“Stay where you are,” Matilda shouted. The wet squelch of tile hitting face, she yelled, “Come here, you dumb bastards.”
The slow shuffle towards Olga halted.
Another wet squelch from where Matilda nailed another one. Olga jumped when a shard of tile hit the metal box close to her with a ting. Several diseased came to within a few feet. She saw the tops of their heads.
“Come on!” Matilda said. The clang of steel against brick. She must have torn one of the poles free from the edge of the roof, rapping the guardrail against the wall.
The creatures’ fury reignited. They roared at the clouds as if they blamed the heavens for their current state. Olga held onto her tile. Not that it would help her against this lot.
Those close to Olga returned to the main pack, hypnotised by Matilda’s noise.
“Go now, Olga.”
Olga’s hands shook as she lifted the metal box’s lid. There were about thirty blocks inside. Whatever they were, they were clearly important. She reached in, grabbed a handful of wires, and tugged hard. She pulled again, disconnecting more and more with every tug.
Olga pulled the final few wires free, and Matilda continued to hammer against the wall with her steel pole. When she stood up, ice ran through her veins. There were hunters inside the building. Ten of them, maybe more. All of them watched her.
The red light by the double doors had gone off and they’d opened.
A diseased yelled. It had separated from the pack and blocked her escape.
Olga took off as the mob descended on her. Several hunters inside the palace ran away too. They must have been going to get help. She climbed up onto one of the solar panels, the angle shallow enough for her to scale. She leaped from one panel to the next, perching on the top of each one for a second before she moved on.
Olga drew close to Matilda. “Pass me the pole.”
Ten feet between them, Matilda threw the large pole at her. Olga caught it, her stomach flipping as she nearly lost her balance. She moved from one panel to the next, closing in on the hunters standing on the other side of the cage in front of the open double doors.
Olga gained a small lead on the diseased. The densely packed panels forced them to take a weaving path after her. Many of them tripped in the cramped space, falling over one another. Olga had one chance at this.
The hunters on the other side of the cage poked their spears through the gaps as if they hoped for a shot at Olga. But as she jumped from the panels to the ground, she used her momentum and brought her pole down, snapping the flint tips from the wooden shafts.
Diseased’s steps closed in. Olga raised the metal pole in both hands and drove one end down, stabbing it against the lock keeping the gate shut. It broke on her first attempt, the cage falling open before the hunters had time to grab it. She spun around and cracked the leading diseased in the face. Blood sprayed away from her blow and the creature fell.
A three-step climb out of there, Olga discarded her pole, jumped up onto a window ledge, shimmied up a drainpipe, and caught the guardrail, pulling herself back onto the roof before the diseased reached her.
Although some of the diseased followed Olga, many more saw their opportunity. Before the hunters could retrieve the gate and re-secure it, the diseased had rushed forward and overwhelmed them.
Some of the hunters flashed past the windows inside as they retreated from the horde, but many fell defending their position. The fallen quickly reanimated and turned on their own, overwhelming the hunters’ weak defence.
The diseased cleared the courtyard. They flooded into the main building, adding to their numbers as they found more victims.
Matilda came to Olga’s side and rubbed her back. “Well done.”
Shrieks ran through the palace, and Olga pulled in a dry gulp. “Well, I’d say that’s done it. Anyone down there is well and truly screwed.”
Chapter 40
The boys closed in on the ostentatious building at a jog. Grandfather Jacks’ palace. The second William met the man, he’d make good on his promise to cut his head off. Whatever happened, they’d get Matilda and Olga out of there, and they’d make that religious zealot pay.
The barp from the front of the asylum remained a constant until—
“It’s stopped,” Artan said. “I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”
While maintaining their pace, William shrugged. “You’d rather it continued?”
“No. I’m just saying the change might mean something. The fact I don’t know what that something is, makes me uneasy. I’m sure I’m just being paranoid.”
The long grass swished louder when Cyrus turned one way and then the other.
The asylum behind them, the large swarm it had called to its front remaining there for now, William quickened the pace. “Best we get away before they see us.”
The two large doors at the front of Grandfather Jacks’ palace were wide open. “Shouldn’t this place be locked down?” Cyrus said.
“Maybe Grandfather Jacks is so arrogant he doesn’t fear for his safety,” Max said.
William shook Jezebel once. “He’s going to regret that.”
A glass ceiling let in the sunlight, the bright glare reflecting off the highly polished white tiled floor. William remained at the front, running down one long corridor into a large room and then moving onto another corridor. Their footsteps echoed through the abandoned building. All the double doors were wide open. All the rooms they passed through were empty. “We need to find the stairs to get to his bedroom.”
“That’s if we trust what Hawk just told us,” Max said.
Unlike every other set of doors they’d come to so far, the next set William arrived at were wooden and manually operated. They were split down the middle, and when he kicked them, they swung wide, each one connecting with the wall on the other side with a loud crack!
A large rectangular room, it had a wooden table dominating its centre with at least thirty places made for diners. Cupboards lined the long walls, six down each side, each of them at least ten feet tall. The ceiling stretched another few feet taller. The cupboards were loaded with serving equipment and crockery. Each of the long walls had a wide and shallow window running close to the ceiling. The table had been laid. They were to have a feast in here tonight. At least, it looked like that’s what they’d planned. They weren’t banking on William and the others turning up.
The doors at the other end were similar to the ones they’d burst through. Manual wooden doors, William charged at them. But before he’d gotten halfway across the room, they burst inwards. Hunters and what looked like maids and servants flooded in, their faces alive with panic.
William raised Jezebel, ready to fight, but the shriek of chaos on their tail stopped him dead and turned his blood cold. He looked over the heads of those charging towards him at the chasing pack. Maybe fifty diseased, maybe more.
“Max,” William said, “can you take them down if we find somewhere safe?”
Before Max replied, William said, “Answer me, Max.”
“Yes.” He nodded and shook his war hammer. “Yes, I can.”
To Artan and Cyrus, William said, “Get on the cupboards now.”
“But what if they pull us off?” Cyrus said.
The first of the hunters flew past William and the others. “They won’t. They’re too high. And we have Max on our side.”
Artan didn’t need telling twice. Scaling the cupboard closest to him, he climbed on top and lay on his front.
Once Cyrus moved, William did the same, using the strong shelves as steps before he too lay on top of a cupboard, just a couple of feet between him and the ceiling.
Although Max climbed onto a cupboard too, he clearly wanted to bide his time and wait for the others to go before he revealed what he could do by clearing the room for them.
The first of the diseased entered the room riding on a maid’s back. The woman screamed as she went down, blood spraying from where the beast bit into her right shou
lder.
William’s cupboard shook when a hunter tried to climb it. He kicked the shirtless boy in the face. The boy landed on his back, the diseased swarming over him.
The other cupboards were taken quickly, hunters and servants of Grandfather Jacks finding their spots. Two to three of them jostled for space on some of the pieces of strong wooden furniture. If they were all like William’s, they were attached to the wall with metal brackets, so they wouldn’t fall easily.
Now they had to wait while the diseased tore down anyone in the palace who hadn’t made it to safety. William took the time to catch his breath. Max would get them out of there, they just had to be patient.
A spear then crashed into the plates on William’s cupboard, shattering the crockery. Another hunter launched one at Artan, who ducked at the last moment to avoid being hit.
“Shit!” William muttered. So much for being patient.
Chapter 41
Olga set the pace, jumping from the side of Grandfather Jacks’ palace down to the long grassy meadow. Matilda followed a step behind her, her limp getting worse. “Are you okay?” Olga said.
While wincing and fighting for breaths, Matilda nodded several times. “I’m fine. It hurts and I need to rest, but that time will come.”
The palace on their left, they headed towards the asylum. The tone now absent, Olga would have expected it to come as a relief, but the scores of diseased out the front now lacked the hypnotised pull towards the place. Many of them looked around as if trying to find somewhere else to direct their attention.
“Do you think the electricity’s gone off in there too?” Matilda said.
A shake of her head, her face hot and sweating with the run, Olga said, “I hope not. It’s bad enough in there as it is. We could really do with it not being pitch black too. I just want us to get in there, free all the prisoners, and get the hell away from this place.” The crashing of breaking glass, tearing wood, and the screams of the diseased tore through the palace beside them. “And we need to get the prisoners out before the diseased find them.”
They left the palace behind, the long grass whipping at Olga’s thighs. At least five thousand diseased waited around the other side of the asylum. Without the tone, their attention could turn like the wind. If it blew the wrong way …
“Who’s that?” Matilda pointed at the back of the asylum. A stocky and shirtless man exited the place, sprinting along the ornate steel tunnel.
Olga squinted to see better. “My god, it’s—”
“Hawk!” Matilda said.
“Shit!” When they got closer to one another, Olga said, “What are you doing here?”
His large and exposed chest rose and fell with his heavy pants. The livid scars glistened on his sweating skin. “I’ve come to rescue Dianna.”
“But I thought you were one of them?” Matilda said.
“I was. And I’m not proud of it, but something broke in me when Grandfather Jacks took her. It brought it all back. I used to be one of his angels …”
“One of the little boys he always has with him?” Olga said.
Hawk’s blue stare intensified and his jaw widened from where he clenched it. “I hate him more than you can imagine, but he had a power over me that I couldn’t get away from. And then he took Dianna.” His voice broke and his lips buckled ever so slightly. “She’s still so young. I won’t let him do that to her. I won’t let him do it to anyone else again.”
“Well, you don’t need to worry about that.” Olga could still feel the crunch and squelch from where the tip of the spear sank into Grandfather Jacks’ head. “Grandfather Jacks is gone.”
“You’re sure?”
“I did it myself. A spear through his face. I just wish I’d had the time to drag it out. I would have liked to spend days ending his life.”
Hawk pointed down at Matilda’s thigh. “What happened to your leg?”
“Don’t worry about that.” Although Matilda stood with her left heel raised as if to ease the burden on her thigh. “How is it in the asylum?”
“Dark,” Hawk said. “The lights went out when the noise stopped. It’s why I don’t have Dianna with me right now.”
“We need to get in there and free the rest of those prisoners.”
“I know,” Hawk said. “But with the place as it is, that could take hours. And if the diseased from the front of the asylum get wind of us being in there, we’re never coming out again.”
Olga placed her hands on her hips. “So you’re saying we should leave them?”
“No,” Hawk said. “I came here to free Dianna, and I will die doing that if I have to. I’d planned to come back out and pretend to be loyal to Grandfather Jacks until I found a better time to liberate her. I’m guessing now the best thing to do is to wait for the creatures to clear off and we can move freely in and out of the place. If that crowd get wind of us being inside the building, or if any of the prisoners leave any of the doors open, we’re done for.”
“Okay.” Olga nodded. “It makes sense. So we find somewhere to wait it out.”
“Where are the boys?” Hawk said.
“What?” Olga and Matilda said it at the same time.
Diseased’s shrieks burst from around the side of the asylum. Just three of them, they headed towards the palace, slashing at the air in front of them, clumsy with their heavy steps. All three of them charged in through the open front doors.
Hawk said, “They went into the palace to find you both. I told them you were in Grandfather Jacks’ bedroom.
“Shit!” Olga said.
“The palace has fallen,” Matilda added.
“All the doors in the palace were electric,” Olga said.
“So they’re now all open?” Hawk said.
Olga nodded again. “Yeah. The boys definitely went in there?”
Hawk shrugged. “That’s where I sent them.”
“Shit!” Olga said again.
Twenty to thirty diseased appeared on the other side of the asylum, the side farthest away from them. One of them tripped and fell, but the rest maintained their rapid pace. “We need to get back to the palace,” Matilda said. She took off with her limp. They had a lead on the diseased. Hopefully it would be enough.
The twenty to thirty quickly turned into hundreds as more and more of them came around the side of the asylum. How long would it be before it turned into thousands? Into a swarm moving through the landscape like a plague.
Olga and Hawk moved slower to allow Matilda to set the pace. She reached the side of the palace first. She might have been burdened by her limp, but she still knew how to climb, scurrying up the side of the building, showing the others a route to the roof. Olga followed, Hawk next.
Of the diseased who chased them, many entered the palace. “We need to find the boys before the diseased do,” Olga said. If they weren’t too late already. Not that she spoke that thought aloud. She turned and led the others across the palace’s roof towards Grandfather Jacks’ bedroom. “I hope they’ve found somewhere safe.”
Chapter 42
William called across the room to the hunters who’d tried to attack them, “Spears run out, have they?”
“You think you can do better with that axe?” The hunter who replied had the same shaved head as many of those from Umbriel. Naked from the waist up, he had a knife strapped to his hip much like the one Artan had picked up near the funnel.
While smiling, William shook his head. “No, actually I don’t.”
“So why are you grinning, you gormless fool?”
They had to shout to be heard over the hissing fury between them. Maybe sixty diseased were packed into the long room.
When William didn’t reply, the hunter who’d been shouting at him reached down, retrieved a white plate from the top shelf of his cupboard, and threw it across the gap.
It fell short with a crash! “Max,” he said, “we need to get out of here and find the girls.”
Even over the noise from the diseased, the hun
ters’ and servants’ gasps cut through the room when Max slipped down from his cupboard.
“How’s he not getting bitten?” the hunter who’d argued with William said.
“More effective than an axe, spear, or plate, wouldn’t you say?”
The vocal hunter shared his spot on top of his cupboard with another shirtless boy from Umbriel. As if for effect, Max stepped on one of the low-down shelves, boosted himself up, and pulled his friend off first. The boy screamed on his way down, the diseased smothering him in a writhing and hissing frenzy.
While kicking his legs in Max’s direction, the first hunter drew his knife. “Leave me alone, you freak.”
Max caught his right foot and tugged. He pulled so hard, he ripped the boy clean off the top of the cupboard and dragged him towards the middle of the room. The hunter’s back made a gut-wrenching crack as he landed across the edge of the large wooden table, his winded gasp stolen from him as the furious diseased piled in.
“We don’t want to fight you,” one of the maids called from the other side of the room. “Please don’t hurt us. We just want to survive this.”
Three quick swings of his war hammer, Max cracked three diseased one after the other, dropping each one. “But the problem is,” he said, “I need to keep my ability a secret, and at the end of the day, you were on Grandfather Jacks’ side.”
“Not through choice,” the maid said. “You think we wanted him to do what he did to us?”
William tilted his head to one side. “Maybe you can’t protect this secret forever, Max.”
“That’s easy for you to say. I know what this is worth. I’ve already paid the price for it, remember?”
Another hunter lay across another cupboard. Max dragged the screaming boy off like he had his friends, making his way down the room to the maid who’d pleaded for her life.
“Max—” but William lost his words when the doors they’d entered the room through opened with another crack.
More diseased burst in. They flooded the room like a plague. A swarm. If the stampede had an end, William couldn’t see it. They headed for the maid closest to them, slamming into the cupboard she lay across.
Beyond These Walls (Book 6): Three Days Page 18