Beyond These Walls (Book 7): The Asylum

by Robertson, Michael

  Her face puce, her lips tight, Olga glared at Matilda’s brother, who stared straight back, his features relaxed. He’d do it again if she tried to stand. She turned her fury on the guard. “Fuck you! Tell me to shut up again and—”

  “What?” A knife in each hand, the guard threw her arms out in a shrug. “You’ll what?”

  “I’ve had enough of this bullshit,” Olga said. “If it wasn’t for your insane boss, we wouldn’t be in this situation. We’re on the same side. Why can’t you see that?”

  Although the guard stepped closer to Olga, she threw a glance at Gracie. The ginger-haired girl shook her head.

  “Why are you looking at her?” Olga said. “You want to have this out, have it out with me! You don’t need her approval.”

  The guard looked at Gracie again and raised her eyebrows. Again Gracie shook her head, the guard returning to be with the others by the double doors.

  Barp!

  Although Olga leaned out and looked down the line at Gracie as if she might start something, William spoke before she could. “I think we need to accept that Max has bought us time. I’m not sure he’s brought us much else. How we get out of here from now is down to us. And if we find a way, we might need to get to him and save his arse.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed—” Olga got to her feet, several of the guards watching her as she showed William her bound wrists “—our hands are tied. We won’t get very far like this.”

  “We wait here and we’re screwed,” Artan said.

  “Helpful!” Olga said. “You got anything we can act upon?”

  “I can’t take this anymore,” Gracie said.

  Olga shook her head. “And you think we can?”

  Gracie rocked where she sat. It took her several attempts before she rocked forwards, stood in a crouch, and fell back against the wall. Higher than before, she flipped her body away to a standing position.

  “Fat lot of good standing up is going to do.” Olga’s jaw fell as Gracie walked over to the guards. “Where the hell is she going?”

  Still on her feet, Olga stepped after Gracie, but William said, “Leave it,” while Artan blocked her with his legs.

  “I don’t trust her,” Olga said.

  “That’s because you’re jealous of her. You didn’t like finding her here with Max.”

  “Fuck you, William.”

  “Look, just stay here. Let’s see what she’s intending to do before we overreact, yeah?”

  Before Olga could reply, Gracie spoke to the guards, loud enough for them all to hear. “Remember, I’m one of you.”

  “See,” Olga said.

  “I was captured and kept in here like every one of you were,” Gracie continued. “I didn’t turn on you, I turned on Monica. Surely you understand why I did that.”

  “That’s because she’s a fucking snake,” Olga said, shouting over to the guards. “Look at her. She’ll change allegiance in a heartbeat. Don’t trust her.”

  “I thought you just told that guard we were on the same side?” Artan said.

  If Hawk had opinions on the matter, he kept them to himself. He’d remained statue still while events unfolded, staring into space through glazed eyes.

  “That was before they refused to free me,” Olga said.

  When Gracie turned around and the guard cut her bonds, William’s heart sank. It had grown increasingly difficult to defend her, especially when the guard handed her a sword.

  “You were saying, William?” Olga said. “She’s one of them, and now we’re fucked!”

  Chapter 40

  A semicircle of swords pointing his way kept Max’s back against the asylum’s cold steel main door. “I know you want to kill me,” he said, “but you also want to get out of here, so think carefully about this.”

  “We’ll find another way,” Monica said.

  “You might. But what if that other way lets in all the diseased around this place? I’ve been out there recently. I’ve seen how bad it is.”

  Barp!

  Monica spat when she spoke. “It’s better than giving in to you.”

  “It might be, but all I’m asking is for you to let Dianna out.”

  “I’ve already said I will.”

  “You’ll forgive me for not trusting you. Considering what you’ve already put me through.”

  Monica bit down on her bottom lip with her large yellow teeth. Her dark eyes remained fixed on Max when she waved the guards back. Many of them appeared relieved to receive the order. “I’ll take you to Dianna, but I will kill you once you’ve let me out of this place. I can’t have you challenging me so openly and getting away with it.”

  Of course Max didn’t want to die, but the threat of death had been hanging over him since he got caught in the cell. At least this deal took him a step closer to liberating Dianna. “As long as you let Dianna and the others go. That way, Dianna gets back to Hawk and you can punish me how you see fit.” As he said it, twinges ran through the burn in his pec, and the insides of his thighs throbbed.

  Monica pointed a long and bony finger at him. Her twisted yellow nail resembled a talon. “This is your last chance. If you’re not good to your word, I’ll kill all of you. I promise you that.”

  Max nodded, following Monica as she turned and led him down a dark corridor. Many of the doors were already open. Monica had let the inmates out, and they in turn had let out the others.

  They took several deviations as they walked the packed corridors. Left, right, left, left, right, left. Although Max tried to remember the way, he’d lost track after the first few turns. The place might have been lit, but not well enough to allow him to discern one hallway from the next. “What are you hoping to achieve in how you’re running this place?”

  “Huh!”

  “Being so controlling of everyone in here. What are you hoping to gain from it?”

  The fury in Monica’s features died. “Grandfather Jacks has had control over my life for a long, long time.”

  “And I’m sorry for that.”

  Monica’s eyes narrowed as she studied his face as if searching for the lies in his words. The crow’s feet at her temples softened and she said, “Thank you. I won’t ever allow someone to have that control over my life again.”

  “And the only way to do that is to exert control over others like Grandfather Jacks did with you?”

  Where there had been a flicker of humanity in her features, Monica’s face tightened again. “It’s dog eat dog. If I don’t get on top, someone else will.”

  And how could he blame her for thinking like that? With the amount of time she’d spent incarcerated, why wouldn’t she be petrified of it happening again?

  Another left turn revealed the only locked cell on their journey. A guard stood on either side of the door. The hallway was still alive with activity, women and kids running as if the faster they moved, the more likely they’d be to find the building’s exit. Monica nodded at the guards, who opened the cell door with a crack!

  Max waited outside. Best not put himself in a room they could lock behind him. At the back of the cell stood at least ten women. All of them had their hands bound like Max and his friends.

  Monica remained at Max’s side. “Get Dianna.”

  “What have all these women done?” Max said.

  “They refused to join the cause.”

  “What are you going to do with them?”

  “I’m undecided.”

  Maybe too dark to be certain, but one of the guards on the cell door winced. Other than Sally, there hadn’t been many guards who seemed as into Monica’s plans as the crazy woman. They did what was necessary to ensure their own survival, but they clearly weren’t buying into Monica’s regime. If Max let things drag on long enough, would he witness the others overthrowing their insane leader? Hopefully the revolution would come before he lost his life.

  The same barp, the same screams from the inmates, Max and Diana walked side by side as they were led away from the cell, which Monic
a had locked again. The guards surrounded them, giving them a clear path through the busy hallways.

  “I’m sorry they used me as bait,” Dianna said quietly enough so only Max heard.

  “Don’t be.” Max shook his head. “I’ve seen who’s running the show here. You know, Hawk is with the others.”

  “He is!”

  Dianna’s raised tone caused Monica to turn around. Her top lip lifted, her large nose aimed straight at them like an accusatory finger.

  “He’s the reason we came in here to get you. He said you were good to him in Umbriel.”

  “He’s not as bad as you think, you know.”

  Monica and her guards stopped outside the double doors leading to the large room with all their friends in. She kicked them open with a thud! Both doors flew inwards and slammed against the walls on the inside.

  The guards rushed out. Many Max didn’t recognise, they charged Monica, their weapons raised. And then he saw, “Gracie?” He saw the large battle axe first. “William?”

  Hawk, Artan, and Olga were among the guards. While they pinned Monica to the wall, Olga came over to Max, dipped a nod at Dianna, and handed him his war hammer. She then kissed him on the cheek and wrapped him in a hug.

  Max’s face grew hot and he gritted his teeth against Olga leaning against the burn on his pec. “Thank you,” he said. “What’s happened?”

  Gracie spoke to Monica. “We don’t want to hurt you, but no one’s into running this place your way. And because of that …” Three guards led Monica at knife point over to a cell on the other side of the hallway and slammed the door shut, sliding the bolt across.

  “It turns out we’re all on the same side,” Olga said, moving over so Dianna could run to Hawk, the pair hugging one another. “I was wrong about Gracie. She got the guards to listen to her.”

  But Max stepped away from Olga. “What are you doing?” she said.

  “You have another way out of here, right? That doesn’t involve going across the meadow?”

  “We do. We’re going to show the other guards too so they can slowly help the women and children get free.”

  “Good.” Max headed to Monica’s cell.

  “What are you doing?” William said.

  “I made a promise to her,” Max said. “She gave Dianna back, and I’ve promised I’ll show her sunlight. She’s spent more of her life in the dark than she has out of it. She’s not seen the outside since Grandfather Jacks imprisoned her.”

  “But what if she turns on you?” Artan said.

  “She has no backup.” Max shook his head. “She’s not a threat anymore.” He opened the door with a crack and held his hand into the cell. “I made you a promise. I’ll take you out the front of this place.” Then to the others, “I’ll be okay. I’ll meet you on the roof of the palace in a bit, yeah?”

  Olga came forwards and held Max’s hand. “You want me to come with you?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I need to do this. I’ll probably get to the palace’s roof before you do.”

  A slight nod, Olga then kissed Max’s cheek for a second time.

  He smiled at her. “I could get used to this. Now go. I’ll see you all soon.” Armed with his war hammer and a knife he’d taken from one of the guards, Max said, “Come on, Monica. As long as you don’t give me any shit, you’re going to see daylight again.”

  Chapter 41

  Only three guards had come down to the tunnel’s entrance connecting the asylum to the palace. They had a lot to manage with the inmates, and they agreed they’d give William and the others a chance to get away before that process started. And good riddance. William, for one, had spent far more time in this place than he cared to. The sooner they moved on, the better. Hopefully Matilda’s thigh had healed enough to make her mobile.

  Gracie hugged one of the guards. They’d shared a cell together in the asylum. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay and help?”

  “You’ve done enough already,” the guard said. “Good luck, yeah?”

  The two women hugged again before Hawk led them into the tunnel.

  Although William took up the rear, Gracie and Dianna ahead of him, he still heard Olga and Artan’s conversation. The tight and dingy tunnel amplified their words, and when the guards closed the door behind them, it muted the loud barp!

  “I hope Max is going to be okay,” Olga said.

  “He’s in control of Monica. She has no one on her side now, so I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

  “I hope you’re right. I’ll just be glad to get away from this place. I mean, the palace has potential for anyone who wants to stay, but they have to work out how to shut off that fucking noise while keeping the power on.”

  “And they have to deal with the damage done to so many people by Grandfather Jacks.”

  When Olga didn’t reply, William stood on his tiptoes to see over the heads of the others. They were passing the room on their left with the toys in. The room in which Hawk had written his note to Grandfather Jacks.

  Olga rested her hand on the broad-shouldered hunter’s back. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded and his tone remained even. “I think I will be.”

  The group pushed on, leaving the tunnel via the door at the other end. Olga, Artan, and Hawk all watched the room on their right as they passed it. When William walked past, he shuddered. What they’d had to do to those boys in there … But they weren’t boys. Not by the time they found them. They did them a favour.

  The pace too quick to dwell on it, Gracie and Dianna pulled up when they reached the diseased with the popped eyeballs at the bottom of the stairs.

  A gentle shove in their backs to keep them moving, William said, “We did what was necessary.”

  Hawk—at the front of the line—lifted his head as if listening to their conversation. There seemed little point in talking about his wholly unnecessary attack on the diseased. It stood in their way and Hawk ended it. They didn’t need to say any more.

  William stepped out into the wide main corridor, overtook the others to reach the door to Grandfather Jacks’ comfort room, and hit the button on the outside three times. He entered and positioned himself in front of the wardrobe. The four fallen diseased remained on the floor. They could deal with them, but no one else needed to see the impaled kid hanging on the coat peg.

  The small side table wobbled when William—as the last one out of there—stood on it to climb out of the small window. Artan reached down for him, catching his hand and dragging him up onto the palace’s roof. The bright light burned William’s eyes, but he kept his face pointed at the sky anyway. A lump in his throat, the wind in his hair, he let out a long sigh, his voice cracking when he hugged Artan and said, “We did it!”

  Chapter 42

  “It’s under there,” Max said, using the tip of his knife to show Monica where to look.

  The ratty woman reached under the bed in the cell, hooking her hand around until the key hit the stone floor with a cling.

  Her entire body shook when she got to her feet, the key in her trembling grip. She walked to the asylum’s exit and it took her several attempts to get the key into the lock. When she turned it, the large bolt came free with a crack! The hinges groaned as she shoved the door wide and stumbled out into daylight.

  Tears streamed down Monica’s face and she turned on the spot while staring up at the sky. Her voice weak, she croaked, “My god, I didn’t think I’d ever see sunlight again.”

  Where Monica’s eyes had appeared black in the asylum, the sunlight revealed them for the deep hazel they were. She then bolted, sprinting away from Max. She ran on wobbly legs towards the end of the steel tunnel. The barp calling across the landscape had summoned many of the diseased to the front of the asylum, but there were still several running alongside her, stumbling, their arms wild as they tried to keep pace with the ratty woman. Two of them tripped and fell, the others reaching the gate at the end in time for Monica to shake the door, the large steel fr
ame rattling.

  His war hammer in one hand, his knife in the other, Max slowly walked towards the end of the tunnel.

  “Please,” the ratty woman said, pressing her hands together in prayer and dropping to her knees in front of him, “please don’t make me go back inside that place. I can’t take it anymore. I can’t take being a prisoner.”

  “What would you have me do, Monica?”

  “You can open this gate?”

  “I can.”

  “Then let me go.”

  The afternoon sun glistened off the tear tracks streaking Monica’s cheeks. The diseased that had fallen had gotten back to their feet and waited at the end of the tunnel, snarling, hissing, banging their fists against the filigreed barrier between them.

  “What about the diseased?”

  “I’d take a three-minute run in the meadow over the rest of my life in prison. I’m not stupid, Max, I can see how broken I am. Those are the worst times. When I get a glimpse of sanity. When the clouds part and I’m who I used to be. It makes me see just how fucking crazy I am now.” She slammed a closed fist against the side of her head. “I don’t want it anymore. Allow me this choice. I’m no good to anyone. I’ve been deprived of free will for so long. Please allow me to decide my fate for once. Please?”

  A lump had swelled in Max’s throat. How different was he to Monica? What would it take for the madness he felt around the diseased to turn into his full-time outlook? And if he ever did get there, would someone do him the courtesy of allowing him to end it?

  Returning to the place he’d buried the key, the six or seven diseased remaining at the end of the tunnel with Monica, Max pulled it from the ground.

  After unlocking the gate, Max kept a hold of it and said, “You’re sure you want this?”

  “I am.”

  Before Max could pull the gate wide, Monica threw her scrawny arms around him. “Thank you. You’re a good man. I don’t deserve even a shred of kindness from you because of how I’ve been. Thank you.”

  The hinges on the steel gate groaned. To give Monica a head start, Max went out first and kicked away the diseased gathered around the end of the tunnel, driving them back.