ketterley, Phoenix’s ‘residential liaison’, the man who’d shown my family and me around town when we first arrived. He might have been a really nice guy if he wasn’t trying to help exterminate humanity.

  ‘Sir,’ said Reeve, deepening his voice slightly. ‘Officer Tracey here. We’ve had some hostile activity up above ground, and –’

  ‘We’re aware of that, Mr Tracey,’ said a second voice I couldn’t place.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ said Reeve. ‘The chief sent me to make sure everything’s okay down here.’

  ‘We’re fine,’ said Ketterley. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Sir, the chief’s orders are for me to get a visual on the two of you to confirm that you aren’t being –’

  A booming, clattering sound filled the tunnel as the door in front of us slowly shuddered open. ‘Mr Tracey,’ grumbled the second man, ‘you can thank Officer Barnett for his diligence, however –’ He stopped short. It was Benjamin More, Shackleton’s vice president.

  ‘Down on the ground,’ Reeve ordered.

  More edged backwards. ‘You.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Reeve. ‘Down on the ground.’

  ‘Officer Reeve,’ said Ketterley bracingly, ‘I understand that these past few months have been traumatic for you, but you need to realise that hurting us is only going to –’ His moustache twitched and he threw his hands in front of him. ‘Who’s that? What is he –?’

  Soren shoved his way forward, knocking me into the wall. He reached under his jumper, pulling something from the back of his jeans, and –

  BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

  Ketterley and More dropped to the ground, blood trickling from the holes in their heads.

  I stumbled back, mouth open, air disappearing from my lungs. Luke caught me and hoisted me to my feet.

  ‘Oh my goodness…’ Amy shuddered behind me.

  Soren stood frozen in the doorway, arm straight out in front of him, pistol clenched in his fist. He must have taken it from the armoury and hidden it in his room somewhere.

  ‘Give it to me,’ I said, recovering myself, grabbing at Soren’s arm.

  He whirled around, pointing the gun back at the rest of us. ‘No.’

  ‘Soren –!’

  BLAM!

  I ducked to the ground as he fired again. Luke cried out behind me. I whirled around, but he was still standing. The shot had been fired at the ceiling above our heads.

  ‘What are you DOING?’ I roared, heart thundering.

  Soren’s hands shook. He brought the gun back down. ‘Step back! I will not be –’ Reeve launched himself forward, throwing a fist into Soren’s jaw. He grabbed Soren’s arm and slammed him into the wall, pinning his face against the gleaming metal.

  ‘Get to the lift,’ he told the rest of us, wrenching the pistol from Soren’s fingers. ‘We’re not the only ones who heard all that.’

  Soren cursed furiously, but didn’t try to take the weapon back.

  We ran through the bunker, stepping around the bodies on the floor.

  More death.

  More stupid, senseless murder.

  He might’ve just taken care of two our greatest enemies, but still, I couldn’t muster anything but disgust for what Soren had done.

  The bunker was one big round room, stocked with everything Shackleton and his underlings needed to stay alive and unharmed in case of an emergency. And I guess the current situation qualified, because most of the beds off to our right were unmade and surrounded by bags of clothes and supplies.

  ‘Oi! What are you doing?’ said Tank.

  I looked over my shoulder and saw Luke stooped over Ketterley, reaching a hand into his pocket, a nauseated look on his face. He pulled something out and tossed it to me. It was Ketterley’s phone.

  Luke took More’s phone too and gave it to Reeve, who was already waiting at the lift. ‘Here. In case we need to talk to each other.’

  The words were barely out of his mouth when More’s phone started vibrating in Reeve’s hand. His eyes widened. He held up the phone, showing us the caller ID. Bruce Calvin. Wherever the chief had disappeared to these past few weeks, apparently he was back.

  ‘What the crap?’ said Tank, mesmerised by the phone. ‘Those things actually work?’

  ‘They can only call each other,’ I said. ‘The only way they can reach the outside is if…’

  ‘What?’ said Tank.

  ‘External Communications,’ Luke said. ‘The room up on the top level.’

  The lift doors slid open.

  ‘Right,’ said Reeve, stepping inside. ‘Bit late for a rescue party now, though.’ He stopped halfway through the doors, catching himself. ‘Besides Kara and your dad, I mean. I’m sure they’re still –’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Luke.

  Reeve was right. Tobias was still our best hope at saving the world.

  There were two lifts in the Shackleton Building: one that moved between the five floors that the public was allowed to know about, and this one, a direct line from the basement to the executive offices and the secret top floor above them.

  We squeezed in after Reeve, and Luke hit a button on the wall, sending the lift trundling upwards.

  ‘Here,’ said Reeve, handing Soren’s pistol over to Luke.

  Luke cringed. ‘I don’t –’

  ‘Just in case.’

  Soren scowled at him.

  The lift came to a stop at the pretend-top floor of this place, and the doors opened onto an empty room, even smaller than the lift itself.

  ‘This is us,’ said Reeve, stepping out and pulling open a steel door like the one at Pryor’s office.

  There was a guard standing on the other side.

  He wheeled around at the sound of the door opening, hoisting his weapon up in front of him. ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa –’ He broke off. It was Officer Hamilton, the guy from back at the graveyard. ‘Matt?’

  ‘Ethan,’ said Reeve, raising his own rifle. ‘Listen, Miller and Ford are downstairs right now, taking control of the loyalty room. In about five minutes, you’re going to have a fight on your hands. You need to choose a side. Now.’

  Hamilton hesitated.

  ‘Come on, Ethan,’ said Reeve. ‘I know you want to do the right thing.’

  Hamilton held out for a moment longer, then lowered his weapon. Reeve patted him on the arm. ‘Good on you, mate.’ He turned to the others. ‘This way, kids.’ He led them away down the hall, leaving Luke and me alone in th
e lift.

  Luke hit another button and we started rising again. He looked at the pistol in his hands. His eyes flickered around the floor of the lift, like he was looking for somewhere to get rid of it, but in the end he stuck it into the back of his pants the same way Soren had done.

  ‘Remember,’ he said, as the lift slowed again, ‘no dying.’

  ‘Neither of us is dying,’ I said. ‘Not tonight.’

  The doors slid open and we walked out into the darkness on the other side.

  Chapter 28

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12

  1 DAY

  As soon as we stepped clear of the lift, a series of loud clunks beat down from the ceiling as the automated lights came on.

  Luke tensed for a second, then relaxed again. ‘Forgot about that.’

  ‘It’s good,’ I said. ‘Means we’re alone.’

  But it surely wouldn’t be more than a few minutes before security realised we were up here.

  On first glance, Shackleton’s secret top floor could have been just another ordinary office building. A big open-plan central workspace – computers, desks, filing cabinets – with five doors leading away to other, smaller rooms. Nothing here that looked like it could stop the end of humanity.

  Orange light flickered in the sky outside. I crossed to the edge of the room, where giant windows ran from floor to ceiling. One-way glass, like the rest of the building.

  The mall was still blazing. Bits of the food court were scattered across the street, smouldering like campfires. A big slab of concrete had torn through the fence at the foot of the Shackleton Building, obliterating the fountain, but if any of the prisoners had escaped, they were long gone. I twisted around, pressing my face up against the glass. It was hard to get a good look at the school from this angle, but I was pretty sure the admin building was burning too.

  A dozen or so security officers swarmed around the town centre, but it would be a while before they had the fire under control. In the meantime, that was a dozen fewer guards keeping an eye on things in the Shackleton Building.

  ‘We should split up,’ I said, turning around again. ‘You take the main office, I’ll –’