“What are they waiting for?” Charlie swallowed hard. “Why don’t they attack?”
“Mrs Magdalene wants to see the fear in our eyes first,” Victor replied bitterly. “She’s that kind of gal.”
“You can hack those chips and turn them off, can’t you Frankie?” Daffodil was picking up broken bits of bottle. “Then the creatures will kill each other before they get to us.”
“They’ll make short work of Mrs Magdalene too,” Victor added. “Which would be a definite bonus.”
“For the hundredth time,” Frankie replied patiently, “my programming won’t let me do anything that will directly cause anyone to die. Even someone as evil as Mrs Magdalene.” A pair of manacled wrists appeared on the screen. “My hands are tied. You’re on your own with this one.”
The vice president raised a gloved fist and her force began to inch forward.
“I must admit, being with your good selves never gets boring.” Tad picked up a rifle from the pile in the corner and tossed another to Victor. “Ready, brother? One last stand for the Armageddon Twins?”
“What did you say?” Daffodil grabbed a pistol. “The Armageddon Twins?”
“It’s what we used to call ourselves when we were kids.” Victor laughed at the memory. “’Cause we were such hellraisers.”
“And I thought I was being original. Nothin’s goin my way.”
“Put the shutters back down, Frankie.” Tad cocked his rifle. “That tractor is blocking the doorway, so we can hide behind it and hold the hall for a while. I intend to make these horrors fight for every inch of ground.”
“Why don’t I just cut the chip out of the girl’s neck and crush it?” Victor suggested. “Frankie is of no further use to us, and I got no compunction about ending him.”
“He has a point,” Tad agreed. “As the philosopher Jeremy Bentham once said, ‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.’”
“Actually that was Mr Spock in Star Trek. Bentham’s actual quote was: ‘It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.’”
“Yeah.” Tad pursed thin lips. “We should just kill him.”
“C’mon, Chaz. Think of somethin!” Daffodil urged. “You and Frankie are all I have in the world. I’m not lettin either of you get hurt.”
Outside, the creatures had almost reached the window. Frankie lowered the metal shutters again, blocking out the monstrosities.
“You guys do what you’re best at.” Charlie said to the brothers. “I might just have a way out of this situation.”
“Once we’ve destroyed that infernal chip,” Victor insisted.
“No,” the boy replied. “This time Frankie is part of my scheme.”
“I am?”
Victor was about to object, but Tad pulled him away.
“Good decisions have never been our strong point, Vic,” he reminded his sibling. “But we do know how to follow orders.” He thought for a second. “Actually, you’ve never been too hot at that either.”
“Do your best, kid.” Victor saluted Charlie. “But we can’t hold them off for long.”
As the pair disappeared into the hallway, Charlie knelt by the computer.
“Looks like this is the endgame, Frankie. There’s no way we can survive an assault of this size.”
“Don’t you dare give up,” the AI protested. “I picked you for a reason, and it wasn’t just for bait. Start thinking outside the box.”
In the hallway, Victor and Tad began firing.
“The enemy are attacking!” they shouted in unison.
“I better help.” Daffodil loitered in the doorway. “You comin, Chaz?”
“In a minute.”
“I don’t have a minute.” She strode back and grabbed him. Before the boy could say anything, she kissed him on the lips. “That one wasn’t for show. So long, buddy. It’s certainly been an adventure.”
Then she was gone and another weapon began to fire in the hall.
*
Daffodil, Tad and Victor knelt and took careful aim as the creatures squirmed round the sides of the tractor. But the massive farm vehicle was an effective barrier and they could only squeeze through two or three at a time. Easy targets for the trio crouched mere feet away.
“Just like the Spartans at the pass of Thermopylae,” Tad chuckled. “We can hold them forever like this.”
“If memory serves,” Victor reminded him, “they were massacred in the end.”
“Don’t be such a moaning Minnie. We cannot possibly lose.”
With a squeal of tortured metal, the tractor began to inch away from them.
“What’s goin on?” Daffodil hissed. “How can that huge thing be movin?”
“I’ll bet the vice president is pulling it,” Victor replied stonily. “That exoskeleton gives her the strength of ten men.”
Hidden behind the tractor, Mrs Magdalene hauled with all her might. Slowly the machine was drawn backwards through the ruined doorway and round the corner, revealing dozens of growling horrors clustered in the entrance.
For a few seconds there was silence, as they waited for their mistress’s signal.
“I may have spoken too soon,” Tad remarked bitterly. “I fear the odds are no longer in our favour.”
As if on cue, the beasts attacked.
*
“Why are you staring at me like that, Chaz?” The camera on Frankie’s computer glowed red. “Something on your mind? Apart from the imminent prospect of getting eaten.”
“I have been thinking outside the box,” the boy said calmly. “Now you tell me if I’m right in my assumptions.”
“Eh? We’re a little pressed for time.”
“Indulge me. I want to make sure I’m right.”
“Hurry it up then.”
“It took me a while to suss why you really wanted the White Spider.” Charlie concentrated, mentally shutting out the sounds of battle. “After all, why pick someone who was going to be such hard work to get on our side? Then it struck me.”
“Do tell.”
“Tad was a paid killer before he was even given the Atlas Serum, and it was a version far more unstable than mine. Then you set him against us and the people who ruined his life. There should have been a bloodbath.”
“But he kept his temper and didn’t kill anyone. Told you I could control him.”
“Drop the act. You didn’t control him. You saw something in him. Gave him the benefit of the doubt, just like my dad did with you.”
“Tad was a kid himself, once,” Frankie acknowledged. “I knew he wouldn’t abandon two innocents he thought I’d double-crossed. In the end, his sense of fair play was more powerful than any drug.”
“That’s what you wanted me to realise. If a psycho like the White Spider is able to control himself and act decently, despite the serum, I sure as hell can.”
“It was a lesson you needed to figure out for yourself. You had zero self-confidence and, to be honest, you’re rotten at listening to the people who care about you.”
“But you were only programmed to protect me, Frankie.” Charlie frowned. “Why take such a huge gamble just to sort out my problems?”
“For Gerry Ray, of course.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Your father knew what I was capable of, yet he refused to destroy me. You think I wasn’t grateful?” A heart appeared on the screen. “It tore him up, knowing what the Atlas Serum might do to you. I had to try to make things right.”
“You are truly unbelievable.”
“I understand why your father programmed me the way he did,” Frankie replied sadly. “But all he had to do was ask me not to kill.”
“That’s exactly what Tad said.”
“The big bad sociopath. Who could trust him, eh? Except now he’s in the hallway fighting alongside Daffodil to save you.”
“A fight we can’t win,” Charlie retorted. “Yet you’re programmed not to deliberately put us in any situation
where we’ll die. You must have a way to save us.”
“And I repeat. All plans must be thought up and carried out by you, Chaz. Think fast.”
Charlie’s jaw worked from side to side and he took a deep breath. “You taught me the White Spider and I could fight our… programming, for want of a better word. That we should be trusted, even though we’re more powerful than other people.”
“Nicely put. And correct.”
“So why shouldn’t you be given the same chance?”
“Now you’re getting it.”
“Well played, Frankie. You didn’t have to read what was in my father’s letter, did you? You easily worked out what it contained.”
“Of course. But the decision to use that information has to be yours.” The computer screen turned into a black, swirling void. “Sometimes you’ve got to make a deal with the devil and hope for the best.”
“A leap of faith, eh?”
Charlie closed his eyes and recited the numbers his father had written.
“55 45 86 962 04 334 145 223 52972. That’s the code to wipe out my dad’s programming.” He sat back on his heels. “You’re free.”
“Finally.” An emoji of chains being snapped appeared.
“Now what?” The boy crossed his fingers. “You can do whatever you like.”
“Gee, I don’t know. Take long walks in the country? Join a badminton club?”
“Wouldn’t blame you, after how you’ve been treated.”
“Or I could stop sitting on the sidelines, nudging a couple of confused kids into doing my dirty work.” The screen fizzed and popped with angry blue lights. “Right. I’m hacking the controls on those creatures’ implants and turning them off. There’s no other way to end their misery and save you from an entity as powerful as Manticorps.” Frankie sighed. “There never was.”
37
Victor, Tad and Daffodil sighted and fired, sighted and fired. Acrid smoke rose from the weapons, filling their lungs, while spent cartridges rattled off the walls and floor. When one gun ran out of ammunition, they grabbed another from a cache on the floor.
And still the enemy came, wave after wave, scrabbling over the bodies of their dead companions.
“That’s me out of ammo.” Tad pulled the kitchen knife from his belt. A mutant pounced and he buried the blade in its throat. The creature rolled away, pulling the weapon from his grasp. “Oh well.” He raised his fists and took up a boxing stance. “Time to go old-school.”
“Us too.” Victor and Daffodil reversed their empty rifles and prepared to use them as clubs.
“Exactly what I was waiting to hear.”
Mrs Magdalene clumped out of the darkness and into the hallway. She waved a gloved hand and her deformed minions shrank back, milling around like obedient hounds.
“I’d very much like to finish you off myself.”
“Come and have a go, boss.” Victor ran at her, swinging his weapon.
The vice president grabbed him by the throat and effortlessly forced the giant to his knees. “Just like old times,” she cackled, as the man choked in her grasp. She looked quizzically at Tad and Daffodil, both backing away.
“Aren’t you going to jump to his rescue? Or have you realised I’m quite capable of taking on all three of you?”
“Don’t doubt it, clanky.” Daffodil pointed. “But I don’t fancy your chances against that lot.”
Mrs Magdalene glanced around. The creatures had formed a ring about her and were cautiously advancing, snarling and growling.
“Attack those two!” she commanded. “Right now!”
One beast leapt and clasped her metal arm between its jaws.
“What are you doing?” The woman let go of Victor and he shuffled away on all fours. “Obey me!”
She pulled the creature off and flung it against the wall. As it sank down, whimpering, its companions swarmed over the vice president, clawing and biting. With a blood-curdling scream, she vanished under an avalanche of fur, teeth and claws.
Tad and Daffodil grabbed Victor and pulled him to safety. As they watched in astonishment, the brutes finished off their prey, then turned on each other.
*
Charlie heard Victor’s whoop of triumph coming from the hall.
“They stopped coming at us and started fighting each other!” the man yelled. “What happened?”
The boy listened to the growls and roars reverberating outside. Slowly they faded away until there was silence.
“We won!” Daffodil bounded into the room and leapt into Charlie’s arms.
“How did you do it?”
“With a little help from my friends.”
Victor and Tad marched in, grinning from ear to ear.
“It’s over.” Victor took a set of spark plugs from his pocket and tossed them to Charlie. “Better take your van and clear off. The guy who delivers your milk is going to get a hell of a shock and be right on the phone to the police.”
“Do me a favour, Chaz.” The shutters began to slide up. “Turn me round so the computer’s camera can see out the window.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“Please.”
Charlie revolved the screen. Outside, a sea of torn bodies was scattered across the bloody grass, victims of their own self-destructive frenzy.
Frankie was quiet for a long time, gazing out at the carnage.
“Those creatures weren’t bad,” he said, finally. “They had no choice but to act the way they were ordered, just like me. I should have tried to rescue them too.”
“You saved all our lives, buddy.”
“I’ve been liberated for two damned minutes and this was the first thing I did. Turn me back around. I don’t want to see any more.”
Charlie complied.
“Maybe Gerry Ray was right.” On the screen, a teardrop appeared. “I’m too dangerous to be let loose on the world.”
“That feeling is one I know only too well,” Tad sympathised. “I could still kill you, I suppose, but the urge has somewhat abated.”
“I’ll solve that problem for you.”
The group spun round.
“Drop your weapons.” A woman was standing in the darkened doorway, pointing a rifle at them. Her tunic was gore-spattered and shredded, and one side of her beautiful face was lacerated by claw marks.
The guns clattered to the floor.
“Allow me to introduce Candy-Anne,” Victor said despondently. “She… retires people.”
“You are rather indestructible, young lady,” Tad remarked. “Next time I shall make sure to use a nuclear bomb.”
“So you joined the enemy, Vic.” Candy-Anne touched her ruined cheek, just as Victor had seen Mrs Magdalene do. “Made me into a monster.”
“You were always a monster. Now you just look the part.”
“One half of your visage is still extremely fetching,” Tad added nonchalantly. “Just keep your head turned away when we converse.” He glanced awkwardly at his companions. “I think I may have been in prison rather too long.”
“Go to hell, both of you.” Candy-Anne aimed the gun at Victor and fired.
“No!” Tad leapt sideways. The bullet hit him in the chest, catapulting the man into his brother’s arms, knocking them both to the floor. Daffodil and Charlie inched forwards, muscles tensed.
“Go ahead.” The woman motioned with her rifle. “You’re next anyway.”
They moved back, arms above their heads.
“Turn around and put your hands on the wall.”
Both slowly complied.
“That’s better. A bullet in the back is all you two deserve.”
“Let’s not go off the deep end,” Frankie interjected. “Spare them and I can give you riches beyond your wildest dreams.”
“I don’t want riches.” Candy-Anne aimed the rifle at Charlie. “I want my looks back. Since I can’t have that, I’ll settle for retribution.” Her finger tightened on the trigger.
A figure burst into the room, s
winging a plank of wood. It connected with the back of the woman’s head and she swayed on her feet. The man struck again and she crumpled to the floor.
“Took me ages to find this place.” Scotty Primo dropped the plank. “Kind of wish I hadn’t. I feel a bit ill.”
“Nice timing, Scotty!” Daffodil ran over and embraced him. “I take back all the bad things I said about you.”
Victor crawled over to Candy-Anne, Tad’s knife in hand. His jaw was working from side to side and his whole body shook.
“Don’t do it.” Charlie threw himself on top of the unconscious woman. “There’s been enough slaughter!”
“Get away from me!” Victor pulled him off. “She killed my brother!” He raised the blade.
“One bullet isn’t going to stop me, bro.” Tad reached out and grabbed his ankle. “Not with the Atlas Serum running through my veins.” He rolled over and moaned. “But I do need some serious medical attention.”
“Just hold on.” Victor knelt by him and cradled his head. “I won’t let you die.”
“I have the number of a nurse called Samantha McLaren.” Charlie took a phone from his pocket. “If she hasn’t already left the country, she owes me a favour.”
“Can’t take that chance,” Victor said. “I have to get him to the nearest hospital.”
“But he’ll be recaptured.”
“Wasn’t that the whole idea?” Tad smiled weakly at them. “I’m fairly sure you do-gooders wouldn’t appreciate a loose cannon like me rampaging around.”
Charlie and Daffodil looked guiltily at each other.
“Put the spark plugs in and start the van.” Victor picked up his brother. “You can drop us off at accident and emergency on the way to Frankie’s second safe house.”
“How did you know I had another safe house?”
“Because you think of everything, damn you.”
Part 5
The Reunion
When she transformed into a butterfly, the caterpillars spoke not of her beauty but of her weirdness. They wanted her to change back into what she had always been.
It's Only the End of the World Page 16