Thirteen Roses Book Three: Beyond: A Paranormal Zombie Saga (16 page)

She lifted and took a little of her weight. David tightened his hand and the grip felt more secure. She dragged her feet down the wall, trying to push herself up, but succeeded only in pushing herself away. Her hand came loose from her hold and she swore. Sweat ran down her back.
 

‘You have to pull me up.’

No answer came and she glanced up. David was turning his body and the next moment his other hand emerged from the window, coming down to grab her wrist. ‘You’ll have to help me.’

She grabbed the wall tighter with her other hand. She pulled and David hauled on her wrist and she went up a foot. She flailed with her hand and succeeded in grabbing the wall again. She went up another foot and, with her outstretched hand, gripped the window ledge. She took more of her weight and David’s hand relaxed.
 

She wasn’t ready for it and dropped, a scream escaping her as she fell. He tightened his grip at the last moment and she jolted to a stop. Her heart battered her ribcage like a prizefighter taking shots at the punchbag and she panted, blood pulsing through her temples. She looked down and wished she hadn’t. It wasn’t that far, but it felt plenty high from up here.
 

She watched the floor, waiting for soldiers to appear outside the cathedral. Torches lit the walls in flickering pools of yellow, casting deep shadows around them. No soldiers emerged.
 

‘I can’t hold you much longer.’

She stiffened and felt one of his hands loosen on her wrist. Her heart sped up and she scrabbled on the wall until she could dig her fingers in. ‘Ready?’

Without waiting for a reply she hauled herself up. He tugged and once again she got hold of the window sill with her other hand. This time she gripped tight, but David didn’t relax his hold and between them they pulled until her chest went over the ledge. She rested against it, willing her breathing to slow.
 

It didn’t happen so she pulled herself over until she fell into the tiny corridor. She lay in a heap, hand still gripped in David’s, heart bashing in her chest like it had hammers and got paid double for the overtime. She raised her head to look at him and the smile that came back looked entirely sane.
 

‘Thanks.’

‘Hey, no worries.’

They took another pause and heard the soldiers. They were louder, shouting to one another below.
 

‘Shit, we need to go.’ Krystal twisted her body round until she was upright and stuck her head straight through the window.
 

‘You’re going out there again after that?’

‘Better idea?’

She was met with silence. She pulled herself out and up onto the roof. There was a moment when she clung on with only her hands, feet dangling in space, when her breath stopped and her mind went blank. She gripped with her fingers until they ached. But she wasn’t falling so she scrabbled and scrambled until she was on top of the roof.
 

David’s head appeared below her and he came up exactly the same way. He’d been watching her this time and made a far better go of it. He reached the same place as her, holding on with only his hands, when she realised he probably couldn’t pull himself up. She didn’t dare give him a hand, but lay flat on the roof and hauled on his leg until he got a foot up over the edge. The other followed it and he rolled over and sat up.
 

The roof was only slightly sloped, but was as narrow as the corridor below. Above it, the dome rose steeply away. She explored it for handholds but it was too smooth. They were trapped on less than a square metre of stone, directly above the soldiers. As they settled in, breathing finally calming, soldiers’ voices reached them through the windows.
 

‘They aren’t in here. I know every inch of this ruddy place and they aren’t here.’

‘Well, where then?’

‘They’ll be in the cavern. There’s plenty of hiding places round the walls. We light a few more torches and dig them out. They aren’t going anywhere, don’t sweat it.’

David let out a long breath that sounded horribly loud in the lull after the soldier’s reassurances. The men below were silent, boots no longer clicking on the stone, and Krystal glared at him. He scrunched up his eyes and managed to look apologetic and scared at the same time.
 

They stared at the edge of the roof between their feet and waited. Krystal took David’s hand and squeezed it and he glanced at her, looking green. Any moment. Any second now, they would ruin the entire plan and sentence Luke and the others to death. Any moment.
 

The soldiers’ boots clicked on the stone, growing fainter before fading altogether.
 

She held her breath for a while, not daring to hope they’d actually left. David glanced at his watch and shrugged and she disentangled her fingers from his, wiping the sweat off on her jeans. He put his face in his hands and his shoulders shook.
 

She could see the cavern and the front of the cathedral. The rest of it was hidden from view and she couldn’t help gasping when a soldier appeared far below them, a freshly-lit torch in hand. One by one they emerged and spread out around the cavern, walking until they were vague shapes made unearthly by the pull and play of the flames.

David touched her shoulder and pointed to the shelf at the top of the cavern. It was still far above their vantage point and at that moment three soldiers appeared atop it. She swore and shuffled around the dome. David followed until they were round the far side. Then she craned her neck and watched the soldiers descend into the cavern.
 

From the bottom of the steps they ran straight to the cathedral and inside. David’s voice was barely a whisper. ‘Luke’s told them about the machine.’

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She still didn’t quite believe soldiers weren’t waiting in the tiny corridor below for them to expose themselves. Minutes later the soldiers emerged and their voices rose up. ‘It’s true.’

One of the searchers was close enough to hear and came over. ‘What’s true?’

‘The guys we fought yesterday, you know, the freaks? They’ve disabled the machine.’

The searcher shook his head and his voice was louder when he answered. ‘We’re screwed, then.’

The first man, glaring at his companion, shook his own head vehemently. ‘No, we’re not. We’ve made a deal and we’ll get it back. Anyway, what’s wrong, are you scared of a few zombies?’

‘Course I bloody am. It’s not just a few, it’s the rest of the human sodding race.’

‘Not any more. We’re the human race now and don’t forget it. They mean nothing. They’re obstacles, fodder in the way of the new world, t—’

‘That’s as maybe. They’re still zombies and they still want to eat me and if we don’t have the machine, it doesn’t matter how many bloody guns we’ve got.’

The first man lowered his head as though he was searching on the floor for something. When his head came back up, the gun resting over his shoulder came with it. The thunder as it went off made her yelp and pull her knees in. She blinked as the doubting searcher crumpled to the floor of the cavern. He couldn’t have. Why had he done that? The soldier who had done the shooting glared at the others.
 

‘Anyone else not believe in what we’re doing here? Them upstairs may not like enforcing the Lord’s word, but that’s why we’re here. And I’ll enforce just as much as I see fit if anyone else wants to question the mission.’

The other soldiers turned away, resuming their search with added enthusiasm. The two soldiers who had come in with the shooter, whom Krystal assumed was a leader of some kind, looked suitably contrite, shifting back and forth and keeping their eyes on the ground. More conversation followed but too quiet for her to hear. Shortly, all three set off back to the steps.
 

Krystal watched them go. The shooting had prevented them finding out what was happening in the cavern and she couldn’t quite believe their luck. But they were leaving at a pace and had already reached the steps.
 

David touched her shoulder. ‘I don’t like him.’

‘Yeah, he’s not the nicest guy, is he?’

‘What now?’

He was asking her again. Why was he asking her? She shrugged. ‘We wait, I guess. We could text but what happens if their phones have been stolen?’

‘We could text Jackson?’

‘Why? The guy’s a looney.’

‘You said that about me.’

She blushed. ‘Uh, yeah, sorry about that. And thanks again for the whole life-saving thing.’

‘No problem. Jackson saved my life. He didn’t have to. But he did.’

‘So what, what are you going say?’

David was already pulling his phone from his pocket. ‘I’ll just check in and see what he’s doing. Maybe he’s met the others.’

‘Or maybe he’s dead. Or maybe his phone’s been stolen and we’ll give ourselves away to the soldiers.’

‘At least we’ll know something.’

She hissed through her teeth. ‘Bad idea.’

He nodded but still started texting. She watched him, gripping her knees with her arms to stop herself grabbing the phone. She couldn’t do anything up here that would give them away. What was she even doing here? Why had she ever agreed to be left with David?

What was she doing here at all? Why had she been saved when the plague came? She knew it was down to Luke, to something he’d done. But why? What was she good for? She’d gone out in the hospital to prove what she was good for and only just escaped with her life. She was better at fighting than David, but she was better than him at just about everything as far as she could tell.
 

He
had
just saved her life, though. The thought rankled. She wasn’t beholden to anyone, hadn’t been for years. There was nothing that grated more than someone else having a hold over her. Ed did, but that was something that had happened organically and she’d chosen it, in a way. She could have walked away any time she liked.
 

She looked back at David. Now he’d saved her life and she was trapped. He watched his phone like it was going to kiss him. She found herself staring at it as well. They were like explorers gazing at the radio for some sign there was someone else out there. When it buzzed, David dropped it and it fell into his lap.
 

She gasped and gripped her knees to stop her legs from shaking. David picked it up in hands that shook just as much as hers and read it. Triumphant smile spreading across his lips, he held it up for her to read.
 

Plagues nearly over. Gonna find Luke.
 

She nodded, trying and failing to ignore her own feelings of relief. The women would be waking up soon. A shiver ran through her as her relief drained away as quickly as it had come. When they woke, the soldiers would start using them. She bit her lip and nodded to David.
 

A voice boomed across the cavern and he dropped the phone again. This time it fell between them onto the stone and she moved, agonisingly slowly, as it bounced and fell. Her hands clutched the air where it had been moments earlier and then it dropped off the edge.
 

As she watched it fall, the voice cut through and she actually heard what he said.
 

‘We know you are here. You have our machine and we want it back. Come to us and we will forgive, but hide away and we will treat you as we would any other sinner. Your death will be slow and torturous.’

Luke

Luke laughed as Bayleigh and Alex looked surprised. They were actually shocked that their bargain wouldn’t be honoured. He shook his head. He had somehow ended up with two people for whom the idea of trust and respect was still real. Why would they even think of believing the word of a man who had just ended life on Earth? Even with his new-found humanity, he recognised how naive they were.
 

Etienne carried himself in a way Luke had seen in very few others. The Father was the first that sprung to mind. The assurance that he couldn’t be questioned, and that anything he wanted would come to pass, put Luke’s back up before he even opened his mouth. Etienne was the same. There wasn’t a chance he would let them leave, and despite them escaping once before, didn’t think they were capable of doing so again. He’d probably already convinced himself they had got out through sheer luck the first time.
 

The door opened and a man in a far darker robe entered. He barely spared them a nod before attending to Ed. The bandage came off, accompanied by a series of clucks and disapproving grunts.
 

‘It’s broken, badly. I’ll need to x-ray and then possibly break and reset.’

‘How long will that take?’

‘The x-ray I’ll do now. It’ll take a few minutes to get the result. Then the operation will take an hour or so. Recovery, though, should be measured in months, not weeks.’

Luke watched Bayleigh’s face. She was changing too. Same as him, she’d come here a different person. She hadn’t been foreign to emotion like him, but it had all been focused on her father. She’d had a week of freedom, a brief moment to taste her own life, and now it was gone again. She’d transferred her need to nuture to Ed and Krystal.
 

Luke shook his head. Here was the parts of humanity he wanted to avoid. These meaningless desires to dedicate oneself to something or someone else. Life was so short, so ludicrously short down here, and still people gave so much of it away to others. His lip curled. He wanted to feel sorry for her but he couldn’t deny the contempt. So he turned away to hide it and focused on what the doctor had said.
 

Months. Months of carrying Ed around. Months of an extra problem on top of everything they already had. The Father’s smiling face drifted into his mind and his sneer became an all-out snarl. He spun back to the doctor.

‘That’s not good enough. Do you not have any magic you can apply to this?’

He felt Alex and Bayleigh give him the looks they’d thus far reserved for David and Jackson. He ignored them. The doctor flushed and shifted his weight. ‘I’ve only been authorised to use scientific means.’