Forgotten City

by Michael Ford

  Without another thought, Kobi grabbed the utility belt resting on the floor, fastening it hurriedly. He threw the crossbow over his shoulder and with shaking hands unfolded the map, trying to work out which building the flashlights had been coming from. Then he ran for the door.

  I’m coming, Dad.

  5

  KOBI TOOK THE SWITCHBACKS on the stairs in huge bounds, feet slapping into the stairwells. He ran through the hospital lobby, then burst out though the door before forcing himself to slow. Night was perilous. If a Snatcher got him now, it would not be funny.

  The flashlights hadn’t been far, but he couldn’t see them now. He thought about shouting, but that might alert predators, so instead he hurried along the front of the buildings, pausing every few feet to search the darkness for danger. The more he thought about it, the surer he was—there were survivors. They must have found his dad. Why else would they be out here searching? Maybe they’d gone back to the school and found him missing, then followed his trail here. His heart was beating so fast, and his skin felt electric. Real survivors! He wondered where their base could be. How many more might be living there?

  He was almost at the intersection when he heard a growl and stopped dead. He saw the wolf crouched on the other side of the intersection in the doorway of a former bank. It was looking right at him, its flanks panting up and down. The arrow was still in its neck, a trail of dried blood caking its fur.

  Panic flooded Kobi’s veins. How could he have been so reckless! Keeping his eyes locked on the wolf, he slowly brought the crossbow around on his shoulder. The wolf’s lip curled back as Kobi raised the sight. He’d have to take it down in one shot. Then the wolf stood up and padded off, and a moment later Kobi heard muffled voices.

  He ran a few feet on and took shelter behind an old street stall smothered by a thornbush. Peering through the knot of branches, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There were nine of them, five in full-on biohazard suits with headlamps, but three in simple gray outfits, their heads bare. And though he couldn’t be completely sure, he was pretty convinced they were kids. Like him.

  Kobi was ready to step out when he spotted the rifles hanging from the adults’ shoulders. Big Hank’s had been raided in the early days of the pandemic, so there’d been no guns left. Kobi wondered where these had been scavenged from. They looked kind of high-tech anyway—almost military. The adults had sleek black batons hanging from their belts too.

  They were casting their arcs of light everywhere, like they weren’t even worried about the Snatchers. Surely they had to know about them if they’d survived this long—so why were they being so careless? Kobi threw glances at the sky, expecting the gleam of metal at any moment. Had these people come from a place where the scanning drones didn’t operate? Maybe another country. Or had they just emerged from some nuclear bunker after years underground . . . ?

  The group moved slowly, carrying out a careful search. Every so often the flashlight beam would land on one of the kids, so Kobi got a good look. Two girls. Kobi could barely believe they were real, like they had walked out of one of the posters in the classrooms at Bill Gates. One of them waved, and for a second Kobi thought she had spotted him, until a figure on Kobi’s left, near where the wolf had been, ran out from behind a car. It was a boy, younger that Kobi. He joined the two other kids. One girl stood out because she was the tallest. She looked of Indian descent maybe, though it was hard to tell from this distance in the dark. She stopped quite suddenly, like she sensed danger, and the others kept walking. They were heading right toward one of the sidewalk grates.

  Kobi couldn’t stay put. He rushed out. “Hey, watch it!”

  Everyone in the group turned to face him, and five rifles lifted too. Kobi couldn’t see faces behind the dark visors.

  “Don’t move, kid!” one shouted, then to the others: “D-One settings!”

  English. They were speaking English. With American accents. Kobi blinked, backing off, lifting his crossbow over his head.

  “Freeze or we’ll shoot!” yelled another.

  The boy looked scared, head jerking around, and he moved toward the taller girl and one of the adults. Kobi felt pinned to the spot.

  “I’m looking for my dad!” he called back.

  The suited figures edged closer, their guns trained right on him. One bent his head to his lapel. Kobi didn’t understand for a second, and then realized he was speaking into some kind of communication device, like in action movies Kobi had watched on the salvaged projector at Bill Gates High. “Target acquired . . .” A pause, then, “Yes, alone.”

  The speaker passed onto the grate.

  “Get off there!” shouted Kobi. What are they doing? Don’t they know anything?

  The man looked across to his companion, then nodded. “Okay, take him down. D-One.”

  “No, wait!” Kobi shouted. A soft pfft sounded, and a rifle flashed. Kobi jerked aside as a small projectile buried itself in the thornbush at his back. Somehow he’d dodged it.

  Another pfft.

  Kobi felt something stab into his leg and clutched his thigh. A dart was sticking out. He tore it loose. “Please, I’m . . .”

  The grate in the pavement erupted, throwing the two adults in the air. Another fell back, trying to get away, as colossal Chokerplant vines emerged from underground. A guard on the ground fired from his back but missed, and a thick tendril snaked down and scooped him around his waist. Kobi watched in horror as the man was dragged through the gaping hole in the street, screaming. One of the leaders was snatched too, his weapon skittering away as he tried to claw free. The Chokerplants pulled him down mercilessly beneath the sidewalk.

  One of the remaining adults turned and ran.

  “Hey, wait!” cried the smaller girl. She had olive skin and short dark hair.

  Kobi stayed back, still clutching the dart in his hand. If it was some sort of tranquilizer, it didn’t seem to be having an effect on him yet. The two remaining adults were backing up, moving toward the kids, guns raised and firing at the Chokers in rhythmic bursts. One scored a hit, and the huge tentacle shrank back, tip quivering. But with a crack, another grate opened up on the other side of the strangers. Chokers came from that way too, forcing them to turn. The smaller girl screamed as the adults were swarmed by vines. One tried to run but was snatched around both knees and pulled across the asphalt into the hole. The other was caught between two plants—one had his arm, rifle dangling uselessly, the other his leg, and they lifted him into the air. For a horrible moment Kobi thought he’d be ripped in two, but the larger Choker tore him free. It held him aloft for another second or two, headlamp throwing out crazy spills of light, before wrapping him more tightly in its coils and withdrawing beneath the road.

  The other kids were frozen in place as the Chokerplants emerged again, tentacles searching. It wouldn’t be long before one of them found the kids—and then it would be a slaughter.

  “Run!” shouted Kobi. “Come on!”

  The kids began to move but headed away from him. Kobi, not knowing what else to do, ran after them. He caught up quickly—they were slower than him. The smaller, olive-skinned girl was stalling, looking back toward the hole.

  “They’re dead already,” he yelled, grabbing her arm. She gave in and ran too.

  The road trembled beneath them as they made their way up the street, and Kobi saw cracks splitting the surface. The tips of the vines were breaking through everywhere, and he realized the plant below must have been monstrously huge. “Stay behind me!” yelled the taller girl, and she led the way, slaloming between the emerging Chokers, switching direction sometimes just in time.

  It’s like she knows where they’re coming from, thought Kobi.

  A heavy vine lashed toward him, and he dropped to a skid, sliding beneath its bulk. The whole street seemed to be coming alive. Ahead of them it was worse—an entire line of plants awaited, twitching their tendril tips in anticipation of a meal.

  Most of the buildings around them
were absolutely coated in vegetation, but at the front of one, Kobi saw a smashed door at the top of a small flight of steps. “This way!”

  The girl he was hauling along didn’t resist, and the other two followed. They plunged through a curtain of greenery and found themselves in the vestibule of some sort of apartment building. The air smelled chemical and bitter, and Kobi saw a large pile of dried bird droppings next to the bottom of the stairs and more smearing the walls. That’s good. Birds wouldn’t roost here if there were predators. He pounded up the stairs first and realized the others were still waiting at the bottom.

  “We need to get higher,” he said. Almost on cue, the first delicate frond of a Chokerplant entered through the door behind them. The darker-skinned girl pushed past quickly, but the taller one used her body to shield the boy. Kobi led them up the first flight, then a second, then another. He wasn’t sure how high Chokers could reach, but the one in the street had been massive. The taller girl was helping the boy, whose breathing was labored. As they passed the third floor, a shriek and a crack of wings made them all jump. Two huge birds, each a couple of feet tall, flapped past, scattering yellowing feathers.

  At the top of the fourth set of stairs, the plant life wasn’t as dense. Every wall was still covered with moss, and the stairs sprouted patches of mold, but here and there one could almost imagine what the place had once looked like before the outbreak. Pictures hung at angles from the walls, and there were dull metal numbers visible on some of the doors. The one marked 43 was open a fraction, so Kobi pushed it farther. Nothing stirred within, so he nodded to the others and led them inside.

  They found themselves in a small apartment. The furniture was rotting under bushes, and massive fern leaves spilled from the kitchen. A cockroach as big as Kobi’s foot scurried away into the green recesses of the bathroom. A pipe must have burst somewhere, because one of bedroom floors had caved in slightly at one end, and a musty swamp sat stagnant in the depression. Kobi found another room containing a baby’s crib. The curtains were closed. Wallpaper, where it wasn’t peeled away, showed an illustrated alphabet. C, he noted, was cat. Just a normal cat. Apparently people used to keep them as pets! He found himself doubting if such an animal ever really existed. Cute and cuddly, with a fluffy tail. It seemed ridiculous.

  “What were those things?” said the smaller girl. She was shaking a little.

  “Chokerplants,” said Kobi. “Haven’t you seen them before?”

  She shook her head.

  “Fionn?” said the tall girl. She was clutching the boy’s jaw in her hand, trying to keep his head from flopping. “Fionn, snap out of it.”

  “I think Guardian Krenner got away,” said the dark-skinned girl.

  The other shook her head, looking desolate. “Even if he did—he left us, Niki.” She took a deep breath, then looked hard at Kobi. “We can’t stay here.”

  Kobi had so many questions. Who were they? Did they have a base somewhere nearby? He didn’t think the grown-ups could be their parents—they looked more like soldiers. And the girl had just called one a Guardian, whatever that meant. But the questions would have to wait. “We can’t go back into the street,” he said. “Chokers can sense any movement. I’ve never seen so many in one place. If we—”

  The curtains stirred, and the boy sucked in a gasp. Kobi grabbed him quickly and slid a hand over his mouth.

  The tip of a Chokerplant eased silently into the room.

  6

  “FREEZE!” KOBI HISSED.

  The others obeyed, backs pressed against the wall and eyes wide to the whites, as the tendril tested the air. Across its length, Kobi saw the rows of tiny serrated thorns, like teeth. It jerked suddenly, rearing higher, and the boy in front of Kobi tensed. Kobi’s own skin was covered in sweat from the rush up the stairs. He just hoped that Chokers couldn’t taste fear too. The boy in front of him was trembling, but everyone else’s limbs were perfectly still. Kobi could see the tall girl’s eyes moving toward the door.

  Don’t do it, he thought. You’ll never make it.

  The Chokerplant swayed back and forth, bumped into the crib, then rose. As it slipped through the window, Kobi saw it was a good foot across at the root. Easily thick enough to crush any one of them if it latched on. The tip reached the door, paused, then doubled back, clinging to the wall. Kobi realized it was coming right for his head. He held his breath, knowing he had to move. The deadly vine closed in.

  Just before it reached him, Kobi bent his knees, and slowly, smoothly, ducked his head while still covering the mouth of the small boy. The vine passed silently over him. Then it stopped. Kobi knew he couldn’t hold his breath much longer—his chest was so tight. Right when he thought he was going to burst, the Chokerplant retreated sinuously out the window again.

  Everyone breathed out together. After a few more seconds had passed, Kobi released his grip on the boy, who crossed the room quickly to stand with the other two. Kobi got a better look at his new companions. The boy was probably about eleven, really pale, with freckles and sandy hair, but the two girls were older. The shorter, olive-skinned girl had a bob haircut, stark green-brown eyes set in a fierce expression, and a scattering of pimples across her jawbone. The tall girl was actually quite gangly, her brown skin gleaming with sweat. Her black eyes pointed slightly upward at the outer corners, and she had sharp cheekbones, with long glossy black hair. Adrenaline drained from Kobi’s body, making him shaky, and, unexpectedly, his voice seemed to die in his throat.

  “Do you think they’re gone?” the girl with the bob whispered. Niki, was that what her friend had called her?

  Kobi wasn’t sure if she was speaking to him or not. The older girl nodded.

  The boy—Fionn, Kobi remembered—started to cry softly.

  “The other Guardians . . . ,” said Niki.

  “They’re dead,” said the other girl, clenching her jaw.

  “But maybe we should—”

  “They’re dead.”

  Kobi watched them argue in wonder, hardly able to believe he was actually sharing the room with other people and hearing them speak. Real kids, not much different from himself. After so long thinking he and his dad were alone. What would his dad think of it?

  “Who are you?” Kobi said, finding his voice finally.

  The oldest girl flashed a look at the other two. He wasn’t sure what the look meant. “My name’s Asha,” she said, then cocked her head toward the boy at her side. “This is Fionn.”

  “Niki,” said the younger girl. “And you?”

  “I’m . . .” Kobi hesitated. This was too weird. He’d never had to introduce himself before. Never thought he’d ever have to. “I’m Kobi,” he managed. “What were you doing out there?”

  Asha glanced at the others. “Looking for you.”

  Kobi’s heart soared. That could only mean one thing. “You’ve found my dad?”

  Asha frowned. “Your dad? Sorry, but I don’t know anything about that. The Guardians got wind of potential survivors in the city, that’s all. They brought us out here to help track them down. But you’re the only one we’ve found.”

  Kobi’s hopes died again. He tried to process what the girl was saying. Outside the city. That’s where they must be from. It seemed crazy. “And the Guardians were the grown-ups with you?” asked Kobi. Not their parents, then . . . “The ones who . . .”

  “How are we going to get back to Healhome if they’re dead?” said Niki. She started to go toward the window, but Kobi pushed out an arm to stop her.

  “Hey! Don’t!” he cried, panicked.

  She turned on him, shoving him back. As she touched his chest, Kobi felt a shock of electricity that threw him back against the wall. Blue sparks crackled between Niki’s fingers. He stared. How is that possible? “Keep your hands to yourself,” she hissed.

  “Okay!” he said, raising his arms. “Just be careful by the window.”

  He couldn’t take his eyes off her hands, and he wondered what his father would make of it. He w
as about to ask what Healhome was, but Asha spoke first. “I guess we need to get back to the transport. Krenner went that way.”

  “He left us,” said Niki. “He just ran away.”

  The boy called Fionn hadn’t spoken yet. He didn’t look great at all. His eyes seemed sunken, and he looked like he needed a good meal. Kobi wondered what rations they had—the other two looked healthy.

  “I doubt he made it,” said Kobi.

  Niki glared again, like he’d said something offensive.

  “We should go to the transport,” Asha repeated. “Even if Guardian Krenner didn’t reach it, there must be a way to contact Healhome from the cockpit. They’ll send a rescue party.”

  Kobi had no idea what a transport was, or Healhome. Was he supposed to know? It sounded like some kind of medical place. But home sounded safe.

  “We need to stay put,” said Kobi. “Four people out there—it’s too dangerous at night.”

  They all looked at him as if waiting for him to continue, to give them some instruction or offer an explanation for what was happening to them. “You weren’t even being careful,” he said. “What were you thinking, just walking about like that?”

  “Some thanks we get,” said Niki.

  Kobi didn’t understand. I was the one who helped them!

  “The transport’s the only way out,” said Niki. “We can’t just wait around here.”

  Out of where? thought Kobi.

  Asha took a deep breath. “We hadn’t walked far before we found him,” she said. “I think I remember the way.”

  “Right,” said Niki. “Let’s go.”

  Kobi was so busy watching them talk that they were already out the door by the time he realized exactly what they were saying. He hurried after them. Did they not realize the dangers? He could picture his father screaming at him that traveling around at night in the central district was suicide. But maybe it was worth the risk to find this transport. If there were more adults from this Healhome base, they could help him find his dad.