First World (20 page)

Josian
untangled Lallielle from her uncomfortable son. Samuel had an air of fragility, like one wrong word could break him into a million pieces. By the looks of it, his year in this dungeon had almost been the end of him. No wonder Lucy’s expression was going all protective-kitten on him.

Samuel turned then and walked
toward me.

I didn’t know what to do. Looking left and right, I backed up a few steps.

Only it wasn’t me he was coming to. He stopped before Lucy, staring down into her face for a moment; the height distance between them was ridiculous, well over a foot difference. I looked at the floor, trying hard to stifle my laughter. Brace caught my eye. His expression just made it worse. Ass-hat.

Samuel reached out and captured Lucy’s face in his hand. Then without hesit
ation he swept her off her feet ... literally. He then proceeded to kiss the hell out of her.

Throughout the room, clearing throats and
mutters sounded, along with a random whoop. It was a tad awkward ... and lovely ... and so romantic.

I ignored the fact my brother was currently kissing my sister. The mood was affecting everyone;
Josian pulled Lallielle closer, placing gentle kisses on her face.

Come on. Where was I supposed to look now?

I was drawn to Brace – oh, yeah. Much better.

I expected to see him staring at the happy couple, like the rest of the room, but he was staring at me.

The heat of his gaze held me immobile. My head started to spin; I hadn’t taken one breath since we locked eyes. He turned away, releasing me.

Breathe, Abby.

Inner voice or whispered words? Once again, I couldn’t tell. The room broke into scattered applause as Samuel and Lucy pulled apart.

I wouldn’t admit it – maybe under torture – but I was kind of annoyed. I had just got Lucy back; I wasn’t ready to share her.

She snapped out of her kiss-haze. As if she could read my thoughts, she stepped away from Samuel toward me, although the intense looks they kept exchanging told me way more than I wanted to know.

“S
o, Josian. Can you open a doorway for this many people to leave at once?” Brace was pacing, looking toward the far doorway.

“No problem
–”

I sighed in relief.

But then he continued.

“Except something is blocking me here.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “What do you mean?”

He shook his head, his voice deepening in concern. “There is something here I cannot explain; they have this building locked down and a permanent Walker doorway.”

Samuel spoke then, the slight rasp in his voice even more prominent. “That’s why we’
re held here. They siphon our energy.”

I looked around at the huddled groups of girls. I
recognized many of them. While a few had taken the chance – well-deserved, I’m sure – to kick rat-man in the ribs, the rest were sitting around weakly. Where was the running? Hysterical screaming? Escape attempts? They were as Quarn described: zombies.

“How are you still alive?”
Lallielle’s voice broke as the true horror of Samuel’s situation dawned on her. “They’ve been siphoning you for a year.”

Samuel shrugged, but his eyes were flat; emotionless. “I have no idea. I’m much stronger than any Earthlings. They only last about a
month.”

As Lucy took his hand a smile crossed his features.

“No one else has lasted longer than six months. We average a few deaths a week.” He pointed toward the scattered people. “This is a new group.”

“How do they have such extensive knowledge of the ways of the Walkers?”
Josian said furiously. His red hair swirled around him. “They’re dealing with myth and legend, no longer reachable abilities.”

I wondered if everyone was thinking what I was.

“We are screwed.” Lucy nailed it.

Chrissie limped over. She was much thinner than the last time I saw her and she wrapped h
er arms tightly around herself, as if she was afraid she would fall apart at any moment.

“So what’s the escape plan, Abby?” Her anger flowed around me. “And can I be the one to rip
Olden’s head from her shoulders?” No zombie behavior from her.

Lucy pushed forward. “Get in line, Chris,” she said darkly.

I looked from one to the other, wondering what had happened here.

“Our best chance is to exit together. Go out as a group and confuse them.”
Quarn, with his military training, scanned the room.

A groan sounded from the floor as rat-man started to shift. I looked at Lucy for a minute. She nodded once. It was information-gathering time.

I crouched next to him. By the time he opened his beady eyes, he was surrounded on all sides. Glares rained down on him.

He was confused.
For about a minute.

And then he laughed.

I watched him, his actions were ... unexpected. It wasn’t a small I-just-got-a-concussion chuckle.

No, this was a full-throated belly laugh. His fat rolls jiggled all over the place.

It was irritating, grating on my last nerve. I lunged for his face. My closed fist crunched against his nose. Wow, that was satisfying.

Brace had dived after me. I’m not sure i
f it was to stop me, or to hit him too. Blood poured from rat-man’s nose, and with a coughing splutter he grabbed my shirt, and with unforeseen strength attempted to bring my face close to his.

Brace reached out a huge hand and cupped the man around the throat.

“I would let her go now. Unless, of course, you don’t want the privilege of breathing any longer.”

Pulling myself free, I stood up. As Brace released him, he attempted to roll away. I halted this by stomping my foot onto his fragile ribs.
I noted the red marks marring the folds under his chin. Brace had quite the grip on him.

“I got this, Chuck. You can back off now.” I nodded at Brace.
He was Chuck until a better name presented itself.

His lips curved slightly, but he stepped back.

“Okay, rodent, I’m going to ask you a few very simple questions. Even you should be able to understand them. And I would like nice timely responses.”

He winced as I dug my foot in a little more.

“I don’t want to ask twice.”

Lucy snickered under her breath
. I heard it, though, and I could almost read her thoughts. I’d gone a little mad with power.

As he looked up, pain was apparent, but there was no fear.

If anything, his confidence was pissing me off. “How many people are in the building?”

“It doesn’t matter, girl.” His accent was even more nasally as he attempted to breathe through the blood flowing from his nose. “Master has been waiting for you and now you’re exactly where he wants you.”

His ribs were flexing under the strain.

“What does he want me for?”

He laughed breathlessly, using the small amounts of air I was allowing.

“We’ve been watching you for a while. He was so angry when they took the wrong girl from First World. But Patty assured him you would come for
your friend.”

Patty? Did he mean Olden?

I closed my eyes.
Don’t kill him, Abby. He’s not worth it.

Opening my eyes, I spun around and stepped away.
I couldn’t trust myself right then not to hit him again. Josian took my place.

He didn’t touch him, just lowered from his impressive height to gaze eye to eye.

For the first time, rat-man’s cocky smile faltered. He started slithering backwards, but the kicking feet kept him in the same spot.

“You – you can’t be here – all others are barred from this hall
,” rat-man stuttered.

Josian
continued to stare. After a few more rants, rat-man fell silent, trance-like.

A sheen
of sweat was developing on both of their faces. What type of battle of the wills was this?

“If I push any harder I’m going to break his mind. He has strong blocks. Someone powerful trained him,”
Josian thundered, looking around as if he would find the culprit in this room.

“
You have to continue. We don’t have a choice. We need to get out of here safely and for some reason you can’t open a doorway.” Lallielle pushed Josian closer.

He
searched her face for a second before finding whatever acceptance he was seeking.

Reaching down, he wrapped his huge hands around rat
-man’s head, who then began to struggle, emitting small whimpers.

“What’s he doing?” I wondered out loud, wincing at the painful sounds.

Lucy, Chrissie and the others had no such qualms
. They watched on with expressions of satisfaction. There was not a lot of love for old rat-man in the room that day.

Brace answered, his gaze locked on the pair. “
Josian has the stronger mind. He can hack through the blocks to access information.”

The jiggle of fat rolls slowed, until the rodent
’s struggles ceased. His eyes rolled back into his head and a puddle of drool emerged from the corner of his mouth. It had taken Josian thirty seconds.

“With anything destructive, there’s always damage to fundamental connections in their mind
,” Josian said as he stood, disgust across his features. “He didn’t know much of importance. He has never met his master, only received orders. He is the bottom of their food chain here. There was one main person who issued his orders, a scrawny black-haired woman ... Patty?”

“Olden!” Lucy and half the compound girls screeched together.

Josian looked at us.

“She was our compound lead
er. That has to be why that Walker doorway was in our manor,” I answered for the group.

“That evil bitch,” Lucy fumed.

Samuel held her back from storming straight out the door.

“I’m going to kill her.”

Josian nodded. “Oh, yes. She’s on my list to be eliminated. But I’m worried about this power accumulation. Until we know more, we cannot confront them head on.”

I was standing close enough now that I could hear him mutter
, “Need to talk to my brothers.”

I wondered, just for a brief moment, if he meant actual family brothers. Or if that was more ‘Walkers in the hood’ –
buddies – bros.

Lallielle
looked around. “Did he have any information that might help us escape?”

Josian
nodded again. “There weren’t many people inside the warehouse when he entered this room. If we take off as a large group, we must run forward about fifty yards, and then take a sharp right, between the two large pallet stacks. That is the exit.”

He issued his command. “No heroes today. Let’s get out in on
e piece.” He turned back to our more intimate group. “Once we are outside these walls I’ll be able to access the doorways again and get us back home.”

I took the grenades from
Josian’s pack and handed them around the room. The girls knew what to do with them.

Pulling the rolled material from my pocket, I opened it
to palm two throwing knives. I slid them under the sleeve of my jacket as a makeshift wrist sheath. I flexed my hands – not perfect, but would do the job. I handed Lucy and Chrissie two knives each, leaving the last as backup.

We gathered the girls together.

“Alright, everyone listen closely.” Josian had no problem capturing the attention of the room. “We’re going to escape now. We will exit as one group. I will lead and I expect you all to follow.”

I bit back my ‘
sir, yes, sir’
which sprung immediately to mind. A sense of energy and life was filtering through the group.

“Wait a few minutes for the grenades to do their jobs,” I reminded the
m.

As
Josian hit the lights, throwing the room into darkness, he stepped up and opened the door. Those with grenades stepped forward, and as soon as they’d all left our hands I slammed the door closed again. We could not run out into that yet.

I gave us as much leeway as I could, but it was time to leave.

We bolted from the room, through dispersing clouds of smoke. Josian charged ahead. I was close to his heels, with Lucy beside me. The room was huge, a well-lit warehouse. And it looked like it was currently being used to store thousands of stacked box pallets. Whether from the ‘nades’, or something else, we had a clear path in front of us.

But not for long.

Black
-clad security guards began to run from everywhere. None of them had their guns out yet, so we still had a chance. Plus they were a little wary of being stampeded by our mob.

I had a glimmer of hope that we were going to make it out unscathed. Then Olden stepped into the end of our pathway, a large machine gun in her outstretched hand.