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Back The Enemy Save as PDF
Chapters (69)
  1. Table of Contents
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. 12
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“I reckon if there was anyone hiding here ready to jump out on us, they’d have tried it by now,” said Achilleus. “I can sense it when they’re about. When you find a nest of grown-ups, the smell is something else, man.”

“Don’t I know it, bro,” said Lewis.

“It’s getting late,” said Ollie. “We should get back to the others.”

“Yeah,” said Lewis. “Then it’s shopping time!”

29

Sam couldn’t tell how long the man had been carrying him through the tunnels. He’d figured out it was a man, after a couple of minutes. Though he wasn’t like any of the other grown-ups he’d seen since the disaster. He was clean shaven and had long hair knotted into untidy dreadlocks. He wore jeans and a baggy sweater under his heavy overcoat.

And he didn’t smell.

He carried a flashlight. Not a hand-powered one like the kids had. A big battery-powered thing that cast a strong, wide beam.

When they had set off he had asked Sam who he was and whether he was alone, and after that he had said very little.

Sam wondered how it was the man could talk. None of the other grown-ups could say a word. Their brains had been destroyed by the illness. This man could talk and use tools and weapons. How had he avoided catching the illness? What was he doing down here? And where was he taking Sam?

Sam had so many questions to ask, but the man wasn’t answering any. He hurried on through the tunnels, sure-footed, knowing exactly where he was going.

They had passed two stations—Angel and Old Street— and the man showed no signs of slowing down. He held Sam firmly under his arm, and it was getting more and more uncomfortable.

“It’s all right,” Sam said at last, fearing that his brains were going to be shaken loose. “I can walk, you know. You don’t have to carry me.”

“Quicker this way,” said the man. “Soon be there.”

“Be where?”

“You’ll see.”

The man’s feet sloshed rhythmically through the groundwater, which had grown deeper and deeper after they’d left Angel. He’d had to wade up to his waist through one section. It shallowed a little after that, but when they finally got to the next station there was still about a foot of water along the tracks beneath the platform. They had come to Moorgate. Sam had no idea where that was.

The man stopped for a rest. Sat Sam on the platform edge.

“There used to be pumps,” the man said.

“What?” said Sam, surprised that the man was talking to him.