The Alpha Plague (14 page)

As they continued on, about halfway down the tunnel now, Rhys said, “So where’s the guy now?”

“Huh?”

“The guy in security that you were seeing?”

She looked at him with glazed eyes, but she didn’t reply.

Rhys cleared the thick chocolate phlegm from his throat and the echo cannoned down the long tunnel. He didn’t need to ask again. “So that was when you found out about what was happening up there?”

Vicky shook her head. “No, like I said, we all knew about it, but what could we do? If we spoke out, we’d disappear. Everyone knew that. The job paid well and they looked after you as long as you stayed on side.”

A shake of his head, and Rhys spoke with another mouthful of Snickers. “How did we get to this point?”

“What do you mean?”

“Creating those fucking monsters. I mean, when the US and Europe formed a trading partnership, it seemed like a good thing, right? Who’d have guessed The East would see it as a threat and create their own?”

They got closer to the bend in the tunnel.

“All we were doing was trading,” Rhys said, “but those communist nutters decided we were conspiring against them and got defensive. Another cold war based on paranoia. What’s happened to the world?”

Vicky shrugged.

Rhys raised the Snickers to take another bite, but when they rounded the corner, the chocolate never made it to his mouth.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Rhys jumped backwards, crashed into Vicky, and dropped his Snickers in the process.

With her bat raised, Vicky peered around him, her breaths heavy. She finally said, “It’s dead, Rhys.”

The diseased lay on the floor, its head no more than battered pulp. The chocolate that Rhys had just eaten rose up in his throat. He cleared it, but an acidic burn remained. “I can see that now,” he said as he stared at the last of his Snickers. It sat in the pool of blood that had spread out from the corpse. The two-second rule didn’t apply here. “It looks like it’s gone a few rounds with you, Vicky.”

Vicky looked around without even a hint of a smile. “If there’s one, there’s got to be more.”

“As long as they all look like this one,” Rhys said, “then I don’t care how many there are.”
 

Vicky paused her search of the area and looked at Rhys.

“Anyway,” Rhys said, “these things aren’t the types to hang around and wait to pounce—based on what we’ve seen of them so far anyway. If they know there’s people nearby, they’re coming at you full tilt. If there’s more and they’re alive, we’d know about them.”

“Hmm,” Vicky said.

Rhys tugged on her arm. “Come on, the platform’s just down here.”

***

Nothing happened on the short walk to the platform. Maybe Rhys was correct about there not being any more diseased. But if he was, who’d killed it? Rhys shook his head to himself. None of that mattered right now. One foot in front of the other, deal with what came their way and nothing more. Nothing could be gained from shitting himself about a fear that may never materialise.

As Rhys looked down the long platform, he shook his head. “The last time I was here, it was rammo.”

“I thought you used to drive to work?”

“Yeah, the traffic was a nightmare, but it was better than getting up close and personal with a thousand smelly commuters. It was just me and Da—” Rhys couldn’t finish the sentence. Just the thought of his best mate drove a lump into his throat that choked him.

For the briefest second, Vicky looked at Rhys before she looked back to the platform.

“Do you think those locked in the towers will ever get out, Vicky?”

Although she glanced at Rhys again, Vicky didn’t reply.

Grief weighed heavy in Rhys’ chest and he drew a deep sigh. He then copied Vicky and searched their environment.
 

The distinct lack of people made it feel haunted, as if he’d just boarded a ghost ship. Being vigilant in case of the diseased was the best defence they had.

The pair walked down the rest of the platform in silence.
 

As they neared the end, Rhys stared into the cavernous mouth of the tunnel. Dark and ominous, it stood and waited to swallow them whole. The reluctance he’d seen from Vicky earlier suddenly spread through his own body. Nevertheless, he couldn’t stop—not now.

Without breaking stride, Rhys jumped down onto the train tracks. The large stones crunched beneath his feet as he landed. For a second, he just stood there and stared into the darkness.

The expected crunch as Vicky joined him didn’t come, so Rhys turned around to look up at her still on the platform. “Come on, don’t think about it. Just jump down, and let’s walk. Your mind will create all kinds of horrible scenarios if you let it. You’ll be glad when we come out at Draw Bridge Station. Think about feeling that hot sun on your face and not seeing any of the diseased when we get there.”

“But how can you know that’s what’ll happen?”

“I can’t, but when I think about the alternatives waiting for us if we turn around…”—he shook his head—“I’d rather take my chances down here.”

Another look behind, and Vicky leapt down onto the tracks to join Rhys.
 

After he’d rubbed her back, Rhys pulled his phone from his pocket, flicked the torch on, and shone it into the darkness. It made the next few metres easier to see, but beyond that, the deep red glow of the security lights took over.
 

As he stepped forward, Vicky clamped a hard grip on his arm. His pulse rocketed and he spun around to look at her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

With a shaky hand, Vicky pointed into the tunnel. “Down there, look.”

Unsure as to whether he should raise his torch or bat, Rhys did both. The torch could be dropped at a moment’s notice. A smashed smartphone hardly mattered if something rushed at you and tried to bite your face off.

Although Rhys swiped the torch’s beam in front of them, he couldn’t see anything. “What is it? What can you see?”

Vicky still shook as she pointed into the tunnel. “There. Look.”
 

“You need to give me a bit more than that, Vicky.”

Vicky’s breath quickened and she jabbed her finger with more aggression at the same spot. “Down there. Rats!”

The tension of the moment left Rhys. It took everything not to laugh at her. “Fucking hell, I thought there was something serious down there. Where’s the tough Vicky of only a few minutes ago? They’re only rats; they can’t hurt us.”

“Have you seen their fucking teeth? They’re nasty little bastards.”

“I’d take a thousand rats over one of the diseased any fucking day. They have no interest in us, horrible yellow teeth or not.”

Vicky shuddered. “Look, Rhys, I’m frightened of rats. It may not be rational, and it may be hard for you to understand, but the little shits scare the life out of me.”

Rhys pushed his elbow away from his body to encourage Vicky to link arms with him. “Fear not, Fair Maiden. If you stand by my side, I will protect you from the rodent threat and make sure you return to your castle.”
 

Although Vicky took Rhys up on his offer and slid her arm through his, she spoke with a dark tone. “Just because I’m scared of rats, doesn’t mean I’m a damsel in distress. Remember who showed you how to kill the diseased in the first place. And don’t forget how many times I’ve had to wait for you when we go for a run. It’s a phobia, so don’t make me feel powerless.”

If the heat that rushed to his face was anything to go by, Rhys had probably glowed red at that point. Thankfully, the darkness spared his embarrassment.

Chapter Twenty-Five

After Rhys had stumbled for a second time, he turned the torch on his phone off and slipped it into his pocket. It did nothing to improve the visibility in the tunnels anyway. The red glow from the security lights, although useless for helping them see better, rendered it utterly ineffective.

The only sounds in the murky tunnel came from their own dragged footsteps and the scuttle of small creatures. Every time a rat moved, Vicky squeezed Rhys’ arm. Her iron grip stung, and Rhys had to hold back his gasp. After the whole embarrassing spiel about being her protector, he could hardly moan every time she squeezed a little too tight. Besides, for the first time since he’d met her, it was nice that he could offer her comfort.

The hard walls and low roof of the tunnel amplified Rhys’ whisper. “Thank you again for coming with me, Vicky. I really need your help if I’m to get to Flynn, so thank you.”

Vicky watched the shadows instead of him and said, “It’s okay. I figure I owe the world. All I can do is right my wrongs one person at a time. I’ve got to do the right thing, right?”

“Sure, but we can’t change the past, and the Vicky I’ve met is a good person, so stop torturing yourself.”

Vicky didn’t reply.

“So do you have a family?”

Vicky nodded.
 

“One that you want to try and get to once we get out of the city?”

She shook her head with such force, it threw Rhys off balance. Then the words came fast, as if he’d broken the dam. “I was the middle child of three. I have an older and a younger brother. They’re arseholes—high flyers in the city. They think the sun shines out of their own arses. They’ve spawned spoiled children who are as obnoxious as they are and will follow in their footsteps. Those two motherfuckers have been horrible to me forever. It was like they were put on this planet to make my life miserable.”

Before Rhys could reply, she said, “Of course, it didn’t help that Mum treated them like royalty. They got whatever the fuck they wanted, whenever they wanted. I got fuck all from her. She’d refer to me as ‘the slut’ most of the time, and they were her ‘little princes’. I don’t know what her problem was. I don’t know why she hated me so much.”

“And your dad?”

“Dead. Died when I was about three. I was always his princess; or so my brothers told me anyway. Maybe that was why Mum hated me so much. Maybe the attention he paid me made her jealous.”

“And where’s your mum now?”

“Also dead; she died a few years back of emphysema. She smoked like a chimney. I cared for her for the last few years of her life and watched her ability to breathe dwindle with every passing day.” She hesitated for a moment. “Is it wrong to say I didn’t care?”

Rhys didn’t reply. How could he comment on that?

“I hated the old cunt, Rhys. I was glad to see her go.”

“So if she hated you and you hated her, why did you look after her in her final days?”

“Both of my brothers have family, and I was single. I was best placed to look after her.”
 

“Why the fuck were you single?” Did he just say that out loud?

A coy smile broke Vicky’s stern expression. After she’d brushed a strand of her curly blonde hair away from her face, she looked at Rhys. The silence hung heavy between them for a few seconds.

Rhys’ heart beat harder than it had in a long time. Although he swallowed, it did little to relieve his dry throat. Vicky was beautiful. She was bright, fit, kind—

The sound of stones shifted up ahead and gatecrashed his thoughts. They both stared into the dark.

“What do you think it is?” Vicky said.

Rhys didn’t reply and listened as the noise built. Within about thirty seconds, it sounded like a rush of water.
 

Alcoves lined either side of the tunnel. They were places for the workers to retreat into when a train came down the line. Rhys made for the one closest to them and dragged Vicky in with him. The sound grew louder. Hopefully it would go straight past them.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Rhys’ heart pounded as he waited in the alcove with Vicky pressed into him. “Thank you for everything you’ve done,” he said. “Thank you for trying to help me get to Flynn. Thank you for caring.”

“It isn’t over yet, Rhys.”

As the sound grew louder, Vicky pressed up against him and shook. The alcove seemed like the most ridiculous place to hide. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, they didn’t stand a chance against whatever the fuck came down the tunnel toward them.

Although Rhys couldn’t see them, they sounded close. Suddenly, he felt something hit his foot, then something else…

After he’d rubbed his eyes, Rhys leaned out of the alcove and saw them. Rats! Hundreds of fucking rats! The scarlet glow of the security lights highlighted the undulating greasy black carpet. The horrible little fuckers filled the entire width of the tunnel.

It took Vicky a few seconds to catch up. When she inhaled hard as if to cry out Rhys clamped a hand across her mouth. As she fought against him, he whispered in her ear, “I’m sorry to do this to you, darling, but trust me.”

Vicky moved her mouth against his hand as if to bite him. “Please,” Rhys said, “just relax for a moment and listen to me. These rats are freaking me out too, but we have to ask what they’re running from. Why are so many of them on the move? And if we make a lot of noise, will we give our position away to whatever’s chasing them?”

Although she let go of her fight, she continued to shake as a sea of rats swarmed around their feet.

The rodents ran over Rhys’ trainers in a constant stream. The urge to shout and kick out coursed through him, but he had to be strong. As Vicky squirmed in his grip, Rhys gently stroked her hair. “Shh, it’s okay. They won’t hurt you. Remember that. They won’t hurt you. If I let go, can you remain silent?”

Rhys’ hand moved up and down as Vicky nodded.
 

“Okay, I’m going to let go now, all right?”

Vicky nodded again.
 

Straight away, Vicky pushed her back against the wall of the alcove and placed one foot on either side of the narrow space. It lifted her about a foot from the ground, but she still seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack.
 

“You need to calm down,” Rhys said. “Slow your breathing. Try to relax. The rats can’t harm you, remember that.”

As he listened to her breathing slow down, Rhys felt body after body crash into his feet and ankles. A shiver snapped through him. With so many of them on the floor, a lift of either foot and he’d have to struggle to put it back down again.