Vengeance (Twenty-Five Percent Book 3) (32 page)

There were voices.

Alex tried to look up, but his eyelids wouldn’t open. He could feel the hard concrete beneath his back, but couldn’t remember lying down.

It was so cold. When he tried to speak, his teeth chattered.

“Alex? Alex, can you hear me?”

It was Hannah. She had such a beautiful voice. He wanted to answer her, to ask her how Micah was, but he couldn’t form the words. He could feel Micah’s hand in his. It was cold and still.

Lights flashed on the periphery of his vision.

With almost a sense of relief, Alex drifted into the darkness.

At a faint sound, Alex looked up from the book he was reading.

He studied the blonde sixteen-year-old lying on the bed in front of him. Her head rolled to one side and she whimpered again.

Tucking the book beside him on the armchair, he leaned forward. “Lucy?”

Slowly, her eyes opened, blinking against the light shining from the purple-curtained window.

“Lucy?” he repeated.

She gasped and immediately started coughing, rolling onto her side and curling into a ball beneath the duvet.

Alex pushed from the chair and limped to her side. “It’s okay. You’re okay.” He reached out a hand to pat her shoulder then thought better of it. He didn’t want her to freak out.

When her coughing subsided, he took a glass of water from the bedside cabinet and held it out to her.

Her eyes flicked between the glass and him. “Who are you?” She immediately began coughing again.

“Please drink,” Alex said, “it’ll help.”

Watching him with suspicion, she took the glass and drank, emptying it quickly. Then she slid up the pillows away from him, clutching the duvet to her chest.

Alex moved back to the chair and lowered himself back into it. “You don’t have to be scared. My name is Alex, I’m a friend of your brother’s.”

Her pale eyes narrowed. “Micah would never have a white-eye as a friend. He hates you all.” Her gaze darted around the room. “What’s going on? Where are my mum and dad?”

Micah should have been the one explaining everything to her, not someone she didn’t know. Alex hated telling people bad news.

“A lot has changed in the last few weeks,” he said. “Your parents aren’t here. I don’t know where they are. They were gone when Micah and I first found you.”

“Found me? They wouldn’t have left me. They were here when I...” Realisation swept across her face, chased by fear. “Was I infected? I was infected, wasn’t I? I remember that eater catching me and my dad smashed a spade into its face and I got blood on me.”

Alex sighed, leaning his elbows onto his knees then sitting back again when his left shoulder protested. “I didn’t know how it happened, but yes, you were infected. When Micah and I found you, you were...” He stopped, not wanting to scare her. Micah really should have been the one telling his sister this. 

She looked on the verge of panic. “I was what?”

“You had turned,” he said as gently as possible. “You were an eater.”

Her eyes widened. “But... but... why aren’t I dead then?”

“There’s a cure now for fully turned people.”

She touched her hand to her eyes. “So, it’s over? All the eaters are gone now?”

Couldn’t she ask him something he had a more positive answer for? “No, that’s all still going on.”

She looked down at the duvet in silence. Alex waited. After a minute, she moved one hand to her bedside cabinet and pulled open the top drawer. Without looking, she slipped her hand inside and removed a small mirror, laying it face down in her lap.

“You don’t have to see that right now,” he said.

Lucy shook her head, whispering, “Yeah, I do.” Picking up the mirror, she drew in a deep breath and flipped it over, looking at her reflection for a split second before slamming the mirror back down onto the duvet.

“You’ll get used to it,” Alex said. “Believe me, I remember what it’s like. But all the best people have white eyes.” He winced internally. This probably wasn’t the time for levity.

Lucy rolled her eyes and for a second she looked so much like her brother that Alex couldn’t help grinning. The smallest of smiles crept onto her face. He decided to go with it.

“And you are kick-ass strong now too. It’s really not so bad being a Survivor. Wait until you see how fast you can run.”

Her smile disappeared. “Is Micah here? He’s going to hate me. A white-eye killed his girlfriend.” Her eyes shimmered with sudden tears. “He won’t even want to look at me.”

Alex wanted to kick himself. Why on earth did he bring up the S-word? “No, I promise, he doesn’t hate Survivors anymore.”

She sniffed as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Alex panicked. “Look, he’s asleep. I’ll go and get him. You’ll see, he’s only going to be happy that you’re all right.” Before she tried to stop him, he grabbed his crutches from where he’d left them leaning against a chest of drawers and hauled himself to his feet. “Just... stay there. I’ll be right back.”

He limped along the hallway to Micah’s room and opened the door without knocking. Micah was lying on his back in the bed, his still healing nose causing him to snore softly. Alex had finally managed to convince him to get some sleep in his own bedroom. He’d been using the armchair by Lucy’s bed since they’d arrived and given her the cure two days earlier, but the awkward sleeping position was doing nothing for his damaged body.

Alex touched his shoulder. “Micah, wake up.”

His eyelids jerked open. “Wha’?” He squinted up at Alex. “What’s wrong? Is Lucy okay?”

“She’s awake.”

His eyes widened and he pushed himself up, grimacing as his body twisted. It had been a week since the showdown with Boot and Micah’s face was markedly less swollen, but his skin was still a patchwork of dark yellow peppered with red and blue blotches, particularly around his eye sockets and his broken nose which was covered with a dressing. His four fractured ribs were also still giving him pain.

With neither of them in any condition to ride, they’d had to travel up to Matlock in a car instead of using the bikes. It was an uncomfortable journey, but Micah had insisted on getting to Lucy as soon as he was mobile, and Alex had insisted on going with him, even though he couldn’t yet walk without crutches or lift his left arm past his shoulder without severe pain. The bullet that had punctured his side had taken a chunk of flesh with it, but was relatively superficial in comparison, although it still hurt. Larry had done a good job in surgery fixing him up, but it was going to take a while to return to anywhere near normal.

But both Micah and he were healing and going to be all right. For that, Alex was profoundly grateful.

Micah climbed out of bed, grabbed at his jeans heaped on a nearby chair, and pulled them on. “Is she okay?”

“Yeah. Except...”

Micah froze, looking panicked. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. She’s just a bit emotional. She thinks you won’t want to go near her now she’s a Survivor.”

Micah stared at him, aghast. “
What
? Why would she think that?”

Alex shrugged his right shoulder. “Well, you did used to kind of hate us.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

He turned away towards the door, but didn’t move. After a few seconds of silence he turned around, walked quickly back to Alex and hugged him. Alex had no idea what to do. He patted Micah’s back awkwardly.

“Thank you,” Micah said. “For sticking with me even after what I did, for always having my back, and for helping save Lucy. For everything.”

Crutches dangling from his arms, Alex hugged him back. It took him a moment to find his voice. “Thank
you
, for staying through everything and not leaving when I went off the rails, for not making me go through all this alone. And for saving my life a couple of times.”

Micah let go and stepped back, stuffing his hands into his pockets and looking slightly embarrassed. Then he smiled. “Sixteen times.”

Alex leaned on his crutches again and frowned. “
Sixteen
? I don’t think so.”

Micah headed for the door. “It’s all on the list,” he said as he walked out.

Alex lowered himself onto the bed and waited for a minute to give Micah time alone with Lucy. When he returned to her room, Micah was sitting on the bed, his arms wrapped around his sister as she cried into his chest.

Alex carried on past and, clutching the banister in one hand and both crutches in the other, made his way slowly down the stairs.

First, he was going to make them all something to eat.

Then he was going to check his list.

Lucy was well enough to travel after three days, but the three of them nevertheless stayed where they were.

Alex felt like he needed the time to recover, mentally as well as physically. And although Micah didn’t say anything, Alex knew he was feeling self-conscious about his battered appearance and was in no hurry to go back out in public.

Alex considered teasing him about his vanity, but decided not to. There was a time and a place. Maybe he’d do it at a later date.

So they hung around Micah’s parents’ house, reading, talking and playing board games as they took the time to relax and heal. Lucy turned out to be a lot like her big brother, who she clearly idolised despite her teenage attempts to hide it, and she was fun to be around. Alex enjoyed helping her come to terms with her new status as a Survivor and teaching her how to handle her strength. With the likelihood that there would be a great many more new Survivors around from now on, there would be a need for others to guide them through what could be a traumatic transition. Leon would probably be interested in developing some sort of mentoring programme, having been a teacher before being forced to leave his job after he became a Survivor. Alex made a mental note to talk to him about it when they got back.

The two weeks he spent there, without any fighting or terror or running for his life, sleeping in as late as he wanted to, did wonders for Alex. All in all, he was feeling pretty good and he almost didn’t want to go home. Eventually, however, the decision had to be made. Food was running low and there was work to be done back in Sarcester, even though neither he nor Micah were going to be doing anything strenuous for a while yet.

The drive home was uneventful, relatively speaking. Alex had harboured a secret hope that somehow things would have improved while they were hidden away, that maybe the government, wherever they were, had brought in the metaphorical cavalry and started cleaning up. But nothing had changed. Hordes of eaters still roamed the countryside and uninfected people, if there were any left, remained hidden.

Lucy was subdued, only once saying to Micah, “What if Mum and Dad are dead?”

He squeezed her hand, but didn’t answer.

Alex thought about his own family in Scotland the whole way home.

. . .

When they reached Sarcester, Alex couldn’t believe the transformation.

The first thing they noticed was the barriers from when the outbreak first began. They were going back up.

Micah stopped the car and he and Alex got out, staring at the huge metal constructions being re-erected in astonishment. A man jogged over to them. It turned out to be Pete.

“Mac!” he said, grinning. “You’re back! Hey, Micah, you’re looking a lot better.” He leaned down to look into the car. “And you must be Lucy!”

Alex couldn’t help smiling in the face of his neighbour’s exuberance. “Hello, Pete. What’s going on?”

Pete swept a hand towards the barrier. “We’re fixing these and getting them back up. Isn’t it great? One of the survivors, not Survivors like us, just a survivor of the outbreak, Ted, his name is, he’s an engineer. He’s helping us get life back to normal. Well, as normal as it can be. One of the things we’re doing is putting the barriers up so everyone inside will be able to walk around without running into an eater. Having all the spotters around is good, but not foolproof, especially at night. Ted’s designed a way to get the water running properly too. Cool, right?”

“It’s amazing,” Alex said, watching the work crew manoeuvring one of the panels into place with the aid of an excavator.

He felt slightly ashamed at being surprised things were progressing without him and Micah. It occurred to him that he might have developed a somewhat inflated sense of self-worth while saving the city from Boot.

As they continued into the metropolis, Alex’s astonishment grew. The roads were almost completely clear, both of debris from Boot’s invasion and, even more amazingly, of bodies. A huge amount of eaters had died in Sarcester and removing them must have taken a lot of tough and unpleasant work.

When they reached East Town the first thing Alex noticed was that both car barriers, or what was left of them after they’d been blown up, were gone. He had half expected them to be re-established and, having been there for so long, his home looked strange without them.

Micah pulled up outside Alex’s building and the three of them got out.

“This is way nicer than your place,” Lucy said to Micah, looking around.

“I don’t get that very often,” Alex said, “but having seen Micah’s place, I would have to agree wholeheartedly.”

Lucy giggled and held one hand up. He grinned and high-fived it.

“Alex!”

“Micah!”

Alex turned at the sound of his name just in time to brace himself as Emma bowled into him. She laughed as, ignoring the pain in his shoulder, he picked her up and spun her around. Katie headed straight for Micah, giggling as he swung her into the air and hugged her. There was more laughter as Alex and Micah swapped the girls without putting them down, hugged them, and placed them back on the ground.

“Are you Lucy?” Katie said, staring up at Micah’s sister.

Lucy looked down, hiding her eyes. “Yeah.”

Emma walked up beside her sister. “We’re glad you’re okay.”

Lucy looked up briefly with a small smile. “Thanks.”

“Well, look who decided to come back from their holiday,” Leon’s deep voice rumbled.

Alex turned. And lowered his gaze. A hole opened in his stomach at the sight of his friend sitting in a wheelchair. “Leon, you... are you...”

“I’m going to be fine,” Leon said. “I’m just still a bit sore and tired.” He grimaced. “Pat makes me use this thing.”

“For the first few days after Dad came home, Scott had to carry him up the stairs,” Emma said, grinning.

Leon gave his daughter a look. “I thought we’d agreed to not mention that.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said, still smiling.

“Welcome to East Town, Lucy,” Leon said. “We hope you’ll be happy living here.”

Lucy smiled, looking a little less awkward in the presence of another Survivor. “Thank you.”

Micah raised his eyebrows. “Um... living?”

“Alex! Micah!” Sam’s voice preceded him as he ran across the street from the direction of his building and flung his arms around Alex before moving on to Micah.

Claire reached them at a more sedate pace. “Welcome home.”

Sam stepped back and put his arm around her and she leaned into him, smiling.

“I was just about to tell them that Micah’s new living arrangements were your idea, Sam,” Leon said.

Micah looked between the two of them. “New living arrangements?”

Sam gasped. “Oh, yes! I thought, since you only have a one bedroom flat and it’s on the seventh floor and you were hurt, although you look much better now, and Alex said you didn’t really like your flat, and since you’ve been staying at Alex’s mostly anyway, that it would be nice if you moved into a place here. We got you some furniture, but we can help you move your own stuff in too. We painted it so it looks nice and Lucy has her own room.” He looked at Lucy and smiled. “Hello, I’m Sam. You have really pretty eyes.”

Lucy’s smile had grown. “Thanks.”

“We painted your room purple,” Emma said, “but you can change it if you want.”

“I love purple,” Lucy said.

Micah was looking stunned. “I... I don’t know what to say.”

“Come and see it,” Sam said, taking Claire’s hand and beckoning for the others to follow. “You’re really going to like it.”

Katie took hold of Lucy’s hand and pulled her after Sam and Claire, with Emma following. Leon wheeled after them. 

As they went inside, Alex heard Emma say to Lucy, “You could come and see
our
room later. Do you like make-up?”

Micah wasn’t moving. Hands on his hips, he stared along the road into the distance and blinked rapidly a few times.

“I told you she’d be okay here,” Alex said.

Micah nodded and wiped one hand across his eyes. When things reached the awkward stage, Alex clapped him on the back.

“Come on, you wuss. Stop getting emotional and come and see your new home.”

Micah smiled, sniffed, and pushed Alex’s arm as they headed for the door. “You’re the wuss.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

. . .

Half an hour later, with Micah and Lucy settling into their new flat, Alex drove to the underground lab.

There was a sign taped to the front door headed ‘Clinic Hours’. The door was locked. Alex wasn’t sure anyone would hear if he tried knocking so he drove around to the back entrance, left the car in the warehouse car park, and went in through the shed.

The storage room at the bottom of the stairs smelled faintly of bleach. When he got to the lounge, Larry was making coffee. He jumped when Alex walked in, pressing a hand to his chest.

“You almost gave me a heart attack,” he said, smiling. “Bad things tend to come through that door lately. How are you? Are your wounds healing all right? No infection? How’s your range of movement doing? Are you still in pain? I’d like to take a look.”

Alex waved him away. “Later, Larry. First, I’d like to find Hannah and say hello. Is she here?”

“Of course you do,” Larry said, winking. “She’s working in the lab.”

“Thanks, Larry.” Alex started towards the door leading further into the facility.

“And I’d like to check Micah over too, when he’s ready. Pauline will want to see her handiwork now the swelling has had time to go down.”

“I’ll let him know,” Alex said, without looking back.

He found Hannah alone in one of the labs in the original, ‘legitimate’ part of the facility, the part that hadn’t been used for Boot’s nefarious purposes. She was standing at one of the steel tables across the room, facing away from him as she peered into a microscope. Alex briefly considered tip-toeing up to her, putting his hands over her eyes, and saying, “guess who”, but decided against it. If she didn’t know who and he startled her she could do some serious damage.

Instead, he paused in the doorway, his gaze travelling slowly down her form and back up again. She was wearing one of the shapeless white lab coats so there wasn’t that much to see, but his imagination was filling in all the blanks without any trouble. His eyes lingered on the light reflecting in her dark hair as he imagined sliding his fingers through the silky strands.

As if feeling his scrutiny, she lifted her head from the microscope and turned. Her glasses were pushed up into her hair and she squinted at him as she pulled them down onto her face. When she saw him, her lips widened into a smile that took his breath away.

For a few seconds they simply stared at each other.

“When did you get back?” Hannah said finally, lowering her gaze briefly before looking up at him again.

It took a moment for Alex to find his voice. “Not long. I just dropped Micah and Lucy at their new flat.”

“How are you feeling? How’s Micah?”

“We’re both much better, thank you”

“And is Lucy okay?”

“She’s good. The cure worked perfectly. And she’s not looking so thin now she’s eating again.”

Hannah nodded, sliding a pen she was holding back and forth through her fingers. “That’s good. I was concerned that she’d been turned for so long that it might be hard for her to put on weight again, but I’m glad she’s recovering. Do they like the flat? We all helped with the painting and everything, even Emma and Katie, although Pat had to rein in a few of their more colourful suggestions.”

“They love it, and it looks great. It was a really good idea.” He smiled. “And it’ll get Micah off my sofa.”

“I thought you liked the company.”

Alex shrugged with his good shoulder. “It has its moments. Now he has a nice, newly decorated flat, maybe I’ll be over there all the time. It’s a lot nicer than mine.”

Hannah took a step towards him. “Well, maybe I could help you with yours.”

Alex moved a couple of steps closer to her. “I’d like that.”

She chewed her lower lip for a moment. Alex couldn’t help noticing, seeing as his attention was already on her mouth.

“I missed you,” she said.

He raised his eyes back to hers. “I missed you too.” He suddenly realised just how much he’d missed her. “A lot.”

She moved forward another step. Alex closed the rest of the distance between them.

His final thought as their lips met and he slid his hands into her soft hair, was how glad he was to be home.