“Come in, David,” Maria said. She watched him walk across the room, wearing a pinstriped suit and scuffed black shoes. His black glasses framed tired looking eyes, and he hadn’t shaved in a few days. He seemed out of his depth. “Please, take a seat.” She waited for Cedric, Ruby and David to sit.
“Winter Smith,” Cedric breathed, ever the most confident. “You’re alive and well. We’ve been trying to find you.”
“I bet,” Winter said, remembering his threat.
“Please, forget our last exchange.” He smiled, flicking his hand as if it was easy to brush aside. “I wasn’t thinking straight. I lost my cool. It’s something I need to work on.”
Ruby smiled at her, but said nothing.
Winter felt silly. She felt like this was a meeting that she needn’t be a part of. If The Union were running with Cedric and David Herald, she didn’t want to be a part of it.
“Now that we’ve got some of the key people with us, I think it is time that we start to tell you the truth behind the zombie apocalypse.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“This isn’t something that has happened just over a year,” Maria explained. “This is something that has been planned centuries before any of us were even born.” She stared directly at Winter as she said these words, before addressing the group. “The family of V goes back centuries. We believe the plans for a new world order, or at least some sort of world control, roughly began around the seventeen hundreds.”
“How do you know all of this?” Zach asked.
“Research,” Maria said. “We have a good team behind us.” She indicated Cedric and David. Ruby was ignored. “We find out information from reliable sources, and V would even tell you that she’s got where she is now because of what her family achieved before her. I suppose in some ways, you could say The Union were here before the apocalypse, too. But it’s not family. It was a collection of people who wanted to spill the truth on what was going on behind the scenes.”
Violet looked confused. “Is this political?”
Maria shrugged. “You could say it is. When life was normal, and things ran smoothly, V and her team were working behind the scenes. This has been happening for centuries. They’ve been working towards one goal: a one world government.”
“What?” Zach gasped. “This sounds like a conspiracy.”
“It was nothing but a conspiracy before June. That’s what they wanted you to think. But now they’ve started phase one of their plans to gain full control, and they’ve done that by creating the dead.”
“How would the dead be able to do that?” Winter asked.
“The dead are V’s idea to ruin the world as we know it,” Cedric said.
“She succeeded there,” Violet muttered.
“Exactly!” Maria nodded, sensing that the group were beginning to get where the conversation was going. She flicked back green hair and continued. “The dead are here to bring everything crashing to the ground. Economy and businesses have disappeared. Health care establishments are nothing. Scientists, who could be responsible for finding a cure? Disappeared. The dead are here to kill the weak. The survivors are the strong. The strong make up the new world order, of a one world government, where everything will be different.”
“The stumbling dead with no brain cells are doing all of that?” Violet scoffed.
“Of course, they don’t know that is their purpose,” Maria replied. “We’ve all seen the dead. None of them have brainpower. All V did was created a handful, maybe a couple of thousand, and unleash them. They went out, bit, and people turned. Only now she’s realising that she’s beginning to be outnumbered, but she’s keeping calm. She’ll let them run their course and then be done with them. How she’ll do that, though, we’ll have to wait and see.”
Zach readjusted his glasses on his nose. “So let me get this straight. V created the dead so she could get rid of the weak, ruin the world, and start a new world order.”
“Correct.”
“The dead are beginning to outnumber her, but V has managed to start the new world order regardless of that.”
“Exactly.”
“And this has been planned since the eighteenth century?”
“At least that time, yes.” Maria nodded. “Maybe not the idea of an apocalypse immediately, but probably not long after.”
“Where did V get the resources to do such a thing?” Winter asked.
“And how did she gain control without anybody realising?” Missy wondered.
“All good questions,” Cedric nodded, looking at Maria to elaborate.
Maria readjusted where she sat before speaking again. “We estimate V has been in control for about a year. A year before the apocalypse began.” There was an intake of breath from Winter and her friends. “She successfully managed to get a team and overthrow the government we once knew. We didn’t have to fear the government we had for anything sinister. Many people believed V was already in power. She wasn’t. But now she is, and now she’s dangerous.”
“As for the resources,” Cedric said. “She got funding.”
Winter thought she had misheard. “Funding?”
“Money.”
“But from who?” Violet spat, glaring at Cedric’s smug face. “I doubt she waltzed into the bank one day and asked for a business start-up loan from HSBC.”
Maria smirked. “No, of course not. Being V, she knew influential people. Those influential people just happened to be the richest people on earth.”
“The Rothschild family?” Zach ventured a guess.
Maria shook her head. “Good guess. But there’s a family even richer than the Rothschild’s that nobody knows about. They’re called The Weiglass Family, and they’ve been responsible for a lot of events that have happened in the world.”
“Such as?”
“World disasters. Money problems. Recession. They own the world’s currency. Without their wealth, we wouldn’t have jobs. Money comes from somewhere, and it came from the Weiglass family.”
“They funded the apocalypse?”
“They funded it and they still are.” Maria nodded. “Without the Weiglass family, V would crumble. They’re targets on our agenda, too.”
Violet leaned back in her seat. “Wow. It makes you sick. Money is absolutely disgusting.”
“Money didn’t motivate this,” Cedric answered. “It just made it happen.”
“Disgusting.”
David Herald nodded besides Cedric, but kept his eyes on the ground. He had lost his confidence in the room full of big professionals. It surprised Winter to see him so docile.
“So what are The Union’s aims?” Zach asked. “How are you hoping to take V on? Because to me, it seems we’re nothing but bugs that she can squish. She’s got an empire. We haven’t.”
“People underestimate the little people,” Maria said. “People will revolt when they learn the truth. A lot of people out there know things are dangerous, but they’re not making the connection between Blitzer and V. Some people believe we’re the bad guys. Other just want to cling on to an establishment for hope. Others are blackmailed into working for V’s establishment, whilst others are working for her because they truly believe a new world order is needed. It’s a very confusing time, and you don’t know who to trust.”
“How do we know we can trust you?” Violet asked, staring at Maria.
Maria held her ground. “Because I am here to build an empire, too. One that will bring V to her knees and stop her from gaining something which is very much in her reach.”
“The new world order,” Cedric announced with a flourish of his hands.
Outside, a horn beeped. Maria froze, listening, but after a few seconds relaxed. She saw the confused look from Missy. “Noises attract the dead. I tell people to be quiet, but accidents happen.”
“The dead were outside,” Zach said. “I noticed them on the barbed wire. Don’t you feel worried that they’ll get in? Nowhere is safe. We still have to fear the dead.”
“I’m good at evading people,” Cedric said proudly.
Maria placed her fingers to her lips, hiding a smirk.
“What did you do to make her want you so bad?” Missy asked.
“I was too good looking.” Cedric smirked.
Missy giggled, susceptible to his charms.
“Has anyone actually seen V?” Zach asked. “What does she look like?”
Maria exchanged a look with Cedric. “Yeah. We don’t know.”
“You…” Violet began, but then she processed what had been said. She looked at Winter, shocked. “They don’t know. How can you not know? You know everything else, but you don’t know what the main girl looks like?”
“The whole organisation she runs is very secretive, even now.” Maria defended herself. Winter noted that she always had an answer, and that she spoke quite well, despite that her accent wasn’t native to Britain. “Whenever V has been photographed, she is always draped head to toe in a robe. The only difference between any appearances is it has changed colour. It’s nearly always pink, but it changes.”
“So we need to find out what the bastard looks like before we do anything,” Violet said. “Otherwise, we’re going in blind.”
“We’re not going in anywhere, yet. I’m building The Union before we do anything.”
“Which brings me back to what you do here,” Zach said.
Cedric cleared his throat. “The Union are here to make the world what it once was. Our main goal is to bring V down, and everything else she has created. Her whole cult that currently leads this world needs to be abolished. We’re no longer talking about a conspiracy here: we’re talking about a fact.”
“They’re the Illuminati,” Maria interjected. “That’s what V has set up. The conspiracy had substance, but nobody believed it. Nobody who was taken seriously, at least. V knew what she was doing when she made everyone believe that her cult, when it did leak – because it does when people change minds or break ranks – was nothing but false information and a very elaborate story.”
“The Union are going to be the anti-government, if you will. The anti-Illuminati. Many people out there who do know of us will believe we’re nothing but terrorists. We’ve certainly been called that. They believe we’re trying to cause damage, not rectify it. Others really have hope in us. Maria is our leader. She managed to secure this area for us, and she’s the brain behind a lot of our operations. I’m a co-manager, and Ruby is my assistant. You’ll meet the bosses of our other departments if you decide to stay.”
“So we’re staying?” Missy asked, her eyes wide. “Because the woman in the tube, she made out that we were people that were going to be turned away.”
“That’s Sheila.” Maria rolled her eyes. “She does her nursing job well, but she has no idea about the decisions I make.”
“She’s a spot of bother, but she’s not trouble.” Cedric laughed.
“What departments do you have here?” Zach questioned.
“We’ve got the weapons department, where people who have been recruited by us get trained up in fighting. You’ll learn how to handle a gun, a sword, a knife. It’s lessons I put everyone through, because we need to defend ourselves these days.”
“Then we have on the job training for the main roles of nurses, doctors, animal care…” Cedric thought. “We also have people in charge of accommodation on this street only, so we know how everyone is doing and we can keep an eye on them.”
“As well as that, we have people out there recruiting. They’re going out and finding people and spreading the truth in a subtle way. We need to keep low key,” Maria said. “V only suspects we’re recruiting right now. Of course, we are, but we can’t be traced.”
Winter knew they needed to be in with The Union. Something about them told her they were safe, that they were useful and could be trusted. This house they were in was comfort; something she didn’t think they would get ever again.
“So, are we in?” She asked, looking at Maria.
“I think so.” Maria nodded. “Cedric has told me about you, Winter. He says you’re important, and I need to trust him.”
“Where’s Connor?” Cedric asked, as if he had just realised Connor was missing.
“He was taken,” Winter said. “By red Blitzers. They took my dad as well. My mum, too, but at a different time.”
Ruby looked sad, but again remained silent.
“That’s bad, isn’t it?” Cedric said to Maria.
Maria nodded. She seemed to be hiding her emotions. “That’s why I called you. Why did they take him?”
“We don’t know,” Winter replied. “He was just taken.”
“It’s certainly strange.” Maria thought. She traced a finger over her lips. “If he wasn’t valuable, they would just kill him. Maybe they know something we don’t.”
Cedric nodded, and turned to David. “I hope you’ve been writing this. We need a press release very soon.”
David nodded. “I’ve got it all in my memory.”
“You’re still writing?” Winter addressed David for the first time. “Even now, when the world has gone to shit?”
David held up a hand. “Don’t start, Winter. Please, don’t start. I’m writing an anti-government paper. It’s actually something worthwhile for once. V has control of all the news outlets. We need to combat that. It’s in production right now.”
“She’s influencing people who still get newspapers that we’re dangerous and she is the good guy,” Maria said. She shrugged. “At least she’s acknowledging us, now. At first, she tried to act like we didn’t exist.”
“You’re fighting her with headlines?” Violet asked.
“For now.” Maria nodded. She clapped her hands, signalling conversation was over. “You’ve been briefed, and I know you have a lot on right now. Cedric, go and show these people their rooms.”
“Our rooms?” Missy jumped to her feet. “We’re staying here?”
Maria looked amused. “Of course! I’m not going to recruit you then send you back out on the streets, am I? Well, not yet at least. You’ve been recruited, so you’ll get accommodation until I work out some job roles for you in our chain. One thing I will not put up with is laziness. We will be tapping into your skills and you will be contributing to bringing The Union what it needs to keep going and take on V.”
“Sounds thrilling!” Violet said, with just a hint of sarcasm.
Cedric led the way out of the room, leaving Maria with David. Ruby followed the group at the back. They walked out of the house they had just been in, and across the road. Winter noticed a few stains on the stone: burnt marks, chewing gum and what looked eerily like blood.
Cedric rooted in his back pocket for a key and drew it out.
“Did you know we were coming?” Violet asked.
Cedric laughed. “I always keep this key on me. It’s the last house we have available.”
He unlocked the door, and pushed it open. They found themselves in a house that was exactly the same as the one they had just left, except for a couple of light fixtures and the odd table decoration. Ruby shut the door behind her, drawing the lock across.
“We always have to keep it locked,” she said. “Whilst we are fairly secure here, we can’t chance the dead getting in.”
“Or a Blitzer!” Cedric said, stood at the foot of the stairs. “Now, you’ll find three floors in this house. Every floor has three rooms on it, and a bathroom. So you’ll have more than enough room. For the next day or two, you can relax here. We’re pretty safe. I bet you’ll all need a good shower, and a good night’s sleep in an actual bed. After two days, Maria will call individual meetings with you. She will want to know you, wh
at you want to do, and your story. It’s a process all of our recruits go through. It’s so you are part of us, and not just a number.
“Then, Maria will start giving you roles and give you a timetable for when you need to be in classes. Everyone needs to contribute and keep active. Whilst this is a place to relax, you have to remember we’re in the beginning stages of what promises to be a war. V could come around the corner at any moment, as could the dead.” Cedric pointed to the room to their left. “This room is one big sitting room and a kitchen. Always keep the doors and windows locked, because like I say, we don’t want to chance any unwelcome visitors in the middle of the night.”
Winter noticed that there were shoes on the floor. “Are there other people living here?”
Cedric nodded. “That’s right, yes. The first floor is already occupied by a group that we recruited. They got separated from their group and we managed to find them. They’re out at work. One’s training to be a doctor, the others are heading a class of combat. They shouldn’t be too long.”
“Will they mind us being here?” Zach asked.
“They’ve got to put up with us,” Violet said. “Tough luck if they don’t want us here.”
“As I say, we’ll be in touch with you soon.” He headed towards the door. Ruby unlocked it and opened it once more. Cedric placed the key he had used to enter on the table nearby. He looked at Winter. “It’s good to see you.”
“Yes,” Winter managed.
Cedric and Ruby disappeared, the door slamming shut behind their glamorous frames. Zach locked the door once more and looked at his friends with bemusement.
“Guess we’re part of The Union, now.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The room Winter found herself in was like being back at home. The bed in the middle of the large room was king size, with inviting white sheets and two puffy pillows. A painting above the bed showed Paris how it used to be: serene on a brightly lit day.
Winter Smith (Book 2): The Secrets of France Page 13