Z. Apocalypse (9 page)

Oldman glanced at Eve who had followed her daughter out of the lab. She nodded. ‘Let’s do this.’

Adam felt queasy as he and Zoe were
gently ushered into the hangar. His dad’s hand on his shoulder did little to ease the rising tension as he took the last steps past the lockers . . .

And there he was, facing the giant pterosaur
again. Adam felt his insides rock at the sheer size and scale of the Z. dactyl – then recoiled back a few steps as her eyes snapped open.

‘It’s all right, Adam,’ Oldman murmured. ‘She can’t hurt you.’

She’s the one who’s hurt
, thought Adam, as through the chains and steel netting holding her down, she shifted her head as if watching him approach. He shivered inside his parka. The chill of the darkened hangar seemed reflected in Keera’s eyes.

Zoe trundled along in her wheelchair, drawing level with Adam as he walked towards the huge bars that caged off the pterosaur. Keera didn’t react as Eve
carefully scooped up the cradle of wiring that ran from her head and plugged the leads into the connectors Zoe wore like jewellery.

Adam closed his eyes as Mr Adlar positioned the Think-Send headset in place. ‘I’ll tell you what to say through your earpiece,’ Oldman reminded him. ‘There are cameras all around, and we’ll be monitoring everything from the control room.’

‘Got it,’ Adam breathed.
He felt his dad’s hands on his shoulders one more time, then heard the echo of retreating footsteps. Keera’s eyes were still wide and staring.

Zoe looked at him. He tried to give her a smile, but his lips felt stiff, uncertain. Everyone was counting on them; whatever they found out here would reach
the world’s most important people before the day was out.
And we’re just kids
, he thought, his
confidence failing.
We don’t count really, we
—

Oldman’s voice crackled into his ear. ‘Testing, one, two. Adam, can you hear me?’

Not trusting his voice, Adam looked for the nearest security camera and nodded, holding up his thumb. A few seconds later Zoe did the same thing.

‘OK, Adam,’ came his dad’s calm voice, ‘I’m opening the signal channels, but we’re still guessing on the precise wavelength.
Try to make contact.’

With a deep breath, Adam stared at Keera and forced himself to concentrate. He could already feel a kind of hardness to his thoughts, a familiar sensation of strength and control. Most times it meant he was opening the door to a virtual world, where he could run around adventuring as someone else. But right now the fiction was fact and he was just a mental mouthpiece, projecting
words into the messed up mind of a gargantuan monster.
Do it
, he told himself.
The sooner this is over
—

‘It’s not over!’ shrieked Zoe, convulsing in her chair.

The sudden sound and movement was like a spike in Adam’s chest. On instinct, he made towards her to check she was OK, but babbling broke out in his ear. ‘Don’t touch her!’ Oldman snapped. ‘The responses from Keera just went through the
roof.’

‘I’m OK,’ Zoe called shakily.

‘I don’t understand.’ Eve’s voice was low through his earpiece; Adam could hear controls being worked, buttons pressed. ‘Contact never happened so fast before.’

Mr Adlar’s voice broke in: ‘We didn’t even ask anything. But with her mind damaged, perhaps it’s just random—’

‘No.’ Adam’s voice sounded small and lost in the cavernous hangar. ‘I reckon she picked
up on something I was thinking. I was wishing this was over—’

‘It’s not over,’ Zoe hissed, rocking in the chair. ‘She knows that, but . . . She’s so strong, Mum. It’s not just impressions and feelings, she thinks with
words
I can understand . . .’

Eve’s voice came quiet and breathless. ‘This never happened before.’

‘Oldman’s right,’ Mr Adlar muttered. ‘Since the Think-Send signal is built around
Adam’s brainwaves, his thoughts are super-compatible with the system. Like an aerial booster brings in a sharper TV picture, he’s amplifying the signal in and out of Keera’s brain.’

Adam had broken out in a cold sweat. ‘What do you want me to ask her?’

‘It’s not over,’ Zoe said again, in a spooky stage whisper. ‘Who . . . are you?’ She spoke normally
again. ‘Mum, she wants to know who we are.’

‘Say we’re friends,’ Oldman instructed. ‘We want to help her.’

‘We’re friends,’ Adam parroted. ‘We want—’

‘The creator,’ Zoe hissed. ‘Creator . . . my friend . . .’

‘No,’ Adam said automatically. ‘The people who created you are
not
your friends. We are.’

‘She’s not getting it,’ Zoe reported. ‘Creator’s her friend . . . she keeps thinking it.’

Oldman spoke again in Adam’s ear, quiet and urgent.
‘Adam, we need to know about the Creator, OK? Who created her?’

‘She wants to know why can’t she move?’ Zoe said, words jerking from her mouth. ‘Heavy is wrong for her . . . She hates this place. She wants the sky back. Creator gives her flight . . .’

‘Adam, come on,’ Oldman urged him.

Looking into the pterosaur’s dark eyes, Adam pictured the words as he heard them. ‘Who . . . is . . . controlling
 . . . you?’

‘No one,’ snarled Zoe. ‘No one will ever control her. Not again. Not anyone. No . . . Not ever. The Creator . . .’ Zoe’s voice was becoming more strangled. ‘Where’s the sun? Hates this place. Why have you made dark?’

‘Keep with it, Adam,’ Oldman insisted. ‘Her creators, who are they and what do they want?’

‘GO!’ screamed Zoe as a spasm wrenched
through Keera’s huge, scaly form.
Desperately, the Z. dactyl squirmed on the filthy floor, as if trying to reach the thick bars. Her metal bonds scraped and clattered as she shook her head from side to side, wings and tail twitching.

Behind him, Adam heard the cocking of weapons as the soldiers reacted.

‘Men, hold your fire,’ Oldman ordered.

Don’t, Keera
, thought Adam desperately.
You’ll hurt yourself. It’s all right, we only want to talk
.

‘Can’t talk,’ Zoe said, her voice rising. ‘She says . . . she
mustn’t
talk. There’s something in the way.’ The pterosaur’s huge, hooked jaws pressed up against a gap in the bars and her eyes narrowed with pain.

‘High adrenal activity.’ Eve sounded worried. ‘Vital signs through the roof.’

His dad said, ‘We should call a stop.’

‘
Keera needs the sky!
’ Zoe bellowed.

‘No!’ Oldman
snapped. ‘Tell her, Adam, she can have the sky back if she talks. Who made her?’

Adam felt sick, tried to concentrate. ‘Who . . . made you . . .’

‘Adam!’ Zoe screamed suddenly, jerking in her chair. ‘Adam, help me.’

The soldiers in the hangar looked at each other, as Adam ran to her side. ‘What is it?’ She reached up for his shoulder and he offered support as she pulled
herself into a standing
position, the blankets falling from her lap.

‘Wait!’ said Oldman. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

Zoe looked up at the nearest security camera. ‘We can’t just throw words at her and expect her to toss them back,’ she called, the echoes ringing around the vaulted space. ‘The computers in her head are twisting her thoughts. It hurts. She’s an animal – this isn’t her voice.’

‘We need to continue,’
Oldman insisted.

‘Not like this.’ Zoe broke away from Adam’s hold and hopped towards Keera.

‘Zoe, no!’ Eve’s voice burst from the receiver.

‘Men, stand by to restrain the girl,’ said Oldman. The soldiers instantly stiffened, alert.

Zoe reached out for one of the thick metal bars to lean against, then sank to her knee in front of Keera’s colossal head. She hesitated – then reached out a hand
through the metal webbing that held her pinned to the floor and placed her fingers against the creature’s jaw.

Adam winced at the protests of Eve and his father in his ear. On instinct he lunged forwards to grab Zoe’s arm, to pull her away.

‘No.’ She caught hold of his wrist and looked at him through the tangle of wires hanging down from her forehead. ‘Adam, you don’t know what it’s like
to
be treated like a thing. A thing that doesn’t feel, that isn’t right, that has no voice of its own. Well, I do. And this creature’s so scared, so confused, we need to help her find her
own
voice.’

‘Come on, kid,’ said one of the soldiers. ‘Get away from that thing—’

‘No!’ Zoe said fiercely. ‘I know how to do this, and I’m not stopping.’

‘We’ll see about that,’ growled Oldman.

‘Get heavy with
her and she’ll never help you,’ Eve warned. ‘Hold off with the guards. Let me talk to her.’

Zoe had turned back to Keera, whose big eyes were still closed. ‘It’s OK,’ she murmured, ‘it’s OK . . .’

‘All right,’ Oldman murmured. ‘Get in there. Make it quick.’

Keera
, thought Adam, closing his eyes,
we really need to know about the people who sent you out to hurt and kill. We need to find them so we can stop them. That’s what we want to do
.

The beast’s eyes snapped open suddenly.

Zoe flinched, but kept her hand in place against its skin. ‘I’m seeing somewhere . . . There’s, like, static in the way, like snow . . .’

‘Eve, wait!’ That was Adam’s dad, back in his ear. ‘Look here. We’re getting something visual.’

I want to stop the people who did this to you, Keera
. The
fervent words
came tumbling through Adam’s mind.
I want this nightmare to be over
. ‘Please, Keera,’ he said out loud, ‘if you can tell us anything that will lead us to the people who made you this way . . .’

‘Yes,’ Zoe whispered. ‘Free . . . lead . . . I will lead . . . free . . .’

Then she screamed and fell, knocked backwards as Keera’s body spasmed with seismic force. The beast’s jaws were bubbling a bloody
spit. The soldiers advanced warily from the shadows, guns raised.

‘Get the kids out of there!’ Mr Adlar shouted.

‘Hold on that,’ ordered Oldman. ‘If it’s another tantrum, it’ll pass—’

‘Readings are different this time,’ Eve broke in. ‘She’s excited about something.’

Terrified, Adam hauled Zoe away, the wires and connections unplugging as he did so.

‘We’ve lost contact,’ Eve reported. ‘Zoe?’

‘She’s all right,’ Adam said quickly. The whole hangar shook as Keera rocked and flapped her scaly bulk, impotent against her chains, pounding echoes doubling and redoubling through the cold gloom. ‘Zoe, you’re not connected to Keera now, are you all right?’

Zoe’s eyes were blank but her lips moved. Adam couldn’t hear the words for the thrashing and booming. He put his ear to her mouth and caught
the
whispers. ‘Give me sky back . . . you’ll be sorry . . . Hunters . . .’

‘Zoe?’ Adam was getting frightened now; it was like she was in a trance. ‘Zoe, snap out of it—’

She shook her head. ‘Hunters coming . . . Sky . . . Quickly . . .’

‘That thing’s getting loose!’ yelled one of the soldiers, as a huge black split tore through the concrete floor. He raised his stubby shock-weapon and fired
bolts of brilliant yellow light into the cage, but Keera went on thrashing against her chains.

‘Evacuate!’ The colonel’s command bit into Adam’s brain, just as Keera finally wrenched the gigantic sprawl of one wing clear of the ground. ‘Hit the tranq gas . . .’

Adam scrabbled for his respirator. ‘Hunters here!’ Zoe screamed.

A soldier grabbed her under the arms, started hauling her away. But
then the floor shook so hard it threw everyone flat on their backs. Adam’s earpiece was jarred loose and he dropped the gas mask as a massive spray of concrete debris erupted from the ground, turning the air to choking powder. Zoe’s would-be rescuer let her drop as a chunk of rock smashed into the back of his head and he collapsed.

‘Help!’ Adam shouted, staring round wildly. It felt like the
whole place was crashing down around
them.
How can Keera be strong enough to do all this?

A searing blaze of yellow light jerked his attention to the other three soldiers, all firing their shock-weapons – not at Keera, but in the opposite direction.
What are they . . .?

A huge, reptilian head came swooping out of the hangar’s shadows. Huge jaws festooned with teeth clamped down on three of the
still-firing soldiers, lifting all three into the smoky air with a careless swing of the muscular neck.

‘Here!’ Zoe shrieked again, as the shifting shadows solidified into three identical, hulking dinosaur-creatures. A fourth was climbing out from a gigantic hole in the floor. They looked like Godzilla’s grown-up cousins – like Zed only darker, larger, even meatier.

They’ve come for Keera!
Adam
held stock-still, petrified.
The raptor spy must have told them where she was, and when they saw the outside of the hangar was too well-defended, they tunnelled underneath to reach her
.

Scaly hides glistening in the half-light, the giant monsters stamped towards him.

Chapter 11: A Sinking Feeling

ADAM DIDN’T KNOW
what was riskier – running or staying put and hoping he’d be overlooked. These monsters were clearly the hunters that Keera – and Zoe – had mentioned, come to save their own kind from enemy hands.

But then, why did she try to warn us they were coming?

One of the Z. rexes smashed a thick, sinewy tail against the floor and a fresh cloud of dust billowed
out. Adam pulled on his fallen respirator. What had happened to the tranquillizer gas that was supposed to flood out if Keera got too agitated? Perhaps the raptor scout had warned its masters and the scaly giants had ruptured the gas pipes as they tunnelled their way through . . .

The dust lingered in the air, a ragged smokescreen to hide Adam as he scurried over to Zoe, lying semi-conscious
on the floor.
We’re cloaked in anti-stink
, he thought.
They can’t sniff us out, so if we can just stay out of sight and wait for Dad and the army to get us
 . . .

He held his breath as three of the creatures lurched past him, their movements synchronized, making for Keera’s pen. The fourth Z. rex smashed through the line of lockers – to expose a squad of troops massing to attack it. As the monster
roared in defiance, the soldiers fired their shock-weapons, shrouding it in a sickly yellow haze. Undeterred, it stomped and kicked and tore into the irritants around it.