As we watched, three more strode from inside the compound, and behind them, looking nervous, was the warden. He barked something inaudible at the guards and gestured wildly to the various passageways that led from the giant room. Then he turned, his eyes sweeping the shadows. For a moment I thought he’d seen us because I felt cold fingers in my head, the floor and walls peeling away. Then the sensation passed. The warden shoved one of the blacksuits, and this time when he screamed I could hear him all too well.
“Find him!”
My empty cell had been discovered. And now there was an army standing in our way.
“Won’t be long before they track us,” said Simon. “Dogs’ll pick up your scent from your cell.”
“So what do we do?” I asked. “Hide out until it blows over?”
“You know as well as I do this ain’t never gonna blow over. That’s twice now you’ve vanished, and this time right under the warden’s nose. They’ll tear this place apart to find you.”
“So what do we do?” I repeated. He looked at me, flashing a crescent of broken teeth beneath his starry eyes.
“We give ’em something to keep ’em busy.”
I thought I knew where this was going.
“If there’s a breach, then they’ll be distracted. It will give us time to get in.”
“But the rats aren’t here,” I said. “And we haven’t got time to wait for them to get hungry. We need to go now.”
His grin widened.
“That’s why we need some bait.”
BAIT
WE PLAYED PAPER, SCISSORS, ROCK for it. All of us, although there was no way Pete was going to be running from the rats with those stick-insect legs of his. Simon lost to him anyway, Pete’s tiny hand covering about a third of his giant fist as paper beat rock. Ozzie got victory over me exactly the same way, and although he feigned disappointment, saying how he never got to be the hero, the relief coming off him was so potent I could almost see it.
“Gonna whup yo’ ass, boy,” said Simon, warming up his muscles like we were about to start a boxing match.
“You’re mine,” I replied, flexing my aching fingers. “On one. Three, two, one.”
We flicked a hand out at each other and I squinted into the gloom to see Simon’s fingers forked like scissors. They were snapping away at my paper like a piranha devouring a horse. He might as well have used them to open up my neck, because what I was about to do was suicide.
“Crap,” I muttered.
“Yeah,” the kid replied. “That sucks. You want me to do it?”
“Well—”
“Well, tough; rules is rules.”
“Thanks a million.” We almost started laughing, but it was stifled by the proximity of the warden and his blacksuits. Instead we ducked in toward each other, our whispered plans filling the pocket of rock like the hiss of a distant river.
“You only have to get them as far as here,” said Simon. “Lead them down the slope and they’ll sniff the blacksuits in the cavern. As soon as they’re in, it will be chaos. It should give us enough time.”
There was that word again, should.
“We’ll hide over there,” he went on, pointing the light at a cluster of broken rocks at the bottom of the slope. “We’ll be ready to pull you in as soon as you appear. With any luck the rats won’t see us and will plow right through into the cavern.”
“And if they do see us?” I asked.
“Then we’re screwed,” he replied matter-of-factly. “Everybody set on what they have to do?”
“What do you mean, ‘everybody’?” I said, a tremor belying my attempt at humor. “You three have just got to stay low and keep quiet.”
“Okay,” he corrected, handing me the flashlight. “Are you set on what you have to do?”
I didn’t answer, just strapped the light to my waist, looked back up the slope, and tried to swallow.
“Good luck,” said Simon. “Remember, lead them back through here. We’ll be waiting for you.”
Then they were gone, drowned in darkness as they scrabbled behind the cairn of stones. I started to climb, my heart juddering like an old engine about to stall. I was terrified already, the fear a bright white light that sat behind my eyes. I thought of the creature I’d seen in the steeple—the monkey? the ape? the kid?—the way it had torn into the blacksuit’s arm like someone eating a hot dog.
My imagination swung into overdrive and I saw the rats pinning me down, felt their teeth pierce my skin, smelled their rancid breath, and realized it was my blood that dripped from their deformed muzzles.
What the hell was I doing?
I forced myself to concentrate on the path ahead, navigating the cluster of narrow passageways at the top of the slope. I wondered if I should be leaving a trail of something to help find my way back, then realized I’d be blistering down here at such an unholy pace I wouldn’t have time to see the markings anyway. If I made it this far, that was.
I passed through the tiny cave where the lost boys had been sleeping, taking the tunnel out the back and the narrow passage that split off from that. I wasn’t even sure if this was the right way—the couple of times I’d been here Simon had led, and I hadn’t been paying all that much attention. Suddenly the tunnel seemed smaller. I noticed twists and turns that weren’t there before. I was lost.
Then it angled down, the walls closing in, and I recognized that familiar stab of claustrophobia. The gorge was just along here. Maybe I should have made more of an effort to lose my way.
I pushed through the knuckle of tight rock and found myself in the endless swamp of liquid night—the abyss stretching out beyond the narrow shelf of rock and echoing to infinity above me. I looked up, picturing the rats gnawing away on the bones of the blacksuit. What should I do? Shout? Whistle? Scream?
“Hello?” I mumbled. No response. I tried again, louder this time. “Hello! Rats, are you up there?” It still wasn’t loud enough. If the creatures hadn’t heard Simon and me smashing our bone pins into the wall, then they wouldn’t hear my pathetic cry. This time, when the words came, they were loud enough to carry. “I’m down here,” I yelled, half shout and half scream. “Come and get me!”
I tensed my legs, ready to make a run for it. There was an insect click from the gap in the rock I’d just stepped through. I’d been counting on them coming at me down the wall. If they appeared behind me I was dead.
“Today’s special: a skinny kid who’s about to crap his pants,” I bellowed, almost in tears. “Get it while it’s hot.”
Something shrieked in response, the sound dropping from above like a guillotine blade. Another noise, more shrill than the first but just as chilling. One more, a bass growl that seemed to make the very rock shake. In a couple of seconds the chasm was alive with a sickening chorus of grunts, screams, and wails that sounded heartbreakingly human. It reminded me of feeding time at the zoo, and I guess I wasn’t far wrong.
Something sparked on above me, the twin specks of light distant but visible against the black canvas of the gorge. They blinked out, and when they lit up again there were two more beside them. Then four. Then too many to count. And when they all raced toward me down the steeple I thought for a moment that the sky was falling, the stars crashing to earth. It would have been beautiful if I didn’t think it was the last thing I would ever see.
I ran, the rock scraping against my chest as I pushed myself through the gap, the flashlight swinging wildly, making the tunnel come to life. It was like being in one of those funhouse crazy walks where the floor and the walls are moving and you can barely stand up. Except on this ride if I so much as tripped I’d be skinned alive.
The screams on my tail were louder, the scrabble of their feet against rock so much quicker than my own clumsy steps. I couldn’t believe they’d sped so easily down the same near-vertical slope that Simon and I had struggled so hard to climb.
I burst into the little cave, the savage cries like fingers trying to hook me back. Two giant leaps and I was o
ut again, lungs burning as I charged down the passageway beyond. There was an instant of utter panic as I reached a junction, my brain too concerned with trying to make my legs work to remember which exit to take. I know I shouldn’t have, but something made me glance over my shoulder.
It looked like a tidal wave of silver crashing and spitting toward me, gaining with impossible speed. My flashlight swung and the bodies attached to those eyes caught the light, the walls and floor alive with glistening red skin moving fast, too fast.
I threw myself at the middle passage, but before I reached it something thumped into me. It was like being hit by a train and I was on the floor before I knew what was happening, pinned down by a figure of knotted muscle.
I saw a needled jaw open in the fleshy mess of its face, lunging toward my neck. I squirmed, lashed out with my hands, twisted my body, and, more from luck than anything else, managed to raise my shoulder to block its attack. Its teeth sunk into the flesh of my upper arm and my skin turned to fire. But the pain seared through me like an electric charge, making my body buck.
The creature lost its balance, its lopsided body toppling to the side. It grabbed at me with gnarled hands but I kicked out, my heel connecting with its nose.
I didn’t stop to see what damage I’d done. The other rats were almost on me, their howls rising to a crescendo as they watched me make my escape. As the darkness of the tunnel closed in, I realized I’d lost the flashlight, but there was no going back for it. I was almost there, maybe another ten or fifteen paces before the slope that dropped down to the cavern.
It was more like five. I felt my foot plunge off the edge, my stomach flipping as I fell. It wasn’t a long drop, my descent broken by the uneven slope. Before I could even pull myself to my feet I felt hands on me, dragging me across the floor, panicked whispers in my ear.
“Quick! Get him in!”
It was too dark to see where I was going, but I didn’t care. Blood was pouring down my arm, the wound like hot coals embedded under the skin. I stopped moving, three bodies pressed against mine as the screams resonated off the walls.
There was a thump as something landed close to us, the menacing growl of an injured animal from the other side of the pile of broken rocks. Then the bodies began to patter on the ground like hail, a storm of claws that thrashed less than a meter from where we cowered. Someone was holding my head, pulling me close, and I took some comfort from the fact that at least I wasn’t going to die on my own.
There was a distant call, then a shot. Two more, followed by choked wails. I heard the scuffle of legs as the rats charged away from us, pictured them flooding under the low ceiling into the cavern, red in tooth and claw, eyes blazing as they stampeded toward the blacksuits.
The sound of shotgun fire was like a New Year’s fireworks display. The figure holding me moved, getting to his feet and pulling me up with him.
“Good job,” said Simon from the shadows. “I can’t believe that worked. You okay?”
“I’m okay,” I lied, tearing a strip from my overalls and attempting to tie it around the wound. The pain was spreading, making my entire arm throb. I could feel it in my neck too, and wondered if the rat had spread its disease to me, if the flesh on my face would start rotting, if I’d suddenly develop a taste for blood. Simon flinched when he saw what I was doing, then grabbed the makeshift bandage and tied it tight.
“You should go,” said Ozzie, peering out from behind the cluster of stones and nodding an all clear. “The distraction won’t last for long.”
“You’re not coming with us?” I said.
“No, I’m going to stay with Pete. Just make sure you come back for us.”
“You can bet your life on it,” I promised.
“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” he replied.
Simon was already moving, his eyes glinting as he jogged toward the low roof that separated us from the cavern. All the rats had made their way through, and by the sounds of it they were going to work on the blacksuits. The shotgun blasts were growing less frequent, replaced by wet cries and snapping bones. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see what was happening through there, but I didn’t have a choice.
We ducked down, peered under the rock. The halogen lights gave the scene the feel of a theater performance, and I was happy to believe the illusion. Everywhere I looked there was movement. Directly ahead a blacksuit was on the floor, gun lying uselessly out of reach as the rats piled on top of him. Past that, another of the guards was firing at one of the creatures, the flash of his weapon turning the rat into sushi. The line of suits near the door was holding, the giants using the butts of their guns and their massive fists to keep the approaching horde at bay. The dogs too were in their element, teeth locked around throats and limbs.
There was no way in hell I was running through there.
I turned to Simon but he motioned for me to be quiet, nodding out at the carnage. Sure enough the blacksuits were winning, their firepower too much for the rats to withstand. The creatures—those still alive and still with a sufficient number of limbs attached—were scuttling toward the outer walls of the cave, heading for the shadows and the passageways that led from it.
And the guards were following, reloading their guns as they ran, pumping shells into chambers and firing round after round at the fleeing figures. I could hear them shouting at one another, their deep voices full of what I thought was fear but which could just as easily have been excitement, or relish.
Seconds later, by some miracle, the cavern was clear—except for the unrecognizable shapes that squirmed and squealed in their beds of blood. The sound of gunfire echoed through the darkened tunnels, and it wouldn’t be long before the suits returned, or the rats if they somehow managed to get the upper hand.
There were no goodbyes this time, no hugs and promises. Simon and I both glanced back to take a final look at Ozzie and Pete, but they had already gone. And with nothing else to keep us we dropped under the low ceiling, clambered to our feet, and started to run.
GOODBYES
IT SEEMED LIKE THE LONGEST DISTANCE I’d ever had to cross in my life. It only took us fifteen seconds to run the length of the cavern—if you can call my drunken, desperate limp a run—but it seemed like an eternity. Time ground to a halt as if inviting me to study the writhing shapes we passed, the shredded suits, creatures turned inside out, the pitiful cries of monsters who had once been like us.
A hulking shape loomed from a tunnel to my right, a blacksuit with a rat clamped to his shoulders like a backpack. Locked together in some horrific ballet of punches and bites, neither of them noticed us. I felt fingers on my ankle from another unrecognizable shape beneath me, but they were too weak to hold me back.
There was only one time I thought we’d had it, just as we reached the damaged vault door that led back into the compound. A blacksuit sat against the wall, his legs shredded, shotgun resting in his lap. He raised it as he saw us approach, his expression one of surprise. Simon was on him in a flash, a blow from his giant arm sending the guard slumping to the side.
Then we were in, bathed in crimson light and deafened by the siren that blasted from hidden speakers. There were two blacksuits in the passageway ahead, but they were running in the opposite direction. I noticed the warden between them, buffeted back to his quarters, and the trio vanished into his room without a backward glance.
We sped after them, reaching the junction where I’d heard the phone, but the air was clear now, no hint of whatever it was I’d felt before. Or maybe I was just too pumped up to notice it, my body nothing more than an engine as we crashed down the corridor that led to the infirmary. I thought there might be a guard outside the door, one final obstacle between us and the incinerator, but the way ahead was clear.
The plastic curtain slapped my face as we pushed through it, and I batted the slats away from my eyes to see the room ahead abandoned, no sign of the wheezers. Maybe they’d fled back to their quarters, scared into hiding by the siren, which swept around the
room like a trapped wasp.
I realized I was still running and forced my legs to stop and rest. Simon jogged ahead, reaching the curtain at the other side of the room and peeking through it before turning to me.
“It’s clear,” he said as if he couldn’t believe it.
“I’ve got to find him,” I stuttered back. “I’m not going without him, not now.”
I was expecting an argument but Simon nodded, moving toward the right-hand line of beds still concealed behind their screens.
“You look that side, I’ll check over here.”
I wrenched open the first screen, not caring about noise. It was still empty. So was the one after that. I paused outside Gary’s compartment, unable to bring myself to look inside. I knew we’d have to leave him. Knew he deserved to be left. But if I saw him there, I didn’t think I’d be able to go without him.
“Alex!” I spun, saw Simon half inside a cubicle waving at me. I sprinted over, avoiding the trolleys that littered the aisle, and dashed through the curtains. Behind them was Zee. He was strapped to the bed but there were no marks on his skin, no IV stand by his side. Just a small face looking up at us with eyes as wide as pickled eggs.
“No way,” he said. “This has got to be a dream.”
“You okay?” I asked as Simon ran back outside, returning seconds later with a scalpel. “They touch you?”
“No,” Zee replied, his grin so wide it looked like it was going to stretch right off his face. “No, they stuck me with some of that black stuff, but it just knocked me out for a bit. Don’t feel any different.” He tried to ease his body to one side as Simon cut through the leather straps, the blade slicing them open as if they were butter. “I knew you’d come back for me,” Zee said. “I knew you wouldn’t leave me.”
I felt my heart twist, guilt rising up from my guts like vomit. I tried to smile at him, then looked away.
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