Mutation (Twenty-Five Percent Book 1)

by Wheatley, Nerys

  “Hey, he’s a white-eye,” the third man said, a bleach blond with a buzzcut.

  Barry’s face split into a grin. “Well, so he is. We have a special offer for white-eyes,” he said, looking at Micah. “The fee is the bag plus his life. You can leave.”

  Micah’s expression was unreadable. Alex surreptitiously unclipped his holster.

  “Fine by me,” Micah said, “but I want the bag. You can have the white-eye.”

  “Bag’s ours,” Pi said.

  “This isn’t a negotiation,” Micah said, switching his skull-spiker to his left hand and pulling his pistol from where he had it tucked into his belt beneath his jacket.

  All three men lost their relaxed demeanours.

  “You can’t shoot all three of us before we get you,” Barry said, with far more bravado than Alex thought their knife-to-a-gunfight situation warranted.

  “Maybe not,” Micah said, “but which one of you is willing to lay down his life for his friends? And this bag?” He moved the Glock back and forth between them, aiming at each in turn. The men glanced at each other.

  “And, oh look, I have one too,” Alex said, drawing his own.

  “No, you see Gaz, this is why I said we should do Milton Road,” Buzz said, throwing his hands into the air, “they’re all harmless weaklings down there. And the women are hotter.”

  Alex’s gut dropped.

  “Fine, just get lost,” Barry/Gaz said, shooing them away with his knife.

  Alex and Micah circled around them, watching them closely until they were around a corner and out of sight.

  Alex stopped. “Were you really going to trade me for your freedom?”

  “Of course not,” Micah said with a smirk. “I was just trying to distract them so we could take them out, if necessary.”

  “You know we can’t leave them there. What happens to the next person who comes along that road? What if it’s a woman?”

  Micah let out a slow breath and stared up at one of the military helicopters passing high overhead. “I know. But what are we going to do? Kill them?”

  Alex leaned against the wall of the house beside them and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Maybe we could appeal to their better natures.”

  Micah snorted. “It would almost be worth the risk of getting stabbed to see you try that.”

  Alex closed his eyes. What were they going to do? Without jails and a working police force, there was only one viable option. But however he rationalised it, that would definitely be murder.

  Nothing in his extensive police training could have prepared him for this. Before the original appearance of the Meir’s virus, most of the police force in the UK didn’t carry firearms. Until yesterday, he’d never drawn his gun against anyone other than an eater. He didn’t even know if he could kill in self defence, let alone as a premeditated act.

  “Have you ever killed someone?” he said.

  Micah’s jaw dropped. “First you ask if I can pick locks, now it’s killing people? What kind of life of crime do you think I’ve lived?”

  “Just get over yourself and answer the question. I’m not judging, I’m just asking.”

  “No, I have never killed anyone.”

  “Neither have I. I don’t know if I can.”

  Micah leaned against the wall next to him and wiped both hands down his face. “If we don’t kill them and we can’t lock them up and we can’t leave them, what alternative is there? Trap them in the house and let the eaters know there’s a free lunch inside?”

  Alex’s eyes opened wide. “You’re a genius,” he said, pushing himself away from the building.

  “I know,” Micah said. “But how exactly?”

  Alex grinned. “Come on.”

  They’d left the back door unlocked, which was stupid in this neighbourhood whoever you were and whether or not the city was in the middle of a massive eater infestation. But it was good for Alex.

  He crept into the kitchen, hearing voices and laughter from the living room beyond a closed door. The smell of cigarette smoke tickled his nose and he grimaced, rubbing it to stop himself from sneezing. He’d hated the smell of cigarettes even before he was infected. Now it drove him up the wall. And he could smell the things from a good hundred metres away.

  He placed the bag on a worktop and took his pistol from its holster, moving to the door leading to the rest of the house and looking at his watch.

  Ten seconds... five... four... three... two...

  Yanking open the door, he leaped into the room and screamed, “Don’t move!”

  Unfortunately, Gaz was right beside the door and had faster reflexes than his huge size would indicate. He punched Alex in the face.

  As a small mercy, it wasn’t on his nose.

  His momentum, coupled with the impact from Gaz’s bowling ball sized fist, sent Alex spinning to his left. His feet tangled in the edge of a rug and he crashed to the floor. The gun skidded across the wood effect adhesive tiles and slid under a grubby beige sofa where Buzz was sprawled, frozen in the process of taking a mouthful of lager from a can.

  “What the...?”

  Before Alex could move, Gaz grabbed his shoulder and flipped him onto his back, raising his fist above him. It was like looking up at a boulder about to drop on his head. Alex grasped the massive fist with both hands as it plunged towards his face, grunting as it stopped just inches from his nose.

  The big man roared, a gust of cigarette-soaked breath almost flooring Alex as effectively as the punch would have. He formed his free hand into a second huge battering ram. Alex jerked his head to one side and it hit the floor next to his ear. Gaz let out a string of expletives.

  “Help me move this thing,” Buzz yelled as he scrambled off the sofa. “His gun’s under here.”

  Pi, who had been lounging in a chair on the other side of the room staring at the static on the TV, struggled to his feet. As they dashed to either end of the sofa and started to lift, the front door slammed open.

  Micah ran in and stopped, staring wide-eyed at the chaos.

  “Stop them!” Alex gasped as, still clutching Gaz’s fist, he brought one knee up and rammed it into his side. He didn’t have much leverage from his position flat on the floor, but it was enough to make Gaz grunt and fall back. Alex let go of his hand and scrambled backwards on his elbows.

  Micah pivoted on his right foot and planted a solid side kick into Pi’s ribs. He grunted out an oof and dropped his end of the sofa, screaming when it landed on his foot.

  Buzz let go of his end, bringing another shriek from Pi, and lunged into the gap he’d created behind the sofa. From the corner of his eye, Alex saw him come up with the gun and aim it at Micah.

  Gaz lunged towards Alex. Alex brought his right knee to his chest and, with all the power he could muster, drove his foot into the huge man’s jaw. He felt a crack. Gaz slumped to the floor.

  The room reverberated with the deafening sound of a single gunshot.

  Alex twisted round to see Micah on the floor. Fury flashed through his chest and he grabbed the skull-spiker from his pocket. Then he saw Micah’s hand move to pull his pistol from his waistband.

  A second gunshot rang out.

  Buzz shrieked as Alex’s gun went flying from his grip and hit the wall behind him, dropping to the floor. He clasped his bleeding hand to his chest with a sob.

  Alex climbed to his feet and retrieved his gun from the floor, taking a few deep breaths.

  “I repeat,” he said, “don’t move.”

  Micah stood and brushed his hands down the front of his jeans.

  “You okay?” Alex said.

  “No, I’m not,” Buzz sobbed. “He shot me.”

  Micah smiled. “Fine. You?”

  Alex waggled his jaw side to side where Gaz had hit him. It hurt, but it seemed to be in one piece. “I’ll live. What’s one more source of pain?”

  “If I move this sofa, will you shoot me?” Pi said, his voice trembling.

  His pain-filled gaze was flicking betwee
n Micah and Alex. Alex gestured with his pistol. Pi reached down to lift the sofa from his foot, then limped to the front and collapsed onto the seat.

  “Sit next to him,” Alex said to Buzz.

  “I’m bleeding,” he whined.

  “Just sit down,” Alex said, raising his voice and pointing his gun at him.

  Managing a combination pout/scowl, he did as he was told.

  Alex walked over to stand next to Micah. “That was a nice shot,” he said.

  Micah cleared his throat. “I was aiming for his chest.”

  “Oh. In that case, you could use some practice.”

  “What were you doing on the floor?”

  Alex motioned at Gaz’s comatose form. “He can punch really hard.”

  Micah raised his eyebrows. “Really.”

  “Seriously, look at the size of his hands,” Alex said, pointing. “It was like getting hit with a bowling ball.”

  “Gaz does have freaky big hands,” Pi said.

  Slightly thrown by the unexpected support, Alex took it anyway. “See?”

  “Why are you wearing an evening glove?” Pi said, looking at Micah’s hand.

  “I’m not... this isn’t an evening glove. It’s a protective...” He stopped and shook his head. “Why am I even speaking to you?” He returned his attention to Alex. “Let’s get this over with. The shots may draw in eaters.”

  While Micah closed and locked the back and front doors, Alex kept an eye on Pi and Buzz, who was cradling his hand while casting venomous glances at Micah. Gaz began to come round as Micah returned to the living room.

  “We need something to tie them up with,” Alex said.

  “There’s duct tape up...” Pi stopped as Buzz elbowed him in the ribs, shaking his head furiously.

  “I’ll get it,” Micah said, jogging up the stairs.

  Gaz groaned, pushing himself to a seated position. He took in Pi and Buzz sitting on the sofa then turned his glare on Alex, spitting a glob of blood onto the floor.

  “White-eye,” he muttered.

  Alex fought the urge to return him to a state of unconsciousness. Apart from anything else, he didn’t want to have to drag his massive body upstairs.

  Footsteps descended the stairs behind him and he turned to see Micah returning, a roll of black duct tape in his hand. He looked furious.

  Alex frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  Micah shook his head without answering, peeling the end of the tape from the roll. He used a marked lack of gentleness as he bound the wrists of all three men, despite Buzz’s protests about his hand, and Alex wondered what he’d seen.

  When they marched the trio up the stairs, he found out.

  There were two bedrooms leading from the small landing, one facing the front of the house and the other the back. They took the men into the front bedroom and attached Pi and Buzz, via duct tape, to the large, chunky radiator on one wall. The bathroom was in the centre of the house, carved from one of the bedrooms and without any light of its own. Glass panels near the ceiling let in borrowed light from its parent bedroom. They taped Gaz to the base of the toilet, winding the tape round and round his stomach and chest as he struggled, until Micah pressed the barrel of his pistol to Gaz’s temple and growled at him to keep still or he’d decorate the bathroom with his brains.

  “What’s wrong?” Alex asked Micah again when they were back on the landing.

  Wordlessly, he led him into the back bedroom.

  Along one wall stood an old fashioned wardrobe, a chest of drawers and a hi-fi system with two massive speakers and several stacks of CDs. The setup was just what they needed, but Alex barely noticed it.

  Against the opposite wall was a double bed. Scattered across the navy cover were several lengths of rope, another roll of tape, a pair of scissors, two cotton scarves and three boxes of condoms.

  Alex stood perfectly still, staring at the sickening tableau. Bile rose in his throat. For a moment, he thought he might actually vomit.

  “It doesn’t look like they’ve... I mean, it all looks too tidy...” Micah lapsed into silence.

  Over the years in his job, Alex had seen a lot of unpleasant things and been witness to the aftermath of the most sickening of crimes. But witnessing the breakdown of the city that was his home, the deaths of friends, the transformation of thousands of good people into mindless monsters, all for a reason he didn’t understand, had him on edge. And now these men were using that tragedy as an opportunity to perpetrate one of the worst crimes in existence.

  He’d had enough.

  Rage coloured the edges of his vision as he turned away from the bed.

  Micah was standing between him and the door. “Alex...”

  “Get out of the way,” he snarled.

  Micah stepped aside and Alex stalked past him onto the landing. He pulled his gun from its holster as he walked into the bathroom.

  Gaz looked up at him. “What do you...”

  Without a word, Alex drew his arm back, leaned down and smashed the gun into the big man’s face. His head whipped around, a loud grunt escaping his lips. When he turned back, a deep gash was open on his cheek and blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth.

  He laughed, revealing teeth reddened with blood. “Saw our little love nest, did you? Don’t worry, we’ll look after any ladies that come here...”

  Before Gaz could go on, Alex lifted one foot and drove his heel into his groin.

  He put a lot of power into the kick. Gaz just had time to scream before his eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped forward against the layers of duct tape binding him to the toilet.

  “You won’t be looking after any ladies for a long time,” he muttered, turning and walking out past Micah who was staring at Gaz’s inert form.

  Alex walked straight into the front bedroom. At the sight of him, Pi and Buzz pushed back against the radiator, their heels scrabbling at the brown carpet as they desperately tried to get as far away from him as possible.

  “It was Gaz’s idea, we swear,” Pi said as Alex strode up to them. “We had no choice. He’s really big and scary.”

  Buzz was nodding frantically. “We don’t want to hurt anyone. We haven’t done anything. We haven’t seen anyone apart from you all day. Yesterday either. I swear.”

  Alex stared down at them, still seething. “If I thought you had, I’d be breaking your legs right now and throwing you to the eaters.”

  They glanced at each other, their Adam’s apples bobbing almost in unison.

  “So,” Pi ventured slowly, “will you let us go?”

  For some reason, that made Alex laugh, though he felt no amusement. “Not even close.”

  He turned and marched out.

  “You okay?” Micah said when they’d returned to the back bedroom.

  Alex glanced at the bed then back to the wire he was unwinding from the rear of one of the stereo system speakers. “No.”

  “I know, I’m as angry as you are,” Micah said as he picked up one of the speakers and carried it to the window, “but I need to know you’re not going to lose it and do something that’s going to get us killed.”

  Alex raised one eyebrow. “You mean like aiming a gun and screaming at heavily armed soldiers in helicopters?”

  Micah pursed his lips. “Taken out of context, that could be one example.”

  Despite his dour mood, Alex smiled. “I can’t promise I won’t do anything that will get us killed. But if I do, it will be through crass stupidity, not because I’ve lost my marbles.”

  Micah stared at him for a moment then shrugged. “Okay.”

  They placed one speaker at the window of each bedroom, running the long wires back to the stereo in the back. Pi and Buzz watched them in silent trepidation. After a few minutes, Alex heard groaning from the bathroom. He pulled the door shut without looking inside.

  In the rear bedroom, Alex kicked over the stacks of CDs, sending them clattering across the floor, and scanned the resulting mess. He picked up a plastic case and tur
ned it over to read the track listing. Micah wandered up behind him and Alex showed him the back of the CD cover, pointing.

  Micah chuckled. “Now that is cruel and unusual punishment.”

  Alex inserted the CD into the hi-fi and selected the track, pressing repeat and then play. The Birdie Song blasted from the speakers at both sides of the house.

  “What the hell...?” a voice shrieked from the adjoining bedroom. It sounded like Buzz.

  Alex opened the window at the back of the house and they returned to the room where the two men were taped to the radiator, horror stricken. Micah went to open the front window.

  “Gentlemen,” Alex said. “That is the sound of an eater call to arms. Very soon, every eater within earshot will be surrounding this house. With the windows open, they’ll be able to smell you, so even if you get free you won’t be getting out. Consider yourselves lucky. We could have just killed you. If you ever try anything like this again, we will come back, shoot you in the kneecaps and leave you outside. This is your only warning.” He stepped in closer to them and leaned down, trying to ignore the nicotine fug of their breath wafting around him. “I’m the law here now. If you cross me, there’ll be no trial and no mercy. Just justice. Slow, painful justice.” He straightened and stepped back. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”

  He walked from the room, Micah following.

  “Wait,” Buzz shouted, “you can’t just leave us here!”

  “I’m the law?” Micah said as they left the house and pulled the front door shut.

  “What? Too much?”

  He laughed as they jogged across the road and through a metal gate into the park, taking cover behind some bushes to watch the house.

  “Has anyone ever told you that, for a policeman, you’re slightly unhinged?” he said, peering through the undergrowth at the street.

  Alex smiled. “It’s been suggested, yes.”

  The men inside were still shouting to be let free when the first eater showed up not long after. Lurching up to the house, it began pounding at the door and moaning. The noise from Buzz and Pi ceased immediately. More eaters arrived, joining the first. Then more.