Arisen, Book Nine - Cataclysm (35 page)

Turning to look, he could now see it in the very last rays of sunlight, glinting across the land from the edge of the horizon.

An enormous section of the ZPW, that insurmountable and invulnerable last line of defense for London… was nothing more than rubble on the ground.

The Wall had been breached – before a single enemy had even reached it.

Now night was coming.

And all Elliott could think was:

What the hell do we do now?

The Choice

London - North Gate of the ZPW

It was nearly evening when the Tunnelers reached the Wall. The checkpoint at the north gate was quiet as the truck stopped in front of a lowered barrier arm.

The guards immediately knew something was wrong. Maybe it was the bullet holes in the truck. Maybe it was just that they were trying to go out through the Wall after passage had been closed in both directions. Hackworth ground his teeth from his spot behind the driver’s seat. But he’d put his pistol away. Liam was doing his best to bluff them through.

“Where’s your back-up driver, Private?”

“He took ill,” Liam said.

“So they sent you out, driving this size rig, all by yourself? No one to spell you at the wheel? No one to shoot if you get attacked? Not very safe, that, is it?”

“We’re undermanned all over you. You know how it is, mate.”

“Kindly address me as ‘Sergeant’.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

Hackworth could hear the guards circling around the truck. One of them banged hard on the truck wall – causing one of the Tunnelers hiding in back to whimper aloud.

The jig was just about up.

Hackworth kind of knew it all along – they were not going to be allowed out of London. They were trapped forever in this cursed city. Furthermore, they were about to be prisoners again – hell, that’s if they weren’t just shot on the side of the road. God knew what kind of rough justice would be meted out, with martial law in place, and civil order collapsing. With soldiers being attacked from all sides – by marauders that would be indistinguishable from Hackworth and his people.

Hell, even Liam hadn’t been able to tell them apart.

And maybe a shallow grave would be the most appealing way of dealing with armed hijackers and kidnappers.

My God
. Hackworth didn’t even like to think about it.

The only possible alternative was… that they break out those guns they had in back, pass them around, and try to shoot their way out. Hackworth didn’t for one second like the idea of killing soldiers – no more than he liked the idea of some, or most, or all of his people being gunned down in turn. It went without saying that the skills and firepower of the soldiers would be massively superior.

He also figured the soldiers manning the ramparts would be different from those manning checkpoints in the city. They would be infantry – maybe combat veterans. Hackworth could hear it in the voice of the one interrogating Liam.

Basically, they were shagged either way.

This was truly Hackworth’s dark night of the soul – and he could see absolutely no way to any kind of a dawn.

But then the ground started to shake.

* * *

The radios of the soldiers started going crazy.

“Do not leave this spot!” Hackworth heard the sergeant shout.

And then something landed on top of the truck – hard. Hard enough to dent the steel roof. This was followed by more bangs on top – smaller and lighter, but no less distressing. Hackworth could hear everyone in back whimpering and whispering. What the hell was happening?

He crawled out of his space and raised his eyes above the dashboard. None of the guards were nearby now. Some were running into their security station, others running out. Quite a few were backing away from the Wall and looking up.

As Hackworth tried to follow their gaze up the towering side of the Wall, he could see debris coming down at them in the shadows cast by the last light of day.

Finally someone on the ground shouted: “
It’s coming down!
”

And now the rain of debris on the roof and the hood became a solid patter – punctuated by larger impacts that made Hackworth and Liam jump. Cries from behind caused them to turn and look into the back.

And in the dimly reflected light, Hackworth could see Amarie and Siobhan and Alderney, and the wounded Brown, their wide eyes shining white with terror. All of those frightened people, all counting on him to keep them safe. And when Hackworth looked at Liam, he could see the young man had seen the same thing.

And then, without a word, Liam jammed the truck in reverse – and he started backing them the hell out of there.

This quickly turned into a feat of tactical driving as Liam snaked the 14-ton truck around other vehicles and concrete barriers, quickly getting them out of the zone of falling debris. But he kept going, getting them even farther away, then cut the wheel sharply to the left. The truck crashed through a gate, taking them into the middle of a large dirt area, now a safe distance from the Wall.

It looked to Hackworth like a helipad. When he looked over at Liam, the kid said, “Military Quarantine Camp.”

Hackworth looked forward. They were not only a safe distance away – they now had an unobstructed front-row seat to watch the Wall coming down. On one level, Hackworth couldn’t believe what he was seeing. On another, it validated all his fears. London couldn’t protect them. It couldn’t survive. Hell, it couldn’t even build a wall that stayed up.

It sounded like the Twin Towers coming down on 9/11. The crash was tremendous and it went on for what seemed like minutes. The air filled with dust, obscuring visibility all around them.

Hackworth climbed out to observe the aftermath.

The first thing he saw was that the gate, and the security station, had survived. Both were to the left of the collapsed section. Moreover – they were no longer manned. There were no guards in evidence. Hackworth was pretty sure they could just drive over there, lift the barrier – and that would be it. They would be out, free and clear, heading north with nothing but themselves to take care of, to depend upon. They would be on their own again.

But then the strangest thing happened. There were definitely a few minutes of stunned shock, as soldiers and workmen stumbled around in the dust-filled air, looking at the destruction, and trying to determine if their friends and colleagues were okay. But that didn’t last long.

Then the soldiers, the security guys, the builders and engineers… they all started organizing. They started working, only minutes after the collapse.

And they started rebuilding the Wall.

* * *

“I need men with shovels and wheelbarrows!”

A man in uniform had climbed up onto a pile of rubble with a bullhorn, and was now shouting orders and instructions.

“Building teams – we need welders and masons, we need a cement mixer, and we need every crane rolling!”

Out on the ground, people had started running in various directions – even before the dust settled. They were rolling up their sleeves. It was amazing to see. A cement mixer was backing up, and guys were handing out trowels and big yellow two-handed tubs for the cement. Others were putting intact stones in wheelbarrows, and getting them rolling toward what was left of the Wall at the point of collapse. Hackworth heard something behind him – and turned to see a heavy self-propelled crane rolling forward, angling toward some giant steel plates scattered on the ground.

“Soldiers, security, and civilian personnel – rally round the engineers and builders! If you don’t have construction skills, you’re manual labor. Everyone fall in. We are rebuilding this wall – starting RIGHT NOW.”

Ladders and scaffolding were going up, as men cleared debris off the still-standing twenty-foot foundation of the wall. A couple of Bobcats and bigger bulldozers were rolling now, starting to clear debris away from the base.

Everyone in sight was pitching in.

Hackworth looked again at the unmanned gate, and got ready to move – when he sensed something behind him. Turning his head, he saw that his people had begun piling out of the truck, and were coming up behind him, also watching in awe. At the front was Amarie. Hackworth watched her face for a second – and then saw Colley watching her as well. And he knew they were thinking the same thing.

Amarie’s little girl, Josie, was back there behind them, back in the heart of London, along with Rebecca Ainsley and her boys.

Could they just run out on them? Let London fall – with Josie in it?

But Hackworth still felt they couldn’t stop now.
Or could they?
He knew the Tunnelers had learned one lesson above all others: that they had to look out for themselves – and no one else. They had been cut off for so long that it had become a reflexive habit.

And maybe it had to be that way.

But Hackworth also knew he and his people had changed, as order had disintegrated around them. In the last day alone, they had stolen a truck, kidnapped the driver, snuck or rammed through government checkpoints… and Hackworth himself had stood there and let a man die right in front of him. Leaving that badly wounded man they passed on the South Bank had been one thing. But the soldier at that checkpoint, looking up and pleading for his help…

But Hackworth had chosen escape, and safety, over the hard, decent, moral choice. To help. To do something. To save a fellow human being. And what he had done was not, in the end, all that different from murder – killing the man himself.

He turned now as he realized Amarie had stepped up beside him. He looked down at her and said, “We’ve stayed alive, when almost everyone else died, by not getting caught up with other groups. By looking out for ourselves.”

She looked up at him, her eyes shining in the dim light. “Yes. It’s true. But how long can we keep doing it? What happens when it’s only us left – when everyone else in the world is dead? How do we survive then?”

Hackworth knew she was right. Even if they made it out – what would that be worth? How long could they survive on their own? As soon as London fell, the dead, including the ten million in London itself, would flood north. They could put off the end. But only put it off.

Maybe they had to make their stand – and maybe it had to be here.

Night was coming. And London was going to need everyone to save her, to keep the flame of humanity burning.

Now Hackworth heard the other front door of the truck open, and looked back to see Liam jump down. The kid didn’t even hesitate – he just took off straight toward the work teams forming up. But at the last second, he slowed and looked back over his shoulder.

“Will!” he shouted. And his eyes pleaded with Hackworth – much as had the eyes of that other soldier, the one on the ground.

And that’s when Hackworth realized: they’d been going down the wrong path. Maybe they’d survive. But what would survival be worth? If they paid for it with their souls?

Liam had it right, from the start. The Tunnelers
were
becoming no different from the marauders – who were out for nobody but themselves, and were even then tearing London apart from the inside. Hell, they weren’t all that much better than the dead, who killed indiscriminately, and were coming to destroy London and humanity from without.

Hackworth looked up at that unguarded exit, and then over at the frantic and industrious construction site spontaneously going up. And he knew he had to make a choice. The Tunnelers had to decide whether to run and save themselves, as they had every time before – or else finally throw their lot in with everyone else. To stand and fight.

But he knew, as always, it wasn’t his choice alone.

He turned to face the group. “We’ve got a choice to make!” he said, looking from person to person. “Do we run north? Or do we stay and help?”

Everyone spoke at once – and they were all saying the same thing.

“Stay!” “I want to help!” “No more running!”

“Okay, then,” Hackworth said. He climbed into the truck cab, pulled the keys from the ignition and locked both front doors. Then he went around back, where a few people, including the wounded Brown, still sat.

“Everyone out!” he said.

When they’d complied, Hackworth regarded the big crates of rifles and pistols that remained in back – and then he closed the gate and locked it. It was easy enough to imagine the time might soon come when they would need them. And not to fight soldiers, marauders, or anybody else still living.

But to fight against the living death that was coming for all of them.

Emerging out in front of the group again, he said: “Everyone follow Liam!”

And the Tunnelers ran forward – toward the sound of the hammers, and to the defense of the realm.

The capital, and the last of humanity, lay naked behind them.

Meat Surfing

Camp Lemonnier - Moving Fast

As they exited the guard tower, hit the ground, and started running, Henno flicked Handon in the shoulder. “Oi – so you ordered the others to leave me behind, then.”

Handon nodded tiredly. He knew Henno would have heard that on the open channel. There was no way around it. And now the reckoning he had feared it would provoke was upon him. Surely Henno would conclude that Handon had used his authority to try to take Henno out – to eliminate a rival.

And there would be no coming back from that.

But then, utterly unexpectedly, Henno also nodded – contentedly, in approval. “Now you’re using your goddamned head.”

Handon looked over at him, not quite comprehending.

“Nobody’s bigger than the mission,” Henno said.

After Handon recovered from his shock at this, and his relief that it wasn’t going to be their final showdown, he realized he had to give it to Henno – the man had the courage of his convictions. He insisted that they be willing to sacrifice anyone – civilians, soldiers, random psychotic girls – to get the job done. And when he said everyone, that was clearly up to and including himself.