Skylight (Arcadium, #2) (29 page)

My eyes jump
around, following the small shuffling sounds, but can’t focus on
anything solid. I slow right down, practically tiptoeing now. I
feel a presence, out there in the nothing, tiny grunts and breaths
and sniffs echo through the tunnel, confusing me. I don’t think I
can sneak past, it’ll detect me. But if it’s just one I might be
able to fight it off, maybe even outrun it.

I formulate a
mini plan and stop, turning away from the wall slightly. I can’t
give myself even a second more to think about it or I’ll just
freeze and waste more time.

I flick on the
torch, point my head at where I think the infected is and raise my
weapon. It happens so fast I almost swallow the torch. Something
comes leering out of the void, all pale and clawing and screeching
with disturbing excitement. Boney fingers claw at me and I swing,
using the flat side of the axe, collecting its head and propelling
it out of view. The hit vibrates down the handle. I sprint away,
leaving the torch on and focusing on where my feet are going. I
think I can hear it chasing, but it can’t see any better than me.
So it just blunders along, following my torchlight but I don’t dare
switch it off now. I follow the curve around and see light. I pop
out into the brightest space and launch myself up onto the
platform, rolling across the tiles on my stomach. I don’t think the
infected can get up here but I don’t wait to see. I sprint for the
gate; using the code the soldier gave us when we arrived.

Three dead
infected corpses, all shot in the head, slump against the platform
wall, dripping blood onto the clean tiles. There’s no time to
waste, I blast on through, taking the frozen escalator two steps at
a time, and when I finally reach Skylight I’m completely out of
breath. I sweep through the open barrier gates and eight bodies
(yes, I have time to count) all turn simultaneously, their weird
blue eyes piercing into me.

I stop,
bewildered and trying to catch my breath.

The soldiers
stand shoulder to shoulder in beige fatigues with rifles in hand.
Thankfully they don’t bother pointing them at me. Each of them has
a slightly different shade of hair colour as if they’ve borrowed
DNA from each other and it’s diluted along the line. Sam Mayer
assesses me in a bare second and says in a cold voice, “For your
safety, remain here.”

They break off
at his order — a stab of his hand — and three soldiers head toward
the food court while the remaining five head up into the shopping
centre. They move away, steady and sure, an efficient gleam of
challenge in their eyes.

Normal people
would have wondered why a teenage girl carrying a slightly bloodied
axe just appeared from the infected train tunnels, but not these
virus altered soldiers. I stay motionless until they’re out of
view, and then I head up to the next level. For a second I wonder
what they’ll do if they find I’ve disobeyed their orders. Do I
become a target? Hopefully I’ll never find out.

I rise out of
the bright lighting into a strange shadowy grey. None of the lights
are on up here, which isn’t unusual during the daytime, it’s just
that the moody grey clouds have condensed, and as I look up, a
narrow knife of lightening cuts across the sky. The scene around me
flickers, and a few seconds later a huge boom rattles through.

Perfect.

As if infected
people and weird soldiers weren’t enough to deal with, now I have
to do it all in the half dark. As if on cue, the outlying shadows
start moving — warping slowly, breaking apart, forming silhouettes,
materialising from nowhere. And suddenly infected are everywhere —
left, right, dead ahead, swarming towards the centre of the
level.

Toward me.

A THOUGHT
FLITTERS through my mind: Is Jessie in the nurse’s station? But
then I see the trolley of towels and blankets I left out after
seeing Adrian, and I know if she’d come by this way she would have
definitely moved it.

I lock my eyes
onto the nearest upwards escalator and sprint like heck. Somewhere
in the distance I register soft popping sounds. Maybe gunfire?
Those soldiers have to be out here somewhere, doing what they were
made to do: fight.

Creepy moans
filter through the cool air. Another bolt of lightning flickers,
temporarily driving the shadows back. I pelt down the fairway
hoping I’m not being followed. All my thoughts melt together and I
focus on Kean and Trouble.

I forget where
I am, what I’m holding, what’s tightly hidden in my jeans pocket. I
forget the storm above and the one brewing below, all the death and
infection. I forget about the innocent people just trying to
survive. I don’t even think of my destination. I just run, feet
thumping, muscles firing, hair whooshing about. Adrenaline surges
in me like ice blue energy. I feel no pain, no burn. My lungs
heave, but I feel like I could run all the way back to the hills
without a break.

There are no
infected up here yet; no people either. In my extreme focus I run
right past our old room. I stop, double back. The door’s wide
open.

“Kean?
Trouble?” I call quietly.

Nothing.

All the doors I
pass are open; the shops beyond are dark and empty. Except for an
unused sports store. The roller door is down; I think I even see a
flash of light moving. When I reach it I try to open it, but it’s
locked.

“Flo!” Kean
darts down the escalator toward me, carrying our three
backpacks.

I see Kean
first and something in me just… I don’t know, explodes with
happiness. I leap at him, throwing my arms around his neck (trying
not to injure either of us with the axe I’m still holding), and he
catches me, eyes wide with pure relief.

Suddenly the
roller door opens and we burst in. I grab Trouble’s shoulder and
pull him into our group hug. I’m just so damned relived to have
found them alive that I have to hold them close and squeeze them —
to check they’re real. Check I’m still alive. There are so many
things to say — about Adrian and Jacob and the vial of blood in my
pocket and the infected loose in the facility, but I don’t get a
chance to say any of them, because I spot the odd one out sitting
in the corner with a tiny sharp smile cut into his face.

Adrian.

He’s reclined
on a banana lounge, holding a torch underneath his chin so that the
shadows project up his face and make him look even more sinister.
His eyes are bright and calculating, his dark hair is clean and
tidy, like a king wearing a pristine jewelled crown so that others
are blatantly aware that their place is below him. He stands
slowly, trying to command my attention. I ignore him.

I pull back
stiffly and stare at Kean, transmitting my horror. A lantern swings
gently in his grip, lighting our little area. The rest of the shop
is dark as mud with the roller door down and the lights out.

Kean’s eyes
narrow. “Jessie won’t let us kill him until she gets back.”

“I don’t think
she’s coming back. The lower level is swarming with infected,” I
say in a low voice. Trouble ducks his head and listens intently,
blocking Adrian from our circle.

“Adrian opened
all the security doors and let the infected just wander in,” I
say.

Trouble looks
back at Adrian, marches to him and grabs his shirt, lifting him
right off the seat.

Adrian squeals
and tries to bat Trouble away.

“Whoa,” I say,
but don’t exactly jump in.

Trouble doesn’t
move to hit him or anything, he just holds Adrian in mid air, his
feet dangling uselessly.

“We have to
go,” I say.

“What about
Jessie?” he says.

And as if I’m
being saved from the dirtiness of a selfish decision, Jessie
chooses this moment to bang on the door. “Hey!” Jessie thumps on
the door. “Let me in!”

Kean whips the
roller door up and down and Jessie bursts in. She kneels on the
floor, out of breath. She kind of looks like she wants to
vomit.

She glances at
Adrian. “Put him down, Trouble. The enemy is right outside.”

Trouble lowers
Adrian until his feet touch the floor, but he doesn’t let him
go.

Kean glances at
my semi-bloodied axe, but says nothing about it. I guess it’s a
totally normal thing to carry these days.

“Where did you
go?” he asks.

“Long story
short? I was in the science centre. Jacob’s trapped and I came back
to get you guys.” I lean in close to his ear. “Jacob’s the original
test subject. His blood will cure Liss. I have a vial.”

Kean blinks as
he takes it all in. And that’s the thing about Kean, he doesn’t
dwell on the past. He always looks forward. “How do we get out?” he
asks.

“Same way we
came in.”

Kean quirks an
eyebrow. “Fun.”

“Trouble?”
Trouble calls.

We both
nod.

“Jess?”
Adrian’s voice is too calm, too flat to be remotely sincere. Jessie
doesn’t seem to notice though. When she looks up her face is powder
white and mismatched to the rest of her tanned skin.

“It’s bad. Real
bad. Infected everywhere,” she says. “At least we’re safe in
here.”

“We can’t
stay,” I say. “What if no one comes to the rescue? We’ll
starve.”

Jessie stands
suddenly. “You’ll die out there!”

“Come on,
Jess,” Adrian says. His eyes narrow to fissures. “They’re not going
to leave you behind to die. They’re good people.” He flashes me a
devil’s grin. “They wouldn’t do that.”

Trouble gives
Adrian a little shove back, crosses the room and grabs his pack off
Kean. Then he marches past all the sports equipment until he finds
what he’s looking for: a metal baseball bat.

“Where do we go
then?” Jessie says. “What about everyone else? They’ll all be in
the food court.”

“Jess, really.”
Adrian rolls his shoulders slowly. “Stop being silly. We’re a team
now. We only think of ourselves. It’s how these guys roll.”

“Adrian knows
how to get to the safety points,” I say, practically seething. “You
know, because of his family ties.”

“Now that you
mention it, I might know a way.” Adrian licks his lower lip and
then bites it, really digging his teeth in. “There’s an access
corridor not far from here. It’s coded, of course, but I can get us
through.” He says the last bit staring directly at me.

Kean folds his
arms tightly. “I don’t trust you. And I don’t like you. And you
keep trying to kill people.”

Jessie glances
between us, looking mildly confused.

“Like I told
our dear Florence earlier this morning, I forgive you all.
Absolutely and completely.” Adrian batters his eyelids. “Where’s
the hairy gruff guy… looks a bit like a pirate?”

I have to check
my smile because as smug as Adrian is, there’s no way he can know
who Jacob really is. No way he can know that I have the vial of his
blood. No way he can know that I get what’s going on out there. He
thinks I’m scared to my bones. He thinks I need him, I know it.
It’s something in the way he watches me, like he’s waiting for me
to push Kean out of the way and jump into his arms. The thought
makes me shudder. He has no idea that I know so much more than him.
He’s a king oblivious to a revolution.

“We’re
leaving,” I say. “With or without you guys.”

“Hey.” Adrian’s
hand shoots up in the air. “I’m in guys. Let’s do this.”

Jessie hugs her
arms over her torso, frowning.

“Jess,” Adrian
says. “You coming? I know for a fact that once these guys are gone
they won’t be coming back.”

I roll my eyes.
What an ass-hat. I can’t for the life of me work out how Adrian of
all people managed to make it to Skylight all on his own. That
would be impossible. He must have had help.

“You don’t want
to be all alone, do you?” Adrian says. “It’ll get quiet. You’ll be
able to hear them shuffling about. How much food is in here? How
much water? A day’s supply, maybe two or three? No toilet.”

Jessie lifts
her hands. “Enough. I’m not a child. I understand both choices. And
I suppose I’d rather die on my feet then on my back anyway.” Jessie
steels herself — broadening her shoulders, lifting her chin,
balling her fists.

“Great.” Adrian
claps his hands. “What’s the plan then, team?”

I am aware
that, once again, I have the best working knowledge of the facility
and the entire situation we’re in, since I’ve been running around
tunnels and the science centre, absorbing every piece of
information along the way.

“We need
weapons,” I say to Kean. “And I need to speak to Trouble.”

Kean nods.

“And make sure
Adrian doesn’t have anything sharp or deadly. I don’t trust him to
know the difference between them and us.”

Jessie follows
Kean, sees what he’s doing and starts helping. Adrian just stands
with his arms crossed, watching them with slightly narrowed
eyes.

I put my hands
on Trouble’s arms to show I want to tell him something important.
His eyes are wide, the whites are perfectly white, the dark is
perfectly deep.

I know now that
he can speak English, but the others don’t. And they don’t need
to.

I huddle in
close so that Adrian won’t see or hear anything. He thinks I don’t
catch the quick glances he shoots my way, always checking up on me,
but I do. I know far more than he realises.

I take the vial
of Jacob’s blood and hold it close to my body, turning it over
slightly so Trouble can see. I put my head very close to his and a
smile suddenly escapes me. An honest to God, bright as daylight
smile, and I nod enthusiastically. I wait until Adrian’s looking
the other way before whispering, “This is going to save Liss.”

Trouble stares
at the vial. His head snaps up. “Yes?” He puts his free hand over
the vial and mine. “Liss,” he says, nodding.

I smile
again.