“Y-yes,” she answered, shivering.
I focused on wading through the murky water. The current pushed against us, and our progress was painfully slow. I bit back my frustration at the time we were burning through. It couldn’t be helped. By the time I got to the other side, I was sure my balls had fully retreated into my body.
But we’d made it to the breach in the wall, where the wire fence sealed off the compound. I was suspicious enough of the slap-dash repair to palm a rock and toss it at the fence.
No telltale crackle of electricity. No indication that it was anything but what it looked like—a shitty fence.
“Bolt cutters,” I said, holding my hand up, and Claire retrieved them from my pack and handed them to me. As darkness fell, she held a flashlight over my shoulder, letting me get to work on the fence.
“Why’d they do such a shit job patching this up, you think?”
“I don’t know,” Claire replied, a little anxiously. “It’s possible that they don’t have the resources. The wall needed regular maintenance. Killing so many of the residents might mean that the people capable of fixing it are dead.”
I finished cutting through the wires and carefully removed a large patch of the fence. The small tunnel through the wall was barely big enough for me to stand up in, and the other side was dark. It took me a second to realize that it’d been blocked with a metal sheet from the other side.Damn.
“I’m going in first,” I said in a low voice. “Wait for my signal before following. Got it?”
“Yes. Go into the tunnel first so that you’re covered, then let me down.”
I lifted the fence piece off and threw it aside before taking the first step into the small tunnel. Once inside, Claire slid carefully off my back. The overall structure of the wall seemed intact; I just had to hope it wouldn’t collapse on top of us. I kept one hand on the hilt of my hunting knife, then used the other to push on the metal sheet, testing its weight.
It was thick and heavy. I motioned to Claire, and she moved to help me. We gave it a good, harsh push and the metal gave way…falling right on top of two men standing on the other side.
One shouted in surprise as he fell over. I leapt on top of the sheet, trapping him under it. His head stuck out under the edge, and I bashed it against the concrete path under us. The second guy let out another shout and started wriggling out from under the metal. To my surprise, Claire jumped on top of him and copied me, smashing him into the pavement. Both men went still, and we stood, panting.
We were standing in a small back alley behind a couple buildings. Storage containers lined the alley, but it was otherwise empty. Claire helped me drag and dump the two men into a nearby dumpster, where I then slit their throats to make sure they were dead. We hid behind it, listening for footsteps. It was weirdly quiet, and I was surprised that the shouts hadn’t alerted anyone.
“Good work,” I said to Claire in a hushed voice. She trembled a little, but she was holding it together. “But where’s everyone else?”
She took a deep breath. “Only one way to find out.”
“Right,” I sighed. “Stay close and tell me where to go. If we see anyone, hide first, fight second.”
Chapter 6
John
With that, we hugged the back of the building and left the alley. I peeked around the corner into the street, but it looked deserted and quiet. Small shops lined the road. The buildings were all painted a silvery grey, with only colourful signs to tell them apart. Some had obvious signs of damage, like shattered windows, but most were fully intact and looked like their owners had just gone on a lunch break and never came back.
I’d never seen a street that looked so…new. The paving sparkled as if made of tiny crystals, uncracked and whole. The paint on the buildings was fresh. It was somehow more disturbing than the hollowed-out shells of civilization that I was used to. It felt like walking over a fresh grave.
“Is this normal?” I asked Claire in a low voice.
She shook her head. “This was the market district, so it was often busy. But if a lot of the shopkeepers are dead, maybe they don’t use it.”
We followed the dark, empty street. I stayed on guard, but even as we walked the next couple blocks, we saw no one. We were just rounding a corner towards what Claire said was the main road when we finally heard voices drawing closer. I grabbed Claire’s wrist and pulled her with me into a nearby alcove.
“Sir, it’s Hanson’s turn to patrol,” a young male voice said, obviously impatient. “I was supposed to be relieved so that I could attend the Gathering this evening.”
“Hanson has beenrelieved of duty,” another man replied gruffly. His tone made me doubt that Hanson was just taking a break. “So, you’ll have to make do for now. The commander says he knows you won’t make the same mistakes.”
Their voices were getting closer. Claire cut me a look, silently asking me what to do, and I shook my head.Not yet.
The younger guy cleared his throat, then spoke in a very different tone.
“Of course, sir. I understand. Can you spare Jensen to accompany me?”
“You know the answer to that. We’re shorthanded as it is, Smith, what with the Gathering and all the special operations the commander keeps authorizing.”
