Rage Within (11 page)

Michael took a sip of his hot drink, trying not to make a face. It was very strong and he couldn’t even remember
the last time he’d actually had real coffee. The red-haired guy hadn’t offered them either sugar or powdered milk, and he didn’t want to get up from the table to get it himself. With all those eyes watching them, he didn’t think it would be a good idea to make any sudden moves. Katarina had her Taser. Who knew what the others might be concealing?

Clementine gave him a sharp nudge in the side. “Do you think we should ask them about Heath?” she whispered.

Michael shook his head. “Let’s wait a bit. Once we clear everything with that Ryder guy, maybe then they’ll be friendlier. Right now I think they’d rather toss us in front of one of those white vans.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Good point.”

They waited.

Other people came in. They wandered over to tables, where they sat with the others. Many of them whispered to each other, trying to pretend they weren’t looking at or paying attention to the new strangers. But no one came over.

Clementine sipped her coffee politely. Michael could feel her foot tapping nervously on the floor beside him.

The silence grew louder. The stares and whispers became more blatant. Finally after an unbearable ten minutes, Raj walked into the room. He looked around until he spotted them, waved, and then headed over to their table. He moved nonchalantly through the others, stopping to slap palms with the red-haired guy and speak a few words to a group of girls who were eating pizza.

Raj pulled out a chair and sat down across from them.

There was a nice red mark on his face from where someone had hit him.

“Are you okay?” Clementine said. “What did he do to you?”

“Ah, it’s nothing, babes,” Raj said. “Just a bit of a misunderstanding. But it’s all cleared up now. You’re both welcome to spend the night. It’s probably too late for the two of you to be heading back. The scouts said the main roads are heavy with those crazies. They didn’t like our little library escapade.”

Clementine looked at her watch and her eyes widened. “You’re right. I didn’t realize it was so late.” She turned to Michael. “Should we try and make it? We said we’d be back an hour ago.”

“What am I, a broken record?” Raj shook his head. “I just said it’s not safe. Can’t let you leave, babes. Not on a clean conscience.”

“You don’t understand,” Michael said. “We’ve got others waiting for us. If we don’t show up on time, they’ll worry.”

“They’ll understand,” Raj said. “Anyone who’s made it this far is bound to understand. You missed the bus. Couldn’t find a taxi. It’s not like you can call Mummy to come pick you up. Stay with us. You can return in the morning. Besides, you don’t want to miss the show.”

“Show?”

“The rally.” Raj leaned forward until his chin was almost touching the table. “Our plans for disorderly destruction. We have them every night. Keeps us angry. Keeps us aware.”

“Huh?” Michael put his coffee cup down.

Raj leaned back in his chair. “It’s simple. Revenge. It’s our way of righting wrong. The Baggers took away a lot of things. We’re taking it back.”

“How do you plan on doing that?” Clementine asked.

“Come to our meeting and you’ll find out.”

*   *   *

They waited in the very back of a large exhibition room. The room was empty of furniture except for a bunch of
folding chairs and a currently empty podium. But it was filled with people. Raj had told them there were at least sixty people living at the museum. They were all crammed into the small space. Michael figured they were mostly refugees of the university, students who had gathered together when the earthquakes and killings began. Most of the faces he saw were under the age of thirty. There were a few older ones, maybe former professors or staff. Michael had trouble believing that educated professionals would actually listen to someone like Ryder. But as Michael scanned the room, he saw that most of the older people did look like they wanted to be there.

They’d arrived late because of Raj; he’d disappeared for a bit, leaving them to continue sitting in the cafeteria until the sun went down and darkness set in. Now they stood with their backs up against the wall because all the chairs were gone.

“He’s not here,” Clementine said as she scanned the crowd for her missing brother. She studied the faces and heads as people walked past them. But she didn’t venture off on her own. Michael could tell she preferred to keep close to him. She kept chewing on a thumbnail and ignoring the girl with long ponytails who’d taken it upon herself to make sure they didn’t try and sneak off before the rally officially began.

“He’s really amazing,” the girl said. “He’s got this way of talking. You can’t help but fully believe everything that comes out of his mouth.”

Clementine turned and whispered in Michael’s ear, “I seriously doubt that.”

He smiled.

“He’s okay,” Raj said, but not loud enough for the ponytailed girl to hear. “He’s got some ideas. Bit of an extremist, but he has
kept everyone alive. That counts for something in my book.”

The lights dimmed. Music began to play over the speakers. The crowd came alive, cheering and stomping their feet.

All this for that guy? I so missed something earlier. You’d think he was a god or something.

“You are trapped.” A voice echoed over the PA system. Michael raised his head and looked around.

The crowd cheered louder.

“They have tried to steal your soul. They have chained down your life. Taken your family. Abused your mind. But we have a weapon too.”

The crowd went ballistic. Michael looked at Clementine and she rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue at him.

The lights in front of the podium went on, flashing red and blue as Ryder took the stage. He held a microphone in one hand, a judge’s gavel in the other. The people in the front screamed harder and waved their hands at the dark-haired man. Someone lit a lighter.

“Kinda loud, isn’t it?” Michael asked Raj. “I mean, don’t you worry about the sounds reaching the street?”

“Completely soundproof,” Raj shouted back. “Can’t hear a thing past the main lobby. Besides, we’ve got people guarding the place outside. We do this almost every night. Nothing bad has happened yet.”

Ryder puffed up his chest and raised the gavel into the air. “This ends now! We will take back our world!” Slamming the gavel down on the podium, he grinned ravenously at his followers. “We will not let these monsters keep us hidden. We need to rise out of the darkness. Take back the light. They try and give us warnings?”

“WARNING WARNING WARNING,” the crowd chanted, eyes alight. One of the girls in the front started crying
and threw herself down at Ryder’s feet. Her antics only made the crowd that much more crazy.

“We will give them hell!”

“WARNING WARNING WARNING!”

“We will give them pain!”

Clementine turned and stared at Raj. “You believe this crap?”

Raj laughed, showing perfect white teeth. “Never said that, babes. I said he’s doing a good job keeping us safe. He’s still a bloody chav. All bright lights and glam. Keeps the stoners interested, though.”

“It’s nothing but a light show,” Clementine said. “We used to do the same tricks with cheerleading.”

“It’s not so much the delivery as the entire message as a whole,” Raj said. “Flashy lights aside, I do think we need to rise up and kick some Bagger arse. There are a lot of us hiding in this city. If we manage to organize ourselves better, we could actually take them on. It’s all about the numbers.”

Michael watched the group of people whipping themselves into a frenzy. It was amazing. Ryder was a jerk. There was no denying that. He’d treated them terribly during their brief meeting and he’d even thrown his fists around, although he’d been careful to have no witnesses. Raj had told everyone he’d fallen against one of the displays, and the others seemed to believe it.

But when he talked—when Ryder talked—the crowd listened. They heard his words and they cheered him on with all their hearts.

Michael wished people would listen to him like that. He missed being in charge of a group. He closed his eyes and a face flashed across his memory. A small, sick boy. He remembered the child’s mother. She’d fought so hard to keep her boy alive.
Then there was Evans. The man who’d traveled with Michael for three weeks after the first Bagger attack. Evans had trusted him. And Michael had betrayed him.

He’d left them all behind to die during an attack.

No, it was better if he wasn’t in charge. He’d only make a mess of things again.

But still.

Clementine nudged him with her shoulder. “I think we should leave after this,” she said, leaning in close and shouting straight into his ear. “We can sneak out or something. Heath isn’t here. He wouldn’t get involved with stuff like this. I’m game to head home tonight if you are.”

Michael nodded. “Maybe,” he shouted back. “Let’s see what happens.”

She looked at him, raising a single eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you believe this crap? There are thousands of Baggers out there and less than a hundred untrained students here. What chance do they have?”

“It’s probably the same chance whether they want to fight or hide,” Michael answered.

The girl with the ponytails started jumping in place, waving her hands about, and Michael ducked and moved closer to Clementine.

“We will fight,” Ryder screamed. “We will kill them before they get the chance to take any more of us down.”

“WARNING WARNING WARNING.”

Michael turned his head, wondering where Raj had gone. He spotted him a few feet away, leaning against the wall and drinking from a bottle of rum. He caught Michael’s gaze and winked.

“Enjoying the show, mate?” Raj offered up his half-empty bottle. Michael took a long drink.

He never got a chance to answer. A loud bang echoed through the exhibition room. Someone had thrown open the heavy doors. Katarina rushed in, blood pouring from a gash on her face. Everyone’s vocal chords cut off at once.

Dead silence.

Katarina swayed back and forth as her eyes tried to focus on the people waiting.

“They’re here,” she said.

Her knees buckled beneath her and she fell forward, her face making a sickening squelching noise as it hit the floor.

The PA system hummed. No one moved.

Several seconds ticked by. Finally the girl with the ponytails opened her mouth and let out a very long scream.

People began to run. They rushed past each other, bodies slamming into bodies as they all tried to reach the exit at the exact same time. A girl went down, tumbling to the ground as others stomped over her, completely oblivious to her weak cries. Another guy, the red-haired one, grabbed a girl by the hair and pulled her aside to try and get closer to the door. The girl spun around and ended up punching the guy beside her.

Complete frenzy.

Michael and Clementine would have to try and follow the crowd if they were going to get out in one piece.

Michael grabbed hold of Clementine’s hand and squeezed tightly. “Don’t let go of me,” he said.

“Not a chance.”

They tried to stick to the sides as they inched their way toward the door. Michael’s foot stepped on something squishy and he jumped back, horrified to see a body beneath him. He couldn’t see the face attached to it; there were too many legs rushing about. From somewhere down the hall, gunshots fired. People screamed louder. Some of them turned and tried
pushing their way back into the room. A fist came out of nowhere, slamming into Michael’s ear. Tiny stars exploded across his vision. Clementine’s hand was jerked almost out of his. An older man pulled her back by her blond locks, trying to get past. Ignoring the pain in his ear, Michael raised an arm and tried to pry the guy’s hands out of her hair. He managed to free her, and the older man turned around in confused circles, several pieces of Clementine’s hair tangled in his fingers.

“You did this.”

The voice hissed in Michael’s ear. A fist hammered down on Michael’s skull, forcing his legs to become jelly. Suddenly he was down on the floor and staring up at the ceiling lights. Clementine immediately knelt to help him up, but Ryder grabbed her, pushing her aside as he reached down to place his hand across Michael’s throat. Bringing up his foot, he slammed the heel of his shoe straight into Michael’s stomach.

“You did this,” Ryder repeated. “You brought them here.”

“We didn’t do anything.” Michael’s voice gurgled under the pressure as Ryder’s hand tightened.

“Leave him alone, man.” Raj had joined the circle. “Look at him. There’s no black veins. He’s one of us.”

“He’s one of them,” Ryder continued. “He’s managed to fool me. His eyes are normal but he’s one of them. Maybe he’s working for them.” Ryder forced up a good ball of spit and let it fly at Michael’s face. “Traitor.”

The light of the room was starting to grow dim around the edges. Everything started to slow down. Michael could see Clementine throwing herself on Ryder’s back, pounding at him with her fists. A bright halo of light flickered from the back of her head. Her blond hair was glowing in the spotlights.

She was so beautiful. How come he hadn’t properly noticed it before?

He did, however, notice that Raj had turned over his rum bottle and the liquid was draining out onto the floor.

Someone’s going to slip,
he thought.

Then Raj brought the bottle down along the side of Ryder’s head.

The air rushed back and Michael took it in with great gasping whooshes. He started coughing, which brought the stars back with a vengeance. Ryder dropped down across his legs, and Clementine quickly grabbed his arm and tried to pry him off Michael. The preacher was unconscious, blood trickling from a gash in the side of his head.

“Told you the guy’s a bit dense,” Raj said. Reaching down, he grabbed Michael by the arm and helped him to his feet. Clementine appeared on his other side, wrapping her small arms around his waist, trying to prop him up.

“I’m okay,” Michael finally mumbled. His throat burned when the words came out. So much pain. Everything had happened so quickly. It was a miracle the nut hadn’t crushed his windpipe.