by A. G. Taylor
“My god,” Alex said, looking down the wide pathway along the river. It was strewn with the comatose bodies of people caught in the swarm. He kneeled beside a woman and touched two fingers to her neck. “She’s alive,” he confirmed to the others, before pointing out bite marks and a spreading discolouration on her shoulder. “Infected with the fall virus.”
“All of them are,” Louise said. “How can we help them?”
“By getting to Bright and shutting down the hypersphere,” Sarah said firmly. Behind them the spiders were beginning to surge along the walkway. Sarah looked up at the London Eye towering over them and then at the pier. “Wei, light up the walkway. Octavio and Louise, see if you can bring that down.”
Louise grinned as she looked at the giant supports at the base of the Eye. “Finally, some destruction. Think you can manage it, Octavio?”
“Just try to keep up, huh?” he said, concentrating on the metal supports as well.
Wei threw out a hand and the roof of the pier became a blazing inferno, engulfing the first wave of spiders coming at them. A shearing sound split the air and all four legs of the London Eye ripped free of the concrete in a massive show of psionic force by Louise and Octavio. The wheel swayed and one of the glass-walled pods detached, crashing into the Thames.
“Push it, Octavio!” Louise yelled and the Eye tilted in the direction of the river. A second later, gravity took hold and the structure collapsed across the pier, driving it down under the water. Amidst the flames and twisting metal, spiders were pushed down too. For good measure, Nestor gave the mess another blast of freezing air, locking the swarm temporarily in place again.
“This is great!” Alex said breathlessly as they fled down the nearest street, putting as much distance between themselves and the river as possible. “I’ve always wanted to see London… Destroy a few famous landmarks…”
“And I’m just getting started,” Louise replied.
“Check the cars,” Sarah said as they passed parked vehicles. “Look for anything with a set of keys left in the ignition.”
Alex laughed. “You clearly haven’t spent much time in London recently.”
“Let’s take one of these!” Nestor exclaimed, pointing as they approached an intersection. Here the traffic was stopped dead, some of the engines still running – drivers and passengers slumped in their seats, doors open, windows smashed. He led them to a jeep stalled across the junction. Its windows were intact, but the door was open – a middle-aged man sprawled half-in, half-out of the vehicle.
“Sorry,” Nestor said, pulling the driver out. As he dragged him to the pavement and laid him down, the man’s eyes snapped open. Nestor gave a cry of shock as the man grabbed his arm.
“I SEE YOU!” the man hissed, eyes bulging out of their sockets. Nestor desperately tried to pull free as the man repeated, “I SEE YOU!”
“I see you too!” Octavio said, placing a foot on the man’s shoulder and pushing him back down to the ground.
“What was that?” Nestor said, staggering back towards the jeep with his brother.
“Bad news,” said Octavio, looking around the street. Around the pavements and in the road it was possible to sense a change in the atmosphere – almost like the coming of a storm. Over by the shattered front of a coffee shop an old woman sat bolt upright. She pointed a wizened finger directly at them.
“I SEE YOU!”
“It’s the Entity,” Sarah said as she ushered Louise and Wei into the back of the jeep. “It’s taking control of the infected. We have to get moving. Nestor, take the wheel.”
“Where are you two going?” she yelled after Octavio and Alex as they went running towards the other side of the street.
“Creating a diversion!” Alex called back. He jumped over a previously comatose man who had risen into a sitting position. It was like the city was coming back to life – but now the victims of the fall virus had blank, zombie expressions.
Shaking her head, Sarah slammed the passenger door as Nestor gunned the accelerator. “Where’s the power station?”
Sarah tapped the satnav on the dash and quickly inputted Battersea Power Station as their intended destination.
“Nestor!” Wei called from the rear. The side of the jeep rocked as a man appeared and slammed his palm against the back window. His mouth moved…
“I SEE YOU.”
“Turn around when it is safe to do so,” the robotic woman’s voice on the satnav ordered. A woman appeared in front of the jeep and placed her hands on the bonnet…
Nestor released the handbrake and floored the accelerator. The woman flew across the bonnet, but managed to grab onto one of the windscreen wipers for purchase. She drew her fist back and slammed it into the glass. The windscreen reverberated but didn’t break. As Nestor spun the wheel, she raised her fist again…
Louise leaned through the front and pointed. The woman flew off the bonnet and into a pile of wheelie bins on the side of the road. As soon as she hit the ground, she began to get up again, unharmed by the fall.
“Floor it, Nestor!” Sarah ordered.
The jeep accelerated, weaving between the people rising to their feet and walking into the road.
“What are they doing?” Wei asked.
“The Entity is controlling them now,” Sarah answered. “They’re its eyes and ears.”
Nestor wrenched the wheel to the left as a man threw himself in their path. The jeep scraped the side of a parked car. “It’s using them as human shields!”
“The Entity is trying to slow us down,” Sarah insisted. “It knows we won’t hurt the virus victims.”
“Very clever,” Nestor said as he swerved again. Someone threw a brick at the jeep – it rebounded off the driver’s side window, almost shattering it.
“Turn left,” the satnav ordered and the jeep screeched round the corner.
Ahead, people had risen and were crowding across the road, forming a barrier. “Hold on,” Nestor said as he drove up on the pavement to avoid them. The jeep smashed through a telephone box and then ran back onto the road behind the wall of people, finding a narrow lane through the stopped cars.
“Nice driving,” Sarah said, patting him on the shoulder.
To the side of the jeep, a motorbike engine roared and they both looked round. Octavio was riding alongside them on a brand-new, bright red Kawasaki. Alex was riding pillion, a weapon that looked like a plastic machine gun clutched in his hands.
“Show-offs,” Nestor muttered. Where did you get that from?
Octavio winked at them through the window. It’s amazing what you find lying around during a disaster.
Alex added, We’ll go ahead and clear the way for you. Dr. Fincher gave me something that could be useful. You might want to cover your ears…
Octavio revved the bike and sped ahead of the jeep. They raced towards another wave of people rising to their feet. Alex aimed the strange-looking gun at them and pulled the trigger. Even from inside the jeep, Sarah and the others could hear a sound like a sonic boom. The people blocking the road immediately flew back – hit by an invisible force.
“What was that?” Sarah asked as the jeep raced through the gap.
“Dr. Fincher’s sonic impact gun,” Nestor said. “It manipulates sound waves to—”
“Just concentrate on the driving,” Sarah said as they picked up speed along Lambeth Palace Road. “The main thing is, it’s working.”
Up ahead, another wave of zombie-like people rose and moved to block their paths. Alex fired at them again… There was another boom and they went flying…
“At the roundabout, go straight ahead,” the satnav ordered. Alex and Octavio rode straight over the grass as Nestor sent the jeep round, expertly avoiding the stopped cars in the road. They were driving along the Embankment now and Sarah noted their destination was less than two kilometres away. We’re going to make it, she thought.
The engine of a heavy vehicle howled...
“Nestor!” Louise cried in warning fr
om the back as a rubbish van sped across the road towards them. Nestor swerved to avoid it and the van carried on, smashing through the Embankment wall and into the Thames. Another car drove at them down the wrong side of the street. Again Nestor managed to dodge it with a fancy manoeuvre, but only just. The Entity had clearly changed tactics – using cars driven by the infected as battering rams.
Nestor shook his head. “Ever get the feeling you’re not liked?”
Octavio and Alex had turned their bike and were riding back to help. As another truck set itself on a collision course with them, Alex aimed the gun and hit it with a sonic blast. The truck careened off course and smashed into a parked car. Nestor gunned the accelerator over another junction and took a right onto Nine Elms Lane.
“We’re almost there,” Sarah encouraged. Less than a kilometre, according to the satnav display. Up ahead it was possible to see the familiar, white chimneys of the power station along the river.
“Look out!” Wei yelled from the back – but it was already too late. Something slammed into the back of the jeep, sending it flying off course. Windows shattered and they were all jarred in their seats. The jeep mounted the pavement, but Nestor managed to pull it back onto the road. The engine whined in protest. Sarah looked through the side mirror and saw a massive truck on their back. A bearded trucker stared vacantly through the windscreen, both hands locked on the wheel. The truck engine howled as it accelerated to ram them again.
“Get us out of here!” Sarah snapped.
“I’m trying!” Nestor replied – his foot was on the floor, but the jeep had taken a battering and was only just carrying on.
An object approached from the other direction – Octavio and Alex on the bike. A shiny, silver sports car raced across the road, intercepting them like a missile. Octavio saw it too late… The angular bonnet of the car clipped the back wheel of their Kawasaki and the bike spun round. Caught under the machine, the two boys were dragged along the road until it came to a rest against a tree. The sports car slammed into a line of parked vehicles.
Octavio! Nestor cried out in his mind.
The truck hit the ailing jeep a second time… In the back, Wei and Louise screamed as the jeep tumbled onto its side and ground along for several metres before coming to a rest in the centre of the road. The front airbags triggered, slamming into Nestor and Sarah as they jerked forward in their seats.
Then the truck hit them again… Sarah’s world spun into blackness…
32
“Wrong way,” a woman’s voice said. “Please turn around. Wrong way…”
“Huh?” Sarah groaned, opening her eyes.
“Wrong way… Wrong way…”
It took her a second to realize that it was in fact the voice of the satnav. She must have blacked out – maybe only for a few seconds. Looking round the shattered interior of the jeep, she saw the deflated airbags hanging like burst balloons over the twisted dash. Everything was at a ninety-degree angle because the vehicle was now lying on its side and her seat belt was the only thing holding her up. Below, Nestor stirred with a moan of pain.
Steadying herself, Sarah unclicked the seat belt and pushed open the passenger door, which now swung up like a lid. She pulled herself through… As she did so, a meaty hand grabbed her arm and yanked her over the side of the jeep. With a cry of surprise, Sarah rolled across the road and landed on her back. Beside the jeep stood the driver of the truck that had hit them – a greasy, unkempt beard hung down his neck and his gut poked out between his jeans and T-shirt. In one hand he held a crowbar, which he raised as he advanced on her.
“I SEE YOU,” he said, completely without emotion.
“Sarah!” Alex yelled, appearing round the wreck of the jeep. He aimed the sonic gun at the man and pulled the trigger…
It made a whining sound and sparks cracked around the plastic. Alex dropped the gun as it started to melt. With his free hand, the trucker grabbed Alex by the scruff of the neck and threw him across the road. He landed heavily beside Sarah.
“That didn’t go as planned,” Alex said apologetically, looking at the melted remains of the sonic gun. “Prototypes, huh?”
The driver of the truck held the crowbar high and continued his slow, lumbering approach. Sarah closed her eyes… The trucker stopped. The crowbar slid from his hand. He fell like a stone.
“What just happened?” Alex asked, getting to his feet and helping Sarah up as well.
“I severed the psychic link with the Entity,” she replied. “It must be using the hypersphere as a transmitter to take control of the newly infected. I should have thought of it sooner.”
“Then you can shut them down.”
“One at a time, Alex,” she said. “There are going to be millions of infected all over the capital.”
“Oh. Right.”
Nestor emerged from the jeep and pulled Wei and Louise out after him. Sarah was relieved to see that aside from a few cuts and bruises they appeared unhurt. Octavio pushed the battered Kawasaki towards them as they regrouped. Sarah looked at him and Alex, remembering their slide along the road under the bike. Their uniforms weren’t even torn. Alex grinned at her.
“Tough material,” he said. “Told you uniforms were a good idea. How far are we from the power station?”
“Not far,” Sarah replied, pointing at the white chimneys rising through the trees along the river. “We can make it on foot.”
Louise cast a nervous eye over people lying on the opposite pavement. “What about them?”
Sarah shook her head. She no longer sensed the Entity exerting its influence on them. Something had changed…
“The spiders,” Wei said, pointing back down the Embankment. Far down the road the black shape of the swarm was massing. The spiders had caught up with them.
“Great,” Octavio said. “If it’s not zombies in trucks, it’s mechanical spiders trying to kill us.” He threw his leg over the battered Kawasaki and managed to kick-start the engine into life. “Everyone get moving. I’ll take care of this.”
Sarah placed a hand on the handlebars of the bike. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Octavio shrugged. “Just being a total hero. As usual.”
“Not alone, you’re not,” Nestor said, jumping on the back. Down the Embankment, the spider swarm was getting closer. He turned to Sarah and the others. “We’ll hold them off for as long as possible. Just get to the power station.”
Knowing they had little choice, Sarah stepped aside. As Octavio throttled up the engine, Louise ran forward and threw her arms quickly around both boys. “Be careful.”
Octavio winked at her as she pulled away. “We won’t.”
The Kawasaki roared down the street towards the wall of robospiders. Sarah watched them go and then turned to the others.
“Let’s make this count,” she said, breaking into a run. The others kept pace with her – sprinting the final few hundred metres to their confrontation with Major Bright and the Entity…
The Kawasaki powered along the Embankment, picking up speed as it approached the wall of robospiders.
“Are you sure this is such a good idea?” Nestor yelled over the roar of the engine.
“No,” Octavio said, applying the brakes and turning the handlebars. The back wheel spun out and the bike screeched to a halt a hundred metres from the swarm. He turned to his brother on the back of the bike. “Want to go back?”
Nestor sighed and climbed off. “I guess not.”
Octavio swung his leg over the bike, kicked out the stand and went to his brother’s side. Ahead, the swarm surged forward and it was possible to see the reds of the spiders’ eyes.
“So,” he asked, “what’s the plan?”
Nestor looked at him in disbelief. “What’s the plan? What’s the plan? I thought you had the plan!”
Octavio shrugged. “It didn’t get much further than where we are now.”
“Of course. I’ll freeze them. You…do whatever it is you do.”
The swarm was now fifty metres away and seemed to be picking up speed, as if sensing fresh prey…
Nestor held out his hand and an arctic blast of air howled down the Embankment, freezing the foremost spiders in place. Octavio closed his eyes and the road before them cracked open, as if hit by a mini-earthquake. As the ground split, the frozen machines began to fall into the hole. Seeing this, Nestor froze the swarm into the pit.
“It’s working!” Octavio said, opening his eyes. “I think we can actually—”
A deep rumble went through the ground under their feet…
The iced-over top of the pit exploded in all directions as the machines escaped – transformed into locust-like creatures once more. They filled the air, so black it was almost impossible to see.
Nestor saw his brother desperately trying to hold off the swarm, but there were simply too many of the machines to combat.
“Octavio!” he screamed as the other boy disappeared into the swarm.
Then the machines were all around him… Crawling over his body… He tried to blast them back, but it was no use…
One of the machines sunk its teeth into his neck. Nestor’s legs crumpled, as if they had lost all strength.
Another machine bit him, injecting its poison into his bloodstream.
Then there wasn’t anything at all…
33
It took five minutes for Sarah and the remainder of the team to reach the edge of the disused land surrounding their destination, by which time they could hear the approach of the swarm once more. As they came to a chain-link fence sporting signs for a construction company and announcing a New development soon! the metallic buzz of thousands of spider feet approached. Wei blasted a hole in the fence and they ran through onto muddy ground. Ahead, the industrial hulk of Battersea Power Station towered over the landscape.
“Over here,” Sarah said and they ran for the cover of a stack of building materials. The spider swarm reached the chain-link fence but, rather than surging over it as it could have easily done, the mass of spiders paused there, so densely packed it was difficult to distinguish one from another. Thousands of blazing red eyes stared at them.