Vengeance (Twenty-Five Percent Book 3) (2 page)

“Yeah?”

“You’re friends with Alex, right?”

Sam couldn’t help smiling. “I think so. I hope so. I mean, yeah.”

“Okay, well, um...” Ben winced then blurted, as if it was one long word, “He’snotreallygayishe?”

Sam stopped screwing in the bolt on the mechanism that would hold the steel cable taut. “No. I mean I tried, but he didn’t... no. He likes Hannah.” He frowned. “
Liked
Hannah. Why?”

Ben let out a long breath. “No reason. There was this incident back at... but that’s a relief to hear. Pauline told me it was a trick and he wasn’t serious, but she has a wicked sense of humour and sometimes I’m not sure if she’s joking or not. But thanks. That’s good to know.”

He turned his back and started rummaging amongst the tools they were using with a fervour that indicated the subject was closed.

Sam went back to tightening the bolt without any idea what they’d just been talking about.

. . .

Two hours and, between the six of them, thirteen steel cable potential helicopter traps later, they headed back towards East Town.

Sam watched out the window as they drove. He wanted to get Claire something. He wasn’t sure what, but he had a feeling he’d know it when he saw it. He was uncomfortable with taking anything from the stores they passed, even though he knew the owners were more than likely either dead or infected. He was determined to find something to bring Claire, however.

He’d heard her crying in her bedroom again last night. She missed her mum. He knew exactly how she felt. Sometimes, when he was dreaming, he heard his parents’ screams as they died. It felt like a flaming arrow was piercing the middle of his chest every time he thought about them. So he wanted to find Claire something that would make her smile, let her know she wasn’t alone and how much he cared about her. Even though they were just friends, he could do that.

He tried not to think about how desperately he wanted to be more than just Claire’s friend.

When they’d almost reached home, he saw what he was looking for.

“Could you stop up there?” he said to Janie, pointing.

She pulled over and he jumped out.

“I’ll be back in a minute, don’t leave without me.”

He jogged over to a bed of roses in the centre of a roundabout that had somehow escaped an eater trampling. Choosing the red, he studied the blooms for a few seconds before settling on one that was half open and didn’t have any holes in the petals or leaves. He separated the stem from the bush, shook off a couple of tiny black beetles, and returned to the van.

“It’s for Claire,” he said when he was back inside. “She misses her mum so much, I just wanted to bring her something that would make her smile.” He looked to Janie and Penny for their female expertise on what women wanted. “Do you think she’ll like it?”

There were a few moments of silence.

Janie blinked a few times and cleared her throat. “I think she’ll love it. It’s a very thoughtful thing to do, Sam.”

Penny nodded. “She’ll definitely like it. You may be the best boyfriend ever.”

“Oh, I’m not... we’re not...”

Penny smiled and winked. “Not yet.”

Sam felt the blood rush to his face and he looked down to hide his embarrassed smile.

“Uh, I’ll be right back.” Leon opened the passenger side door and climbed out.

“You know,” Dave said, “Pauline could use a reason to smile. She misses Hannah and, well...” He got out and followed Leon to the roses.

Janie and Penny looked at Ben.

“And who exactly do I have to take a rose to?” he said.

Penny patted his arm. “I’m sure you’ll find someone.” Her eyes widened and she focused on his sleeve, running her hand up and down his bicep through the material. “And I’m thinking it won’t take you too long. Wow, you must work out a
lot
.”

Ben smiled and sat up straighter. He looked like he was flexing. “I’ve fine tuned my routine to maximise the efficiency of my workout time with the right amount of reps and the correct weights. That’s often where people go wrong. You have to know what you’re doing.”

Sam wondered how long it took to get muscles that big and if it wasn’t completely out of the question that he might be able to do it. Maybe Ben could show him what to do. Or Brian, he was almost as big, and almost as tall.

Sam then wondered if Claire liked big muscles.

A minute later Dave came back with an orange rose, Leon returned with one red and two pink, and they started off again.

Sam looked at the flower in his hand. He hoped Claire was home by now. He couldn’t wait to see her smile when he gave her the rose.

Alex finished the last bite of his second onion chutney and spam sandwich and considered what to eat next.

Bacon would have been better, but it was probable there wasn’t one single rasher of the good stuff left anywhere in Sarcester. Besides which, being the first thing he’d eaten in five days, even spam tasted amazing.

Not eating since they got back from Omnav hadn’t been intentional. He had simply lost the drive to do anything ‘normal’, anything that would feel like he was living life as it had been before. So he’d spent five days lying in bed, not eating, not communicating, not showering. The first thing he’d done after hearing Harvey Boot was on his way was get himself clean. Micah had insisted on it.

Micah had tried to get him to eat a few times the first couple of days, even bringing a bowl of chilli con carne from Pat, but even his neighbour’s unequalled cooking skills hadn’t been able to tempt him. After that, Micah had given up.

Whether it was the despair, or a kind of self punishment, or some other psychological problem, Alex supposed it didn’t really matter. The chance to get to Boot had snapped him out of it.

And now he’d started eating, he didn’t want to stop.

Micah went to the fridge and brought out two desserts. He placed a still sealed individual chocolate cheesecake only two days past its use by date in front of Alex and sat down to open a low fat strawberry yoghurt.

“Don’t you have a cheesecake?” Alex said as he peeled off the foil lid and inhaled the heady aroma of chocolate mousse.

“That’s the last one,” Micah said. “I saved it for you.”

Alex looked down at the small pudding, his mouth watering. “Oh. Well, we could split it.” He didn’t want to split it, but he felt obliged to make the offer.

“No, it’s yours. You eat it. I know you want to.”

Alex dug his teaspoon in. He didn’t need to be told twice. “Thank you. You’re a good friend.” He sucked the chocolatey cheesy mouthful from the spoon, closing his eyes to savour the taste as it melted on his tongue. “That is so good. But I feel bad that you don’t have one.”

Micah smiled. “Don’t. Janie brought us four. I ate the other three.”

Unwilling to risk losing any of the cheesecake, Alex clamped his mouth shut and laughed through his nose. “And I thought you were being so generous,” he said when he was finally able to swallow. It felt good to laugh.

“Dude, chocolate cheesecake. You’re lucky you got that one.”

Alex took a second bite. “What time’s the meeting?”

“Midday at Janie’s. Leon said they were using the morning to do something Bates came up with. I didn’t ask what. I should probably have offered to help, but...” He shrugged.

“Have you been home at all?”

Micah shook his head, looking down into his yoghurt pot. “I didn’t feel like going back out.”

“I’m sorry. I haven’t been much use.”

In many ways, Micah had lost more than him, and yet Alex was the one who’d gone to pieces. He was ashamed of himself. Not for the first time, he wished he had Micah’s strength of character.

Micah leaned back and stared out the window. “To be honest, I didn’t really want to talk about it either. It was just...” He shrugged and swallowed another spoonful of yoghurt. “I didn’t want to be on my own.”

Lying in bed, Alex had thought he wanted to be left alone. Now he knew he didn’t. Just knowing Micah was there had helped. “I know what you mean.”

“Plus,” Micah said, “me and the sofa, we’ve bonded.”

Alex carefully peeled away a sliver of his dwindling cheesecake, trying to make it last as long as possible. “I worry about you sometimes.”

“You ready to go out into the big, wide world again?”

“Are you?”

Micah scraped out the last of his yoghurt and tossed the empty pot into the sink without getting up. “It’s not like we have a choice.”

“Then it doesn’t really matter how ready we are. After we’ve dealt with Boot, then we’ll get a proper rest.”

“In a country full of flesh eating monsters?”

“Rest is a relative term.”

They were silent as Alex chased the last few crumbs of cheesecake base with his spoon.

“Are you really going to do it?” Micah said. “Kill Boot I mean?”

Alex leaned back in his chair. “I’ve been killing monsters for three weeks. What’s one more?”

“It’s just, I remember you saying, back when we first came across Gaz and friends, that you didn’t think you could kill an uninfected person.”

Alex studied his sadly empty cheesecake container. “A lot has happened since then. Now, I’m not sure you could hold me back.”

Micah glanced at the fridge freezer where he’d used two of Alex’s novelty magnets to fix the photo of his family he’d been carrying around with him to the door. “I’m not sure I would even try.”

. . .

The meeting to discuss the defence of the city was held in Janie’s flat as she had the largest living room of the East Town group. Even so, it was a tight fit and many of those assembled were standing or sitting on cushions on the floor.

By the time Alex and Micah walked in at 12:10pm people were drinking coffee and tea, eating biscuits, and chatting in small groups. There was the briefest of pauses in the murmurs of conversation as they entered the room, glances darting their way, before the low susurration resumed. Many of those assembled greeted them. Rodney Cutter nodded at Alex. Alex hadn’t seen him since the second day of the outbreak and he was glad to see his partner was all right. Neither Beth nor Carrie were with him. Micah was clearly disappointed.

Sam waved to Alex from across the room, beckoning him over to where he was seated on the sofa next to Claire. “I saved you a seat,” Sam said, patting the cushion next to him.

“Thanks, Sam,” Alex said, glad of the comfortable seat.

Micah stood staring down at him, eyebrows raised. Alex sighed and shifted closer to Sam and Micah wedged himself into the gap. The four of them on the three-seater sofa was a squeeze and Alex had to press close to Sam. When they’d first met he would have felt awkward, but now he understood Sam better he didn’t mind. Besides which, by the way he gazed at her Sam seemed to appreciate being close to Claire a lot more than being close to Alex.

“I missed you,” Sam said. “Are you feeling better?”

“I think I am thanks. How about you?”

He felt Sam’s shrug against his shoulder. “I’ve been doing a lot of stuff, like shifts as a spotter, and I’ve been out with the food distribution teams twice. And this morning I went with Ben, Dave, Leon, Penny and Janie to fix cables to buildings.”

“Fix cables to buildings?” Micah said, leaning forward so he could look at Sam across Alex.

“Mr Bates thinks we can use them to stop Mr Boot’s helicopters. There are two outside here.” He pointed to towards the front of the building. “Didn’t you see them?”

Micah shook his head and looked at Alex.

“I didn’t see anything,” Alex replied. “Maybe we should look up more.”

“Well, they aren’t hard to miss if you don’t know they’re there,” Sam said. “That’s the point, so they just fly into them.” He chewed his lower lip. “I don’t really want anyone to get hurt though.”

“We might not be able to avoid it,” Alex said.

Sam sighed. “I know.”

A steaming mug descended into Alex’s field of vision and he took it, glancing up at the tall, blond man who’d brought him and Micah coffee.

“Thanks, Logan,” he said to Janie’s twenty-three year old son.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sam’s smile disappear.

Logan held out a plate. “Biscuit?”

Both Micah and Alex took a bourbon cream. Sam shook his head.

“Claire?” Logan said.

From her place on the other side of Sam, Claire looked up from where she’d been talking to Kenny and flashed Logan a smile, taking a digestive from the plate. “Thanks.”

Alex felt Sam tense next to him.

Logan winked at her. “Anytime.”

Sam shifted, dropping his gaze to his lap.

Alex had assumed from how close they’d been during their time at Omnav that Sam and Claire would have been even closer by now. Apparently, that wasn’t the case. Alex felt for Sam. The young man was obviously crazy about her.

It made Alex think of Hannah and he carefully pushed her face from his mind. He needed to keep it together.

The general murmur of conversation in the room came to a sudden halt as a shrill whistle pierced the air.

“I think Janie might be trying to get our attention,” Micah muttered, nodding towards her where she stood in front of the TV.

“Welcome to my childhood,” Logan said before going to find a vacant cushion on the floor.

“Okay people,” Janie said, “we all know why we’re here. The psychotic jerk with the power to control eater hordes is on his way. Basically, we’re up
that
creek and our paddle has been eaten by a crocodile, so we need ideas. Bates?”

Bates stepped forward. One of his lackeys - Paul, Peter, Pancake, something like that, Alex couldn’t remember exactly - followed and Blu-tacked a huge map to the wall. It looked very much like the map of the city Alex had seen in Bates’ office weeks ago, although it had lost all the red dots Bates had used to mark out the homes of Survivors.

“We can’t say for sure what Harvey Boot has planned,” Bates said, “but we can be sure it will involve hordes of eaters. We could be looking at something of a siege situation here before long, so we need to be prepared. MacCallum and Clarke are going to be trying to stop Boot before he gets here, but in the event that fails we need to be prepared to take out large amounts of eaters. So we’re here to brainstorm. Let’s hear your ideas.”

Alex leaned close to Micah. “We’re doing what?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

A plethora of suggestions followed, every one of which was written down, no matter how outlandish. Some of them actually sounded like they had a chance of working. As eaters couldn’t swim water featured heavily, and it was clear the river would be a large part of their defence.

“Maybe we could dowse them in paraffin and set them on fire,” Logan said after a while.

“
NO
!” Alex and Micah yelled at the same time.

Bates frowned. “That doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me. With the way they stick close together, the fire would spread quickly.”

“We’ve seen what happens when you set an eater on fire,” Micah said. “Believe me, all it does is make them even harder to kill.”

“But...”

“Imagine an eater in this room right now,” Micah said. Everyone gazed into space as they conjured up the scenario. “Now imagine that eater on fire.”

Eyes widened. Heads nodded. A few people said, “Ohhh,” as understanding dawned.

It was universally agreed not to set any eaters on fire.

Alex was quiet through the whole meeting. The reality of what was coming was weighing increasingly heavily on him, bringing with it an unhealthy dose of guilt. Boot wasn’t coming for his friends and neighbours. He wasn’t even coming for Micah. He was coming for Alex, and everyone here would get caught in the crossfire.

Just like Hannah had.

After an hour, he couldn’t take it anymore. Not saying anything, he stood, made his way across the packed room, and left. Heart pounding, he almost ran down the corridor to the street to breathe in the fresh air.

When the door to Janie’s building opened behind him, he didn’t have to turn around to know who it was.

“You know this isn’t your fault.”

Alex stared up into the overcast sky, his mood greyer than the low clouds. “Do I?”

“Well if you don’t, you should.” Micah walked up beside him, his hands pushed into the back pockets of his jeans, and followed his gaze. “I wonder how eaters feel about rain. Do they prefer to not get wet like the rest of us?”

“He’s coming for me,” Alex said. “How can I not feel guilty? I’m bringing this down on everyone here.”

“Boot’s insane, you know that. He was just waiting for someone to take out his pent up lunacy on. You were simply convenient. It could as easily have been me, one of the docs, a passing rabbit, anyone. It just happened to be you. You were actually a pretty random choice for his vitriol. Face it, you’re just not that special.”

“Are you trying to make me feel better?”

Micah shrugged one shoulder. “Is it working?”

“Not really.”

“Well, I gave it my best shot. It also happens to be true.”

Alex sighed. “If I left, if Boot knew I wasn’t here...”

“He may attack Sarcester anyway, just to use it for target practice, and then how would you feel? Besides, for all you know he’s not even coming here for you. Brian, Ben and Rick worked for him for years, he could be coming after them. Or maybe he’s coming to get Dave, Pauline and Larry back to work on the virus. Or he could be after me for blowing up his lab. Or it could be option E: he’s a maniac who doesn’t need a reason. We have no idea what’s going through his twisted brain.” He crossed his arms and leaned against a parked car. “Those people in there, your friends, they’d do anything for you. And they’re tough and savvy so let them. Together, I think we have a good chance of stopping Boot, no matter what he throws at us. And he has to be stopped. He can’t be allowed to sell this new virus to the rest of the world. It has to end here, and we have to end it.”