by Tanya Lisle
They had fallen back so far, though Ed could see why. The rocket launcher was more than they could deal with and they still had several rounds left in them.
Ed got to work between the sections, enabling one of the security routines and overlaying the grid onto the cameras so that she knew just how to set the targeting. If they were that well equipped, the chances were that they would be aiming for the guns as soon as they fired on them. Her best shot would be to make sure they didn’t know where the guns were.
In both sections, she targeted those operating the rocket launchers first, taking them out quickly. As expected, they immediately started pointing their guns in the direction of the attack and Iris withdrew those weapons, revealing a different set from a different direction.
As some went down, Ed changed the targets. They were taking out Iris’ defenses, but not quickly enough. Ed kept picking them off one by one.
More kept coming, though, and Ed was getting so tired. Everything hurt and it was so hard to breathe. She was dizzy and it was hard to concentrate on what was going on. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could manage this.
She set Iris to not fire on their own people and kept going. Iris had her orders. She would fire on anyone that wasn’t wearing a watch that marked them as a Janus native. She would switch the weapons every five seconds. She would follow them out for as far as she could.
Ed watched the battle unfold, her hand still typing as she looked through the battle. She found Mac in Section G, still on his feet and yelling at people to keep moving. He was slower than usual, his back soaked in red and wavering on his feet even when he moved.
Her hand was shaking. She could feel the trembling spread up her arm as her body finally revolted. She needed to rest. She clutched harder at her neck to keep herself awake, but she couldn’t stay standing anymore. With eyes and mouth wide open, she leaned back against the wall and tried desperately to stay awake.
At least Iris was back. She did her bit. She hoped it was enough.
Chapter 23
If there was one thing the people in the Janus Complex were good at, it was evacuating. They rounded up everyone, from the elderly to those who they really shouldn’t be moving, and got out of there in what Brady assumed was record time for how much needed to occur. With over a thousand people to relocate, it was amazing that they all cooperated as well as they did.
Mr. Devenish was at the helm, promising them he knew how to get Downstairs. Brady smiled at how many of their younger numbers were unimpressed by that. Brady had shown the door to so many of them.
“You’re trying to do something, aren’t you?” Isaiah asked Brady, budging his way to the front of the group. “It’s not gonna work.”
“Back in line, Isaiah,” Mr. Devenish said, “Stay with your family.”
“But Brady’s not-”
“I said back in line, Isaiah.”
Isaiah managed one last glare at Brady before he fell back to his older sister. His parents were out with Mac, both in Security, and Brady could hardly blame him right now for being anxious. As it was, Brady hadn’t even gotten a glimpse of his mother yet in the crowd.
They could hear the plane coming in overhead, the sound of the engines failing roaring in a constant hum that made the group nervous. Many of them held on to one another to keep anyone from running ahead or stopping. They needed to stay calm and move.
The plane landed with a crash so heavy that they were knocked off their feet. They fell to the ground, larger people covering the smaller ones as the walls shook and the ceiling threatened to come down on top of them. There were screams and sobs, but it could barely be heard over the smashing of metal through concrete and the smell of fire that they left behind.
The group got back to their feet, urging one another to keep moving forward. Beside him, Mr. Devenish yelled something, but Brady couldn’t make it out through the feeling of cloth stuffed into his ears. He got Brady back to his feet and kept them moving forward through the halls that looked like they were going to crumble around them.
“Kelan, get off,” came a voice from behind them. “You can’t do anything about it right now, anyway.”
Kitty emerged from the crowd, most people shuffling out of the way and not willing to get too close to her. She had bruises forming on the side of her face and blood caked into what was left of her fatigues. Much of them had been cut free for someone to dress her wounds, which appeared to have reopened from the bright red stains on the bandages.
Mr. Devenish stopped and turned around, eyes widening before his face went stern. “Katima, you shouldn’t be moving around in that condition.”
“Mom said the same thing,” Katima said. She kept walking past them. “Don’t stop moving on my account. I’m happy you somehow escaped the fucking plane that came out of nowhere, but we’re still under attack. Where were you planning on going?”
“Downstairs.”
“Do you know where Downstairs even — of course you know where Downstairs is,” Kitty said, noticing Brady for the first time. She looked back at Mr. Devenish. “I heard something at the back about a live feed warning you about the plane coming.”
“I really have to insist that you get medical attention, Katima.”
“Unfortunately, Lieutenant outranks teacher right now, Mr. Devenish,” she said, lowering her voice as Mr. Devenish fell in step beside her. “I can rest when I’m sure all of you are safe. I seem to remember hearing that the tunnel Downstairs was collapsed.”
Mr. Devenish didn’t say anything, a look of panic washing over his face before it fell back to calm. “I’m sure it’s not that bad,” he said, his eyes staying very carefully on Kitty. “We’ll just need to be a little careful.”
“We have injured,” Kitty said, her eyes flickering down at Brady as she spoke. “We have to be really careful about how we move them.”
“That way,” Brady told Mr. Devenish, pointing off to the right. “It’s a double door on the left side.”
“Brady?” Kitty asked, eyeing him as they walked.
They rounded the corner and found the door almost immediately. Next to it was a large pile of dirt and rubble that took over the latter part of the hallway. There were larger chunks of rocks piled high against the wall and what looked like small handprints all over the walls on both sides.
“We like to take out a little every time we come down,” Brady said. “We can get all the way until the lights stop now.”
“And after that?”
“We can get until the lights stop,” he repeated. There was something wrong here. It might have been the way everything shifted from the plane crash, but there was something else that made him worried. He couldn’t tell for certain, but it looked like there were some very large footprints in the dust on the ground.
Mr. Devenish got to the doors and pushed them open, a cheer going up from around them. The lights flickered on as soon as they opened the doors.
Brady hoped they would be able to figure out the lock on the door. There was a large metal beam they needed to drop in place on the back of one of the doors. It should be simple enough, but he’d once seen a man standing in front of a door for five minutes when it didn’t automatically open for him.
He should stay back and make sure they knew there wasn’t an electronic mechanism to automatically lock the doors. At the very least, he should tell Mr. Devenish to make sure. Or he could trust them to figure it out themselves.
They could figure it out. They had to know that electronic locks probably wouldn’t even work with all the damage done to Janus.
“You okay?” Kitty asked, nudging Brady lightly in the shoulder. “You’re looking like this isn’t a good idea.”
“Mr. Devenish is going to make sure it works,” Brady said.
“Drop the act; this was obviously your doing.”
Brady caught the smug look on Mr. Devenish’s face, but ignored it. “It was the only idea,” he said, looking Kitty over. She was so pale, even in the florescent light
s, and the bandage on her side was still so red. He fell back a few steps and quickly saw why. “You have a knife sticking out of you.”
“Yes I do,” Kitty said, not bothering to slow down. “I’m thinking about naming it.”
“You shouldn’t be walking around like that. You’re going to make it worse.”
Kitty shrugged with her one good arm. “They said they couldn’t even take it out until we stopped moving. The hunger’s worse, anyway. I am starving.”
“That’s no reason to keep pushing yourself, Katima.”
“As your superior, I would appreciate it if you kept your opinions to yourself, Mr. Devenish,” Kitty said coolly. “You’re supposed to be leading us out of here, right?”
Brady dug into his pockets, pulling out the apple and his phone. He offered the apple to Kitty. “Here,” he said. “If you really need it.”
Kitty took it and looked down at the phone in his hand. “Where did you get those?”
“Downstairs.”
“Clyde mentioned you managed to disappear for a while,” she said. “Did you take this way?”
Brady started to nod, but the sound of shouting from the back interrupted him. He looked back and found people rushing forward, screams from the back mixing with the sound of several shots being fired into the air. People rushed in both directions, both away from the shots and towards them with their own guns drawn.
Mr. Devenish pulled Brady to the side and out of the way of the stampede as Kitty held her ground. “Escape left, fire right!” she shouted over the panicked crowd. “And slow the fuck down! Hey!”
She stuck out her crutch and tripped one of the runners, the crowd parting around her. Those escaping moved much more slowly once they got past Kitty, some lingering just behind her so they could see what was happening.
It was over so quickly that it wasn’t worth the panic. At the end of the hall, several people pocketed their guns and turned back to join the crowd, leaving bodies in their wake. Some were calm while others shook from it, but it looked like none of them were hurt.
Kitty peered at the bodies and her expression soured. “They getting back up?” she called back at them.
“Not after that.”
“Good. Haul them out and lock the doors! Rest of you, keep moving!”
Mr. Devenish and Brady took the front of the line again, Brady looking through the crowd as they went. He couldn’t spot his mother anywhere in it, but there were so many people. She had to be here somewhere. She was normally so easy to spot.
Kitty caught up to the front as well, managing to escape both the Medical team and her mother telling her to stop moving. She fell in step beside Brady, Mr. Devenish continuing to cast a disapproving glance over at her condition but remaining quiet for now about it.
“Who were they?” Brady asked.
“Some people I had a bit of a run in with earlier,” Kitty said. “I’m not going to miss them.”
Brady was more surprised at how little anger was in her words. If someone was responsible for putting him in her condition, he imagined he’d be much more angry about it.
“Is that where the light stops?” Kitty asked, nodding at the end of the hallway. The halls were already starting to deteriorate around them. The fluorescents were spaced further apart on the ceiling. They passed through a doorway without doors on it and the floors turned from concrete into dirt. They could actually see the beams that held up the walls, all carved out of rock. They could see for a way, and then there was nothing.
Brady nodded, looking down at the phone still clutched in his hand. “Maybe I can just get a little closer to Downstairs. If I can call Liah, then she can help us get the rest of the way down.”
“Like Ed’s Liah?” Kitty asked.
Brady frowned at his phone. The first bar flickered, tempting him with the chance to call her now, and taking that away. “If I can get a little closer, then I should be able to…”
“Is that a dead end?”
The rumblings spread quickly backwards, people growing uneasy and nervous. There were a few kids in the crowd telling them of course that was the end, that they didn’t want to go into the dark and they never knew what was down this far, but it did nothing to help calm them down.
“We’re stopping here,” Kitty called out over the crowd. “We’re getting in contact with Downstairs. They’ll get us the rest of the way. For now, take a break and check your injured.
While they didn’t sound happy about it, none of them dared protest. Kitty watched over them, waiting for them all to take their seats in the dirt. Nurses wandered through the crowd, dispensing food and tending to anyone who complained about aches or pains.
Brady still didn’t see his mother among them.
Mr. Devenish stayed near the front, keeping an eye on them and watching for anything where he might need to interfere while Kitty turned back to Brady. She leaned against her crutch and took out the apple, taking a bite out of it and revelling in the taste.
“The hell is this thing?” she asked. “It’s amazing.”
“Apple,” Brady said, still trying to get reception on his phone. He paced just outside the last ring of light and wandered further into the darkness. The signal was just a little stronger over here. “I think I need to go a little further.”
“You sure?” Mr. Devenish asked, catching up to walk by him in the darkness. “You don’t know what’s out there.”
“I know exactly what’s out there,” Brady told him. He tapped a few more buttons on his phone and brought up the flashlight. He pointed it at the mound of dirt and rocks that had fallen in their way, letting it linger over the cracked wooden beams. “A cave in. I’ve been here before. I know what I’m doing.”
He could feel Mr. Devenish continue to watch him as he kept going, lighting the way with his phone and trying to get a signal, but he stopped after a couple more steps into the dark. As much as he appreciated how much Mr. Devenish went along with everything that was happening, he knew that it was all just a little too much for him. He’d trusted Brady this far and Brady led him to a dead end. There was only so much more he would be able to handle.
“Come on,” he muttered to himself. The signal would not stay connected and he started to climb up the caved in wall to the small hole he’d found before. There were many small pockets in this wall, but there was only one he found that would actually lead him all the way to the other side.
A metallic clang sounded loud behind him, followed by a dull thud and he turned back in the hole, shining his light back to the sound. A man’s face was outside, his hands reaching in and grabbing Brady by the leg. He pulled, Brady falling back and being pulled out. Brady head hit against the wall and he let out a yelp. He hung limply, the man still holding him up by the leg and laughing.
Brady’s cell phone fell to the ground and skittered away, illuminating the darkness. A man with a pipe stayed over Mr. Devenish with a smile, shaking his head as he kept his eyes on Kitty. “You again,” he said. “Bitch don’t die.”
“Stay down!” she yelled at the crowd behind her. “Don’t move.” They stirred, many looking like they wanted to get up, but others kept the rest sitting down.
The man holding Brady dropped him on his head and picked him back up, resting his head in the crook of his elbow. Brady grabbed the man’s arm and pulled himself up to keep from choking and tried to figure out what was going on. He looked out at the eyes staring, so many of them on him and others down at Mr. Devenish’s body lying limp on the ground.
Kitty stared past him and up at the man holding him. “Put him down,” she said.
“Jovah. She keep Jovver’s knife,” the man with the pipe said.
“He has more,” Jovah said, Kitty now able to put a name to the one with decent English skills. He walked over and picked up Brady’s phone, turning off the flashlight and getting close enough to the last circle of illumination from the fluorescents. Beside him, Joven dragged Mr. Devenish into the light and let him lie limply on the g
round, his pipe hovering over him.
“You will let us leave,” he said. “You will come with us and show us where you keep her.”
“Put him down,” Kitty repeated.
“What will you do? Bleed on me?” He laughed and Joven did the same. “You will do what we ask.”
Brady got enough leverage and bit down hard on Jovah’s arm, sinking his teeth in deep enough that he could taste blood.
Jovah threw him against the wall hard, Brady bouncing off of it once he hit. Jovah slammed him back against it and he could feel the metal of a glock crack against his front teeth. “Know your place, boy,” Jovah said, meeting his eyes from behind the barrel.
Kitty froze, knowing she wasn’t able to move fast enough in her condition to stop him. The gasps and the eyes behind her didn’t help and she tried to keep her head about her, the second stretching on in silence as she tried to figure out what to do. She couldn’t check on Mr. Devenish, but she knew Brady was dead if she did something wrong now.
The ringing of a phone broke the silence. Jovah looked amused, looking back at Brady’s phone and answering it with one hand. “Hello?” he asked, sounding entirely too amused. The smile on his face only curled wider and he looked back at Brady. “Brady? Is that his name? That is a terrible name to give a child.”
Kitty saw Mr. Devenish’s eyes crack open. Slowly, his hand moved to his waist and he looked at Kitty, then up to Joven and back to her.
“He may survive if I get what I want,” he said, looking pointedly at Kitty. “The bitch has not answered me yet.”
Tears ran down Brady’s face and Kitty could see him trembling, trying desperately to keep still. Joven wasn’t even watching him anymore, though still twitched the gun in his hand, Brady jumping at every movement.
“My finger may twitch if I wait any longer. Brady will make a painting on the walls. Children can be so messy.”
Mr. Devenish’s pistol rang out through the quiet, firing up into Joven. Stunned for a split second, Joven’s face turned furious and he brought the pipe up in both hands, swinging it down. Mr. Devenish used that moment to turn over, pistol in both hands, and fired a second shot into him. The pipe landed hard on his shoulder, followed by Joven’s body.