Vengeance (Twenty-Five Percent Book 3) (23 page)

Tracey’s voice came from Adam’s radio. “We’re on our way. Porter, Ridge, Hud, to the front door now. Everyone else, get somewhere safe and hide, just in case.”

Grabbing his rifle, Adam stood and walked to the door that led deeper into the facility and, ultimately, to the front entrance.

From somewhere in the direction of the back door, something clattered.

Sam started and turned to look at the door leading back there. “What was that?”

Adam kept his voice low, making a u-turn to move in that direction. “Claire, take Emma and Katie to the infirmary and stay there. You too, Sam.”

Claire picked up Katie and took Emma’s hand. “Come on, we’re going to go stay with your mum and dad.”

“You can’t go by yourself,” Sam said to Adam, pulling his pistol from his waistband.

“Sam, no,” Claire said, worry clouding her face.

“It’s all right,” Sam said. “It’s probably nothing, just some of the furniture falling. We’ll be right back.”

He smiled, trying to reassure her. He could tell she wanted to argue and his heart leapt at seeing her afraid for him. That meant she
cared
about him. Didn’t it?

She glanced at Emma and Katie then back at Sam. “Be careful,” she said, then turned and strode out, Emma jogging at her side.

“Sam, you don’t...” Adam began.

“We’ll just make sure it’s nothing and then you can go to the front door and I’ll go to the infirmary,” Sam said quickly, before he could change his mind.

There was another sound, this time like something scraping on a floor.

“That could be more furniture falling all by itself, couldn’t it?” Sam was beginning to regret trying to be brave.

Adam flashed him a smile. “’Course it could.” He walked to the door and opened it a sliver, peering through the gap before pulling it wide enough to get through. “Just as a precaution though, stay behind me.”

Sam followed him into the corridor and reached for the light switch beside the door.

“Leave it off,” Adam said, his voice soft. “We don’t want to be an easily targeted silhouette when we open that door.” He nodded towards the far end of the corridor. “In the unlikely event there is anyone in there. Which I’m sure there isn’t.”

Sam lowered his hand and reluctantly let the lounge door close behind him.

He knew it was a stupid thing to say before he said it, but he said it anyway. “I can’t see anything.”

“Me neither,” Adam replied. “I have a torch. If we need it, I’ll use it.”

Sam swallowed. “Okay.”

They crept along the corridor to the door at the far end, Sam wishing he was a Survivor even more than he usually did. He didn’t even know they’d got there until he bumped into someone he hoped was Adam.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

“S’alright,” Adam whispered back, to Sam’s relief.  “I’m going to open the door now. Stay back behind the wall until I tell you it’s safe.”

Sam nodded, adding, “Okay,” when he remembered Adam couldn’t see him.

He heard the soft movement of the door handle and the click of the latch disengaging. The door creaked a little as it opened. The light from a torch flicked on.

Adam gasped. There was a brief flurry of gunshots and he fell back into the open doorway, his radio shattering on the concrete floor. The torch dropped from his hand and rolled towards Sam.

“Adam?” Sam said.

There was no response.

More shots fired from inside the room and Sam threw himself to the floor, covering Adam’s body with his own. The soldier wasn’t moving.

Sam heard heavy footsteps. Not stopping to think, he grabbed the torch and shined it through the still open door, keeping close to the floor. He glimpsed movement, a tall figure behind a pile of furniture.

“Stop right there!” Sam screamed. “I’m armed!”

The figure stopped and another shot fired. The bullet ricocheted off the door above Sam.

He wanted to run and hide, but Adam still hadn’t moved. Sam couldn’t leave him.

He grasped Adam’s pistol and fired twice, too terrified to aim, just wanting to drive whoever it was back. When the man ducked behind the stack of furniture they’d left there to barricade the broken door, Sam grabbed Adam’s arms and hauled him into the corridor, out of sight of whoever was shooting at them. The shirt at the front of his shoulder was turning red and there was a bloody streak on the floor where his head had been. Sam felt his neck like he’d seen on countless TV shows. It took him a few increasingly panicked tries, but he finally found a pulse.

“Throw out your gun and I won’t hurt you,” a deep, gravelly voice said.

“I don’t believe you,” Sam shouted back.

What was he going to do? He couldn’t carry Adam, and even if he could he couldn’t let the man into the rest of the building. He wouldn’t let anyone harm his friends. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt Claire.

He crawled to the door and peered around the frame, but it was too dark to see anything without shining the torch inside. Remembering the light switch was to the left of the door, he had an idea.

He switched off the torch, plunging the corridor into darkness. He waited a couple of seconds then leaped up and slid his hand around the doorframe, feeling for the switch on the other side of the wall. Shots rang out. Sam flinched, trying to duck as low as possible while still reaching for the switch and expecting at any moment to feel the sting of a bullet piercing his body. Then his fingers found what he was feeling for and the strip lighting on the ceiling flickered into life. Momentarily blinded, Sam dropped back down, squinting into the painfully lit room.

The man’s eyes came to rest on him. He aimed his gun.

There was movement at the door behind him.

“Behind you!” Sam shouted.

The man laughed. “I’m not falling for...”

The eater reaching for him uttered a moan as its hands grasped his shoulders. The guard cried out. Sam stood, trying to aim at the eater’s head, but the man was in the way. The eater yanked him backwards and they both fell out of sight.

Beyond the furniture pile, more eaters were squeezing into the room from the narrow door leading to the outside.

Sam pressed the trigger on Adam’s pistol over and over. A few eaters fell. More took their place.

Gunfire from behind the furniture was followed by a scream of agony. The man reappeared, his neck covered in blood, and staggered into the open. After only two steps, he was caught by another eater. The woman sank its teeth into his arm and he screamed again. Sam shot at it, but only managed to hit its shoulder. It ignored the wound and kept chewing. Another eater walked up behind him as he struggled to get free and bit into his shoulder.

A blank expression on his face, the man looked Sam in the eye, raised the pistol he held to his temple, and pulled the trigger. Eaters swarmed his body as he collapsed.

Already more were looking in Sam’s direction. He bit back a cry, backed through the door and pushed it closed.

Kneeling beside Adam, he shook the unconscious man. “Adam,” he whispered, “please wake up. Please.”

The door rattled and Sam looked up to see a blood-covered face pressed to the glass. The corridor was still dark, but light was spilling from the room. The eater twisted its head, saw him, and began to scrabble at the door. More faces joined it, all of them focused on Sam and Adam. It was only a matter of time before they forced their way through.

Sam shook Adam frantically, raising his voice. “Wake up! You have to wake up.”

When he still didn’t stir, Sam pushed his hands beneath Adam’s shoulders and dragged him backwards towards the lounge.

The door banged open behind him and Sam gasped, for a second certain the eaters must have got in that way too. He breathed out when he saw who it was.

“I heard gunshots.” Claire’s eyes widened. “Sam!”

“They’re going to get through,” he said. “Adam was shot and I think he hurt his head.”

He expected Claire to help drag Adam to safety. Instead, she picked him up, settled him over her shoulder, and ran for the lounge, leaving Sam staring after her in awe. The sound of eater moans and the rattling of the door jolted him back to the danger-filled reality and he followed her.

As they reached the door a crash came from behind them and Sam turned to see eaters lurching into the corridor. Claire carried Adam into the lounge and Sam shoved the door closed behind them. Moments later it shuddered under the strain of bodies hitting the other side.

“Why don’t any of these doors have locks?” he said, looking around for something to hold it closed.

Claire laid Adam onto one of the sofas and pushed another towards Sam. Together, they lodged it against the door.

“It won’t stop them if they get the door open,” she said.

Adam groaned and Sam ran to him as he opened his eyes.

“What’s going on?” he said, his voice slightly slurred.

“The eaters got in,” Sam said. “Can you walk? We have to go.”

Adam’s gaze swivelled to the sofa lodged in front of the shuddering door. He sat up, grimacing and pressing a hand to his wounded shoulder. “Yeah.”

They made their way to the infirmary, Adam leaning on Sam as he walked. The door opened as they approached and Pat ushered them in, closing it behind them.

“What’s happening?” Leon said. He was sitting up and a pistol lay on the bed beside him.

Adam slumped onto one of the empty beds and Pat went to a metal cabinet in one corner of the room, removing a selection of medical supplies. Claire unhooked Adam’s rifle from around him and placed it on Leon’s bed, then unbuttoned his shirt, exposing the bullet wound on his shoulder.

“One of Boot’s guards got in the back,” Sam said, looking through the half glazed door into the empty corridor outside. “He shot Adam, but he must have left the back door open because eaters got in.”

“There are eaters out there?” Pat said, glancing at the door.

“We tried to block the door into the lounge, but we don’t know how long it will hold.”

“Dad?” Emma said, her voice trembling.

Leon beckoned her to him and she climbed onto his bed, helping Katie up with her.

“It’s alright, baby,” he said, wrapping his arms around his daughters. “You don’t have to be scared. We’re going to be okay.”

Pat turned back to Adam’s shoulder, surreptitiously wiping at her eyes.

“What about the radio?” Leon said. “We can call for help.”

“It broke,” Sam said. “I could go and bring the others back...”

A sound interrupted him, a series of bangs and scrapes. Sam knew what they were. The horde had broken through. They were inside.

He grabbed a chair and lodged it beneath the handle then backed away from the door, his heart thumping in his chest. He could hear the moans of the horde now as they searched for them. It wouldn’t be long before they were found.

He stared at the door. It seemed so flimsy, with its window in the top half and not even a lock. There was no way it would hold the horde at bay.

Beside Leon, Katie whimpered. Pat moved to the bed and held onto her with one hand, picking up Leon’s pistol with the other. Leon held Adam’s rifle steady, although his face was pale and bathed in sweat. Sam watched him wince in pain. Emma held onto her father, her eyes wide and terrified. Claire came to stand next to Sam, her eyes on the door and her hand clutching tight onto his. He could feel her trembling.

Any minute now Sam knew the horde would get there, burst through the door and tear them all apart. The two little girls would die in terror and agony and there would be nothing any of them could do about it. Claire would be killed and he wouldn’t be able to save her. It would be too late.

But it wasn’t yet. He couldn’t leave them to get help now; he’d never make it before the eaters got to them. But there was something else he could do.

He wouldn’t fail them. Not again.

Making his decision, he let go of Claire’s hand and pulled the chair from beneath the handle.

“Put this back when I’ve gone,” he said, “and turn the lights off and stay quiet. I’m going to lead them away.”

Claire gasped.

“Sam, no,” Leon said. “We can hold them back.”

Sam wanted to believe him, he wanted to think it would be just like in the movies where it would come down to the last second and something miraculous would happen and they would be saved, but he knew better. This was real life. He always wanted to believe things would work out in the end, but he’d learned in the past few weeks that for many people, it didn’t. He’d also learned that anyone could be a hero, even him.

“I can save you,” he said. “And I can save them.” He nodded at Emma and Katie.

Leon looked like he wanted to argue, but he kept quiet. Sam understood. His daughters came first, just as Sam had come first for
his
parents.

Pat came forward to hug him, whispering, “Thank you.”

“Be careful,” Adam said.