Mutation (Twenty-Five Percent Book 1)

by Wheatley, Nerys

  The memories of the desperate, hopeless fight for their lives were still painfully raw.

  Micah placed a broom flat on the floor inside so its handle stuck out through the door, propping it open just enough for them to be able to get back in quickly, should they need to.

  The stairs were impassable, and neither of them wanted to wade in amongst the corpses anyway, so they climbed over the railing around the platform and dropped to the tarmac below.

  They made their way across the car park, back past the remains of the salespeople and office managers and adjusters and secretaries who hadn’t made it. After hearing what had happened to them, seeing it felt even worse. Alex kept his eyes on the surrounds, watching out for eaters and trying not to look down.

  Reaching the edge of the retail park, they stopped between two buildings, at the corner of a discount carpet salesroom. A smattering of eaters who hadn’t yet made it back to the horde shambled around the car park.

  “Alright,” Alex whispered, “remember to drag your feet and don’t make eye contact.”

  Micah, looking pale, nodded without saying anything.

  Heart pounding so hard he wondered if the eaters would be able to hear it, Alex headed out into the open. He kept his gait slow, barely lifting his feet, head down, arms dangling at his sides. From the corner of his eye, he saw Micah doing the same beside him.

  Just another two eaters going about their business. Nothing to see here.

  With the car park and the road beyond, they had a good two hundred feet to cover. It seemed like miles.

  Almost as soon as they left the cover of the buildings, a nearby eater shuffled towards them. Alex kept going, fighting the overwhelming urge to run. He heard Micah hiss in a breath as the eater closed on them.

  When it got within ten feet, it raised its head and sniffed the air. Alex held his breath. After an eternity of about five seconds, the eater dropped its chin, turned, and shuffled away. He breathed out.

  Although the sound of moans was all around them, the cloying scent Alex had smelled on the roof was much less noticeable here, only drifting past his nose every so often on the breeze. He thought back to when they’d been chased across this car park the first time. His memory of it was vague, what with him being focused on running for his life at the time, but he had an impression that the odour had become stronger after he’d been seen by the eater in the horde. He filed the thought away for future rumination, when they were in slightly less danger of being discovered at any moment.

  A few more eaters approached them as they walked, but each time the result was the same, none of them coming any closer than seven or so feet before moving off again. Alex was beginning to hope their insane plan might actually work.

  They reached the edge of the car park and crossed the pavement onto the road. Alex began to sweat as his anxiety ramped it up a notch. They were approaching the spot where it had all gone pear-shaped the first time. He didn’t dare look directly at the hordes of eaters at either end of the street, but he could see them in the periphery of his vision. And he could certainly hear them, their oscillating moans filling the air and resonating through the ground, sending shudders up his spine. With every step Alex expected to hear the moans erupt into a cacophony of hunger.

  At their enforced slow pace, it seemed to take forever to cross the wide road. They’d decided not to go back through the gardens, instead opting for a side road a little further along running parallel to the main, eater-congested roads as the fastest way to get back to their bikes and out of the area. Angling in that direction, they maintained their measured pace until they rounded the corner and were out of sight of the hordes.

  Alex let out a breath he felt as if he’d been holding the entire time.

  There were no eaters on this road, although they could still be seen from the street behind them. Alex was about to whisper to Micah that they should keep up the shambling gait until they could no longer be seen, when an eater lurched from behind a tall van and collided with him. It raised its head, opening its mouth. Alex whipped his skull-spiker from his jacket pocket and plunged it into its temple and it dropped to the ground without uttering a sound.

  Then he noticed the odour. Not as strong as the combined smell of the thousands of eaters, but it was unmistakable, emanating from the eater’s body, dancing in the breeze.

  Travelling towards the horde of eaters downwind of them.

  And then he knew what it was.

  “Run,” he said, taking off along the road without waiting to see if Micah would follow.

  “Why are we running?” Micah puffed as he caught up with him. “You got it before it made any...”

  Pandemonium erupted somewhere behind them. A tumult of moans filled the air.

  They both picked up speed.

  Alex glanced back to see eaters pouring into the mouth of the road. Hearing moans ahead, he looked forward to see more eaters appear at a junction ahead and turn in their direction.

  They stumbled to a halt, hemmed in in front and behind.

  “This way,” Alex said, vaulting a wall and running down the side of a house.

  The gate leading into the back yard was locked and Alex had to haul himself over the six foot high metal obstacle.

  “I think you’re right,” Micah said, staring back at the eaters who were already appearing at the wall in front of the house, “they’re definitely getting faster.”

  He backed up and ran at the gate as Alex dropped to the path on the other side, catching hold of the top and pulling himself over in one smooth movement. Moments later, arms thrust between the bars of the gate, snagging his sleeve. Micah stumbled backwards and the eater caught hold of his backpack, yanking him towards it. He struggled to pull his arms free of the straps, heels scrabbling on the damp flagstones as he was dragged backwards.

  Alex pushed past him and grasped the eater’s arm, jerking it forward against the gate. As the pressure on the backpack eased, Micah pulled his arms from the straps. Alex let go as a second eater joined the first and tried to reach him.

  Left with just a backpack in its hand, the first eater dropped it and reached forward again. Alex ducked under its arms, scooped the pack up and handed it to Micah.

  “Thanks,” he said, shouldering the pack as they continued to the back of the house.

  The gate rattled against the lock as more eaters reached it.

  “I hope that holds,” Micah muttered.

  The concrete yard behind the house backed onto an alley which, when they cautiously pushed open the back gate, was empty. Although Alex knew it was unlikely to remain that way for long.

  “How did you know?” Micah whispered as they crept along the alley.

  “Know what?”

  “When you killed that eater, how did you know we had to run?”

  “As I stabbed it, it produced this odour, just like I’ve been smelling from the horde. I think that’s how they communicate, through some kind of scent. Maybe it’s like ants, with pheromones. It was giving off a kind of distress signal. I heard wasps can do that even after they’re dead.”

  “So eaters are giving off pheromones now?” Micah sounded unconvinced.

  “Makes as much sense as a hive mind.”

  “If that’s the case, then how are we going to get out of this?” Micah said. “Can I make it through them again with your scent, if we find anywhere they’re far enough apart?”

  Alex shook his head. “I can smell you now. Must have been the running. You’re sweating too much.”

  “Oh. Well, maybe we can...”

  He stopped as an eater rounded the end of the alley. Another followed. At the sound of a moan behind them, they turned to see several eaters lurch into the opposite end of the alley.

  “This isn’t good,” Alex muttered. He looked around for another way out.

  “There aren’t that many,” Micah said. “We could fight our way through...”

  He trailed off as more eaters came into sight. At least thirty were now ap
proaching from each end of the alley, with more appearing every second. Alex could smell the strange odour again. Were they calling in reinforcements?

  Micah was trying the gates to the backyards of the surrounding houses, but they were all locked.

  “Oh, hell,” he said, backing up to the other side of the alley, taking a few steps run up and leaping at the top of the six foot high wall. He pulled himself over and disappeared on the other side. “You coming?” he called. “Because if you’re not, can you throw me the guns before you die? I’ll have the sword too.”

  The eaters were only fifteen feet away now, the sight of them filling Alex with dread. He tried to shrug the feeling off as he pulled himself over the wall. He couldn’t afford to be afraid all the time. What had happened at the insurance building was not going to happen again.

  Eaters thudded against the wooden gate, their hands reaching over the top.

  “I knew you were jealous of the sword,” he said to Micah.

  They were in a concrete yard about fifteen feet square, a brick shed in the back corner, surrounded on all three sides not attached to the house by a six foot brick wall. From what Alex had seen, all the yards along the row were the same.

  He peered into the window at the back of the house. “Maybe we could break in and wait for them to leave. It worked when we were with Cal and the others. More or less.”

  “But that that took three hours,” Micah replied. “It’s already...” he glanced at his watch, “...after one. We’re trying to travel four miles. At this rate we’ll maybe get there in a couple of weeks.”

  “What, you have somewhere pressing you need to be?”

  “I just get the feeling we’re on borrowed time here.” Micah jumped up at the side wall to look into the next yard along.

  Alex watched him. “What do you mean, borrowed time?”

  Micah turned around and leaned back against the wall, folding his arms across his chest. “What Sergeant Traynor said... I don’t know. It made me nervous. How long do you think the army is going to stay out there doing nothing before they do something drastic that will get us all killed? And even if they don’t, how long are those barriers going to hold? I just think if we can get to that lab and find out what’s really going on, maybe we can help.”

  “So we’re doing this?” Alex moved his hand in a vague, encompassing gesture.

  Micah sighed. “When I got off that helicopter, I made a decision to not let the fear stop me. I’m scared out of my mind, but I can’t just sit back and do nothing. You know?”

  Alex pushed his hands into his pockets and closed his eyes. The best chance they had at survival would be to find somewhere safe, stay there, and wait for things to play out. And with every fibre of his being, that’s what he wanted to do. But if he did, would he be able to live with himself afterwards?

  “Yeah, I know.” He lifted his head and opened his eyes. “Okay then, let’s get back to our bikes and get going.”

  Micah smiled and nodded, then looked around. “How are we going to do that, though?”

  Without answering, Alex ran a couple of steps and launched himself up onto the roof of the seven foot high, brick built shed in the corner of the yard. The eaters in the alley went berserk, moaning and reaching towards him, their bodies pressing against the wall. He ignored them and looked around from his elevated position, trying to find a way out of their predicament.

  After getting the lay of the land, he jumped back down into the yard.

  “There’s no way out along the alley,” he said, “but since it leads on both ends back onto the road where we were, it would be pointless anyway. If we are very, very lucky, this road,” he pointed towards the back of the house, “is clear.”

  Micah studied the house. “So we break in and go through?”

  “We could do that. Or we could climb over a couple of walls and just stroll down the side of the house at the end of this terrace.” He knew he sounded smug. He couldn’t help it.

  Micah shook his head. “Oh, shut up.” Taking a run at the six foot wall, he vaulted effortlessly over it. “You coming?” he called from the other side.

  Alex knew that, without the added benefit of his extra strength, he would have just been embarrassing himself now. He really did need to get in better shape. Stepping to the base of the wall, he leaped, caught the top and propelled himself over into the next yard. After scaling another wall, they made their way along the narrow path at the side of the last house in the row and peered over the top of the gate halfway down.

  They were very, very lucky.

  The road was clear.

  23

  “This is the place.”

  Micah hung his helmet on the handlebar of his motorcycle and looked around.

  Having made their way back to the bikes with relatively little difficulty, meaning they only had to hide from large groups of eaters twice, they had for once made good time to the supposed location of the supposed secret government lab. They were now in a near empty car park surrounded by three warehouses.

  The buildings were grey, blocky structures, from the outside looking like any other storage warehouses. A logo above the door of one of them said, “Sirrus Organic Electronics” in a purple, angular font. The others had no identifying signs. The whole area was surrounded by an eight foot metal fence with warnings of electrocution at regular intervals along its length. Alex and Micah had entered the car park past a barrier next to an empty guardhouse.

  Alex had to admit, it did kind of scream secret something. Which made him deeply suspicious. What was the point of a secret laboratory that looked like whoever had built it was trying to hide something?

  “Let’s take a look around,” he said.

  They began in the building with the logo. To Alex’s surprise, when they tried the door, it wasn’t even locked. The windowless edifice lit up when Micah found a panel of light switches, revealing an interior a hundred feet square and roughly thirty feet high, with a floor of smooth concrete and exposed metal joists holding up the span of the roof, attached to metal supporting columns spaced at intervals throughout the space.

  And the whole structure was completely empty.

  “Sirrus Organic Electronics don’t seem to have much stock,” Micah commented.

  “What’s an organic electronic anyway?” Alex said.

  “Got me.”

  Alex studied the nearby walls. “Maybe there’s a hidden door or something.”

  They walked the entire perimeter of the building, stopping to investigate every nook, cranny and seam they came across in the fabric of the walls. They found nothing. They then criss-crossed the centre of the floor, checking every column. The result was the same. The building was no more than an empty shell.

  The doors leading into the remaining two warehouses were both locked, but they weren’t overly sturdy and a couple of hard kicks from Alex opened them easily. A similarly thorough investigation revealed both buildings to be as devoid of any secret laboratories as the first was.

  Returning to the centre of the car park, they looked around.

  “Maybe Bates got the address wrong,” Micah said. “Or maybe there just is no lab.”

  “If that’s the case,” Alex said, “why have so much security for three empty warehouses? There are cameras everywhere.”

  He’d noticed them as soon as they approached the first warehouse they tried. Set high on the external walls, they had a view over the entire area outside. Strangely, though, there were no cameras inside the buildings.

  None inside...

  “Come on,” he said, taking off at a jog across the car park.

  “Where are we going?” Micah said, following him towards the nearest warehouse.

  “There are no cameras inside, but they cover everywhere outside.”

  “So?”

  “So, if there is anything here, it must be somewhere out here.”

  They ran on for a few more paces.

  “You know, you’re not always completely useless
,” Micah said.

  “Please, stop, you’re making me blush.”

  They reached the corner of the huge building and Alex slowed, walking around the side. Neatly mowed, remarkably green grass and trimmed hedges surrounded the buildings and the car park and he led the way onto the lawn.

  “Look for anything that could lead to somewhere,” Alex said. “Manhole, door, anything that a person could get through.”

  They searched the well manicured, but unimaginative, grounds for almost ten minutes before they both saw it at the same time. A brick shed was tastefully concealed behind a tall hedge. It would have been easily overlooked as just somewhere for the gardeners to keep their lawn fertiliser and hedge trimmers and ride on lawnmower. As they walked up to the small building, a camera set above the door watched them. Alex had an urge to flip it off.

  The door was locked. Micah peered into the small window next to it.

  “See anything?”

  “A lawnmower and some garden tools,” he replied. “Maybe it really is just a shed.”

  “Then why is there a camera and a door that looks like it’s designed to withstand a nuclear blast?”

  “It’s a very nice lawn mower.”

  Alex stared at the door. It looked extremely well made. It looked like trying to kick it down would result in serious damage, all of it to him and none to the door.

  “How are we going to get in there?” he said.

  Micah bent down and moved a terra cotta flower pot planted with a red begonia. “We could try this.”

  Alex watched him pick up the key he’d revealed. “How on earth did you know that was there?”

  “It kind of looked out of place here. I thought it was worth a try.” He pushed the key into the lock and turned it with a click.

  “No, wait!” Alex said, grabbing Micah’s hand to stop him from pushing down the handle. “What if it’s booby trapped?”

  “That only happens on TV.” Micah looked at the door. “Doesn’t it?”