Chapters (96)

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96

‘Yeah.’ Blue settled his face. Took control. Turned down the temperature. Set his features in stone. Didn’t want to let this stranger read anything in him. The man held his stare for a few seconds then softened. Smiled.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Got off on the wrong foot there. I expect you’ve got a lot of questions.’

‘I expect we have,’ said Blue. ‘Like how come you can talk for a start? How come you ain’t diseased? Still got your marbles.’

‘You know what this place is?’ the man asked.

‘Course we do.’

‘Then you know what’s through those doors.’ The man jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

‘We got a pretty good idea,’ said Blue. ‘At least we know what we hope’s in there.’

‘Medicine,’ said the man. ‘Drugs. Equipment.’

‘Are you saying you been using drugs from here to fight the disease?’ said Einstein, stepping forward and gripping the mesh. He was almost shaking with excitement.

‘Something like that,’ said the man.

‘So what you doing in that cage, soldier?’ Achilleus asked.

The man sighed again and ran his fingers through his hair.

‘We were doing fine,’ he said. ‘We were surviving. There were more of us. But then the monsters came.’

‘Monsters?’ said Achilleus. ‘Get out of here.’

Chapter 53

‘Yeah.’ The man stared at each kid in turn with his good eye, daring anyone to challenge him. ‘Monsters. That’s the best word for them. That’s the only word. They’re in there right now. They took over, kicked us out. We’ve been trying to get back in, but we’re stuck here. With your help, though, we can do it, we can open this bloody door and we can kill the monsters.’

‘What do you mean, monsters?’ Ollie asked, but before the man could reply Einstein butted in.

‘Are you saying there’s a cure?’ he asked.

‘What does it look like to you?’ The man came right up to Einstein and stood in front of him, separated only by the thin steel mesh.

‘How did you know what to do?’ Einstein went on. ‘Are you doctors? Scientists? What drugs did you use?’

‘Too many questions,’ said the man wearily. ‘Can’t you just get us out of here?’

‘What sort of monsters?’ Ollie repeated. He was holding back, keeping to the rear of the group in the shadows.

‘Freaks, mutants, horrible things, deformed … Clever, though.’

‘What? Like some kind of animals? What are you saying?’

‘Not animals. People.’

‘With the disease?’