by Chris Ward
A ONE sign was fixed to the wall above it. David glanced inside, saw something moving in the shadows, and looked quickly away.
Mika pushed through another set of doors. A guard lay dead on the ground, his chest torn open. David didn’t stop to look as he hurried after Mika.
Another set of doors stood in front of them. Mika pressed something on her board, then kicked at the door, at the same time screaming, ‘Down, Airie!’
A far larger explosion than David had been expecting rippled through the corridor. The heavy door banged back against the wall behind, and both David and Mika were thrown to the ground. As the shockwave settled, David was the first up, pulling Mika back to her feet. He pushed through a door and saw a cloaked figure lying twisted near the far wall.
‘Where are the others?’
A black chasm yawned through a blown-open doorway to the right. ‘Airie!’ Mika screamed as David pulled up his board and activated the flashlight.
Airie stood there, looking gaunt and tired, her clothes ragged and dirty, her hair clumped and matted. Something stood behind her, tall and imposing, its arms wrapped around her chest.
She staggered forward, the Huntsman moving with her. She looked up at David and Mika with a stunned look of surprise. Mika pulled a gun and pointed it towards the Huntsman, her hand shaking, but Airie shook her head.
‘He shielded me,’ she whispered.
The Huntsman’s arms slipped free of her shoulders and the creature slumped to one knee. Its cloak and back were ragged and bloody from taking the brunt of the explosion. Mika turned and lifted the gun to its head, but eyes appeared beneath the cowl and in a quiet growl it muttered two barely audible words:
‘For … Sorel….’
Mika and David exchanged a glance. David took a step forward to help the creature up, but Mika shook her head. ‘Eight minutes. Let’s go.’
David took Airie’s hand and pulled the girl along behind him. She was so stunned she could barely walk, and kept looking back at the fallen Huntsman. As they passed through the next set of doors, David remembered something.
‘You said there were three? Where’s the third?’
A growl rose from the open doorway of Holding Cell One. David lifted the flashlight and shone it inside, the beam illuminating a thickset, hunched creature squatting over a fallen guard. It appeared to be eating, tearing lumps of flesh out of the man’s chest.
‘A Tracker-Killer,’ Mika gasped, her voice hollow with terror. ‘Move or we’re dead!’
Dragging Airie like a reluctant child, David rushed after Mika, back through the magnetic sealing doors just as the lights came on above them. Mika dashed straight for the elevator, punching the button and pushing David and Airie inside as the doors slid open. Behind them, the steel door began to swing shut.
Something huge and dark burst out of the holding cell and slammed into the steel doors, knocking them open just before the magnetic sealing system could take effect. Teeth bared, it forced its way through and rushed towards them like the bastard offspring of a demon and a rabid bear.
‘Close!’ Mika begged the doors as David hugged Airie’s sagging body to him. The Tracker-Killer stretched for them, but the outer doors slid shut and the elevator began to descend. Above them came a thud as the creature struck the closed doors.
‘What the hell was that?’ David gasped.
‘A Tracker-Killer. A type of Huntsman. Less human, more animal. Built for speed, tracking and killing.’
‘How do we stop it?’
‘We can’t. We have to hope it loses our scent long enough for us to get away. Otherwise we’re dead.’
Airie lifted her head from David’s shoulder and gave a tired grin. ‘I knew you’d come. I never gave up hope.’ She looked at Mika. ‘Sister … the knife … I’m sorry.’
Mika rubbed her shoulder. ‘I’m sorry too. For everything.’
The elevator came to a halt. ‘Cover your ears, Airie,’ David said, pressing the sonic inhibitor control. Airie winced and clapped her hands over her ears as the doors slid open on to a corridor filled with chaos. Guards ran back and forth amongst a stream of nightmarish creatures.
‘They got out,’ Mika said.
In the maelstrom of charging bodies it was impossible to tell who was chasing whom, or indeed if the chaos was the result of dozens of disorientated bodies unsure where to go. Mika went first, pushing her way through the crowd. David, in his guard uniform, was able to shield the others from assault, but with creatures that looked like unfinished Huntsmen lumbering about in confusion, he was happy when Mika dragged them through a door into a stairwell.
‘Down,’ she said. ‘Before that Tracker-Killer shows up. If we can get to the tunnels we might have a chance.’
‘Give me a gun,’ Airie said, pulling away from David who was still shielding her. David pulled one from his belt and held it out as Mika pushed through the door at the bottom of the stairwell, and they found themselves back on Level Nine.
The dead guard Jackson still lay where they had left him. Mika passed David her clawboard and ran behind the desk. She began frantically tapping on the computer terminal while Airie drifted over towards the open doors of the cells.
‘Come on,’ Mika muttered. ‘If I can just get those upper level doors to lock I can buy us some time—’
Airie screamed as a hand snaked out of the darkness and grabbed her around the neck. Dreggo stepped out of the holding cell, pushing Airie in front of her. David swung Mika’s clawboard over his shoulder and pulled his own in front of him, one finger scrolling through the commands as he stared at Dreggo’s hideous metallic face.
‘And there I was thinking I could smell Tube Rider, with a dash of government traitor thrown in.’
‘No!’ Mika shouted, running out of the office. ‘Let her go!’
‘Enough of second chances,’ Dreggo said, pulling a knife from her belt as Airie struggled in her arms.
‘You’ve got that right,’ David said, lifting his clawboard. ‘I should have killed you last time we met.’
He jabbed the grapnel release control. The electromagnet slammed into the metal part of Dreggo’s face and stuck tight. He pressed the retract control and Dreggo jerked forward, her head slamming into the clawboard’s casing.
Airie twisted, pushing the knife around and stabbing Dreggo in the thigh. David released the electromagnet, then smashed Dreggo across the head as she fell away. The metal part of her face looked crumpled and dented, and black oil oozed down her face as she fell to her knees.
‘Run!’ David shouted at Airie, pushing her ahead of him. ‘The third door on the left! Go!’
He kicked the kneeling Dreggo in the head, then lifted his board to slam it down over her face, just as a roar came from further up the corridor.
‘The Tracker-Killer!’ Mika screamed. ‘There’s no time!’
David raced after Airie, who had reached the door and was peering down the stairs into the dark. ‘Go!’ David shouted. He turned to look for Mika, who should have been behind him—
Mika was facing away from them, a gun in one hand, a knife in the other. Dreggo had climbed back to her feet, and as she leapt forward, Mika got off a shot, but not before clawed hands closed around her ankles, pulling her down. The gun fell from Mika’s grasp. She slashed out with her knife but Dreggo dragged her close.
‘Get my sister away!’ Mika screamed as Dreggo knocked the knife out of Mika’s hand.
‘Mika!’
‘Traitor,’ Dreggo growled, raking her fingers across Mika’s throat, blood soaking her fingers.
‘No!’
David turned away as Mika let out a last gasp and went still. There was nothing he could do. He turned and dashed after Airie.
The girl was waiting for him in the stairwell. He tossed one clawboard down to her, then slammed the door shut.
‘Where’s my sister?’
David shook his head. ‘She didn’t make it.’
‘We have to go back!’
‘It’s too late!’
David lifted a rock and smashed off the door handle. Dreggo would have to force the door from the other side, which might buy them a few precious seconds.
Below him, Airie had switched on one of the clawboard’s lights, and in the glow her face was pale, her expression hopeless.
‘We left her….’
‘She gave us a chance,’ David said. ‘Down to the tunnel. Turn right. Then run like you’ve never run before.’
57
Capture
Lindon lifted the radio to his mouth. ‘Wade, are you there? This is Lindon.’
‘Hey, Wade here.’
‘Did you find her?’
Wade sighed. ‘No. She got away.’
Lindon gave a slow nod. It was to be expected. Underestimating the resourcefulness of these Tube Riders was a mistake, but it was what it was. ‘Keep looking for her. And keep an eye out for the others. Share the descriptions I gave you among the men. I want someone watching every Underground station in Central London. They’ll go by train, I know it. And as soon as they’re spotted, I need to know. You got all that?’
‘Loud and clear. We’ll find them.’
‘Make sure you do. This is important. I’m trusting you, Wade.’
‘Thank you, boss.’
Lindon smiled. ‘Get to it. Lindon out.’
He put the radio back on his belt and turned to stare out of the upper windows of the old Houses of Parliament towards the slow, languid flow of the Thames beneath Westminster Bridge.
The Tube Riders had run, but it wasn’t over yet.
‘Come on!’ David shouted into Airie’s face, hauling her along behind him as the walls of the tunnel slid past far too slowly in the dim glow from the clawboard’s weakening flashlight. There was no sound of pursuit, but when the Tracker-Killer got through the locked door it would catch up all too fast, and they had no chance at all if they ran out of light before they reached the stairs. Airie, though, was half starved from her days in captivity, and while her resolve was still strong, her body was on the verge of shutting down.
‘David! There, to the left. Is that it?’
In his haste he had almost run right past the alcove where the light revealed the steps leading up. He gave her a hug, then pushed her in front of him, his hands on her back to give her momentum for an upwards climb.
‘We’re nearly there,’ he gasped, trying not to sound as out of breath as he was. ‘It’s not far.’
‘You’re a fucking liar,’ she replied, laughing hysterically. ‘I can tell how far underground we are from the bloody cold. But thanks anyway.’
David switched off the light to conserve the last remaining battery, and they climbed in darkness, the oppression of the enclosing walls giving them greater urgency. They said nothing, just listened to their footfalls and the hoarseness of their own breathing.
A glimmer of light had just appeared some distance above them when David told her to stop. They stood stock still, both trying to hold their breath as the sound of something rattling on the stairs far below echoed up the walls.
‘It’s coming,’ David gasped. ‘Go.’
They staggered up the last few stairs. David could almost hear the creature’s breathing as it bounded after them.
‘There are no explosives left and the power’s nearly gone,’ David said as the glimmer of light became a crack under the door Mika had pulled closed. He held out one of the clawboards. ‘Put it over your back. There’s an Underground station a couple of streets away. If we’re lucky, there’ll be sun enough to give it some charge.’
‘If we make it that far,’ Airie gasped.
David grinned. ‘I didn’t take on three Huntsmen for nothing,’ he said, then at the thought of Mika’s eyes, his smile faded. ‘And your sister didn’t die for nothing either. Let’s go.’
He pushed through the door out onto the street and stopped in his tracks.
‘What the hell…?’
Mika and he had entered on a quiet side street leading in the direction of Parliament Tower Plaza, but now the street was crammed with people, chanting and singing as they moved towards the site of the Governor’s promised appearance.
David grabbed Airie’s hand and pushed forward into the crowd. People shouted and shoved at him as he elbowed his way through the throng in the opposite direction to the rest of the crowd. For a moment he had the insane idea to lift Airie’s hand and announce her as Marta Banks, but the girl could barely stand, let alone lead a revolution.
‘It’s over,’ he muttered.
‘What is?’
He gave a short laugh. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
‘It’s not over until you say it is,’ she said, giving him a smile that was supposed to be reassuring.
A gravelly roar rose from behind them. Back by the door they had come out of, people began to scream.
‘The Tracker-Killer,’ David gasped. ‘Now it’s over.’
‘Not yet,’ Airie said. ‘There’s the Underground sign.’
Redoubling his efforts, David squeezed through the crowd to reach the steps at the top of the station entrance. Airie rushed past him without hesitation, and he followed her down to the concourse below.
People were still streaming up, hoping to join in a revolution, or even just to watch an execution. Some, maybe, just wanted to get a look at the secretive man who had led their country longer than many people could remember.
‘I saw him,’ Airie said, as if reading David’s thoughts. ‘He was like something not of this world. When he looked at me, his eyes passed right through me as if I was nothing.’
‘He ignored you?’
Airie shook her head as she climbed over the ticket turnstiles. ‘He took me apart, piece by piece. It was like … being invaded.’
David didn’t know what to say. Instead, he pointed to the escalator leading down to the Hammersmith and City Line, northbound platform. ‘We go that way,’ he said. ‘Quick, I can hear a train.’
They reached the platform just as the train, having disgorged its passengers, began to pull away. David hefted his board, wrapping the straps around his wrists. ‘Can you remember how to ride?’
Airie gave him a wild smile. ‘It’s about all I remember,’ she said. ‘That and your eyes.’
Someone behind them screamed. David glanced back as the Tracker-Killer bounded down on to the platform. ‘Go!’ he shouted.
Airie dropped and ran, catching the train in a moment, the carriage quickly whisking her away. It’ll catch us, David thought as he ran, heading straight up the platform towards the far end, even as the train began to stretch past him. It mustn’t know what we’re doing.
The train was almost gone. The Tracker-Killer was just a few metres behind him, the platform wall right ahead.
With a scream that contained both terror and rage, David leapt out, clawboard stretching for the back corner of the train. With a jolt, he caught against the bumpers, his feet dangling dangerously close to the rushing tracks before he was able to catch a foothold on a wheel brace. Something sharp ripped off his trousers from the knee down. He risked a look back and saw the Tracker-Killer rolling across the tracks as the train raced away.
As he climbed up onto the back of the train and began looking for a way to get up onto the side and get to Airie, he wondered how it was possible to get so close to death and yet get away.
The man leaning against the wall beside the ticket gates lifted his radio to his ear. ‘Wade? Get my message to Lindon. I’ve got them. Hammersmith and City from Aldgate East, heading north. I got a man on the train who’s trailing them, but it’s not gonna be easy. He said they’re hanging off the outside.’
Airie was struggling. As the train slowed into the next station, David climbed around the side and helped her climb down onto the platform. She sagged in his arms, the clawboard clattering to the tiles.
‘Did we make it? Are we still alive?’
‘We are, but we haven’t made it yet. Quick, get on the tra
in.’
David took her board as Airie stumbled through the doors, eyed warily by the handful of other passengers. They took a seat in the back corner so that David could look out through the rear window. Airie leaned against him, one arm around his waist, her face pressed against his chest.
‘I want this train to go on forever,’ she said, as they began to move. ‘How fast can that thing run?’
‘Not fast enough to catch us as long as we keep moving,’ David answered. ‘But we can’t stop even for a few minutes.’
Airie shivered, and he pulled her closer. Her clothes were barely more than rags, her body skin and bones.
‘Jesus, I’m so sorry for what happened to you. You saved my life, Airie.’
‘Then we’re even. I always knew you’d come for me. I dreamed of it every night.’
‘You’re safe now.’
‘Am I?’
‘We’re getting out of London. Me, you, Raine and Jake.’ He didn’t mention that Benny had only offered passage for three people. He hadn’t expected to be one of them, but if it came down to it, he would stay behind. As the train slowed into another station, he gave a wry smile as he imagined a future where he lived on one of the Circle Line trains, endlessly looping around inner London while a group of Huntsmen chased him through the tunnels like robotic, unstoppable greyhounds.
‘How?’
‘Benny. He knows a way out.’
‘You trust him? He seemed a bit weird to me.’
‘I have to. He hates the government more than anyone. He’s our last chance.’
They changed trains at Baker Street, heading for the northbound Metropolitan Line, stumbling through the concourse like two drunken halves of a single crutch, supporting each other, their clawboards slung over their backs. Other travelers backed away from them, whispering behind their hands. David caught a view of them in a dirty wall mirror, and found two hollowed-out wraiths watching back.
‘Did we lose?’ Airie whispered, as they climbed on to another train. ‘We lost, didn’t we?’
‘London wasn’t ready,’ David replied. ‘Not enough of it. But one day it will be.’